By Nick Ubels (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 22, 2012
One of UFV’s inaugural programs, Continuing Studies, has found a new home in the heart of Abbotsford’s flourishing downtown district.
The UFV Clearbrook centre is 15,000 square feet of classroom, office, and meeting space located on the bottom floor of the Clearbrook library. The new setting boasts an additional 5000 square feet over the 35-year-old program’s former host, the Marshall annex. It also features space for UFV’s Applied Business Technology program and a number of classrooms set aside for university courses that might benefit from the Clearbrook centre’s proximity to important downtown locations such as police headquarters, City Hall, The Reach gallery and the library itself.
Continuing Studies director Cheryl Isaac said that the central location—complete with transit access, ample parking and close ties to key civic sites—will help UFV fulfill its mandate to serve the Fraser Valley community.
“Continuing Studies has had at its core a commitment to the communities our institution serves,” she said. “I think this will give us the opportunity to do more hands-on training.”
Project planners are hopeful that a diverse variety of UFV’s programs will be able to take advantage of partnerships with establishments in related fields. Eric Davis, VP academic and provost, said that he was excited about the potential synergies offered by the new space.
“You could run an upper level geography course in city planning and have students, as part of their course work, go and work in the planning department at city hall,” explained Davis. “You could have visual arts or art history students doing coursework at the Reach gallery museum.”
Speaking at the campus kick-off event on February 7, UFV director of campus planning Craig Toews praised the collaborative effort required to bring the new location to life. In addition to thanking the City of Abbotsford, the library, IT and media services and others for their contributions, Toews made special mention of the utility crew, who worked for 48 hours to overhaul a faulty cable system and help keep the renovation on track for start of classes on January 3.
“It’s a real testament to their dedication and the relationship we have with our contractor right now,” he said.
Despite its underground location, the Clearbrook Centre is bright and open, accented with blond-stained wood panelling and plenty of floor-to-ceiling glass frames to allow for natural light to flood into the atrium and nearby classrooms. Eric Davis called the campus, “beautiful.”
“The last time I saw it, it was a concrete cave,” he said. “It was just empty and concrete and dark. And a basement. It didn’t even feel like a basement when I was there yesterday.”
Abbotsford mayor Bruce Banman also commented on the aesthetic appeal, using the example of the friendship garden—a miniature park that served as the backdrop for the February 7 opening—to illustrate the value of co-operation between the City, the University and the private sector.
“The ideals signified by the friendship garden are the ones that bring us here today,” he said. “It represents the importance of partnerships and what can be accomplished when community members come together with common interests.”
Banman also acknowledged the vision of former mayor George Peary in spear-heading the project during his term. Peary received a round of applause from the crowd for his role.
“I get to stand up here and say hello,” Banman said, “but George is the one who did all the hard work.”
The move from the Marshall road annex resulted from a meeting between the former mayor and UFV president Mark Evered early last year about future plans for the University. According to VP Eric Davis, the library space opened up suddenly and fit well with UFV’s expansion plan, though he recognized that there are some disadvantages to a decentralized campus.
“Ideally, you want one campus with everything in proximity,” Davis said. “We’ve got a multi-campus institution and a mandate to serve the region, so we’re not going to change that.”
Davis said the combination of available space and an attractive location with high visibility were key factors in the decision to move forward with the Clearbrook campus.
“Right now, we’re kind of on the wrong side of the highway; you could live in Abbotsford and never drive or walk by the University,” he said. “We couldn’t be in a more high visibility location than in the Clearbrook centre.”
