April 27, 2005

Vancouver Sun Article on Universities letting more students in

I quickly skimmed through an article in today's Vancouver Sun entitled "Ivory Tower Opens its Doors", which appeared to be about how the big Universities in BC are dropping their admission requirements and letting more students in. The article didn't seem to say that there probably isn't any more room for these students than there were before. However, since the current Liberal government lifted the tuition freeze more and more of a University's income comes from students, so fiscally they need to bring in more students if they want more money. Not that this means they will add more resources to handle this influx of students. In fact it seems that UBC is more interested in building private housing and retail spaces than improving the infrastructure of the academic core of the institution. I could rant on about this for much longer but this is enough for now.

Posted by bforsyth at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

UBC Architectural Contest

If you are a UBC student, alumni or staff member I encourage you to vote in the University Boulevard Architectural Competition. Once you log in you will be able to view the three finalists. You can see them here without having to log in.

I was on campus today and checked out the presentations in the Belkin art gallery. Team A's entry looks nice but it does too much and I have questions about the long term maintainability of the covered area and the stream between East Mall and Main Mall.

I voted for Team C because it is the only one that doesn't treat the underground bus loop as a dungeon and it felt like the least offensive entry. The buildings are a bit boxy but they don't seem like they are as invasive as the other teams' buildings.

Posted by bforsyth at 03:42 PM | Comments (1)

April 03, 2005

Walkin'

Just over a year ago Sarah and I wrote from Cordoba, Argentina about what we had been up to in Buenos Aires. One of the things we wrote about was a guy that we met in our hostel that was walking from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. Well today we were showing a friend our trip pictures and we got to talking about this guy and I finally managed to find his website, http://www.ianwalk.com. He is still taking his time and is just about in Peru (as of his last update) after 2 years on the road.

Posted by bforsyth at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)