Douglas College Memories 1970 - 2000 A lot can happen in 30 years. Friendships are forged, love is found, lost lives are grieved and ‘memories are made. It’s the same at Douglas College. In our 30 years of building futures, we've also built a lifetime of memories. Here, we've collected just a few to share with you. If you have a special memory of Douglas College that youd like to share over the next year, please give usa call at 5325 and let us know. We'd be happy to pass it along. A Douglas College love story Bruce and Helen Clarke met on Helen's first day of work in 1971 when Douglas College was housed in trailers at 8" and McBride in New Westminster. “I was working in the library and Bruce was a student assistant,” says Helen. “We worked together for a while and then had our first date in August of 71, the same day as the Gastown riots!” Two years later they were married. Love wasn't the only thing blooming at the fledgling college. “The trailers were very leaky and horribly damp,” says Bruce. “In the summer they were saunas and in the winter they were freezers. And the mice! The mice were everywhere! You'd throw an apple core into the garbage and you'd hear this wild scurrying from the angry mouse youd just hic!” The trailers, however, were a big improvement on the locations chosen for the first month of classes in 1970. “You had to be really determined to get an education at Douglas College,” chuckles Bruce. “T had classes in Queen's Park arena, in church basements in Surrey, pretty much everywhere. Getting to class was like being ina car rally — you'd get your list of classes and then the race was on to find them. Quite often you'd get there and the instructor would say ‘Is this Tuesday? I’m not supposed to be here on Tuesdays, I’m supposed to be in Richmond! and off they'd go.” But, as Bruce says, “the adversity bred a camaraderie that normally wouldn't exist. We were all just kids, really. Almost everyone was under 30. We all knew each other — and the students — by » name. It was more like camp than college, at times. Baseball games in the quad that stretched beyond lunch hour, marshmallow roasts over cans of Sterno — it was all part of the Douglas College charm. But when work had to be done, My supervisor and I pulled into the parking lot one afternoon to see Bruce and the other staff through the poly, working away and not acknowledging that most of the building was missing.” A lot has changed in 30 years, but some things always remain the same. “There’s never been a time that I remember where we haven't been fighting over budgets,” says Bruce, “and there have always been more students than seats.” Bruce and Helen Clarke were the winners of a trip raffled off during the College's 20th Anniversary celebrations. Here they pose on the Star Princess cruise ship before attending the Captain's Dinner. “This proves to everyone in the College that Bruce everyone pitched in and Bruce Clarke has worked at did whatever it took. Douglas College for 26 years and is presently a Media “There was the time that Maintenance Technician in we were moving the library Distributed Learning from one side of the Services. Helen Clarke has campus to the other,” says worked at Douglas College Helen. “They just pulled for 27 years and is the the trailers apart and put Periodicals Assistant in the poly over the open ends. New Westminster Library. does own a suit and tie!" says Helen. Up in smoke Dean Jim Sator and Facilities Services Director Terry Leonard share a smoke in the New Westminster Campus concourse before the indoor smoking ban took place in 1990. Terry, now a self-ascribed “worst kind of non- smoker — the reformed kind,” endorsed moving the smokers outdoors. “It wasn’t that I was concerned about health issues like second-hand smoke,” he says. “I was worried about the building. At that time the concourse walkways were carpeted, and within six months of the building opening they were covered with cigarette burns. People were even butting out their cigarettes on the walls!” Terry Leonard has worked at Douglas College for 18 years and is presently the Director of Facilities Services. Jim Sator has worked at the College for 21 years and is presently Dean of Commerce and Business. In 1989, a 14-month contract dispute culminated with faculty staging a three-week strike. It was a challenging time, but one that also forged friendships and memories. “My most profound memory of Douglas College is when we were on strike in’89,” says Psychiatric Nursing instructor Ray Fournier. “I Student protesters stage a mass rally in support of faculty in 1988. That was then, this is now Douglas College 1970 ° 95 faculty * 1,600 students * 20 locations * $1.69 million operating budget ¢ Tuition: $100/ semester * $24/single. course Picket line memories got to know more people in one month than I have in my entire time at Douglas College. It was upsetting having to be on strike, but the camaraderie was great. I never would have normally met all of the people that I did, like Len Millis from Biology, or many of the Commerce and Business instructors. I've remained good friends with most of them — I Douglas College 2000 ° 349 faculty * 9,000 students ¢ 3 locations * $48.67 million operating budget * Tuition: $761/ semester * $168/single course think! The students understood our concerns and supported us as well, and many of them walked the picket line with us. It’s atime that will never leave my mind.” Ray Fournier has worked at Douglas College for 14 years as a Psychiatric Nursing instructor.