Yesterday and Today - The History of Thompson Rivers University
Cariboo was originally founded as a result of vigorous lobbying by community leaders and trustees from five school districts, in the areathen called the Mainline-Cariboo. The Regional College Committee proposed that a community college be developed in concert with the Kamloops Vocational School, then under construction on McGill Road in Kamloops. With government funding following overwhelming regional support, Cariboo College published its first calendar in 1970 as a comprehensive regional post-secondary institution, and adopted the motto "Quansem Ilep," a Chinook word meaning "to strive ahead."
That first year, Cariboo was a college functioning without a campus, with the first Cariboo students attending classes at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. In September 1971, the College moved to its present location on McGill Road. Students and staff were housed in the Main Building, with other buildings consisting of a cafeteria, facilities building and a trailer for the faculty annex. The second year also saw the opening of a satellite campus in Williams Lake.
Cariboo, a roughed-out campus composed of a few raw concrete buildings and some portables, hardly compared to the venerated ideal of centuries-old, ivy-covered halls of learning at first.
Community colleges were a new concept, and faculty, students and administrators alike knew that they were participating in a grand experiment in regional post-secondary education. Incredible grass-roots support launched the College, and the basic goal of providing accessible, comprehensive post-secondary programs has been furthered over the years by a host of people who brought not only their own expertise to Cariboo, but a drive to show the world that a new, regional college could produce top-quality graduates.
The vocational division of the college, now known as the School of Trades and Technology, was established following the move of the college to the McGill Road site in September 1971. Vocational programming began in the Winter semester of 1972, when the Cook and Welder Training programs were started, and in May of 1972, B.C.'s Premier, W.A.C. Bennett, officially opened the Vocational wing of the College.
Up to 1974, trades training in Kamloops was provided through the B.C. Vocational School/Kamloops. In the Spring of that year, the B.C. Vocational School/Kamloops and Cariboo College "melded." The mold for future vocational programs was thus set: Cariboo College would provide training for those occupations which were essential to a thriving and robust community like Kamloops--occupations such as automotive mechanical repair, cooking, electrical work, and carpentry; in addition, the college region's natural resource-based economy required a steady stream of welders and heavy duty mechanics.
By Cariboo's 5th anniversary, with a new Gymnasium and Library under construction, and 100 faculty serving more than 2,000 students, Cariboo was growing fast, and in 1978 Cariboo was designated as a College under the BC Colleges and Institutes Act. At 3,785, student enrolment was more than six times what it was eight years earlier, the Bookstore was expanding, and a new Science building and Gymnasium were under construction. By 1980, the Cariboo College campus was taking shape, with various permanent buildings housing a growing number of students, and a Visual Arts building under construction. Cariboo took care of Business in 1983, opening the Cariboo Management Centre at the former Allan Matthews School and beginning construction on a Meat-cutting facility.
By Cariboo's 15th anniversary, the College was a truly comprehensive and unique regional post-secondary institution, steadily realizing its potential despite depressed economic conditions. Cariboo had opened the Cariboo College Dining Room in the Professional Cook Training building, had moved the Williams Lake campus to a 55,000 square-foot facility, and had added student residences, the Clock Tower administrative building, the Hillside Stadium, and a second floor to one wing of the Main Building.
The people of Kamloops have always taken pride in "their" college, but Cariboo's influence is felt far beyond the city in the form of reciprocal relationships in the arts, sciences, athletics and technology. Co-op Education, introduced in 1989 to give students an opportunity to gain practical paid work experience while pursuing a degree or diploma, is one example of reciprocity between Cariboo and the business community; another is technology-transfer, in which Cariboo instructors lend their expertise to solve industrial problems or to help workers to adapt to new technologies.
1989 was a banner year for post-secondary education in the BC Interior. The advent of degree completion programs in conjunction with the three established provincial universities dramatically altered the face of Cariboo College and the community, as students no longer had to leave the Interior to gain a Bachelor's degree. The new degree mandate resulted in more building, as well: the Library and Science buildings expanded in 1990; the Arts and Education building and Computer Access Centre on Victoria Street opened in 1991; and, incredibly, 1993 saw the openings of the Campus Activity Centre, second phase of Arts and Education building, new campus daycare facility, Canada Games Pool, Hillside Stadium track house, Williams Lake campus extension, Ashcroft Centre, and the Wells Gray Education and Research Centre.
Still mindful of its regional mandate, in 1994 Cariboo opened new Education and Training centres in Merritt and Lillooet, and in 1995, introduced interactive television (ITV) for regional programming. Cariboo led the province in this new technology, bringing more courses to more people than ever before. 1995 brought not only recognition from the provincial government that Cariboo had far exceeded expectations, serving students with 120 per cent efficiency, but also an official name-change. With the proclamation of the College and Institute Amendment Act (Bill 22), Cariboo College legally became The University College of the Cariboo (UCC) in January, 1995, with a mandate to award autonomous degrees.
The Trades and Technology Centre, completed in 1997, offers cutting-edge post-secondary trades and technology education. Local manufacturers and entrepreneurs have already reaped rewards from automation and management developed at UCC: truly, "education at work."
1998 marked the first year UCC BAs were awarded. In another first, this time on the field, UCC's men's soccer team won the National Championship for the first time. More firsts followed in 1999, with the first UCC honorary degrees awarded along with the first UCC Bachelor of Technology in Applied Computing Science and Bachelor of Tourism Management degrees. Women's soccer success followed the men's, with the women's soccer team winning both the provincial and national championships. Air success follwed success on the ground, with The X, UCC's campus-community radio station established.
UCC looked both forward and back as the millennium changed, creating the "Pioneer Wall," honouring the contributions of 124 "UCC Pioneers," and completing the UCC Strategic Plan. By 2002, many UCC departments and divisions were reorganized into Schools: Tourism, Business, Journalism, Nursing, Advanced Technologies and Mathematics, Education, Social Work, Trades and Technology, and UCC began to offer master degree programs in collaboration with UBC and SFU.
The following year, as UCC gained membership in Canadian Interuniversity Sports, the newly formed Friends of UCC University began a name-change campaign, which was rewarded in 2004 with the government's announcement that UCC will become a full-fledged, special purpose university and assume the assets and responsibilities of the BC Open University in the spring of 2005. As a result, UCC hosted the New Universities international conference and inaugurated the Ambassador scholarship program.
The following year, as UCC gained membership in Canadian Interuniversity Sports, the newly formed Friends of UCC University began a name-change campaign, which was rewarded in 2004 with the government's announcement that UCC will become a full-fledged, special purpose university and assume the assets and responsibilities of the BC Open University in the spring of 2005. As a result, UCC hosted the New Universities international conference and inaugurated the Ambassador scholarship program.
In April 2005, the British Columbia Open University (BCOU) transformed into the Open Learning Division of the newly created TRU, but Open Learning’s legacy actually began in 1978. It was in this year, that the provincial government founded the Open Learning Institute (OLI), a non-profit, fully accredited institution. About 10 years later the OLI combined with BC’s educational television broadcaster, the Knowledge Network, to form the Open Learning Agency (OLA) of which the BCOU was a Division.
It was under the OLA, when Open Learning was known as the BCOU, that televised lectures served as the continuing education type of academic offering for the Agency. The lectures were intended to spark conversation and encourage audiences to read a related book. Unfortunately, the medium’s inherent lack of interaction made the lectures increasingly obsolete, particularly with the onset of the Internet, and eventually they were abandoned. In 2005, the distance education aspect of the OLA was transferred to Thompson Rivers University. At this point, all programs and courses of the former BCOU became part of TRU under the Open Learning Division.
In 2007, the BC Centre for Open Learning (BCCOL) officially opened, marking the complete transition of all staff and services from Burnaby at the former Open University to TRU in Kamloops. The BCCOL currently houses the Open Learning Divison of TRU.