Thompson residents got their first look at the new University College of the North (UCN) campus adjacent and attached to the Thompson Regional Community Centre (TRCC) on May 23, when a grand unveiling of the new post-secondary institution was held in the afternoon followed by an open house for the public in the evening.
More than 200 people were on hand for the unveiling, when Premier Greg Selinger and UCN president and vice-chancellor Konrad Jonasson together knocked down a temporary wall dividing UCN and the TRCC lobby. Guests then proceeded to the library where portraits of UCN's council of elders by artist Gerald Kuehl were unveiled.
"This is as good as it gets," said Selinger of the new facility, which is 84,400 square feet over four stories and includes 15 distance-learning classrooms, three computer labs, a 60-seat lecture theatre and a 12-bed nursing lab with clinical simulation capabilities. "There's no finer facility you will find anywhere in Canada, north or south, east or west."
Education and Advanced Learning Minister James Allum said the new building was the result of collaboration.
"It takes a village to build a beautiful educational campus like we have here in Thompson," said Allum. "To you out there in this community who made this project happen, this is your building. It belongs to you and it belongs to future generations."
The design of the campus, which meets or exceeds the province's sustainability and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building standards, and includes a 73-space childcare facility for infant, toddler, pre-school and school-aged children, "grew from the Earth," according to Doug Corbett of Smith Carter, now known as Architecture 49, the architects who designed the campus.
"We designed the abundant areas of glass so that we could connect with the sky, the Burntwood River and the boreal forest," said Corbett. "We opened the interior spaces to feel the vastness of the north. We wanted this building to have northern and aboriginal ownership and we were wanting a deeper spiritual meaning to this building."
Sean Barnes of PCL, the construction company that managed the project, said the benefits of building the new campus would endure for years.
"I think that this campus is a game changer," said Barnes. "I think that UCN will play a pivotal role in supplying our industry with craft and technical labour that we need moving forward."
Miranda Sadler, a UCN student who has just completed her bachelor of arts degree and will return to the school next fall to pursue an education degree, said the new campus would unify the staff and students at the school and also bring them closer to the community.
"I'm really excited about our new campus not just because it's a new building but because it's a physical manifestation of the unity that is all throughout UCN," said Sadler. "I believe that this will bring not only our students closer together and our staff closer together, both physically and personally, but will also bring UCN closer to the community. We're attached to the TRCC. How much closer can we get to our community? I believe this new campus will do great things for the future of Thompson. When I was a teen, post-secondary education meant moving at least eight hours away and doing everything on your own. Today, with this new facility, right behind R.D. Parker Collegiate our youth and the youth to come will have access to their own university or college educations right here in Thompson. And those that are going to come here from our outlying communities can do so with their families thanks to the new student housing."
UCN chancellor Edwin Jebb noted that the project was the largest single investment ever by the province in Northern Manitoba, with the exception of dam projects undertaken by Manitoba Hydro.
Jonasson said the existence of the new facility could be traced back many years, to the people who first recognized the need for post-secondary education in Northern Manitoba and weren't prepared to take no for an answer.
"Many, many years ago leaders asked the question, 'Why not us?'" said the UCN president, who attended Keewatin Community College, the predecessor of UCN. "Why not Northern Manitoba? Why do we need to travel to southern Manitoba to access college and university programs? Why do we need to send our youth south to pursue post-secondary opportunities?"
More than 2,000 people toured the new campus during the evening open house, according to a UCN press release. The new facility is projected to increase the enrolment capacity at UCN in Thompson from 342 to 510 students. UCN also has a campus in The Pas and 12 regional centres.
UCN was established by an act of the Manitoba legislature on July 1, 2004, recognizing it as a degree-granting university college in Manitoba. Its mandate is to serve the post-secondary education and training needs of aboriginal and northern Manitobans.
