Our History

Compiled by Sheldon Goldfarb, AMS archivist.

For historical photos of students and AMS events, click here.

For more information about AMS history please contact the AMS archivist (archives@ams.ubc.ca or 604-822-9360).

Prehistory

  • 1899 – 1900: Vancouver College, primarily a high school, begins offering post-secondary courses accredited by Montreal’s McGill University. Six students enroll in the post-secondary program (enrollment reaches 30 in the 1905-06 school year).
  • Fall 1906: McGill University College of British Columbia (McGill B.C.) opens, replacing the post-secondary program at Vancouver College and offering university-level instruction to 48 students (enrollment in later years rises to about 300).
  • Fall 1907: McGill B.C.’s students organize a student society known as the Alma Mater Society. The first president is F.J. Shearer.

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Early Days, Fairview Campus

  • September 27 to 30, 1915: Opening of UBC, the first true university in the province. The University is temporarily housed in McGill B.C.’s old buildings (called the “Fairview Shacks”) at 12th and Oak. McGill B.C. closes, and many of its professors and students continue at UBC (though some go overseas to fight in World War I). Registration and meeting of faculty members takes place September 27, and the first lectures begin September 30.
  • October 15, 1915: Birthday of the Alma Mater Society (AMS) of UBC; students meet and adopt the constitution for the new student society. Sherwood Lett is elected first AMS President later that month.
  • 1915-16: First student clubs at UBC are formed: two debating clubs (the Men’s Literary Society and the Women’s Literary Society), the Players’ Club (putting on theatrical productions), and the Glee Club (later the Musical Club, then the Musical Society or MUSSOC).
  • December 1916: First UBC student publication, a monthly magazine called the Anonymous(later renamed Ubicee), is formed.
  • 1916-17: Mountaineering Club is formed (later renamed the Varsity Outdoors Club).
  • 1916-17: Predecessor of the Student Administration Commission (SAC) is formed to oversee the clubs, first called the Literary Department, then the Literary and Scientific Department (LSD), 1917-27; then the Literary and Scientific Executive (LSE), 1927-54; then the University Clubs Committee (UCC), 1954-72. It became SAC in 1975.
  • October 17, 1918: First issue of new student newspaper called the Ubyssey.
  • October 28, 1922: The Great Trek. All 1,200 UBC students march from the Fairview campus to the site of the still not-built campus in Point Grey (the current campus), demanding the government provide the money needed for construction. The government agreed.

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Point Grey: The First 40 Years

  • September 1925: Classes begin at the new Point Grey campus.

  • Feburary 17, 1928: An AMS general meeting votes to oppose the revival of a Canadian Officers Training Corps (COTC) contingent on campus. But the University senate approves the revival, and the COTC contingent begins functioning in 1928-29.

  • April 27, 1928: The students incorporate their Alma Mater Society as an independent non-profit society in order to raise money for campus construction.

  • November 9, 1929: Official opening of UBC’s first gymnasium, built with money raised by the AMS. It’s the first of many campus building projects initiated by students through the AMS.

  • 1936-37: Film Society is founded; the first year’s film presentations include Thunder Over Mexico, Fra Diavolo, and Ali Baba.

  • September 1937: AMS begins weekly half-hour radio broadcasts on a local radio station (directed by a new club, the Radio Society).

  • January 31, 1940: Official opening of Brock Hall, the first UBC students union building, paid for largely by funds raised by the AMS.

  • January 1949: The Dance Club (constituted the previous year) begins functioning, advertising classes in the tango, the rumba, and the foxtrot.

  • October 25, 1954: Fire at Brock Hall; the roof falls in. Students launch a fundraising campaign to pay for restoration.

  • December 1956: The Second Trek; a student petition campaign convinces the government to increase funding for the University.

  • March 1963: The Third Trek (the “Back Mac” Campaign;) students march, boycott classes, and petition in support of UBC President John B. Macdonald’s request for increased funding and greater access to higher education.

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Point Grey Since 1965

  • October 18, 1967: Students are elected to the University senate for the first time.

  • September 26, 1968: Opening of current Student Union Building (the SUB), paid for largely by AMS funds.

  • October 24, 1968: Urged on by U.S. hippy leader Jerry Rubin, thousands of UBC students occupy the Faculty Club. The AMS students’ council condemns the occupation, but helps organize a teach-in on university reform the following week.

  • November 28, 1968: Opening of The Pit, the first student pub on campus, temporarily located on the second floor of the SUB until a permanent home could be made for it in the SUB basement. The Pit’s name, which was probably given to it because of the plans to relocate to the basement, was suggested by David Suzuki, the noted environmentalist and former UBC faculty member.

  • January 1969: The Radio Society begins broadcasting as CYVR. It becomes CITR in 1974, and begins broadcasting off-campus on cable in 1975 and on FM in 1982.

  • September 24, 1971: About 2,000 students heed an AMS call to block the U.S. border to protest nuclear testing on Amchitka Island, Alaska.

  • November 19, 1973: The Pit opens in its new location in the SUB basement. Beer goes on sale for 40 cents a bottle.

  • December 1974: Students are elected to the University board of governors for the first time (one is Svend Robinson, later a New Democratic Party MP).

  • November 1975: A referendum revamps AMS structure, creating the Student Administrative Commission (SAC), the body responsible for overseeing clubs.

  • April 1, 1977: AMS Student Court orders the AMS to pay compensation to the Varsity Outdoors Club (VOC) in a dispute over ownership of the Whistler cabin (built for the AMS and the VOC in 1965). AMS students’ council refuses to approve the Court ruling. A compromise is later reached.

  • February 4, 1986: Bowing to protests, the engineers replace their annual Lady Godiva ride with a mock funeral procession, but then stage a strip show in the Hebb Theatre. The rides subsequently resumed for a few more years, but were discontinued after 1989.

  • January 1987: Students vote against banning the sale of South African products in the SUB in a referendum aimed at protesting against apartheid. The No side argued that the products were only tenuously connected to South Africa.

  • September 1989: Students vote against paying a $30 AMS fee to build the Student Recreation Centre, reversing a vote from the year before. UBC administration introduces its own $40 student fee to pay for the Centre.

  • 1994-95: The Ubyssey, until then an AMS publication, does not publish all year following conflicts with the AMS executive sparked by controversial articles in 1993-94. In 1995-96, The Ubyssey is reborn as an independent publication (no longer published by the AMS).

  • February 14, 1996: The AMS officially announces its new Child Care Bursary Fund, named after Evelyn Lett, a member of the first AMS students’ council in 1915-16. Lett, age 99, attends the ceremony and makes a short speech.

  • November 25, 1997: The summit of leaders from member nations of APEC (the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization) turns violent as protesters on campus are sprayed by police with pepper spray. The incident leads to widespread condemnation of the police, several lawsuits, and a public inquiry.

  • January 22, 1998: A successful lawsuit by four UBC students forces UBC to refund $1 million in fees it collected in violation of a provincial tuition freeze.

  • March 26, 1999: Evelyn Lett dies at 102. She was a member of UBC’s first students’ council in 1915-16, co-author of the first AMS constitution, and widow of Sherwood Lett, the first AMS President.

  • February to March 2002: B.C. Liberal government lifts six-year-old tuition freeze; UBC raises fees for first time since mid-1990s.

  • February 2003: In the largest turnout ever for a referendum, students vote to introduce the U-Pass, a cheap bus pass for students.

  • February to March 2003: UBC teaching assistants go on strike until they are legislated back to work. A settlement is later reached through arbitration.

  • March 2004: UBC and the provincial government announce the creation of a new UBC campus in the Okanagan, to open in 2005 on the grounds of the old Okanagan University College.

  • February 2005: In a vote surpassing even the first U-Pass referendum, over 19,000 students vote in favour of continuing the U-Pass at a slightly higher price.

  • March 2008: Another referendum approves the U-Pass at a slightly higher rate and also approves spending on a new Student Union Building. Bylaws are also amended for the first time in decades, and the AMS changes its name to AMS Vancouver.

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