TURMOIL OVER UBC's PICTURESQUE /GROTESQUE CAMPUS We've Got One That Isn't a Credit Card at All

TURMOIL OVER UBC'S PICTURESQUE /GROTESQUE CAMPUS We've got one that isn't a credit card at all. BancardcheK-the cash card. ank of Montreal I*I"oo"cll il ""YII" 123456 JOHNQCUSTOMER l"t111110" MOW" "CAR 9 68 Cash does things that credit can't. signature on your Bancardchek Want more information on Nowyou can be sure of having must match. Bancardchek? cashalways available. Without Drop in at your nearest branch or danger of theft or loss. No pre-payment. writeto Bank of Montreal, P.O. That's Bancardchek - a new ser- vice of Bank of Montreal that gives youcheques that are as goodas cash anywhere. The guaranteed cheque. Bancardcheksare guaranteed by Bankof Montreal . negotiable anywhere in Canada. It takes two things to cash a Bancardchek. The B Bankof Montreal "card"says you're you. And the Canada's First Bank Chiironicle VOLUME 22, NO. I, SPRING 1968 CONTENTS EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Frank C. Walden, BA'49, chairman 5 THE CAMPUS PLAN Stan Evans, BA'41, BEd'44, past chairman by Clive Cocking Miss Kirsten Emmott, Sc 4 Dr. Joseph Katz, BA, MEd (Man.), PhD (Chicago) 12 THE RAJASTHAN PROJECT Mrs. John McD Lecky, BA'38 by Knute Buttedohl Fred H. Moonen, BA'49 Douglas C. Peck, BCom'48, BA'49 16 ARTS FESTIVAL Mrs. R. W. Wellwood, BA'51 A picture story 22 WHY CANADIANS ARE NOT AS FREE AS THEY THINK by Carl Baar EDITOR 27 THE SMUG MINORITY Clive Cocking, BA'62 A review by William Nicholls COVER Raymond Chow, BEd'64 29 ALUMNI NEWS 32 GRAD BASH '68 34 LETTERS Publishedquarterly by the Alumni Association of The UniversityBritishof Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 36 SPOTLIGHT Business andeditorial offices: Cecil Green Park, 6251 N.W.Marine Dr.,U.B.C., Vancouver 8, B.C. Authorized os second class mailby the Post OfficeDepartment, Ottawa,and for poynent of postage In cash. Postage paid at Vancouver, 13.C. The U.B.C. AlumniChronicle is sent freeof charge to alumnidonating to theannual giving programme and 3 UniversitiesCapital Fund. Non-donorsmay receive the magazineby paying a subscription of $3.00 a year. MemberAmerican Alumni Council. 3 Raymond Chow RAYMOND CHOW is a young Vancouverartist who believes the pen is mightier than the brush. A piano- playing artist with a penchant for irony, Chow works predominantly with a 39-cent ballpointpen. He is best known for his pen and wash drawings of old houses, particularly those with dilapidated ginger- bread on theirporches and turrets. At first glance they appear delicate humorous little illustrations, but closer examination reveals his touches of surrealism ”oversized faces peeking from behind curtains- andan ironic commentaryappearing on randomly placed signs. “My drawings are a running biography of the things I see,” he says. “A jaundiced camera andtape recorder working throughthe cheapest ball point pen I can find.” Chow is 26, Vancouver born, and a graduate of UBC where be obtained a bachelor of education degree in 1964. He taught at Vancouver Technical secondary school for one year, but after a successful exhibition of drawings opted for art full-time. Exhibitions of his work have appeared in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Cover Artist 4 TURMOIL OVER UBC’S PlCTURESQUElGROTESQUE CAMPUS The Plan by CLIVE COCKING, BA’62 ONTROVERSY IS NOSTRANGER tothe University the university environment. Some faculty and stu- c of B.C. Lately students have held the limelight dents complain about the administration’s failure to with their protests over senate secrecy and anti- consult with themin making planning decisions. Vietnam war demonstrations. But almost unnoticed Others argue that expediency has been the guide, not a new area of discontent has been bubbling. It con- the needs of studentsand faculty. The continuing cerns the campus masterplan. lack of study space and of informal areas that pro- Campus corridors have echoed with the rebellious mote faculty-student contact are pointed to as con- mutterings of some faculty-and students-ever since spicuous examples. Concern is also expressed that the planning consultants’ interim report was revealed campus sprawl is partly responsible forthe wide- a year ago. Dissatisfaction ranges all the way from the spread student feeling that UBC is a big, impersonal, location of a new clock bell tower to the drabness of “knowledge factory”. The ultimatequestion being 5 Rapid growth has left a hodge podge of architecture . Deni Eagland photos askedis whether UBC is to developacampus continuous facade (as in Versailles) and everybody environment that fosters intellectual excitement. was given his own building in the American demo- Administration officials, however, reject the cratictradition,” Rogatnick points out. “This went chargethat there has been inadequateconsultation along with the notion of education that each depart- in the development of the plan. Faculty views, they ment has its own domain, each has its own territory point out, havebeen solicited at special meetings and needs the rights to its own terrain. Perhaps if it andstudents’ council wasadvised of theplanning. (the entire original campus concept) had been built And the failure to providesufficient amenities for stu- immediatelywe might still feel thestrength of the dents, they add, stems fromrapid growth and lack original idea and it might be part of UBC tradition of funds. Above all, the officials emphasize that the and history and we might feel some pride in it. But campus plan is not final - it is open to change. most people who come to the university don’t even Campus planning has been bedeviled almost from know why we have a main mall.” the day the original plan was drawn in 1914 follow- In addition, a major reason why architectural unity ing the selection of the firm of Sharp and Thompson never came to UBC was the failure to carry through (nowThompson, Berwick andPratt) asarchitects. on the proposed Gothic architecture, chosen for its To match the grandeur of the site, the original plan resemblance to Oxfordand Cambridge. “It could was conceived in the “grand manner.” It specified a have been picturesque,” says Rogatnick.“But we series of buildings designed onan ornate style of nevergot thateither because the money ranout. architecture known as “collegiate Gothic.” In layout, Wenever got all thatcarved stone (for the build- the original plan shows the main mall running north ings), they reducedthe amount and wegot stucco and south with the east and west malls parallel to it. instead. The ideas were a little toogrand for the Crossingthese malls at fixed intervals arevarious budget and so it’s very hard now to see and feel the boulevards resulting in a series of quadrangles-a originalidea. If theoriginal idea had been carried form of layoutused to great effect at Oxfordand out,UBC wouldhave had a strong nucleus from Harvard. which other changes could have been made.” As is now well known, this grandiose scheme did It’s thatfamiliar story: lack of money.Penury not pan out. For one thing, says associate professor vertually nullified the original concept and has con- of architectureAbe Rogatnick, the plannershad tinued to plague campus planning. The sudden crush adopted a watered-down Baroque scheme of layout. of veterans after the Second World War has left its A true Baroque plan would have had the streets or mark-a good example being the 80-odd huts scat- malls laid out on long axes with continuous building tered around the campus which some administration facadesleading upto afocal point-a vista. This officials thinkcost more to maintainthan they are was to be the purpose of the main mall. “It was to worth. More recently, the campus has felt the effects be very much like Versailles because it looks out on of the post-war baby boom. The result is a univer- a vista, on mountains and sea, except there was no sity campus which physically reflects its 53-year 6 scramble to meet the province’s educational needs on sent the planners have not been aiming at creating a a limited budget. comfortablelearning environment. “I don’t think The seemingly tranquil and classic halls of learn- anything has been done to make it a campus that is ing called for in the original campus plan have now easy for people,” he says. “Thefact that students been left far behind. The university has grown up have to walk 10 minutes to classes is an indication and with its 23,500 daily population resembles many that it is not easy forstudents.” And Rogatnick a burgeoning city. Indeed, in terms of city popula- notes that scarcely any provision has been made for tions, UBCranks sixth in B.C., just behind Prince the fact the campus is subject to rainy weather for George. Every day now there are traffic snarlsto much of the year. Students studying in the library, or rival those of Lions Gate bridge as students hustle almost any other building, for example, have to get to make 8:30 classes or to beat the 4:30 rush home. on their coatsand trudge through the rain just to Parking spots, even if they are out in the gumbo of have a coffee break. He suggests this not only wastes “C” lot,are things totreasure. The library,Brock their time, but detracts from the pleasantness of the and malls are jammed with students. On rainy days, learning environment. (most days, that is,) the malls become an endless sea Acting president Walter Gage admitsthat there of bobbing umbrellas as studentpedestrians jostle is some truthto these criticisms. “Thereason,” he fordry spots on curiously concave sidewalks and says, “is that we’ve hadto make our funds stretch tryto beat the 10-minute recordfor the cross- to meet the necessities so that there’s not much avail- campus walk.

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