Mount Allison University

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Mount Allison University
Established 1839
Type Public
Endowment $82.8 Million
Chancellor John Bragg
President Dr. Robert Campbell
Students 2,200
Location Sackville, NB, Canada
Campus Urban
Sports teams Mounties
Website [1]

Located in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, Mount Allison University is a highly regarded liberal arts university, consistently ranked as one of the top undergraduate universities in Canada. It is noted for being the first university in the British Empire to have awarded a baccalaureate to a woman. Over the years, Mount Allison graduates have been awarded a total of 46 Rhodes Scholarships. This is more than any other liberal arts university in North America. (Williams College, in Massachusetts, is second with 37 Rhodes Scholars). Mount Allison has a very loyal alumni and is the wealthiest university in Canada on an endowment per student basis - $37,636.

Contents

[edit] History

Springtime in Sackville - a view of Convocation Hall from the pond, Mount Allison University.
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Springtime in Sackville - a view of Convocation Hall from the pond, Mount Allison University.

Mount Allison's origins go back to a boys' academy founded in 1839 by a local Methodist merchant, Charles Frederick Allison. Mr Allison's grandfather had emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the late 1700s, because of the after effects of a dinner with the local government tax collector. Wanting to impress the man, the family had set the table with their one valuable possession; silver spoons. After entertaining their guest, the Allisons were informed by the tax collector that if they could afford silver spoons, then they could certainly afford to pay more taxes. Not surprisingly, the Allisons left Ireland shortly thereafter. The offending spoons are now on display in the main university library.

In June 1839, Mr Allison proposed to the Wesleyan Methodists that a school of elementary and higher learning be built. His offer to purchase a site in Sackville, to erect a suitable building for an academy, and to contribute operating funds of £100 a year for 10 years was accepted and the Wesleyan Academy for boys subsequently opened in 1843. In 1854, a girls' institution, (later known as the "Ladies College") was opened to complement the boys' academy. In July 1862, the degree-granting Mount Allison College was organised. The first two students, Howard Sprague and Josiah Wood, graduated in May 1863. In 1875, Mount Allison awarded a baccalaureate to Grace Annie Lockhart; a first in the British Empire.

For nearly a century, Mount Allison functioned as three distinct, mutually enriching parts: the College proper, the Boys' Academy and the Ladies College.

By 1920, Mount Allison University had three faculties: Arts, Theology, and Engineering. It awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc), Bachelor of Divinity (BD), and Master of Arts (MA). It had 246 male students and 73 female students, as well as 28 academic staff, all male.[1]

The closure of the School for Girls in 1946 and the Boy's Academy in 1953 coincided with a period of expansion and provided much-needed space for the growing university. In 1958, a period of construction and acquisition of buildings began, easing the strain of overcrowding at the institution. At this time the university board and administration decided to reaffirm the traditional aims of Mount Allison in providing a high-quality undergraduate liberal arts education, along with continuing to offer professional programmes in already-established fields. As such, the university decided not to compete for new professional programs and generally avoided post-graduate course development.

[edit] Academics

Mount Allison University is committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge in a community of higher learning, centred on the undergraduate student and delivered in an intimate and harmonious environment. Mount Allison offers Bachelor's degrees in Arts, Science, Commerce, Fine Arts and Music, as well as Master's degrees in Biology and Chemistry and Certificates in Bilingualism. Current full time enrollment at the university is about 2,200. The student body at Mount Allison comes from every province in Canada and there is a large proportion of international students as well. They are attracted by the university's reputation, academic standards, collegiality and small class size.

[edit] Traditions and achievements

  • Mount Allison students and alumni are referred to as "Allisonians." The official abbreviation is recognized as Mount A or MTA.
  • Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to confer a Bachelor's degree to a woman; (Grace Annie Lockhart, B.Sc. 1875). It was also the first university in Canada to grant a Bachelor of Arts to a woman; (Harriet Starr Stewart).
  • Mount Allison boasts the oldest university art gallery in Canada.
  • Mount Allison was the first university in the country to wire its entire campus to the information highway.
  • Mount Allison offered the first Canadian Studies programme in the country.
  • Mount Allison is a recognized pioneer in the establishment of support services for students with learning disabilities.

Mount Allison University has routinely ranked near the top of the Maclean's Magazine Annual Survey of Canadian Universities. In the first survey, it ranked third over-all out of all universities in the country. Since then, the Maclean's rankings have been broken down by the size of institution and Mount Allison has consistently ranked either first or second amongst universities in the primarily undergraduate category.

[edit] Notable alumni

Mount Allison has produced more Rhodes Scholars (noted by RS in the list below) per capita than any other university in the Commonwealth. The latest, nominated in 2005 for the year 2006 was the school's 46th scholar.

[edit] Campus life

The university has residence facilities which divide the community into social groups, although approximately half of the student body lives off-campus. Still, 85% of first-year students live in the following residences:

  • Windsor Hall
  • Bigelow House
  • Bennett House
  • Trueman House (closed as of June 2005)
  • Hunton House
  • Thornton House
  • Edwards House
  • Harper Hall
  • Campbell Hall
  • Bermuda House and the Satellites

Social life at Mount Allison tends to focus on extracurricular activities. Mount Allison students also socialize at places like Ducky's, the Tantramarsh Club ("The Pub"), Joey's, Mel's Tea Room, and the Bridge Street Café. The small size of the university makes the academic community very close knit and most students end up knowing each other regardless of faculty.

Mount Allison's campus paper, The Argosy, is produced weekly by Argosy Publications Inc., an independent organization funded by the students through an annual fee. The publication dates from 1875, making it one of the oldest continuous publications in Atlantic Canada.

Mount Allison's community radio station, CHMA 106.9 FM, is owned and operated by the members of Attic Broadcasting Company Ltd., a non-profit organization with its offices on the university campus.

[edit] Athletics

The school's team name in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) is the Mount Allison Mounties. The football team has not fared well in recent years, but won their first game in more than three years in October 2006 against Saint Francis Xavier University, with a score of 24-18. This win broke a losing streak of 34 games. The football Mounties finished their 2006 season with a record of 2-5, their best record since 1999. Mount Allison is also home to CIS-level women's hockey, swim, badminton and soccer teams. Basketball and volleyball teams compete against colleges and other smaller universities.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Year Book 1921, Ottawa, 1922

[edit] External links


Flag of Canada New Brunswick universities Flag of New Brunswick
Public universities
Moncton | Mount Allison | New Brunswick | St. Thomas
Private universities
Atlantic Baptist | Bethany | St. Stephen's
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