Rosehart has always said that he saw his work at Brantford as a continuation of his work at Lakehead University. In Thunder Bay, a small city in Northern Ontario, he enjoyed the close-knit community, the chance to be a central “mover and shaker,” and the opportunity to represent the city and the whole northern hinterland to the world beyond. In southern Ontario, he found a “new Northern Ontario” in Brantford. He was soon immersed in Brantford goings-on and was brainstorming with the mayor and the city about the possibility of a Laurier campus. As an engineer by trade, he wanted new buildings to be the cornerstone of any new developments. In Brantford, he wanted a new campus on a greenfield site, but warmed to the idea that Laurier might establish itself in the Icomm building. He did not like the layout but was impressed with the new construction and the electrical engineering in a building that had been built to serve as a state-of-the-art telecommunications centre.
The Icomm Building after it was turned into the Brantford Charity Casino. The community debated whether the building should be used for the casino or the university. Though city council decided in favour of the casino, the decision spurred the development of the university, which the city helped fund with its portion of the casino profits.
To move the project along, Rosehart drafted a tentative agreement with the city. It proposed a ten-year lease of the Icomm building at a price of one dollar a year, with Laurier gradually taking over the building’s operating costs. To cover capital renovations, the university and the city would apply to the federal government’s Community Futures Program. Rosehart himself would approach the provincial ministry for funding to cover Brantford students. A Laurier Advisory Board would steer the development of academic programs and the university would hire a senior administrator from the university as “principal dean” of the new campus.
By the first months of 1998, a flurry of activity, much discussion and debate, and some intrigue consumed Brantford as three distinct post-secondary proposals vied for the right to its downtown. For those in the know, a little epic with a pantheon of colourful characters was well underway. Piloted by someone who had worked in the Kalahari and reinforced by Waterloo’s renegade arts professors, the University Committee was attempting to establish a private university in the Carnegie Building. A different coalition of citizens and leaders who made up the Downtown Renewal Group were committed to a plan that would put Mohawk College and the YM/YWCA into the empty shopping mall. A short distance away, Brantford’s “Boy Mayor” and “Bob the Builder” were, on the fringes of downtown, aiming to claim the Icomm Centre in the name of Laurier.
This was a heady moment for a downtown to which everyone had turned a blind eye for so long. Three different post-secondary groups were actively pursuing a location in the old downtown. And yet, for all of this, in the midst of so much activity and discussion, each of the proposals began losing its momentum. The labour of the Downtown Renewal Group notwithstanding, Mohawk College pulled the rug out from under the Mohawk/Y proposal when it decided that it would need an additional six months to study the plan, and would begin its study only after the municipal, provincial, and federal governments had committed their share of the proposed funding. Mohawk’s vice-president, Cal Haddad, commented, “We still haven’t had the time to do a definitive study on whether it will help Mohawk College and its students.… We’re willing to listen to any concrete proposals. But we have no money, not even for a moving truck.”4
As the Mohawk/Y initiative died, the proposed date for the opening of the University College of the Grand Valley came and went. The provincial government was clearly interested in making room for private universities, but put off any policy decisions in the wake of political pressure from existing universities. The three City College professors were pulled in other directions, by other demands and interests. Morrell secured an appointment at an existing university.
At Laurier, the idea of a satellite campus in downtown Brantford was not enthusiastically endorsed by the university community. Outside of Professor Copp, a determined President Rosehart, and a small circle of administrators the president brought on board, the prevailing mood was one of indifference and skepticism. Waterloo was preoccupied with Waterloo. Those who talked about the Brantford developments, and few did, asked why anyone would want to go to Brantford. Even among the senior administrators, some were skeptical, questioning the suitability of a campus in the Icomm Building. Further obstacles arose in February when Brantford City Council decided that it would consider a proposal to turn the Icomm Building into a charity casino.
With all three post-secondary proposals confronting obstacles, the plan to bring a college or a university downtown seemed poised to become the latest in a string of failed attempts to stop the slide of Brantford’s city centre.
A key component of the Brantford attempt to establish a downtown university was the community support for the idea provided by the University Committee. When Laurier’s interest in the downtown was made public, the committee was faced with a decision — should it back the new initiative or maintain its commitment to a private university? Not everyone welcomed the Laurier possibility. In a patriotic spirit that was in keeping with Brantford’s historic sense of self, some argued that a university based in Brantford was preferable to a satellite campus of a university based in Waterloo.
In the subsequent discussion and debate, key members of the committee argued that its proposal for a private university should be maintained but broadened in scope to incorporate a range of possibilities that included a satellite campus of Laurier, or some other university.
One of the key voices to emerge in the discussion was that of Colleen Miller. She lived in Paris, Ontario, and operated a human resources firm that aimed to help its clients transform their careers and working lives. Miller was equally dedicated to the attempt to transform Brantford. Among other things, she broke through the gender barriers at the city’s established gentlemen’s club, The Brantford Club, to become the first woman member. Speaking for the University Committee, she took the lead welcoming Laurier’s interest in Brantford: “The exciting thing is that there are big universities out there hearing about this community, and now we have the option of looking at two possible paths.”1
Despite the growing local support, the plan to bring Laurier to Brantford faltered as the proposal to turn the Icomm building into a casino gathered steam. At a meeting in February, city council voted to give a professional casino company, RPC Anchor Gaming, an option to purchase the Icomm. When President Rosehart heard of the initiative, he hesitated but was not ready to give up on the idea of a satellite campus. The university was “still interested” he told The Expositor in early March. “We’ve emotionally put the Icomm building behind us. I admit it was Icomm and the work of the university committee that got our interest. But even with the building gone, it’s not like we’re going to give up. We’ve just switched to Plan B.”2
On March 4, the University Committee and the Grand Valley Education Society came out in support of “the golden opportunity” at Laurier, which it decided to pursue as part of a two-pronged push to attract a private or a public university downtown. At a meeting that discussed the Laurier option, “The 44-member Community University group quickly pledged to help Rosehart in any way possible. Members have been scouting out possible locations for the campus, among them the former library, the Bell Building and the third floor of the federal building. ‘We’d love to see [Laurier] come here,’ Doug Brown said. ‘The trick is not to lose the momentum [for a private university] if it chooses not to come here. We are committed to a university in Brantford no matter what.’”3