Originally appeared as a feature entitled “That Other University” in the November 9, 2009 issue of The Peak.

We’ve all heard things about that other University in Vancouver. In fact, many of us applied there out of high school as our first choice entice by the institution’s perceived reputation as a fountain of academic excellence (although we did beat them in the MacLean’s Magazine ranking).  Further, the SFU student seems to be attracted by the allure of the symbolic greener grass down on the endowment lands: they have a more active campus social life without the familiar ‘commuter school’ stigma, and their architecture doesn’t inspire suicide.

But is that really how it is down at the University of British Columbia? Is the campus really a bastion of first class academia, with a social scene that rivals the college life depicted in films such as American Pie? In a bid to answer investigate and answer these pressing questions, The Peak sent me down to UBC for an evening to act as an amateur anthropologist; to put it in the most succinct of English we wanted to see just how they roll.

My journey to the peninsula of the Lower Mainland where UBC resides began on the Millennium Line, with a quick stop at commercial station, then onwards on the B-Line.  The B-Line is the least comfortable part of the voyage: the bus lacked any sort of air circulation so it smelled just like the people on it. Translink seems to cater mostly to a motley crew of students and those who do not bathe regularly. While I hoped that this would be a student centric trip, the appearance of a number of the wayfarers suggested otherwise.

The woman who sat two seats in front of me, on one half the ‘accordion seat’ was talking to the man whom she sat across from, on the other accordion seat on the bus. The tone of her voice was of pure ecstasy; he was a thickly accented Asian gentleman who had trouble understanding what she was saying.

“My arm and back are so soar, I just recived the H1N1 vaccine yesterday!” she exclaimed while rubbing her arm, no doubt the target of her recent injection.

“You have the H1N1?” responded the man, quizzically.

It seemed like a scene from a David Sedaris essay. The phrase H1N1 solicited nervous states, and eyes darting towards the two adventitious conversationalists. Bottles of hand sanitizer emerged from pockets and purses. Hands were anxiously sanitized.

How very Vancouver. How Very 2009.

My guide for this tour of the quirks and quarks of the campus was Paul iBucci, the coordinating editor of their University newspaper The Ubyssey. Surprisingly he doesn’t mention the ever popular factoid of SFU’s suicide rate, which I thought all UBC students were quick to point out – a requisite of sorts.

We begin our tour outside The Ubyssey offices, in the SUB. The SUB is the hub of most student activity at UBC, akin to the Maggie Benson Center at SFU. Student life is focused around the SUB: the AMS, The Ubyssey, The Radio station CITR (which people actually listen to unlike CJSF), and the Resource Center.

UBC’s student government is known as the Alma Mater Society. Alma Mater being literally Latin for “nourishing mother” but the more used denotation is school which you will graduate from. They have a mandate similar to the SFSS, to provide students with support, services, and advocate in their interest.

However, as Bucci describes it, there is a certain political ‘animosity’ between the AMS and The Ubyssey, not necessarily unlike that between The Peak and the SFSS. The animosity between the two groups certainly isn’t anything new, in the 90s the AMS suspended the paper’s publication, and later disbanded the editorial collective over a controversial parody issue. The collective reformed a year later, autonomous from the AMS and funded through a fee attached to tuition.

Directly above The Ubyssey offices in the SUB is The Resource Group. The Resource Group is a collection of left leaning thinktanks and activist groups. Bucci explains that the campus consensus is that these groups contribute little of merit; ideological self promotion is what keeps them busy most of the time. Occasionally, Buccicontinues, they create publications which have a net readership of zero. I read between the lines on this one. The impression I get is what they are the biggest proprietor of bullshit on campus, similar to our very own SFPIRG.

After this brief tour of the SUB, we step outside to a very rainy October night and head towards one of the pubs, where a number of The Ubyssey staff is. As we walk we pass by of the libraries on campus, and Buccicontinues the tour with demonstrating some of his geek cred: “They filmed some scenes for Battlestar Galactica here. Boomer and Helo use this library as a spaceport”

“Well they filmed more scenes on my campus” I retort, elucidating that our Academic Quadrangle stood in for parts of Caprica City in a number of episodes.

But then in dawned on me, how awesomely geeky. The defining characteristics of a campus tour in Vancouver are how much of Battlestar Galactica was filmed there.

Frakkin Amazing.

We meet up with some more of The Ubyssey staff at the pub, which is playing host to a Halloween party put on by The Aggies, the nickname for the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems (Agricultural Science?). Joining us is the paper’s Copy Editor, Katarina Grgic, and the photo editor Gerald Deo.

“Oh, you must be dressed as an SFU student” one of them guesses.

“But you don’t look depressed from living in a smorgasbord of cloud and concrete”

What an original joke.

Over the next few beers, we broach the topic of campus culture. The prevailing thought at SFU is that we are the commuter campus in the city while at UBC there exists a rich on campus social atmosphere.

As Grgic and Deo explain, this isn’t exactly the case.

Each building on campus holds the entire classrooms of a respective faculty; Arts and Science classrooms never exist in the same area. This results in a mild case of subject segregation, and the rise of social cliques.

The most notable of these cliques is the Engineers. They throw the best parties, and have the most crazy and notable antics, according to Katarina. They were the group that did the infamous Hang a VW Beatle from a bridge. They’re notorious for being the guys to hang around with; they certainly embody the work hard party hard attitude.

The other active clique/club on campus is the Radical Beer Faction. In a number of ways they are like our own SFBrew, though with a political axe to grind. They are registered as a political party with the AMS, though their constitution could be considered entirely fringe: the RBF has toiled ceaselessly to promote inebriation, irreverence and informed choice at UBC, the groups founding party reads.

Although it was born as a protest party, the RBF have moved progressively into the mainstream. Their current platform is grounded in campaigning for a more progressive liquor policy on campus.

A more progressive liquour policy on campus? What is the impetus behind this? Why is it needed? I ask the cadre of Ubysseyies at the table.

They exclaim simultaneously “The War on Fun”.

There is some sort of campus cultural mythology that UBC is some sort of party school, they explain. While there are frat houses, the frats keep their parties away from those in residence and vice versa as each group believes that the other are “douchebags”. As a result, a large social atmosphere simply struggles to exist.

The University administration is largely at the helm of this “War on Fun”, because of their “neo-puritan”, as some describe it, policies. The Administration will rarely grant party organizers permission to throw any events of scale (hence the impetus for the Radical Beer Faction). Heaven and earth must be moved in order to acquire the necessary liquor licences.

Sports events, however, get the requisite permits and licenses with ease.  It is assumed that these events will be a social hearth of sorts, but this isn’t the case. Sports games are sparsely attended. The general lack of school spirit is speculated as a reason for poor attendance.

Nobody could give a definite answer about why there was a lack of school spirit, and the feeling that UBC had turned into a commuter school. Was it the subject segregation, cliques and social bubbles that formed? Or was it the number of families moving into the new residential developments on campus? Were the numerous noise and other complaints from these families fostering the neopuritian “War on Fun” ran by the administration?

Regardless, it reminded me of the sentiment about the social scene here at SFU. The Social life at SFU is viewed as being non existence. With the exception of a few events thrown by clubs such as SFBrew, there isn’t really much going on after class. Students and articles in The Peak have speculated upon the cause of this. While the mediocre fare that is the Highland Pub could be partly to blame, the consensus largely lies upon the Administration’s refusal to allow any parties where alcohol is served liberally.

If opportunities aren’t provided to allow students to let loose and party they will do so elsewhere. It may be in a bar downtown, or it could be in the enchanted forest. Regardless, the lack of party unity erodes the collective school spirit.

There is hope on the horizon. The Campus administration could relax their stringent, neopuritan policies regarding alcohol licenses for parties. The SFSS could take a page from the RBF’s handbook and pressure the administration to do so, but they are too concerned with trivial matters like “Cut Pumpkins, Not Funding”. Not all of the University experience involves lectures and tutorials; a good portion involves letting loose and having fun. Unfortunately it seems like both the administrations at UBC and SFU want to deny students this experience.