Former graduate studies dean heads for the great outdoors

UVic's former dean of graduate studies Dr. Gordana Lazarevich didn't wait long to trade in her briefcase for a backpack after a rollicking campus retirement party that included dancing to a Klezmer band. She's currently on a 21-day hiking trek through the rugged Rocky Mountain wilderness northeast of Jasper.

"I'm starting the next phase of life beyond academe in the outdoors," said Lazarevich in an interview during preparations for her latest Rocky Mountain adventure. For five years she and a friend led week-long hikes in the summer through their business "Women in the Wilderness." Realizing her clients "couldn't or wouldn't" sign on for a three-week trip, Lazarevich dissolved the company, allowing "the owners to do their own thing." That included the painstaking preparations to provision a 21-day trip that will have only a horse to assist for the first few days.

"We have to take something like powdered milk and figure out exactly how much we'll need each day for each meal and package it accordingly," said Lazarevich.

Once the trip is over, she still plans to spend as much time outside as possible, working on her property at Prospect Lake that she describes as a "gem that really needs polishing." In between cycling, canoeing and hiking, the outdoorswoman won't abandon academe entirely. She plans to continue supervision of seven grad students over the next year and work on an annotated catalogue of the works by the late composer Murray Adaskin.

Lazarevich says an additional 30 per cent of Adaskin's work has been completed since 1988," the year she wrote a book about the composer. This new volume will contain more than a list of compositions. "It will also include anecdotes about the human being behind the music," says Lazarevich.

She says she "loved every minute" she spent at UVic since coming to the campus in 1974 as a faculty member in the school of music.

"It was a continuous voyage from faculty member to researcher to administrator. My perspectives broadened considerably. I had the opportunity to lead and advise students, develop new programs and work with colleagues. I was continually challenged to think outside the box."