Posts tagged with university.
From hash pipe to hash tag: how the campus has changed
Hello again Dear Readers, and apologies again for my prolonged absence. Pig flu and all that; you understand.
I'm writing this from the UBC campus again - I'm here for a day of meetings and have managed to squeeze in a few minutes of writing in between talking about neglected global diseases, systems biology, and whether the opera singers should go before or after the orchestra in the annual revue.
I've plugged my laptop into an outlet in the foyer of the Laserre building, known in my time as being a great place to get intimate on campus, as the 2nd floor washroom had a vinyl couch and lockable door. I may venture up there later out of curiosity, but I suspect my investigation will reveal that the couch is gone, the old wooden door has been replaced with some modern frosted glass number, and the 2nd floor bog has been renamed the "Earl and Marion Peterson Family Relief Facility" in the continuing tradition of academic patronage.
While some things on a campus never change (beer, dissatisfaction with student-led politics, weird food smells), this is a very mutable place and bears little resemblance to the campus I left behind when I got my B.Sc. I was reminded of this a few times recently, taking part in student-led events that demonstrated the marked change in extracurricular activities over the years.
As I wrote some time ago, the beer-drinking and trouble-making of years gone by have been replaced by rather more mature pursuits, like creating associations for networking, communication, activism, putting on conferences, starting charities, and other things that have relevance to the real world and look good on a CV. I've always poked gentle fun at all of this - after all, university's the time to have your fun while you still can and not worry about grown-up business, because once you've graduated you will spend much of your existence running from meeting to meeting as dictated by your Outlook calendar, filling out forms in triplicate to have someone come and move your wastebasket, and having to delay your actual work to deal with crises like an 8-foot freezer that won't fit through a 7-foot door. Gentle needling aside, though, there are some really great student-focused initiatives on campus.
One of the coolest by far is Tedx Terry Talks (http://www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks/), or #TedXTt to call it by its hashtag (another campus change I've noticed - if you play word association and say "hash" you get "tag" back and not "pipe"). In its second year, this is a Ted-style conference (if you see "Ted" and think first of your accountant or your brother in law, please go to ted.com and be awed) featuring a few of UBC's most interesting and inspiring students speaking about something important to them. I was delighted to be a part of it this year as the alumni speaker, and came out feeling very warm and fuzzy about our world's future (I then saw peopleofwalmart.com and my belief in the impending doom of our society was suddenly and violently reawakened, but I was doing good for at least a day or two there).
Terry Talks emcee Dave Ng (also founder of the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique - http://www.scq.ubc.ca/sciencescouts/) edited a wonderful series of videos featuring this year's speakers (http://www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks/) which I encourage you to check out. Alexander Cannon shared the very personal and engaging story of his transition from female to male, Azim Wazeer took us on a tour of the many places and cultures he experienced growing up, Iris Amuto painted a vivid portrait of Africa's true and beautiful self, Tahira Ibrahim expressed her wish for all of us to just get along, and Camille Israel and her ukulele taught us how to fall in love with our major all over again. The scientists were well-represented too, with Jennifer Kaban encouraging us to keep a sense of wonder in looking at the world, Nadine Qureshi advocating simple measures for malarial prevention, Eric Ma explaining the world of synthetic biology and designing life forms from scratch, and yours truly talking about H1N1, open access, and sequencing poop (note: times may change, campuses may change, poop jokes, though - always funny).
UBC President Stephen Toope is another champion of student achievement. Three years ago, he resurrected the Blue and Gold Revue, which had been a 1950s-1960s-era student talent show with dramatic readings, skits, and polite young men with clean fingernails singing "How Much is That Doggie in the Window" a cappella. The 21st century version of the Revue highlights amazing student achievements, and this year's event, to be held December 2 (http://www.supporting.ubc.ca/revue), has everything from an interdisciplinary student-led clinic in Vancouver's most impoverished neighbourhood to the sixth-best moon-dust-excavating robot in the world.
You've also got great student-led groups like The Student Biotechnology Network (http://www.thesbn.ca/) and Young Women in Business (http://www.ywib.ca) working to prep students for their eventual release into the wild, and cross-organization events like Worlds Aids Day (http://www.terry.ubc.ca/index.php/2009/11/24/cool-event-ubc-world-aids-day-events-dec-1st-3rd/), for which a whole range of student groups have come together to stage a series of events December 1-3 (one of those groups is UBC A Cappella, who I'm pretty sure still have clean fingernails, though they may have dropped "Doggie in the Window" by now).
So, yes, the campus has changed, but it's certainly changed for the better if the accomplishments and engagement of its current students are used as a yardstick. The price of beer hasn't changed much, though, and I can now afford more of it, so with that I'll sign off, as I really must dash off to the Earl and Marion Peterson Family Relief Facility.
Tagged with
students,
columbia,
university,
changed,
british,
ubc,
extracurricular
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JENNIFER GARDY 
