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Table of Contents

Foreword ii

Victoria College Days 1

College in a castle 1

Early days of social sciences 1

On the move again 2

Early Days of UVic 2

Victoria College becomes a university 2

Our first building 3

Turbulent times 4

Faculty of Arts & Science Days 5

Evolving departments 5

To split or not to split 5

Puzzling attitudes 6

The divisions 7

New programs 10

Co-op begins at UVic 10

The era of microcomputers 10

Changing social context 11

Changing teaching and research expectations 11

Social Sciences Becomes a Faculty 12

The first dean 14

Space crunch 14

Social Sciences & Mathematics Building 14

Reflections 15

Bibliography 19

Finnerty Farmhouse (circa 1960) Original site of the Cornett Building

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ForewordOn the occasion of the tenth anniversary of our Faculty, I am delighted to bring you

this brief historical review going right back to the early days of Victoria College.

There is always the temptation to assume that what we have today has always been that

way, but history shows us that this is certainly not the case for social sciences at UVic.

Did you know that 36 per cent of our faculty members have been with us for less than six years?

I hope that those of you in this group are especially interested to learn how we became the

Faculty we are today; how the Cornett Building came to be; why our Economics Department and

School of Environmental Studies are not located in the Cornett Building; when various degree

program options started; and what the performance expectations were in the early days.

Some of you were at UVic as early as 1963 when the doors first opened. I hope that you, too,

will enjoy reading this history and that it will stimulate you to share with us your own stories

and insights that we can post on the website linked to a web version of this document.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank our Associate Dean Helena Kadlec, Administrative

Officer Wendy Major, Communications Officer Suzanne Smith, and Co-op student

Rosemary Collard for collaborating to gather all the facts and combining them concisely

to tell our story, highlighting some of the special events and unusual facts that

helped shape who we are today. I’d also like to thank a number of our present and

past faculty members who reviewed an earlier draft of this document, as well as Ken

Josephson and Diane Braithwaite, who provided design and editing support.

__________________________

Peter Keller

Dean, Social Sciences

Cornett Building, 2007

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Victoria College DaysIf you were a student wanting a post-secondary education in Victoria in

the early 1900s you had only one choice available to you and that was

Victoria College, the predecessor to the University of Victoria.

Victoria College, originally an affiliate of McGill University, first opened its doors

during the fall of 1903. At this time the college was housed at Victoria High School,

which was located at the corner of Fort Street and Fernwood. During these early

years, the college’s instructors were required to teach both high school and college

students. Teaching space was limited at the school/college, which meant that even

the principal’s office was often used for college instruction.

Victoria College students followed the same curriculum and were expected to

meet the same rigorous examination standards as their counterparts at McGill

University. The curriculum of the day consisted of first-year undergraduate courses

in English, French, and Latin, history, mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

College in a castleVictoria College continued to provide a first-rate

education to young scholars until UBC opened its doors

in 1915. At this time, a decision was made to suspend

operations at the “rival” college on Vancouver Island.

Political pressure and increased demand for post-secondary

education in Victoria, however, led to Victoria College

being re-opened five years later, this time affiliated with UBC and now located in Craigdarroch

Castle — a big step up from Victoria High School. Lectures were held in the Dunsmuirs’ dining

room and billiard room, with the fourth floor of the castle becoming the college library.

The curriculum, now dictated by UBC, was expanded to include first and second year

arts and science courses in English, French, Latin, or Greek, and first year courses

in mathematics and science. Four electives were also added to the curriculum,

and for the first time they included “social sciences” courses, notably in economics

and “philosophy,” which mostly consisted of introductory psychology.

Early days of social sciences The earliest “social sciences” course, Philosophy 1, was

taught at Victoria College in 1921 by Miss Jeanette

A. Cann, originally an English teacher at Victoria High

School. This first-year undergraduate class included two

hours of elementary psychology and one hour of logic.

Economics and geography were the next introductory courses added to the social

sciences roster. The first economics course was offered in 1924, but more than two

decades would pass before the first geography courses, both first and second year,

were introduced in 1947. Donald Kirk taught the first geography courses, followed

by Charles Howatson, who also offered an introductory geology course.

Did you know…?

…that while affiliated with UBC, faculty members “enjoyed” the same academic work week as their colleagues at UBC – 5.5 days per week with classes scheduled on Saturday mornings.

Did you know…?

…that Miss Jeanette A. Cann taught at Victoria College for 35 years without a single sabbatical.

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On the move again Rapidly increasing enrolments, mainly due to soldiers returning from World War II,

prompted another move for Victoria College in

November 1946 — this time to the Lansdowne

Campus of the Provincial Normal School (the

present day location of Camosun College).

While at Lansdowne the number of students at Victoria

College continued to rise, and by the late 1950s it

became obvious that even this location wasn’t large

enough. In 1957, the Victoria Chamber of Commerce

asked Premier W.A.C. Bennett “to establish a University

campus that could serve a student body of 2,500”

and “to take immediate steps to acquire adequate

property” (Gaddes, 1991, p. 45-46). At the same time,

the provincial government attempted to address the

space shortage at Lansdowne by adding the E.B. Paul

Building, but by the time it was built in the early 1960s,

again there wasn’t enough lecture and office space to

handle the growing enrolments. Eventually the lack of

room would lead to a final move for Victoria College,

this time to the present-day Gordon Head Campus.

Early Days of UVicBefore housing Victoria College, and later the University

of Victoria, the Gordon Head Campus was owned by

the Department of National Defence. The Canadian

government used this land during World War II as an

army base, which explains why some early classes taught

at the campus took place in refurbished army huts.

Following acquisition of the Gordon Head Campus

by the provincial government, an event to recognize

the official beginning of construction took place on

January 20, 1962 — one of the coldest days in local

memory. On this day Judge Clearihue ceremoniously

turned a lump of frozen sod near Finnerty Road to

mark the occasion — the Clearihue Building would

later be named in his honour (Smith, 1993, p.134).

Victoria College becomes a universityIn 1963, with construction well underway

at the Gordon Head Campus, the Universities Act granted Victoria College

autonomy from UBC and the University of Victoria was born. UVic’s first president,

Dr. Malcolm Gordon Taylor, was inaugurated on November 14, 1964.

Did you know…?

…that in the 1940s at Victoria College “[t]here was no requirement to do research…The emphasis was on teaching as it had been at UBC” (Gaddes, 1991, p.12).

Did you know…?

…that unlike our current merit-based system, salaries during Victoria College days were seniority-based, with annual increments of $125. To put this into context, in 1946 the annual salary of the first psychology professor was $2,400.

Did you know…?

…that Pierre Berton (1920-2004), a famous Canadian author and broadcaster, was a former student of Victoria College.

Did you know...?

…that faculty and students from social sciences still conduct research in some of the former army huts.

Did you know...?

…that Victoria College first started using computers for printing out financial statements in 1961. At this time the computer hardware filled the large basement rooms of the entire Young Building (Lansdowne Campus).

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With its newly minted university

status, UVic moved into a transition

phase. Over the next five years

programs and administrative units

gradually moved in stages from

Lansdowne to the Gordon Head

Campus. Sometimes faculty and

staff were relocated directly to

new buildings, but more often

than not they were asked to make

do in temporary makeshift army

huts (Smith, 1993, p.134). This

was also a challenging time for

students whose classes were split

between campuses, requiring them

to shuttle back and forth in buses.

Along with the Clearihue

Building, other new buildings

were gradually built, including

the McPherson Library, Margaret Newton Hall (the

first student residences), and Emily Carr House.

Our first building If you were working or studying at UVic in 1964 you

probably would have cheered when you heard of the

university’s plans to construct a building especially

for social sciences, including the Departments of

Psychology, Geography, Anthropology & Sociology, and

Economics & Political Science. History was the only

non-social sciences department to be housed in the

new building. This building, originally referred to as

the Social Sciences Complex or the Psychology and

Social Sciences Building, would later be named the

Cornett Building in honour of Thomas Warren Cornett,

a brilliant history instructor at Victoria College who, in

1924, drowned tragically in Shawnigan Lake in his 30s.

John Di Castri, a local architect, was hired to design the

new building with input from psychology and geography

faculty members. Original plans included a vision tunnel,

an auditory room, a polygraph room, a clinical area,

several experimental rooms for psychology, a geology

museum, a wall map storage room, a flat map storage

room, an air photograph library collection, and various

laboratory rooms for geography, as well as all necessary

Did you know…?

…that the Cornett Building was wired for high speed internet in the 1990s due largely to the efforts of the Geography Department. At one point the Cornett Building had the fastest internet access and most powerful processing cluster on campus.

Did you know…?

…that according to archaeologist Al Mackie the Lekwungen (Songhees) First Nation lived in a village just down the hill from our present-day campus for thousands of years. The Lekwungen believed that the site that UVic now occupies has considerable power and importance (M’Gonigle & Starke, 2006, p. 45 & 49).

Did you know…?

…that the Faculty Club started in 1968 in an army hut that was the Officers’ Mess, located near present day Campus Security. It was “pretty austere” and lunch offerings were sandwiches, tea, and coffee “sold by a retired Petty Officer [and] served from an army trestle table in the corner” (Milton et al., 1996, p. 106). The Faculty Club, now called the University Club, was relocated in 1984 to its current home in a lovely wooded area with a pond that houses turtles and several families of ducks.

Did you know…?

…that Mrs. Madeleine Cornett MacFarland, the daughter of Thomas Warren Cornett, lives in Victoria and has been donating to the University of Victoria since 1988.

Did you know…?

…that the two Tsimshian-style totem poles now located in front of the MacLaurin Building originally stood in the interior courtyard of the Cornett Building.

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offices, meeting rooms, and storage

rooms (Baxter and Associates, 1964).

The basement level included plans

for an animal colony, a workshop,

a statistics lab, and various kinds of

specialized experimental space.

But even the best laid plans change,

and by April of 1966 the original

1,657 square feet of net usable lab

space per faculty member had been

reduced to 878 square feet (Gaddes,

1991).

Despite a labour dispute that

locked out workers for most of

the summer of 1966, the building

was finished in time for the

beginning of fall classes and was

officially opened on January 28, 1967.

Turbulent times Coinciding with this time of major construction, the

University of Victoria began to experience student activism

on campus. During the 1965-66 academic year several

“radicals” of the day spoke at UVic advocating the benefits

of LSD and other “consciousness-raising” drugs and

encouraging students to engage in protests. Speakers included Richard Alpert, author of

The Psychedelic Experience, artist Stephen Durkee, and Jerry Rubin, leader of the Yippies.

During the spring of 1966 an assistant professor with the Department of Political Science

encouraged students to protest the “firings” of several English sessionals whose contracts were

not renewed. The students took him up on this challenge, causing major disruptions particularly

in the English and political science departments. At this time, large numbers of students also

demanded more participation in

the administration of UVic, claiming

that the administrators were too

autocratic (Gaddes, 1991, p. 183).

For better or for worse, this time of

student protest and dissent marked

a new era for UVic, as well as for

other universities in the western world

— things would never be the same

as they were in the early days of

Victoria College when students were

more “cooperative both in and out

of class” (Gaddes, 1991, p. 155).

Did you know…?

…that in 1966-67, the animal colony for psychology experiments was expanded to include monkeys. The colony also housed rats and chickens for psychological experiments.

Did you know…?

…that approval to do research with humans and animals was not required during the late 1960s and 1970s. Questions of research ethics were left to individual researchers and certainly social psychologists often used deception in their psychological experiments (Hoppe in Milton et al., 1996, p. 72). Today all research dealing with humans and animals must receive ethics approval by the Office of the Vice-President, Research.

Did you know…?

…that the potential punishment for the possession of marijuana in 1966 was seven years in prison. A female student majoring in psychology at UVic in the 60s was charged with possession, but received only a suspended sentence.

Did you know…?

…that in 1969, a female faculty member was asked to “give up” $1,000 of her $9,700 annual salary to help recruit a bachelor male faculty member.

Sign of the times…

…“Slacks for women did not appear on campus until about 1970” (Gaddes, 1991, p. 10).

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Faculty of Arts & Science Days During the early days of UVic, students enrolled in one of three faculties: Education,

Arts and Science, or Fine Arts. The Faculty of Arts and Science included the

disciplines of science, humanities, and social sciences, and 15 departments.

Evolving departmentsIn the late 60s and early 70s the combined departments, listed earlier, split off into

their own units, creating our present-day configuration. The Department of Economics

& Political Science broke off into separate departments in 1968, and five years later the

single Department of Anthropology & Sociology split into separate departments.

To split or not to splitA faculty as large and diverse as the Faculty of Arts and Science created some challenges, and

starting as early as 1967 discussions began about splitting up the Faculty into a number of

smaller faculties. When the topic found its way onto an agenda, however, heated discussions

usually ensued. Here is a sample of some minutes taken from one of these meetings:

UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

A special meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Science took place on 7 April 1970, beginning at 12:45 p.m., in Elliot 168, to consider the question of splitting the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Dr. Pearce spoke in favour of splitting. He referred to the projected enrolment of 6000 students in 1971 at which time the Faculty of Arts and Science would be too unwieldy. There is a continuing danger, because of size, of the Faculty becoming very impersonal. He thought that if the Faculty were split there would be a better hearing at the senior level and there would be greater freedom (though he thought Deans are hard to find because of the extensive experience necessary). He referred to other universities where Faculties are already split.

Dr. Rankin said that he had served only in universities where the Faculty of Arts and Science was split. He thought the University of Victoria was run mainly by a series of committees, which inhibits free discussion by individuals, and that most of the work in policy and decisions takes place in committees because of the unwieldy size of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He thought that with smaller bodies one could get an effective opinion-making body. Small Faculties are beneficial in that important matters can be discussed in a leisurely way.

Dr. Milton said he was very concerned about the shortage of committee members. There are now so many committees that there are not enough members to staff them. Over and over the same members serve on the same committees. A split into two would double the number of committees.

Dr. Jackson said he was reminded of theologians trying to resolve some theological point. Each has already made up his mind. He suggested ending the discussion.

Dr. Gibbons said that he disagreed with Dr. Jackson and that the discussion helps one to make up his mind.

Mr. Sullivan said if the Faculty were split one would need to know the advantages and disadvantages as well as the implications of the split. A lot of the members of the Faculty are still undecided as to what is the best thing to do. He said it seemed to him that Faculty members ought to talk about this at greater length before coming to a final decision.

On a motion by Dr. Friedmann, the meeting was adjourned at 2:24 p.m.

J.L. Climenhaga R. FerryChairman SecretaryRegistrar’s Office21 April 1970RF/np/mjn

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Puzzling attitudes Aside from the heated debates regarding

splitting up the Faculty, there were some

‘interesting’ opinions and attitudes about the

social sciences departments. One professor

who served on several arts and science

committees at this time described these

viewpoints in the following observation:

“Two puzzling attitudes were held by many of the

Arts and Science faculty on these committees

and shared by some senior administrators.

My use of ‘Arts and Science’ here is literal

and exclusive of Social Sciences. First, most

representatives of humanities and the sciences

appeared to believe that the social sciences

were hardly legitimate disciplines in a faculty

comprised on time-honoured arts and science

disciplines... The second, somewhat commanding

attitude, was that departments, and, especially

social sciences departments, are not to be

trusted. They can not be trusted to develop or

change their curricula and can not be trusted to

recommend properly candidates for promotion

and tenure. … It may be the case that the

relative newness of UVic played a role in these

attitudes...” (Hoppe in Milton et al., 1996, p. 74).

Tsimshian-style totem poles in the interior courtyard of the Cornett Building, mid 1960s

Did you know …?

…that the first dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, a UBC biology professor, died suddenly one month before beginning his term at UVic.

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The divisions In the early 80s, the disciplines

of science, humanities, and social

sciences became divisions, each

headed by its own dean with one

“super-dean” in charge of overall

Faculty responsibilities (for a list

of the deans of arts & science and

social sciences see Table 1).

The Social Sciences Division

consisted of the current set of

departments and, as is the case

today, each department was

overseen by a department head

or chair (for a list of department

heads/chairs see Table 2).

Table 1: Deans of Arts & Science and Social Sciences

Deans of Arts and Science

Robert Wallace (1963-65)Alex J. Wood (Biochemistry) (1965-67)Malcolm Taylor (1967-68)Robert Wallace (1968)Jean-Paul Vinay (Linguistics) (acting 1968-69) & (1972-75)John L. Climenhaga (Physics) (1969-72)Alfred Fischer (1975-78)Izzud-Din Pal (acting 1977-78) and (1978-80)John Money (1980-81)Roger Davidson (1981-84)Samuel Scully (1984-85)Louis Costa (1985-86, 1987-88, 1990-91, 1993-94)Alistair Matheson (1986-87, 1989-90, 1992-93)Edward Berry (1988-89, 1991-92)Ian MacPherson (1994-95)John Weaver (1995-96)John Schofield (Economics) (1996-97)

Deans of the Division of Social Sciences

Louis D. Costa (Psychology) (1984-96)John Schofield (Economics) (1996-97)Leland Donald (Anthropology) (acting July-Dec 1994)Alan Hedley (Sociology) (acting Jul-Dec 1998)

Deans of the Faculty of Social Sciences

John A. Schofield (Economics) (1997-2004)C. Peter Keller (Geography) (2004-)

© The New Yorker Collection 1981 James Stevenson from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

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Table 2: Department heads/chairs

Anthropology & Sociology (to 1973)

Roy Watson (1963-71)Donald H. Mitchell (1971-72)Elaine Cumming (1972-73)

Anthropology Elaine Cumming (1973-74)Donald Mitchell (1974-76)Orville Elliot (1976-79)Henry Warkentyne (1979-81)Leland Donald (1981-88)David Moyer (acting 1982-83) (1988-96)William Alkire (1996-98)Peter Stephenson (1998-01)Margot Wilson (2001-06)Warren Magnusson (acting 2006-07)

Commerce, Economics and Political Science (to 1968)

G. Reid Elliott (1963-66)Gordon Bertram (1966-68)

Economics Gordon W. Bertram (1968-71)Leo I. Bakony (1971-73)Leonard Laudadio (1973-82)Kenneth Avio (1982-86)John Schofield (1986-91)Malcolm Rutherford (1991-99)Joseph Schaafsma (acting 1996-97)Colin Jones (1999-2000)Joseph Schaafsma (2000-05)Donald Ferguson (2005-)

Environmental Studies Paul West (1990-2001)Eric Higgs (2002-06)Nancy Turner (acting January-June 2007)

Geography Bryan Farrell (1963-69)Charles N. Forward (1969-79)Derrick Sewell (1979-84)Colin Wood (1984-89)Mike Edgell (1989-99)Larry McCann (acting, 6 months), 1999-2000)Dan Smith (2000-)

Political Science Ronald Cheffins (1968-69)Neil Swainson (1969-73)Walter Young (1973-80)Mark Sproule-Jones (1980-81)Anthony Birch (1981-87)Howard Biddulph (1987-91)Jeremy Wilson (1991-94)Robert Walker (acting 1994-96)James Tully (1996-2001)Norman Ruff (acting July-December 97)Warren Magnusson (2001-03)Colin Bennett (2003-)Michael Webb (acting January-June 2007)

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Psychology William Gaddes (1963-67)Gordon Hobson (1967-69)Alexander Milton (1969-71)Otfried Spreen (1971-72)Gordon Hobson (1972-80)Louis Costa (1980-81)Michael Corcoran (1981-86)Ronald Hoppe (1986-89)David Hultsch (1989-93)Richard (Dick) May (1993-95)Pam Duncan (1995-96)Mike Masson (1997-2001)Nancy Galambos (2001-02)Catherine Mateer (2002-05)Elizabeth Brimacombe (acting 2005-06) Elizabeth Brimacombe (2006-)

Sociology Elaine Cumming (1973-74)Donald Ball (1974-76)Alan Hedley (1976-89)Morgan Baker (1989-91)Daniel Koenig (1991-94)Pam Duncan (acting 1994-95)Rennie Warburton (1995-99)Evelyn Cobley (acting 1999-2000)Zheng Wu (2000-01)Douglas Baer (2001-06)Zheng Wu (2006-)

Cornett Building, mid 1960s

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New programsDuring the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the Social Sciences Division/Faculty gradually added

programs, expanding its offerings. Some notable additions included the establishment of

the Environmental Studies Program in 1974 (which became the School of Environmental

Studies in 1997) and the introduction of co-op to the social sciences in the 1980s

(for a timeline of undergraduate and graduate programs see Figures 1-3).

Co-op begins at UVicIn 1976 co-op officially started at UVic. Geography was the first social sciences

department to offer co-op education starting in 1978, joining chemistry, creative

writing, math/computer science, and physics. The Geography Co-op program operated

independently from the other departments up until about seven years ago.

The Economics Department joined co-op in 1983, originally through their master’s program.

Sociology became part of co-op in 1994, merging with economics in 1997 to form the

Economics and Sociology Co-op. By 1998 all of the Faculty’s departments except geography

had consolidated into a Social Sciences Co-op, with geography joining one year later.

The era of microcomputersCoinciding with this time of program expansion, the Division of Social Sciences also led UVic into

the microcomputer era by introducing several dedicated microcomputer teaching laboratories.

These included a Social Sciences Computer Laboratory and the Department of Geography’s

Figure 1: Undergraduate programs introduced between 1970 and 1995

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Spatial Sciences Teaching Laboratories. The Social Sciences Computer Laboratory was eventually

closed in exchange for access to laboratories opened in the newly constructed Business &

Economics and Human & Social Development buildings. The Geography Department, however,

maintained its Spatial Sciences Teaching Laboratories and added a third that became the teaching

lab for the new joint undergraduate program in geomatics and computer science in 2004.

Changing social contextIn the early 1990s, hiring practices began to address gender equity issues, and

today women comprise 36 per cent of our regular faculty complement.

The social sciences have always contributed to the political and social issues of the day.

New empirical methods developed in the 1980s and 90s were not always appreciated by

everybody and sometimes brought partisanship and “political correctness” to research and

teaching. For example, in the early 1990s the Department of Political Science, the Faculty, and

UVic became polarized over questions about whether feminism was receiving adequate resources

and scholarly respect — some may remember this period as “the chilly climate” years.

Changing teaching and research expectations Over the years the balance between teaching and research has shifted. In the 1940s

and 50s a professor taught eight course sections per academic year. Beginning

in the 1960s professors were expected to teach six courses per year. Since then

teaching levels continued to drop, and today current teaching expectations are four

courses per year for faculty members who are actively engaged in research.

Figure 2: Undergraduate programs introduced between 1997 and 2007

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Figure 3: Graduate programs introduced between 1963 and 2007

Social Sciences Becomes a FacultyAfter 34 years, the Faculty of Arts and Science officially ended in July of 1997.

The decision was reached to split arts and science into three independent faculties

— Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. From here on, each Faculty would operate

under its own set of policies and procedures, setting the stage for what we have today.

By the time the Division of Social Sciences became an independent Faculty, it had grown

substantially and was home to 119 full-time faculty members, 30 full-time and part-time staff,

2,473 undergraduate students, and 290 graduate students (see Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7).

A few years after arts and science was divided up, the deans from the three newly

created Faculties finally moved into the building occupied by their respective

departments. In the case of social sciences, the Dean’s Office moved from the

Clearihue Building to its present day location in the Cornett Building (the former home

of geography’s map library which is now located in the McPherson Library).

Did you know…?

…that as early as 1963 some social sciences departments were already offering masters and PhD programs (for a timeline see Figure 3).

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Figure 4: Growth in faculty members Figure 5: Growth in staff members

Figure 7: Growth in graduate student enrolment

Figure 6: Growth in undergraduate student enrolment

Did you know…?

…that course releases for newly appointed entry-level faculty members began in 1989-90.

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The first dean The first dean of the new Faculty of Social Sciences was Dr. John Schofield, from the

Economics Department. Dr. Schofield remained dean for the next seven years and introduced,

among many other things, a variety of new programs, including the European Studies

Minor Program in 1999, the Indigenous Studies Minor Program in 2001, and the Geography

and Earth Sciences Major Program in 1999 (for more examples see Figure 2 above).

Space crunchBy the time Dr. Schofield became dean of the Faculty,

social sciences had already outgrown the Cornett

Building. During the 1990s, in order to free up some

much needed breathing room, the Economics Department

moved to the third floor of the newly constructed

Business and Economics Building. This move allowed

the Political Science Department to take over some of

the newly vacated space on the third floor of the Cornett

Building, with the rest taken up by other departments.

At this time, the School of Environmental

Studies was also relocated, but due to

space restrictions in the Cornett Building,

it was moved instead from the Clearihue

Building to the Sedgewick Building.

Social Sciences & Mathematics BuildingBy 2004 it had become clear that the

Faculty of Social Sciences was bursting

at its seams yet again and that space

was becoming a critical factor hindering

further growth. In late 2004, the university

announced its plans to construct a new

building for the Faculty of Social Sciences

and the Department of Mathematics

on what used to be Parking Lot D.

The social sciences units in the new building

will include the Departments of Geography and Political Science and the School of Environmental

Studies. Anthropology, psychology, and sociology, the three departments remaining in the Cornett

Building, will spread into the vacated space – a process referred to some at UVic as “decanting.”

Merrick Architecture, a local firm hired to design the Social Sciences & Mathematics

Building, is adhering to the sustainable mission of UVic. The new building will have

a green roof (planted with grasses and other vegetation) and native plant garden,

financed in part by the fundraising efforts of the Faculty. Construction of the new

building is well underway with an estimated completion date of spring 2008.

Did you know…?

…that during the 90s, Donald Mitchell and David Moyer of anthropology threatened to put up a rubber inflatable house (used by the department for field sessions) if they couldn’t secure office space for an incoming faculty member.

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ReflectionsIn July 2007, we celebrate the Faculty of Social Sciences’

first decade as an independent faculty. As we look to our

future, it is an opportune time to reflect on our past. This

concise history has shown that much has changed since

the Victoria College days, but what is also apparent is that

our Faculty’s commitment to excellence remains the same.

In its first decade, the Faculty of Social Sciences has grown in every possible way, and throughout

this time we have continued to strive to deliver the highest quality education to the largest

numbers of students on campus while enhancing our world-class research endeavours.

Back in the Victoria College days, the primary responsibility of a professor was

teaching. Today every professor is expected to maintain an active program of research.

To balance the research demands, the average teaching load of faculty members has

declined over the years while funding to support graduate students has increased.

External research support attracted by the Faculty has grown from humble beginnings to bringing

in substantial and highly competitive national and international awards. Today our researchers

are publishing in the most prestigious peer-refereed publications and are collaborating with

scholars across the globe. We count among us national and

international leaders of professional societies and journal editors.

Table 3: Research centres affiliated with Faculty of Social Sciences

Research Centre Year Open

Current Director

Description and Web-link

Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives

1987 Dr. Richard King

The objective of the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives is to expand and strengthen UVic’s links with universities and other institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. www.capi.uvic.ca

Centre for Earth and Ocean Research (CEOR)

1987 Dr. Rosemary Ommer

CEOR aims to initiate, foster, promote, and coordinate research in earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences. web.uvic.ca/ceor

Centre for Studies in Religion and Society(CSRS)

1991 Dr. Conrad Brunk

CSRS focuses on the scholarly study of religion in relation to any and all aspects of society and culture, both contemporary and historical. Its primary aim is to promote dialogue between religion and other aspects of human experience, especially concerning human values, knowledge, and technology. www.csrs.uvic.ca

Centre for Sustainable Regional Development

1991-1995

Dr. Stephen Lonergan (geography)

The Centre for Sustainable Regional Development was opened by the Geography department in 1991 and closed in 1995.

Did you know…?

… that our faculty members are currently active participants in twelve of UVic’s research centres (see Table 3) as well as many research groups.

Did you know…?

…that SSHRC was conceived 30 years ago.

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Centre on Aging 1992 Dr. Elaine Gallagher

The Centre on Aging works to advance knowledge in the field of aging in order to help meet the challenges and potentials of an aging society. Today this vibrant research centre supports several faculty members from geography, psychology, and sociology. www.coag.uvic.ca

Centre for Global Studies(CFGS)

1998 Dr. Gordon Smith

CFGS conducts collaborative, policy-oriented inquiry into the impacts of globalization on a broad spectrum of inter-related issues encompassing international governance and finance, the environment, security, and sustainable development. www.globalcentres.org

Centre for Youth and Society

1998 Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater(psychology)

The centre focuses its research on adolescent health and development from the context of community. www.youth.society.uvic.ca

Water and Climate Impacts Research Centre (W-CIRC)

2002 Dr. Terry Prowse(geography)

Research at the W-CIRC focuses on hydrologic and ecological impacts of atmospheric change and variability. w-circ.uvic.ca/english/index.php

Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture(PACTAC)

2004 Dr. Arthur Kroker (political science)

PACTAC is a collaborative interdisciplinary institute for advanced research on information technology, new media, and digital communication as well as for rethinking issues related to ethics and biotechnology. www.pactac.net

BC Centre for Applied Remote Sensing, Modelling and Simulation(BC CARMS)

2005 Dr. Olaf Niemann(geography)

BC CARMS aims to develop tools and processes that facilitate decision support for sector planning and economic development. BC CARMS establishes effective partnerships with industry, government, and academic sectors. carms.geog.uvic.ca/index.html

Centre for Addictions Research BC(CARBC)

2005 Dr. Tim Stockwell(psychology)

CARBC is dedicated to research and knowledge exchange about substance use, harm reduction, and addiction. carbc.uvic.ca

Institute for Dispute Resolution

(IDR)

2005 Dr. Maureen Maloney

IDR is an interdisciplinary centre focused on effective dispute resolution and alternative dispute resolution theory and practice. dispute.resolution.uvic.ca

UVic Branch Research Data Centre

2006 Dr. Doug Baer(sociology)

This Statistics Canada Satellite Data Centre, located in the McPherson Library, grants researchers direct access to the confidential microdata from Statistics Canada surveys. web.uvic.ca/rdc

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Table 4: Faculty of Social Sciences laboratories

Laboratory Faculty Description and web-link

The Bone Lab ANTH The Bone Lab contains several impressive collections of bones and the most complete collection of coastal fauna available between Alaska and Southern California.

Computer Labs ECON/

SOCI

Computer labs for mathematical and statistical modelling.

Spatial Sciences Research and Teaching Laboratories

GEOG Researchers in the Spatial Sciences Lab use geographic information science and geomatics to study a wide range of topics including coastal studies, oceanography, human and environmental health, aquaculture, community mapping, public participatory geomatics, cultural geography, forestry, criminology, and tourism. www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/ssl

Spectral Research Lab

GEOG Researchers in the Spectral Research Lab investigate the possible effects of human land-use and climate change on aquatic environments by exploring the interaction of light energy with inorganic and organic materials found in ocean water. www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/SPECT

Tree-Ring Lab GEOG Researchers in the Tree-Ring Lab study glaciers and climate change by examining the growth rings of trees. www.geog.uvic.ca/dept/uvtrl/uvtrl.htm

Whale Lab GEOG Researchers in the Whale Lab conduct long-term studies of the interactions between gray whales, zooplankton, and other aspects of the marine environment on the west coast of Vancouver Island. www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/whale/wrlmp.html

Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Lab

PSYC Researchers in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Lab use state-of-the-art brain recording equipment to study the relationships between perception and neurological processes in the brain. web.uvic.ca/psyc/braincoglab

Human Interaction Lab

PSYC Researchers in the Human Interaction Lab use video equipment to record several people at once so that they can analyze their verbal and non-verbal behaviour frame by frame.

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Students continue to be our greatest asset. We are very proud of our undergraduate and graduate

students. They have reputations for excellence in disciplinary knowledge, and surveys of their

employers have shown that they are widely respected for their critical thinking, oral and written

communication skills, team work, investigative skills, and abilities to continually learn and adapt.

These student qualities are in no small measure due to the Faculty of Social Sciences’ avant

garde stance toward teaching and learning. We have developed creative solutions over the

years to address our inevitably growing class sizes and changing student expectations. The

Faculty continues to explore and implement a vast array of new teaching methods, including

reaching out to those who wouldn’t normally consider attending a university for social and/or

economic reasons through a unique course, UNI 102. We also continue to strive to bring research

into the classroom to reconfirm the integral connection between teaching and research.

It is hard for many of us to imagine that at one time not so long ago social sciences only

existed as a few electives offered from a classroom at Victoria High School, when today

undergraduates in our Faculty make up close to one-third of all undergraduate students

graduating from UVic. The enormous growth that our Faculty has experienced over the years

is truly inspirational. We owe a tremendous debt to the early faculty, staff, and students

who blazed the social sciences trail for us, and in many ways this report is a tribute to

them. We genuinely thank them. We also very warmly welcome our newest members who

will be the leaders of tomorrow. So much has been achieved, so much more to be done.

We hope that you enjoyed reading this Concise History of Social Sciences

at UVic as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you.

Artists rendering of the new Social Sciences and Mathematics Building showing vegetated green roof

Merrick Architecture and Ken Josephson

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1964-1966. Unpublished term paper written for HA468, University of Victoria.

Department of Geography (1994). Internal Review Report. Victoria:

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Edgell, M., Wood, C., Sewell, D., & Forward, C. (1990). Geography at the University of

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Tryk, H.E., Hoppe R.A., & Gaddes, W.H. (1996). The history of the Psychology

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Smith, P.L. (1993). A multitude of the wise: UVic remembered. Victoria:

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1966. MacPherson Library Archives, University of Victoria, BC.

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