Preserve and honour

It's Convocation Time at the University of Alberta and, as much as some people might think little of the tradition and the pomp and the colourful robes, one of my favourite things in the Before Times was going to the live Convocation ceremonies.

So much excitement from the grads and their friends and family. A symbolic connection to what's best about our institution's roots. And I also loved the display every year of the book donations to the Bruce Peel Special Collections from the U of A Senate in honour of each of the honourary degree recipients.

It's also why I love Rutherford South (not just because it's home to the Peel!) and the way it has been preserved and connected to the much newer Rutherford North, one of our main libraries and a physical embodiment of our history and traditions and the progress we've made.

At several key moments in our history, hard decisions were made to preserve and honour our traditions and history. For that, and the people that chose meaning over expedience, we owe a true debt for some of the things that are the most beautiful and meaningful and distinctive about our physical campus: Rutherford South, the Old Arts Building and Convocation Hall, Athabasca Hall, Pembina Hall, Assiniboia Hall, the Old Power Plant, Triffo Hall, the original Medical building, now Dentistry-Pharmacy. And also campus adjacent, Rutherford House, St. Joe's, the Old St. Stephen's Building.

Meanwhile, in my years working in Alumni Affairs and giving tours of campus, alumni would talk about their sadness at some of the changes to campus, like the Tuck Shop being torn down.

I get it, change happens. CCIS is beautiful and maybe the old Physics Building coming down was a fair trade. Likewise I will be sad to see the Admin Building come down, but okay.

But on this Convocation Week, do give a thought to the Ring Houses and the place they hold in our history and our sense of identity. With Rutherford House on the one corner and the Ring Houses on the other, they mark a physical sense of place as well as an historic one.

I look back on our history and I am thankful for the decisions that were made to preserve and honour. I hope future generations will be able to look back and say the same about the Ring Houses.