BU alumni raising money to replace ‘Senior Stick’

For decades, student leaders at Brandon College, now Brandon University (BU), held a symbolic staff that demonstrated the responsibility and honour of their elected positions.

The Senior Stick and Lady Stick were students who served senior roles in the student executive of the college, and although their precise roles and responsibilities changed over time, they were generally seen as student body president and vice-president, working with the heads of other student organizations and class year presidents to help the college’s social and student life run smoothly.

The Stick wasn’t just a title, it was also an actual stick. Each year until 1967, when Brandon College became Brandon University, the Senior and Lady Stick were each presented with a solid wooden staff, covered in silver rings that bore the name and year of every previous officeholder.

“Student government at Brandon University has always been committed to the development of rights and responsibilities, equality of opportunity and the creation of a vibrant community culture,” says Anne (Franklin) Taylor, who was Lady Stick for the Class of 1965. “The silver-ringed sticks of Brandon College days were and are potent symbols of that on-going commitment.”

Plot twist: The Senior Stick is missing.

“At one time, both Senior and Lady Stick were housed in a wood-and-glass display case that was donated by the Class of ’66, the final year that bore them,” says Carla Eisler, Alumni Relations Officer at BU. “Each stick is about three feet long and an inch thick, with a taper. With a few dozen silver rings on them, they’re really quite ceremonial. As far as we know, for many years, they were on display in the library.”

Today, that display case is housed in the McKee Archives at BU, along with the Lady Stick. But the Senior Stick? Nobody knows.

Some point to extensive renovations in the mid-1990s as when the Senior Stick may have gone missing, but no one is really sure.

Now, a group of dedicated BU alumni, including Taylor, say the best way to get the Senior Stick back is to have a full replica made, complete with names and class years of all the former Senior Sticks engraved on silver rings, just like the original.

“In the transition from college to university, the names assigned to executives of student government changed while their role at the heart of the university community continued to evolve,” recalls Taylor, who is helping organize the replica. “The recreation of the missing Senior Stick will reaffirm that role and that commitment and focus our celebration marking this 50th anniversary of the transition from Brandon College to Brandon University.”

“The Senior and Lady Stick are wonderful symbols of the connection that each class year develops to the institution, and to each other,” added BU President Gervan Fearon. “The physical act of adding one ring atop another and presenting the stick to the next year’s holder demonstrates the passing on of culture and tradition of engaged student governance and activities that continues here today. I am touched to see alumni who continue to celebrate their ties to Brandon College and strengthen their relationship to Brandon University by contributing to the restoration of this valuable tradition. In fact, our alumni are a wonderful treasure of the institution.”

The drive really started at last year’s Homecoming weekend, Eisler says.

“Our alumni recognize the importance of the Senior Stick,” she says, “and with the 50th anniversary of the final class year coming up, they really felt it was the perfect time to honour that heritage and history by refashioning it.”

A complete replica stick, with engraved solid silver rings, would cost about $5,300 to create. About $2,000 of that has already been raised, Eisler says,

“Once we have both Senior and Lady Stick, we would really like to have them both on display somewhere again, hopefully in the same cabinet that was originally donated for that purpose,” she says. “And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could incorporate them somehow into the current student government?”

Anyone who would like to donate to the replacement of the Senior Stick can call Carla Eisler at 204-727-9697 or donate online at brandonu.ca/give.

A history of student sticks

YEAR	SENIOR STICK	LADY STICK
1919 – 1920	Norman McDonald
1920 – 1921	H. Olson
1921 – 1922	Alexander M. Derby
1922 – 1923	Donald G. McKnight
1923 – 1924	Elmer Raymond Carter	Aleta Elizabeth Stewart
1924 – 1925	Frederick James Westcott	Kathleen Emily Kenner
1925 – 1926	Joseph Lester Gayton	Rose Jeane Vasey
1926 – 1927	A Derby	Ruth Ethel Clement
1927 – 1928	J.B. Thompson	Doris Marietta Cochrane
1928 – 1929	John Bernard Hawson	Berth Clark
1929 – 1930	Thomas Douglas	Mary Helen Dunkin
1930 – 1931	Stanley J. Westaway	Lois R. Gainer
1931 – 1932	Frank A. Kerr	Phyllis Grace Blandford
1932 – 1933	Hugh Lorne Umphrey	Ruth Thornton
1933 – 1934	George McGregor	Eileen Metcalfe
1934 – 1935	Norman Keith McKinnon	Marion I. Thomson
1935 – 1936	Tommy Morison	Ruth Jacqueline Bell
1936 – 1937	Earl T. Mills	Doris M. Fraser
1937 – 1938	Douglas C. Downing	Mary Stewart Murray
1938 – 1939	Leslie W. Roberts	Elva C. Way
1939 – 1940	Thomas H.M. McLeod	Gwendolyn Elizabeth Dobbie
1940 – 1941	Stanley “Bud” Searle	Ruth Hunter
1941 – 1942	Jim Nelson	Alixe Meadows
1942 – 1943	Clifford Kitson	Doreen Bolstad
1943 – 1944	George Longphee	Iva J. Delamater
1944 – 1945	Andrew Judson	Lenore Gusdal
1945 – 1946	Gordon Lindsay	F. Elizabeth Northcott
1946 – 1947	Jack Neelin	Doreen Rowse
1947 – 1948	Frank Humphries	Eunice Hunter
1948 – 1949	Stephen Symbalisty	Marjory Fleming
1949 – 1950	Finley Campbell	Margaret Gerow
1950 – 1952	Angus Juckes	Patricia Magnacca
1951 – 1952	Paul McKinnon	Joan Garnett
1952 – 1953	James Struthers	Mary Jane McLachlan
1953 – 1954	John P. Minions	Olga Evaskow
1954 – 1955	Frank McKinnon	Verda Peden
1955 – 1956	Laurie Craddock	Jean Hannah
1956 – 1957	Jack Fotheringham	Barbara Mills
1957 – 1958	Jack Jubenvill	Elaine Fraser
1958 – 1959	Jim Melvin	Barbara Russell
1959 – 1960	Robert Melvin	Regina Armstrong
1960 – 1961	Gladwyn Scott	Penny Smith
1961 – 1962	Ron Keeler	Florence English
1962 – 1963	Spence Bell	Verna Moore
1963 – 1964	Warren Veale	Poppy Cumming
1964 – 1965	Russell Lusk	Anne Franklin
1965 – 1966	Bill Sparling	Terry Moore

Brandon University, founded in 1899, promotes excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship, and educates students so that they can make a meaningful difference as engaged citizens and leaders.

Contact