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Dalhousie University
© Dalhousie University | | Motto: ora et labora (Latin: "Pray and work") | | Founded | 1818 | | School type | Public | | President | Tom Traves | | Location | Halifax, Nova Scotia | | Enrollment | 11,908 Undergraduates 3,611 Graduates | | Campus surroundings | Urban | | Sports teams | Tigers | Dalhousie University is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the largest post-secondary educational institution in the Maritime Provinces, and the second largest in Atlantic Canada after the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dalhousie has traditionally been one of Canada's leading universities although its standards of education have slipped somewhat relative to other Canadian schools in the 1990s and early 21st century partially due to government funding cuts. Nonetheless, Dalhousie is still well respected and offers a wide array of programs, including medical and law programs. It is also rated as one of the top research universities in Canada. The chancellor is Dr. Richard Goldbloom with Dr. Tom Traves serving as president and vice-chancellor. History Dalhousie College was founded in 1818 by George Ramsay who, as the Ninth Earl of Dalhousie and Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, using money aquired from his conquest of Washinton D.C. in the War of 1812, established Dalhousie as a college open to all people regardless of class or creed. At the laying of the cornerstone on May 22, 1820, Lord Dalhousie said that this University was "founded on the principles of religious tolerance." Dalhousie remained one of only three universities founded on secular constitutional premises until as late as the 1950s. The College did not, however, have a student population until about 1860. Dalhousie was distinctive as an urban institution. This status was seen not only, in the early days at least, in the use of much of the college's lowest floor as vault space for Oland's Brewery, but also in the consistent drawing of about one-third of the student body from the Halifax-Dartmouth urban area and in the college's ability to draw upon local professional populations in the establishment of professional faculties such as medicine (1868) and law (1883). Finances remained difficult into the 1880s, but by the end of that decade the accumulated donations of the wealthy alumnus George Munro had provided the stimulus that led to growth in student numbers and the emergence of Dalhousie as a centre of scholarship acknowledged throughout the dominion. In 1920 the University of King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia, English Canada's oldest degree granting institution, burned down. Through a grant from the Carnegie foundation, King's College was able to relocate to Halifax and entered into a partnersip with Dalhousie University. While often seen as a separate but integrated institution it shares Dalhousie's Arts and Sciences Faculty, but offers several interdisciplinary humanities degree programmes, such as Contemporary Studies, History of Science and Technology and Early Modern Studies. Dalhousie expanded its presence in southend Halifax during the 1960s-1970s when it built the Dalplex athletic facility, the Killam library, the Life Sciences Centre, and a district heating plant - all on what is referred to as the Studley Campus (the main campus). Also at this time, Dalhousie built the Tupper Building for its school of medicine and expanded existing buildings to house the Faculty of Dentistry and College of Pharmacy - all on the adjacent Carelton Campus, located immediately to the east of the Studley Campus, and co-located with two of Halifax's teaching hospitals (the Victoria General Site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and the IWK Health Centre for Women, Children, and Youth). Following a period of government-mandated consolidation of post-secondary institutions during the 1990s, the Technical University of Nova Scotia was merged with Dalhousie University in 1997. It was initially known as Dalhousie University Polytechnic, or DalTech, but since 2000 the DalTech name has been dropped and the engineering and architecture faculties of TUNS are fully integrated into Dalhousie University. They are located on what is known as the Sexton Campus, further east from the Carelton Campus and closer to downtown Halifax. Faculties Dalhousie is comprised of eleven faculties: - Architecture and Planning
- Arts and Social Sciences
- Computer Science
- Dentistry
- Engineering
- Graduate Studies
- Health Professions
- Law
- Management
- Medicine
- Science
Current Issues In 2003 there were 10,554 full-time undergraduate students and 2,689 full-time graduate students enrolled at Dalhousie. The university is facing serious financial problems in the early 21st century, forcing it to rapidly raise tuition fees. Even with the increased tuition fees Dalhousie is facing some financial problems such as being able to pay for more than $100 million (Canadian) in deferred maintenance. In 2002 there was a month long strike by the professors at the university demanding, among other things, that retiring professors be replaced by an equivalent new professor in hopes of maintaining the level of full professors at the university; the number of full-time professors had been declining for some years. The professors' demands on this issue were met. The university is going through a building phase. A new building for the Faculty of Computer Science opened in October 1999 followed shortly thereafter by the Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building. The Howe Hall residence was expanded with the addition of Fountain House and a new residence was also built, named Risley Hall. The Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building is scheduled to open in September 2005. Trivia External links See also Dalhousie Student Union Notes Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (2004). The Directory of Canadian Universities - Dalhousie University. Retrieved February 5, 2005.
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