UBC has Canada’s most successful Athletic program. Since the inception of the Canadian Interuniversity Sports organization, UBC teams have won 83 National Championships. Already this fall they have won 3: Women’s Field Hockey, Men’s Soccer and Women’s Cross Country.

A review of the Sports and Recreation Program was conducted in 2012, with the results and recommendations given to the administration. The newly hired Vice-President didn’t like the report and ordered a new one. She hired a new Athletic Director to conduct the review. The new director’s previous job was the CEO of Scottish Swimming and she is also an ”Ultimate Frisbee” player.   The concerns expressed by alumni, coaches, athletes and students are not that a review is taking place but they are alarmed about HOW is it is being conducted.

As Dr. Swain said, athletes and coaches are being left out of the process. The committee charged with deciding what teams will be dropped is made up 8 women and 2 men.

Sports writers in the Sun and Province newspapers have commented on what would have happened if the gender inequity were reversed.

The Vancouver sports reporters are having difficulty getting answers to their questions and complain that a process that was supposed to be “open” is in fact “closed”.   Rumours abound:

1. Women’s field hockey is vulnerable as UBC is one of only 3 schools in Canada West with a team. This team just won the Canadian Championship for the 3rd straight year. This is the team that Oliver’s Lesley Magnus [now Lesley Nostle] played for. Lesley then played for the Canadian National Team for 5 years.   2. Football. The Thunderbird football team just finished its 99th season. However, they only have 5 home games per season and the real estate developers desperately want Thunderbird Stadium for condos.[One female alum wrote that the administration at UBC spends too much time looking for real estate deals and not enough time thinking about the welfare of its students].

Over 2700 people from all over the world have signed an on-line petition objecting to this process. Many of these are among the alumni who have donated over 50 million dollars to UBC in the last 10 years.

In my own opinion the process is flawed in a number of ways. The people leading this review have little sense of the history and tradition of UBC.  The process has somehow become barbaric.

In a recent publication that ranked the universities of the world, UBC was #30. The only Canadian school ranked higher was the University of Toronto at #20–and who wants to go to Toronto anyway! Seriously, this flawed process should not be happening at a school of this caliber.

One final thought; right from the beginning, the Vice-President insisted this was not a budget issue.

Roger McKay