Provincial Institute of Technology and Art - Record Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

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Tech-Art Record 1930-31 Edition It is an old college custom, one that probably originated in the days when Archimedes taught Greek Normal students, that at any seat of learning worthy of the name there must be published an annual volume purporting to be a record of the school year, but more often containing a long series of thinly-disguised wisecracks at the teachers, glowing remarks concerning the successes won by the school during the year, and modest alibis and excuses for those activities which failed to gain a place in the sun. In keeping with the established tradition the Institute entered the Year Book publication field three years ago, and now presents its third volume to the world. A hurried glance through the pages of the book reveals little of the tremendous amount of energy expended on the publication. Finished articles by the editorial stafl and contributors give few indications of the patient searches for accurate information, or the long hours spent in wrangling with words in order to produce readable pieces of writing. Between the lines of the biography section there is a story of diligent hunting for facts, systematic checking of class lists, and careful correcting of printers’ proofs. The advertising department gives but a slight glimpse of the endless detail work involved in selling advertising space, and the important business of managing the financial side of the publication receives small mention in the completed volume. The 1930-31 volume of Tech Art Record met with a full quota of difficulties and delays, but they have been overcome by the smallest staff the publication has ever had. The work received a late start due to the seeming impossibility of securing an ed itor, but the problem was solved by the return to Tech of Tom Moore, who brought to the task considerable experience gained through editing two volumes of The Emery Weal, publishing the Institute’s first Year Book, and acting as a newspaper correspondent and free lance writer for several years. In an endeavor to carry out continuous improvements to Tech Art Record, a considerable re-arrangement of the book has been made; certain departments have been enlarged, and others condensed, and special attention has been given to the art work. The em¬ bellishment of the volume was conducted as a class project by the Art department, the cover was designed by Miss Alma Cook, and nearly every Art student contributed to the work under the direction of Mr. Pearson and Mr. Leighton. As a student activity, the publishing of the Technical Institute Year Book ranks with the most important sponsored by the Associa¬ tion. Scores of students have, in one way or another, been actively associated with the work, and while the task has been hard, it has provided considerable enjoyment and instruction. Mention could be made of several ways in which students have benefited from their contact with the Year Book, but enough has been said already. As in the daily papers, so with Tech Art Record, “the news is the thing,” and since it is the lot of newspaper and Year Book staffs that they stay religiously in the background while devoting their energies to recording the events and activities of others than themselves, this article must come to a close. Page Fourteen

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A Matter of History While the century-old universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Edinborough, and even those of Eastern Canada, may consider anniversaries of less than fifty years hardly worth giving attention to, a comparatively new seat of learning in a comparatively new prov¬ ince, may be pardoned for voicing its jubilation at having attained the age of fifteen years. Fifteen years is quite a long span of time ir a city that has only recently celebrated its own fiftieth anniversary, so we take pride in proclaiming the fact that fifteen years ago the Alberta Provincial Institute of Technology and Art began its useful contribution to the educational world. No elaborate buildings were erected to house the infant Institute when it was introduced to an unappreciative public of Calgary in 1916. A borrowed schoclhouse cradled the new institution, and a small staff of teachers nursed it through troubles and trials in plenty until today it stands as a pioneer in a new branch of education, a pioneer of which the Calgary public can speak with pride. Perhaps it is that the bustling West breeds in its sons little feeling of reverence for those who have pioneered in such matters as education, or perhaps it is that the school has been too busy going forward to look back on its past; at any rate, the student of today can find no imposing portraits of the men who helped to found the Institute, adorning the corridor walls. The loss may not be so great as it first seems, however, since on the present teaching staff are still three members who helped give the Institute its start in life. The native shyness of Mr. James Fowler, the earnest desire to remain young evidenced by Mr. Lindley H. Bennett, and the natural reticence of Mr. Leo E. Pearson, have all combined to keep from general circulation among the students the information that they were members of the first Technical Institute teaching staff. It is true, however, that the year 1931 marks the fifteenth anniversary of their first association with the school. Many events have occurred since 1916, and while the triumvirate of “originals” has not spent the entire fifteen years in the ser¬ vice of the school, it has watched happenings of outstanding importance to the Institute take place from time to time. The borrowed buildings in East Calgary have given way to the imposing structure now standing on the North Hill; the places of thousands of returned soldiers, who gained a new start in life through the medium of the school, have been taken by a new gener¬ ation of men who know little of war; the meagre list of courses first offered has grown to be an, almost complete index to the technical trades conducted in the West; and the leadership of the school has passed from the hands of Dr. J. C. Miller, through Mr. Dolan, Mr. L. F. Fyles and Mr. J. H. Ross, to Dr. W. G. Carpenter, who, since 1924, has been responsible for piloting the Institute to a firm position among the educational institutions of Canada. Some time in the future, when the Institute grows hoary with age and soaked with tradition, a mere matter of fifteen years will be of little concern to the school’s historians. Today it represents a complete lifetime, during which the Institute has climbed from feeble beginnings, through bold experiments, to triumphant success. With this in mind, the students and teachers of the Institute feel that they need make no excuse for celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of that which only three present members of the staff witnessed —the inception of a new type of higher education that gives to every man a chance to make a niche for himself in today’s mechanized world. Page Thirteen

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