Preserving the words of Edward Pleva

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By Helen R. Button
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The University of Western Ontario isn't big enough. In fact, the bigger it gets, the better it will get, as long as communication between disciplines remains a top priority.
 
 
Edward Pleva
 
 
That's according to distinguished geographer and founder of the Geography Department, Edward Pleva, who passed away early last month at the age of 95. The well-known professor thought and spoke widely on the university's place in the wider community, financial cutbacks, and the way technology is changing education. 
 
Known to most as the man who gave his name to Western's Excellence in Teaching Award, Pleva had some unconventional ideas about his vocation and about the school to which he dedicated nearly 40 years of his life. It's still possible to hear him describe these ideas in his own words, thanks to a taped 1986 interview now held in the Archives and Research Collections Centre (ARCC) as part of the President's Committee on Oral History collection.
 
Many of Pleva's concerns can be heard echoed in Western's offices and hallways today. In the interview, he's clearly passionate about maintaining interdisciplinary communication, and he fondly recalls the days when “the historians, the psychologists, the language people, the English people, would all gather together and talk about things."
 
He's concerned with what he sees as the increasing isolation of individual departments. Pleva's ideal university is big and always growing (“In my opinion, the university is not large enough"). It's home to a lively and diverse group of students and teachers, but it's still one university. It's a place, he says, “where you know everybody and everybody knows you, [and] knows what you can do."
 
Despite these concerns, Pleva is irrepressibly optimistic about the future of the university. He speaks of his love of his work and of his continued delight in each new crop of students he teaches. 
 
He also seems remarkably unworried about money, calling financial cutbacks “no problem whatsoever" and stating that “austerity is the best incentive." Why? Because it forces both students and faculty to look beyond the walls of the university for research opportunities, encouraging them to find ways of giving back to the community.
 
The importance of reaching beyond the ivory tower is a consistent theme in the interview. In fact, instead of the traditional sabbatical, Pleva suggests that the university should grant leaves of absence for faculty to participate in important projects for government or in the private sector, offering their skills and knowledge and proving the institution's ongoing relevance.
 
Part of what Pleva sees as his duty as a teacher is to prepare students to give back to the society that afforded them the opportunity of a post-secondary education. “These things do not come freely," he says, and he considers the selection of a career path an integral part of the educational experience. 
 
Perhaps surprisingly, Pleva doesn't feel the university has changed much in his time there. He acknowledges the rise of technology and the new importance of computers in research and teaching, but he also believes that the goals of the university are the same as they've always been. “The objectives have not changed,' he says. “The machinery has changed."
 
But computers can't do it all, and this, Pleva believes, is why the university experience will always be essentially the same. At its core is the interaction between students and teacher, which to this seasoned professor is “always a delight." 
 
It's clear that Pleva sees the interview itself as a forum for teaching; for sharing what he's learned in his long career with the university's future faculty and students.
 
He understands that the interviews in the collection will have more than historical value. They're dynamic and relevant resources to take Western into the future.
 
The writer is a Western History MA candidate.      

The archive

Edward Pleva's interview is one of 272 held in the President's Committee on Oral History collection. Recorded and collected between 1979 and 2006, the interviews feature Western's staff, faculty, students and alumni and touch on a variety of subjects related to the university and academic life.
 
Tentative plans are in the works to digitize the tapes by reformatting them as mp3s, making for easier access and preservation of the original records. 
 
Those interested in accessing the interviews should be aware that preservation issues sometimes prevent researchers from hearing the original tapes. In most of these cases, written transcripts of the interviews can be provided, although access to some interviews is currently restricted due to privacy legislation.
 
For more information, visit ARCC's website at www.lib.uwo.ca/archives. ARCC staff can be contacted at archives.services@uwo.ca. 
   

In his words

On teaching: “The teacher, at all times, has to want to do what is right, and say what is right, and hope that, with his training and experience, it actually is right."
 
On working outside of academia: “Life is very complicated, and you live on many different levels, and you just can't be completely devoted to one drive in itself."  
 
On early days in Geography: “We had no real budget, I had to scrounge everything, and the geography library was basically my own library. But there are always small beginnings."  
 
On the impact of technology: “In the old days, you went from point A to point B by walking, or ox team, or something like that. Today you go from point A to point B by railroad or an automobile. But you're still going from point A to point B. You've just changed the trappings."  
 

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