Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/609048
FALL 2015 simon 45 SFU.CA refuge or sanctuary or isolation. At SFU, the diversions of the off-campus world were inescapable: the people who worked and studied there spent the bulk of their daily and weekly time off the mountain— at home, at jobs, in recreation or otherwise. That was the pattern on a commuter cam- pus that emptied promptly after classes and became deathly quiet on weekends. It could be different at times if something of great note was taking place. But the intense stu- dent activism of the early years disguised the underlying fact that what happened on campus was just a part of a typical student's life, not the totality. This reality still affects life on the Burnaby Mountain campus, although somewhat less so than in the past. A recent survey of current students indicates that half of them spend less than five hours a week on campus outside of classes. That is scarcely two hours on any given day, which is barely time to eat lunch or snack or socialize and do a little studying or some quick library research. These students are not around for much else but their classes because, as they explain, they have other commitments, particularly jobs and fam- ily. One should add that some students say they do spend a lot of time on the Burnaby campus and their pattern is becoming more prevalent with the development of a resi- dential community on the mountain, east of the academic area. REAL ESTATE VALUES Over the years, the growth and evolution of the Vancouver metropolis has effectively repositioned the Burnaby campus. The mountain obviously does not move, but the main weight of population in the entire metropolitan area has shifted eastward, giv- ing the mountain a more central position. The campus is more accessible to larger numbers of students than in the past, and is served by a vastly improved transit system. And its real estate value has soared. More than 50 years ago, when Burnaby donated 1,000 acres to provide a site for SFU, a member of the Burnaby council described what they were giving away as wasteland, unfit for residential or commer- cial development. He was talking about mixed, second-growth deciduous forest on a mountain that had been logged off in the first decade of the 20th century and again in the '40s. And he knew that the grade on much of the mountain was too steep for residential building. The passage of 30 years since the Uni- versity's founding did little to enhance the commercial value of its land. But the past 20 years have brought rapid transit close to the base of the mountain and there is vastly more frequent bus service to the top. For that, one can thank Met ro Va ncouver's growth, and constant improvements to the main arteries that have shaved driving times to the campus. As a result, real estate agents can now advertise apart- ments and condos on Burnaby Mountain not just as scenic, close to nature, and quiet, but also as just 25 minutes from downtown, and accessible to munici- pa l it ies t h roug hout the metropolitan area. These residences are being advertised thanks to SFU's award-win- ning UniverCity real estate development, which is accomplishing three SFU objec- tives: bringing urban life to the moun- taintop, generating endowment revenues and providing a model for green devel- opment—environmentally friendly and water- and energy-efficient. Before the UniverCity development could go ahead, however, SFU had to repair a long-neglected relationship with the City of Burnaby. SFU's sixth presi- dent, John Stubbs, recognized this as a vital priority after he arrived from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. At Trent, the relationship he had known between town and gown had been close; but that was not how SFU and Burnaby had evolved. M iss- ing was the personal con nec t ion — f a m i l- iar it y bet ween Cit y and Universit y rep- resentatives—and as a consequence there did not seem to be much sense of shared pu r pose or mut ua l benef it. The campus and the City did not know each other. One can see it in the atti- tudes of council mem- bers and Universit y adm in istrators a l ike as expressed in their written exchanges and as remembered during recent interviews con- ducted by Continuing Studies Dean Joanne Curr y, who devoted part of a Bristol University PhD thesis to the subject. The relationship improved only when the Uni- versity recognized that it needed work. That recognition developed around issues important to both sides. CONSERVATION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT By the early 1990s, the status of SFU's thousand-acre grant from Burnaby had become a hot issue: so hot that Burnaby was asking the University to return 800 acres—80 per cent of the grant—represent- ing everything below the ring road around The UniverCity development has been the fourth great initiative in SFU's 50-year history. The first was to establish the University on Burnaby Mountain.