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.