History made at BU convocation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/06/2013 (4689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Among the more than 550 new Brandon University graduates, many of whom look toward the horizon with excitement and nervousness, four nursing graduates are blazing an unprecedented trail.

Tamara Hofer, Andrea Maendel, Judith Maendel and Phoebe Wurtz are the first four Hutterite women in the province to walk across a university stage to accept a nursing degree, along with the other graduates during BU’s 102nd convocation Friday. Degrees were awarded to 558 graduates.

While Hutterite tradition dictates members don’t work outside the self-sustaining rural colonies, the women said they’re keeping the option open to practise their newly acquired skill in outside facilities, such as hospitals, at least to gain experience to bring back home.

“We don’t 100 per cent know yet,” Andrea Maendel said when asked what they plan to do with the degree. “There is a huge, huge need for education in our colonies,” she said, adding Hutterites, like the rest of society, are struggling with diabetes and heart disease.

“It’s all totally new and it’s something we have to try if it works.”

The four graduates, all from different southwest Manitoba colonies, will need more practical experience to gain necessary skills outside the colony, Andrea said.

“To be a help in the community, you need experience,” she said. “If you don’t get those skills, if you don’t get those expertise, we are of no benefit.”

Since the women are charting new territory for Hutterites, they don’t even know the possibilities, and “we’re discovering it as we go,” Andrea said.

While university-trained nurses are something new for the Hutterite communities, Andrea said colonies already have trained paramedics and firefighters, and this graduation is yet another passage in a new chapter for these colonies.

“Since the younger generations are graduating from high school, they’re more interested in things like this.”

The ongoing success of the BU Hutterian Education Program, which attracts students from Canada and the United States, is what prompted the women to pursue the school’s nursing program.

However, reaction from the colonies is mixed, according to the women. While their families are supportive, other more conservative members of the colonies — who shy away from change — are skeptical.

“Our families have been very supportive,” Hofer said. “That’s probably why we’re here.”

“Some members of the community find change hard,” Wurtz said. “And I don’t think they quite understand where it’s going, and they find it hard to understand that, that’s OK, and we’re just learning and finding out what we’re going to do.”

Friday’s convocation proved to be one of many firsts. Not only was it the first year the school celebrated convocation in its own building at the Healthy Living Centre gym, it was the first graduation for newly installed chancellor Michael Decter.

Decter, owner of the Toronto-based investment management firm LDIC, Inc., was officially given the title at the beginning of the ceremonies. He takes over from the late Henry Champ, who passed away in September.

“All the chancellors I’ve known have made big contributions, but they’ve been somewhat different, depending on what challenges face the university at the time,” Decter said.

He said the honour marks a renewed connection to the area in which he grew up.

“I’ve always had a longtime attachment to Brandon University for a variety of reasons,” said Decter, brother-in-law of Mayor Shari Decter Hirst and brother to her husband, Dr. Derry Decter. “I do think it’s the little university that has made a big impact on the province and the country so I think to be its chancellor is a huge honour and I’m delighted.”

While he brings contacts from Toronto’s Bay Street, the heart of the nation’s investment and banking industry, the Harvard-trained economist has also left his mark on the country’s health-care system.

He was the founding chairman of the National Board for the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and has served as deputy minister of health in Ontario and cabinet secretary in Manitoba.

Beverley Nicholson, who retired in January as professor emeritus of archeology, received a lifetime achievement award for his extensive research, along with William Hillman, who retired from the faculty of education in 2011 as assistant professor.

BU biology researcher Wendy Untereiner was given the Senate Award for Excellence in Research and Italy-born Paola Di Muro was given the Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching.

After six years in a term position, John Hopkinson, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy, received the Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching.

» gbruce@brandonsun.com