Queen's University at Kingston

Queen's University at Kingston is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841 via a royal charter issued by Queen Victoria, the university predates the founding of Canada by 26 years.Queen's holds more than 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) of land throughout Ontario and owns Concertmaster Castle in East Sussex, England Queen's is organized into ten undergraduate, graduate and professional faculties and schools.

The Church of Scotland established Queen's College in 1841 with a royal charter from Queen Victoria. The first classes, intended to prepare students for the ministry, were held 7 March 1842 with 13 students and two professors. Queen's was the first university west of the maritime provinces to admit women, and to form a student government. In 1883, a women's college for medical education affiliated with Queen's University was established. In 1888, Queen's University began offering extension courses, becoming the first Canadian university to do so. In 1912, Queen's secularized and changed to its present legal name.

Queen's is a co-educational university, with more than 23,000 students, and with over 131,000 living alumni worldwide. Notable alumni include government officials, academics, business leaders and 56 Rhodes Scholars. The university was ranked 4th in Canada by Maclean's University Ranking Guide for 2015, 206th in the 2015–2016 QS World University Rankings, 251–300th in the 2015–2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and 201–300 in the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Queen's varsity teams, known as the Golden Gaels, compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the Canadian Inter university Sport.

History: Nineteenth century:

Theological Hall served as Queen's University's main building throughout the late 19th century

Queen's was a result of an outgrowth of educational initiatives planned by Presbyterians in the 1830s. A draft plan for the university was presented at a synod meeting in Kingston in 1839, with a modified bill introduced through the 13th Parliament of Upper Canada during a session in 1840. On 16 October 1841, a royal charter was issued through Queen Victoria. Queen's resulted from years of effort by Presbyterians of Upper Canada to found a college for the education of ministers in the growing colony and to instruct the youth in various branches of science and literature. They modeled the university after the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. Classes began on 7 March 1842, in a small wood-frame house on the edge of the city with two professors and 15 students.

The college moved several times during its first eleven years, before settling in its present location.Prior to Canadian Confederation, the college was financially supported by the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, the Canadian government and private citizens. After Confederation the college faced ruin when the federal government withdrew its funding and the Commercial Bank of the Midland District collapsed, a disaster which cost Queen's two-thirds of its endowment. The college was rescued after Principal William Snodgrass and other officials created a fundraising campaign across Canada.

The risk of financial ruin continued to worry the administration until the final decade of the century. They actively considered leaving Kingston and merging with the University of Toronto as late as the 1880s. With the additional funds bequeathed from Queen's first major benefactor, Robert Sutherland, the college staved off financial failure and maintained its independence. Queen's was given university status on 17 May 1881. In 1883, Women's Medical College was founded at Queen's with a class of three. Theological Hall, completed in 1880, originally served as Queen's main building throughout the late 19th century.

Twentieth century: Aerial photo of Queen's University, 1919:

In 1912, Queen's separated from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and changed its name to Queen's University at Kingston. Queen's Theological College remained in the control of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, until 1925, when it joined the United Church of Canada, where it remains today. The university faced another financial crisis during World War I, from a sharp drop in enrollment due to the military enlistment of students, staff, and faculty. A $1,000,000 fundraising drive and the armistice in 1918 saved the university. Approximately 1,500 students participated in the war and 187 died. Months before Canada joined World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, came to Queen's to accept an honorary degree and, in a broadcast heard around the world, voiced the American policy of mutual alliance and friendship with Canada. During World War II, 2,917 graduates from Queen's served in the armed forces, suffering 164 fatalities. The Memorial Room in Memorial Hall of the John Deutsch University Centre lists those Queen's students who died during the world wars.

Queen's grew quickly after the war, propelled by the expanding postwar economy and the demographic boom that peaked in the 1960s. From 1951 to 1961, enrolment increased from just over 2,000 students to more than 3,000. The university embarked on a building program, constructing five student residences in less than ten years.

Following the reorganization of legal education in Ontario in the mid-1950s, Queen's Faculty of Law opened in 1957 in the newly built John A. MacDonald Hall. Other construction projects at Queen's in the 1950s included the construction of Richardson Hall to house Queen's administrative offices, and Dunning Hall. By the end of the 1960s, like many other universities in Canada, Queen's tripled its enrolment and greatly expanded its faculty, staff, and facilities, as a result of the baby boom and generous support from the public sector. By the mid-1970s, the number of full-time students had reached 10,000. Among the new facilities were three more residences and separate buildings for the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Psychology, Social Sciences and the Humanities.

During this period Schools of Music, Public Administration (now part of Policy Studies), Rehabilitation Therapy, and Urban and Regional Planning were established at Queen's. The establishment of the Faculty of Education in 1968 on land about a kilometer west of the university inaugurated the university's west campus.

Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking at Queen's University:

Queen's celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary in 1991, and was visited by Charles, Prince of Wales, and his then-wife, Diana, to mark the occasion. The Prince of Wales presented a replica of the 1841 Royal Charter granted by Queen Victoria, which had established the university; the replica is displayed in the John Deutsche University Center. The first female chancellor of Queen's University, Agnes Richardson Benidickson, was installed on 23 October 1980. In 1993, Queen's received Herstmonceux Castle as a donation from alumnus Alfred Bader. The castle is used by the university as the Bader International Study Center.

Twenty-first century:

In 2001 the Senate Educational Equity Committee (SEEC) studied the experiences of visible minority and Aboriginal faculty members at Queen's after a black female professor left, alleging that she had experienced racism.[29] Following this survey SEEC commissioned a study which found that many perceived a 'Culture of Whiteness' at the university. The report concluded that “white privilege and power continues to be reflected in the Eurocentric curricula, traditional pedagogical approaches, hiring, promotion and tenure practices, and opportunities for research” at Queen’s. The university's response to the report is the subject of continuing debate. The administration implemented measures to promote diversity beginning in 2006, such as the position of diversity advisor and the hiring of "dialogue monitors" to facilitate discussions on social justice.

In May 2010, Queen's University joined the Matariki Network of Universities, an international group of universities created in 2010, which focuses on strong links between research and undergraduate teaching.

Campus: Grant Hall at Queen's University:

Grant Hall has been considered the university's most recognized landmark since its completion in 1905. The university grounds lies within the neighborhood of Queen's in the city of Kingston, Ontario.[36] The university's main campus is bordered to the south by Lake Ontario, Kingston General Hospital to the southeast, city parks to the east, and by residential neighborhoods, known as the Kingston student ghetto or the university district, in all other directions. The campus grew to its present size of 40 ha (99 acres) through gradual acquisitions of adjacent private lands, and remains the university's largest landholding. The campus's original site and holds the majority of its facilities. In addition to its main campus in Kingston, Queen's owns several other properties around Kingston, as well as in Central Frontenac Township, Ontario, Rideau Lakes, Ontario, and East Sussex, England.

The buildings at Queen's vary in age, from Summer hill which opened in 1839, to the new Queen's School of Medicine building, which opened in 2011. Grant Hall, completed in 1905, is considered the university's most recognizable landmark. It is named after Rev. George Munro Grant who served as Queen's seventh principal. The building is used to host concerts, lectures, meetings, exams, and convocations.[35] Two buildings owned and managed by the university have been listed as National Historic Sites of Canada. The Kingston General Hospital is the oldest operating public hospital in Canada.[39] The Roselawn House, which is located east of the west campus, is the core component of the university's Donald Gordon Center.

Libraries, museums and galleries:

Joseph S. Stauffer Library is the largest library at the university, and holds the main collection for humanities and social science. Queen's University Libraries include six campus libraries in five facilities housing 2.2 million physical items and 400,000 electronic resources, including e-books, serial titles and databases. The library's budget in 2007–2008 was $18.1 million, with $9.8 million dedicated to acquisitions. The libraries are Bracken Health Sciences Library, Education Library, Lederman Law Library, Stauffer Humanities and Social Sciences Library and Engineering & Science Library. The W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library notably harbors early-dated books from 1475 to 1700. The Engineering & Science Library and the W.D. Jordan Library Special Collections and Music Library share facilities, known as Douglas Library.

Queen's operates the Miller Museum of Geology, an earth-science teaching museum which features an Earth Science and Geological Collections of 10 000 Minerals, and 865 fossils as well as an exhibit of the geology of the Kingston area. The museum is largely used as an earth-science teaching museum for local schools and natural-science interest groups in eastern Ontario. The permanent exhibits feature dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, fossils of early multi-celled animals and land tracks fossilized from 500 million years ago.

Queen's art collections are housed at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The art centre owes its namesake to Agnes Etherington, whose house was donated to the university and is being used as an art museum. Opened in 1957, it contains over 14,000 works of art, including works by Rembrandt, and Inuit art. The Union Gallery, an art gallery opened in 1994, is run by the university's student body and faculty. The gallery is dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art.

Housing and student facilities:

The university has eighteen student residences: Adelaide Hall, Ban Righ Hall, Brandt House, Chown Hall, Gordon House, Brockington House, Graduate Residence, Harkness Hall, John Orr Tower Apartments, Leggett Hall, Leonard Hall, McNeill House, Morris Hall, Smith House, Victoria Hall, Waldron Tower, Watts Hall and Jean Royce Hall. The largest is Victoria Hall, built in 1965, which houses nearly 900 students. In September 2010, 83.3 percent of first-year students lived on campus, part of the 26 percent of the overall undergraduate population which lived on campus. Residents were represented by two groups, the Main Campus Residents' Council, which represents the main campus, and the Jean Royce Hall Council, which represents the west campus (Jean Royce Hall, Harkness International Hall and the Graduate Residence). They were responsible for representing resident concerns, providing entertainment services, organizing events and upholding rules and regulations. In 2012, the Main Campus and Jean Royce Hall Residents' Councils were amalgamated into one organization, called ResSoc, standing for Residence Society.

The Student Life Center is the center of student governance and student directed social, cultural, entertainment and recreational activities. The Student Life Center consists of the John Deutsch University Center (JDUC), Grey House, Carruthers Hall, Queen’s Journal House, MacGillivray-Brown Hall, and the non-athletic sections of Queen's Center. Collectively, these buildings provide 10,500 square meters (113,000 sq ft) of space to the Queen's community. The JDUC contains the offices of a number of student organizations, including the Alma Mater Society of Queen's University, as well as retail and food services. The university has sixteen food outlets located throughout the campus, as well as three major residence dining facilities.

Off-campus facilities:

Herstmonceux Castle, which houses the Bader International Study Center

Queen's has off-campus faculties located in the Kingston area and abroad. The university has a second campus located in Kingston, known as the west campus. The west campus, acquired in 1969, is 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the main campus, and covers 27 ha (67 acres) of land. The west campus has two student residences, the Faculty of Education, the Coastal Engineering Lab, and several athletic facilities, including the Richardson Memorial Stadium.[58] In May 2007, the university approved the designs for the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, also located in Kingston. The new centre for performing arts was expected to open in 2014.

The university owns a research facility in Rideau Lakes, Ontario, known as the Queen's University Biological Station. Opened during the 1950s, the field station encompasses approximately 3000 hectares of property, a range of habitat types typical of Eastern Ontario, and many species of conservation concern in Canada.

Queen’s has an agreement with Novelis Inc. to acquire a 20-hectare (49-acre) property adjacent to the company's research and development centre in Kingston. The agreement is part of the plan to establish an innovative technology park located at the corner of Princess and Concession streets, which is to be called Innovation Park at Queen's University. The property was acquired for $5.3 million, a portion of the $21 million grant Queen's received from the Ontario government last spring to pioneer this innovative new regional R&D "co-location" model. Queen's leases approximately 7,900 square metres (85,000 sq ft) of the Novelis R&D facilities to accommodate faculty-led research projects that have industrial partners and small and medium-size companies with a research focus and a desire to interact with Queen's researchers. The remainder of the government funds support further development of the technology park to transform the property into a welcoming and dynamic site for business expansion and relocation.

The Bader International Study Center (BISC) is housed in Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, England, which was donated to Queen's in 1993 by alumnus Alfred Bader. BISC is academically fully integrated with Queen's, although financially self-sufficient. Its mission is to provide academic programs for undergraduate students whose academic interests are oriented toward the United Kingdom, Europe and the European Union, continuing-education programs for executives and other professional or “special interest” groups, a venue for conferences and meetings, a base for international graduate students and other scholars undertaking research in the United Kingdom and Europe and as an enhanced educational, social and cultural environment for the local community, using the unique heritage of the castle. The opportunity to study at the BISC is not limited to Queen's students. Queen's has academic exchange agreements with Canadian and foreign universities.

Finances:

The university completed the 2011–12 year with revenues of $769.9 million and expenses of $773.3 million, yielding a deficit of $3.4 million. Government grants made up 48 percent of the 2011–12 operating budget. Student fees made up 28 percent of the 2010–11 operating budget. As of 30 April 2012, Queen's endowment was valued at C$584.4 million.

The university has been registered as an educational charitable organization by Canada Revenue Agency since 1 January 1967. As of 2011, the university registered primarily as a post-secondary institution, with 70 percent of the charity dedicated to management and maintenance. The charity has 21 percent dedicated towards research, while the remaining 8 percent has been dedicated towards awards, bursaries and scholarships. Proceeds from the charity also go toward Queen's Theological College (as an affiliated college) and the Bader International Study Center at Herstmonceaux Castle.

Academics:

Queen's is a publicly funded research university, and a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The full-time undergraduate programs comprise the majority of the school's enrollment, made up of 16,339 full-time undergraduate students. In 2009 the two largest programs by enrollment were the social sciences, with 3,286 full-time and part-time students, followed by engineering, with 3,097 full-time and part-time students. The university conferred 3,232 bachelor degrees, 153 doctoral degrees, 1,142 master degrees, and 721 first professional degrees in 2008–2009.

Admission:

The requirements for admission differ between students from Ontario, other provinces in Canada, and international students due to the lack of uniformity in marking schemes. In 2013, 29% of applications to full-time, first-year studies were accepted. In 2014, 66 transfer students were admitted from a pool of 600 making its acceptance rate 11% for those who had attended other post-secondary institutions. In 2013, the secondary school average for full-time first-year students at Queen's was 89% overall, with the Commerce, Education and Engineering faculties having the highest entrance averages at 91.7%, 90.8%, and 90.6% respectively. The application process emphasizes the mandatory Personal Statement of Experience (PSE). The statement expresses how the applicant's personal experiences may contribute to the university. It focuses on qualifications and involvement outside of academics and is an important factor in determining admission. Several faculties require applicants to submit a supplementary essay.

Students may apply for financial aid such as the Ontario Student Assistance Program and Canada Student Loans and Grants through the federal and provincial governments. The financial aid provided may come in the form of loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, fellowships, debt reduction, interest relief, and work programs. In the 2010–11 academic year, Queen's provided $36.5 million worth of student need-based and merit-based financial assistance.