By
Stanley Tromp, Vancouver Courier,
Sept. 5, 2014
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Educating UBC students is
"a shared responsibility" between the university and Vancouver, says the new president
of UBC.
"Universities have to
engage their communities in a fulsome way, for several reasons," said Dr.
Arvind Gupta, who replaced outgoing president Stephen Toope
on July 1. "They are big drivers of how cities develop economically and
socially, and our young people will become leaders in the city."
Campus reception to Gupta's
five-year appointment has been generally positive so far.
"He is optimistic and
seems determined to take the risks necessary to engage people in real
discussions about hard issues," UBC faculty association president Mark
MacLean told the Courier.
Will McDonald, editor of the Ubyssey student newspaper, added: "He seems highly
competent and well spoken, though he hasn't taken any firm positions on issues
that matter to students such as housing or tuition."
But it's the university's
relations with Vancouver
where Gupta appears to want to forge new ground, as indicated in a wide-ranging
interview with the Courier
before the fall session start. Unlike his past three predecessors, Gupta has
deep roots in the Lower Mainland. Born in India and raised and educated in
Ontario, he worked for nearly two decades in the Simon Fraser University math
department before switching to UBC in 2009.
Subway solution Gupta met
with Mayor Gregor Robertson in mid-June. "We discussed how UBC can be
better interwoven with some of the major social and cultural issues of the
Lower Mainland, create partnerships, and get our students into the
community," he said.
But he also threw his support
behind the mayor's ambitious transit plan, which includes a subway along
Broadway from Commercial Drive to UBC, a plan that will likely be put to a
referendum.
"I think we would have
preferred to see it come out a little quicker, and the 30-year plan prioritized
a little higher," said Gupta.
The mayor's report calls for
rapid transit to Arbutus Street, then as a temporary measure, dedicated buses
from Arbutus to UBC. In the short term that would work, but very quickly that
would start wearing out, said Gupta.
"We could either build a
solution that lasts for the next 50 to 100 years, or an incremental fix that
just gets us to the next 10 years, and then something else for the next 10. It
seems to me that to get transit moving from Commercial Drive to UBC, do it in
one big swoop."
Who should pay? "A
combination of user fees and taxes," he replied, noting the federal
government has created a fund for urban projects.
Housing students Gupta is well
aware of student complaints that UBC's building boom seems more geared to high-priced
condo sales than affordable student rental units.
"We don't have enough
housing here for students, so most of them live off campus. But I don't have to
tell you how pricey housing is in the city. I went from a small town in
northern Ontario to university, and if not for a campus dorm bed, my parents
just couldn't have afforded it." He said UBC housing stock expanded to
nearly 11,000 dorm beds, with the cheapest dorms renting for under $600 a
month.
"I think over the next
three years, we will have 2,000 more dorm rooms, but I still think that it's
not enough." He added that UBC began building a new residential neighbourhood on the south campus, and he also was
interested to provide newly recruited faculty and staff with affordable
housing, so UBC designed a new "faculty housing action plan."
MacLean said much of this
plan is generous.
"But when you crunch the
numbers, because there are often ties to buying into new, expensive UBC-based
developments, the average faculty member still cannot afford to buy a
home."
In reply to those who worry
that UBC's building boom is too much, too fast, Gupta replied, "Well,
there's different kinds of construction. You can't just build half a neighbourhood. Either you build it to scale and it has all
the amenities that the residents want, or you don't build it."
UBC is vast - with 58,000
students and 15,000 faculty and staff, with a yearly budget of $2.2 billion.
Many critics wonder if universities have become too corporatized, and research
too profit-driven? Could sponsored research findings be suppressed or distorted
if they don't give the desired result?
Gupta thinks not.
"People say that but we have less corporate research funding than five
years ago, and it only makes up about nine percent of UBC's budget. As I know
from my work with Mitacs, there is nothing [wrong]
with partnerships with the private sector - the question is how. These have to
be intellectually honest, ethical, advance the university's core mandate, and
have an arm's length peer review before you sign the contract." He added
that students have become even more entrepreneurial and keen to create spin off
companies than their professors are. "People should follow their passion."
Research is under pressure
because the federal government no longer believes that discovery research is
important, said MacLean. "I expect Professor Gupta to lobby governments
and industries to support the research done by UBC faculty, whether that
research is immediately applicable or not."
Gupta was born in Punjab,
India in the city of Jalandhar. Arriving in Canada at age seven, he grew up in
Timmins, Ont., earning his PhD in computer science from the University of
Toronto in 1991. He spent 18 years teaching in the Simon Fraser University math
department while living in Coquitlam before being wooed to UBC. His research
expertise is in combinatorial algorithms as applied to bioinformatics, which
utilizes computer science to better understand genetics.
Since 2000, Gupta has been
CEO and scientific director of Mitacs, a national
nonprofit that works with the federal government and industry partners, giving
graduate students business experience. Since 2012 he has sat on the Government
of Canada's Science, Technology and Innovation Council and a panel that reviews
federal spending on industrial research.
Because Gupta moved to Canada
from India as a child, he regards himself as a Canadian first, rarely follows
Indian culture, and has "no religion." His favourite
food is Japanese, mainly sushi, and Chinese. "My wife can handle any spice
level, but I prefer medium."
Gupta will keep his position
as professor of computer science, and has moved into the president's mansion known
as the Norman Mackenzie House with his wife Dr. Michelle Pereira. He has three
daughters, two of whom are students at UBC.
Gupta has never been a
university administrator before and says his policy is to be as open as
possible, a common first pledge of new UBC presidents. "I want to know
what people are thinking. If people want to come see me directly that's fine,
but I'm told that won't be possible forever."
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