Centenary Address: HKU President’s Summit – East Meets West
Heads of leading universities met for a Summit during HKU’s Centenary
UBC receives $2.2M from BMO
The largest donation in BMO’s history in BC will support family business and dairy research education
Fall Congregation 2011
Professor Toope is pleased to welcome undergraduates, graduates, special guests and members of the greater community to the 2011 Fall Congregation Ceremonies at UBC’s Vancouver campus. Between Wednesday 23 November and Friday 25 November, undergraduate and graduate degrees from all 12 Vancouver faculties will be conferred. For more information on ceremonies, please visit the UBC […]
Prof. Toope attends opening of CIRS
UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability is North America’s greenest building
Prof. Toope to chair AUCC
UBC President begins a two-year term as chair of the board of directors
Centennial Speech: President addresses AUCC
Prof. Stephen Toope has begun a two-year term as chair of the board of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
Executive Team Visits UBC Dairy Centre
The university’s Senior Executive team recently visited the Dairy Education and Research Centre, located in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley. Pictured above are the members of the Executive, who were hosted at the Centre by Nelson Dinn, Manager, Jim Thompson, Professor and Director, and Ronaldo Cerri, Professor and Researcher. Please visit the Dairy Education and Research […]
Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (Vintage Canada, 2010)
I was first introduced to Eggers through his zany family memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, one of the funniest books I have read. Zeitoun is the history of another family, tested beyond all reason by circumstance and bad public policy. The title character is a Syrian-American, married to a “white” Muslim convert. Together […]
Saul Bellow, The Dean’s December (Penguin Books, 1982)
Born in Lachine, Quebec, Bellow became the great chronicler of mid-twentieth century American (especially Chicago) life. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976, his later writing becomes elegiac, and strongly focused on intimations of mortality. The Dean’s December, published in 1982, tells the story of a dyspeptic but relatively happily married dean of […]
Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam (Penguin Books, 2006)
One of the most difficult and troubling books I have ever read. Buruma grew up in Holland, but is half-British and has spent much of his recent years in the USA. He returns to Holland in 2004 to investigate the reasons that may have prompted the murder of controversial Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh. Van […]
Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander (Harper Collins, 2002)
O’Brian is often described as the greatest of historical novelists, mostly because of his superb research and encyclopedic knowledge of the Royal Navy of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although he can sometimes descend into excruciating detail (especially about the sails on a square-rigged ship!), what marks O’Brian’s greatness is his gift for rich […]
Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness (Harcourt Inc., 2005)
A powerful and lyrical memoir by one of Israel and the world’s great novelists. Probably best known for My Michael and Black Box, Oz tells a story of growing up in the 1940s and 50s in Jerusalem. One experiences a sense of both claustrophobic rigidity and utter liberation. His silent father was also a great […]
New Centre for Brain Research and Patient Care
UBC and its partners celebrated with a groundbreaking event for the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
UBC’s 10-Year Financial Plan
UBC’s 10-Year Financial Plan outlines its objectives and opportunities for the coming decade
VP Communications & Community Partnership Search
UBC has begun its search for a Vice President, Communications and Community Partnership.
President’s Staff Award Winners
2011 President’s Staff Awards reception held
UBC Campaign Launch
UBC officially launched the most ambitious campaign of its kind in the history of Canadian universities
Vancouver Board of Trade 2011
Prof. Toope addressed the Vancouver Board of Trade on 14 September
Biological Sciences Complex Renewal Unveiled
The second phase of UBC Renew includes a $61.8 million sustainable makeover of the Biological Sciences Complex
President Tours Supreme Court of Singapore
Prof. Toope met with the Chief Justice of Singapore on 18 August
DVC Search Begins
On 24 August a broadcast email informed the UBC community of the search committee’s first meeting
Submit Your Question to President Toope
Ask away!
Past President’s Town Hall Events
Watch the videos from the past events
About the President’s Town Hall
Each year the President’s Town Halls bring UBC faculty, staff and students together for a chance to ask senior administration any questions they may have. The Town Halls are an interactive forum for dialogue and a way for our campus communities to learn about strategic initiatives.
Our Questions Define Us
Seeking answers to questions is what a university is all about. What have we accomplished this year? Where are we going from here? Submit your question to Prof. Stephen J. Toope and learn more about the 2011 President’s Town Hall
Louise Cowin appointed Vice President, Students
UBC announces that Louise Cowin will begin her term as Vice President, Students in October 2011
Update: UBC responds to Rumana Monzur attack
Following on my message of June 15, 2011, I am writing with further news about our student Ms Rumana Monzur. The most recent news about Ms Monzur’s health is distressing. Ms Monzur’s eye injuries have been assessed at two top flight facilities in India. Doctors at Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai and at the Aravind Eye […]
Kate Grenville, The Lieutenant (Harper Collins, 2008)
An exploration of the possibilities and impossibilities of cross cultural communication. Set at the moment of first contact between English naval officers and aborigines in Australia (1788), this beautiful novel is at once a bildungsroman, an adventure story, and a lyrical reflection on language. The relationship that evolves between Lieutenant Daniel Rooke and the child […]
Edmund de Waal, The Hare With Amber Eyes (Chatto & Windus, 2010)
The most exquisite memoire I have ever read. Mr. de Waal, a distinguished English potter, traces his family history by exploring the movement of a collection of Japanese netsuke from late 19th century Paris, to Vienna at the Anschluss, to Tokyo, to London. The collection is first bought by Charles Ephrussi, the model for Proust’s […]
Message to the Community from the UBC President
I am writing with deep sadness to share with you the news of the brutal attack on our graduate student Ms Rumana Monzur in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ms Monzur is completing a Master’s degree in Political Science at our Vancouver campus. She returned home to visit her family and friends, as well as her colleagues at […]
2011 Spring Graduation
UBC celebrates achievement at its Spring 2011 Graduation events
President discusses university funding crunch
Prof. Toope discusses university funding with colleagues on BNN’s Headline program
Governor General visits UBC
Canada’s Governor General the Rt. Hon. David Johnston visited UBC to participate in a discussion on innovation
BC government announces $3.5 million grant
Funding to MITACS will assist UBC graduate students and new PhDs
Winners for 2011 President’s Service Award for Excellence announced
Recognizing the contributions of staff members to the UBC community, five staff will receive the 2011 President’s Service Award for Excellence. Presented during the Spring Congregation and Convocation ceremonies, this award acknowledges staff members who have made outstanding contributions to UBC and excelled in their own personal achievements. Katherine Beaumont, Director of Go Global. Beaumont […]
Nobel laureate receives UBC honorary degree
Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, received an honorary degree on April 21
Statement on the future of intercollegiate sport at UBC from President Stephen J. Toope
Athletics at UBC: President Stephen J. Toope opts to remain in CIS.
President’s Staff Awards: Nominations Open
The President’s Staff Awards recognize the contributions to UBC and personal achievements of staff at the Vancouver campus in five categories: Leadership and Creativity Enhancing the UBC Experience Global Citizenship Emerging Leadership (new in 2011) Advancing Diversity and Inclusion (new in 2011) Recipients receive $2,000 and a certificate of recognition presented at a special ceremony […]
Vice President, Students Search
To all UBC students, faculty and staff: A search committee has been established to recommend to the Board a Vice President, Students. This Vice President, responsible to the President, will provide strategic leadership to UBC’s student portfolio to accomplish the vision, commitments, goals, and actions as set out in the University’s strategic plan, Place and […]
Prof. Toope is co-recipient of an ASIL award
The American Society of International Law recognized Prof. Toope’s co-authored book with an award of merit
UBC Receives A Quantum Leap Giving Award
The United Way Spirit Awards included recognition for UBC
UBC Okanagan Campus Review
Professor Toope has requested a review of the UBC Okanagan campus.
Celebrating Research and Innovation in BC
Prof. Toope spoke during a celebration of research and innovation in BC hosted by Premier Campbell
Stephen Toope: how international students change Canadian schools
Prof. Toope contributes videos to The Globe and Mail’s series, “Leading Thinkers Video: The Battle For Brains,” and is featured in an article
2011 President’s Service Awards for Excellence
Nominations are invited for the 2011 President’s Service Award for Excellence
What is the President reading?
An avid reader, Stephen Toope created a list of the books he is currently enjoying. With an update provided every few months, Professor Toope invites you to review his current and past selections. Please visit the What is the President Reading? section on this website to find the list of titles.
Lunar new year luncheon 2011
On 18 January Professor Toope joined members of the UBC community for the annual Lunar New Year Luncheon.
Paul Harding, Tinkers (Harper Collins, 2009)
As he lies dying, surrounded by his family, an amateur clock-repairer hallucinates about his own father who was largely absent. Astonishing writing that conjures up rural Maine in the 19th century, in all its harsh beauty. The characters are vivid, the central theme compelling: none of us can quite grasp the entirety of who we […]
Benjamin Perrin, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking (Viking Canada, 2010)
A personal journey of civic engagement. A study of Canadians’ horrible contributions to human trafficking at home and abroad. A plea for concerted national and international action. Although the media tends to focus on trafficking for sexual exploitation, the even wider issue of forced labour should cause us equal concern. Gripping.
Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies (houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
In a clever thematic inversion of James’s The Ambassadors, Ozick describes escaping children, a controlling father, and a bewildered aunt commisioned – much against her will – to sort out family troubles. All of the characters are deeply selfish, which makes it hard to feel much empathy, but the story holds intriguing, sometimes tragic, twists.
Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Penguin Canada, 2009)
A lyrical exploration of family relationships created and undone in war. Searching for the ‘truth’ about one’s closest friends turns out to be heart-wrenching. Set convincingly in both Montreal and Cambodia, this is a delicate and moving portrayal of connection and loss.
Anne Michaels, The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart, 2009)
Canada’s and one of the world’s great stylists of language, Michaels is best known for the deeply moving Fugitive Pieces. The breadth of this book is remarkable, moving as it does between the flooding towns of the Saint Lawrence as the Seaway is built, to Montreal to Toronto to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings as […]