Before I ever set foot onto SFU’s Burnaby campus, I already had a fully-formed mental image of how my future school would look. “It’s got the highest suicide rate of any Canadian university,” quipped a Douglas College-bound friend. His explanation was that the campus, set atop a peak which I equated in my mind with the Misty Mountains from The Fellowship of the Ring, was made entirely of concrete and barbed wire.
Though this image was hyperbolic, my first visit to what would become my main campus was less than encouraging — I picked a particularly windy, overcast afternoon to discover my new school, and the prison-like roof of the Convocation Mall seemed to forebode a depressing and bleak post-secondary experience.
However, like many first-year students, I eventually fell in love with my campus. Its wintry landscape in mid-December reminded me of watching The X-Files in ninth grade; come June, the Academic Quadrangle became an oasis of quintessentially BC foliage. I pledge allegiance to Arthur Erickson’s ingenious architecture: there are very few scenarios in which I am forced to walk outside during a rainy day. Come September, I’ll be starting my second year at SFU, and I’m excited to continue my education.
The newspaper you’re holding in your hands has been one of the main conduits through which I have learned what SFU means to me. The Peak has helped me make friendsand improve my scholarly abilities, and it’s one of the main reasons that I love being an SFU student. But after a year of involvement with the university’s student newspaper, I’ve realized that there’s one thing I’d like to change: its name.
When I picture Simon Fraser University in my mind, I see the same image that themajority of SFU students likely see: the quaint waterfall near the bus loop, the koi fish inthe AQ’s pond, the smiling faces on the baristas at the Higher Grounds coffee shop. But SFU isn’t limited to its main campus: we are lucky enough to attend a university with three beautiful campuses throughout the lower mainland, even if some students forget that the latter two exist.
SFU Vancouver is made up of two buildings: the Woodward’s Building, which houses SFU’s dance, film and contemporary arts programs; and Harbour Center, which offers a variety of courses, from Business Administration to Urban Studies. Located in the heart of downtown Vancouver, this campus is a fast-paced hub for creatives and entrepreneurs to take advantage of many of SFU’s most rewarding programs. It doesn’t hurt that the campus is a stone’s throw away from Gastown, which is home to some of the best coffee houses and restaurants in the city.
SFU Surrey is situated in Surrey’s Central City building, and its programs include the school of Interactive Arts and Technology and a variety of Computer Science and Engineering classes. Though many are quick to crack jokes about Surrey’s reputation for gang violence, Central City is located in one of downtown Surrey’s most beautiful areas, and the school is populated by motivated and intelligent SFU students. Downstairs, the Central City Brewing Co. gives the Highland Pub a run for its money, featuring some of the best craft beer in BC.
I didn’t discover either of SFU’s satellite campuses right away, but I’m glad that I took the time to explore my school in greater depth and meet many students I otherwise might not have had the chance to. Burnaby Mountain might be my main campus, but I know that Simon Fraser University means different things to different students. Our newspaper should reflect the interests of our university’s entire student base. So why have we held on to the title The Peak, even after expanding our university to include a wider variety of locations?
Our student newspaper was founded on October 6, 1965, after the previous two newspapers — The Tartan and The SF View — decided to merge. Though its first issue was published unnamed, the October 20 follow-up bore the title The Peak for the first time. It’s a catchy title, it’s easy to remember, and it’s easy to adopt clever titles for columns and otherwise (see Peak Speak, Peak Week, etc). Plus, let’s be honest: SF View is pretty weak. In 1965, Burnaby Mountain was SFU’s only campus; but this hasn’t been the case since SFU Vancouver first opened its doors in 1989.
As one of the newspaper’s most frequent contributors, I hate to think that SFU students have become reluctant to write for The Peak because they feel that the paper excludes them. Including issues which affect Vancouver and Surrey students is a process, and one of the first steps that we can take as one of SFU’s most tenured student organizations is to choose a name which strives to include its student audience rather than exclude them.
After all, at the end of the day, The Peak is written by SFU students, for SFU students. I believe that Simon Fraser University is one of the best schools in the country, and I’m proud to study here. But I also recognize that the campus I love is not everyone’s campus. Surrey and Vancouver students have a right to their student paper as much as any other student, and our title should reflect that.
