Geography at Simon Fraser University

Geography at Simon Fraser University Ro g e r H a y t e r Associate Professor and Chair Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6 T H E POST-SPUTNIK DECADE witnessed an almost frantic expansion ofuniversities throughout the western world, and it was in September 1965 that Simon Fraser University (SFU), including the Department of Geography, opened its doors to its first students. The planning and construction of the university had proceeded quickly. The provincial governmentofBritish Columbia hadestablished acommittee, chaired by J. B. Macdonald, the president of the University ofBritish Colum­ bia (UBC), and consisting largely of academics, to study provincial needs in higher education. Macdonald submitted his report in January 1963 to the minister ofeducation. It arguedthat the thresholdrequired to support an additional university within the province had been reached and that the most sensible location would be in the eastern suburbs of the Vancouver metropolitan area. Such a location, along with UBC to the west, offered university education to the area’s residents within a roughly thirty-minute commuting range and was accessible to expected population increases. The government accepted the committee’srecommendations and on May 9,1963, appointed Gordon M. Shrum as chancellor and authorised him to select a site and arrange for construction of the new university with all possible speed. The selection of the site involved 191 192 APCG YEARBOOK • VOLUME 52 • 1990 land manipulations between various levels of government and crown corporations. The final choice, at the top of the 1200-foot Burnaby Mountain, 7 miles to the east of Vancouver’scentral business district, provided a distinctive physical setting with a spectacular view. Indeed, and notwithstanding certain practical problems, the site and widely applauded concrete architecture have contributedpositively to the image of the university ever since. Simon Fraser was planned to complement rather than dupli­ cate the programmes offered by UBC. Apart from education and American football (which the board believed would make money and attract Americans), professional schools originally were excluded and emphasis placed on twelve core departments in the Arts and Sci­ ences, including geography. Moreover, the university was to be innovative, including the adoption of a trimester system to allow classes throughout the year and greater emphasis on tutorials as a method of instruction. A widely heard saying at the time was, “We may make mistakes, but at least they will be new ones.” Skilledpublic relations, the highly visible site, and the neo-acropolitan architecture drew much attention to the new institution. On opening day twentyfive hundred students, twice as many as expected, turned up, and Simon Fraser soon became known as the instant university. And the very first geography class (general geography 101) attracted over seven hundred students. This course was taught by Archie MacPherson , founding head ofthe geography department, and it should also be noted that his teaching assistants were the newly hired Michael Eliot Hurst, Ed Gibson, and Bob Francis! Archie MacPherson was appointed by the board of governors from among a number of candidates who had received recommenda­ tions from senior scholars invited to submit them. In MacPherson’s case Professor Wreford Watson, professor and head of geography at the University ofEdinburgh, was among those who had made the rec­ ommendation. Watson had made outstanding contributions to Cana­ dian geography beginning in the 1930s and taught summer school at UBC during the 1950s. MacPherson himself had taught summer HAYTER: Geography at Simon Fraser University 193 school at UBC including as recently as the summer of 1963 during which time, on a boat tour up the Burrard Inlet, Bert Farley of UBC pointed out to him the just chosen site. Prior to his appointment, MacPherson was senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where he had received his university education following war service in the R.A.F. Although he had taught climatology for many years, MacPherson was raised on (and ac­ cepted!) the ideas of the école vidalienne and firmly believed the elements of systematic geography contributed towards the central task of the interpretation of place and the human use of the earth. MacPherson was keen to distinguish geography at Simon Fraser in some way from the already large department...