Okanagan campus brings new life
to 'beaches and peaches'

SEAN FINE
September 26, 2008

"Beaches and peaches" are the staples of the Okanagan Valley's economy: tourism and retirement, and the fruit and wine industries, keep things stable in the community of 300,000 people.

But three years ago, a campus of the University of British Columbia opened in Kelowna, in the heart of the Okanagan. Five of Canada's 100 biggest infrastructure projects are under way, including the $33-million Charles Fipke Centre for Innovative Research. UBC Okanagan is smallish, at 5,325 students, but growing quickly; by next fall it will be up to 7,500. UBC deputy chancellor Doug Owram maintains it will bring something the community needs, and probably wasn't going to get any other way: diversity.

In a retirement community, the young have suddenly arrived. Sixty per cent of the university's students are from outside the region, and 20 per cent from outside the country. The 325 faculty, too, are younger, on average, than the community they are joining; many have young children. The Okanagan is "monocultural," says Dr. Owram, but the ethnically and culturally diverse population that is moving in will change that forever.

"It is hard to imagine they could get a diversified economy that is the natural next step without a university," Dr. Owram says. "It's going to be a few years till the community feels the full impact, but people realize this is a kind of seismic shift in how the Okanagan thinks of itself."

Research will help drive productivity in the region.

Louise Nelson, a biology professor, has helped develop a DNA-based method for farmers to quickly detect rot in harvested apples before they're placed in storage, where the rot can spread. When the apples are stored in sealed rooms for six months, five to 20 per cent of a crop may be lost to the disease. Dr. Nelson's work has led to detection of fungal pathogens before the apples are placed in storage. She is also helping to develop an "environmentally friendly bacteria" that suppresses the growth of the fungus. That's important because many of the pathogens have become resistant to one of the two chemical fungicides available. She is now looking at whether her DNA-based detection and bacterial fungicides will work on tomatoes and peppers.

"I think the Okanagan is going to think of itself as a highly educated centre of research, down the road," Dr. Owram says.