Ryerson wasn’t always the commuter school we love to rant about. Each week, the Eyeopener unearths the stories that shook up campus in decades past.
Jan. 17 to Jan. 23
January 1978 — Campaigning on women’s issues
- Herb A. Hoff vowed to look out for women’s rights if he were elected SURPI president. (SURPI, for you young’ins, is now known as the RSU.) An ad, which appeared in the Eyeopener on Jan. 19, 1978, featured Hoff proposing a women’s commons area and information centre. According to his candidate profile, women at Ryerson “were getting the short end of the stick” when it came to student aid and summer employment. Hoff lost to David McCuaig by 70 votes the following week.
January 1998 — Rye thinks multimedia
- The Jan. 21, 1998 issue of the Eyeopener reported that Ryerson approved a multimedia minor for GCM, RTA and theatre production students. The minor offered six courses in subjects such as CD-ROMs and website development. It sounds a little archaic, but at the time, media convergence was a new concept. The minor was “the way of the future.” It’s nice to see that Ryerson got mostly right.
- On a completely unrelated note — albeit one from the same issue — someone broke into a car behind the theatre school and stole Canadian Tire money and pocket change. Nowadays, people tend to jack laptops. Inflation?
January 2005 — Prof so hot, he’s a fire hazard
- Literally. Students would cram into a popular professor’s calculus class, some sitting on their classmates’ laps. In the case of a fire, however, the packed classroom could prove to be a deathtrap because “only so many people can get out through the designated fire exits at a time,” said an Oshawa firefighter in a Jan. 19, 2005 article. It’s unlikely that anyone has been this passionate about math since.
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Photo illustration: Chelsea Pottage
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