1980 Fredericton Encaenia
Graduation Address
Delivered by: Springer, Hugh
Content
"Universities Facing Financial Challenges" Daily Gleaner (18 May 1980). (UA Case 67, Box 2)
Canadian universities deserve praise for the way they have faced the challenges posed by financial circumstances and have found ways of maintaining the standards for which they are famous and respected in the world.
Delivering the annual Encaenia address to 1,106 University of New Brunswick graduates at the Aitken Centre yesterday. Hugh Worrell Springer said that during the early 70s universities were "expanding and multiplying" and that "everyone was behaving as if it would go on for ever."
The barbadian lawyer and scholar told the graduates that a shortfall of student enrolments, the oil crisis and other financial constraints which followed came as a shock to universities. While paying tribute to the standards of Canadian institutions he warned "there obviously is a time limit to the possibility of continuing these efforts with success."
"We have grown to expect recovery from recession, and it is, one hopes, only a race against the clock."
He told the graduates he has established many contacts and friendships in Canada during his 38-year acquaintance with the country.
He said Canadians have given "strong support" to such groups as the Association of Commonwealth Universities naming among others, UNB’s president emeritus Colin B. MacKay.
"Yours is among the oldest institutions of higher learning in the new world and it is a special privilege to be admitted to its membership," he stated after receiving an honorary doctor of civil laws at the graduation exercises.
His first honorary degree was "at the hands of the rector of Laval University, in the distinguished company of Sir Edward Appleton and Sir Howard Florey (of penicillin fame)," he explained to the graduates.
He said he has visited "practically all the universities in all the provinces of Canada" and "my admiration and respect for them has grown with greater and wider acquaintance."
"Every university I know has a distinctive character of its own and over and above this the universities of every country have a national flavor…In Canada, however, the national flavor is less pronounced than the regional or provincial flavor."
"That…is not to suggest narrowness of outlook," he added. "On the contrary, an impressive feature of many Canadian universities, alongside their contributions to local development and the solution of local problems, is their international outlook."
He said this outlook has also heightened "Canada’s crucial role in the creation of the commonwealth."
Canadian universities deserve praise for the way they have faced the challenges posed by financial circumstances and have found ways of maintaining the standards for which they are famous and respected in the world.
Delivering the annual Encaenia address to 1,106 University of New Brunswick graduates at the Aitken Centre yesterday. Hugh Worrell Springer said that during the early 70s universities were "expanding and multiplying" and that "everyone was behaving as if it would go on for ever."
The barbadian lawyer and scholar told the graduates that a shortfall of student enrolments, the oil crisis and other financial constraints which followed came as a shock to universities. While paying tribute to the standards of Canadian institutions he warned "there obviously is a time limit to the possibility of continuing these efforts with success."
"We have grown to expect recovery from recession, and it is, one hopes, only a race against the clock."
He told the graduates he has established many contacts and friendships in Canada during his 38-year acquaintance with the country.
He said Canadians have given "strong support" to such groups as the Association of Commonwealth Universities naming among others, UNB’s president emeritus Colin B. MacKay.
"Yours is among the oldest institutions of higher learning in the new world and it is a special privilege to be admitted to its membership," he stated after receiving an honorary doctor of civil laws at the graduation exercises.
His first honorary degree was "at the hands of the rector of Laval University, in the distinguished company of Sir Edward Appleton and Sir Howard Florey (of penicillin fame)," he explained to the graduates.
He said he has visited "practically all the universities in all the provinces of Canada" and "my admiration and respect for them has grown with greater and wider acquaintance."
"Every university I know has a distinctive character of its own and over and above this the universities of every country have a national flavor…In Canada, however, the national flavor is less pronounced than the regional or provincial flavor."
"That…is not to suggest narrowness of outlook," he added. "On the contrary, an impressive feature of many Canadian universities, alongside their contributions to local development and the solution of local problems, is their international outlook."
He said this outlook has also heightened "Canada’s crucial role in the creation of the commonwealth."
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