Growth spurt

By Derek Sankey| Photography by Jason Stang

University's $710-million capital plan
creates more space for students

The University of Calgary is launching full force into its capital growth plan. This spring, the university will break ground on the new Campus Calgary Digital Library, a project that marks the first stage of a $710-million campaign to improve the amount and quality of space dedicated to teaching and learning and research on campus. The growth plan will ultimately permit the university to open space for 7,000 more students by 2010. In addition to the $113-million digital library, which will be dedicated to the Calgary community and will allow the public to access the university’s vast resources, the university has three other major capital projects: a building to house the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy, the Urban Campus initiative, and the Experiential Learning Centre.

Urban campus brings
students to the city core

Francisco Alaniz-Uribe likes to be close to the action. As an exchange student who arrived at the University of Calgary two years ago from Mexico City, he now does much of his research in the heart of the city. “Being downtown provides an opportunity to be immersed in the community and provides for greater communication between the university and the rest of Calgary,” says Alaniz-Uribe, a full-time student in the Faculty of Environmental Design and a research associate in the faculty’s existing downtown Urban Lab. The lab, one of several U of C projects that bring students to the downtown core, sees students link up with community clients for design projects.

As a master’s degree student in urban design, Alaniz-Uribe is well aware of the need to integrate learning into an urban setting. So, it makes sense that he’s “very excited” about the U of C’s planned Urban Campus initiative—a move that will see a series of new buildings constructed for student, community and business use in the next few years. “Public universities should play an active role in the community, and being downtown provides that ability,” says Alaniz-Uribe.

The second phase of public consultation on the Urban Campus was recently completed, and recommendations on the specific site are pending. The plan is to build—through partnerships with other post-secondary institutions in Calgary and other community organizations—a series of structures in The Rivers district of the core that will provide greater access for students to a range of educational services.

The Urban Campus is a key component of the university’s plan to enrol an additional 7,000 students by 2010. About 2,500 of those spaces will be the result of the Urban Campus.

Aside from housing additional students, the Urban Campus will also serve as a catalyst for the redevelopment of the East Village. For students, it will offer more interaction with the community through work experience, research projects, and mentorship programs. They will see, first-hand, how their work impacts the community and will open the doors for the public to have access to their research. It also provides a more convenient access point for continuing education students, while helping to address some of the social concerns prevalent in the district. The total cost of the Urban Campus is estimated at about $206 million.

“ This is a very positive thing, but it has to be well thought through,” says Alaniz-Uribe, whose interest in design has led him to call for careful consideration of exactly which programs and services will be housed in the Urban Campus. The U of C is working closely with downtown organizations, faculty members, students, planners, and the wider community to solidify its plans in the year ahead.

Digital library offers public
access to vast resources

When the doors swing open to the University of Calgary’s new Campus Calgary Digital Library in 2008, Joanne Pawelek will be front and centre.

After completing her undergraduate degree in the 1980s and working for several years, she decided to return to university to earn a master’s degree in continuing education. It was a world away from what she remembered from her earlier school days.
“ It was quite a shock to my system just getting used to the current electronic database of information,” explains Pawelek. “It’s totally expanded my quest for information and has been a real eye-opening, incredible experience.”

When she heard that the U of C is planning to go even further to become one of the most information-rich jurisdictions in North America with its new digital library, she was astounded. “The reason I’m really excited about the digital library is this notion of seamless service and one-stop shopping,” says Pawelek. “It’s going to be a web of connections and I see the learner being in the centre of that hub.”

The Campus Calgary Digital Library will cost about $113 million and is a partnership with all the public post-secondary institutions in Calgary—Bow Valley College, Mount Royal College, ACAD, and SAIT Polytechnic—as well as those in neighbouring regions, such as Red Crow College on the Blood Reserve. It will provide much greater access for students, faculty, staff, and the general public by opening up the university’s entire collection of resources electronically, with its central building to be located beside the existing MacKimmie Library complex on campus. It will provide the foundation for the province-wide Lois Hole Digital Library and also leverage the U of C’s existing relationship with the Calgary Health Region by providing more and the most current medical information.

When complete, the digital library will free up space in existing academic buildings to help the U of C meet it commitment to enrol 7,000 more students.

Pawelek, who is also the regional director of the Canadian Cancer Society, says it will be a boon for the non-profit and business worlds, which are constantly seeking up-to-date information about best practices and organizational development.“I’m already thrilled about that and just really excited about this collaborative effort.”

New lab facility will
improve student learning

Heather Addy and Ian Hunt are trying to show first- and second-year university students how basic laboratory science leads to cutting-edge research that has the potential to change lives. They hope that by integrating disciplines such as biology and chemistry more closely in the future, students will lay the foundation for new careers in high-tech fields.

Addy and Hunt’s plans will receive a big boost when the University of Calgary opens its planned new $150-million Experiential Learning Centre (ELC).

“ It’s crucial to give students an idea of what science really is,” says Addy. The labs that will be housed in this new ELC are vital in making the link between theory and practice. “Having computer-based labs or no labs at all is like trying to teach music to someone without an instrument.”

Demand for science courses is booming. Currently, there are about 4,300 Faculty of Science undergraduate students each year in biology and 2,700 students in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Addy and Hunt say they hope the ELC will encourage more students to enter fields of research and lead the next generation of discoveries.

“ The labs are essential in training students,” Addy says. Hunt agrees: “There is a lot of demand and if we’re going to grow, we’re going to need places to teach them. Hands-on practical skills are important in the workplace.”

The University of Calgary is responding to the growing need for more access by redeveloping and constructing a total of 710,000 square feet of lab, research and study space. The ELC will be a combination of new space and reconstructed laboratories in existing science buildings. The goal of the project is to create a first-class laboratory environment equipped with highly specialized analytical instrumentation.

To that end, learning spaces will be constructed that will eliminate the difference between laboratory and lecture settings, where students will receive ongoing hands-on learning, says Hunt. “Laboratory work is what allows you to put theory into practice and to do inquiry-type, experiential situations where you can look at something and probe.”

Addy says the Experiential Learning Centre will show students how various departments within the Faculty of Science, such as biology and chemistry, are intrinsically linked. Hunt, who designs and oversees labs for about 500 second-year organic chemistry students, says it only makes sense for chemistry professors to work in tandem with biology instructors. Working across disciplines benefits students by showing them how science can be applied in the real world to have impact in all aspects of life. It helps lead them to better science and, potentially, better research and discoveries.

Members from different faculties have been appointed to help incorporate ideas into the design process, which will begin moving forward in 2006. “This is something that makes the U of C fairly unique and gives us an advantage,” says Addy.

ISEEE project leads
innovation in energy
and environment

Femi Jokanola is finding out how hot Alberta’s job market is for geologists, even while he’s still working on his doctoral degree at the University of Calgary.

“ People are chasing you with job offers,” says Jokanola, a 32-year-old PhD student who’s studying fine-grained rocks to predict pressure on fluid flow. He is busy conducting research as part of the petroleum reservoir group in the Department of Geology and Geophysics in the Faculty of Science. The group’s research focuses on finding newer and more efficient ways of producing oil and other hydrocarbons from geological reservoirs.

Jokanola is one of dozens of PhD students working with leading U of C scientists, such as Dr. Steve Larter who heads the petroleum reservoir group, on the U of C’s expanding energy- and environment-related research–an initiative led by the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and the Economy (ISEEE).

ISEEE intends to provide many more students with the opportunity to pursue research and training in the areas of energy and the environment. The institute plans to build a $140-million new facility on campus that will add 38,000 square metres of new learning and research space, house 1,000 more students (650 undergraduate and 350 graduate), and add 100 new faculty and 36 new research chairs.

“ It’s just a win-win situation for everybody,” says Jokanola. “The U of C has taken a position to be at the cutting edge of research for the future of the energy industry and this institute is helping to achieve that.”

The energy industry is already experiencing critical shortages of highly qualified personnel. Demand for research and skilled workers is expected to increase exponentially, as companies pour billions of dollars into projects such as the oilsands and other unconventional oil and natural gas development.

The new ISEEE building, which the U of C hopes to break ground for next spring, is being designed to bring together collaborative, multidisciplinary teams working in the institute’s core energy and environmental research and education areas. These areas are: advanced recovery and upgrading of hydrocarbons; development of sustainable technologies, including alternative energy systems; management of carbon emissions; and water management, including water quality and use.

“ The new building will be a model of sustainability and efficiency, which is important to show U of C leadership in the energy-environment area,” says Dr. Robert Mansell, ISEEE’s Managing Director.

To date, U of C and its partners have committed more than $51 million to ISEEE and related initiatives, including the creation of more than 25 new research chairs and the development of new degree programs. It’s all part of the U of C’s goal to be recognized as a global leader in energy and environmental research, education and innovation, and of ISEEE’s mission to ensure we have secure, competitive energy supplies, a clean environment and a strong economy.

“ It’s a very wonderful position to be in, both for the university’s image and for those of us involved in research,” says Jokanola.U

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