2005 Cuba comes to Alberta

This year the university was host to Muslca Eterna, the premier
student string ensemble from the National Superior Art Institute,
Havana, Cuba. The Friends of the University of Alberta provided full
sponsorship for one student, supplied all the Cuban students with a
new set of strings and sponsored a March 9, 2005 concert at The
Timms Centre. This free concert allowed members of the wider
community to visit the campus and enjoy this unique cultural event.

The program and photos were in our archives and we cannot explain the timestamp on the photos but we believe they are from the event in 2005.

1992 New brochure

The Friends produced a new brochure, just in time for the 1992 AGM. Here is the text:

While the University of Alberta is mainly financed by government funds, there I remains ample opportunity for the practical expression of interest in the University’s welfare by members of the community. To this end there exists a body through which the University’s friends may play an active role. This organization is the Friends of the University of Alberta. The Friends of the University of Alberta need not be graduates of the University, or indeed of any university. Many of the Friends are graduates of the University of Alberta, and some have been drawn from the ranks of the University’s Presidents, Chancellors, and faculty members, but many others are simply and literally its friends in the larger community. The Friends pay no regular membership fee, though an annual tax-deductible contribution is customary and gratefully received. There are no membership categories. Over the past fifty years, the Friends of the University have used these donations to support and enrich the university in a great many different ways. These include:

  • bringing outstanding speakers to deliver the Henry Marshall Tory Lectures, free public lectures named after the University’s first president;
  • providing small scholarships for needy students and supporting a few awards for meritorious students;
  • supporting the purchase of special equipment not provided for in the University’s budget (one instance is the University Library’s purchase in 1992 of the computerized, “on-line” edition of The Oxford English Dictionary);
  • financing bursaries for mature women students, in conjunction with the University Women’s Club;
  • providing instruments for students in the Department of Music;
  • acquiring rare books for the Special Collections Library to honor retiring professors;
  • financing, in part, the creation of the large mural on the north wall of the Education Building;
  • supporting the project to erect a clock tower at the centre of the University campus.

The Friends have an Annual General Meeting, which includes dinner for the members, at which members receive an account of the Friends’ activities for the past year. The Friends are governed by an Executive Committee, consisting of a Chairman, a Secretary-Treasurer, seven other members, and the University’s Chancellor and its President. We invite you to become a Friend of the University of Alberta or to renew your membership in the Friends by filling in the enclosed coupon and sending it to the Secretary-Treasurer.

Here is a link to download the original:

1992-Friends-BrochureDownload