1 1 QXj L..i.i.i.Lil

I • W.tlL*' Tl "ivJfl'iflTllffl University of Prince Edward Island 1968-1970

Alan MacEachern stands out as a period of remarkable change and growth in Canadian higher education.

In this climate of expansion, lyricism, and dynamic institutional development, no event is more remarkable than the creation of the University of Prince Edward Island.

H. Wade MacLauchlan UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor

www.upei.ca UTOPIAN Utopian U: The Founding of the University of Prince Edward Island, rp68—ipyo ISBN 0-919013-47-3 © 2005 by Alan MacEachern

All rights reserved. No part of this publication mav be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher or, in case of pho­ tocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.

Design: UPE1 Graphics Printing: Transcontinental

Library and Archives Canada Canadian Cataloguing in Publication

MacEachern, Alan Andrew, 1966- Utopia U : the founding of the University of Prince Edward Island, 1968-1970 / Alan MacEachern.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-919013-47-3

1. Universitv of Prince Edward Island--Historv. I. Universitv of Prince Edward Island II. Title.

LE3.P799M32 2005 i7'i-7l7'i C2005-904730-5

> , , i University of Prince Edward Island Department of Advancement Services Charlottetown, PE CiA 4P3 www.upei.ca Utopian U .^.UiJThee FoundinFoundingog olf the University of Prince Edward Island, 1968-1970

Alan MacEachern

I |E University of Prince Edward Island Charlottetown 2005 -"•

ublication of this booklet was made possible through donations Pto the University of Prince Edward Island. You can send your tax- deductible gift to support UPEI publications, teaching, or academic programs to Advancement Services at the address below or make your gifts online. Department of Advancement Services University of Prince Edward Island 2nd Floor Main Building 550 University Avenue Charlottetown, PE CiA 4P3

www. upei. ca/giving UPEI's first logo, adopted ca. 1970. (University of Prince Edward Island Calendar, 1970-1971. UPEI Archives: LE3.P77USS ARCH 1970-71.)

Foreword

he decade of the 1960s stands out as a period of remarkable change Tand growth in Canadian higher education. Universities were being created and expanded. Significant new public investments were being directed to post-secondary education. The Canadian economy had experienced two decades of postwar expansion and prosperity. A group of young Canadians described by Quebec sociologist Jean- Francois Ricard as "the lyrical generation," those born in a spirit of freedom and optimism in the first decade following the Second World War, was arriving at university. In this climate of expansion, lyricism, and dynamic institutional development, no event is more remarkable than the creation of the University of Prince Edward Island. PEI's two post-secondary institutions, Prince of Wales College and St. Dunstan's University, were riding the wave of growth. In the space of just three years, from 1965-66 to 1968-69, faculty numbers at the two institutions doubled. Grade 11 and 12 students, historically an important component of the "college" student body, had been redirected to newly created high schools. The loyalties formed around PWC and SDU ran deep and largely reflected the sectarian traditions of the Island community, but these, too, were changing.

ALAN MACEACHERN 5 It is rime, almost forty years after the establishment of the University of Prince Edward Island, to tell the story of its creation and early development. In Utopian U: The Founding of the University of Prince Edward bland, 1968-70, Alan MacEachern digs into the context, the politics, and the people of UPEI's founding. He provides a lucid and lively account of the events leading up to UPEI's creation, and of the multitude of steps required to make the new provincial university a reality. It is said in many traditional cultures that "paths are made by walking." The establishment and inaugural years of UPEI amply demonstrate this wisdom, as new pathways were beaten down by administration, faculty, students, staff, and a supportive community. From the perspective of today, the decision to create UPEI, through a fusion of Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's, was brave and truly visionary. In 2005, UPEI has more than 4,000 full- and part-time students, a robust program of research and development, and rich relationships with the PEI community and with academic counterparts regionally, nationally, and internationally. We prize a commitment to teaching excellence and student success, inherited from our founding institutions and embraced through UPEI's early days. As Prince Edward Island forges its place in a knowledge-based world, UPEI is its prime instrument of and pathway to success. Institutions and societies must know and embrace their history. Without a wcll-filled-out understanding of UPEI's "founding," and a rich appreciation of the histories of SDU and PWC, we lack the capacity to know ourselves today, or to fully realize our future. UPEI and its entire community will be much the richer for Utopian U. We can take new pride in UPEI's accomplishments, including producing a historian of the calibre of Alan MacEachern (BA, 1988). A devoted group known as the UPEI Histories Roundtable has shepherded the writing and production of'Utopian U. The Roundtable, comprising Simon Lloyd (chair), Laurie Brinklow, Lawson Drake,

UTOPIAN II Mel Gallant, Harry Love, Andy Robb, and Doug- Boylan, with editorial guidance from Edward MacDonald, has played a crucial role of initiative, oversight, and advice for this work, as well as Pets, Professors, and Politicians: lie Founding and Early Years of the Atlantic Veterinary College (Marian Bruce, 2004), and^? Century of Excellence: Prince of Wales College, 1860-1969 (Marian Bruce, 2005). We arc much in their debt, as we are to all who have contributed to the rich history of higher education on Prince Edward Island.

H. Wade MacLauchlan UPEI President and Vice-Chancellor Founders' Day, September 8, 2005

ALAN MACEACHERN The Samuel Robertson Memorial Lecture PRINCE OF WALES COLLEGE CHARLOTTETOWN, P. C. I

UNIVERSITY - 2000

By

Professor Ronald J Biker

Presidcnr - designare

University ol Prince Edward Island

March 31. 1969

Coverfor booklet containing Ronald Baker's lecture, "University - 2000." (UPFI Archives: Prince of Wales College — Lectures, The Samuel Robertson Memorial Lecture — Vertical File — Item 114)

UTOPIAN U 1*' I 'was to be UPEI's coming-out party. On March 31, 1969, the JL _L newly appointed president of the new university, Ronald J. Baker, was to deliver the final Robertson Memorial Lecture at Prince of Wales College — "final" because the new institution was making Prince of Wales redundant. Having just arrived on Prince Edward Island and not wanting to offend Islanders by telling them what their new universitv would be like, Baker, an English professor, took a page from Jonathan Swift and Thomas More, and couched his meaning in allegorical terms. His speech, "Universitv — 2000," described having just returned bv time machine from the vear 2000, and a visit to Utopian Universitv, an excellent school of 1,500 to 2,000 students on an island somewhere off the east coast of North America/ (Expecting something more literal from the president's inaugural address, TIJC Guardian reported the talk "at times was baffling both in intent and content."') Baker told how the founders of "UU" had achieved what thev had. Because they did not have much money, they could not afford a large administration, so they gave faculty and students real power to make decisions. Because thev were on an island, they could treat it as a microcosm of society, economy, ecology, and polity, and so use it as the focus of research and teaching. And, most important of all, because what constitutes a Utopia itself changes, these Utopians built on the motto "Process not Stasis": rather than have preconceived ideals, they created a uni­ versitv where goals could be revised as well as reached. (7Zv Guard­ ian unfortunately printed the motto with a typo, rendering it the rather meaningless "Process not Stasts.") Living in the future, we know that UPEI is not really a Utopia today — though with some ^5,300 full-time students, it is also con­ siderably bigger, better-established, and more diverse in its range of programs than even its first president had foreseen. But Baker's

1 Sec "Universitv — 2000," "I'WC — Lectures, Samuel Robertson Memorial" vertical file, item [4, PF.I Collection, Robertson Library, UPE] [henceforth, "PE] Collection' '. 2 Guardian, April [, 11)69.

ALAN MACEACHERN Ronald J. Baker, OC, MA, LL.D, during his first year as President of UPEI. President and Vice-Chancellor until 1978, he continued to serve the Uni­ versity as a professor until 1991. (Nexus: University ofPrince Edward Island Stu­ dent Union Yearbook, 1970.UPEI Archives: LE1P85N41970 ARCH 1970)

vision for the university still resonates. His ingredients for the fledg­ ling university's success were ones he subsequently saw introduced, helping make the university what it is today. More than that, his speech reminds us that UPEI was born in an era when one could speak unself-consciously of a "utopian university." In 1969, universi­ ties were civilization's town squares, the focus of culture, of politics, of social change. You could be idealistic about a university — es- peciallv a new one, filled with possibility. Even though UPEI has changed considerably since 1969, coming into being when it did has meant there's idealism in its DNA. Just a year before Ronald Baker outlined his Utopia, Premier Alex B. Campbell had first announced to the Legislature his plans for creation of a single, publicly funded, Island university. And just a year after Baker's speech, the new president presided ewer the uni-

UTOPIAN U The main entrance to the St. Dunstan's University campus, on Malpeque Road (later University Avenue) during that institution's final year of operation. (Mnemosyne: St. Dunstan's University Yearbook, 1969. UPEIArchives:St. Dunstan's University — Yearbooks) versitv's first convocation. In the space ot just two years, between the springs of 1968 and 1970, the University of Prince Edward Island was imagined, established, designed, and actually up and running. Now, more than 200years since higher education was established on Prince Edward Island, it is fitting to examine the history of an era that barely yet registers as history — though 1969 was nearer the Great Depression than to today. UPEI was a product of its time, of student alienation and student power, religious distrust and religious accommodation, immediate economic need and visionary economic investment. Mixing tradition and innovation, pragmatism and, yes, utopianism, UPEI's founders created a university with purpose, one strong enough not only to survive but to blossom into a great small university.

ALAN MACEACUKUN John F. Kennedy vowed in [961 that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It he had said Prince Edward Island would have a single, non-denominational univer­ sity, too, it would have seemed just as unlikely. In an Island society where Protestants and Catholics had their own dentists, hospitals, and MLAs, higher education was also defined by the two soli­ tudes. St. Dunstan's University, on the present-day UPEI campus, was run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown and of­ fered a four-vear liberal arts program. Prince of Wales College, the publicly funded but de facto Protestant choice,'was situated at what is now the downtown Charlottetown location of Holland College — am I giving the storv away? — and provided high-school comple­ tion and a two-year junior college program, often a springboard to Dalhousie or McGill. Both St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales car­ ried traditions back into the 19th century, and had long tolerated the other's existence, confident in the knowledge that their school was better-established, more respected, and academically stronger than the other. This stability started to erode in the late 1950s. The reason can be traced back to higher education's rapid growth across Canada in this era. In a period of rising affluence, and with babv boomers ap­ proaching university age, the federal government began to inject a great deal of money in post-secondary education, sidestepping the jurisdictional niceties of the British North America Act by giving the cash directly to the universities. This allowed for the greatest university building boom the country had ever known, as universi­ ties such as Simon Fraser, Carleton, Trent, and Waterloo came into being. As both a cause and result of this expansion, post-secondary enrollment rose dramatically: from 78,000 in 1957 to 234,000 only 10 years later. A major related change was that a rising percentage of

Though avowedly non-denominational, Prince of Wales could not avoid taking religious concerns into account. For example, it never had a Catholic principal, presumably to prevent anv appearance that all PEI higher education was under Catholic control.

UTOPIAN U these students were women. On Prince Edward Island, the arrival or federal funding- meant greater interest in and opportunities for education. And it meant St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales had more to compete for than ever. St. Dunstan's new BEd program was licensed by the province in 1957, ending Prince of Wales' monopoly in teacher training. To some Protestants, this was clearly a Catholic incursion into the non- denominational school system. Tie provincial government built a series of high schools throughout rural PEI, which lowered the de­ mand for the Prince of Wales' two high-school years even as it raised demand for its two university years. Responding to such changes, Prince of Wales lobbied the government in 1964 to become a full- fledged, four-year, degree-granting university. To some Catholics, this was clearly a Protestant incursion against St. Dunstan's special university status. Kicking up the sands had drawn to the surface the role that religion played in PEI higher education. Tie provincial Conserva­ tive government set up a royal commission to study higher educa­ tion, and even as Chair John Sutherland Bonnell's report authorized Prince of Wales' new status as a university, it observed there was little sense in such a small province having two universities. Bon- nell called for a federation between the two — or at least greater co-operation. He also cautiously mused about creating a University of Prince Edward Island down the road, even if it were to be one in name only, "no more than a holding company" to grant degrees and simplify administration.1 His suggestion, and his timidity in rais­ ing it, led others to push farther. An articulate group of concerned Catholics and Protestants, first dubbed the "Group of 10" and soon morphing into a larger University Study Group, joined to call for a single Island university. A "bitter and often destructive hostility" had for too long infected Island society, they stated, and the con-

4 "UPEI Origins — Royal Commission on Higher Education" vertical tile, PEI Collection.

ALAN MACF.ACHERN 13 tinuation of this in the sphere of education threatened to spread the disease to the next generation.' Ihe Bonnell Commission and the University Study Group spotted the solution, hut had no power to make the two universities admit the problem. In July 1966, 33-year-old Alex Campbell and his Liberal team arrived in power and found the cupboard all but bare. The Island was carrying nearly $100 million in debt, and would need to make dramatic changes. Within three years, Campbell brokered a $725 million federal-provincial Comprehensive Development Plan to do just that. But there was a more immediate need to tighten belts, and higher education was a good place to start: beginning in 1967, the federal government transferred its funding for higher education to the provinces rather than the universities themselves, putting Camp­ bell in a much-improved position to mediate the Prince of Wales/St. Duns tan's rivalry. Though both Island schools were enjoying a growing market in the 1960s, they shared that market, and so, like desperate suit­ ors seeking to outspend a rival, they both initiated major expansion plans. St. Dunstan's built new residences and the Kellev Memorial Library, and strengthened its laboratory facilities with the $1 million Duffy Science Centre and a renovated Cass Science Hall. St. Dun­ stan's had always relied for faculty on live-in clergy to whom they paid a nominal fee. Expansion and a competitive Canadian market for qualified professors meant the Catholic university now had to invest much more on lav teaching staff. Even with climbing enroll­ ment and tuition revenue, St. Dunstan's was running into financial trouble; as early as 1963, it had had to come to the province each vear for assistance.'1 As for Prince of Wales College, having just been granted full four-year status, it needed extensive work just to handle university students: it did not even have a men's residence until 1968.

5 See "UPE1 Origins — University Study Group, Beck papers vertical file, folder i, PEI Collection. 6 "UPF.I Origins — Baker papers" vertical rile, folder 2, items 10-17, FF.l Collection.

14 UTOPIAN- U This architect's model, displayed at an open house in 1967, shows some of the ambitious expansion plans being con­ templated by PWC following its elevation to university status in 1965. The grand concourse over Weymouth Street and other new buildings — modeled here in dark wood — were never constructed. (Photo album compiled by Prince of Wales College publicity office, late 1960s. UPEI Archives: PWC Scrapbook til

Its two main academic buildings had to be entirely renovated and expanded, and there was to be a new library. More than just expanding, Prince of Wales was redefining it­ self. Its president, political scientist Frank MacKinnon, had led the charge for university status and also brought in a new teaching svs- tern. Instead of the traditional lecture system ot most universities (including St. Dunstan's), PWC favoured intimate seminars and tutorials. Rather than year-long courses, it introduced semesters, allowing tor more variety of courses. Such teaching methods were not new — they were inspired by Oxford and Princeton, and were already being tested at new Canadian universities such as Simon Fraser and Trent — but Prince of Wales' deep commitment to them, and its promise of an educational experience focused on student en­ gagement, attracted considerable national attention, which in turn helped MacKinnon attract visiting scholars. It also produced student and faculty loyalty. Prince of Wales resented any talk of amalgama­ tion because it threatened to put an end to an exciting experiment

ALAN MACEACHERN — just as St. Dunstan's resented the notion of being tied to what it saw as a smaller, more junior institution. And there were many who saw religion's hand behind any talk of merger. Frank MacKinnon himself later penned a gothic tale of 't> pei Catholic conspiracy, of how his little school fell under the watchful eve of "Rome and Charlottetown" as personified bv the shadowy Bishop MacEachern.7 Likewise, St. Dunstan's board fretted that amalgamation might be used to overwhelm the Catholic minority's role in higher education." But the growing interest in amalgamation among many Islanders — Protestants and Catholics — is simpler to explain. In a province of 110,000 souls, it made little sense to have two liberal arts, undergraduate universities a stone's throw apart, each with its own library purchases, calculus courses, Bunsen burn­ ers, and political science profs — especially when both were receiv­ ing public funds, and when both were seeking millions of dollars to expand further. Even so, the Campbell government did not initially move for a merger. It instead in 1967 set up a Universities Co-ordinating Coun­ cil, assisting — spurring — St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales to work together. It seemed that the province had chosen federation over amalgamation. The University Study Group talked of disband­ ing, and one glum member concluded, "I don't think there'll be one university in twenty years."" But they underestimated the two uni­ versities' intransigence. The new Council met just three times in its first year, the representatives from the two schools not getting much beyond introductions; anv co-ordinating that occurred was strictlv

- No relation to the author! S Frank MacKinnon, Church Politics and Education in Canada: The PEI Experience (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1995), and "UPE] Origins — Baker papers" vertical tile, folder 2, items 1—2s, PEI Collection. My research on LTPEI's founding, which included access to confidential files in LJPEI's PHI Collection, found absolutely no evidence that cither Protestants or Catholics exerted pressure tor a merger, or even discussed benefiting from a merger. Of course, to conspiracy theorists, this only proves that evidence must have been destroyed. 0 See "UPEI Origins — Beck Papers — University Study Group" vertical file, folder 2, l'F.l Collection.

16 — UTOPIAN U P.W.C. STUDENTS NEED YOUR SUPPORT BILL 57: Univtrjity Cunts Committor, del Section IS ft*di ....

which, in iki opin.o- al +• (nxmiiKiin n od*-

YOUR VOICE IS NECESSARY FOR OUR SURVIVAL PLEASE SIGN AND MAIL:

I iw«) the undersigned ciUien(i) ol Pnnce Ed- vni blind dm *re itiongiy opposed '- Bill Number 57 ... 892-2535 PRINCE OF WALES COLLEGE FACULTY RESOLUTION ON BILL No 57 (UNIVERSITIES GRANTS COMMISSION ACT!

The full-page ad placed by PWC students protesting Bill 57, as published in The Guardian (Charlottetown) on March 30,1968 (p. 14). accidental.1 The Liberal government felt free to introduce a Uni- versitv Grants Commission Act, creating; a bodv to advise how it should direct the federal education grant. St. Dunstan's seems to have resigned itself to the fact that it was losing its financial autono­ my, and government must have its say. But Prince of Wales strongly opposed the Act, particularly the provision that the universities could be directed to drop duplicating programs. In principle, this threatened academic freedom; in practice, it seemed an end run to full St. Dunstan's/Prince of Wales co-ordination. In late March 1968, Prince of Wales launched a concerted oppo­ sition. Students ran a full-page ad in Island newspapers condemn­ ing government control of university education, and faculty unani-

(o Lome Mouse, "The Development of the University ot Prince Edward Island (1964- 1972),'' Unpublished MEd thesis. University of New Brunswick, 1972, p. iS.

AI. A N M A C K A C H 1 -'. R N '7 PWC STUDENTS EXPRESS OPPOSITION House Resumes Stud* n Collegf This Morning • bill -

The front page of The Guardian for March 29,1968, featured this photo of PWC students protesting Bill 57 on the steps of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, next to the provincial Legislature.

mouslv rejected the Act, threatening resignations "and other actions that could reflect detrimentally on the reputation of Prince Edward Island."': A petition was signed by a full 10 per cent of the Island's population. And on March 28,150 student protesters marched on the Legislature. In anticipation of Alex Campbell delivering an April 2 address to the House on higher education, the Journal-Pioneer said, "Anything short of explosive ... will be anticlimactic."13 The Premier did not disappoint. After outlining his recent fail­ ures to co-ordinate Island higher education, he turned to the students lining the gallery: "But the past is the past!" His government would commit $120 million over the next decade on a student aid program,

11 The Guardian, March ;o, 1968. For this period generally, sec The Guardian and Journal-Pioneer; Terrv Campbell, "Premier Campbell's War on a College," Star Weekly, April 1968; and .Alan Edmonds, "The Campus 'I loly War' that Rocked Prince Edward Island," Maclean's, December 1968. 12 Journal-Pioneer, April 1, 11)68.

IS UTOPIAN LI an applied arts and technology college, and, most notably, "a single university of non-denominational character." Campbell said, "This single university will be on a scale sufficient to enable more Islanders to obtain high quality education comparable to national standards. A single university will permit the development of specialized facilities to serve Island and regional needs, and also provide the most eco­ nomic use of scarce public funds in this field." PEI would fund only this new university. Campbell stressed that integration would not be forced on St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales College, and thev were free to continue if they wished, albeit without public funding. But, either mixing his message or assuming their response, he concluded, "Integration will commence immediately."" Reception to the plan was largely positive. Opposition mem­ bers joined the government in applauding Campbell's address, and Prince of Wales students filed out talking about the new aid pro­ gram. Frank MacKinnon was furious, calling it "a shotgun wedding by proxy."'-* Within a week, he and a few of his faculty had resigned, and MacKinnon left the Island, taking organized opposition to amalgamation with him. Three days after MacKinnon's resignation, the Prince of Wales board of directors voiced its support for the government s intentions. When Campbell declared his new higher-education platform, the Evening Patriot editorial noted astutely that this was about more than just organizing universities: it was about organizing Island life, something not all Islanders would tolerate. The editor mused that Is- landers might soon divide into two camps, the "Integrationists" and

15 Sec Evening-Patriot, April 2, [968, and The Guardian and Journal-Pioneer, April 5, 1968. Campbell's entire "White Paper on Post-secondary Education" is in "UPEI Origins" vertical rile, PEI Collection. 14 The Guardian, April 3, 1968. Interestingly, while Prince or Wales had been given no warning of Campbell's announcement, Bishop FvlacEachern had: see "Minutes of Clergy Meeting held at St. Dunstan's University," August 14, 1968, "UPEI Origins — Baker papers" vertical rile, folder 2, item ri, PEI Collection. 15 Journal-Pioneer, April 11, 196S. As it as a parting gift, Frank MacKinnon received the Order of Canada in late June 196(1, one week before the University of Prince Edward Island came into being.

ALAN MACEACHERN 19 "Freedom Fighters."'6 Announcing the creation of a single university was Campbell's first attempt to prepare Prince Edward Island for the future, and his success or failure now would test his willingness to do more. April 2, 1968, can be remembered not only as UPEFs birthday, but the birthday of a new province.

"LSD is on the way Out. Grass and hash are In." So said Jim Horn­ by, editor of the Red and White, St. Dunstan's University's student newspaper, in "A Hipster's Guide to 1969." "Where it's at, like it is, your own thing, groovy, hip, etc. are dving fast — in fact, talking at all is prettv well Out," he advised. "Practice unseeing gazes into the distance." Young Islanders had to be told such things, Hornby said, because thev were "culturally deprived and intellectually back­ ward" and needed to know what was happening "on the Mainland (including the Big Cities)."1" Hornby's semi-serious guide captures a certain feeling among Island vouth at the end of the 1960s: rebellion envy Out in the world, Trudeaumania, Vietnam protests, feminism, Black Panthers, and Quebec separatism were happening, and out in the world, campuses were at the eve of the storm. Island students knew about student power, too, and wistfully wished it to be hap­ pening here — or at least wanted to trv it out. This helps explain why in 1968 Prince Edward Island was far readier for an amalgamated university than most Islanders imagined it to be. The two existing institutions were already in the process of shedding Island higher education of its traditional trappings. Prince of Wales was trumpeting its explicitly secular educational experi­ ment, which even forbade a religious studies department. St. Dun­ stan's was likewise undergoing what Maclean's called "a program of de-Catholicization,"18 to make it more amenable to public funding — and to respond to student demands. SDU students had recently

16 Evening-Patriot, April 2, [968. 17 Red and White, March 14, [969, PE] Collection. iS Edmonds.

UTOPIAN u gone on strike and won a number of concessions, including elimina­ tion of a dress code and removal of the policy that made theology mandatory."' If St. Dunstan's hoard and Island Catholics seemed strangely acquiescent to the proposed merger, it was in part because SDU was no longer the Catholic school they remembered. Gen­ erally, many Islanders disliked where their universities were going. Prince of Wales was gaining a reputation as a hippie hangout, even a drug haven.-" The author of TZv Guardian's "Bristol Notes" said, "What we need is a school for clean cut, clean shaved, washed-up [sic] teenagers, and one for cave dwellers or so called hippies."21 In such an atmosphere, Alex Campbell's announcement ot a new uni­ versity drew little opposition: conservatives saw it as a way to rein in a higher education system they were already paying lor, and progres­ sives were unlikely to favour instead the religiously tinged system of the past. The many new faculty members at Prince of Wales and St. Dun­ stan's who had arrived during expansion further weakened tradi­ tion's bond. In 1965-66, the PWC calendar lists 37 faculty and staff; the SDU calendar 38 (including 21 clergy). In 1968-69, PWC listed 70; SDU ~]~ (including 23 clergy).;; In the space of just three years, the number of university personnel on PEI doubled, from 75 to 147. Put another way, half had less than three years' attachment to either institution. And the new faculty were younger, and more often from off-Island. Which is not to say that the new university was a fait accompli. The Premier had not described what it would be like or even how it was to come about. Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's continued operations, accepting new students for the fall of 1968. Otherwise, nothing happened. Educators pored over Campbell's April 2 speech,

HI Globe and Mail, October 12, 1968; Edmonds; and Journal-Pioneer, August 21, 1968. 20 "litis was thanks in large part to psychology chair Myron A.rons' well-publicized research on LSD. Globe ami Mail, November 2}, 1967. 21 Cited in the Red and White's final issue, April n, 1969. 22 See PWC and SDU calendars, PEI Collection.

ALAN MACEACHERN concerned that he used "education" and "training" interchangeably, that he dismissed the importance ot class size."' The St. Dunstan's board of directors privately debated the mood of Island Protestants, some members thinking they were scared of a Catholic takeover of higher education, others thinking thev were confident, believing the new university would be an enlarged PWC.JJ Oddly, the first real attempt to discuss integration was made by the St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales student associations over the summer. "In an age when students the world over are demanding an active, meaningful role in university government," said the Red and White, "we have been transmuted to the nirvana of student power. We need only decide to act and all is ours."25 Perhaps the students' desires were not strictly pedagogical. One St. Dunstan's fellow eagerly awaited "importing some of the sharp girls from PWC.""' The establishment of University and College Planning Commit- tees, chaired by University of Toronto education professor Edward Sheffield, in August 1968 signaled that the new institutions were fi­ nally getting under way (Incidentally, what was to become Holland College was in no way an afterthought: the Campbell government saw it as an integral part of the Island's future. The plan was that the college and university would share mam- facilities, and even ac­ commodate the same students.) The University Planning Commit­ tee had 10 members: one representative each from the St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales' boards, administrations, faculties, and student bodies, plus two government representatives. The committee came to agreement on a few important matters that fall, most notably that the new university would be staffed by PWC and SDU personnel: all existing contracts would be honoured, including tenure, and part-

23 The PWC faculty placed a full-page ad in local papers expressing their willingness to work towards a new university, hut only it it was to promote the progressive goals and methods PWC had been fostering. The Guardian, May 27, [968. 24 "Minutes ot Clergy Meeting held at St. Dunstan's University," August 14, 1968, "UPE1 Origins — Baker papers" vertical tile, folder 2, item 11, PF.I Collection. 2^ Red and White, September 20, [968. See also Journal-Pioneer, August 21, [968. 26 Red and White, March 4, 1968.

UTOPIAN U time faculty would be hired tor the university's first year at least. This commitment was the one condition that both schools had de­ manded or the merger. The committee also decided on a timetable for the new university, announcing it would be up and running in the fall of 1969, just a year away.27 But in selecting a president for the university, the Planning Committee exposed the tension that still underlay merger plans. Hiring a president was arguably to be the committee members' most important decision, because their choice would symbolize the di­ rection they wanted the university to take. Starting with 60 names, thev whittled the list down to 20, and then 5.28 In terms of star qual­ ity, the front-runner was Pauline Jewett, retired politician, political scientist, and then director of the Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton University. W. A. E. McBrvde, Dean of Science at the University of Waterloo, also attracted interest for his writing on a liberal arts curriculum devoid of all specialization. When one of the other shortlisted candidates withdrew, Ronald Baker of Simon Fra- ser University was also inyited for an interview. After interviewing the candidates throughout November, the committee sat down for what would become a marathon attempt to choose a president. 'Pie first vote resulted in 6 supporting Jewett, 3 McBryde, and 1 Baker. After further debate, the follow-up ballot drew 6 votes for Jewett, 4 for Baker. This was deemed insufficient support, and there things stayed. What's worse, the representatives of St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales were voting, and arguing, as blocs. Prince of Wales (and the two government representatives) supported Jewett; St. Dunstan's, Baker. Throughout December and early January, the University Planning Committee held meeting at-

27 For the discussion that follows, sec minutes and reports of the joint University and College Planning Committee, and minutes of the University Planning Committee, at "UPE1 Origins — University Planning Committee" vertical file, folders 4 and 5, PEI Collection. See also the thesis by Moase, himself a government representative on the University Planning Committee. ;S On the hiring process, see Ibid., and Moase, pp. 44-5:.

ALAN MACEACHERN — 23 ter meeting without breaking the deadlock. Frustration mounted, and not only because this impasse was keeping anything else from getting done. The committee was very publicly making everyone's worst tears about the proposed merger come true: that it would see the two institutions consumed by distrust, pitting themselves against the other. As was said at the time, each school feared that it would "forciblv be recast in the image of the other.''29 Finally, on January 13, at the end of a five-hour meeting that stretched beyond midnight, the supporters of Jewett, though in the majority, surrendered the field. The University Planning Committee voted by a 9-1 margin to invite Ronald Baker to be the new university's first president. Earlier that evening, Chair Edward Sheffield suggested it would be best if the new university's opening was postponed until the fall of 1970. Premier Campbell had just presented the committee with a long list of things still to be done, including select a site and draft a charter, and set up curriculum, departments, faculties, and adminis­ tration — and, before all that, choose a president. Surprisingly, most on the committee took exception to the idea. As Prince of Wales' student representative Dulcinea Andrews said, "We have failed mis­ erably to date and there is no need to prolong the agony."30 It was hardly a ringing endorsement for the new university, now just nine months away.

In the late 1980s, I took English courses at UPEI from Ronald Bak­ er, never knowing he had once been its president. He carried no great aura of authority, just of unflappable good humour. He needed this as president. On being introduced to one of his new faculty in the spring of 1969, Baker was informed that everyone knew he was the government's hatchet man, come to close down the university for good. Tie tact that he had rented a house rather than buying

29 Sec The Guardian, January i;, 1964. ;o Journal-Pioneer, January 14, 1969.

24 — UTOPIAN u clinched it.;' At age 45, Baker hud been hired largely for his experi­ ence as Simon Fraser University's academic planner at its establish­ ment in the mid-1960s. lie turned out to be the perfect choice for PEI's new university precisely because he was not ideologically driv­ en, not invested in what a university should be, except that it work?1 On arrival in PEI, he cheerfully told everyone he spoke to — faculty, students, senate — that it was their university to make. Baker's inaugural duty was to take over the chair of the Univer­ sity Planning Committee for a meeting that would ultimately stretch over four davs, defining the very essence of the university. i; A sub­ committee headed bv Saul Silverman and Michael Hennessey had been asked to draft a charter for the new school, and was deliver­ ing its work — just a week before the government needed to submit it as legislation. Almost as a warm-up for discussion of the charter, the Planning Committee selected a name for the university. Earlier suggestions such as Kent U., Northumberland U., and Centennial U. were tewed with and rejected. French professor A. I. R. Galloway moved that the new institution bear the name "University of Prince Edward Island." The vote carried. Then, back to the charter. The committee was determining the new university's permanent character at the very moment that cries for student power in Canada were at their height. It was February 13, 1969, only two davs since students occupying George Williams University in Montreal had set a large fire and destroyed more than si million in computer equip­ ment. This could not help but be in the minds of those making a new university. Hennessey and Silverman had thought it important not "to ignore the ferment within Universities at the present time," but rather to make room for "reasonable innovation.""' In that spirit, the

;i Baker oral interview with Andrew Robb, February 2002, in the PEI Collection. ",2 Baker: "1 had decided at the beginning that my overall priority was to nut the two places together. My second priority was to get us known." Ibid. 53 For minutes of the io: meeting ot the University Planning Committee, February 13-18, 1969, see "UPE1 Origins — University Planning Committee" vertical file, folder 4, PF.I Collection. \4 "Universit) Charter: First Report,"January 9. [969, "UPF1 Origins — University

ALAN MACEACHERN — 25 draft charter put considerable power in the hands of faculty and stu­ dents. Universities are typically run by a Board of Governors, whose members are for the most part appointed, overseeing financial affairs, and a Senate, whose members represent the academic community, overseeing academic affairs. Because UPE1 had at its establishment a "built-in" faculty and student bod}' demanding power — and be­ cause the Liberal government needed their support for the merger35 — they were given a strong presence in both bodies. In a Senate of about 25, half the seats were reserved for faculty members, and up to six more were for students.!'' A Board of 18 would include two student, two faculty, and two Senate representatives. Baker believed that this gave UPEI the highest proportion of campus representa­ tion on its governing bodies of any university in Canada.'7 The "Act to Establish the University of Prince Edward Island" was assented to in the PEI Legislature on April 15. The new uni­ versity was intended, according to its charter legislation, to create "a single, public, non-denominational institution of higher education in Prince Edward Island," one capable of granting certificates, di-

Planning Committee" vertical file, folder 4, item 12, PE] Collection. I [owever, the UPC did reject a more innovative suggestion for governance proposed by Edward Sheffield. 1 le argued that, since universities were now funded by the provinces, much of the role of university boards had "atrophied," so UPEI could reject the two- body governance system altogether, putting in its place a single university council. "UPEI Origins — I fniversity Planning Committee" vertical file, folder 4, item 10, PK1 Collection. 55 This was Baker's belief: sec Baker to Earl J. MeC.rath, Temple University, October 15, [969, in "UPEI President's Correspondence" vertical file, folder 2, PEI Collection. ;6 There were nominally five, bur the president of the Student Union was granted a spot it not already elected to the Senate. 57 The Guardian, April 1, i<)f><). Baker told C. W.J. Eliot, September 16. [969, that it was a "very complicated university act that in effect gives faculty and students control of the Board as well as of Senate." In "UPEI President's Correspondence,' folder 2, PEI Collection. The University Planning Committee had actually called for even more campus representation on the Board, but the Liberal government had scaled this back. Answering protests ot this. Minister ot Education Cordon Bennett noted that "no bill, dratted by persons not directly associated with Government, was ever presented to the Legislature with so tew alterations. Bennett to Frederick Driscoll, President, SDU Faculty Association, April 1, [969, "L'PLI Origins — Baker papers" vertical file, folder :, item 5, PEI Collection.

26 — UTOPIAN 1! plomas, and degrees "below the level of the Master's degree"; UPEI would be expected to strengthen rather than duplicate the graduate programs of regional schools such as Dalhousie and UNB.;S Though the Act's drafters had thought it would be a temporary measure/" they wrote it as if it were a permanent one. And, more than 30 years later, it is still remarkably intact. With some small changes — such as the allowance that the president might be a he "or she" — the charter drafted in haste in 1969 has served the university very well. In tact, the Universitv Act was almost too good. Ignoring in­ terim needs for permanent ones, the Act placed control in the hands of a Board and Senate. But by the time it became law, the university year was over and there was no way to run elections tor these of­ fices.'" There were millions of things to be done, only a few months until the universitv was to open, and the sole person with clear, un­ questionable power to act, President Ronald Baker ... had lett for England. When hired, he had been granted this last opportunity to get away and work at his own research. Amazingly, he was not to take up his new post full-time until June 1. Frantic letters from PEI followed him to England. One by SDU (and soon UPEI) registrar Michael Hennessey was typical, begin­ ning with a request for permission to put together a calendar, asking about curriculum, and concluding, "It would be helpful, too, if we knew where the Freshmen were going to be located in 1969-70."" Baker's response was also typical in its composure, good humour, and flexibility: this year, let's let freshman students choose any five courses, starting their program any way they see fit. "[ I ]his is not time to introduce reforms, etc. Next year is the time for that." Baker assured Hennessey that in all dealings, "All we can do, I think, is

$8 Sec First Annua] Report (1969-70), PE] Commission on Post-secondary Education, p. 21, PEI Collection. ;ij "University Charter: First Report," January

AI.AN MACEACHERN — 27 to keep insisting that all decisions are interim, and that decisions must be made. At worst, put the blame on me. At best, ask for help and suggestions!"4" Baker took his own advice, sending off a ques­ tionnaire to all faculty that Mav, asking their opinion on what the university's academic structure should be. Should we have a tradi­ tional lecture system or a lecture/seminar one? Demand many re­ quirements or allow mam' choices? Have full-year courses or a se­ mester system? With just four months before the new university was to begin classes, the university still seemed up for grabs. The new president was helped immeasurably bv his secretary, Connie Cullen, a very capable young St. Dunstan's student who had been hired for him and whom he had not vet met. Thev soon main­ tained a daily correspondence, she telling him everything going on in his absence, he dictating policy decisions and to-do lists as thev occurred to him. For a time that spring, it was as if Cullen was UPEI's first woman president. Baker instructed her at one point to meet with all the Science chairs, and draw up a short list of people whom she would consider suitable for dean.43 Meanwhile, Prince of Wales College and St. Dunstan's Univer­ sity were wrapping up their unsettled final vear. The cover of Red and White's final issue eulogized St. Dunstan's: "Died 1969 — Vi­ tal Organs Preserved."14 Cullen was pleased to report to Baker that the SDU convocation went oft without "excess of sentimentality or nostalgia."*' Things did not go so smoothly at Prince of Wales, where what Maclean's called "the shortest-lived university ever" was

42 Baker to 1 lennessey, April 17. 1969, Ibid. 4; Baker to Cullen, May 5, 1969, "UPEI Origins — Baker papers" vertical file, folder 2, item 62, PEI Collection. 44 Red and White, April 11, 1969. 45 Cullen to Baker, May 12, 1969, "UPEI Origins — Baker papers" vertical file, folder 2, item 66, PEI Collection. Graduates at both SDU and PWC had been asked it" they wished their degrees conferred by and in the name ot 11 PEI; neither class chose to. See University and Colleges Planning Committees ;!' joint report, October 29, 1968, "UPEI Origins — University and College Planning Committees vertical tile, folder 5, item i~, PEI Collection.

28 — UTOPIAN u THE RED & WHITE

SAINT DUNSTAN I UNIVERSITY

BORN - 1917

DIED - 1969

VITAL ORGANS PRESERVED

YOU SAY YOU

WANT A

REVOLUTION? April 11, 1969: The Red & White, SDU's long-running student newspaper, releases its last issue. The bottom photo shows the SDU campus sign covered by a sheet bearing the name "Uni­ versity of Prince Edward Island." (The Red & White, vol. 9.12, April 11, 1969. UPEI Archives: St. Dunstan'i University - Newspapers - Red & White- Vertical File) holding its simultaneously first and last convocation.46 Valedictorian of the Class of '69 Edward Boates, channeling the ghost of Frank MacKinnon, took the opportunity to eviscerate the new university and its champion, Alex Campbell, sitting behind him onstage. "So today," he said in one of his more restrained remarks, "we are hav­ ing a memorial service for Prince of Wales and the irony is that the perpetrators of the travesty are pallbearers at its funeral."47 Boates' opinion was certainly on the extreme side, but it represented a com­ mon local feeling: that Prince Edward Islanders were giving up a bit of the past, without knowing what exactly was coming to replace it.

46 Edmonds. 47 The Guardian, May 17, 1969.

ALAN MACEACHERN 29 Elsewhere, the summer of '69 was the summer of Woodstock, the Official Languages Act, the opening season of the Montreal Expos, and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. On the University of Prince Edward Island's two campuses, it was the summer of an­ ticipation, harried planning, and meetings, meetings, meetings. On Ronald Baker's very first day back on PEI at the beginning of June, he met with the two old universities' administrators, boards, and student associations, and the new university's department chairs. (He jotted down some notes and epigrams for such meetings. At the top of the list: "Even a shotgun wedding usuallv has a honey- moon."4>) One of the president's first discoveries was that because UPEI would not technically exist until Julv 1, not a single dollar had been provided for it. He phoned the Minister of Education with his dilemma. Could we have some monev? Would si million do to start? Yes. As it turned out, the government could only raise $500,000 that Fridav. Upon picking up the cheque, Baker realized that neither he nor UPEI possessed a bank account. Comptroller Dennis Clough deposited the cheque in his own account for the weekend.4'' With no Senate or Board in place, Baker enlisted others who were around that summer to help make decisions. He called on St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales' final student governments to speak for student interests. And he relied heavily on the new department chairs. This worked out extremelv well for UPEI. Earlier that spring, Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's professors had met together as departments — Flistory with History, for example — and selected a chair for each newly merged department. Manv of the elected chairs became leaders of the university communitv for decades to come: people such as Father F. W. P. Bolger from Flistory, Doris Anderson from Home Economics, Owen Sharkev from Psychology, Verner Smitheram from Philosophv, John Smith from English, Re-

48 "UPEI Origins — Baker papers" vertical rile, folder i, item 65, PE] Collection. 49 Ron Baker tells this storv in a video thank you delivered at Ul'1.1 Founders' Dav, 2000.

30 UTOPIAN U gis Duftv from Chemistry, Lawson Drake from Biology, Joe Rev­ el] from Business Administration, and Ed Hilton from Athletics. And in immediate terms, the elected chairs were fortunately almost evenly split between St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales: n came from SDU, 8 from PWC, and i from both — Sociology professor J. C. Murphy, the old schools' only joint-appointment.50 The commit­ tee of 20 chairs joined Baker in hammering out UPEI's academic plans for the fall, deciding that there would be two interim faculties, and selecting two interim deans, John Smith for Arts and Regis Duffy for Science. Just as importantly, the chairs gave legitimacy to the decisions being made, and demonstrated that St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales could come together to make the new university work. The one issue upon which the chairs' committee could not reach agreement was UPEI's location. How could little UPEI utilize both the SDU and PWC campuses — and, given the emotions surround­ ing the merger, how could it not? The St. Dunstan's site was larger and more suited to expansion, and the province was currently ne­ gotiating its purchase from the Catholic university's board (the sale would be completed in September, for $5.7 million)."' Since Prince of Wales was a public institution, the province already owned the property. To choose one campus over the other would undoubtedly convince supporters of the other school that the merger was in fact an occupation. Asked by the chairs to break their deadlock, Bak­ er decided that it was best for UPEI to integrate the campuses as quickly as possible: for 1969-70, freshman classes (plus music and home economics) would be held at "the downtown campus," the old Prince of Wales, and all upper-year classes at "the Malpeque cam­ pus," St. Dunstan's. It was perhaps no surprise that faculty would lead the integra­ tion of the two campuses. The most vocal opponents among them

50 See President's Annual Report, 11)70, pp. 5-4. 51 The Guardian, October 29, 1969.

A LAN MACE AC HERN — 31 UNIVERSITY 0F PRINCE EDWARD ISUND MALPEQUE CAMPM

By the spring of 1970, the bed-sheet signage of the previous year had been replaced with something a little more permanent. Note, however, that there was still no logo or crest to adorn this new sign at the main entrance of UPEI's "Malpegue Campus" (the former SDU). (Nexus: University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Yearbook, wo. UPEI Archives: LE3.P85N41970 ARCH 1970) had resigned, the majority of those who remained had not been at St. Dunstan's or Prince of Wales tor very long, salaries were higher, and there was excitement and opportunity in crafting a new university. UPEI looked like an attractive place to be. Applications for academ­ ic employment poured in from all over that summer, including one from a voung Charlottetown lawyer interested in teaching law or ac­ counting, Joseph Ghiz/; Baker's replv to all was that for the moment UPEI was fully staffed. In fact, with a very low student/faculty ratio of 10/1, UPEI was to be if anything overstaffed for the foreseeable future.53 But what if you opened a university and nobody came? Since there were few physical changes in the campuses that summer, and the progress that was finally being made was happening behind the scenes, many Islanders doubted that UPEI would open on time. A

See Baker to J. T. Revell, business department, /July 1969, President's Correspondence, folder 1, PEI Collection. Baker explained this most directly to a job-seeking friend, Robert Green: "Our student-start ratio is 10-1, and we are not going to get the money to run on anything less than 15-1." November 15, r.969, President's Correspondence, folder 2, PEI Collection.

32 UTOPIAN U Elizabeth ("Betsy") Epperly, in her first year at UPEI. Dr. Epperly became a leading authority on Island writer L.M. Montgomery and was instrumental in establishing the L.M. Montgomery Institute at UPEI in 1993. She served as UPEI's first female President and Vice-Chancellor from 1995 to 1998. (Nexus: University of Prince Edward island Student Union Yearbook, wo. UPEI Archives: LE3.P85N41970 ARCH 1970)

larger number of Island high school graduates than usual, wary about UPEI's future and their own, headed off-Island to university that fall. But others enrolled. The very first student to register at UPEI came all the way from Virginia. She had applied to Prince of Wales College, and received a letter stating her acceptance to UPEI. Her father, not believing a new university could emerge overnight, drove her to the Island to check things out. He ended up paving her room, board, and tuition outright, and she, Elizabeth Epperly, went on to become a UPEI graduate and, in 1995, its first female president. \F The 1969 UPEI calendar contains a note of welcome from President Ronald J. Baker. "We are the newest university in Canada, but we build on two of the oldest institutions in Canada...." But then Baker falters, losing his customarily unflappable tone. "In spite of a few dire predictions," the faculty was working together. We "will have to" work on two campuses this vear, and "I am afraid there will be some inevitable inconveniences.... I hope that you will suffer the inconve­ niences — which we will all share — with forebearance We all want to be justifiably proud of our university. I am sure that we shall

AI. A N I\ IA C K A C Hi: R N 33 be."5-' It was an appropriately nervous welcome. The two schools had been merged; and everything possible had been done to bring order out of chaos, to start up a new university in little more than a year; but it was still to be seen whether students, faculty, parents, and the community would come together and make UPEI a success. Freshmen clad in potato sacks trooped through the campuses in early September, for an orientation week complete with tours, a dance, and, to launch a tradition, the Shinerama in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Association.55 Registration ran smoothly — despite the horrified discovery in the registrar's office that the new univer­ sity application forms had a line for "Religion." The forms had been printed in the thousands, so there was little choice but to use them, even if they made both Protestant and Catholic (let alone others) suspicious. By the end of registration week, 1,566 students had en­ rolled, of whom 82 per cent were Islanders/" The numbers were a disappointment: the university had been anticipating 1,800," and the drop was most marked among freshmen, whose numbers were smaller than the sum of PWC and SDU's a year earlier.;S (Some other new universities had waded into existence much more ginger­ ly: for example, Trent University had only 100 students its first vear.) Still, this was the largest number of university students PEI had vet seen, and, notably, for the first time there were almost as many incoming voung women as men.'" To teach this class, the university had 160 professors and sessional lecturers. A full 120 of these had taught at either Prince of Wales or St. Dunstan's the previous vear, and some of the remainder had been hired bv the old schools before

54 UPEI Calendar, 1969, p. 3, PEI Collection. 55 The Guardian, September 11, 1969. 56 See UPEI President's Report, 1969, PHI Collection. 57 UPEI Calendar, 1969, p. 16, PEI Collection. 58 SOU had 288 freshmen in [968-69, PWC 294, for a total of 582. UPEI in 1999-70 had, including first-year Engineers, 508. See Ibid, and Michael Hennessey to Baker, September 8, 1969, "UPEI Origins — Baker papers — Registrar" vertical hie, item 10, PEI Collection. 59 Among freshmen, there were 239 men and 253 women (though the numbers tor first- year Engineers were 34 to 2). Ibid.

34 — UTOPIAN U "And so the year begins" reads the yearbook caption for this photo of UPEI first-year students, clad in potato sack vests, preparing for the new university's first Orientation Week. (Nexus: University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Yearbook, 1970. UPEI Archives: LE3. P85N41970 ARCH 1970)

a hiring moratorium was put in place.'10 But only 36 had been teach­ ing at either school just three years earlier. On the whole, this was a young, dynamic faculty ready to build roots at the new institution. The courses ottered at UPEI in its first year were essentially those of Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's, with little else. Students from the two departed universities had been promised there would be no disruptions to their existing programs. The advantage ot amalgama­ tion for students was greater choice. For example, St. Dunstan's had not offered degrees in music or home economics; Prince of Wales had not offered business administration. The only real curricular in-

60 Years later, Baker expressed regret lie had not initiated a hiring moratorium when he first took office. Instead, PWC and SOU hired some more star! in their final year — in an attempt, Baker believes, to boost their school's influence at the new university. A moratorium was put in plaee in early 11)70. See Baker interview by Andrew Rohh, February :oo:; ami "UPEI Origins — Baker papers vertical rile, folder 2, items 5: and 39, FF.I Collection.

A I. A N .\ IA C F. A C H E R X J5 novation was an interdisciplinary freshman program, "Man in the 2011' Century," incorporating a lecture series, seminars, a private tu­ torial, and regular departmental offerings stretching across arts and science.'" The new program was atypical, but it offered promise that UPEI would incorporate the most modern methods and philosophy of what a university should be. At the term's outset, President Baker wrote an old friend at the University of British Columbia, classics professor C. W. J. Eliot — who would one day himself be UPEI's president. "This is a fasci­ nating job," Baker said. "The two institutions ... have long histories, and putting them together is quite challenging." The University Act "in effect gives faculty and students control of the Board as well as of Senate. I am not sure how it will work, but it will certainly be interesting to watch it."'': Much was at stake in the university's first days. UPEI was attempting to go about the day-to-day business of educating students, and by doing so prove that past rivalries and prejudices could be forgotten. At the same time it was creating and filling permanent governing bodies, actions that could easily inflame those rivalries and prejudices. Things did not get off to an auspicious start when students gathered in late September to create a Student Union, but were unable to accomplish anything. Tie Evening-Pa­ triot reported that red-and-white St. Dunstan's jackets on one side of the assembly argued with red-and-blue Prince of Wales jackets on the other. (The editor recommended a dress code, outlawing the old gang colours.) The newspaper called the event "a display of religious bigotrv that would put Ireland to shame," even though no reference to religion had been made.I>; A ray of hope was that the freshmen, lacking affiliation to either of the old schools, and some upperclass- men had acted neutrally. But what had seemed an ominous indication of the future turned

61 The Guardian, September 9, 1969; and The Cadre, September 30, 1970. bi Baker to C. W.J. Eliot, September 16, 1969, President's Correspondence, folder 2, PHI Collection.' 63 Evening-Patriot', September 25, 1969.

36 UTOPIAN U The "interim executive" of the newly formed UPEI Student Union (/eft forig/ifj: Bill LeClair, Mike White, John Keaveny (President), and Jerry Brimacombe. (Nexus: University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Yearbook, wo, UPEI Archives: LE3. P85N41970 ARCH 1970) out to be the last rumble of the past. The Student Union constitution was approved by referendum, and the election that saw interim pres­ ident John Keaveny returned to the presidency was tree of contro­ versy. In fact, with 11 of the 18 positions (including president) uncon­ tested, it called into question just how engaged the student bodv in this era of student power really was.64 Faculty and student elections also filled out membership in the Senate and Board of Governors. The Senate, in particular, with a great number of academic policies to be decided and the heavy representation ot faculty and students, might have become an arena tor the two old schools' rivalry."' It in­ stead got right down to business. At its verv first meeting, the Sen­ ate scrapped a much-hated Atlantic Canada-wide entrance exam, giving the university greater freedom to manage admissions. Baker was greatly relieved: such a radical change was "an achievement that

64 7/)f Cmlrc, November 7, 1969. 65 Also, according to Baker, "I think it is fair to sav that, apart from mvself, no member of the faculty has ever been on a university senate as I would understand it elsewhere." Baker to C. B. Stewart, February 12, 1970, President's Correspondence, folder 2, PI".I Collection.

ALAN MACEACHERN 57 most Senates would take years over."66 Better still, there were few signs of PWC versus SDU factionalism —just, as Baker said, "the more common ones of youth versus age, utopianism versus cynicism, and so on."''7 The relentless present was simply overwhelming the past. Through the fall of 1969, the university busily invented its symbols and traditions, wiping the slate clean of old associations. The Senate formed a committee expressly to develop the university motto, co­ lours, and crest. A student newspaper, the The Cadre — "Charlotte- town's Finest English-Language Weekly," according to the cover of its inaugural issue — was born. Student Vilna Louisy won $25 for christening the new yearbook Nexus, from the Latin, "that which joins together."68 And a student referendum decided that the uni­ versity's colours would be green and white, and that henceforth they would cheer for the Panthers. (Surely it speaks to Islanders' native conservativeness that in an era of Black Panthers we adopted a green one?) Sharing such symbols could not help but bring people together — that is their whole purpose. Of course, what most occupied the university community that fall were the prosaic matters of university life. Students in residence got up in arms about a restrictive policy on having late-night visitors, and about the Board of Governors' attempt to legislate the policy on the grounds that it was responsible for the university's physical prop­ erty. President Baker innocently noted that it was not as if having a member of the opposite sex in your room would cause the plaster to fall off the ceiling. Rather cheeky, that.'"' In the The Cadre's first issue, the editors interviewed the presi-

66 Baker to Marita McNulty, October 30, 1969, President's Correspondence, folder 2. PF.I Collection. 67 Baker to I l.B.S. Cooke, April 13, 1970, President's Correspondence, folder 5, PF.I Collection. By then, however, Baker was also complaining privately that the Sena:.' was acting very slowly, and he had real doubts about students having been granted such a central role in the university's governance. ()H The Cadre, February 3, 1970. 69 See The Cadre, November 21, 1969.

38 UTOPIAN U THE CADRE

THE CADRE,

Charlottetown's Finest

English-Language Weekly

Presents its First

Multipurpose Extravaganza:

--Your President speaks p. 3 & 5

--Ye editor murmurs, p 4

--Student speaks p 5

--Your photo club is ? passim

--Sports editor elopes with copy p 8

--Football team has no name p. 13

-Hello CUP p 1

--The World is a small pox warriors pride p 8

And by the way, Welcome to University

October 3,1969: The Cadre, UPEI's student newspaper, releases its first issue. "1 PLUS 1 EQUALS... ONE" read the boxes flanking the masthead. (TheCadre, vol. 1.7, October}, 1969. UPEIArchives:IH3.P8C3 ARCH 1969-1970! dent (and in the spirit of the times, followed this with instructions tor making Molotov cocktails). Asked if he was happy with the two- campus arrangement, Baker said, "Oh no, no of course not."70 A freshman's class might he at the downtown campus, but her pro­ fessor's office was at the Malpeque one, and the library books she needed could be at either one. During his own constant driving back and forth, Baker regularly picked Lip hitchhikers. Alex Campbell had initially suggested that UPEI use the nearby railway"1 — all aboard for Psych 101! — but the university ultimately chose a bus service. Every half-hour all day, the bus made a round trip of the

70 The Cadre, October 3, 1969. 71 Baker to Eugene Chatterton, EIC, April [5, 1969, "UPEI Origins — Baker papers — Economic Improvement Corporation" vertical file, item 1, PF.I Collection.

A LAN MACF.ACHERN V) two campuses." That December, the Board of Governors decided that the Malpeque campus, already well-developed and, at 129 acres, better-suited for further expansion, should be the university's single home in future years."5 It was an entirely sensible decision. But iso­ lating the university on one campus on what, in 1969, was the edge of Charlottetown, ensured that it would never be as closely bound to the new technical college as had been originally intended."4 And it ensured that some Islanders would never be convinced that there had ever been a place at the new university for Prince of Wales Col­ lege. UPEI's first term ended with students scribbling out their an- swers on old St. Dunstan's and Prince ot Wales exam booklets. The transition to a new university was still far from complete, and not all hearts and minds had been won over. Rumours swirled about everv conceivable facet of universitv operations. The Cadre reported that UPEI might be phased out in the next five or ten vears." The music department feared that it was to be — no pun intended — disband­ ed."" But, on the whole, people were surprised and delighted about how well things were going. The universitv had opened or. time, run a full slate of courses, started up its Senate, Board of Governors, Faculty Association, and Student Union — and all with verv little

-2 UPE] Campus Calendar, 1969, PEI Collection. 73 The final decision was the province's. An extenuating factor throughout 196 > was that Summerside was wooing I lolland College, in part because the town was in sonic danger ot losing its Canadian Forces Base. When the Canadian government announced in December that the base would remain in Summerside, the C. mpbcll government announced that 1 loll.unl College would stay in Charlottetown. the fact that the college could take over the old Prince of Wales campus — that the site would not lay empty — made it more acceptable for I' PE] to move off t le downtown site. -j Baker still hoped that the university and college wotdd share a great array o: facilities, including student housing, athletic facilities, food services, purchasing, counseling services, library processing, personnel office, bookstore, audiovis lal facilities, security services, and so on. See Baker to John Smith, December •, 1969, President's Correspondence, folder ;, PEI Collection. 75 The Cadre, Januarv 21, 1970. 76 Baker to David Carr, December 10, 1969, President's Correspondence, folder 3, PEI Collection.

40 — UTOPIAN U acrimony. "1 know of no case," Ronald Baker said happily, "where two institutions have merged so successfully and so peacefully."7" Perhaps this was because Prince Edward Islanders had never spoken openly about their society's religious divide, so when the two schools were forced together, thev did not speak about it then either. Or perhaps it was because people had come to believe that in a uni­ versity environment, religious differences shouldn't matter so much. Perhaps they shouldn't matter anywhere in a modern, 1970s society.

In early 1970, a newspaper editor spoke wonderinglv of "the obvi­ ous accord prevailing at the University of PEI between the student body and the administration. No battles are being fought on issues weighty or otherwise.... [S]uch an aura of peacefulness hangs over the institution that it draws attention bv comparison to other col­ leges elsewhere." Bv the end of February, The Cadre was reprinting this article for its ironic value, with the headline, "Nothing Like Hindsight."" UPEI had escaped homegrown religious discord, only to be hit with a dose of imported student unrest. As is so often the case, the issue was money. In their final year, the two old universities had had no incentive to raise fees, and for its first year, the new university was not about to. UPEI's tuition of $450 — that's per vear, not per course — was the lowest in the Maritimes. lust a month into the academic year, the Board of Governors voted to raise tuition and residence fees by $100 each the following year: UPEI simply needed more moncv. Students were irate. Whereas the Campbell government had brought in the new university swiftly, it was dithering on another component of its higher-education plat­ form, a student aid program of bursaries and scholarships."' Dissatisfied with their meetings with the Board and admin­ istration, the students launched a week of protest on January 27.

77 Journal-Pioneer, December 6, 1969. 78 The Cadre, February 20, 1970. The Cadre tines not mention when.- or exactly when the original account appeared. 7<; See Journal-Pioneer, January i> .mil 17, 11)70; ami The Guardian, January 2}, i

ALAN MACEACHERN — 41 January 1970: In front of scores of students at the University coffee shop, UPEI Student Union President John Keaveny (left) questions PEI Education minister Gordon Bennett (at microphone, centre) and Premier Alex Campbell (right) about plans to raise tuition and residence fees. (Nexus: University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Yearbook, 1970. UPEI Archives: IE3.P85N41970 ARCH 1970)

Two-hundred-and-fifty students marched downtown to speak to the Premier — "the largest delegation ever to congregate before a government office in PEI's history," by The Guardians estimation.80 Thev tried to be student radicals, but they were not vet very good at it. They occupied the Minister of Education's office, but left when the police told them to. The last students cleaned up the mess on the way out.81 A strike was called for the next day, and close to half the student population boycotted class, joined in solidarity by some Island high schools. But the university students returned to class the next day, setting up a committee to help high school students who had been suspended. The week of protest ended with a teach-in on "Why a University?" It was poorly attended, attracting as many

So The Guardian, January 27, 1970. A song was composed bv John Daley and Wayne Cheverie for the occasion: "The Board is up against the wall / To Alex we must go, / Saying come now "Father Alex" / And please dish us out some dough, / For it you make us pay the rest / Then come this time next year, / You'll have all the buildings / But you'll have no students here." From Nexus, 1970. Si The Cadre, February 3, 1970.

42 — UTOPIAN U students trom off-Island as on-, and degenerated into name-calling and an English professor challenging a student trom Ontario to a fight.82 And, with that, the revolution was over; if students were to take control of UPEI, it would he through the powers granted them in the charter. As the symbol of existing power, President Ronald Baker had suffered considerable abuse during the protests, but was philosophical about it. He assured one well-wisher, "Any new insti­ tution ... generates or re-generates all the hopes that anvone ever had. Evervone becomes a Utopian, and the historv of Utopian com­ munities is not a happy one."83 He had failed to mention that in his "University — 2000" speech a year earlier. The rest of the term ran more smoothlv. Some residual distrust persisted, and by the end of the year a handful of professors had decided to teach elsewhere."4 On the whole, the university was not only working but working to improve. The Board turned the barn over for a Student Union building, and for its renovation gave the students a loan and the $33,000 donated to the university by the St. Dunstan's University Student Union. The Senate continued to re­ fine the university's academic structure, implementing two policies whose simplicity obscured the tact that they went to the verv heart of what the new university wanted to accomplish. Firstlv, the Senate approved a move from full-year courses to a two-semester system, which by doubling the available courses offered greater flexibility to a student's program. (Baker later admitted that this also kept old St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales faculty trom arguing about "owner­ ship" of their old courses.s;) Secondly, the Senate decided that the university would grant general degrees rather than honours degrees. The thinking was that honours degrees called for too much special-

82 The Cadre, February ",. 1970. H-, Baker to Graeme Decarie, January 21), 1970, President's Correspondence, folder 4, PE] Collection. 84 But, as Baker said, "mainly tor fairly respectable reasons." Baker to A. 1. R. Galloway, March 16, 1970, President's Correspondence, folder ,, PE] Collection. S^ Baker interview with .Andrew Robb, February 2002, PEI Collection.

AI. A N .\ 1A C E ACH E R N — 43 "The Barn" under renovation, ca. 1970, following its transferfor use as UPEI's student centre. It vould be home for more than 30 years to the UPEI Student Union, the student radio station and newspa:er, and, of course, the campus pub. (Nexus: University of Prince Edward Island Student Union Yearbook, 1971. UPE Archives: LE3.P8SN41970 AR(H 1971)

ization, whereas UPEI wanted students to enjoy the full flexibility of a true liberal arts program.s'' But this was the extent of UPEI's academic innovations, and Baker reported to a correspondent that, all in all, "Our curriculum is relatively traditional.... No dcubt that will be very disappointing- to people looking for radical ch.mges."S: Whether because enough turmoil had been experienced s:mplv in establishing the university, or because when given power :o effect change students and faculty turned out to be as conservative as any­ one else, or simplv because the university was working as well as it was, UPEI never did take on the radical character expected of its time or permitted bv its governance. On May 15, 1970, more than 1,000 people jammed into the Confederation Centre theatre to witness the University of Prince

S(> For Semites thinking on honours vs. general degrees, see 20' Senate meeting, May >o, in~o, "UPEI Senate meetings — minutes" vertical tile, I'I'.I Collection. 87 Baker to A. I. R. Gallowav, March i(>, 11)70, President's Correspondence, lolJer 5, PEJ. Collection.

44 I'TOPIAN LI Under sunny skies, UPEI's first graduating class processes down Grafton Street and into the Confederation Centre. Downtown processions for UPEI's graduates proved short-lived, however: the University's 1971 graduation ceremo­ nies were held on-campus, and still are today. WPEI Archive: UP[I - Convocation - Photographs - Vertical File)

Edward Island's first convocation, with a graduating class of 277.8S The day before, Ronald Baker had been installed as President, and Thane Campbell — Supreme Court Chief Justice, ex-Premier, and father of Alex — as Chancellor. Baker beamed; he told the press that it had been a year of students protesting high fees, faculty pro­ testing low salaries, and all manner of committee in-fighting. "'Lots of problems,' admits President Ronald J. Baker happily, 'but just the problems every university has.'"8'' In his breezy, three-minute speech to graduates, he proclaimed, "for years, it was argued that it would be impossible to have only one university in the Province. At times, it almost seemed as though some people took a perverse pride in the fact that they could not work together for the common good of higher education This year, we have proved that we can work together." Never again will there be a UPEI class "which carried

SS President's Annual Report, 1970, p. 14. S<) Journal-Pioneer, Mav 16, [970.

A I. AN MACEACHERN 45 such a responsibility and rose so magnificently to it to get the new institution on its feet.""" In an era of university protest and unrest, the ability just to get along was a noteworthy, and quite Canadian, sort of accomplishment.

In a spring 1970 note to Dean of Arts John Smith, President Baker admitted, "I had been prepared for a very bad year leading to a year or two of depression before we began the real job of building the new University. In fact, however, I think we have avoided the bad beginning...."9' But the next few years would be considerably more difficult than the first year had been. UPEI came into existence just as federal funding for higher education was drying up. Yet it was committed to continuing the capital development needed to handle the students it had."' Also, the runaway inflation of the early and mid-1970s meant the university had to pay much more for wages, fuel, and everything else. Staff positions were cut, and student ser­ vices trimmed. Rising costs led to rising tuition, and so enrollment sputtered, as it did in many universities across Canada. Whereas UPEI had once been expected to have 3,000 students by 1975, its numbers actually dipped below 1,400 — fewer than in its first year, fewer than the combined total of St. Dunstan's and Prince of Wales in 1968.'" But as rocky as these early years were, they might well have been fatal it not for the great strides made at the university's founding. By setting up the charter, curriculum, organizations, and governance so quickly — and by making these not just makeshift affairs, but structures with real permanence — the university was able to with-

90 Baker convocation remarks, Mav 15, 11,170, "Speeches — UPEI Presidents" vertical tile, folder3, PHI Collection.

46 — UTOPIAN U stand the buffeting of the 1970s. The university had been especially successful in generating a sense of community. As early as 1972, a UPEI Alumni Association was formed, and hosted its first Alumni Weekend that November, inviting back the 1,000 or so graduates from the classes of 70, 71, and 72. That same vear, Charlottetown businessmen Eugene Cullen and Walter Hyndman co-chaired a funding drive, the Progress Fund, to assist UPEI's capital devel­ opment,94 and raised more than $3 million from across the Island and around the Maritimes. Coupled with more than $y million in provincial grants, the Progress Fund allowed for the renovation of existing facilities, plus the building of a new utility plant and — the capstone — a spacious new library. UPEFs first major development on the old St. Dunstan's campus, Robertson Library, was named after a long-time president of Prince of Wales. Today, the University of Prince Edward Island boasts one of the largest librarv-holdings- per-student ratios of any undergraduate university in Canada. The history of UPEFs creation had a beginning, but it has no end. Walk around the campus today, 36 years on, and you see that the university bears many traces of its ancestry. Its coat of arms in­ corporates elements from Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's (and St. Andrew's College, SDU's predecessor). In 2002, the Confederation Lecture Series was renamed the Dr. Frank MacKinnon Lecture Se­ ries. St. Dunstan's crest still tops Dalton Hall. The library's PEI Collection exists in great part thanks to a fund provided by the St. Dunstan's Alumni Association. And, even 36 years later, Prince of Wales and St. Dunstan's still live on in the university's people. Regis Duffv, from SDU, is now chair of the Board of Governors. Barb Mullah', who once taught Phys Ed at PWC, is the campus Wellness Director. John Smith and Brendan O'Gradv, who taught at PWC and SDU respectively, have each been named Professors Emeriti in English. And there are many others.

1)4 Sec The Guardian, November 2S, 1972; And Journal-Pioneer, November 27, 11)72.

ALAN MACEACHERN —47 Yet the UPEI of 2005 is not just a fusion of the two old schools — and it is not the UPEI of 1969. Student enrollment has more than doubled since then. The campus has grown to accommodate these students: the K. C. Irving Chemistry Centre, the Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall, the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre, the W. A. Mur­ phy Student Centre, and the new residence are just a few examples of this growth. And, of course, there is now the Atlantic Veterinary College — a facility for which Ron Baker had begun lobbying in the 1970s, as soon as the university itself was safely established.95 These changes have not been without repercussions, and at times have even transformed what the founders thought would be the university's in­ trinsic character. Having once deliberately chosen to offer only gen­ eral degrees, the university has since heeded students' (and the wider world's) calls for more specialization, and now many departments offer Honours programs. What was originally to be a university that catered strictly to undergraduate studies now offers a range of grad­ uate programs, including a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, and Master's degrees in Science, Education, and Arts (Island Studies). The venerated old Barn no longer fulfilled the Student Union's needs, so it was torn down, replaced by the W. A. Murphy Student Centre on the site of the old Alumni Gym. Since its founding — even in its founding — the University of Prince Edward Island has been an example to Islanders that, even while maintaining links to the past, change can be necessary, change can be good. It's the only way to have a healthy university, a healthy society. "Process, not stasis," one could say. UP

95 See The Guardian, May 15, 1978.

48 UTOPIAN U n

Alan MacEachern is Director of the Public History program at the University of Western Ontario.

Cover Photo: Main Building (Barrett and MacKay)

Inside Cover: This 1974 aerial photograph shows one of the new University's first major building projects, the Robertson Memorial Library, nearing completion. (UPEIArchives: UPEI—Buildings — Photographs — Vertical File) "~

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www.upei.ca