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Why History Matters SSpringpring 220101 5 + WWhyhy HHistoryistory MMattersatters 12. TThehe HHistoryistory ooff JJewishewish StudentStudent LLifeife aatt UUCC 18. UUCC QQuadrangleuadrangle PPastast aandnd ffutureuture 24 . uc.utoronto.ca/alumni CONTENTS SPRING 2015 fFeatures eauc.uttoronto.cau/alumni res KEYNOTE 08. Principal's Message CLASS NOTES 12. 18. 38. FOCUS REPORT News from Alumni Why Bother With History? The History of Jewish BY FRANCESCO GALASSI Student Life at UC BY FRANKLIN BIALYSTOK NOTA BENE 42. Campus News 24. CAMPUS Quiet, Green, and Orderly: The History of the UC Quadrangle BY JANE WOLFF 32. CAMPAIGN UPDATE 04 — UC ALUMNI MAGAZINE Leading by Example BY SHELDON GORDON CONTENTS SPRING 2015 MASTHEAD Departments uc.utoronto.ca/alumni Volume 40, No. 2 EDITOR Yvonne Palkowski (BA 2004 UC) SPECIAL THANKS Donald Ainslie Alana Clarke (BA 2008 UC) Naomi Handley Michael Henry Lori MacIntyre COVER IMAGE University College, Junior Common Room, c. 1965 Courtesy UC Archives ART DIRECTION & DESIGN www.typotherapy.com PRINTING Flash Reproductions CORRESPONDENCE AND UNDELIVERABLE COPIES TO: University College Advancement Office 15 King’s College Circle 10. Toronto, ON, M5S 3H7 University College Alumni Magazine 01. is published twice a year by the University College Advancement departments Office and is circulated to 26,000 alumni and friends of University College, University of Toronto. IMAGE 01. 06. 45. To update your address or David Secter on set CONTRIBUTORS DONATIONS Our Team University College unsubscribe send an email to IMAGE CREDIT Donors [email protected] Courtesy Gwendolyn 07. Pictures 48. with your name and address or BRIEFLY call (416) 978-2139 or toll-free Editor’s Note DONATIONS The University College 1-800-463-6048. Letters Heritage Society PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT 10. 48. 40041311 CALENDAR DONATIONS What’s On at UC Estate Gifts 49. IN MEMORIAM Alumni Passed UC ALUMNI MAGAZINE — 0 5 CONTENTS SPRING 2015 Contributors uc.utoronto.ca/alumni Contributors FRANKLIN BIALYSTOK Francesco had just published Montréal, Ottawa, and Toronto Franklin Bialystok’s intention his first book, Catiline, the and reported from Japan, India, in high school was to join his Monster of Rome: An Ancient and Sri Lanka. He devotes his cohort at UC. As it turned out, Case of Political Assassination free time to volunteering. he didn’t qualify. Nevertheless, (Westholme Press, 2014). he persevered, and only 32 years JANE WOLFF later he earned his doctorate in His life was also about his Jane Wolff is an associate history from York University. family and friends and he professor at the John H. Daniels Beyond his academic interests, was known for his warm and Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, he has a passion for basketball constant hospitality. He is greatly and Design, and also teaches in and jazz and being with his missed by his colleagues and the Department of Art, University grandchildren. former associates in academia. of Toronto. Her research investi - He is remembered for his gates the complicated landscapes FRANCESCO GALASSI singular courage, strength, that emerge from interactions (BA 1981 UC) humour, intellect, and between natural processes and Francesco (Francis) Luigi Galassi faithfulness. cultural interventions. passed away on January 2, 2015 at the age of 55, following a Francesco is survived by his Her subjects have ranged valiant battle with cancer. wife, Caroline Sewards (MLS from the western Netherlands 1988 U of T), and their two and the California Delta, to Born in Rome, he came to children, Anna and Julia. His post-Katrina New Orleans, the Canada when he was 18, and concern for their well-being shoreline of San Francisco Bay, attended the University of after his death echoes the and the metropolitan landscape Toronto, ultimately graduating sentiments of the Roman of Toronto. But her projects with a PhD in economics. He soldier of 2100 years ago, have the same aim: to articulate taught economic history at whom he describes in “Why language for these difficult— various universities in Canada, Bother with History?” (page 12). and often contested—places Spain, England, and Italy for that can be shared among the most of his career and had an SHELDON GORDON wide range of audiences with extensive publication record. Like Leonard Waverman, the a stake in the future, from Most recently, he worked as alumnus he profiles on page 32 experts and policy makers, a research economist for the (“Leading by Example”), free - to politicians and citizens. Canadian federal government lance writer Sheldon Gordon in Ottawa. has no plans to retire any time She holds a bachelor’s degree soon. He’s devoted four decades in visual and environmental to journalism, including stints studies from Harvard and with the Toronto Star , the Radcliffe Colleges and a master’s Financial Post , the CBC, and degree in landscape architecture the Globe and Mail . Born in from the Harvard Graduate 06 — UC ALUMNI MAGAZINE Winnipeg, he has lived and School of Design. worked (and curled) in BRIEFLY SPRING 2015 Editor’s Note uc.utoronto.ca/alumni Briefly IN THE SPRING OF 2014, UC Magazine ceased publishing find themselves needing to pen a “Rumours of the long-standing section “In Memoriam,” a list my death have been greatly exaggerated” letter, of alumni who had recently passed away. The but are, in my humble opinion, generally rare decision was made after we erroneously listed an enough that dispensing with the entire section alumna as deceased, owing to a mistake in our seems a tad, well, extreme. records. Since then, a number of alumni have expressed their disappointment with the removal During my years on the UC Lit, I was known of the section. See below for Will Steeves (or more often, pilloried) as a crusader for Mancini’s (BA 1991 UC) eloquent argument unpopular causes, so let me once again boldly in defence of “In Memoriam,” for example. be the fool who dares to go where angels fear to tread, and explain why I support this column. In light of your feedback and the larger message of the late Francesco Galassi’s (BA 1981 When I first started receiving UC Magazine , UC) beautiful piece, “Why Bother With History?” I skimmed through it and didn’t pay particular (page 12), we concede that we perhaps acted attention to “In Memoriam”—until I saw the too hastily in discontinuing “In Memoriam.” first entry under “1990s” and did a double-take. Therefore we have reinstated the section I remembered many of my fellow students, starting with this issue. Please flip to page 49 including the first departed from my own class for a list of classmates who have passed away of 1991, and I was shocked to see her name. since we last published such notices . Since those days, I have read more YVONNE PALKOWSKI (BA 2004 UC) UC Magazine attentively, including “In Memoriam.” Should I happen to see the name of someone with whom I have lost touch, I may decide to contact the Letters departed’s family to include my condolences and/or make a donation (anonymously or other - wise) to the departed’s favoured cause or charity. Perhaps others may choose to do the same, but it IF YOU'LL PERMIT, I’d like to suggest that the discontinu - is simply not practical to, as you suggest, to contact ation of the “In Memoriam” section, over the occa - the UC Advancement Office with a list of name(s). sional regrettable error, is tantamount to, if you’ll forgive the clichéd aphorism, throwing the baby WILL STEEVES MANCINI (BA 1991UC) out with the bath water. Mistakes of this sort are SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO [email protected] embarrassing to publishers as well as those who LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH. UC ALUMNI MAGAZINE — 0 7 KEYNOTE SPRING 2015 Principal's Message uc.utoronto.ca/alumni Keynote AUTHOR Donald Ainslie PHOTOGRAPHER Christopher Dew WITH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE’S SPECIAL ROLE as the oldest and University Press, 2015), I explore Hume’s use founding college of the University of Toronto, it of sceptical challenges to reason and to sensory is not surprising that members of the UC community belief in the service of his account of the mind take history seriously. In a recent survey of this as dominated by fundamentally non-rational magazine’s readers, we heard requests for more processes of association. coverage of the College and its history. Thus in this issue of the magazine, UC faculty and alumni I became interested in Hume because of his explore the evolution of the College’s physical naturalistic focus on humans as complex animals, structure (Jane Wolff, an architecture professor whose instincts lead us to understand the world and a UC member, who writes about the main UC around us in our distinctively human ways. But Quad), its diverse student body (Frank Bialystok, he also argues that there is no guarantee that a lecturer in the Canadian Studies program at UC, our minds get the world right. Unlike theistic who examines how Jewish students were the philosophers such as Descartes or Locke, Hume vanguard for a truly pluralistic UC), and the does not believe in a God that ratifies our capacities College’s relation to the idea of history itself to know. Indeed, it is because of this limitation that (Francesco Galassi, a UC alumnus and historian). the sceptical arguments Hume explores have their grip. But, despite their plausibility, he shows As a philosophy professor, I too take history that they ultimately fail to persuade us. When we seriously, in my case, the history of philosophy. attempt to follow them, their reliance on the very Ever since I first started studying the field, I have capacities they investigate means that they under - been interested in how we have come to think of mine their own structures.
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