100 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus only to care about profit and self-interest. How many others have felt this before? Damer himself tells us that the first female student to get through the system was in 1967. Not the first to enroll, mind you. I was reminded of Florence Violet McKenzie, the first female electrical engineering graduate (about the time of the First World War) in Australia. She was refused entry into the University of Sydney, and went on to join the local technical college, where no one had mentioned gender, but the only requirement for entry was that she had to be an apprentice engineer. Florence taught herself how to install electricity and did so in a house in the outskirts of Sydney, then received a signed certificate to say that she had done this. On producing this paper at the Dean's office at the now University of Technology Sydney, they reluctantly had to let her enter. W h y do I mention this now? Just to demonstrate that this, for me, is a real story. What I noticed most, when reading the book, was that women were just not there. How different would things be if there had been a balance of gender throughout this period? Perhaps I ' m biased, but then I think I have a right to be. ^ <4* Bumsted, J.M. (2001). The University of Manitoba: An Illustrated History. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. Pages: 228. Price: $34.95 C A D . Reviewed by James D. Cameron, St. Francis Xavier University. J.M. Bumsted, a faculty m e m b e r at St. John's College, The University of Manitoba, is an important Canadian historian. This university study is merely his last entry in a long list of valuable contributions. The glossy, illustrated history has a preface, seven chapters, an epilogue, an appendix (lists of chancellors, presidents, chairs of the board of governors, etc), and suggested readings. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004 101 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus There is no index. Bumsted states his purpose at the outset: "to remind alumni and other readers of what it had been like to be involved with The University of Manitoba over the 125 years of its existence" (p. ix). The study is essentially a chronicle written largely from the standpoint of the undergraduate student experience. Therefore, he draws heavily from student publications, as well as interviews, conversations, studies, and other secondary materials. Coverage is from the university's origins to the 1977 centenniàl, but with a brief discussion of subsequent years in the Epilogue. Bumsted discusses the university's "trials and tribulations," but claims its people reveal an "indomitable and unconquerable nature" ( p. x). He is fully aware that The University of Manitoba requires a full-scale exhaustive history; his study, produced for the 125th anniversary celebrations, is certainly not presented as such. Each chapter chronicles a period of the university's history. Chapter 1 starts in 1877 when the University Act established a provincial university at Winnipeg, only seven years after the creation of Manitoba. Its three founding colleges included St. John's College (Anglican), Manitoba College (Presbyterian), and St. Boniface College (Roman Catholic), each existing at separate locations. The university was strictly federative, since Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché feared that Catholic students would be swamped in a secular college most likely run by Protestant anglophones. Initially, all teaching was done by the colleges, which were essentially secondary schools. The university, notes Bumsted, only examined students and conferred degrees. The classical approach reigned, with its concentration on ancient languages and mathematics. Its goals were clerical ordination, character formation, and leadership preparation. From the beginning, the university was pressured to offer professional/technical programs. It began offering law courses in the 1880s and affiliated a medical school, but did not have any buildings until 1901. Bumsted describes the origins of student journalism, athletics, inter-collegiate competition, hazing, societies, music, pranks, and dorm life. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004 102 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus Chapter 2 continues the story f r o m 1900, an era that saw massive provincial population and economic growth. The University Act was amended to give the institution the right to appoint and dismiss professors. Then the University Council adopted regulations to govern a Faculty of Science (est. 1904), a teaching university, and a School of Domestic Science. Important debates centered on the colleges' role and the location of the teaching university. It affiliated a provincially-established agricultural college in 1907, then a pharmacy college. The first arts instructors were appointed in 1909 which created a faculty of arts. In 1912, the agricultural college was located at a site in Fort Garry which ultimately became the main campus of the university. In 1913, Wesley (affiliated in 1888) and Manitoba colleges merged as the United Colleges, the first university president was appointed (Dr. James Alexander MacLean), and the Manitoba Law School affiliated with the university. One year later, the university offered a full arts program at its downtown location, and its students began a semi-monthly publication called The Manitoban. For those in residence, in loco parentis and daily regimentation structured their existence. In 1906, the student body, drawn primarily f r o m Winnipeg and rural Manitoba, first organized a student union. T h e next chapter charts university events f r o m 1915 to 1932. Perennial issues included university finances, colleges-university relations, and campus location. The institution demonstrated total commitment to the war effort (1914-1918). In 1917, a governmentappointed Board of Governors (with no college representation) assumed responsibility for finances; thereafter the University Council concentrated on academic affairs. The post-war era witnessed the return of the veterans, new student organizations, the formation of the University Alumni Association, a fire at St. Boniface College that killed nine students (1922), the beginning of fraternities and sororities, the opening in 1926 of St. Paul's College (English Catholic), rising enrolments, serious The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004 103 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus overcrowding, the construction of a new arts and science building for senior students at the Agricultural College site, and the onset of the Great Depression. Bumsted underlines major crises faced by The University of Manitoba between 1932 and 1945. The Great Depression created financial hardship that was compounded by the loss of most of the university's endowment income through embezzlement, a crime discovered in 1932. This constraint delayed campus unification at the Fort Garry site. Students were generally apolitical during the 1930s and anti-semitism was rampant. World War Two gave impetus to the sciences, engineering, and medicine. However, it also disrupted social life, militarized the campus, and engendered a new seriousness in student affairs. The post-war years to 1958 are narrated in Chapter 5. Bumsted describes the veteran influx and consequent overcrowding and makeshift arrangements. Several presidents served in rather quick succession: Sidney Smith (1943-1944), A.W. Trueman (1944-1948), A.H.S. Gillson (1948-1954), and then Hugh Hamilton Saunderson (1954-1970). Saunderson envisioned an integrated university, where the colleges and university enriched each other. St. Paul's College and St. John's College would move to the Fort Garry campus by 1956. The university organized the Department of University Extension and Adult Education in 1949. Then it faced the massive flood of 1950, the same year that the junior division of Arts and Science moved f r o m the downtown to the Fort Garry campus. The fifties also saw the formation of the Association of Academic Staff (it would eventually join CAUT), federal funding for universities (1951), the 75th anniversary celebrations (1952), and the beginning of W.L. Morton's university history, published in 1957 as One University. As elsewhere, rising enrolments forced the campus to expand facilities and hire more faculty. After noting the context of continued provincial growth through the 1960s, in Chapter 6, Bumsted highlights rapid expansion The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004 104 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus and construction, the Harry Crowe affair at United College, and changing student mores. Student dress codes became more casual, drug use spread, and students demanded a voice in the university's administration. University College was formed in 1964, and by 1970, St. Paul's and St. John's Colleges were integrated into the university. As the faculty expanded, more Americans were hired, and increased emphasis was placed on research. Continuities linked the 1960s and the 1970s. For example, some students protested and embraced countercultural ideas. Bumsted claims that The Manitoban "spoke for an internationally oriented and highly politicized student left and counterculture" (p. 183). A new president, Ernest Sirluck, led the university f r o m 1970 to 1976 in the provincial political context of an new N D P government. Enrolments were lower than expected, and the faculty association unionized in 1974 during this period of fiscal constraint. Then the university reached its centennial in 1977 and organized a series of celebrations. Bumsted's epilogue concentrates on "major achievements and exciting developments" at The University of Manitoba since 1977, such as the university's increased efforts at outreach. For example, in agriculture, it collaborated with the University of Zambia's School of Agricultural Sciences, it held sports camps for children, and it helped to host the Pan A m Games in 1999. University scholars made important research findings and a Department of Native Studies was established in 1975. Bumsted's book is an illustrated history, so the captioned pictures—over 200 of them—are invaluable for depicting change at The University of Manitoba. They have been carefully selected to show the evolution of the physical campus and changes in student life. Moreover, the text includes vivid excerpts f r o m the recollections of alumni, as well as occasional boxed insets that showcase famous graduates or faculty, such as the historian W.L. Morton and the media expert Marshall MacLuhan. A strength of Bumsted's history is its wonderful illustrations and careful attention to student life. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004 105 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus The chronological approach is somewhat numbing and tedious. Bumsted frequently includes developments that appear trivial f r o m an outsider's perspective. The text provides little analysis and the cascade of events, one after another, leads to information overload. Moreover, the epilogue is excessively promotional. However, overall, B u m s t e d ' s history of The University of Manitoba is a useful tool for meditating, especially in a visual way, on the evolution of an important Canadian institution of higher learning. It certainly shows that religion helped to define higher education in 19th century Canada, that college federation had its pros and cons, that educational institutions were closely linked to their environments, and that student life has changed in remarkable ways. This attractive, illustrated anniversary chronicle whets the appetite for a full-scale interpretive study that thoroughly investigates the rich history of The University of Manitoba. ^ if ^ Ingram, S., & Parker, A. (2002). Gender and Collaboration: Communication Styles in the Engineering Classroom. Fernwood Publishing: Halifax, NS. Pages: 125. Price: $14.95 (paper). Reviewed by Ana Jofré, University of Toronto. Gender and Collaboration presents a much-needed study of the effects of gender on communication styles and teamwork dynamics in the engineering classroom. Studies on gender-linked patterns of behaviour are particularly significant for traditionally male-dominated fields, such as engineering, where women may feel excluded f r o m a culture that was created and developed entirely by men. In order to attain full participation in their chosen profession, it is imperative that women be included into the culture of their The Canadian Journal of Higher Education Volume XXXIV, No. I, 2004