(JT:  Jim Tagg, Interviewer)

VC:  I was chairman of the Education Committee of the Chamber of Commerce during that time.  I think that’s the reason that Kate Andrews asked me to do this fundraiser for the College (Lethbridge Junior College).  And the tough job was to talk the business community into supporting the idea of a university.  So, I did a lot of research on my own and researched various colleges and universities in North America in small cities and what sort of an income they might bring. I didn’t think I could sell it to them on the basis of culture or education.  I thought maybe economics might be the approach, so I got this information and came up with a figure of perhaps getting the university here could bring in as much as five and a half or six million dollars a year to the community.  And on that basis, the Chamber bought the idea and supported our doing a demographic study of the province in terms of university attendance from various parts of the province.  And that was the basis for our ... we had to convince the Cabinet that a third university ... Calgary had been chartered by then, that a third university was a possibility for the province. 

JT:  How many ... do you remember any of the details on that demographic study?

VC:  Yeah, this may not be perfectly accurate but I recall that it showed that a much higher percentage of grade 12 graduates from Edmonton attended the university than from Calgary, twice as many.  And I think it was 50 percent of graduates from grade 12 in Edmonton attended, 25 percent attend from Calgary and I think it was seven or eight percent from Lethbridge.  Showing that the farther away from the university you got the attendance dropped off very markedly.  And that that was an unfair situation for students from Southern Alberta.  And that was the basis for our being able to convince the Cabinet that a third university was viable.