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From the Chilliwack Progress Archives: Brian Minter announces funding to build Chilliwack UCFV campus

A look into the history of the University-College of the Fraser Valley in Chilliwack
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Since first publishing on April 16, 1891 the Chilliwack Progress has been the newspaper of record in Chilliwack.

One hundred and 28 years later the Progress remains the longest continuously published newspaper in British Columbia. With the addition of a thriving digital operation anchored by theprogress.com, the Progress delivers more news to more people than ever before.

‘From the Progress Archives’ is a journey into the past, to see what was making news decades ago.

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Headline: $10 million for new campus

Date: February 4, 1994

Reporter: Mark Falkenberg

A $10 million grant for new buildings at Chilliwack’s University College of the Fraser Valley campus is the “beginning of a full campus for the Chilliwack area,” UCFV Board Chairman Brian Minter said Tuesday.

Formal approval of the provincial grant was announced at the Chilliwack campus Tuesday by Dan Miller, Minister of Skills, Training and Labour. The money will allow construction of a new ‘multi-purpose complex,’ which will include a new performing arts theatre, cafeteria, student services area, classrooms, science and computer labs and a book store.

The complex will replace part of the ‘temporary’ campus, designed to house the college for five years, that was built at Yale and Airport Roads in 1975 and is still in use.

Minter said although the “initiative” behind UCFV “really started in the Chilliwack area,” people here have been worried that the community would never get a “full campus.”

The building funds are part of a $22 million grant that will, in addition to allowing construction of the new Chilliwack facilities, fund a $10.6 million learning centre at the Abbotsford UCFV campus. The package also includes $1.5 million for child care centres nearing completion on both campuses.

Miller said the money is an “investment in the future for the benefit of all people in the Fraser Valley region.”

However, Miller said his ministry has not yet been able to grant UCFV’s request for $5 million to build new facilities in Mission. He said the government is “going through some pretty tough budget exercises right now” and won’t be able to give UCFV any more information about the Mission proposal for at least two weeks.

The Chilliwack complex, designed by Howard/Yano Architects of Vancouver, will be built by Abbotsford-based Swagger Construction. Work on the buildings will start in March and is expected to be completed by the summer of 1995.

Planning funds have also been received for a three-storey learning centre in Chilliwack, which will house the library and other support services for writing and math, although the government has not yet committed money for construction.



Eric Welsh

About the Author: Eric Welsh

I joined the Chilliwack Progress in 2007, originally hired as a sports reporter.
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