Goodbye CIT, hello Hickman Building

Sargent, with a photo of her late father

If you're looking for the Centre for Innovative Teaching (CIT) later this month you'll be out of luck. The building is being renamed in honour of the late Dr. Harry Hickman.

The one-time principal of UVic's predecessor, Victoria College, began his teaching career at Victoria High School in 1932 before shifting his attention to postsecondary education. Hickman became pres-ident of Victoria College and the first acting president of UVic upon its creation in 1963.

"Education was very important to him," says Jean Vantreight, a friend from the time he taught her at Craigdarroch Castle. She suggested Hickman as a deserving honoree. "Harry was an inspiring teacher," she says. "It's important he be remembered for all his contributions."

A strong believer in art and culture, Hickman founded the university art collection, which has grown to include more than 15,000 pieces from around the world. He was appointed an honorary consul of France after receiving his master's and PhD from the Sorbonne. A lover of languages, Hickman later headed UVic's modern languages and French department.

Hickman retired in 1974 but continued to support the university as honorary president of the UVic Alumni Association Board and the Victoria College Craigdarroch Castle Alumni Association, and by endowing student scholarships.

His daughter, Janice Sargent, who was taught by her father while she was a student at Victoria College, knows her dad would have been proud to be remembered this way.

"His first love was teaching," she says. "When he retired, a UVic colleague asked what he'd keep from his days as a teacher and he said, ‘only my class lists.' The students were very important to him, so to be perpetually associated with excellence in teaching would have made him extremely happy."

The official naming ceremony will take place on Monday, Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. The W. Harry Hickman Building (HHB) origin-ally opened in 1999 and features a 210-seat auditorium, a 75-seat classroom, and three state-of-the-art, 25-seat seminar rooms.