CE Units Ready for 2010 Winter Games

From the April 2007 Issue of InFocus

The University of British Columbia’s Robson Square downtown campus is now also home to the “Commerce Centre” of the BC 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat.

photo courtesy of University of British Columbia

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are three years away, but CE units in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, already are preparing to help the host city welcome the world's spotlight. As their institutions' direct interface with the community, civic involvement is a large part of their core mission.

"Continuing Studies is seen as an enterprise that takes the institutional assets and interfaces directly with the community to better the community," says John LaBrie, Dean of Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University, noting that several programs are targeted specifically to serve a public civic function and are grant or endowment funded. "That really is our mission, and that's why we are very strategically positioned both within the university, and the community. So when Simon Fraser talks about doing something for the Olympics, everyone talks about where Continuing Studies will fit. It's where we're expected to be, and that's why we can have a very broad-based approach."

Though no Olympic-related programs have been officially rolled out - expect that to happen once the 2008 Summer Games have concluded in Beijing - planning is in the works to adapt a series of programs already offered to more specifically focus on the Games and their impact on Vancouver. One, the City Program, was established in 1992 to enhance students' understanding of Vancouver, and covers urban issues that will be brought to the forefront of public interest as the Games approach. Students explore these issues through the program's three components: mid-career professional development courses, evening public lectures, and a non-credit urban design certificate program.

"The City Program will host a series of programs and public talks around some of the urban issues that will come to the table around the Olympics," LaBrie says. "Everything from new infrastructure to mass transit, to issues of homelessness and the social fabric of the city will be examined." There will be a huge amount of development as a result of the Olympics and one of the issues for discussion is how British Columbia will work to capitalize on the legacy of the Games after their conclusion.

During the Games, Vancouver will prominently showcase ways the First Nations aboriginal peoples have shaped the city's culture. Simon Fraser Continuing Studies offers a First Nations studies program. Courses explore traditional and contemporary issues involving aboriginal peoples in North America and Canada, "Indian-White" relations, provincial policies, language, aboriginal rights, self-government, and economic development.

Continuing Studies will help the province prepare First Nation communities to receive international visitors that the Games will attract. Simon Fraser offers an array of English language, Culture, and Interpretation programs, and it expects to be called upon during the games for translation services; staff will contribute to the Beijing Summer Games as well. LaBrie says when the University sent a delegation to Turin, Italy, for the 2006 Winter Games, "we were notified that there would be a need for all sorts of organizations to be educated." And Simon Fraser Continuing Studies is positioned to respond.

Local to Global Opportunities

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) is working with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations from across Canada to develop educational programming surrounding the Games. o Don Black, Director of Community Programs at UBC Continuing Studies, has been partially seconded by VANOC to serve as Director of Education Programs and help lead the development and delivery of K-12, post-secondary and lifelong learning programs for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In September 2007, VANOC will be launching www.vancouver2010.com /edu, an online, interactive, bilingual e-magazine connecting schools, teachers and students from across Canada to the 2010 Games. o VANOC and UBC are currently exploring the feasibility of a post-secondary program that could include a global exchange of ideas related to the 2010 Games, including local, national and international conferences and forums on sport, culture and sustainability, and involving universities and colleges from across Canada and around the world. "UBC Continuing Studies has a long history of offering public forums that bring experts together to share knowledge and exchange viewpoints," says Jane Hutton, Associate Vice President, UBC Continuing Studies. "In the years leading up to 2010, we look forward to continuing this tradition by working with other members of the UBC community, and other institutions and organizations to offer special series on Gamesrelated subjects-sport, culture, wellness and sustainability, among others. It's going to be a very exciting time with lots of opportunities to participate and hopefully add good value and legacies of learning."

Language and Cultural Education

Vancouver is the hub of a multicultural region of 2.1 million people - the city proper is home to nearly 600,000 - including a large Chinese population. More than half of Vancouver's school-age children have been raised speaking a language other than English; after Chinese, the most common are Punjabi, German, Italian, French, Filipino and Spanish. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Languages, Cultures and Travel Division of Continuing Studies at the University of British Columbia has seen its enrollment numbers double over the last five years - the program now draws more than 1,000 students each term. And as the city prepares to play host to the Olympics, the Division expects residents and industry to find extra motivation for learning a new language.

"We started a four-year campaign last fall, and we asked the question: 'Are we ready to meet the world?'" says Judith Plessis, Director of Languages, Cultures and Travel. "We are trying to kick-start the idea that if you really want to represent Vancouver as a multicultural hub, and not just a beautiful location, you have to look at the people of Vancouver." Each term, the Division offers more than 100 classes teaching 16 languages.

The approach of the Games has helped build awareness of the programming the Division offers that is not specifically Olympics-related, such as a recently launched free program teaching tourism officials basic Mandarin, as well as a cultural awareness to meet the needs of a growing number of Chinese tourists. That crash course, conducted over six two-hour sessions and limited to 12 seats, was full before the official invitations could be mailed out, and Plessis says the Division is preparing other events for a receptive business audience.

"We are proactive in using [the Games] as a strategy, and we know that along the way we will attract people who may not be doing it for the Olympics, but have given thought about what it means to be a global citizen," says Plessis. "Up to now, the leverage has always been preparing people for travel, or to live in our bilingual country or overseas, so this is just another [motivation]. Now we have a specific event with a date, so it's more concrete, and people have a final objective."

Offering More than Just Programming

In order to offer programming that is convenient for adult students and other non-traditional learners, CE units increasingly are building centers in downtown areas and burgeoning city centers (see InFocus, October 2005). These centers are not limited to serving the local community; when a global event such as an Olympic games touches down in a host city, organizers and other visitors are eager to make use of the state-of-the-art facilities.

Simon Fraser offers a First Nations studies program that explores traditional and contemporary issues involving aboriginal peoples in North America and Canada. Pictured is the Thunderbird House Post—a replica of a house post carved by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Charles James in the early 1900’s. Tony Hunt carved this replica in 1987 to replace the older pole now in the Vancouver Museum.

In Vancouver, UBC's Robson Square campus is now also home to the "Commerce Center" of the British Columbia 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat, the provincial agency responsible for overseeing BC's Olympic financial commitments and ensuring the province's Olympic vision is achieved. UBC has a proposal to host some unaccredited media during the Games at the site, according to the University. UBC also is exploring the potential of offering a range of educational events centering on the Games on its downtown campus, such as conferences and community forums.

At the last Summer Olympic Games held in North America, the 1996 Games in Atlanta, the venerable Georgia Center for Continuing Education at the University of Georgia in Athens became temporary host to FIFA, soccer's international governing body. The Georgia Center, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, includes a conference center and a 200-room hotel. The Center hosted FIFA officials while the gold medal soccer matches were held in Athens, recalls Mitch Skelton, Associate Director Emeritus at the Georgia Center, who also served as the liaison to the group. During a site visit, FIFA officials, many of whom were French and Swiss, had a taste for the food the center served and liked that the hotel manager spoke French, Skelton says.

"It was quite an experience," Skelton says. "There was a protocol for hosting all of those officials, and it was something we weren't used to dealing with, but we were successful in accommodating them. We converted rooms into suites, and took our conference rooms and turned them into offices. When the President of FIFA came in for a day, we had an office set up for him and we had turned the place into FIFA headquarters."

Skelton calls hosting the Games the highlight of his career. And though it was a daunting task, he says it never was overwhelming. "That's the nature of our business," he says. "We're a conference center, and we are meeting planners. We usually don't have to do it on that scale, but we do accommodate different groups every week, whether it's a group of scientists one week or teachers the next. So we were probably better prepared to do that than most."

— Doug Davala