Gordon Cobb

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Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices Gordon Cobb - 00:00
Thank you, great to be a part of this series commemorating UPEI’s fifty
years and I remember thinking the period 1982 to 1986 was such a long time
after the campus was established thirteen, fifteen, sixteen years in but
now I recognize I was part of the early history of a new institution. 1986
was my graduation year, Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Studies had been the
Student Union President for that last year, a great time indeed in every
way, earned a Commonwealth Scholarship to Edinburgh Scotland by virtue of
my work here and the great professors and great people here and I served on
the Alumni Association in the 1990’s.


Slide - Formation of UPEI - 0:53
It was fascinating to do my I believe was my Bachelor of Arts in Canadian
Studies dissertation, we called it, and I did do that piece of work and
it’s available here in the Library I believe maybe it’s in microfiche
but I’m not sure and the history there we’re saying fifty years,
we’re saying fifty years the institution of UPEI is formed in 1969 but of
course the main campus here had been the campus of St. Dunstan’s
University and a functioning higher education institution downtown was
Prince of Wales College on the Holland College campus so I did the work on
that period in the 60’s when the process of actually even before Alex
Campbell made a lot of earlier moves there was a process to form a new
institution to move on to a single university for PEI so I did, I did my
academic work in that and pretty glad to say that with the people before us
and in our time we were the ones consolidating that new institution and
that new kind of more secular more open environment at that time so it was
the academic work which merges with the social life and the people coming
in and put things in context I think we were emerging as a more tolerant
people and laying the groundwork for the society we are today at that time
I think that was really happening to be, that time, to be a Roman Catholic
date a Protestant or vice versa was still a bit of an issue so this is like
the university and the people here we’re a part of a period of social
change and of tolerance and getting along and I’m quite proud of that
I’m quite proud of being part of that era in our history here.


Slide- Growing Multiculturalism - 2:51    
I probably would like to stress some of the international development,
international awareness activity that was going on I think that’s
important to understand the roots of our current multiculturalism here on
PEI and the campus and the work of World University Services of Canada
I’d like to highlight people involved in that and the bringing of
refugees from Africa, Uganda I think that was a very interesting time and I
got to know the people who were coming in through that program through that
effort and it was the beginning of a transformation of a culture here on
campus and on the Island it was an interesting time.


Slide - Social Activism on Campus - 3:37
The movement against apartheid was active here at that time how different
the world then was the Eastern bloc was still a thing the Soviet Union,
Africa was in a lot of turmoil, South Africa was white domination rule and
so I on the council with quite a bit of struggle we managed to pass the
banning of investments and products here, I think at the time Carlsberg
beer the investment Kroger ran that kind of thing so we did that action
here so that was the 1980’s we were making an important action, I would
combine that with some work I’d done on the Ethipoian famine relief there
before on the other side of life this great campus even though wasn’t
incredibly multicultural, it’s fascinating to have the poeple coming in
from all the different high schools from around the Island meeting everyone
and so listen I don’t want to stress the alcohol component but the fun
component the group component would be while I was Student Union President
we launched the draft beer in conjunction with the old Abbey beer that was
produced on the Island at that time and some significant nights of
celebration, comraderie and friendships strengthened and yeah just the
party atomsphere we had and that was stand out for something I helped do at
that time which was to establish that and in the Barn, down at the Barn we
established the old long gone Barn, we established that yes, that’s the
memory, don’t remember it all but it was a good memory, good people.


Slide - Evolving Campus Life - 5:27
One of the big things that started and happened it was the beginning of the
big change was the establishment of the Vet College that had happened here
and then so by the time I’m back here on a regular basis as an Alumni
Board Member I think VP of Alumni at one time maybe but the Americans that
were coming to the Vet College and the people coming to the Vet College and
then things were beginning to change in terms of who was coming here and
who was being around here and the wonderful old liberal arts college that
was the core of this place still being preserved still strong and good but
the professional school and such being developed around the advancement of
Business and Engineering, you know jumping way ahead to the Sustainable
Design Engineering School so I guess in reflections I remember what we had
and appreciated it but I saw the origins of the change too so that’s kind
so in that social life of that experience diversity of people we’re
pretty fortunate for a small place to have so many, PEI being such a small
place to have such a diversity of programming and degree opportunities and
the mix of people that provide different goals, different dreams and
different visions and that was well alive and going and I enjoyed people a
lot were we socialized a lot, the Barn we adventured off campus in those
days Gentleman Jim’s was just over here, Trade Winds downtown, the old
avenues getting around to I think some degree trivia was going just a lot
of good enjoyment just in a city that seemed kind, I wouldn’t call it new
but kind of yet to really be born into a modern city, it was kind of a good
experience on campus off campus good interesting people good times that I
mentioned the draft beer of course that was a big change we had many fun
events too at UPEI many great bands in and what are some of the, Ronny
Hawkins being there I remember Platinum Blonde in the old rink, I remember
that night I was living in Blanchard then it was quite a party that night
at the rink. David Wilcox I recall him playing a lot of great bands it was
a great backdrop of music and the video world started my very early
university days Peter Gabriel shock the monkey all the wonderful stuff by
Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics and a lot of these British, second British
invasion, I remember that and it affecting fashion and culture here too
that was intersecting with us here as well so that was part of a rich
dynamic life at that time.


Slide - Academic Life at UPEI - 8:31
There were some great professors and there’s something and I’ll just
say it this way, there’s something beautiful in backwater and I’ve
learned this difference when I travelled and met other people that were, we
had, we were taught a large range of political ideologies and political
systems and our understanding we were very fortunate to have that here and
sociology and anthropology as well we were given a really good foundation
in social sciences here it was quite something the people that had been
clergy formally and mostly the Roman Catholic priests but they were very
well learned and well spoken and were great to listen too and talk too, I
remember hearing Latin being spoken around here it was quite an experience
the people that helped me in my program Canadian Studies and towards my
dissertation and such, I mentioned Andy Rob, Alan Buchanan and Vernon
Smithern and Bruce Holbrook, I mentioned all these people as quite
outstanding people helping me to think and write and set the course for my
life in the latter couple of years here at UPEI.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 9:53  
I think what we should all try to retain in life is to live in the moment a
bit and we’re far enough back in history that we kind of had to live in
the moment with no phone no device to tell you were to go who’s going
where what events are on you sort of had to experience it in real time so I
cherish that memory and I still try to live that way today and I just hope
that this place is still kind of like that even with all the gear and the
technology and the phones and devices and such that just to study and enjoy
in those days you didn’t get your knowledge from machinery devices you
had to pull every, every scrap of knowledge you had to kind of go get it
all knowledge was found knowledge Leo Cheverie at the research desk was a
big help of course a lot of but generally you’re still responsible to
find that you couldn’t just look it up in a Google search like that was a
fascinating time so you had to in a way work harder or more effectively to
live to gain knowledge to socialize you had to do it for real face to face
and I am thrilled to have been that kind of person everybody else here in
this community and I just hope that lives on because I think even with the
devices you have to find the knowledge and you have to find the friendship
and find the love find the joy in life and that should be the key part of a
university experience and a university memory and certainly is for me here
at UPEI campus and I just hope it’s still that spirit today.