Reinventing Brantford. Leo Groarke

to dedicate two million dollars, half of the proceeds, to the development of a local Laurier campus. At the same meeting, council approved a draft agreement among the three participants: the city, the Grand Valley Education Society, and Laurier. The agreement offered the university the Carnegie Library on the understanding that the city would renovate the building to make a suitable building for a campus. The provincial courthouse attached to the city hall, two buildings down the street, was identified as a location that could accommodate future expansion.

      The city’s proposed agreement included appendices designed to show support for a Laurier campus. Appendix A was the business plan for “Brant University.” Appendix B was a description of the Sanderson Centre and other community facilities. Appendix C included letters of support from the local member of Parliament, Jane Stewart; the County of Brant; Six Nations of the Grand River Territory; and some supporters who had little connection to post-secondary education (as a joke, someone told me that the Brant Synchro Club and Gatquatic Divers, who were in reality trying to be supportive members of the community, signed up in the hopes that some classes would be held in the Grand River). In return for its support, the city’s proposed contract required Laurier to: commence operations by September 1, 1999; offer “a distinctive full university degree program within the community”; report annually on the progress of the campus; and ensure community involvement and participation in its operations. The desire to create a truly Brantford institution was evident in a proposal that the university “set up the operations of the Brantford campus as a Federated independent college with autonomy and independent decision-making capabilities within 10 years.”⁴

      At Laurier, President Rosehart struggled with some details of the plans. He was impressed by the strength of Brantford’s desire for a university, most evident in its willingness to provide financial support for a campus. But he did not like old buildings and was not captivated by the neoclassical grandeur of the Carnegie Library. He preferred the Icomm Centre or, even better, a campus made up of new buildings. In order to maintain the momentum he had generated in Brantford and accommodate these preferences, he insisted that the proposed agreement outline two phases of development. He was willing to accept buildings around “beautiful Victoria Park” as “Phase One” of a Laurier campus, but he did not envision them as the campus’s final site. That was expressly outlined in a proposed “Phase Two,” which would “identify and procure green space of approximately 50 acres and undertake fundraising to construct brand new facilities of approximately 30,000 square feet. The greenfield site that would house Laurier’s final campus would incorporate, as much as was possible, space for future growth, ready access to transportation routes, sufficient on-site parking, close proximity to existing parks and recreation facilities, easy site servicing, and a view of the Grand River.”⁵

      The Glebe lands, parkland in central Brantford owned by Six Nations, were cited as a potential property that met all of these requirements. A possible partnership with Six Nations was envisioned, but, as it was not clear whether Six Nations of the Grand River Territory were interested, it was not made the subject of the detailed negotiations that would have been required in a community where land claims remain a controversial issue both in the city and at Six Nations. As things played out, the discussion of this possibility was obviated by subsequent developments which abandoned the idea of a greenfield campus in favour of a downtown site.

      In the wake of all the controversy over the disposal of the Icomm, city council’s discussion of the draft agreement with Laurier was characterized by voracious wrangling over procedure. This was a sign of things to come. Councillors took exception to Mayor Friel’s handling of the situation, arguing that he had negotiated with Laurier behind the scenes, that they had been improperly excluded from the discussions, and that he had not adequately informed council of the agreement. A local journalist, Ross Marowits, wrote an opinion piece on the meeting in which the agreement with Laurier was approved, entitling it “Council’s Infighting Spoils Moment.” In lambasting council, he wrote that “process is only part of the problem. The circus-like atmosphere of recent council meetings, political grandstanding, posturing for the television cameras, rambling questions, childish pouting and lack of discipline have devalued the institution itself.”⁶

      The vehemence of the debate notwithstanding, the political infighting vanished on May 15, the day after city council approved an agreement with Laurier, a day when the city and the University Committee presented the agreement to President Rosehart, Professor Copp, and Dean Read at a joint presentation at Brantford City Hall. To mark the occasion, the city’s council chamber was dressed in flowers and festooned with balloons and decorations featuring Laurier’s official colours of purple and gold. A Chamber of Commerce wine and cheese reception followed. On behalf of the university, President Rosehart received the city proposal and promised to take it to Laurier for study and approval. But he emphasized that the studying must at some point stop: “Then you get like the Nike commercial and you ‘Just Do It.’”⁷

| 8 | A TIMELY MOVE

      On June 29, 1998, six weeks after Brantford’s city hall presentation to Laurier, the university, the city, and the Grand Valley Education Society signed a formal Declaration of Intent which committed them to work out a formal agreement that “will lead to the creation of a campus of Wilfrid Laurier University in the City of Brantford.” President Rosehart, Mayor Friel, and Colleen Miller signed the agreement. The three parties agreed that they would aim for an agreement to be signed by September 1998, to allow a campus to open by September 1999.