Breaking a world record has both been a highlight of the University of Calgary’s 60th birthday while also fitting alongside the school’s broader community goals.
Saturday, April 11, 2026, will forever be the day that the University of Calgary officially became a Guinness World Record holder. Their newest claim to fame? Most people dressed as dinosaurs with 682. They needed 469 to beat the record.
Verity Turpin, Vice-Provost Student and Campus experience at UCalgary, said the day was months of planning, and hours of precise execution.
“This event took over a year of planning. In addition to planning the logistics, it was listening to our community on what would resonate, what the community saw as great activities as part of our community day and our 60th celebrations. The actual idea for breaking a world record came from our community and came from that process,” she told LWC.
“So, on campus that day, we were all part of it and the whole community was very much part of designing that day and what that day would look like. And as the record shows, we all did a great job.”
Now, a week later, it’s easy for Turpin to look back fondly. In the days and hours leading up to the official counting, however, nerves were high for faculty, who knew they had more than 700 people registered for the event, but were unsure how many would actually show up.
“That day started with me driving to campus and seeing children, dogs, parents, family members, friends, all walking towards the campus and I knew what they were going for, obviously, because they were dressed in dinosaur costumes and it was just a wonderful sign,” Turpin said.
Turpin said that the process and counting of the record attempt was very official. Attendees were sorted into pods of 100 people for ease of counting.
“I had heard that we had six pods, so I was really hopeful, but I didn’t know for sure and none of us did. In order for the record to count, we all had to stand for one minute in our spots so the Guinness Record folks could do their counting and their process and it was a minute of silence and suspense. It was just fabulous,” Turpin said.
“When the Guinness (representative) came on with our president, Dr. Ed McCauley, they said six (pods), that’s all we heard and as soon as we all heard six, we knew we broke the record so we all just started screaming, jumping up and down, hugging each other. We didn’t know the number, but we knew we broke the record. It was so fabulous.”
Engagement surging campus-wide
Though being part of a successful world record breaking attempt isn’t an everyday occurrence on campus, there are many clubs and casual events happening frequently at UCalgary.
Turpin said that this week’s last day of school celebrations had record interaction among students.
“Last day of class is an opportunity for our students to celebrate on campus with each other, celebrating their accomplishments for the year and then preparing for final exams. We held that event on Tuesday and had record breaking attendance from students,” she said.
“We had a plethora of activities, we had three gym locations, we had harm reduction activities outside our buildings, we had a pancake breakfast, we had all kinds of food throughout the day. As we were trying to figure out how many of our students are engaging, it’s hard for that breadth and scope of event.”
Instead of estimating total, campus wide event attendance, faculty measured how many times students engaged with activities.
“Last year it was over 12,000, this year it was over 14,000 over the course of the day. Students are really seeing themselves and by coming and participating,” Turpin said.
Though she couldn’t directly comment on the planning, construction or opening timelines of a potential new stadium on campus, Turpin couldn’t deny that from a student experience perspective, it’s tough to beat multi-use spaces.
“What new infrastructure does is it allows us to look at the current and future needs of our students and our community. While I’m not part of that, it’s another opportunity to view a new perspective of how our community wants to gather,” she said.
“Usually these spaces include a vision for multiple uses, so we’d be able to use that space in different ways than we perhaps might use our current stadium to facilitate, promote and support student engagement and community engagement. We’re just so excited at that prospect.”
