York University | |
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Motto: | Tentanda via ("The way must be tried") |
Established: | 1959 |
Type: | Public |
Endowment: | $306 million (CAD)[1] |
Chancellor: | Roy McMurtry |
President: | Mamdouh Shoukri |
Staff: | 7,000 |
Undergraduates: | 50,000 |
Postgraduates: | 7,300 |
Location: | Toronto, ON, Canada |
Campus: | Urban / suburban, 2.17 km² |
Sports teams: | York Lions |
Colours: | Red and white |
Affiliations: | AUCC, IAU, COU, CIS, OUA, CUSID, Fields Institute, Ontario Network of Women in engineering, |
Website: | yorku.ca |
York University (French: Université York) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario. It is Canada's third-largest university and has produced several of the country's top leaders across the humanities and in sciences such as chemistry, meteorology and space science.
York supports a student population of approximately 60,000 and staff of 7,000, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. It is home to 11 faculties, including the Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Environmental Studies, as well as 24 research centres.
York University has always enjoyed a strong participation in the Canadian Space Program. The Faculty of Science and Engineering is Canada's primary research facility into Martian exploration and has designed several space research instruments and applications currently used by NASA.[2][3]
On Nov. 6th, 2008, the York University Senate suspended classes due to a strike by CUPE local 3903. The local represents contract professors, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants. [4]
York University, a non-denominational institution in Toronto, Ontario was founded in 1959, by virtue of the York University Act. [5] which received Royal Assent in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on March 26 of that year.[6] Its first class was held on September 1960,[7] in Falconer Hall on the University of Toronto campus with a total of 76 students.
The policy of university education initiated in the 1960s responded to population pressure and the belief that higher education was a key to social justice and economic productivity for individuals and for society.[6] The governance was modelled on the provincial University of Toronto Act of 1906 which established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens) exercising exclusive control over financial policy and having formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the 2 bodies and to perform institutional leadership.[6]
In the fall of 1961, York moved to its first campus, Glendon College, and began to emphasize liberal arts and part-time adult education.[6]
It became independent in 1965 after an initial period of affiliation with the University of Toronto under the York University Act, 1965. [8] Its main campus on the northern outskirts of Toronto opened in 1965. [7]
Murray Ross, who continues to be honoured today at the University in several ways, was still vice-president of the University of Toronto (UofT) when approached to become York U's new president. At the time, York U was envisioned as a feeder campus to UofT, until Ross's powerful vision led it to become a completely separate institution.[9]
In 1965, the university opened a second campus on Toronto's northern outskirts. The Glendon campus became a bilingual liberal arts college led by Escott Reid, who envisioned it as a national institution to educate Canada's future leaders, a vision shared by Prime Minister Lester Pearson, who formally opened Glendon College in 1966.[10][11] Its bilingual mandate and focus on the liberal arts continue to shape Glendon's special status within York U.[12] The new Keele campus was regarded as somewhat isolated, in a generally industrialized part of the city. Petrol storage facilities are still located across the street. Some of the early architecture was unpopular with many, not only for the brutalist designs, but the vast expanse between buildings, which was not viewed as suitable for the climate. In the last two decades, the campus has been intensified with new buildings, including a dedicated student centre and new fine arts, computer science and business administration buildings, as well as a small shopping mall, and hockey arena. The Rexall Centre tennis stadium, built in 2004, is a perennial host of the Canada Masters tennis tournament. As Toronto has spread further out, York has found itself in a relatively central location within the built-up Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and in particular, near the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Its master plan envisions a denser on-campus environment commensurate with that location.
York University attracts and grooms some of the most promising students of Canada and has produced the current directors and CEOs of almost all the major banks in Canada (Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal), the largest and most prominent media networks in Canada (CTV Television Network, Rogers Communications, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), and numerous judges, diplomats, and senior politicians including the current Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada, the Minister of Finance of Canada, the Attorney General of Ontario, the President of the Privy Council of Canada and the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. Astronaut Steve MacLean was educated at York University in the physics department and later taught there before going to work at NASA.
York's approximately 2,450 full-time faculty and academic librarians are represented by the York University Faculty Association. Contract faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants are represented by CUPE Local 3903.
York University has eleven faculties. Several of these faculties' programs overlap. The Faculties of Arts (which is merging with the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & professional Studies to form the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies in July 2009), Science & Engineering, Liberal & Professional Studies (Atkinson), and Glendon College, for instance, each house separate mathematics departments, although some of these are being merged; the Schulich School of Business [School Rankings] offers undergraduate and graduate International Business Administration programmes, but the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies' School of Administrative Studies acts as a completely separate business school, nevertheless both Atkinson and Schulich share many full time professors any many of Atkinson accounting courses "shadow" those of their Schulich counterpart. Also, Atkinson, Glendon, and Schulich units are offering or are in the processing of preparing to offer degrees in public policy and administration. The University administration has, however, taken steps in some cases to unify departments in separate faculties, in part to support York's efforts to brand itself as a university focused on interdisciplinarity. For example, the Faculty of Health, opened on 1 July 2006, houses the School of Health Policy & Management, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, School of Nursing, and the Department of Psychology (one of the largest in North America).
The Osgoode Hall Law School is one of Canada's oldest and most prestigious law schools, having moved from a downtown location to the York campus in 1969 following the requirement that every law school affiliate with a university. The law school is a top tier internationally recognized institution with several flexible degrees available including the Osgoode-NYU JD/LLB degree in conjunction with New York University School of Law. Osgoode Hall Law School of York University has been ranked the Number One law school in Canada in Canadian Lawyer magazine’s 2008 Law School Survey.
York University offers the first and largest Graphic Design program in Ontario (Bachelor of Design Honours degree)[1]. It is a four-year University degree delivered jointly by the two leading educational institutions of design in Canada, York University and Sheridan College and recognized throughout North America for maintaining the highest academic and professional standards. The alumni demonstrate the excellence of the program through their placements into top design firms, national and international graduate study programs and their high rate of self-employment. The student’s talent and dedication reflects itself at every opportunity. Students have received much recognition in regional, national and international competitions, and with private and government agencies in Canada, the USA and Europe. Retention is the highest in the university, in the mid 90s. Many students have received multiple offers to the leading graduate programs throughout the world in the fields of Design, Architecture, Business, Law, Environmental Studies and Education.
York University's Faculty of Graduate Studies offers graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines, and there are several joint graduate programs with the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. It is the second largest graduate school in the Province of Ontario.
The Ph.D. program at York in Social and Political Thought (http://www.yorku.ca/spt/index.htm) consistently ranks as one of Canada's best PhD programs as reflected by the number of times York U students in this program have won the award for best PhD thesis in Canada. The School of Women's Studies at York University offers a large array of courses in the field, some of which are offered in French. The Canadian Centre for Germanic and European Studiesis co-housed at York University and Université de Montréal. The Centre is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service.
York has a world class art gallery (Art Gallery of York University at www.yorku.ca/agyu).The Faculty of Fine Arts is one of the most competitive in Canada, offering programs such as ethnomusicology, cultural studies, visual arts, music, dance, and theatre. York's jazz department is particularly well-reputed and was once overseen by jazz great Oscar Peterson. York also has a joint Bachelor of Design program with Sheridan College. York's Departments of Film, Theatre and Creative Writing (which is not officially affiliated with the Faculty of Fine Arts) offer highly competitive programs in film production/directing, acting, and writing respectively, producing many award-winning graduates. The founders of Toronto's critically acclaimed Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival and CineACTION film theory magazine were graduates of York's Faculty of Fine Arts.
York's Dance department was founded by National Ballet of Canada's first choreographer Grant Strate.
York offers a Space & Communication Sciences undergraduate degree. York’s Centre for Vision Research has developed a ‘virtual reality room’ called IVY (Immersive Virtual Environment at York) in order to study spatial orientation and perception of gravity and motion. The Canadian Space Agency and National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) use this room to strengthen astronauts’ sense of ‘up’ and ‘down’ in zero-gravity environments. The room is a six-sided immersive environment made of the glass used in the CN Tower’s observation deck and includes walls, ceiling, and a floor made of computer-generated pixel maps. York's Faculty of Science and Engineering most recently took part in the 2007 NASA Phoenix (spacecraft) Mars Mission.
York is also the only university in Canada with specialized programs in meteorological sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
York's six libraries contain more than six-and-a-half million items including more than two million books and subscriptions to over 13,000 electronic journals. Scott Library is the largest of these and houses collections in the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts. Science-related items are at the Steacie Science Library, while the Osgoode Hall Law School houses the largest law library in the Commonwealth. The Leslie Frost library is located at Glendon College and houses collections in all disciplines with a significant proportion of research materials in the French language. The Peter F. Bronfman Business Library, in addition to print materials, gives access to dozens of e-resources such as the Bloomberg Terminal. Finally, the Clara Thomas Archives contains the literary and personal papers of many notable Canadian cultural figures such as Margaret Laurence, Rohinton Mistry, Adele Wiseman, bill bissett, Wayne Ray and others. The Government of Ontario announced in December 2006 that it would relocate the Archives of Ontario from rented facilities on Grenville Street to the Keele campus. A new building will house the archives and provide room for university researchers. The building is currently under construction and is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Excalibur has been the university's autonomous student newspaper since 1966.
Colleges and some programs also have individual newpapers or zines. They include: The Flying Walrus (Stong College), MacMedia (McLaughlin College), The Pipe (Calumet College), Winters Free Press (Winters College), SOFA (Spotlight On Fine Arts), The Lexicon (Norman Bethune College), The Vandoo (Vanier College), Obiter Dicta (Osgoode Law School), Pro Tem (Glendon College), The Insider (Schulich School of Business), The Phoenix (Founders College), and The Atkinson Beat (Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies).
Existere - Journal of Arts and Literature (est. 1978) is a national publication with local and international contributors. It is financed by Vanier College Council. The journal publishes short fiction, poetry, non-fiction and art from novices and seasoned veterans. Several major writers got their early start in Existere.
YorkU Magazine (est. 2003) is the official magazine of York University. It publishes five times per year in hard copy and digital editions.
e-MAGINED (est. 2007) is The Canadian electronic-Magazine of International Education. It is produced three times yearly by York International.
The University is represented in Canadian Interuniversity Sport by the York Lions. Beginning in 1968 York's sporting teams were known as the "Yeomen", after the Yeomen Warders, the guardians of the fortress and palace at the Tower of London, otherwise known as Beefeaters. Later, the name "Yeowomen" was introduced to encourage women to participate in sports, as "Yeomen" was deemed to be gender-specific. Popular sentiment ran against this name scheme, however, as many students were fond of noting that a "Yeowoman" was fictitious, neither a real word nor having any historical merit. In 2003, after conducting an extensive internal study, the University replaced both names with the "Lions", as part of a larger re-branding effort, and a new logo, now a white and red lion, was brought into line with the university's new visual scheme. The name change also brought York University in line with the 92% of other Canadian universities which use a single name for both genders' sports teams. Ironically, students often refer to the female Lions teams as the "York Lionesses", despite the fact that the name "Lion" is intended to apply to both genders. [2]
SportYork offers 29 interuniversity sport teams, 12 sport clubs, 35 intramural sport leagues, special events and 10 pick-up sport activities offered daily.
York U has several athletic facilities, some of which are used for major tournaments. These include a football stadium, 4 gymnasia, 5 sport playing fields, 4 softball fields, 9 outdoor tennis courts, 5 squash courts, 3 dance/aerobic studios, an ice arena, a swimming pool, an expanding fitness centre and the new Rexall Centre (home of the Rogers Tennis Cup).
In 2005, plans were made to build a new football and soccer stadium to host the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League as well as future football tournaments. These plans were scuttled, however, when a deal was signed by the Argos to remain at the Rogers Centre. York's proximity to many of Toronto's cricket-playing communities and role as host of an annual "York is U" cricket tournament has led to speculation that the university might act as a permanent home for Canada's cricket program.
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: 'York Song,' sung to the tune 'Harvard.'[13]
At sporting events, and in a host of frosh week events on campus, students are often heard singing and chanting the cheer 'Deep in the Heart'. It goes as follows:
'Deep in the heart of the York U Jungle, You can hear the Lions rumble, Oo Oo, YU YU, Oo Oo, YU YU'
Another York Fight song that is used at Homecoming games is:
'The red and white are waving over the field Our team is fighting with the spirit that will not yield Rah rah rah! Hail to thee O York U We'll fight for you Once again the Lions will reach victory'!
There are also a host of college songs as well, particularly from the friendly feuds between Stong College and Bethune College, as well as the infamous Winters College and Vanier College cheer songs.
York's primary campus ("The Keele Campus") is located in the former municipality of North York. Most of the University's faculties reside here, including Arts, Fine Arts, Environmental Studies, Science and Engineering, Education, and Health. Altogether, nearly 50 000 students attend classes on the Keele campus.
Glendon College, a bilingual liberal arts faculty which conducts its own recruitment and admissions and hosts its own academic programs, is also housed on its own campus on Bayview Avenue in North Toronto. Glendon is the only university-level institution in Southern Ontario that offers university courses in both French and English; others elsewhere in Ontario include the University of Ottawa and Laurentian University in Sudbury. A shuttle bus runs regularly between the Glendon and the Keele campuses. Glendon students are generally free to take courses at the Keele campus (and vice-versa), but the difficulty of getting from one campus to the other reduces the attractiveness of this option.
While most of the Schulich School of Business and Osgoode Hall programs are offered at the Keele Campus, both of them maintain satellite facilities in downtown Toronto. Schulich operates the Miles S. Nadal Management Centre, while Osgoode Hall teaches has a Professional Development Centre located at 1 Dundas Street West.
Prior to 1989, membership in a fraternity or sorority at York University was forbidden. In 1989, the related senate resolution was revoked and replaced with Presidential Regulation Number 5 which does not forbid membership but rather denies official status to fraternities and sororities at York University. The reasons given in this regulation are that fraternities and sororities deflect students from participation in the College system, that their commitment to exclusivity is in conflict with York's principles of inclusivity (no student club is allowed to deny membership except on the grounds of major, for those organisations with representation to their department), and are often associated with inappropriate conduct. Over the years, however, four fraternities and three sororities have operated, unofficially, on campus:
Fraternities:
Sororities:
Phi Delta Phi (ΦΔΦ) international legal fraternity, at Osgoode Law School, was given special dispensation when the law school became part of the university, as the fraternity's history with the law school dated back to 1896, and is recognized at York.
York has more than 50,000 students enrolled. Many students come from the Greater Toronto Area, but there is a sizeable population of students from across Canada and abroad, making York one of the most international universities in Canada. To serve this large population, there are 225 student clubs and organisations; six student-run publications and three broadcast programs; six art galleries; 33 on-campus eateries; and a retail mall. Undergraduate students at York are represented by the York Federation of Students, a student-elected body that sponsors most of the clubs and engages in lobbying with the university administration and the provincial and federal governments. While the YFS is one of the largest student associations in Canada (by virtue of York's large undergraduate population), it has often come under fire for being too political rather than focusing on student specific issues.
York has nine undergraduate residential colleges:
Colleges of York University (Arts) | ||||
Name
(Founded) |
Motto/Mandate | Academic Affiliations | Undergrad Population | Namesake |
Calumet
(1970) |
"Technology and the Arts" | Schulich School of Business, Economics, Geography, Business and society, Cognitive science, Communication studies, Urban studies | 4806 | Norman-French for pipe or pipestem. |
Founders
(1965) |
"Self, Culture & Society" | Anthropology, French, Italian, History, African studies, East Asian studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, South Asian studies, International Development, Women's studies | 4185 | Those who founded York University and are not otherwise recognized. |
McLaughlin
(1968) |
Public Policy & Social Sciences | Political science, Sociology, Law and society, Criminology, Public policy, Health and society, Labour studies | 5128 | Colonel Samuel McLaughlin, businessman and philanthropist. |
Norman Bethune
(1972) |
"Science and its Place in the World" | Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Science and society | 6261 | Dr. Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and Chinese hero. |
Stong
(1969) |
Language and Sport | English and other Languages, Kinesiology, Health science | 4336 | The Stong family lived for 130 years on the land now occupied by the Keele campus. First member of the family was Sylvester Stong |
Vanier
(1965) |
Humanities | Classics, Creative writing, Humanities, Education, Philosophy, Psychology, Theology | 4667 | Georges Vanier, Governor-General of Canada. |
Winters
(1967) |
Fine Arts | Fine Arts | 2574 | Robert Winters, Canadian Cabinet Minister and York's first chairman. |
Atkinson College and Glendon College operate their own internal systems, and are not included in this table. |
--Also, for a bit of trivia, the different houses that make up Founders Residence are actually named after the Group of Seven (Varley House, Harris House, etc.), or as the plaque at the building says, 'The Founders of Canadian Art."
Pond Road Residence
The Village at York University
The Village at York off campus student housing area has become quite a popular area of accommodation for many upper year and post-grad students, and the area has had a large amount of attention particularly for large parties hosted by students, including the annual Battle of the Village kegger held in March. There have also been many reports of the level of noise pollution from late night parties from students living in the area.[14]
York University has also begun to extend the Village, with more housing nearer to the campus gates, and an urban market place at Pond and Sentinel Roads, that will have several restaurants, bars, student shops and a mini grocery.
The Keele campus is host to a satellite facility of Seneca College, Seneca@York, and York University offers a number of joint programs with Seneca College:
York University is sometimes referred to as a "commuter school". Over 65% of the students and staff have home addresses in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), particularly in the York Region and downtown Toronto. For students that do live at home commute by car or transit, although many students are opting for public transit due to York's inflated parking fees. York intends to increase the fees for parking for the 2009/10 academic year to combat the congestion around the campus and to assist the fight for making Toronto more environmentally friendly.
Close to fourteen hundred buses move people through the campus each day; a proposed extension of the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line would help alleviate this problem. It would run directly under the campus, creating new stations at Keele and Finch (Finch West), at the centre of campus (York University), and at Steeles Avenue, interfacing with York Region Transit (Steeles West).
York University's Glendon and Keele campuses are served by the Toronto Transit Commission. The Keele site is also served by York Region Transit buses (both regular and Viva) from the immediate north, GO Transit express buses from several other Toronto suburbs and Greyhound buses for regional transportation. The department of Security, Parking and Transportation Services operates a shuttle service to GO Transit's York University train station on its Bradford corridor.
York University Security Service provides security services on the university's campuses. York Security Services provide uniformed security officers, campus liaison officers (community services unit) and the Investigative Unit which works closely with the Toronto Police service. Patrols are conducted on foot, bicycle and vehicle. The security service is a member of the Ontario Association of College and University Security Administrators (OACUSA) and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA).
A tradition of activist politics on campus has resulted in vocal demonstrations, particularly concerning issues relating to the Middle East and economic globalization. There have been criticisms of both activist groups by the administration and media, for disrupting classes and provoking confrontations between students, and of the university administration for its response to demonstrators and activists, including expulsion and alleged police misconduct against activists.
As well, a controversy arose in 2005 regarding the sale of university land for a nearby townhouse development, and whether the developer, Tribute Communities, paid the full market price for the land. York University maintained that it was the best overall proposal. An independent investigation conducted by retired judge Edward Saunders verified that there had been no misconduct.
In October 2005, Professor David F. Noble, in opposition to York's practice of cancelling classes on the Jewish High Holidays, which originated in 1974 in deference to the university's large proportion of Jewish students and faculty members at that time, applied to the university's senate body for review of the policy. Upon the York senate's affirmation of the policy, he pledged that he would teach on those days anyway, but later decided to instead poll students in his courses, asking if they wished future classes to be cancelled out of respect for other religious holidays.
On March 31, 2006, in the case of Freeman-Maloy v. Marsden, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the University, and its President Dr. Lorna Marsden could be sued by plaintiff Daniel Freeman-Maloy for "misfeasance in public office."[22]
This list includes graduates of Osgoode Hall Law School prior to its affiliation with York University.
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