Ms. Mahon’s election as the University of Manitoba’s 14^th chancellor was announced today by Jeff Lieberman, Chair of the Board of Governors. Effective June 1, 2019 for a three-year term, she succeeds the current chancellor, Dr. Harvey Secter.

“I am honoured to share the news today of the election of Ms. Mahon as the next chancellor of the University of Manitoba,” said Mr. Lieberman. “I know she will serve as a tremendous champion of this institution and of higher education generally.”

“As historian W.L. Morton once explained, the chancellor is ‘the University’s best friend in the world,’” said Dr. Secter, who has served as chancellor with distinction since 2010, “and Ms. Mahon will certainly serve in this important role with strength and passion.”

The chancellor is the ceremonial head of the university, responsible for conferring all degrees and diplomas. The Chancellor Search Committee identified the capacity to serve as an ambassador for the University in the broader community and to contribute meaningfully to University governance as key election criteria.

Ms. Mahon has demonstrated the ability to connect with people and build trusting relationships. Her two books of oral history amplify the voices of the disempowered (former Winnipeg gang members and African refugees) and speak eloquently to their strength and resilience.

In her volunteer work, Ms. Mahon has lent considerable time and effort to international development, through Humankind International, and to supporting immigrants and refugees through the Immigrant Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. She has also been involved in numerous philanthropic causes, including UNICEF Canada and the United Way of Winnipeg. She is the founder and co-facilitator of the Book Mates Book Club at the Women’s Correction Centre.

“Anne Mahon’s work in the community as a bridge-builder of integrity and follow-through embodies this university’s commitment to lead, listen and act in partnership with the populations it serves,” said President and Vice-Chancellor David T. Barnard. “I am confident she will inspire a bright future that enhances the institution’s community relevance and engagement.”

Anne Mahon holds a Bachelor of Human Ecology from the University of Manitoba, and has remained connected to the institution and higher education, including as a donor to the University of Winnipeg, the Asper School of Business, St. Paul’s College and the University of Manitoba’s Front and Centre Campaign.

Anne lives in Winnipeg with her husband Paul Mahon, also an alumnus of the University of Manitoba. They have three children.

“I know the University of Manitoba as a graduate, a parent, a donor, and a Manitoban,” Ms. Mahon shared in response to her election. “This institution offers the power of education and opportunity, while being an indispensable intellectual contributor and employer to our city and province. The University’s diversity and inclusion, its possibilities of hope, and its efforts as a catalyst for broad-minded thinking are of great importance to me.”

Anne Mahon will be installed as the University of Manitoba’s next chancellor in a ceremony to be held as part of Spring Convocation in June 2019.

PROPS TO THE PROFS

Applied Biological Safety, by Dr. Steven Theriault! The course was taught super well and the material was incredibly interesting! I poured my blood, sweat and tears into a research paper (that got 100 per cent) – still a proud moment for this Science grad. 

This alumni question prompted me to go back and re-read my paper (on Yersinia pestis – the cause for the pneumonic/septicemic/bubonic plague). I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of that awesome course, and how engaged I was as a student. Kudos to Dr. Theriault for knowing how to teach.
~ Sana M. [BSc/10]

Calculus taught by Donald Trim in the old engineering building room 219. Amazing teacher.
~ Eric S. [BSc(EE)/89]

Legal History with Cliff Edwards O.C. Q.C. Never forget him!
~ Julian V. [LLB/09]

Social Issues in Business with Professor Reg Litz. Amazing professor, amazing person.
~ Kelly K. [BComm(Hons)/99]

My favourite course was Economics with Jesse Vorst. I found him to be a really inspiring and a captivating lecturer … it is one of those courses I have remembered over time.
~Roxana M. [BComm(Hons)/84]

I took Dr. Sarah Elvins’ “History of U.S. Since 1939” from 2005-2006. Not only were the lecture topics incredibly and consistently engaging, but Dr. Elvins had a media-rich pedagogy that was extremely hard to pull off in the pre-YouTube, early Google days. Her teaching style was enjoyably humorous, and she fostered rich class discussions. Dr. Elvins would then supplement lectures with movie clips, songs, etc. and I do appreciate now that she had to gather all of these media elements physically, likely at a cost. Thank you Dr. Elvins for a wonderful History course that I still think about (eg. Malvina Reynolds’ Little Boxes song)!
~ Nicole Gareau-Wilson [BA/06, Bed/08, MEd/18]

Ross Henderson, Business Policy. He knew how to teach if you were willing to learn.
~ Jerome Knysh [BSc(IE)/84, ExEd/87, MBA/90]

Family Financial Health with Karen Duncan. Best class, hands down best prof! She inspired me to delve deeper in my readings and provided a supportive learning environment that also challenged me to be an independent thinker.
~ Melissa GS. [BHECOL/17]

Dental Science with Israel Kleinberg.  Was he one fired up dental researcher and educator .
~ Frank G. [DMD/70]

STIMULATING SEMINARS

Introductory Psychology taught by Dr. V. Kamaya. It was a class that was late in the day, smaller because of the hour, and there seemed to be students from a variety of faculties – I was in Commerce. While the official coursework was quick to learn, the whole class participated and the questions we asked went deeper than any of us seemed to have expected.
~ Patrick S. [BComm(Hons)/84]

Introduction to Sociology with Daniel Albas was fantastic and eye opening for me. I would say that was the most memorable course I’ve ever taken.
~ Amirali Y. [BSc/17]

The best class I had was International Trade from Professor Barry Coyle. The course is very theoretical, but simplifies and explains the concept of comparative advantage and the role of international trade in global economy. It offers a scientific response to the current protectionism. Nearly all students who take Barry’s course firmly believe that he has the course roadmap in his mind and whenever in the class, he just pulls the information out of his head like Professor Dumbledore with his Pensive!
~ Yuan Z.  [MSc/16]

My most memorable class was called Meeting the Needs in the Near Environment. This was a mandatory first year general human ecology class and our textbook was written by prominent home economist Eleanor Vaines. I wrote a paper that received a mark of 100 per cent – it was the only time I ever received that mark and I still have that paper and the textbook.

After completing my human ecology degree I worked for 10 years, completed an education degree and became a home ec teacher. A decade after that I enrolled in the UBC home economics and everyday living cohort where I had to write a reflective paper about me and my chosen professional path. The first thing I thought of was the book by Vaines. Throughout my master’s program I reflected many times on that book, what Professor Shannon taught in that class, and the paper I aced. That class gave me purpose and direction in 1987 and again in 2011. I was never the so-called perfect academic student but I knew what I wanted to do with my life and I have been thankful for the home economics professors who believed in my abilities and my path.
~ AnnaLee Parnetta [BHECOL/93]

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Alumni Answers is our way of building community with our alumni by sharing memories, ideas, and opinions with one another. Every month, we pose a new question with an opportunity to learn, laugh, and ponder together.

Next month, we’re asking: What meaningful relationships did you make at the U of M? To send in your answer, click here, or email alumni_answers@umanitoba.ca

A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE

Best summer job was working in Winnipeg doing building maintenance. It was very practical and I was able to meet several Bosnian refugees who gave me a whole new perspective of the world. I also volunteered with a youth group on Watts Avenue. That too was an eye-opener on how little some kids had and how grateful they were for learning outdoor cooking and skills. I showed these kids how to rescue-carry an injured person and this little 10-year-old kid picked me up and walked with 150 pounds on his back. Those kids had next to nothing, but they had determination. ~ Doug Setter [BHECOL./02]

LIFE LESSONS AND LOVE AT THE LAKE

Working at YMCA-YWCA Camp Stephens was the best summer job, one I had for a number of years. From working as a counsellor to guiding canoe trips, this place offered challenges and experiences that fostered personal growth for me and surely for the youth I was working with. Next to my family, I credit this camp to helping form who I am today as a person. It was an amazing experience on an island on Lake of the Woods where I forged lifelong friendships and even where I met my husband. ~ Lisa M. [BRS/04]

OH, CANADA

I worked as a dining car waiter for four summers for the CNR.  Not only did I have the opportunity to see the vastness and beauty of Canada, as well as its wonderful mix of interesting citizens, but also I was able to earn enough money to pay for my tuition and books on my own. It doesn’t get any better than that! ~ James T. [BSc/58, MSc/60]

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Admission desk at the Manitoba Children’s Museum – it was a pretty happy place to spend your day. ~ Lindsay S. [BA/96]

LINKS ON THE LINKS

My best summer job was working at a country club. The location was beautiful. Hands down prettiest work environment I’ve had. More importantly, I was able to spend the summers networking with prominent members of the community. By the end of my summer job, I’d received several job offers in my career field. ~ Shannon L. [BA/03, LLB/09]

Alumni Answers is our way of building community with our alumni by sharing memories, ideas, and opinions with one another. Every month, we pose a new question with an opportunity to learn, laugh, and ponder together.

For August, we’re asking: What’s your favourite travel story? To send in your answer, click here, or email alumni_answers [at] umanitoba [dot] ca

The Hats Off to Human Ecology event on Thursday, October 1, 2015

Homecoming 2015 was a particularly memorable time as the university community bid farewell to the Faculty of Human Ecology. The rich history of the 105-year-old faculty was celebrated at the “Passing the Baton” ceremony followed by the farewell dinner on Thursday, October 1.

As part of the academic structure initiative, the Faculty of Human Ecology ‘s departments have joined their new faculties.

At the Homecoming festivities, alumni, students, faculty and staff honoured the contributions of the faculty and looked forward to new opportunities in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and the Faculty of Health Sciences. The celebrations reflected on the impact of the faculty over the past 105 years, and also looked forward to the contributions to come in their new homes.

“The Faculty has been home to specialized research that greatly informs and guides our approach to children, family, nutrition, health and well-being at home and beyond borders,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David Barnard. “Moving forward, its researchers will continue to look at the everyday in new ways, deepening our understanding, and improving our quality of life not only in Manitoba, but around the world.”

The passing of the baton event

Human Ecology graduates have made immeasurable contributions to the community, becoming dietitians, teachers, community leaders, scientists and scholars. Many have been recognized as members of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, while others have received honorary doctorates and been recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award.

David Barnard and Janice Filmon, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, unveil the Human Ecology plaque

The closing ceremonies featured comments from one of the faculty’s notable alumni, the Honourable Janice Filmon, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. “It’s been a while since I cracked a book here on campus, so I will admit that I probably don’t remember the specifics of the research papers we read and the notes we studied at exam time, but the understanding that came to me during those formative years has shaped me for life,” remarked Filmon.

“The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences is pleased to welcome our colleagues in Human Nutritional Sciences and Textile Sciences to our fold,” said Karin Wittenberg, dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. “It is clear that we share a common goal of developing and communicating knowledge that supports the health of our food, our communities and our environment.”

“Working together we will strengthen the University of Manitoba’s expertise and leadership role in teaching, research and outreach in family and population health, as well as enhancing our innovative approach to community health,” said Lawrence Elliott, associate head of the department of community Health Sciences in the College of Medicine, describing how the newly merged departments of Family Social Sciences and Community Health Sciences will build on previous success.

Really singing, with animated hands and enthusiastic eyes as if she’s performing for a packed house. Everyone at the photo shoot loves it.

“My God, I asked for it,” says the photographer, laughing. “That’s awesome.”

He had suggested the lieutenant-governor have some fun for the camera. She obliged, offering a rendition of an age-old song the home economics grad would perform during skits back in her days at the University of Manitoba. Just like that, Her Honour has reminded the room that leadership doesn’t have to be grandiose or formal. It comes down to making small, but meaningful, connections with others.

And leadership is something she takes very seriously. During her installation as lieutenant-governor at the Legislature a week earlier, Filmon shared her mandate to grow leaders in Manitoba. “In my experience,” she said during her official address, “most all of us have the spark to lead but just need a bit of encouragement to feel empowered.”

A tireless volunteer with not-for-profit organizations for decades, she is inspired by everyday people who shine a light in someone else’s life. She sees leaders everywhere: the driver of the Handi-Transit van at the park unloading his passengers with such care, a woman who puts her heart into being a mom.

They’re all in, Filmon points out. “Leadership in its broadest sense is that you have a commitment or a passion from within yourself to want to partake. You’ve got to believe in the project.”

At 72, Manitoba’s lieutenant-governor still believes. And she doesn’t worry or overanalyze (it’s a waste of energy) or watch TV (it’s a waste of time). She doesn’t have a bucket list (not yet anyway). And she can’t think of anything that scares her.

“Katie, these are funny questions,” she says with a smile.

I continue: “Do you believe in psychics?”

“No.”

But she does know the mystical powers of a hug.

“I’m a hugger,” she affirms unapologetically.

Filmon shows me an email from Ted Dzogan, a man in his 40s who once took part in Manitoba ALIVE (A Leadership Initiative in Voluntary Efforts). She helped create the program to encourage high-schoolers to find their inner leader and squash racial stereotypes. Each year the program brings together 30 teens of all ethnicities from within Winnipeg, the province’s rural communities and the Far North.

One of the workshops was about hugging. Filmon describes how some participants would keep their arms out wide like something was preventing them from getting close. In the email, Dzogan wrote about how at first he felt uncomfortable with the idea, having grown up without hugs in his home—but that was going to change for his family.

“For all your other wonderful accomplishments, the one that means the most to me will be that hug you gave an awkward, lonely and anxious boy that won’t ever publicly define you, but is the starting point for most of what has ended up defining me,” Dzogan wrote.

He was at Her Honour’s installation.

“He said, ‘Can I have one of those hugs?’” Filmon recalls.

Seeing Manitoba ALIVE teens learn from each other was “pure magic” and their transformation, dramatic. “Kids develop masks,” says Filmon, at one time a social worker with the Children’s Aid Society in Winnipeg. She helped them to reveal their unique beauty and potential. “[When] they feel good about themselves and they believe in themselves—all of a sudden you have this amazing dynamic happening and parents would come back and say, ‘Who is this?’”

While her husband Gary [BSc(CE)/64, MSc/67, LLD/11] was leading Manitoba as premier, the couple was trying to empower their own kids—Allison, David, Gregg and Susanna.

As a mom, Filmon wanted not just to be there but to be present in every moment. She knew when to step back and let them climb that tree—“better a broken arm than a broken spirit,” she quips. Filmon wanted them to take charge of their own happiness.

“The whole business with parents saying ‘I just want them to be happy,’ well, I think being happy is their responsibility, not mine. It’s about the choices they make,” she says.

When she was a child, her father, Harold Wainwright, shared with his two daughters his curiosity about people and community. And he instilled in them a drive to push themselves. “He’d say ‘Is that the best you can do, young lady?’”

An executive with the Hudson’s Bay Company, he moved the family around a lot but within the instability, the love was steady. By age seven, young Janice Wainwright was already 4-foot-11, nearly as tall as her five-foot mother, Marjorie. In the pre-teen years that followed, she would grow up fast. An introvert back then, she had to dig deep for the confidence to be the new kid at six schools in five years. But the real game-changer came at 16 when her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Filmon became mini-mom to her younger sister and only sibling, Judy, getting dinner in the oven after two daily visits to Misericordia Hospital squeezed in before and after classes at Gordon Bell High School. Her mom would survive six years, much of that time spent in hospital.

No longer could she greet her daughters from behind the counter at the local community club canteen, when they came inside to warm up from a skate. Away from the cold, the pungent blast of mustard and boiled hotdogs would hit their rosy cheeks. “It just smelled so delicious,” Filmon recalls.

Marjorie died at 54.

When Filmon got a phone call from her doctor’s office years later—at 46—the mother of four knew something was awry. They had asked her to change her appointment and instead come in at the end of the day. Before a word was said, Filmon remembers pondering what this doctor sitting across from her must have been feeling in that heavy moment. She wanted to put him at ease.

“I thought, imagine having to tell me this. So I said, ‘You don’t know me very well and I’ve driven down here and I just want you to know that I’m going to be okay to drive home,’” she recalls.

She would drive home to Gary, who was near the beginning of his 11-year run as premier. Their profile was public, but she fought her breast cancer battle out of the spotlight, going through three dozen radiation treatments and then chemotherapy.

“And then years later,” Filmon’s voice falls, “it was Allison.”

One of her most cherished memories: the moment their eldest child, Allison Filmon Carvey, came home carrying baby Lexie, a sweet bundle of love. It was Christmas and the glow from the tree lit up their home in holiday perfection. “I can still see her walking in with our first grandchild.”

Allison, a mother of two, was also 46 when she was diagnosed with cancer. During the three years before her death of melanoma in 2013 it was hard to wriggle away from cancer’s hold. “You’re aware of that uninvited guest,” says Filmon, a long-time chairperson for the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. “What you’re doing is going through a circumstance as best you know how, with who you are at that point, with whatever skills you have and the love that surrounds you…. She was a beautiful, beautiful woman in every way, in spirit, inside and out.”

Gary, a loving father, has always offered his wife a steady hand to hold. When there are questions, he pursues answers. When there is a problem, he tries to fix it. “If the plane was going down, you would want him at the controls,” she says.

While her husband was premier, she didn’t read the newspaper or watch the news. She wanted to be free to just be herself. “I didn’t need to know that stuff,” Filmon says. “I needed to know that I could be me and if I went out into the community and met somebody I was meeting them on my terms and without a whole lot of background. So that allowed me to go about the community and be.”

Filmon is good at remembering people’s names, and she’ll make a point of calling you by yours several times during a conversation. She describes herself as “a relationship-based thinker” which will serve her well during her five-year appointment as the Queen’s representative in Manitoba. She says it’s about time a female was chosen; she is only the second woman to hold the vice-regal post since 1870, following Pearl McGonigal [LLD/83] in 1981.

“Because first comes a single step, and then a stride and before you know it someone may even ask you to lead.”

Filmon admires another Manitoba-raised woman who broke new ground: Nellie McClung. As founding chair of the Nellie McClung Foundation, Filmon led a team of volunteers who put a bronze sculpture on the Legislative grounds and who honour McClung for her role in helping Manitoba women win the right to vote before any other jurisdiction in Canada.

“Nellie was doing this back in 1916, married with five children. There were no cell phones. It was not cool for a woman to leave her husband and go riding the rails, right? This is phenomenal,” says Filmon.

There’s a stack of thank you cards Her Honour is working through in response to all of the well wishes for her appointment. She’s handwritten about 500 so far.

Among them: former classmates from the U of M.

How many have you kept in touch with?

“Oh, everybody,” she says before laughing.

The first from her family to go to university, Filmon would become Alumni Association president, a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and an honorary degree recipient.

The campus was where she met her husband and home to some of her earliest volunteer efforts, from the blood drive to the Snowball Prom. (Her dad’s shovel might still be floating around; she left it behind after building snow sculptures and he never let her forget it.)

Filmon soaked up the tight-knit spirit on campus. “It was just such a sense of community and of pride,” she says.

Her Honour also talks about the pride she feels for the province as a whole. “There is something about prairie people,” she says. “They are very rooted, family-oriented, community-oriented, great volunteers.”

As lieutenant–governor, she wants to develop leaders no matter how old they are, whether they’re from a big city or a tiny town. It begins with saying yes. “Because first comes a single step, and then a stride and before you know it someone may even ask you to lead,” Filmon said in her installation speech.

And that leadership grows out of human connection.

“Sometimes to empower a person, it takes just a word of encouragement, a squeeze of the hand, or the simple words, ‘You are not alone. I’ll help.’”

Before I leave her home, the woman whom Prime Minister Stephen Harper hailed as “a strong leader” and “an exemplary volunteer” is apologizing that she never offered me biscuits.

But I did get a hug.

Related stories:

• Filmon installed as Lieutenant Governor
• Two alumni lauded for outstanding contributions to health field

Watch:

• Janice Filmon, Honourary Degree Recipient, 2011 Spring Convocation
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba Installation

That same spirit of discovery and innovation inspired the faculty to seek new partnerships with other academic units in 2012 as part of the University of Manitoba’s Academic Structure Initiative. The result? Human nutritional sciences joined the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences; family social sciences, the department of community health sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences; and textile sciences, the department of biosystems engineering in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.

These changes were made official by July 1, 2015. While the Faculty of Human Ecology has closed, the innovative research and teaching conducted in those departments will continue to evolve to meet society’s needs into the future. Human Ecology’s impact will continue!

We are celebrating one of Human Ecology’s most notable graduates in this issue. As well as one of its newest grads.

The Hats Off to Human Ecology events, Sept. 29 to Oct. 4, will celebrate the faculty’s history and commemorate the transition of the departments to their new homes.

Open House
Human Ecology Building
September 29 – October 4, 2015
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Passing the Baton Ceremony and Reception
Human Ecology Building
October 1, 2015
4:00 – 5:15 p.m.
Speeches start at 4:30 p.m.
Optional tours at 2:30 p.m.

Farewell Dinner
Manitoba Room, University Centre
October 1, 2015
Reception: 5:30 p.m.
Dinner: 6:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: $65

Visit umanitoba.ca/homecoming for more information.

As a student what was the transition like?

Lisa Reed: At first there was a lot of “save Human Ecology,” but there has definitely been a change in attitude over the past year. There’s been acceptance and we’re actually having a Human Ecology celebration in fall, so I think there’s a lot more focus on celebrating the history of Human Ecology and moving forward.

What sort of opportunities do you see as a student, now that you are a part of Agricultural and Food Sciences?

LR: The food industry and the agriculture industry are very prominent in Manitoba, so I see this as a good opportunity for nutrition students to gain some meaningful connections that will help them get their foot in the door in the ag industry.

How does being a part of Agricultural and Food Sciences have an impact on your education in human nutritional sciences?

LR: There is a lot of synergy with food science and nutrition. I worked on a project with Dr. House, who is cross-appointed with nutrition and animal science. He does work studying the effects of locally produced ingredients such as canola oil, pulses (beans, lentils and peas) and hemp on humans and animals. One of his projects was using more Manitoba-grown ingredients for feed and the effects on the chicken and the meat that you get. We did palatability studies and other tests to prove that this can be a safe chicken feed. One of the PhD students is doing work on eggs, seeing what effect feeding this food to chickens would have on the nutrition of the egg. With our resources in food science and nutrition collectively we’re able to do some pretty neat things, like palatability studies, and there’s a pilot plant in the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals and in the food science department where we can develop new foods. When you pool together our resources, you are able to do more research and it will encompass what the food can do and its nutritional and functional capabilities.

What excites you most about being part of a new faculty?

LR: I think it is going to be a gradual change but it is very exciting to be a part of a new faculty. What excites me the most is getting to see how the food system connects to human health. Being in agriculture, we’ll get to see more of that.

Rotimi Aluko is a professor in the department of human nutritional sciences. His research concerns bioactive peptides and functional properties of Manitoba-grown crops.

Can you describe your research in a few sentences?

Rotimi Aluko: We take regular food proteins from milk and prairie crops like yellow field pea, flax seed, hemp seed and we break these down into small products called peptides and then we try to find a use for these peptides. One of the uses is the ability of peptides to reduced blood pressure overall, so instead of hypertensive drugs, people could take peptide products to reduce blood pressure. We can have natural alternatives to drugs that are safer to use, with fewer side effects.
We have licensed this product, which is made from Manitoba-grown yellow field pea seeds, to a Canadian company to market the product as an antihypertensive product. Because of the potential high demand for proteins to make this product, there should be an increased economic return to farmers who grow these seeds.

Now that you are in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, what sorts of opportunities do you see for collaboration with your colleagues?

RA: One of the areas that has become very important and the public is demanding is the use of alternative feed ingredients for raising livestock. That is one of the areas we are working on with animal sciences: Can we use natural products from flax and pea seeds that could reduce or eliminate antibiotics in meat? There is a big challenge to find natural alternatives and there is an opportunity to work with animal scientists to come up with natural alternatives to antibiotics that can not only maintain the production integrity of the livestock industry in Manitoba and Canada, but can make it better.

This type of collaborative research sounds like it supports one of the university’s strategic research areas: safe, healthy, just and sustainable food systems.

RA: We hope this will have a huge impact in safe, just and sustainable food systems. Firstly, in terms of safety, there is the potential to eliminate antibiotic residue and potential food toxicity in food. Secondly in terms of a just food system, with new products like this, farmers are contributing more and also receiving more in terms of economic returns. Finally the whole system becomes sustainable, because we are using materials that are renewable, not from petroleum or other non-renewables.

What was it like to transition from the Faculty of Human Ecology to the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences?

RA: The transition was pretty easy. What made it easy for me was that we have several existing collaborative works with Ag and Food Sciences professors in food science, plant science and animal sciences. Therefore, it wasn’t difficult… to integrate; it was more like coming back home.

The following stories are adapted from More than Memories: Stories from our past, a book produced for Human Ecology’s centennial year in 2010.

The Beginning

Home Economics Food Lab, 1914 or 1915

In 1909, the courses of study, staff members, and all other required pieces were put together and the first group of girls began their studies in Household Science on May 3, 1910. In order to apply, the girls had to be 18 years old and able to prove evidence of moral character. They needed a certificate of health signed by their parents and had to convince College authorities that their English education was sufficient for them to succeed in their lectures and subsequent exams. There is no mention of how these students were able to provide evidence of moral character in the College General Calendar, but it is very clear that any bending of the rules would result in expulsion.

Courses listed in the 1910/11 General Calendar include Management of Home Poultry, The Home Garden, Meat-cutting demonstration, and Beekeeping.

Changing to meet needs of community

In 1911, a Home Economics car was added to the Better Farm Trains that traveled around rural Manitoba giving short courses to people in rural communities. Courses were offered in Agriculture as well as the new home economics topics ranging from food safety to care of the sick. This was the beginning of agricultural extension work, which defined the history and the faculty for many years.

In 1933, the provincial extension program was becoming bigger and the demand for trained extension workers from the degree program was high. The Depression and both world wars provided new educational and research opportunities.

The “Practice House”

Living room of the Practice House, 1930s.

The first mention of actual care of children was in 1929 when, under the supervision of Florence McLauchlin, two children were cared for in the Sprague House by the students in Household Management. In 1931, when Home Management was relocated to the Farm Cottage, a separate course in child care was introduced in the fourth year degree program requiring each student in the House to be Child Director for a period of time.

After years of reports to the President of insufficient space and poor heating in the “farm house,” a new red brick Georgian-style residence, designed by Ralph Ham specifically for the Department of Home Economics “to accommodate ten students and a baby.” Known as the “Practice House,” it has been immortalized by the late Carol Shields, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, in her novel Republic of Love.

From 1929 to 1953, thirty-three children, mostly babies, received the loving care of Miss McLauchlin, known as “Mac” amongst her colleagues and friends, and her Home Ec students.

After 1945, when veterans of World War II flocked to the university, many brought their wives and families who lived lived on campus in special student housing popularly known as the “Veteran’s Village.” The basement of the new Management House was used two afternoons a week as a playroom or nursery school for their children. With about 20 two- to five- year-olds attending, “the small nursery school served as an observation laboratory for students.”

The Story of Canola

The University of Manitoba is recognized nationally and internationally as having played a role in the development of canola but credit is usually limited to the contribution made by the plant breeders (in particular, Dr. Baldur Stefansson) in the Department of Plant Science. The contribution by Foods and Nutrition is not as well known.

Dr. Vivian Bruce and Dr. Bruce McDonald were the first researchers to feed canola oil to human subjects under carefully controlled experimental conditions. These early studies found canola oil as effective as sunflower oil and soybean oil in lowering blood cholesterol.

Parallel to the nutrition studies were studies by Professor Marion Vaisey-Genser, Dr. Michael Eskin and later, Dr. Lina Malcolmson on the shelf-life and deep-fry stability of canola oil and canola shortening. These researchers adopted and perfected methods for assessing the shelf-life of canola oil and for comparing its stability with other edible vegetable oils.

Judy Teerhuis, Laboratory technicians, and the Weatherometer, 1970s

From Textiles to Advanced Materials

The opening of the Duff Roblin Building in 1969 was a significant event in the history of textile sciences. The department now had space for a full textile lab.

A Weatherometer, the first one in Canada, was installed in the lab. This machine could expose textiles to simulated natural sunlight, rain on demand and exposure to air pollutants. The lab had equipment to assess colour fastness, abrasion, stiffness, linear density, and identify fibers and fabrics. As word of the program and the new lab spread, the textile laboratories were contacted to help with local textile problems. Clients included Gemini Fashions, JEnnis Fabrics, Syn-Tex Industries, Engineered Apparel, Warehouse One, Quinton’s Cleaners, Freed & Freed, Nygard, Bombardier, several Winnipeg hospitals, Manitoba Hydro, firefighters, and many more.

The University of Manitoba’s Archives and Special Collections’ Human Ecology fonds includes a wealth of information about the faculty through the years. The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by the Faculty of Human Ecology in several accessions between 1984 and 1993.

The digital photo collection can be found at http://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3Ahumanecology?display=grid

Milestones

1910 – Diploma in Household Sciences established within Manitoba Agricultural College

1915 – Diploma in Household Sciences becomes Bachelor of Home Economics

1924 – Home Economics granted Faculty status: Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics

1943 – School of Home Economics established

1967 – Department of Foods and Nutrition & Department of Clothing and Textiles established

1970 – School of Home Economics becomes the Faculty of Home Economics

1971 – Department of Family Studies established

1981 – Faculty of Home Economics becomes Faculty of Human Ecology

1982 – Bachelor of Human Ecology degree introduced

2004 – Department of Foods and Nutrition renamed Department of Human Nutritional Sciences

2005 – Department of Clothing and Textiles renamed Department of Textile Sciences, Degree designation changed to B. Sc. (Textile Sciences), Textile product development curriculum launched

2007 – Bachelor of Health Sciences and Bachelor of Health Studies degrees introduced

2014 – Department of Human Nutritional Sciences moves to Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences

2015 – Department of Textile Sciences merges with Department of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Family Social Sciences merges with Department of Community Health Sciences

• that Human Nutritional Sciences move to the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences effective July 1, 2014;
• that the Department of Family Social Sciences join the Department of Community Health Sciences effective July 1, 2015; and
• that Textile Sciences join the Department of Biosystems Engineering, effective July 1, 2015.

Given that the Faculty of Human Ecology’s departments will all have joined with other faculties by July 1, 2015, the Faculty Council and Senate recommended that the Faculty of Human Ecology be closed effective July 1, 2015. The Board of Governors approved this recommendation on June 23, 2015.

Throughout its 105 year history at the University of Manitoba, the study of Human Ecology has evolved to reflect the educational and research needs of a changing society. It has grown from being a diploma in Household Sciences at the Manitoba Agricultural College in 1910 to become the School of Home Economics in 1943. In 1970, the School was granted official faculty status and in 1981, the Faculty changed its name to Human Ecology to reflect the diversification of curricula. In 2012, discussions about exploring partnerships between the Faculty of Human Ecology and other faculties were initiated as part of the university’s Academic Structure Initiative.

The transition of Human Nutritional Sciences, Family Social Sciences and Textile Sciences to their new faculties will enrich educational experiences for students in these areas, enhance leading edge, multi-disciplinary research, and forge new connections with community partners.

We respect and value the contributions that Home Economics and Human Ecology faculty, staff, students and alumni have made throughout the years and look forward to their continued contributions as we move into the future.