The UNBC Convocation Office is responsible for the organization of convocation events.
Educational Media Services provides state-of-the-art media services to the University community and offers options to improve teaching, learning and research methodology at UNBC. EMS offers full Media (Audiovisual) services to the University and Prince George Community.
The Finance Office is responsible for all administrative activities of a financial nature at UNBC.
Those responsibilities with a direct impact on student life include:
student fee assessment and collection
disbursement of all cheques including scholarship and bursary cheques
payroll for teaching assistantships and all student jobs
administration of research grants and fellowship income
The First Nations Studies Program at UNBC focuses on various issues: contemporary issues ; research methods (including oral history) ; First Nations languages and cultures ; land and resource use and environmental philosophy ; art and material culture ; religion and spirituality ; the state, gender and legal issues.
The Geoffrey R. Weller Library is located at the north end of campus. The attractive four-story building is currently the largest building on campus. One of the main architectural features in the library is the atrium, which fills the main working area with natural light. -
The Library is home to the Northern British Columbia Archives, which is devoted to the preservation of Northern British Columbia’s history. The Archives holdings include records of the Cassiar mining community, photographic and cartographic materials related to the development of transportation and communication links in Northern BC and the genealogical records of the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council. -
The Library was named after one of the people most responsible for shaping the University’s initial development. Geoffrey Weller was the University's Founding President and held the position until 1995, when he returned to teaching as a Professor in the UNBC International Studies program. He was largely responsible for setting out the five major themes of the University – environment, northern studies, women’s studies, First Nations studies and international studies. Dr. Weller passed away in July of 2000 at the age of 58. The UNBC Library was renamed Geoffrey R. Weller Library in 2000 in honour of his memory.
The Office of Communications fosters the public image of UNBC by creating strategies, materials, and activities that promote the University. Their areas of activity include publications, alumni relations, official UNBC websites, media relations, and public presentations that aim to market UNBC's programs, research, and community connections.
UNBC memorandum from Chris Conway to All Staff identifies the 1992 Contacts Directory as the first edition of a document intended to provide an introduction to key individuals and organisations for new staff, and to provide a ready-reference for frequent contacts.
The Office of Regional Operations is responsible for the development and delivery of services to students at campuses across northern BC. Many services are provided locally, as well as over the Internet, via email or on the phone in conjunction with the Student Success Centre at the Prince George Campus. Regional Operations maintains three regional campuses, as well as an office at the Prince George campus.
The University Senate and Board of Governors – including all of the Board committees and most of the Senate committees – are supported in their activities by the University Secretariat. In addition, the Secretariat is responsible for the organization of major university ceremonies, especially the annual convocation and installations as necessary. The University Secretary is the Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) Officer for the University.
The UNBC President's Council is comprised of all of the University's senior administrators.
The Office of the Registrar is responsible for many aspects of a student's life. The Office handles undergraduate and graduate admissions, including assessment of transfer credit; registrations; records management, including student records, student appeals, and transcripts; and scheduling, including courses and exams.
In addition, the Registrar's Office interprets the collection and dissemination of information for the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and prepares for production many University publications, including the Undergraduate and Graduate Calendars.
The UNBC Senate is a UNBC governing body and an academic authority for the institution.
The Senate is composed of:
(a) The Chancellor;
(b) The President, who shall be chair;
(c) the Provost;
(d) the Vice President, Research;
(e) the Director of Continuing Studies;
(f) the Deans of Colleges;
(g) the Dean of Graduate Programs;
(h) the University Librarian;
(i) 9 students;
(j) 4 Regional Representatives;
(k) 18 faculty members;
(i) 8 from the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences,
(ii) 8 from the College of Science and Management,
(iii) 2 elected at large by all faculty members and librarians;
(l) 4 Lay Senators;
(m) 1 member to be elected by the governing body of Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisga’a (WWN)
Update Magazine is the UNBC Magazine for alumni and friends of the university.
The United Church was inaugurated on June 10, 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, when the Methodist Church of Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and 70 per cent of the Presbyterian Church in Canada entered into an organic union. Joining as well was the small General Council of Union Churches, centred largely in Western Canada. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines. Each of the uniting churches, however, had a long history in Canada prior to the 1925 union. Methodism in Canada, for example, is traced back to 1765 when Lawrence Coughlan, an Irish Methodist preacher, first came to Newfoundland. In Nova Scotia, beginning in the late 1770s, Methodists began migrating from England, an event which led to a revival of Methodist practice in this small territory. This influx of new religious ideology provided renewed energy to Methodist missionaries in their ministerial endeavours throughout British North America.
Along the north coastal areas of British Columbia, the Methodist mission found manifestation through several different portals: the provision of pastoral care via boat (such as the Thomas Crosby mission ships), regional medical services, and the provision of community ministry. In Port Simpson (now called Lax Kw’alaams) for example, Methodist medical mission work first began in 1889 under Dr. A.E. Boulton. By 1925 there were three Methodist Hospitals in the territory at Hazelton, Bella Bella and Port Simpson and in 1946 (post union) the United Church of Canada was asked to take over the administration of the Queen Charlotte City hospital.
Mission work throughout the territories was also fuelled, in part, by the existence of Hudson’s Bay Company posts. Not only did the existence of a post often lead to the organic development of an adjacent trading community to which to minister; with the inherent social problems resulting from the presence of, and commerce with, HBC Forts, the Church found opportunities to reach out to the surrounding population in an attempt to alleviate those social ills that resulted from common trading practices and bartered commodities. Fort Simpson was one such post - established as a fur trading post near the mouth of the Nass River in 1831 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) as part of its Columbia Department. In 1834 the fort was moved to the Tsimshian Peninsula, about halfway between the Nass and the Skeena rivers; the village that grew around the fort later became known as Port Simpson (now called Lax Kw’alaams). In 1874, at the request of Tsimshian matriarch Elizabeth Diex, and her son Chief Alfred Dudoward and daughter-in-law Kate Dudoward, the Rev. Thomas Crosby was sent to Port Simpson to establish its first Methodist mission. From this home base, Rev. Crosby supervised the establishment of ten missions throughout north coastal British Columbia; while his wife Emma founded the Crosby Girls' Home in Port Simpson in the 1880s. This “Home” became part of B.C.'s residential school system in 1893 and was finally closed in 1948.
While the originating legislation created UBC on March 7, 1908, the first day of lectures was September 30, 1915. On September 22, 1925, lectures began on the new Point Grey campus. The enabling legislation are the University Act and the University Amendment Act, 2004. The university is the oldest and largest in British Columbia with two campuses in Vancouver and Kelowna.
The UNBC story began in January 1987, at a public meeting, held at the College of New Caledonia, on the possibility of extending degree-awarding opportunities in Prince George and on December 1, 1987, the Interior University Society (IUS) was incorporated under the Societies Act.
Important early support for the IUS was obtained from Bruce Strachan, MLA for Prince George South and Minister of State for the Cariboo Region, who saw the regional development potential of a northern university. This led to the commissioning of a study Building a Future of Excellence: a University of Northern BC ("The Dahloff Report"). On October 13, an IUS delegation was able to present the government with:
a petition signed by 16,000 voters who had paid $5 for the privilege;
letters of support from every town, village, city, regional district, hospital board, school board and Chamber of Commerce in northern BC;
an Angus Reid survey which indicated that 94% of northerners were in favour of creating the university;
the Dahloff Report indicating the feasibility, credibility and value of the university.On November 1, 1989 the Government announced that Bruce Strachan, a clear advocate of the university of the north, had been appointed Minister of Advanced Education. On January 9, Minister Strachan made a formal statement that the government had accepted the IPG recommendations: that a university was to be established in the north with a main campus in Prince George. On June 22, the Provincial Legislature passed Bill 40, The UNBC Act, with all-party support. The Interim Governing Council then met formally for the first time on July 21. It was to act as both Board and Senate until such time as the University had gained the officers, faculty, and students capable of forming a senate.
Two dominant themes of early deliberations were site selection and the Presidential search. The latter began in June, and seven interviews were held in August and September. The outcome was the appointment of Geoffrey Weller, previously Vice-President Academic of Lakehead University. The IGC's site selection committee, meanwhile, had initially considered fifteen sites, but these were reduced to a shortlist of six sites for detailed study, and the Cranbrook Hill site finally carried the day when crown acreage was located with a fine view of the City.
In February 1992, the model of the Prince George campus was first unveiled, and in March, members of Convocation elected the University's first Chancellor, Iona Campognolo. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between UNBC and Forestry Canada occurred 3 July 1992 at the Coast Inn of the North in Prince George, BC. The MOU resulted in the establishment of UNBC's first research centre. The full opening of the University was delayed from September 1993 to September 1994. April saw the official sod-turning ceremony for the Prince George campus, conducted by BC Premier Mike Harcourt. This was followed in May with the largest and most prestigious event in the University's history to date - the Inaugural Convocation Ceremony, at which the formal Installation of the President and Chancellor took place. August 1992 saw the registration of the University's first students, when 70 students joined the "QuickStart" program. In November, interviews began for the appointment of the first 40 faculty members.
1994 saw the culmination of the years of planning and effort. In May, the first UNBC students graduated: six students from the "Quickstart" program received their degrees from the Governor General. In August, the Prince George campus was ceremonially opened by Her Majesty the Queen, at a nationally televised event which saw some 10,000 people visit the Prince George campus. In September, the University opened fully, with around 1,500 students enrolled. To commemorate the opening, a full-colour coffee-table book, "A University is Born", was published by the UNBC Press.
Wet'suwet'en (also known as Hwotsotenne, Witsuwit'en, Wetsuwet'en, Wets'uwet'en) are a First Nations people who live on the Bulkley River and around Broman Lake and Francois Lake in the northwestern Central Interior of British Columbia. The name they call themselves, Wet'suwet'en, means "People of the Wa Dzun Kwuh River".
The Wet'suwet'en are a branch of the Dakelh or Carrier people, and in combination with the Babine people have been referred to as the Western Carrier. They speak Witsuwit'en, a dialect of the Babine-Witsuwit'en language which, like its sister language Carrier, is a member of the Athabaskan family.
The traditional government of the Wet'suwet'en comprises 13 hereditary chiefs, organized today as the Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en, or the Office of the Wet'suwet'en in BC government terminology (the government does not recognize their hereditary rights). The Office of the Hereditary Chiefs is the main political body of the Wet'suwet'en and is involved in the negotiating process for an eventual treaty with the British Columbia government. In the past, they were co-complainants in the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia case, which sought to establish recognition of the hereditary territorial rights of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en Confederacy.
Wire Rope Industries Ltd. (WRI) stemmed from Noranda Mines' interest in Canada Wire. In 1953 a wire rope division had been formed. In 1963, in order to broaden its base and acquire expertise, this interest was amalgamated with those of Bridon Ltd. to form WRI. Bridon took a 60% interest, Canada Wire 40%. Early in 1975, to provide the funds for the purchase of another plant in the United States, Noranda made an additional investment in WRI and its sister company Bridon-American Corporation to raise its holdings to 51.4% in both companies.
Both WRI and Bridon-American Corporation manufacture steel wire rope. WRI was the largest such manufacturer in Canada, while Bridon-American was the fourth largest in the United States. In 1982, WRI acquired one of its U.K.-controlled competitors, Martin-Black.
A subsidiary of WRI, Gourock Industries Ltd., manufactured synthetic rope and netting at a plant near Montreal.
Source: Royal Commission on Corporate Concentration, Noranda Mines Limited: A Corporate Background Report. 1976. p. 14-15, 58.