The University of Alberta officially expanded on Calgary turf Wednesday, igniting a bit of healthy competition with the University of Calgary.
The Edmonton-based U of A’s downtown expansion comes shortly after news that the U of C plans to have a downtown presence as well. It just received a $5-million per year grant from the Alberta government to get a lease in the core of the city.
“In our opinion, it’s OK to have a little bit of competition,” said Dalmy Baez, president of the Student’s Union at the U of C.
“It keeps us on our toes.”
The U of A’s Calgary Centre at 333–5 Ave. SW is now fit with a 48-seat classroom, which is to be mostly used for executive training.
“It is kind of a U of A boutique on street level right downtown Calgary,” said Andrea Marsh, the Calgary Centre’s director of external relations. “The traffic has been quite heavy and we hadn’t even had our external signage up yet. Now that this has happened, we expect this to be a very busy place.”
