UBC Reports | Vol. 48 | No. 12 | Oct.
10, 2002
This was their fourth time
This year’s Royal Visit was not the first the Royal
Couple has made to the UBC campus during the past 50 years
of The Queen’s reign. In October, 1951, the then Princess
Elizabeth and HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh arrived in time for
Homecoming festivities and watched their first Canadian-style
football game in Thunderbird Stadium.
In July, 1959, The Queen opened the new Faculty Club on
campus. The University took advantage of that trip to announce
the newly funded HR MacMillan Scholarship for graduate students.
In March, 1983, The Queen again visited UBC. Her Royal Highness
and Prince Philip visited several of the university’s
significant sites including the Museum of Anthropology, the
Asian Centre and the Health Sciences Centre Hospital.
Ground Crews Worked to Royal Deadline
Fresh paint and clean walls greet the Queen
By Kate Jobling
Despite the flurry of activity on campus during the past
few weeks, The Queen’s visit was treated like the visit
of any other dignitary or, indeed, similar to what is done
for congregation.
“We have not been doing anything that we don’t
normally do except perhaps moving up the schedule on the repainting
of the lamp posts and removing some of the more obvious campus
graffiti,” said UBC Facilities Manager, Doug Napier.
“We’ve also dedicated more bodies to working the
north end of the campus, which is where the Queen’s visit
to campus was focused.”
“Quite frankly, there’s not much we had to do
to the campus. The cleanliness of UBC grounds on any given
day is still much better than any public plaza in London,”
said Napier.
For many of UBC’s almost 40,000 students, the Queen’s
visit was business as usual. No buildings were shut and no
classes were cancelled.
Performers from Many Nations Entertain the Queen
Dancers, singers and Girl Guides part of the Royal Pageant
By Kate Jobling
More than 600 performers from 12 different arts groups celebrated
The Queen during HRH’s recent visit to campus. The performances
represented a number of nations including Africa, Japan, Ireland,
China, Bali and Canada’s First Nations.
Vancouver-area Girl Guides and UBC-based artists also performed.
But, it was the exotic acts that won the hearts of the campus
crowd. From the Musqueam Warriors to the Strathcona Chinese
Dance Company, fast-paced, high-energy music and dance ruled
the day.
The Masabo Culture Company, a group of traditional West
African performers, filled the air with driving rhythms as
they took centre stage and performed the Senoufo rite of passage
and celebration of a boy from youth to manhood through a leopard
mask dance called Boloye’.
Taiko drummers beat out their version of celebration as
Japanese youth from the Chibi Taiko group honoured The Queen.
The University’s Gamelan Ensemble performed a ceremonial
Balinese fanfare composed in a traditional welcoming style.
(The music was composed by UBC’s Assoc. Prof. of Music,
Michael Tenzer.) Hundreds of Girl Guides draped with flags
flanked the Queen as she made her way through the crowd in
a brief walkabout.
The performance ended with more than 250 chorale singers
– from the Magee Secondary Chamber Choir, the Mountain Secondary
School Choir, the UBC Choral Union and the University Singers
– singing a rousing rendition of Canada: This is My Home –
a patriotic piece that was composed and written for Expo ’86
by Bob Bradley and Brian Gibson.
HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh Meets Faculty and Students
The Duke briefed on West Coast environment issues
By Kate Jobling
While the Queen and crowds watched performers outside, HRH,
The Duke of Edinburgh spent some time in the Walter C. Koerner
Library meeting with faculty and students from UBC’s
Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability.
The Duke was told about the human impact on Vancouver’s
rapidly growing and expanding region through a presentation
on the effects of intensive agriculture, construction of impervious
surfaces and the subdivision of rural properties throughout
the Lower Mainland.
HRH also was shown a model presentation on the impact of
technology and globalization on west coast fisheries, which
predicts the effects of prolonged fishing on a particular
species and the consequences of other species groups within
the food web.
A third presentation focused on the coastal zone being transformed
by the invasion of exotic plants and animal species, which
has altered the natural ecosystem. The Duke was told that
some marine mammals are among the most contaminated animals
in the global marine environment.
The presentation included information about B.C.’s
coastal communities and how they are looking at economic alternatives,
including ecotourism, to replace their current resource-dependent
economies.
The Queen’s Dedication
Queen dedicates bronze book as a tribute to literacy
By Kate Jobling
During her UBC visit, the Queen unveiled a bronze book commemorating
her visit as part of the Royal Jubilee celebrations. The bronze
depicts the Jubilee Emblem, the B.C. Coat of Arms and the
UBC Crest and it dedicates the naming of a special room in
the Queen’s honour in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
The bronze book will be on permanent display in the room.
Ornamental Bronze Limited, a 75-year-old, Vancouver-based
company that specializes in memorial and dedication plaques,
created the bronze for the Queen’s dedication. The Company
has developed statues and projects for Vancouver City Hall
(the Captain Vancouver statue), the Gastown Clock, the Coat
of Arms for the B.C. Parliament Buildings in Victoria and
numerous plaques around UBC campus.
