Foresight: UBC’s annual report; AGM today!

UBC, over the last several years, has adopted the practice of holding an Annual General Meeting, to coincide with the release of its annual report. The AGM is happening today at 12:00-1:00, in downtown Kelowna. It is being broadcast live (at 12:00) in two ways so that we can watch it too:

• At the Michael Smith Labs room 200 [map]
• On the website, http://www.ubc.ca/agm/

This year’s report, “Foresight” is a short, spiffy, and readable document outlining the major accomplishments and programs at UBC in the past year. You can read it HERE. The report is structured around the personal narratives of individuals, who are featured in attractive colour photos on half the pages. Summary graphics of finances, donors, and sustainability targets constitute the remained of the report to complete a gushing profile of our illustrious institution. I learned about a few new things from the report. For instance , there’s a new fancy rowing facility in Richmond for varsity athletes. There’s a new Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution, funded by a $7 million investment from the Tula Foundation, being headed up by Patrick Keeling, who does awesome research on understudied protists. (This is especially cool, since most types of microbes are almost completely unstudied). Anyway, the report supplies an optimistic, incomplete glance at the positive accomplishments at UBC. By looking briefly at the financial summary page, you’d have no idea about the recurring structural deficit.