UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
HISTORY OF THE UNBC GEOGRAPHY PROGRAM
Compiled by Kevin Hall, Greg Halseth, and Ellen Petticrew
Prince George, BC, February 29, 2000
A Northern University: The Idea
The need for a new university in British Columbia came became apparent in the 1980s as
enrollments in the three established universities began to exceed capacity. In 1987, a
group of northern civic and business leaders, centred in Prince George, initiated a
campaign to have that new university situated in the northern part of the province. This
grassroots support has led to UNBCs focus as an institute "in the north and for
the north". Five special interest areas were identified. These included:
environmental, Pan-Pacific, northern regions, First Nations, and women’s studies. In
addition, the university mandate included the active delivery of university instruction
throughout the north; to be accomplished via a number of means including audio and visual
distance teaching technology and the placement of teaching staff in regional offices.
From the start, geography was integral to university planning. With the university
having an interest in northern landscapes, resources, and communities, the inclusion of
physical and human geography was a logical decision. The Geography Program, the
undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and faculty research directions have all developed
to meet both the general and specific interests of the university.
Integration and Interdisciplinarity
One of the five faculties created under the original university plan was the Faculty of
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (NRES). This Faculty included biology,
environmental studies, geography, forestry, and outdoor recreation/tourism programs. Given
the context of a small university with a limited number of faculty members, the decision
was made to integrate the academic program areas.
The implications of this interdisciplinary emphasis within geography are threefold.
Students from the other programs take geography courses as part of their degree
requirements. Second, geography majors take courses in most of the other NRES programs as
well as from elsewhere across the university. Finally, the geography faculty teach courses
in a number of other disciplines including forestry, environmental science, biology,
northern studies, international studies, and political science.
Building Geography
Key to the foundation of geography at UNBC was the role Professor John Chapman (UBC
– Geography) played as a member of the Interim Governing Council (IGC). From 1990 to
1994, in his role on the IGC, Professor Chapman sat on a number of committees guiding
program and curriculum development. His long experience with the development of geography
in British Columbia allowed him to be a strong voice for the role of geography in a
natural resources and environmental studies faculty. As originally formulated the
Geography Program consisted of majors in both physical and human geography. His efforts
ensured that attention to the needs of fieldwork, laboratory, and classroom teaching for
geography were met. Faculty members were hired within the framework developed by the IGC.
In April of 1993 the first position, in the field of physical geography, was offered to
Ellen Petticrew. In the fall of that year Gail Fondahl was hired as a cultural geographer.
Until February of 1994, UNBC thus had the only all female geography staff in North
America. This pattern was broken when the Chair of the program was offered to Kevin Hall,
a cold regions specialist. Allen Gottesfeld was then hired in the hydrology position. Over
the summer of 1994, Greg Halseth (rural and social geography) and Roger Wheate (GIS/remote
sensing) completed our full-time hiring. Unmet hiring needs from the initial geography
staffing plan included economic geography and a geomorphologist. With the
university’s official opening in September 1994, two sessional instructors, both
delivering human geography courses, were hired to teach in the regions. Reg Horne and
Murray Rice were assigned to teach in Terrace and Fort St John respectively. One sessional
position was closed after a year, while Reg Horne was moved, after two years, to the main
campus at Prince George. Wim Kok, a geographer at Northern Lights College (Fort St
John/Dawson Creek), has from 1995 offered a range of human, physical, and techniques
courses for UNBC students at a number of regional satellite campuses.
Critical to teaching and research success was the provision of high calibre facilities.
The physical geography labs included a clean wet lab, research space, and a sediment
analysis lab. The centrepiece of the geography facilities was the state-of-the-art GIS
lab. Designed to serve a broad cross-section of the university’s student body and
research needs, the lab includes 22 Silicon Graphics computers and various output devices.
A recent upgrade means that as of 2000, there are 40 UNIX-based stations available. The
lab is networked to other SGI servers throughout the university.
Curriculum Development
The IGC designed initial course requirements for all of the planned programs. In the
1993-1994 academic year, the geography degree requirements were modified by Ellen
Petticrew. Evaluation and advice was provided by geography faculty at UBC and SFU. The
first UNBC calendar was published in July 1994 and included a major in both physical and
human geography.
The emphasis of the physical geography degree has developed around cold region and
hydrologic/fluvial processes. The human geography degree has developed around three
streams: cultural, social and economic. All geography offerings include a strong emphasis
on northern issues and contexts. As well, the regional geography courses emphasize
northern British Columbia, Russia, and the circumpolar north as per the mandate of the
university. Forty to fifty percent of the university’s student population are
residents of northern BC. In addition, UNBC has a Co-op program and has negotiated student
exchange agreements with a number of circumpolar universities.
Recognizing the tremendous uncertainty that the university, and its students, would
face over the first decade of operations, the Geography Program resolved to put in place a
robust curriculum and degree program. By September 1996 modifications to the Geography
offerings, which reflected the people and resources that we had available, were
fundamentally complete. In addition to the BA and BSc degrees, four ‘Minors’
were developed. These include ‘Human Geography’ (with several available
directions of study), ‘Physical Geography’, ‘Geomorphology’, and
‘GIS’. The Minors are well subscribed and provide a valuable, identified skills
offering to students outside of the Geography Majors. Since that time, geography majors,
and students in programs requiring geography courses have enjoyed the stability of a
consistent set of degrees and courses.
The Geography Program and course delivery techniques were all designed to fit the
context of a small university, with limited resources and expectations of increasing
enrollments. Enrollment growth has been consistent across the geography offerings and has
exceeded the rates expected by the university planners.
Graduate Studies
The initial masters programs were developed in 1993 and our first student was accepted
in September 1994. Over 1994, the Faculty of NRES debated and developed a set of
integrated masters degrees and a Ph.D. program. These new graduate degrees (MA(NRES),
MSc(NRES), MNRES, PhD(NRES)) built upon the university’s and Faculty’s
commitment to interdisciplinarity.
The Geography Program offers graduate courses in cultural, economic, social, regional,
GIS/remote sensing, sediments, Quaternary, and weathering topics. To date, 22 graduate
students have enrolled in the masters program with geography supervisors.
Regional Reach
The Geography Program, through its teaching and research, has been active in fulfilling
the university’s mandate to serve northern British Columbia. Among the Programs at
UNBC, Geography has been particularly active with respect to delivery of courses to and
from the regions. In 1994, Murray Rice and Reg Horne delivered courses not only in their
regional community but also across the university’s network. By 1996 enrollments at
the main campus required that Reg Horne’s position be relocated from Terrace to
Prince George. Wim Kok from Northern Lights College continues to offer UNBC courses in the
Peace River region and by audio conferencing to the rest of the UNBC network. Beyond
interactive audio and video teaching, Gail Fondahl and Roger Wheate have developed new
web-based courses to deliver advanced circumpolar geography and GIS courses. As well, Greg
Halseth has developed an intensive short course on the human geography of the Prince
Rupert region for delivery through Regional Operation’s "Courses on the
Coast".
Since 1994 all faculty have increasingly focussed their research interests upon
northern British Columbia. At present, a wide range of research projects are underway
looking at alpine and fluvial processes, and at northern and First Nations communities. As
a result, a number of the undergraduate and graduate students involved in these projects
have developed the skills and capabilities which have allowed them to obtain employment
with northern companies and communities.
UNBC Undergraduate Geography Degrees:
- BA (Geography)
- BSc (Geography)
UNBC Geography Minors:
- Human Geography
- Physical Geography
- Geomorphology
- GIS
UNBC Graduate Degrees:
- MA (NRES)
- MSc (NRES)
- MNRES
- PhD (NRES)
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