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Ms. Cassandra Sanders (BA 1963)

     As a graduate from UW’s English department in its early days, Cassandra Sanders (BA 1963) witnessed and was part of a lot of campus “firsts.” It was clear in 1960 that both English and the faculty of Arts were new to the University of Waterloo. Cassandra recalls that for the first two years of her studies, she, her classmates, and her professors didn’t even have their own buildings for lectures: “All our Arts classes had to be held in buildings named 'Physics', 'Chemistry', etc.  Only in my third year did we have a residence and an Arts building.”

     Being members of a brand-new English department and a faculty in its infancy empowered students to define themselves and their collective position at UW. Fostering a sense of spirit was sometimes challenging in the shadow of a more deeply entrenched Engineering faculty. Nevertheless, Cassandra and other students rose to the occasion, and saw opportunity in the “vast sea of mud” that lay between buildings: “It was a stimulating challenge to have a blank canvas on which to create our arts world, to be the first to set things up instead of just following in decades-old footsteps.” Cassandra remembers organizing the first winter carnival on campus with other English students and students across the Arts faculty. She was also part of the small group of students, led by older student Sidney Black, who launched the University of Waterloo’s first student newspaper, The Coryphaeus.  She herself began Expressions, an annual magazine showcasing creative writing by co-students.  Cassandra remembers that professors offered a rallying sense of character and inspiration. Dr. Keith Thomas, head of English at the time and one of Cassandra’s favourite professors, walked the campus in a black robe with other professors from the faculty of Arts. Recalls Cassandra: “I was proud of them as they traipsed across the walkways, gowns flowing behind them, for they gave us a sense of identity.”

     Brought up as lover of literature in a family of writers and editors, majoring in English was a natural choice for Cassandra, who still owns books from her time in university: The Complete Chaucer, The Complete Shakespeare, and The Literature of England – Volumes 1 and 2.  Since graduating, Cassandra has been putting her degree to work, writing, editing and managing production for staff news publications, annual reports, and promotional materials, on behalf of businesses in a number of industries: retail, oil, finance, and health, to name a few.  Today, Cassandra continues to work part-time for a national educational health association, producing informational/promotional materials for healthcare professionals.