I":[‘was1 to he UPI ls comino— out paity. On l\larch 31, 1()()(),t the newl_ appointed piesident of the new univeisitv, Ronald J. Baker, was to deliver the final Robertson l\lemorial Lecture at Prince ofWales College

making Prince of Wales redundant. Having just arrived on Prince

“final" because the new institution was

Edward Island and not wanting to offend Islanders by telling them

what their new university would be like, Baker, an English professor

took a page from Jonathan Swift and Thomas hiore, and couched his meaning in allegorical terms. His speech, “University — 2000," described having just returned by time machine from the year 2000, and a Visit to Utopian University, an excellent school of 1,500 to 2,000 students on an island somewhere off the east coast of North America.’ (Expecting something more literal from the president’s inaugural address, 7795 Guardian reported the talk “at times was baffling both in intent and content") Baker told how the founders of “UU” had achieved what they had. Because they did not have much money, they could not afford a large administration, so they gave faculty and students real power to make decisions. Because they were on an island, they could treat it as a microcosm of society, economy, ecology, and polity, and so use it as the focus of research and teaching. And, most important of all, because what constitutes a utopia itself changes, these utopians built on the motto “Process not Stasis“; rather than have preconceived ideals, they created a uni- versity where goals could be revised as well as reached. (77.711 Gila/21’— z'mz unfortunately printed the motto with a typo, rendering it the rather meaningless “Process not Stasts.")

Living in the future, we know that U PEI is not really a utopia today — though with some 3,300 full—time students, it is also con— siderahly bigger, better—established, and more diverse in its range

of programs than even its first president had foreseen. But Baker's

3000," "l’\\'C 7 l.ectures,51unuel Robertson .\lcmori 11“ vertical file, item 14, l’l‘il Collection, Robertson [library lll’llll1e11telor,‘tl1 l’l‘il Collection”.

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1 See "University

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