INSTITUTIONAL
MEMORY
Institutions such as
Acadia are steeped in a long history and time-honoured
traditions. The University Club is doing
something to record aspects of its own history and recognition of service
before it is forgotten. At a fall
meeting of AUFA, the membership voted to provide $250 support to the Archives
Committee of the University Club. The
University Club Executive formally thanks the AUFA membership for its
support. A goal of the archives
committee is to develop a tasteful plaque that lists the Presidents of the
University Club dating back to 1968, and this will acknowledge the support of
AUFA.
Acadia University needs to do more to preserve its institutional memory and recognise the contributions of its employees. Many of the original movers and shakers of AUFA have retired, moved on, or sadly, passed away. How are they remembered or recognised?
What about the various Deans we have had? Where are they recognised? We have portraits of Presidents of the University in University Hall, but what do we have to remind us of other senior administrators such as VP Academics? Turnover in certain Departments has been very large, and faculty and other employees who thought they were still "new" have found themselves to be "veterans" well before their time.
What about teaching? Acadia prides itself on dedicated faculty in the area of teaching, but the only teaching award is one given by the Associated Alumni. It used to be granted at convocation; now it is not. In fact at the last presentation to Dr. Dan Toews attended by 20 or so faculty and 30 or so Biology alumni, not a single University Administrator or person from the Public Affairs Office attended. They may not even have known about the event. The actual plaque in Alumni Hall that recognises teaching at the University is out of date and out of view. These tangible forms of recognition must be renewed and rededicated. Right now, they appear to be casualties of Alumni conflict. Maybe additional teaching awards need to be established.
It is our hope that the plaque at the University Club will be a small step toward a new trend of preserving institutional memory in all domains of the Acadia community.
Doug Symons