World champion cherishes time at Guelph
Cassie Campbell Cassie Campbell, BA ’97, is a seven-time world champion and three-time Olympic medalist in women’s hockey, but she still says one of her most memorable hockey moments was winning the 1995 Ontario University Athletic championship as a Guelph Gryphon.
“I was the only Guelph player with national team experience, but we beat the University of Toronto, which had eight national team members on the ice,” she said during an April 2006 press conference hosted by the Department of Athletics.
Campbell said she tried three times to earn a spot on the national team, but didn’t make it until 1993 after working with Gryphon coach Sue Scherer, BA ’83, whom Campbell described as her “most influential coach.” Scherer emphasized fitness and was an appropriate role model, having served as captain of Canada’s first national women’s team in 1990.
Campbell was named Team Canada captain in 2001 and held the position for five years; she is the only captain to lead a hockey team (women or men) to consecutive Olympic gold medals (2002 and 2006).
Tim Bray This changes everything
Tim Bray, B.Sc. ’01, is known by most “computer geeks” ― he includes himself under the moniker ― as co-developer of XML (extensible markup language), the encoding language that permits the exchange of information on the web by standardizing information shared among various computer systems. XML enables the e-mails and web searches we now take for granted.
Based in Vancouver, Bray is director of web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc. and author of the popular weblog “ongoing.” He visited his alma mater in 2005 to help launch Blogs @Guelph, a pilot project for campus users, and last year to speak at a computing conference. Blogging is changing the business of communication, he says, because it provides an outlet for the storytelling impulse in each of us.
Synonomous with soybeans
Peter Hannam When Peter Hannam was a student at Guelph in the 1960s, one of his professors suggested that soybeans would never be grown in this part of Ontario because the season was too short. Fortunately, Hannam took that as a challenge. In 1982, he established First Line Seeds and grew the company into one of Canada’s largest soybean seed suppliers. He invested in research, developed new varieties and helped soybeans become Ontario’s largest field crop.
Hannam has also invested in research talent at the University of Guelph and ideas that could lead to a better match between soybean growers and market opportunities, innovative uses for soy protein in medicine and industry, and better ways to utilize byproducts of soybean processing.
Hannam is a visionary leader whose commitment to agriculture does not waver, nor his desire to motivate people to act in the best interest of this cornerstone industry.
 Alumni say we’re tops
The annual Maclean’s magazine ranking of Canadian universities includes a graduate survey, in which participants are asked to rate their alma mater. In the 2006 survey, Guelph was No. 1 among comprehensive universities in seven of the eight categories for educational excellence.
The write person for the job
Jane Urquhart The bestselling author of five internationally acclaimed novels, Jane Urquhart, BA ’71, returned to her alma mater last fall as writer in residence.
“I always loved this campus, so there’s something exciting about coming back,” she says. “I don’t really feel that I’ve changed that much since I was here as a student 30 years ago, and that’s an odd thing because a lot has happened to me in the intervening years.”
She says working with emerging writers who have a desire to write regardless of what might happen to the material they produce is exciting.
This was Urquhart’s second invitation to Guelph. She received an honorary degree in 1999 and delivered a memorable convocation address in which she encouraged students to pursue both a vocation and an avocation ― something you do because you love to do it. She said she feels grateful that her avocation has become her vocation. Urquhart has received numerous literary awards and was named to the Order of Canada in 2005.
Knowledge is discovering new truths, but it’s also the way we organize what we know and the way we think about re-imagining ourselves and the world in which we live.
Continuing to provide a quality education
Once again, the University of Guelph was at the top of its class for overall educational quality, reputation and atmosphere in the 2006 University Report Card published by the Globe and Mail.
 The fifth-annual survey represented the opinions of some 32,700 undergraduate students across Canada. Universities were divided into four divisions based on enrolment, and Guelph was ranked No. 1 in the medium-large category. The University got top marks in several key areas: sense of personal safety and security, library services, overall satisfaction with the university experience, and reputation for undergraduate and graduate studies, professional schools and among employers.
Guelph was once again the top-rated school in the country for its food services, and received praise for its excellent faculty, athletic programs and use of technology.
Helping students fund a Guelph education
In the last decade, expenditures for financial assistance programs at U of G have increased by 250 per cent; tuition has gone up 62 per cent. In addition, the University has increased undergraduate financial assistance for needs-based awards by 96 per cent and merit-based awards by 104 per cent. And because of the commitment of its graduates, Guelph continues to have one of the lowest student-loan default rated in the province.
U of G applauds recent alumni achievements
- A 1979 political science graduate and a member of the University’s Board of Governors, Jeff Lozon, is president and CEO of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He was recently appointed by the prime minister to head the $260-million Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.
Jeff Lozon
- Mick Bhatia, who earned his PhD in human biology in 1995, has been recruited by McMaster University to head a new stem cell and cancer research institute.
- A medical doctor and dean of medicine at the Fii School of Medicine, David Brewster, BA ’69, has been named a member of the Order of Australia for his work in developing indigenous child health care and treatment for malnutrition in developing countries.
- John Steffler, MA ’74 in English, is a former professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Canada’s new poet laureate.
- Kristin Roe, a 2003 philosophy graduate, became the first Canadian to swim from Robben Island to Cape Town, South Africa last winter, a feat that raised money for women infected with HIV/AIDS.
Stephen Lewis and Kristin Roe
- Latvia’s ambassador to the NATO defence alliance is a 1968 MA history graduate, Janis Eichmanis. He was formerly Latvian ambassador to Greece.
- Agriculture graduates Mohd Basri Wahid, PhD ’93, and Makhdzir Mardan, PhD ’89, were honoured in Malaysia by receiving the title of Datuk (equivalent to a British knighthood).
Makhdzir Mardan with King of Malasyia
- The Right Rev. David Guiliano, BA ’82 and M.Sc. ’94, was elected moderator of the United Church of Canada in 2006.
- International development graduate Jason Dunkerley, BA ’03, won a gold medal at the world track-and-field championships for athletes with a disability held in the Netherlands in September 2006. He took the men’s 1,500 metres for the visually impaired.
- Aakosua Frema Osei-Opare earned an M.Sc. in consumer studies in 1976. After a long public-service career, she was elected a member of parliament in Ghana and is deputy minister of manpower, youth and employment.
Working for alumni
The University of Guelph Alumni Association (UGAA) volunteers serve as a voice for all Guelph graduates and advisors for the University’s administration. The UGAA board includes:
President: Trish Walker, BA ’77, M.Sc. ’90, Consultant, Applied Consumer and Clinical Evaluations
Trish Walker
Deborah Butterwick, B.Sc. ’82, Investment advisor
David Gilbert, BA ’81, B.Sc.(Agr.) ’84, President, Expedite Marketing Group
Wayne Gudbranson, BA ’80, President and CEO, Branham Group Inc.
Colin Henry, BA ’91, Investment advisor, BMO Nesbitt Burns
Linda Hruska, B.Sc.(Agr.) ’85 and M.(Agr.)’88, Agri-food industry consultant
Bill Laidlaw, BA ’74, Executive director, Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre / Toronto Biotechnology Initiative
Brad Rooney, ADA ’93, B.Sc.(Agr.) ’97, Sales representative, Sheridan Nurseries Inc.
T.K. “Sandy” Warley, H.D.La. ’03, Retired chair, Agricultural Economics and Business
Ted Young, ADA ’65, President and CEO, Edward Young International Inc.
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