University of Western Ontario |
The University of Western Ontario is located in London, Ontario. It is commonly referred to as UWO or Western, although sometimes "Western Ontario" is
heard, especially in relation to sports, for example "the Western Ontario Mustangs".
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Motto: Veritas et Utilitas
(Latin: Truth and usefulness) |
| Chancellor |
Eleanor Clitheroe |
| President |
Paul Davenport |
| School type |
Public |
| Religious affiliation |
Main campus: None
Brescia: Catholic
Huron: Anglican
King's: Catholic |
| Founded |
1878 |
| Location |
London, Ontario, Canada |
| Enrollment |
25,000 undergraduate
5,000 graduate |
| Campus surroundings |
Urban |
| Campus size |
1.6 kmē |
| Mascot |
Mustang |
Campus
The university covers 1.6 kmē of land on the North Branch of the Thames River.
Organization
The university's Chancellor is Eleanor Clitheroe, and its
President is Dr. Paul Davenport. The university over 60 faculties and
programs. Faculties and programs at the university are:
The university also has three affiliated colleges:
- Brescia University College (Catholic; the only
university-level women's college in Canada)
- Arts
- Administrative and Commercial Studies
- Community Development
- Family Studies
- Foods and Nutrition
- Health Sciences
- Human Ecology
- Kinesiology
- Scholar's Elective
- Social Sciences
- Huron University College (Anglican; includes the Anglican seminary)
- Administrative and Commercial Studies
- Economics
- English
- French
- History
- International and Comparative Studies
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Scholar's Electives
- Religious Studies
- King's University College (Catholic; includes St. Peter's seminary)
- Administrative and Commercial Studies
- Childhood and Family Relations
- Economics
- English
- French
- History
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Religious Studies
- Social work
- Sociology
- Social Justice and Peace
Students
There are approximately 25,000 undergraduate and 5,000 graduate students at UWO. King's University College has about 3,100
students (2003/2004), Huron University College about 1,000, and Brescia University College about 500. The major student
residences are Medway Hall, Sydenham Hall, Alumni House, Essex Hall, Elgin Hall, Delaware Hall, Perth Hall, and Saugeen-Maitland
Hall. The affiliated colleges have their own residences.
Faculty
There are about 1,200 faculty members at the university and affiliated colleges. The Faculty of Social Science employs the
highest number of faculty.
Sports, Clubs, and Traditions
In 1929 J.W. Little Stadium was built. This stadium served as the site of convocation
until 1960, and continued to be used as a sports stadium until 2001 when it was torn down and replaced with TD-Waterhouse Stadium. The new stadium was the primary site of the 2001
Summer Canada Games, which were
held in London.
Western has over 20 sports teams, which are called the Mustangs. From 1939 to 1948 the football team was undefeated, and they have
won 6 Vanier Cups. For 30 years the football team was coached by John P.
Metras, for whom the Canadian
Interuniversity Sport's best defensive linesman award is named. The men's basketball team has also won many
championships.
The university is home to one of Canada's two University level marching bands, The Western Mustang Band. It was started in
1938 by music faculty alumni Don Wright (for whom the faculty is now named). The only other Canadian university marching band is
found at Queen's University.
There are over 100 clubs, for academic, religious, cultural, and other pursuits, which are governed by the University
Students' Council. The Student Council also publishes The Gazette, the student newspaper, which was founded in 1904 and given its present name in 1937.
UWO has a traditional rivalry with the University of
Waterloo, located only one hour to the east. There is also a rivalry with McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ontario and Queen's University in
Kingston, Ontario. Many students at other universities think of
UWO as a "party school," or a school for rich students (leading to the nickname "University of Wealthy Ontarians"), so UWO tends
to have a rivalry with almost every other school in Ontario. However, this reputation is no longer as strong as it was in the
past.
History
The university was founded in 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth
of the Anglican Diocese of Huron as "The Western University of London Ontario." It incorporated Huron College, which had been
founded in 1863. The first four faculties were Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine, and there
were originally only 15 students when classes began in 1881. The first of these students
graduated in 1883. In 1916 the current site of the
university was purchased from the Kingsmill family, and in 1923 the name of the university
was changed to its present form. The first two buildings constructed at the new site were the Arts Building (now University
College) and the Natural Science Building (now the Physics and Astronomy Building). These were built in a neo-Gothic or "Collegiate Gothic" style. The University College tower, one of the most
distinctive features of the university, was named the Middlesex Memorial Tower in honour of the men from Middlesex County who had fought in World War I (all 40 male students at the university in 1914 had enlisted). Classes on the present site began in 1924.
Although enrolment was low for many years, after World War II the
university began to increase greatly in size, and by the 1970s 10% of university students
in Ontario were enrolled at UWO. After World War II, the university saw the
addition of new faculties such as the Faculty of Graduate Studies (1947), the School of
Business Administration (now the Richard Ivey School of Business) (1949), the Faculty of
Engineering Science (1957), the Faculty of Law (1959), and Althouse College for Education students (1963).
Other notable buildings on campus include Thames Hall (built in 1950), the
Stevenson-Lawson Building (built in 1959), Middlesex College (with its clock tower, another
distinctive feature of the university, built in 1960), Talbot College {built in 1966), Alumni Hall (built in 1967), the University Campus of
the London Health Sciences Centre, the John P. Robarts Research Institute,
the Lawson Health Research Institute, the D.B. Weldon Library, the John Labatt Visual
Arts Centre, the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory, the University Community Centre, the Social Science Centre, and T.D.
Waterhouse Stadium (built in 2001). There is also the Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory,
built in 1940 as the first observatory at a Canadian university, and named after the
grandfather of actor Hume Cronyn. The McIntosh Memorial Art Gallery was built
in 1942, and is now the oldest university art gallery in Canada.
The school colours are white and purple (Often mistakenly reported as 'purple and white'), and the school's motto is
Veritas et utilitas, meaning Truth and usefulness.
Famous Alumni
- Thalia Assuras, 1981, CBC and CBS journalist
- Adam Beck, 1916, former mayor of London
- James Bartleman, 1963,
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
- Paul Beeston, 1967, former president of Major
League Baseball
- Roberta Bondar, 1971,
astronaut
- Eleanor Clitheroe, 1977, businesswoman and current chancellor of the university
- Sheila Copps, 1973, Minister of
Heritage in the federal Liberal Party
- Duncan Coutts, 1993, bass player for Our Lady Peace
- Janet Ecker, 1975, Ontario Minister of Finance
- Elliotte Friedman,
1993, sports reporter
- Dianne Haskett, 1977, former mayor of London
- Jennifer Hedger,
1998, sports reporter for TSN
- Tomson Highway, 1975,
playwright
- Gar Knutson, 1983, Liberal Member of Parliament
- Silken Laumann, 1988, Olympic rower
- Marnie McBean, 1997, Olympic rower
- Alice Munro, 1976, author
- Kevin Newman, 1981, reporter for Global News
- John Robarts, 1939, former
Premier of Ontario
- Steve Rucchin, 1994, hockey player for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
- Scott Russell, 1985, CBC commentator for Hockey Night in Canada and figure skating
- Chris Simpson, 1985, Sportsnet reporter
- Alan Thicke, 1967, actor
- Al Waxman, 1957, actor
- Galen Weston, 1962, head of
Weston Foods
- Hilary Weston, 1997, former
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
There is also a fictional alumnus - Michael Patterson from the comic strip For Better or For Worse.
Famous Faculty
Prominent Groups
- University of Western Ontario Debating Society, the oldest student association at the university and one of the largest and
most respected university debating societies in the world. It competes internationally against teams such as Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford. From 1994 to 1997, the Society was ranked as the #1 competitive debating
society in North America, winning more major awards than any other team
in the United States or Canada. The Society is a member of CUSID, the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. (Official Web Site
)
External Links
See also: List of Ontario
Universities
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