Subhead:In a carefully worded statement, administrators said they support “preservation and renewal” while confirming they are seeking “an appropriate new home” for the organ.#
YouTube-embed:2c9QGJZixtw
After a week of public outrage, the University of Alberta has finally broken its silence over plans to remove the historic pipe organ from Convocation Hall.
What was expected to be a quiet administrative decision has exploded into a province-wide backlash, accusing the university of trying to erase heritage under the banner of modernization.
The renovation project is being sold as a push for accessibility upgrades, more seating, and a refreshed Convocation Hall. Few oppose those goals. What people do oppose is ripping out the hall’s 1978 Casavant pipe organ, a functioning instrument used for convocations, concerts, and ceremonies for decades.
Only now, after mounting pressure, has the university responded.
In a carefully worded statement, administrators said they support “preservation and renewal” while confirming they are seeking “an appropriate new home” for the organ.
Translation: the plan still appears to be to remove it.
