Issue #16: Fall 2006

Editor's Letter: Big change, good bubble gum and the new president

by Chris Petty

Nobody likes big changes.

Changes take your world, throw it in a black bag and give it a good shake. Sometimes things turn out to be much better than they were in the first place, but sometimes they don’t. And that’s the problem with change: you never know. 

My first experience with big change came at age eight, when I dashed down the street to my corner store, two bits in hand, ready to start Saturday morning with a pop, a chocolate bar and however many penny candies and pieces of bubble gum I could buy with the change (this was some time ago). I skidded to a halt at the front door: “Closed. Opening soon under new management,” said the sign in the window.

I made a lot of great memories in that store in my short life: the time an angry woman chided me for snapping my gum and blowing bubbles (“filthy little boy,” she said); the hot summer day I drank a whole bottle of ice cold Orange Crush in one, long pull; the time the owner, Mr. Chang, threw an orange at me because he thought I was stealing (I wasn’t). It was a great store, and probably made me a life-long shopaholic.

The next Saturday I raced down there filled with anxious anticipation, four bits in hand (the quarter from last week unspent), not knowing what would be there. I found my corner store with a fresh, new coat of paint, some nice new bins overflowing with penny candies and a smiling new lady at the counter. I sighed with relief and went straight for the bubble gum, which was now front and centre on the counter. Like all good change, it took what was good and made it better.

The arrival of a new president at a university is a few magnitudes greater in consequence than a corner store changing hands (though not to an eight-year-old), but the sense of anticipation is the same: what’s going to change and what’s not?

Professor Stephen Toope (he prefers that title to “Doctor”), is the new agent of change at UBC. Our profile of him in this issue reveals a deeply thoughtful and intelligent man with an overriding sense of justice and an abiding faith in the great potential of humanity. His perspective on our university is straight-forward: UBC will continue to build on its strengths, offer a world-class educational experience to its students and play a significant role in setting the educational agenda on the national stage.

It’s true that university presidents, like prime ministers or the presidents of large countries, don’t have as much power as we think. Too many other factors enter into the mix – already-established bases of power, governing bodies, elected officials – for one individual to be able to change absolutely an institution as tightly structured as a university. But, as Martha Piper showed, it is possible to create a vision that the entire institution can embrace.

Stephen Toope, with his experience at the Trudeau Foundation and his abilities as a leader, a thinker and a crusader for social justice, is the right man at the right time. With Trek 2010 as a solid foundation, he will build an astonishing university. Beginning with the Spring 2007 issue, Professor Toope will have a regular column in Trek Magazine.

It seems the store, er, I mean, the university, is in good hands. ¤

Chris Petty, MFA ’86 is the Editor of Trek Magazine