BOTS

by Elliot Yehia

When I graduated from Sentinel High
School in 1971 there was no question
about where to go next. The answer was
obvious, like everyone else, off to the big
"U" of B.C.

Capilano College was hardly even heard
of and surely no one would attend unless
of course he was a "dummy!" That is,
too stupid to hack it out through the
University.

Well, I (being a dummy) decided to
investigate this new possibility and found
out the more I looked, the more I liked
what I saw. Tuition fees were half of
those at U.B.C., I didn't have any 8:30
classes, I could be home for lunch and
dinner every day and also had Fridays
off. My U.B.C. counterparts certainly
did not have these options and most all
of them had 8:30 classes, which meant
leaving home about 7:00 a.m. to miss
rush hour traffic and all had to contend
with higher tuition fees.

Of course, the last big myth was the
level of education at first and second
year college (in my case Sciences) was
not as good as that being offered at
U.B.C. or S.F.U. That turned out to be
indeed a myth.

Sure, Capilano was small, we used a lot

of space in West Vancouver High School,
we didn't have a cafeteria, student union

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office or fitness centre. The library was
small and so was the Audio-Visual
department but they both were adequate
at the time.

The college was also spread out between
St. David's Church in West Vancouver,
Highlands United Chureh in North
Vancouver, Carson Graham and several
other area classrooms from Deep Cove
to Squamish. We were all (including
instructors) very well adapted to jump in
your cars and make it to your next class
in ten minutes, five miles away.

The staff were few in number, as was the
faculty. The number of students per
elass was small - consequently the level
of instructor-student relationship was
high and everyone had a lot of fun.

As a result I really learned a lot and
because we were so elose to the
instructors there existed maximum
communication between us on a very
informal basis.

At least four or five of my U.B.C.
friends decided not to attend U.B.C. in
the second year and to complete second
year at Capilano. They say they never
regretted it.

Thanks Cap for two years of top
education and fun.

A happy "dummy". =