Some things change, and some things remain constant, sort of (190/365)

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July 9, 2015 – I was out to UBC today for a meeting with an undergraduate thesis student in the Animal Welfare program; she has been corresponding with me for about a year on a research project. She sends extremely detailed, and very long emails to me, and I tend to try to respond in a similar manner. But her latest one last week was complicated and involved trying to describe how she is analyzing video of fish being exposed to euthanizing doses of various anaesthetics. In the end I offered to come out and look at the video footage with her as I thought it might be less complicated. It was a fun meeting with the student and her supervisor and it took me for a little trip down memory lane.

I have a history at UBC spanning, with only a one year break, 26 years.

(Seeing that shocks me!)

I came to UBC as an undergrad in 1989, entering into third year in the short lived Aquacultural Sciences Program. It was an interdisciplinary program that included crossover coursework between Oceanography, Zoology, Botany, Animal Science, Bio-resource Engineering, and probably some others I can’t recall. There was even a couple of months out at Bamfield Marine Station doing some practical summer work and some incredible field time.

When I finished my undergraduate degree in 1991, I went to work in the hobby aquarium industry for a short stint, that was my one year away from UBC.

In 1992 I was accepted into the graduate program in a lab focused on fish physiology, my area of study was immunophysiology as it related to novel vaccines used in aquaculture. I finished my Masters program in 1995 and hung out for a couple of years as a technician in the same lab until I succumbed to amnesia and thought another degree would be a great idea. I equate it to the endorphins that cloud the memories of mothers who have more than one child 😉

I started my PhD in 1998 and finished that monster up in 2004.

I am still associated with UBC, although I don’t go out there that often anymore. Around 1994 I started teaching a couple of Distance Education courses and over the years took them from paper based correspondence classes to online classes that provide far greater feedback and interaction with students. Somewhere in there I took on a third course, even though I was teaching at another educational institution full time.

Even though I have never had an interest in being a full time faculty member at UBC, 21 years later I am still teaching Distance Education courses for the University. I guess that’s kinda cool.

And over all of those years, so many things have changed so significantly, just look at that 18 storey tower being built behind my old building, on the spot I used to park!

….and yet the iconic “E” remains….

The cairn sits on the grassy boulevard outside the building I spent so many years doing my graduate work in. It is the Engineer’s mark on the University, although many other students from different faculties regularly repaint it with their own letter. Today I could see that it had been freshly repainted, although I could still faintly see a “B” outlined.

Ah…good for them…I am going to assume it was Biology students that defaced it. Well done!

I have seen the cairn in so many states. I’ve seen it painted with a blue “N” (Nursing), a green “B” (Biology), and many times it’s been the letter “F” for Forestry. I’ve seen a naked student bound to it with silver duct tape. And I’ve seen it reduced to rubble and rebuilt promptly.

So to make a visit to my Alma Mater and see this familiar structure among all of the new construction makes me smile and feel at home.

It’s like an old friend.