Everyone loves a parade… float

As part of the U of C’s 40th anniversary celebrations we’re saying “Thank you Calgary” by hosting a new float in the 2006 Calgary Stampede Parade.

Titled “U of C. This is Now,” the 28 by 8 foot float will inspire more than 400,000 children along the parade route to consider the exciting, creative and fun opportunities that a university education creates, while reminding adults that education is a community asset.

Special features on the float include two nine-foot high children sitting on a rotating stack of books, whimsically dreaming of their futures. Five float riding children — ranging from 6 to 11 years of age — will be dressed in career costumes complemented by oversized props. Featured will be a veterinarian accompanied by a baby hippo with a bobbing head; a businessman with an energy windmill; a lawyer; an engineer holding his project designs and a ballerina stretching out on her dance bar.

U of C also plans to enter the float in this summer’s 2006 Capital EX (Klondike Days) and Lethbridge parades.

The float is a collaborative project that involves staff, students and external consultants.

And while we’re talking Stampede

Don’t miss out on a unique Stampede learning experience.

There are still spaces available for the University of Calgary’s one-of-a-kind Stampede course. This is a unique opportunity to learn about how the Calgary Stampede has influenced Calgary’s identity, history and culture. There are no pre-requisites, and the professor has real-life midway experience — she gathered her PhD research by working at a carnival.

The course focuses on the social, economic, political and cultural influences of the Stampede on Calgary and the province as a whole.

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Provincewide study to track gamblers’ evolving habits

Why is it that for some people, what begins as a harmless attraction to poker or VLTs can escalate into an unmanageable gambling addiction with potentially devastating consequences?

For the first time anywhere, Alberta researchers — from the universities of Calgary, Alberta and Lethbridge — are examining the habits of gamblers over the long term to determine how and why their behaviours change.

“The assumption is that gambling is generally progressive,” says Dr. David Hodgins, director of the University of Calgary’s Gambling Addictions Lab and one of the lead researchers in the five-year project. “And while that definitely does occur, we don’t really know how common it is or what the contributing factors are.”

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German organ dedicated to longtime U of C provost

Dr. Ronald B. Bond, the U of C’s provost and vice-president, academic is the namesake of a new German-built pipe organ being installed in the Rozsa Centre.

“I’m surprised and deeply moved that the University is recognizing me in this way,” says Bond, who has taught and performed leadership roles at the U of C for 33 years.

“It’s gratifying to know that this unique instrument, which will be a central feature for music at the university and will be used by countless community organizations, will bear my name. It’s also exciting to see that the original dream of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, which included a recording studio and a pipe organ, is finally being realized.”

Built in the North German Baroque style, the Ronald B. Bond Bach Organ is being installed in the Rozsa Centre over the next two months by the German builders, Jürgen Ahrend Orgelbau. An Inaugural Festival and Symposium is slated for September 22-30, 2006.

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30th alumni AGM installs 2006-2007 board

At the Alumni Association's 30th Annual General Meeting at Campus Fair on Saturday, June 17, the 2006-2007 Board of Directors and officers were installed.

Tamara McCarron returns for a second term as President of the Alumni Association. Joining her as officers are Chris Thomas as Vice-President; Rita Egizii as Leadership Committee Chair, Judith Hanebury as Strategy Committee Chair, and Dorn Smith returns as Chapters and Branches Committee Chair for a 2nd term. Dean Brawn and Tom McGovern will serve as Senate representatives, and Ian Herring will be the General Faculties Council representative. Brian Bass and Grant MacEachern are in the middle of a two-year term as representatives on the Board of Governors.

The remainder of the Board comprises of Paul Farion, Evelyn Guillemin, Dora Lam, Gloria Mak, Aaron Szott, Robyn Turner-Gyorgy, along with Christine Johns, GSA President; Emily Wyatt, SU President; Roman Cooney, VP External Relations; and Catherine Bagnell Styles, Associate VP External Relations.

Capturing the culture of dance

How do you archive dance? How do you capture the poetry of bodies moving on stage, the synergy of music and motion, and the creative artistry of choreography?

These are some of the questions professor Anne Flynn and faculty members in the Faculty of Fine Arts’ program of dance are asking as they start one of their latest projects—Looking Forward; Stepping Back—an archive of the choreographic history of the program of dance at the University of Calgary.

Using a $12,500 seed grant from the 40th anniversary special projects committee and connections with dancers and choreographers across the nation, Flynn and her colleagues hope to preserve our arts heritage.

“We’re losing a piece of Canadian living culture by not passing our work on to other dancers and artists,” says Flynn.

“Dance lives in the moment of performance, and one of its special characteristics is that it is ephemeral. But we need to find a way to record what we do, and pass it on to the next generation.”

Prominent artists such as Vicki Adams Willis of Decidedly Jazz and Denise Clarke of One Yellow Rabbit developed their choreographic skills while at U of C, and when Looking Forward; Stepping Back is complete in December, researchers will be able to study these early works in a more comprehensive way.

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Alumni aim to create a better place for kids

A couple of University of Calgary graduates are planning to start a new private school in Calgary. They’re not teachers; they simply want to make the world a better place.

Randy Sommerfeld, BFA’96, says the birth of his daughter, now 2, made him realize he wanted her to experience a different public school education than what he remembered from his own youth.

He says he knew he’d have to do something about it when he and his family moved to one of the city’s new communities. Although a school is scheduled to be built there within the next 10 years, the nearest school now will mean a 45-minute bus ride twice a day for his daughter.

“If we have to put that much effort into getting her to school, I want her to experience something amazing,” says Sommerfeld.

“I really want her to go to an extraordinary school. I want her to have a great life, and she can’t have a great life if all of her little friends don’t also have a great life.”

A practicing Buddhist, Sommerfeld contacted different organizations in the city to see if there was any interest in creating a school centred around the Buddhist philosophies of non-violence, compassion, generosity, integrity and self-discipline. The idea is generating interest.

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