Echoes in the Halls: An Unofficial History of the University of Alberta

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and the co-editor
of Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

This very readable book is a welcome addition to an all-too-scant social
history of Canadian higher education. Organized as a millennium project
by the Association of Professors Emeriti of the University of Alberta,
the book presents the reminiscences of some 100 former members of the
university: academic and administrative staff, as well as veterans of
the institution’s senate and board of governors. The individual
entries (which range in length from two to ten pages and are
interspersed with photographs) are engagingly informal and display a
wide range of interests and recollections. The vignettes have been
grouped into 12 chapters that cover such topics as recollections of
student days, early days as staff members, significant and/or eccentric
scholars and administrators, work with the community, teaching and
research, and building and expansion. The overall impression left by
these vignettes is one of optimism, commitment, and pride in community.

Echoes in the Hall will be of obvious interest to anyone who has been
part of the University of Alberta. It will also appeal to those
interested in the development of Canadian higher education during the
last half-century, as well as those with a more general interest in our
social history during that period.