Today was a big day at UBC: it was the official opening of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. This is a very important thing for UBC to do; as a settler on this land, and a member of the UBC community, I hope very much that this will help in addressing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This is a clear example that UBC will make space for the things that it believes are important. In this case, it built a new space in the heart of campus, right between the two major libraries – right in the heart of UBC’s research base, you might say.

I suspect you know where I’m going with this, but just to make it clear:

If UBC can build a whole new building for something that matters, surely it can spare two floors of a library for its graduate students without taking back a chunk of that for administrative offices. After all, it’s not administration that makes a university world-class, which UBC makes a big deal of being ; it’s research and teaching, both of which graduate students are heavily involved in.

Make more space for what matters, UBC.