U N I V E R S I T Y C O L L E G E SPRING 2010 ALUMNI MAGAZINE www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LEARNING BEYOND THE CL ASSROOM How co-curricular activities prepare students for life after graduation UC Follies: Coffee with Student Life at Then and Now the Profs UC in the 1950s U N I V E R S I T Y C O L L E G E ALUMNI MAGAZINE www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni IN TOUCH A Message from UC Alumni Association President Rachel Arbour (BA 1998 UC) t is my great pleasure that this issue I still turn to UC, through the UCAA, for many of UC Magazine explores “Learning exciting experiences beyond the classroom. As a mentor Beyond the Classroom.” No other theme in the UC Career Mentorship Program, I have had the Iso closely personifies my experiences at opportunity to meet many bright UC students and alumni University College, and it seems fitting as mentors. Through the Historical Society I have attended this is my final message to you as president lectures on UC’s rich heritage, most recently Elizabeth of the UC Alumni Association (UCAA). Hulse’s presentation on Sir Daniel Wilson. Reznikoff’s As a student, there was nothing I loved Readers, the UC book club, has attracted excellent authors more than my experiences on the UC Lit such as Nino Ricci, Edeet Ravel and Alissa York to discuss and as a don (often fuelled by coffee from their latest books. And, of course, there was our successful Diabolos). My affinity for UC has much to do with those Winter Social during which Prof. David Rayside shared after-class activities, from Reznikoff’s pub to reading the his knowledge of UC’s architecture. Gargoyle to watching the UC Follies and dancing at Fireball. I hope that you will join fellow UCAA members at As a student, I became involved for the fun and friendships. one of our many events and consider getting involved As a lawyer, I realize that through co-curricular activities, I as a volunteer or mentor. If you are interested or have learned how to run meetings, manage time, plan events and an idea for UCAA clubs or activities, please contact the socialize with clients, not to mention the skills acquired as Alumni and Development Office at (416) 978-2968 or an executive of an incorporated student council with a large [email protected]. I look forward to your emails budget and employees. and letters and to seeing you at our upcoming events. END Look for this icon throughout the magazine and go online for additional photos, stories and interactive features at www.alumni.utoronto.ca/uc A Message from UC Principal Sylvia Bashevkin his issue of UC Magazine is that alumni fondly remember, including Orientation, Fireball, dedicated to a dimension of College intramural sports, UC Follies theatrical productions, Silhouette life that has captivated students, Dance Company events and the UC Residence Council. Tfaculty, staff, alumni and friends Since the opening of UC’s Commuter Student Centre for generations – namely, experiences (CSC) in September 2007, the College community has beyond the classroom. From the founding benefited in particular from an energetic Lit Off-Campus of the Lit in 1854, now Canada’s oldest Commission that uses this new space in innovative ways. democratically elected student government, Pizza lunches, movie evenings and an annual birthday party to the UC community has placed a premium celebrate the CSC’s creation help to ensure that the David Leith on co-curricular engagement that not only Lounge serves as a meaningful home away from home for the enriches the lives of undergraduates but also bridges our various roughly 3800 current UC students who live off campus. The College estates. This tradition continues through the 2009-10 College has continued to sponsor Tea and Cookies in the UC academic year, when UC faculty and staff have worked closely Union every weekday afternoon, which draws upwards of 60 with the Lit leadership on Coffee with the Profs, a speaker series students and faculty on a regular basis. that brings students and professors together to discuss shared Any discussion of life outside the classroom would be research interests. Instead of only meeting faculty in a formal incomplete without some mention of the written word. course setting, UC students now have regular opportunities to Whether it’s the Gargoyle newspaper, UC literary magazines speak informally with scholars working across disciplines in a or a rich array of student creative writing prizes, College relaxed, informal environment. During recent years, dozens of activities in 2010 continue to build on our community’s alumni mentors have assisted UC students who want to pursue long history of fostering fine poets, novelists and journalists, careers in fields as diverse as medicine, law, communications such as Simon Houpt (BA 1991 UC), who shares his UC and non-governmental organizations, both through our writing experiences in the feature article on page 10. I hope successful one-on-one UC Career Mentorship Program as well this magazine issue inspires you to become more involved in as a series of very popular student/alumni roundtable sessions. these fine co-curricular traditions, and in helping to build These initiatives supplement many longstanding Lit activities new ones! END 2 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE ALUMNI MAGAZINE SPRING 2010 CONTENTS A Message from UC Alumni Association President Rachel Arbour (BA 1998 UC) 4 Campus Life today Coffee with the profs Co-curricular opportunities in UC’s flagship programs UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Scene & heard Volume 35 I Number 2 I Spring 2010 5 Ralph Nader speaks in support UNIveRSIty CoLLeGe MagazINe is published twice a year by the of the UC Health Studies program University College Alumni Association University of Toronto UC Heritage Society luncheon and is circulated to 25,000 alumni and friends of UC Spotlight Send correspondence and 6 undeliverable copies to Keenan Dixon: Making a difference UNIveRSIty CoLLeGe MagazINe after class with the support c/o UC Alumni and Development Office 15 King’s College Circle, Room D-105 of alumni and friends Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3H7 Tel: (416) 978-2968 Feature Fax: (416) 978-3802 [email protected] 8 Learning beyond the classroom: www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni edItoR-IN-ChIef UC co-curricular life opens Yvonne Palkowski (BA 2004 UC) student minds to new possibilities CoNtRIBUtoRS Rachel Arbour (BA 1998 UC) UC history 101 Professor Sylvia Bashevkin 11 Keenan Dixon The happy decade: Life at UC in the 1950s Victoria Hurlihey (BA 2000 UC) Jim Lawson UC Follies: Then and now Alex Morosovskiy Kathleen Sandusky Giving Back Megan Tate 14 LAyoUt ANd deSIGN: vacacom New acquisitions at the PRINtING: Maud Street Group University of Toronto Art Centre PUBLICAtIoN AGReeMeNt NUMBeR 40041311 Thanks to our donors Alumni Bulletin 19 News from the UC Alumni Association 21 Class Notes News from former classmates and friends maSupportKE Your the UC DONATION Annual TOFundDaY In Memoriam Phone: (416) 978-2968 22 web: https://donate.utoronto.ca/uc mail: complete the form on Calendar of events page 14 or download it at 23 www.uc.utoronto.ca/donate and mail it using the enclosed COvEr: UC Student LEadErS in the Junior COmmon Room (clockwise frOm lefT): pre-paid envelope. Jessica CHEUNg, aLdELI aLbaN rEyNa, mIgUEL IrENE, daNIEL TSEkHmaN, SHaUN aLpHONSO, SHErrIE QUINN, EmILy SOmmErS I JaSON krygIEr-baUm Fax: Complete the form and fax it to TOp: UC’S East HaLL, fOrmErLy THE LIbrary I UC arCHIvES (416) 978-3802 www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni 3 U N I V E R S I T Y C O L L E G E ALUMNI MAGAZINE www.uc.utoronto.ca/alumni CampUS LIfE TOday Prof. Michael Wayne on Coffee with the Profs Coffee with the Profs facilitating student-faculty interaction outside the classroom or more than thirty years, Life Coordinator Jason MacIntyre. UC students have enjoyed For their part, students are able to fraternizing over tea and participate in meaningful dialogue with fcookies on weekday afternoons world-renowned scholars. “During a in the UC Union. Even though it offers formal lecture in a large class, students a break from the rigours of the school may not ask questions,” MacIntyre day, the Tea and Cookies hour—as explains. “Coffee with the Profs is an anyone who ever attended will know— opportunity to ask those questions in a tends to assume an academic tone, and small, informal setting.” “The Coffee with the Profs series students can be overheard debating Student Arman Hamidian, who is an example of how the different course content with a confidence helps organize the series, agrees. "It’s a elements of UC—faculty, students, staff and alumni—come together unique to undergraduates. fantastic medium that allows students to form a single community. Today at Coffee with the Profs, to interact with professors outside of an It afforded me the welcome the contemporary cousin of Tea and academic, 'serious' setting. Especially in opportunity to meet with students Cookies, students have the chance the first and second years when large class beyond the classroom, and to to engage in similar discussions with sizes can cause feelings of anonymity,” he share with them my passion for writing. I chose to talk not about faculty members. Launched in the fall says, “the series gives students a chance my scholarly research but about of 2009, the Coffee with the Profs series to see the personality behind the face of my first novel, Lincoln’s Briefs, facilitates student-faculty interaction teaching, and boosts their confidence to an historical satire on national outside the classroom.