TIMELINE OF
INTERNATIONALISM
AT UBC
1911
Mass immigration to Canada resulted in
a boom period for the city of Vancouver
in the early 20th century. The
population grew from a settlement of
1,000 in 1881 to over 100,000 by 1911.
1914 - Sharp and Thompson proposed
plan for Point Grey campus
1915
UBC’s first President, Frank Wesbrook,
dubbed UBC the “People’s University.”
While the university’s founding mission
was to serve all the people of British
Columbia, the majority of the student
body was Anglo-Canadian, Christian,
and middle-class, from homes in
Vancouver or the Fraser Valley.
1913 - Portrait of F. F Wesbrook
1919
After the war Germanophobia
complicated academic freedom.
Government officials accused UBC of
disloyalty to Britain after American
UBC professor Walter C. Barnes was
charged with promoting a German
point of view. Patriotic ideals sharply
divided faculty and students. Students
were invited to study German on the
basis that it was better to understand
one’s enemies.
1927
1927 - Musqueam presentation of
house posts
Musqueam house posts were presented
to UBC to remind students of the
continuing presence of the Musqueam
and that UBC is on Musqueam ancestral
lands. This was at a time when nonAboriginal authorities thought they had
silenced the native population.
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