A, B - Dr. Ted Sterling, Chair of Computing Science interview (see Comment)

The Archives established the Sterling Prize Collection in 2000 at the suggestion of Professor Ted Sterling, who, with his wife Nora, established the Sterling Prize for Controversy in 1993. According to the terms of reference for the prize, it may be given for work in any field including—but not limited to—fine arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and education. The primary aim of the prize is to encourage daring, creative, controversial, unconventional, and non-traditional work at SFU that also meets high standards and is morally and ethically sound. An ancillary aim is to encourage the study, at SFU, of the role of the controversial. The prize is normally awarded to a member of the SFU community—students, faculty, staff, or alumni. The winner is selected by the Sterling Prize Committee, composed of faculty. student and staff representatives.

Dr. Sterling, Professor Emeritus at SFU, was the founder of the University’s computing science program in 1973, and is an expert in computational epidemiology and the social implications of computing. He was awarded an honorary degree by SFU in 2001.

For further information on Ted and Nora Sterling and the Sterling Prize, see the file "Background Information."

In 2000, the archivist asked each previous Sterling Prize winner to give the Archives a copy of his or her Sterling Prize lecture. Some winners were able to supply a prepared text; other winners spoke from notes and supplied these. The archivist added more information to the files including announcements, press releases, articles from Simon Fraser News, print-outs from the Sterling Prize website, (http://www.sfu.ca/sterlingprize/) and other documents. SFU Media and Public Relations gave the Archives a cassette copy of Russel Ogden’s lecture for 1995. Please note that there was no prize winner for 1996.

For a list of speakers included in the collection, see Access Points.

Sub-sub-series consists of one yellow notebook with working notes taken by Hugh Johnston during the preparation of Radical Campus. The notebook includes numbered random notes. Pages are numbered 1-232. Interview subjects include Stan Wong, Colin Yerbury, John Buchanan, Percilla Groves, Arvid Grants, John Edmonds, John Conway, Lolita Wilson, Don Devoretz, Roger Blackman, Jerry Zaslove, John Munro, Len Berggren, John Tietz, Theodor D. Sterling, and Evan W. Alderson. Records include numbered random notes (p. 5-51); a rough indexing of The Peak articles (p.65-77); a rough indexing of the photocopies from fonds (p. 79-96); rough notes from interviews (p. 97-128); notes from F-79 SFU Faculty Association fonds and F-27 Office of the President fonds (p. 155-179); interview notes (p. 180-217); and odd notes interspersed throughout the notebook.

Sub-series consists of photos, contact sheets, negatives, proofs, articles, and published material relating to individuals from the School of Computing Science. For a list of faculty members associated with the sub-series, see access points.

The fonds consists of records relating to the activities of the School and its predecessors. Activities and events documented include the evolution of the School's structure, functions and governance; deliberation of committees; correspondence of the Director with staff, faculty, university departments and external organizations; grants, scholarships, and research projects; computing laboratories and facility files; curriculum development and course files.

Records include budget and financial working papers; correspondence and reports; meeting agendas, minutes and supporting papers; policies and procedures; course proposals and outlines; lecture notes and planning materials; and publications including course guides, brochures, student society newsletters and annual reports.