UBC Reports | Vol. 49 | No. 1 | Jan. 2, 2003

IN THE NEWS

Highlights of UBC Media Coverage in December 2002.

Compiled by Brian Lin

Freddie Wood alumni speak up

At the UBC theatre school 50th anniversary gala reunion, alumnus John Gray told the Toronto Star that “UBC empowered us, at a time when few other theatre schools were willing to take chances.”

“To the people we met here, theatre really mattered,” said actress Nicola Cavendish. “It made us feel that it was the best, the bravest, the finest thing you could do with your life, and I’ve carried that feeling with me ever since.”

Harcourt injured in fall

Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt was saved from almost certain death by his wife, Beckie, after he fell eight metres down an oceanside cliff and into frigid water.

Harcourt, who once played for UBC’s basketball team, fell from the deck to the ground, and then tumbled a few metres to go over an eight-metre cliff outside his cottage, overlooking the Strait of Georgia.

Harcourt served as B.C.’s premier from 1991 to 1996, and for three terms was mayor of Vancouver, from 1980 to 1986, following four terms as Vancouver alderman, from 1972 to 1980.

He is a senior associate of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC and a senior associate with the Sustainable Development Research Institute at UBC. His son, Justen, is a recent graduate of UBC.

Ontario to turn away students

Plagued by the double cohort, Ontario universities are reluctantly considering turning away qualified students from outside the province.

Universities used to give special priority to provincial high school graduates, but admissions policies have shifted over the years to recognize transferability and encourage diversity.

“The question is, do we want to get back to more parochial places,” UBC education studies prof. Bill Bruneau told the National Post.

Romanow report

The release of the Romanow commission report on Canada’s health care system sparked wide discussion on the future of health care.

UBC health-care economist Steve Morgan told Global that “on the whole [the report] is a move in the right direction. The key now is to establish federal and provincial co-operation to make sure that changes do take place, to make sure that we have new programs for pharmacare, home care, and new diagnostic equipment,” said Morgan. “If we can get co-operation between the provincial governments and the federal government, this program could significantly improve the health-care system for Canadians.”

UBC attractive to international students

With a cooling climate toward immigration in the United States, UBC may become even more attractive for undergraduate
international students in the next few years.

“There is going to be a significant increase in the number of international students coming to UBC,” Don Wehrung, director of the UBC International Students Initiative told the Canadian University Press.

Wehrung said he expects the average number of international student enrolments at UBC to grow from the current 27 per cent per year to as high as 35 per cent in the next few years.

Americans stumped by survey

A new survey released by Leger Marketing found only eight per cent of 1,500 adult Americans named Jean Chrétien when they were asked to identify Canada’s prime minister.

Five per cent gave other answers, including Pierre Trudeau, who died two years ago after last being in power in 1984, while a whopping 86 per cent said they didn’t know or refused to answer.

UBC Political Science professor Colin Campbell told the Toronto Star he’s not at all surprised by the findings. “I think Canadians are much more citizens of the globe than Americans are, and I think they’re much more attuned to their own nation than Americans are,” Campbell said.

Seahorse protected

Thanks to UBC marine conservation scientist Amanda Vincent, the seahorse has become the first marine fish genus to have its trade regulated internationally.

At the recent Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species in Chile, three-quarters of all the signatory nations in attendance voted to place all 32 species of the seahorse on its Appendix II list. Previously, no fish species had ever been accorded such protection.

“There’s an opinion that marine fish cannot go extinct,” Vincent told the Vancouver Sun. “A lot of conservationists make the mistake of believing that when a species has been listed, it’s a victory. It’s not. The victory comes when we can go to the signatory nations and say the issues have been addressed and the problems solved.”