Private Funds Sought
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! Volume 29, Number 4 February 16,1983 Private funds sought The University of B.C.’s Board of Governors has established a committee to raise funds in the private sector to renovate the President’s Residence on the UBC campus. Chairing the committee will be Vancouver lawyer David McLean, chairman of the Board’s property committee, who said he would inaugurate the fund drive by making a personal gift of $10,000 to the residence fund through a family organization, the McLean McCuaig Foundation. The renovated house will be occupied by UBC’s president-designate, Dr. George Pedersen, and his family when he becomes UBC’s chief executive officer on July 1. Mr. McLean said that the Board of Governors, when it invited Dr. Pedersen to become president of UBC, had asked him to consider living in the house, which was built for UBC presidents in the early 1950s. “Dr. Pedersen has agreed to live in the renovated house,” Mr. McLean said, “on the understanding that the amount of The president’s home . to be occupied by Dr. George Pedersen. money spent on renovations will be the minimum required to make it habitable and that it will be used as a ‘town-gown’ centre for ensuring that the University has Shaw ‘delighted’ to return to~- classroom-” close contacts and a good relationship with a wide range of individuals and community It’s a rare academic who can combine The problem of rust diseases is as old as told them not to plant wheat on low-lying organizations.” top administrative positions in a university recorded history. They’re mentioned in the land where there was mist and fog. Rust The Board has authorized an with an on-going research career that has Bible and in Greek literature and the spores need certain conditions of appropriation of 5200.000 to provide for led to awards and international Romans sacrificed to the god Robigus, to temperature and moisture to interact with two projects - the relocation of the offices recognition. no avail, in an attempt to preserve their the host plant.” of the UBC Botanical Garden, which has One man who has managed this delicate cereal crops. Man’s reponse to the rust disease used the house as its headquarters since balance is Prof. Michael Shaw, who says he “The Romans got better advice from problem has been to develop rust-resistant 1975, and minimal rehabilitation of the is “delighted” to be returning to the Cato, the statesman,” Prof. Shaw said. varieties of wheat, but this, in turn, puts residence to restore it to residential classroom and laboratory on a full-time “On the basis of practical observation, he pressure on the rust fungi, which evolves to condition from its present institutional use. basis after a 16-year career at UBC, attack the new strains. Thus, man is only The Botanical Garden offices will move initially as dean of the Faculty of one step ahead of the next widespread rust to the former Home Management House, a Agricultural Sciences and for the past eight infestation. And all this avoids such basic demonstration unit once used by the years as UBC’s vice-president for academic questions as the physiological and School of Home Economics. The house is affairs. biochemical bases of the problem, which located on Northwest Marine Drive, a Michael Shaw describes himself as very have been Prof. Shaw’s concerns for more stone‘s throw east of the entrance gate to much a “University Person,” by which he than 30 years. the President’s Residence. means one of those rare individuals who is Prof. Shaw’s involvement with rust The presidential residence was built in dedicated to the basic teaching and diseases began in 1951, a year after he 1950-51 at a cost of $61.219. It was first research functions of a university, but who arrived at the University of Saskatchewan occupied by UBC’s then president, Dr. also believes that active participation in the at the age of 26. One day, the then Norman MacKenzie, until his retirement in administrative life of the university is president of the University, W.P. 1962. Successive UBC presidents lived in inescapable. Thompson, appeared in Michael Shaw’s the house until 1969, when Dr. Walter “If you take on administrative doorway (“I thought for a moment he Gage was appointed president. A bachelor, responsibilities,” he says, “they can’t be might have come to fire me”) and offered President Gage elected to continue to live neglected in favor of research. But I’ve him the opportunity to undertake research in an off-campus apartment. always said that if I had to make a choice, on the rust diseases which were then The Home Management House was built I’d opt for the classroom and the ravaging crops on the Canadian and in 1955-56 for the School of Home laboratory. And as an administrator, I’ve American prairies. Economics, which recently moved to a new always kept a parachute neatly folded and The wheat rust epidemics of 1953 and building on the East Mall of the campus at the ready to take me back into the and has no further use for the building. academic life of the university.” Please turn to Page 2 See SHAW Mr. McLean said he was confident that Besides, he adds with a grin, “I’ve had Michael Shaw the funds required to restore the the feeling lately that my research may be President’s Residence could be raised getting a little rusty.” privately in a relatively short period of Those who know Michael Shaw’s I UBC Child care centres upgraded time. He said he had been assured by the reputation as a researcher will immediately UBC Alumni Association that it would realize that last statement is a play on UBC’s child care centres are being walls are being treated with fire-resistant assist in the fund-raising effort. words, for it is his work in the field of rust renovated at a cost of $217,000 to meet fire paint. He said he intended to recommend to diseases and their interaction with the safety regulations. The work is being done by Physical the Board at its next meeting that the plants they infect that has gained him an Additional exit doors and better fire Plant and is expected to be completed by international reputation as a research alarm systems are being installed in the the end of March. Please turn to Page 2 leader. nine centres at Acadia Camp, and interior See HOUSE L LC Reports February 16, 1983 Canada awarded him its Flavelle Medal for SHAW his contribution to biological science. The society, Canada’s most prestigious Continued from Page 1 academic organization, cited him as a Better phone service 1954 were the most devastating in North “leading world authority on the physiology America’s history. The rusts, a type of and biochemistry of plant host-parasite hgispread by the wind, can spread like relations who has made major will cost UBC less wildfire through a crop given favorable contributions to plant pathology and weather. research.” The fungi germinate on the surface of When he decided recently to return to Improved service and lower operating re-direct calls to any given number when a the plant and then reinfect it. The spores teaching and research full-time, UBC’s costs. user is away from his office; themselves are reddish-orange in color, president, Dr. Douglas Kenny, with the That is what the University expects from 0 Up to 50 numbers you call regularly hence the name “rust” disease. ”You really support of the deans of Agricultural an upgrading of campus could be programmed into your telephone have to see a large-scale infestation to Science and Science, recommended to telecommunication systems, including so that punching just one or two digits believe it,” Prof. Shaw said. “If you walk UBC’s Board of Governors that Prof. Shaw telephones. would ring a seven-digit number through a field of infected plants. you be designated a “University Professor,” an Consultec Canada Ltd. has been automatically; emerge literally covered with reddish honor conferred rarely on faculty members engaged by the Department of Physical Access to long distance lines could be Plant to assess the needs of the campus, controlled and costs reduced through spores.” who have achieved special distinction. He’ll Armed with nearly $30,000 from various take up his new post on July 1. and to develop a master plan for the predetermined route selection; federal government departments md As if teaching, research and improvement, development or replacement 0 Radio systems now used by Physical granting agents, Prof. Shaw was able to administration weren’t enough, Prof. Shaw of exisiting equipment and facilities. Plant and Traffic Q Security could be purchase equipment and hire a research has also led an active life within the The University requires that any new patched into the telephone system; associate to aid his research. broader Canadian scientific community. system must provide “a significant 0 Pagers, which now are rented, could “What made the work exciting,” Prof He is a former president of the Canadian reduction in recurring charges, installation be purchased and incorporated into the costs and toll charges” and the capital Shaw said, “was the fact that almost Botanical Association and served for 15 system, using internal lines at no cost and recovery period must not exceed five years. external lines as mobile telephones. everything we undertook to do was brand years until 1979 as editor of the Canadian new .