Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/609048
FALL 2015 simon 7 SFU.CA A short 50 years—a blink in the great sweep of time—has been long enough for our Vancouver region to become among the world's most beloved and admired places. People want to live, learn and build here—and Simon Fraser University exemplifies what can be accomplished over five decades of aspiration and application. In the optimistic hub that was British Columbia in the early 1960s, then-premier W.A.C. Bennett recognized the need to increase and diversify B.C.'s post-secondary offerings and, especially, to make an excellent university education more readily available to citizens across more of B.C.'s geography. To that end, Bennett's delegate, and the founding chancellor of SFU, Dr. Gordon Shrum, surveyed the options and settled on Burnaby Mountain, a location considered appropriate for its centrality and for its "unsurpassed grandeur." Dr. Shrum helped to choose the architects, Arthur Erickson and Geoff Massey, who proposed a radical departure from the traditional university separated into various faculty silos. Instead, they offered a built form that encouraged interdisciplin- ary interaction and cooperation, an innovation that was decades ahead of the rest of the academic world. The design wowed both aesthetically— consider the stark classical beauty of the Academic Quadrangle—and functionally—one example is our vast and much-enjoyed covered mall, which The New York Times architecture critic of the day hailed as "an exercise in togetherness." SFU now extends that early sense of togeth- erness across three campuses, from downtown Vancouver to Surrey's growing City Centre. And 2015 finds us as committed as ever to our founding vision: to nurture an educated popula- tion, bolster a healthy society, and contribute to a prosperous economy. How proud and excited we are to be marking our first half-century, and with what pleasure, hope and purpose we look forward to the years ahead. Anne Giardini, Q.C. Chancellor WORDS FROM THE CHANCELLOR