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Dr. Russell Leskiw
Russell was appointed the 免费福利资源在线看片鈥檚 first Acting President in January of 1967 after serving as the Alberta School Superintendent. His job was to organize and set up the governance structure of the 免费福利资源在线看片 including establishing the Faculty of Education. After Sam Smith was appointed as the President of the 免费福利资源在线看片 later that year, Russell was appointed the Dean of Education and he remained in this position until 1975. He passed away in 2015.
Russell discusses his work to establish the Faculty of Education at the 免费福利资源在线看片.
The full audio interview will be made available online in late 2017. For more information please contact the 免费福利资源在线看片 of Lethbridge Archives. (mike.perry@uleth.ca)
(JT: 听Jim Tagg, Interviewer)
RL: 听And of course it was about March or April (1967) that we started thinking about maybe we should have a second faculty and that was obviously the Faculty of Education and that鈥檚 when work on that started.听 And, I hired Aubrey Earl to come down from the 免费福利资源在线看片 of Alberta and we talked in my hotel suite for a couple of days and outlined some of the major features that we would like to recommend.听 And, Aubrey and I were pretty well on the same level. 听But it was very difficult in getting things across.听 The Coordinating Council in Edmonton of all the universities was a major stumbling block in all kind of things and of course the traditions of the people of the universities from whence they came had a lot to do with it to.听 And things were not easy.听听And I remember that, and this is an old, old story that you have heard many times of how the Faculty of Education was really formed.听 The Faculty of Education needed a charter and so we went to the 免费福利资源在线看片鈥檚 Council which said 'No, no you can鈥檛. 听We don鈥檛 think we should have faculty over there.' and of course they were supported by the other two universities, Edmonton and Calgary.听 So I, we were all sort of downcast, and driving home, and moving towards Ninth Street, I made a left turn instead of right turn. 听'Where are you going Russ?'听 'Well, I think we鈥檒l go over to the Education Building Department and see what they say there with a view of seeing the Minister.' 听Well, we听went to the Minister鈥檚 office, he wasn鈥檛 there.听 He was at the Legislature.听 So I went to the Legislature, knocked on the door and asked for the Minister. 听And he was a fellow who had expressed interest in the Faculty of Education before because he was kind of tired of people saying,听'The other two universities.'听 So I asked, 'Sir, would you, we need a charter for the Faculty of Education in Lethbridge and we need a signature?'听 'Oh sure, sure!' 听'Can you sign it?'听 And that鈥檚 how we had a Faculty of Education.听
JT: 听Were you angry at that time, when you did this?听 I have heard this story that you hauled him out of the Legislature.听
RL: 听Well, I wasn鈥檛 angry when I hauled him ...听no that was the last thing I was ...
JT: 听You were just determined.听
RL: 听Yes, I was determined that we should have Faculty of Education.听 And I would follow every step possible.听 Where else to go but the Minister of Education, who鈥檇 already expressed an interest.
JT: 听But even though he signed it off pretty quickly, you think he pretty well knew what he was doing.
RL: 听Oh yes, because he had already expressed his view point.
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