It took vision, creativity, and leadership to launch an "instant university" on Burnaby Mountain in 1965, and those same ingredients have shaped Simon Fraser University's development in the 40 years since. Today, with enrolment topping 25,000 - ten times the original number of students - SFU enjoys a solid reputation as one of Canada's leading universities.

From the outset, SFU's founders envisioned a distinctive institution. With its commitment to academic freedom and unfettered research; to interdisciplinary research and teaching along with innovative programming, pedagogy, and practices; and to community engagement, SFU was radical by design. This vision was radical not in the loose political sense of extremism, but in the dictionary sense of commitment to fundamentals, to progressive social reform, and to innovation.

It took creativity of the highest order to shape SFU's core campus on Burnaby Mountain. Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey created an iconic signature - an enduring monument to the idea of the university in the modern world. Still stunning in their modernity, these buildings echo the classical traditions of Greek, Mayan, and Mogol architecture, and anticipate the best of post-modern architecture today.

The logic and innovation of SFU's architecture reinforced creativity in academic planning. Among its many firsts, SFU offered the first three-semester full-year university program in Canada, the first requirement for tutorial instruction in all undergraduate courses, and the first Canadian athletic program to be involved in intercollegiate competition in the U.S.

Creativity also spawned new interdisciplinary programs such as the highly successful schools of kinesiology, criminology, communication, resource and environmental management, and contemporary arts. Creativity launched a library that overcame the limitations of collections in a new institution by developing the most advanced technology-based systems linking students and faculty to information resources around the world. And creativity drove innovative responses to the community, such as creating satellite campuses to serve downtown Vancouver and Surrey.

SFU's engagement in the community now extends to our partnership in the Woodward's redevelopment, Canada's most significant urban revitalization project. And our commitment to innovation extends internationally, marked most recently by the establishment of a dual degree program offered to Chinese and Canadian students studying at SFU and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

New programs and research centres reinforce SFU's reputation in interdisciplinary fields such as materials science, bioinformatics, cognitive and neuroscience, mathematics and systems research, interactive arts and technology, international studies, global asset and wealth management, international education, public and population health, biomedical technology, and medicinal biochemistry.

SFU's legacy of radical creativity has always been grounded in the highest standards of scholarship: the sine qua non of acceptable change in higher education. SFU consistently ranks as one of the best comprehensive universities in Canada, reflecting above all the quality of our faculty members and their scholarship. It also ranks in the top five Canadian universities for the number of grants per full-time faculty member awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

In all, there is much to celebrate during this 40th anniversary year. As in the past, the continuing realization of SFU's distinctive place in the academic world will require leadership in addition to vision and creativity. And here too, we must rely on SFU's recovery of the best traditions of the university.

SFU is not a university that apes the corporate style of the annual general meeting as a facade of accountability. Rather, it is one in which the ancient traditions of governance have been revitalized by the fullest participation of faculty, staff, and students. This decentralized system has been inclusive and effective and has been widely accountable, meeting the most demanding requirements of government and professional accrediting agencies.

Because of demographic trends, half the staff employed at SFU by 2010 will have joined the university in this decade. It is therefore vital they embrace the same vision, creativity, and responsibility for leadership that has built the legacy they inherit. And because nothing succeeds like success, I have no doubt they will. Happily, we are recruiting men and women of exceptional quality to build the university of the future - testimony to the appeal of this very distinctive university. Long may it be so. aq

print this story
top of page