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University Of British ColumbiaThe University of British Columbia (UBC) is located on Point Grey near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located just 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver, the university is near several beaches and has views of the local mountains. The 7.63 km² Pacific Spirit Regional Park serves as a green-belt between the campus and the city. UBC, along with Pacific Spirit Regional Park and the residential community of University Hill form the University Endowment Lands, which technically do not fall within Vancouver's city limits. Facts and figures In 2003, UBC had 3,167 full-time faculty, and 4,612 non-faculty full-time employees. It boasts 33,566 undergraduate students, 7,379 graduate students, and 180,000 alumni in 120 countries. UBC had an operating income of $366 million CAD in 2001. Buildings on campus occupy 1,091,997 gross m2, located on 1.7 km² of maintained land. The current UBC president is Dr. Martha Piper and the VP Students is Brian Sullivan. UBC is set to become a world class university. In 2000, Martha Piper proclaimed that her mission was to get UBC at par with Harvard. In 2001/2002, UBC had one of the lowest undergraduate tuition rates in Canada, at an average of $2,181 CAD per year for a full-time program. This was due to a freezing of tuition rates by the New Democratic Party government. In 2001 the Liberal government came into power and removed government restrictions on the tuition fees the universities and colleges in BC could charge. In 2002/2003 UBC chose to increase its undergraduate and graduate tuition rates by roughly 30%; give or take 10%, depending on faculty/school. This has led to increased enrollment and better facilities, but also to student unrest and union strikes. UBC again increased tuition by 30% in the 2003-2004 season, and yet again by approximately 15% in the 2004-2005 season. At this point, it is undecided what the outcome will be for the following year, however, the current tuition rates are now at par with most Canadian universities. The university's street plan is mostly in a grid of malls (for driving and pedestrian-only). Lower Mall and West Mall are in the southwestern part of the peninsula, with Main, East, and Wesbrook Malls northeast of them. Alumni The most famous alumni from UBC include: - Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, Robert Mundell
- Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, Bertram N. Brockhouse
- founder, Texas Instruments, Cecil H. Green
- CEO and Chairman of the Board, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Henry A. McKinnell
- CEO, Computer Associates, John Swainson
- Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin
- past B.C. premiers Ujjal Dosanjh and Mike Harcourt
- author and historian Pierre Berton
- opera singers Ben Heppner and Judith Forst
- composer Michael Conway Baker
- educator and Man In Motion, Rick Hansen
- writer William Gibson
- filmmaker Bruce Sweeney
- actor Nicola Cavendish
- astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason
- senator Pat Carney
- former Canadian prime ministers Kim Campbell and John Turner
- University of Victoria president Dr. David Turpin
- journalists Allan Fotheringham and Stevie Cameron
- mathematician and pi researcher Peter Borwein
- honorary degrees given to the 14th Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Shirin Ebadi on April 19, 2004
Famous instructors List of Presidents - Frank Wesbrook (1913-1918)
- Leonard Klinck (1919-1944)
- Norman MacKenzie (1944-1962))
- John B. Macdonald (1962-1967)
- Fredrick Kenneth Hare (1968-1969))
- Walter Harry Gage (1969-1975)
- Douglas Kenny (1975-1983)
- George Pedersen (1983-1985)
- Robert Smith (1985)
- David W. Strangway (1985-1997)
- Martha C. Piper (1997-2006)
Brief history - 1877: UBC's history begins when a proposal for a provincial university is first made.
- 1899: Vancouver College is created near Vancouver General Hospital and is affiliated with Montreal's McGill University.
- 1906: Vancouver College is taken over by McGill and renamed McGill University College of British Columbia (MUCBC).
- 1908: The University of British Columbia is established with the provincial legislature's passing of the University Act.
- 1910: Point Grey is chosen as the location for the new campus.
- 1914: First year of construction at the new Point Grey location, but building is stopped by next year by the First World War.
- 1915: UBC opens at temporary facilities at the former MUCBC facilities. This is traditionally considered the official birth of UBC.
- 1922: The Great Trek: students, frustrated with over-crowded conditions, march from the present downtown campus to the Point Grey location, after collecting 56,000 signatures for a petition to complete the new campus.
- 1925: UBC officially moves to the Point Grey campus.
Current faculties and schools Sites of interest Gardens - UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/: the first UBC department, it holds a collection of over 8000 different kinds of plants used for research, conservation and education
- Nitobe Memorial Garden http://www.nitobe.org: built to honour Japanese scholar Inazo Nitobe, the garden has been the subject of a 15+ year study by a UBC professor, who believes that its construction hides a number of impressive features, including references to Japanese philosophy and mythology, shadow bridges visible only at certain times of year, and positioning of a lanterns that is filled with light at the exact date and time of Nitobe's death each year. The garden is behind the university's Asian Center, whose roof features a glass and wood structure from Japan's exhibit at Tokyo Expo.
Museums and galleries Libraries - Asian Library: The Asian Library houses the largest research collection in Asian languages in Canada, its holdings in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, South Asian and Indonesian exceeding 500,000 volumes. Special materials include the valuable Puban collection (蒲坂藏書樓藏書), Swann collection, Song Xuepeng collection (宋學鵬藏書), Jing Yi Zhai (景頤齋藏書), Japanese government publications, research materials on Chinese Canadian settlement in British Columbia and Pearl Delta Area as well as Japanese Canadian studies collections. Its rare book collection, mainly from the Puban collection, ranks 5th in North America.
- Main Library: After a recent renovation of the third-floor atrium in 2001, the Chapman Reading Commons http://www.library.ubc.ca/chapmanlearningcommons/ and the Chung Collection of immigration documents http://www.library.ubc.ca/chung/ were created. In autumn of 2003, one-third of it (formerly Ridington Computing Room, Fine Arts Library, and the Design Art Gallery at the basement) was demolished in preparation for new glass-walled study areas, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre http://www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/, to be completed in 2005.
- Walter Koerner Library: built in 1997, adding to the Sedgewick Library. Koerner Library is almost entirely dedicated to the humanities and is home to 800,000 volumes. Its postmodern architecture (most walls are see-through glass) contrasts the Gothic revival design of Main Library, which is located across from it through a plaza that contains a fountain and the 33.8-metre Leon Ladner Bell Tower (ringing every half an hour, sometimes with classical music). The Main Library contains the contents of the former Sedgewick library in its lower levels.
Performance arts theatres - Chan Centre for the Performing Arts: a concert hall and events centre.
- Frederic Wood Theatre ("Freddy Wood Theatre"): plays performed here, mostly performed by UBC's own BFA drama students.
Student services and residences - Student Union Building (SUB) http://www.ams.ubc.ca: offices of many clubs, half a dozen restaurants, and the inexpensive 425-seat Norman Bouchard Memorial Theatre ("The Norm Theatre"). The SUB Gallery contains mostly students' work. Beside the SUB, there is a small mound, about 2-metre, which is the content of the open pool dug near the Aquatic Centre. The grassy knoll is slated to be destroyed due to the planned construction of an underground bus loop; the destruction is an unpopular move among students.
- Totem Park: A residence primarily for first and second year undergraduate students (houses 1163).
- Place Vanier: A residence primarily for first and second year undergraduate students (houses 1370).
- Gage Towers: A residence primarily for second and third year undergraduate students.
- Fairview: A residence primarily for second, and third year undergraduate students.
- Thunderbird: A residence primarily for graduate students and fourth year undergraduate students.
- Ritsumeikan-UBC House: A residence with a Japanese cultural setting, named for Ritsumeikan University.
- Marine Drive Residence: A new residence with target opening date of Fall 2005.
- Green College: A residential college for graduate students.
- St. John's College http://www.stjohns.ubc.ca/: A residential graduate college with an international focus.
Sports arenas and recreation - Aquatic Centre http://www.aquatics.ubc.ca: except for designated times, there is a charge for students and non-students alike.
- Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre: when unused during final exam periods (December and May), hundreds of chairs and tables are placed inside for students to take tests.
- In between Main and Koerner Libraries is an artificial 6-metre deep valley, whose massive amount of dirt was transported to a bog in the Pacific Spirit Park decades ago, now being criticized as an anti-environmental act. The valley was intended as a student gathering place for eating lunches, meeting and relaxing. But it is mostly unused due to its lack of visibility and dangerously slippery muddy grass.
- SUB contains an arcade, which some students, mostly males, admit to being very addicted to. There is also a rock-climbing wall in SUB, hidden behind the movie theatre sceen, which is operated by the UBC Varsity Outdoor Club.http://www.ubc-voc.com
- The UBC Debating Society is the only debating team in Canada that is a part of a university's varsity athletics program.http://www.ubcdebate.com
Student media - The Ubyssey http://www.ubyssey.bc.ca, a twice-weekly student newspaper. Established in 1916.
- The Graduate http://www.gss.ubc.ca/services/graduate, a monthly magazine of news, opinion, and humour, by graduate students.
- Discorder ("That magazine from CiTR") http://discorder.citr.ca, a music and entertainment magazine produced by the campus radio station.
- CITR "Thunderbird Radio" http://www.citr.ca, the campus radio station.
- The Point, a weekly student paper of athletics, clubs, and whats happening at UBC.
- The Paradigm, the official publication of the Science Undergraduate Society.
Athletics UBC is represented in Canadian Interuniversity Sport by the UBC Thunderbirds. See also External links
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