UBC on CBC radio! (X2)

I’m always on the lookout for UBC-related news in the mainstream media. And today, since I had the scholastically inauspicious displeasure of being sick as a dog at home, I had lots of time to mope around the house listening to CBC radio and doing not much else. To my happiness, two pretty interesting stories came up about UBC.

• UBC Food Systems Project - Senior Instructor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems Alejandro Rojas was interviewed on the program BC Almanac by Mark Forsythe about this unique project. The project originated with the Faculty of Land and Food systems’ desire to build the study of the local food system, particularly using the UBC Farm, into their curriculum. Thus, AGRO 450 students now study and do projects to better understand and to improve UBC’s food system – of course, as a microcosm of the city’s food system, and the world’s food system as a whole. A variety of other organizations on campus collaborate in this somewhat hodge-podge investigation/effort, including the UBC Campus Sustainability Office’s SEEDS Program, UBC Food Services, the Alma Mater Society’s Food & Beverages Department, the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, UBC Waste Management, and UBC Campus and Community Planning. Dr. Rojas will be speaking on the topic of the UBC Food Systems Project at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue this Friday from 12-2 as part of the Imagine BC series there. I couldn’t find details on the site, but there’s contact info, and general info about the Imagine BC dialogues here (click!)for those interested.
  There’s a UBC reports piece here (click!) about the project too. Hopefully the AGRO 450 folks will have an official website in the near future.

• AMS Art collection – This one was on the BC reports news, or maybe the Afternoon Show (also on CBC radio, of course). Interestingly, a dime out of your student fees goes to maintaining and expanding a collection of art owned by the AMS. The collection used to be displayed regularly in Brock Hall and in the SUB gallery, but due to ebbing and flowing interest, plus the lack of secure gallery space around campus to display the valuable pieces most of them are now perpetually locked up in a safety vault away from culture-seeking eyes (taken out for airing a couple times a year). The original piece in the collection, Abandoned Village by E.J. Hughes was last appraised at $150 grand; the whole collection is worth between 6 and $800 000 at last appraisal (which was a while ago in the 80′s). But, two recent purchases to the collection of contemporary photography reflecting the changing landscape of BC have reignited some interest in the art collection. Anyhow, our AMS president, and the current AMS art commissioner both spoke very nicely, and it was good to learn about something totally new about the AMS on the news!
  An archive entry about the AMS art collection can be found here (click!)
  Also, have a gander here at an oldschool Ubyssey from Oct. 31, 1957 containing a little piece on the then newly-established collection (left column on 4th page)

It’s nice to see that some unique stories have been picked up by the mainstream media. Either this doesn’t happen too often, or I’m not home sick all that often, but there’s probably untapped potential for great communication between the mother corp, (and other media), and the AMS about our goings-on. There were only 5 official news releases written by the AMS (at least only five published to the AMS website) in this fall/winter session so far. That’s not great. Clearly student issues and innovative projects have currency, like in the two cool stories I heard today. Get on it Matthew Naylor.