-Information Memo to all Faculty on Site Developments
from the Principal
November 8, 1971
Following my discussion with faculty last Wednesday, I felt I
should spell out clearly to you just what has been decided on the
College sites and what steps are now being taken.
1.

Decision to go for three sites

At the November 1 meeting of Council the decision was made to
proceed with negotiations and a brief in relation to the three sites:
Inter-River, Cypress, and North Vancouver Lonsdale (Highschool). Very
briefly, the basis of the decision was first of all that Inter-River
is available, well located for the future development of North
Vancouver to the east, and is the only piece of large land we can get
in North Vancouver and could possibly move to in September 1972.
Secondly, political reality at least (there are other factors),
necessitates a site in West Vancouver and the Cypress area appears
to be the only suitable land available. Thirdly, the North Vancouver
Lonsdale school site, with its buildings, is viewed both as an
excellent insurance policy in case a second referendum for permanent
buildings fails, and is also regarded by many as being ideally
located for such uses as a centre for continuing education and
special education programs.
2.

Steps now under way

There are two prime tasks on which we must move very fast.
The most important task is the immediate preparation of a sites
brief to the Minister covering the proposition rationale and plans
on the three sites. The object of this brief is to gain the
necessary Victoria approval. The second urgent task is to proceed
with the steps leading to a proposed move of our core operation to
Inter-River for next September. This involves first of all moving
ahead with negotiations with North Vancouver District officials on
both an agreeable price for the thirty-five acres (to ascertain the
figure for the referendum) and negotiating a possible price and
arrangement for a one year lease on Inter-River land. The lease
proposition is necessitated by the fact that we may not be able to
go to referendum before Hay of 1972 while we would need to be
working on site before that time if we were going to have our core
campus moved and set up there by September 1, 1972. Interim land
lease costs do not need to be submitted to referendum.
Of less urgency are steps in furthering negotiations with the
North Vancouver School Board for the possible transfer of their
Lonsdale site to the College by September 1973, and the continuing
investigation on a section of land at Cypress. The proposal on
Cypress land is that we would delineate land which we wanted and then
would proceed to expropriation from the private owners.

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It is also important that we begin working on our educational
specifications for future permanent facilities for Inter-River and
possibly Cypress. This is a very important matter for the faculty
and your forthcoming facilities trips reflect your realization of
this. It is also a matter for the Research and Development Committee
to help organize and I hope that committee will very soon renew
its plan of sub committees to involve faculty and students in the
development of specifications of certain major facility areas.
3.

The development of the three sites and other "outposts".

I would like to reiterate that as far as I am concerned there is
no intention of having a really dispersed, decentralized College
operation. FAculty and student input, and my own research, have
forcefully brought to my attention the many problems related to
wide dispersal. However, the geographic-political facts of our
College district make it absolutely impossible to go to the other
extreme of absolute centralization of total operation. The plan,
as I see it, is that from September next year our largest and main
core campus with prime Media facilities, instructional labs, and
administrative-support services, will be at the Inter-River site.
I foresee the Lonsdale site (now the North Vancouver Highschool)
developing, if approved, as more or less a special centre for particular
programs, day or evening, into which the College is going to find
itself in the next few years. The Cypress site, if developed, would
ideally become the second major "satellite" to the Inter-River core.
It would be the natural place, next to an eventual Squamish campus, to
develop a compact "satellite" unit of learning areas, social and
counselling areas, and media facilities, possibly electronically
connected to the core campus. Until such a facility came into being
at Cypress, or elsewhere in West Vancouver, we will probably have
to continue to operate some evening classes out of the West Vancouver
Secondary School.
Beyond these developments the College might continue to operate
very small "outpostsn similar to those now run at Lyn Valley, Seymour
Heights, and Capilano Highlands. These are very small learning
area arrangements primarily aimed at providing in-community evening
credit courses to draw out some of the adult population. Such small
teaching outposts do not really create serious student or faculty
dislocation or diffusion of services.
4.

Immediate College steps in developing Inter-River for 1972.

Internally, the College must start planning immediately the
principal's proposed move to Inter-River for next September. This
involves choosing an actual location there on which to site our
complex of portable buildings, deciding what new portable facilities
are needed, and developing a functional layout for all the facilities
and parking. I will immediately be asking the members of the Research
and Development committee, the Dean of Student Services and Librarian
to come up with proposals on all these points and any of you who have
suggestions or concerns on this matter can either raise them through
the faculty representatives on the committee or directly to myself
or Mr. Alan Smith.

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I hope this brief outline has clarified some of the site
matters. I also hope that you will feel free to come to me at
any time with questions or concerns you may have on these points
or on general site and facilities development.

AHG:JMB