UBC – AN EMPTY CAMPUS – plus the Beaty Biodiversity Museum

University campuses are normally swarming with students going from class to class, researchers heading off to labs and libraries, and support staff keeping the whole academic community going. Not these days! The main campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) has been exceedingly quiet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This photographic Outing is an opportunity to walk the Main Mall, a pedestrian boulevard, with very few people. The main campus is over 100 years old at Point Grey and beautiful trees with fall colours line the boulevards. In several locations there are examples of public art, historical plaques and architectural designs. One of the newest is the “Reconciliation Totem Pole” marking the complex history of pre-residential schools, the impact of the residential school system on First Nations and the post-residential reconciliation of cultures.

The Main Mall is the heart of the UBC campus, stretching from Thunderbird Crescent, northward past the Libraries, to Flag Pole Plaza and the Rose Garden.