Creating a University: The Newfoundland Experience

by Roberta Buchanan, editor (Editor), Stephen Harold Riggins (editor)

Creating a University is a collection of memoirs by more than 30 former faculty and staff of Memorial University — a series of “MUNographies,”— about personal and professional experiences working at Newfoundland’s only university. It is something of a Memorial University family reunion, without a drunken uncle. In the years covered by this volume, primarily 1950 to 1990, few Memorial faculty were Canadians, let alone Newfoundlanders. These “come from aways” arrived in the middle of a post-colonial cultural renaissance, which saw a movement toward new interdisciplinary studies, and laid the groundwork for many of the programs and courses that are offered at the University today.

278 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, because I know, or at least know of, many of the people discussed, but did find myself somewhat puzzled about the topics covered. I would think a major part of the development of Memorial were (and still are) labour issues. The way the system discriminated against women is well-documented and rightly so. But what about the strikes and other labour actions?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I confess I bought a copy of this on impulse for $2 with no great hopes that it might be interesting. Institutional collections of memoirs can be dull and self-regarding. I did have some reason for optimism, however. For a start Memorial University sprung up in what I know to be a singular spot (I live in St John's myself) and hired in its early days almost entirely from the UK, largely people who had no idea (for better or worse) what they were going to. As a CFA academic who came here himself by chance knowing almost nothing about Newfoundland, my own story might have been written here had I arrived a few decades earlier. I also had a small acquaintance with a few of the authors, so morbid curiosity would have been reason enough to take a look.

Fortunately, though I have only glanced through it so far, it has not disappointed. There are plenty of entertaining asides and anecdotes. A newly-appointed French professor described his experience teaching first year university French in 1967:

I set about revising/teaching the present tense of donner. I wrote the six forms on the board (students had not yet had the chance to purchase textbooks) and pronounced each carefully, getting the class of 30 students to repeat. However, when I got to ils donnent, a student put up his hand and said I had pronounced it incorrectly, and proceeded to show me the correct way, as taught to him by his high school teacher: "eels donent," each consonant clearly and deliberately sounded. I was somewhat taken aback by this, and pointed out that I had studied French for a considerable period of time and had must spent the best part of a year in France. The student was not impressed by my experience, continued to mutter about my incompetence, and did not return for the second meeting of the class".

Even in the introduction - co written by Roberta Buchanan and Stephnen Harold Riggins (oddly missing from the Goodread Record), I was wryly amused to read, "Stephen learned from Roberta that his identification with the cause of feminism was more superficial than he had realized." Sick burn!

Lastly, I am now grateful to Ralph Mathews for pithily sharing his answer to why he became a sociologist, which I (a fellow sociologist) will shamelessly steal: "because I can think in grey".

I will share further entertaining bits and pieces as I come across them but suffice it to say it is a better than expected example of its type of text and I have already had much more than $2 worth of enjoyment from reading it.