1969

We're growing up...sort of
Ed Wong is the fist alumni newspaper editor
The university is taking on more institutional trappings. The first SFU newsmagazine is born. Editor Dennis Roberts says it "intends to be completely above any campus politics. " And the first alumni newspaper, the Bridge, comes out with Ed Wong as editor and Gordon Hardy as copy editor.

Women's issues are in the forefront. Yet the Peak still uses the headline "I enjoy being a girl" for an interview with women's caucus member Pat Hoffer. And university librarian D.A. Baird tells a woman librarian he is interviewing that "of course you'll never be a department head because women do not have that special mechanism that men have which enables them to get along with other women even if they don't like them."

Politics, politics
A trusteeship is imposed on the PSA (Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology) department and students go on strike. It is reported there are at least seven plainclothes RCMP on campus spying on the student dissidents. Ken Strand becomes president of the university. The environment becomes a hot topic. SPEC, then called the Society for Pollution and Environmental Control, is concerned about air and water pollution and the need for organically grown food.

Too many students, too few spaces
In the spring semester, the university reports an enrolment of 5,500 students. And more than 700 of them apply for the 335 vacancies in the education faculty's professional development program.

1987

The cuts sound familiar

Under the headline "Interesting bunch? " young Liberal president Christy Clark says she wants to show non-Liberals that "we're not dull." You can say that again!

First woman chancellor
Chancellor Barbara Rae
Barbara Rae is the first woman SFU chancellor. Under her watch the university launches the Bridge to the Future campaign, an aggressive five-year strategy to raise private funds for special projects. Money is brought in for endowed professorships, more student scholarships, and the expansion of university facilities downtown. Sam Belzberg heads the fundraising campaign.

Signs of the times
The first sexual harassment policy is proposed and implemented. New smoking regulations get a spring airing and become policy in the fall. Another indicator of stress is the opening of the SFU crisis line. And SPEC, now the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, is appalled at plans for a hazardous waste disposal plant in the B.C. Interior. aq

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