University hosts open house

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 31, 2006


The biggest event in Simon Fraser University's 40-year history is coming this weekend, and the entire city is invited.

Dr. Warren Gill, vice-president of university relations for the school on Burnaby Mountain, told city council this week that SFU was "completely different from any other university in Canada" when it first opened its doors on Sept. 9, 1966.

"We are the secular, egalitarian university," Gill said as he invited council to the open house festivities taking place between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Saturday, June 3.

Among the many festivities taking place on the mountain will be a carnival with live music and other entertaining performances, athletic and recreational activities, free swimming in the Olympic- class pool, a Grade 12 education fair and a long list of informative seminars.

Among the many firsts for SFU were the facts that it was not formally affiliated with either a parent university or religious institution and it did not allow fraternities, Gill said.

Several city councillors recalled their own stories about the radical history of the campus.

Coun. Lee Rankin, one of 90,000 students to graduate from SFU, said he attended the campus during those heady early days and remembers how much disruption was caused when attempts were made to raise the price of a cup of coffee above 25 cents.

Coun. Garth Evans, a lawyer who now serves on the B.C. Medical Association environmental health committee and chairs a subcommittee of the B.C. Bar Association, said his parents refused to let him attend the new university.

"I wanted to go to SFU because, as a young man, I thought I was a radical," Evans said. "But my dad said: 'No way, you're going to UBC.'"

Mayor Derek Corrigan recited a similar tale and said his grandmother was greatly relieved when he attended UBC.

"Unfortunately it didn't work," Corrigan said of his family's attempt to keep him away from radical politics.

And Coun. Nick Volkow recalled the story of when several SFU activists showed up at his East Vancouver high school and convinced students to walk out of class during a 1967 protest.

"I was expelled," said Volkow, who is now a truck driver and a member of the Teamsters.

But, despite its radical start, Gill said SFU has achieved unprecedented academic success for a new Canadian university.

Among its many internationally recognized professors are Dr. Richard Lipsey, the author of a top economics textbook, and Dr. Ernest Becker, who was the first Canadian to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his 1974 book, The Denial of Death.

For more information on the open house, visit the website www.sfu.ca.

Gill also thanked the city for its ongoing support for SFU, ranging from its original donation of land that allowed the campus to be located on Burnaby Mountain, to its recent support for the UniverCity development, which will see 10,000 new residents living on the mountain.

Among the more than 150 events taking place during the open house will be a fundraiser for the victims of this week's earthquake in Indonesia, featuring separate performances of the SFU gamelan orchestra and the recently donated historical Indonesian shadow puppets. For more information on the open house, visit the website www.sfu.ca.