Simon Fraser University

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This article is about the Canadian university. For other uses, see SFU (disambiguation).
Simon Fraser University
Motto: Nous sommes prêts
Motto in English: We are ready
Established: 1965
Type: Public University
Endowment: $176.902 million [1]
Chancellor: Dr. Brandt C. Louie
President: Dr. Michael Stevenson
Provost: Dr. Jon Driver
Students: 30,313 [2]
Undergraduates: 26,332
Postgraduates: 3,981
Location: Flag of Canada Burnaby (BBY), British Columbia, Canada
Campus: Urban, 1.7 km² maintained, plus 3.3 km² of SFU community
Satellite Campuses: Downtown Vancouver, Surrey, Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia
Colours: Blue      & Red     
Nickname: Simon Fraser Clan
Mascot: McFogg the Dog
Affiliations: AUCC, IAU, ACU,CIS, CUSID,CWUAA, CBIE, CUP.
Website: www.sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey and a program in Kamloops. It was established in 1965 and presently has more than 32,000 students and 900 faculty members.[3] The university was named after Simon Fraser, a North West Company fur trader and explorer. Undergraduate and graduate programs operate on a year-round tri-semester schedule.[4] SFU was ranked 1st in Canada’s top Comprehensive Universities in 2008's Macleans Magazine[5], ranked 62nd in the world and 4th in Canada in 2009 Webometrics Ranking of World Universities[6].

Contents

[edit] History

The newly constructed university in 1967

[edit] Founding

Simon Fraser University was founded upon the recommendation of a 1958 report entitled Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future, by Dr. J.B. Macdonald, who recommended the creation of a new university in the Lower Mainland. The British Columbia Legislature gave formal assent two months later for the establishment of the university. In May of the same year Dr. Gordon M. Shrum was appointed as the university's first Chancellor. From a variety of sites which were offered, Shrum recommended to the Provincial Government that the peak of Burnaby Mountain, where a prison was once built, be chosen for the new university. Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey won a competition to design the university, and construction began in the spring of 1964. Eighteen months later, on September 9, 1965, the university began its first semester with 2,500 students. The campus was noted in the 1960s and early 1970s as a hotbed of political activism, culminating in a crisis in the Department of Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology in a dispute involving ideological differences among faculty. The resolution to the crisis included the dismantling of the department and its breaking-up into today's separate departments.[7]

[edit] Coats of Arms

The school's original coat of arms was used from the university's inception until 2006, at which point the Board of Governors voted to adapt the old coat of arms and thereby register a second coat of arms. The adaptation replaced two crosslets with books after some in the university asserted the crosses had misled prospective foreign students into believing SFU was a private, religious institution rather than a public, secular one.[8] In 2007, the university decided to register both the old coat of arms and the revised coat of arms featuring the books. In 2007, a new marketing logo was unveiled, consisting of white letters on block red.[9]

[edit] Academics

The Burnaby Mountain campus

[edit] Profile

SFU has been rated as Canada's best comprehensive university (in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2008) in the annual rankings of Canadian universities in Maclean's magazine and has consistently placed at or near the top of the publication's national evaluations. Research Infosource, Canada’s leading provider of research intelligence evaluation, named SFU the top comprehensive university in Canada for “publication effectiveness” in 2006. Similar to most Canadian universities, SFU is a public university, with more than half of funding coming from taxpayers and the remaining from tuition fees. The university's faculties are divided into eight areas:Applied Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Business Administration, Communication, Art & Technology, Education, Environment, Health Sciences, and Science.

[edit] Undergraduate

SFU is home to over 25,000 undergraduates. The university has grown in recent years recently achieving an alumni population of over 100,000. It has 911 faculty members and 3,403 staff. International students make up 7% of its student body. (University Community Report (2006/2007)).[10] SFU's student union is known as the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS), which includes undergraduates who study at SFU.

The Academic Quadrangle gardens at SFU

[edit] Instructors

Teaching Assistants, Tutor Markers, Sessional Instructors, and Language Instructors at SFU are unionized. The union, The Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU), is independent. Faculty and lecturers are members of the Faculty Association. Staff are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Administrative and Professional Staff Association (APSA), or Polyparty. A few positions at the university such as some in Human Resources and senior administrative positions fall outside of the five associations or unions above.

[edit] Research and Affiliations

SFU also works with other universities and agencies to operate joint research facilities. These include Bamfield Marine Station, a major centre for teaching and research in marine biology; TRIUMF, a powerful cyclotron used in subatomic physics and chemistry research; MITACS, headquarters of this Network of Centres of Excellence for 26 universities and 75 companies. SFU is also a partner institution in Great Northern Way Campus Ltd in Vancouver. In March 2006, SFU approved an affiliation agreement with a private college for international students to be housed adjacent to its Burnaby campus. This new college named Fraser International College is now open in the Multi Tenant Facility located in Discovery Parks Trust SFU site.[11]

[edit] Campuses

Aerial view of the Academic Quadrangle on the Burnaby campus

Simon Fraser University has three campuses, each located in different parts of the Lower Mainland. SFU's main campus is located in Burnaby, atop Burnaby Mountain. Two satellite campuses are located in Vancouver's Downtown at Harbour Centre, and in Surrey. The downtown campus has expanded to include several other buildings in recent years, including the Segal Graduate School of Business, now known officially as SFU Vancouver.

[edit] SFU Burnaby Mountain Campus

The main campus is located atop Burnaby Mountain, at an elevation of 365 metres. The library on the main campus is called the W. A. C. Bennett Library, named after the Social Credit Premier of B.C. who established it. In addition to the renowned architectural designs, a significant portion of the campus is located underground. The campus has a theatre, a Museum of Archeology and Ethnology and three art galleries.

WAC Bennett Library

[edit] Libraries, museums and galleries

The SFU Burnaby Campus has a single library called the WAC Bennett Library which holds over 2 million published books, and 6000 print subscriptions. Along with the UniverCity development agreement, residents of UniverCity are also allowed to borrow books from the library. An additional art gallery is located inside the library. SFU also has a Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, which holds many exhibits on lease from the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. The exhibits are created by students as part of the museum studies courses offered in the Department of Archaeology. Archaeological collections arising from excavations and other research by faculty, staff and students are also housed in the museum.

Also located at the SFU Library is the Electronic Document Centre, which provides internet access to digitized documents from a number of archival collections, such as Harrison Brown's Xi'an Incident collection,[12] and the history of British Columbia and Western Canada in general, including documents from the Doukhobor migration from the Russian Empire to Saskatchewan and then to British Columbia assembled for donation to the university by John Keenlyside [13]

[edit] SFU Residences

Residence and Housing offers a few different types of accommodation for students attending SFU. All housing is located on the Burnaby campus. The Towers (officially opened in Fall of 2004) is a fully-furnished dormitory-style building where students are on a meal plan; students get a private bedroom. McTaggart-Cowan Hall (built in 1985) and Shell House (built in 1967) are two traditional-style fully-furnished dormitory buildings, each with kitchens; students get a private bedroom. The Townhouse Complex (built in 1993) consists of 3-level units, each with a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and four bedrooms; the townhouse is furnished and the bedrooms are private. Hamilton Hall (built in 1993 and renovated in 2009) is a studio-style building for graduate students; the suites are self-contained. Louis Riel House (built in 1969) is an apartment-style building that is used for family housing, however graduate students may also be housed here.

[edit] SFU Vancouver

The university pioneered university mid-career professional education in Vancouver in the early 1980s with the launch of a store-front classroom. Today's multi-site campus is the result of a close collaboration between the University and the business, professional and cultural communities, the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia and the Government of Canada. A significant portion of funding for the building of the campus came from the private sector. SFU was the first university to be permanently located in downtown Vancouver. It now has five distinct sites: Harbour Centre, the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, the Segal Graduate School of Business, the SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward's, plus SFU Contemporary Arts studio space on Alexander Street. The original campus building at Harbour Centre, a rebuilt heritage department store, officially opened on May 5, 1989. Today, the entire campus serves over 70,000 people annually. Approximately 10,000 are graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in courses and degree programs based downtown. Others attend SFU public events or meetings organized externally.

A range of undergraduate courses are offered each semester. In 2010 the SFU Contemporary Arts will move its offices, programs, faculty, staff and students to spectacular new performance and instructional facilities at Woodward's. Professional graduate degrees are offered in business, gerontology, international studies, liberal studies, public policy, publishing and urban studies. Specialized programs offer the opportunity to complete undergraduate degrees while continuing regular employment. A wide range of non-credit, continuing studies courses and programs are available in business, writing and publishing, urban issues and community outreach, interdisciplinary studies, health, dialogue, languages, science and for seniors.

Research is integral to the Vancouver campus with dedicated reserach centres in many areas including health sciences, public policy, gerontology, publishing, biomedical physiology and kinesiology, urban studies, humanities, communication, dialogue, business, criminology, sustainable community development and sociology and anthropology. The TIME Centre provides an incubator for new business ideas and entrepreneurial education.

Construction of the new Woodward's development in March 2007, taken from Harbour Centre Lookout.

[edit] SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward's

In January 2010, after more than 30 years of artistic excellence at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus, SFU Contemporary Arts will soon relocate to the historic Woodward’s district in downtown Vancouver. With new galleries, theatres, screening rooms and studios, our new home will add exciting and much-needed facilities to the city's rich cultural mix and promises to be a magnet for arts enthusiasts from across Canada and around the world.

The 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) SFU facility is part of one of the most inclusive social experiments in the history of Canada. The Woodward's redevelopment project, designed by architect Gregory Henriquez, also includes 200 units of social housing, 536 units of market housing, retail, offices, community space, daycare and a significant series of public spaces, totalling 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2).

[edit] Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing

The CCSP is a teaching, research, and information centre based at Simon Fraser University Vancouver's Harbour Centre building. Founded in 1987, the CCSP is a university/industry initiative dedicated to the development of publishing in Canada and internationally. It is advised by an industry board and emphasizes book, magazine, and web publishing.

Central City, home to SFU Surrey

[edit] SFU Surrey Campus

SFU Surrey is Simon Fraser University's newest campus, located in downtown Surrey. The campus is part of Central City, an award-winning[14] architectural complex adjacent to the Surrey Central SkyTrain station. It was established in 2002 to absorb the students and programs of the former Technical University of British Columbia which was closed by the provincial government. It has since expanded to house the Surrey operations of other SFU programs. The Central City complex that houses the campus was designed by architect Bing Thom. SFU Surrey offers graduate and undergraduate studies in arts and social sciences, applied sciences, business administration, computing science, criminology, education, interactive arts and technology, mathematics, and science; and a number of credit and non-credit continuing education courses.

Programs at the SFU Surrey campus are offered by the Faculties of Applied Science, Arts and Social Sciences, Business Administration, Communication, Art and Technology, Education, and Science. SFU Surrey currently offers four first-year cohort programs: TechOne, Science Year One, BusOne and Explorations in the Arts and Social Sciences.

SFU Surrey is also home to several research centres, including the International Centre for Cybercrime Research, the CATGames Research Group and the Creative Intelligence Lab.

[edit] UniverCity residential development

One section of the UniverCity residential area

At present, the part of Burnaby Mountain below SFU is a park and conservation area. Apart from SFU and associated industrial/technical research park Discovery Park, there had been little development until recently. In 2003, the university commenced construction on a new residential and commercial area occupying approximately 200 acres (0.81 km2) adjacent to the campus, atop the mountain, called UniverCity. The area will contain up to 4,500 residential units in a number of neighbourhoods, along with a new town centre, schools, parks and other amenities. As of January 2008, approximately 1200 residences, and The Cornerstone building, which includes restaurants, shops, services and rental apartments are complete. Construction of another two mid-rise residential buildings (141 homes), a mixed-use building similar to The Cornerstone, and a 1400 car multi-level parkade will begin Spring 2007. The development is noted for the first community transit pass program in Canada, and a prohibition on multi-national retailers in the town centre.[15]

[edit] Student Life and Athletics

The student newspaper The Peak was established shortly after the university opened, and is circulated throughout the Lower Mainland. CJSF-FM radio is the school's radio station, broadcasting from 90.1 FM to Burnaby and surrounding communities, online at www.cjsf.ca or on cable at 93.9 FM. The school's sports teams are called the Simon Fraser Clan, and the mascot is a Scottish Terrier named "McFogg the Dog". In sports and other competitions, there tends to be a strong rivalry between SFU and The University of British Columbia.

SFU's Clan Athletics competes in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and the U.S. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). SFU has 15 varsity sport teams and 300 athletes. Football, men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball and women's wrestling compete for CIS championships only. Men's and women's soccer, women's softball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's cross-country and men's and women's track and field compete for NAIA championships only. Men's wrestling competes for championships of both organizations. SFU has won the NAIA NACDA Director's Cup five times, among others[16].

On Friday, July 10, 2009, the NCAA announced that it has accepted SFU as a Division II member that will begin after a two year transition period. SFU will compete in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.[17]. They are the first Canadian university to be accepted as a member of the NCAA at any level.

Many SFU athletes have also participated in Olympic Games, including medal winners Carole Huynh, Daniel Igali, Jay Triano, Jeff Thue, Sue Holloway, Bob Molle, Chris Rinke, Hugh Fisher, Garry MacDonald, and Bruce Roberston.

There are also a few "elite clubs" at Simon Fraser University which are teams that compete competitively against other university teams at their varsity level. These teams include the SFU Rowing Team, the SFU Lacrosse Team in the MCLA, SFU Hockey team and the SFU Cheerleading Team.

In 1966[18], the Tau chapter of Phrateres, a philanthropic-social organization for female college students, was installed at SFU. The organization had chapters in Canada and the United States. Tau was one of 3 chapters British Columbia; the others being Theta[19] (UBC, 1935-still active) and Omega[20] (UVic, 1961-1971). There is no documentation of the Tau chapter after 1970.

[edit] Transportation

The 144 SFU bus at Sperling-Burnaby Lake Station

SFU's three campuses are all accessible by public transit. The Vancouver campus is a block away from the Waterfront SkyTrain station while the Surrey campus is adjacent to the Surrey Central SkyTrain station. The Burnaby campus is linked to the Production Way-University and Sperling-Burnaby Lake SkyTrain stations by frequent shuttle bus service.

All SFU students, whether transit users or not, are required to have the mandatory U-Pass which gives them unlimited access to transit in Metro Vancouver and which results from an agreement between student associations in area universities and TransLink. The cost is compulsory within student fees charged with registration.

[edit] Governance and administration

[edit] Convocation

The Convocation is composed of all faculty members, senators, and graduates (degree holders, including honorary alumni) of the university. Its main function is to elect the Chancellor (who acts as Chair of Convocation) and four Convocation Senators. Convocation ceremonies are held annually to confer degrees (including honorary degrees) as well as award diplomas and certificates.

The Maggie Benston Centre, home to many of the administrative activities at SFU

[edit] Board of Governors

The Board is composed of the Chancellor, the President, two student members, two faculty members, one staff member, and eight individuals appointed by the British Columbia government. Traditionally, the Board is chaired by one of the government appointees. The Board is responsible for the general management and governance of the university.

[edit] Senate

The Senate is composed of the Chancellor, the President, Vice-President, Academic, Vice-President, Research, Deans of Faculties, Dean of Graduate Studies, Dean of Continuing Studies, Associate Vice-President, Academic, University Librarian, Registrar (as Senate secretary), 14 student members, 28 faculty members, and 4 convocation members (who are not faculty members). The Senate is chaired by the President. The academic governance of the university is vested in the Senate.

[edit] Chancellor

The Chancellor is elected by and from Convocation for a three-year term, which can be renewed once. The main responsibilities of the Chancellor are to confer degrees and represent the university in formal functions.

[edit] President and Vice-Chancellor

The President and Vice-Chancellor is appointed by the Board of Governors based on a selection process jointly established by the Board of Governors and the Senate of the university. As Chief Executive Officer and Chair of Senate, the President is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the university.

[edit] Dean of Graduate Studies Office

The Dean of Graduate Studies Office is responsible for ensuring compliance to approved graduate studies standards, administering merit-based graduate awards and maintaining formal student records.

[edit] Alumni

Statue of Terry Fox in the Academic Quadrangle gardens

Locally and internationally famous alumni include

[edit] Terry Fox

Main article: Terry Fox

One of the most highly regarded SFU alumni and one of Canada's most treasured sons is Terry Fox. When Terry was an 18-year-old kinesiology student and junior varsity basketball player, he was diagnosed with bone cancer, which resulted in the amputation of his leg. With a prosthetic leg, Fox set out to cross Canada on a grueling run called the Marathon of Hope to raise funding and awareness about cancer. As a result of Terry Fox's legacy, running for charitable causes is now integrated within communities worldwide. He also inspired friend Rick Hansen's Man in Motion world tour by wheelchair. In 2001, SFU awarded an honorary degree to Betty Fox, mother of Terry Fox and Honorary Chair of the Terry Fox Foundation.

[edit] Honorary alumni

In 1967, SFU awarded an honorary LL.D. (doctor of laws) to Marshall McLuhan, the first honorary degree awarded at university[21]. On April 20, 2004, SFU conferred honorary degrees upon three Nobel Peace Prize recipients: the 14th Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi. At each convocation, SFU awards honorary degrees to various people from around the world for their activities and pursuits. Other honorary alumni include skier Nancy Greene Raine, Milton Wong, Doris Shadbolt, dancer and choreographer Judith Marcuse, economist Jeffrey Sachs, Peter Gzowski, Douglas Coupland, Romeo Dallaire, Canadian businessman Stephen Jarislowsky, Iain Baxter, Cary Fowler, Martha Piper, and Rick Hansen.[22]

[edit] Rhodes Scholars

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

Due to the contemporary Brutalist architecture of the WAC Bennett Library and Academic Quadrangle, the main campus has been used for location shots in science fiction television series such as Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Galactica and Andromeda. Its first use as a film set was for the 1972 science fiction film The Groundstar Conspiracy, in which the entire campus complex was used. It was then followed by The Fly 2, which has scenes shot inside and outside the Burnaby campus. The AQ also served as a backdrop for shots of "headquarters" in the television series The X-Files. The campus served as a high-tech corporate setting in the film Antitrust. Recently, in addition to other Vancouver-area landmarks, many parts of the Burnaby campus were used for the filming of the movie The 6th Day as well as "Agent Cody Banks". In early 2008, the Burnaby campus was again used for filming, this time for The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 Remake). Ashton Kutcher was also recently sighted on campus filming in the Arts and Social Sciences Complex. Exterior shots of the campus AQ have also been used in the Vancouver-based tv series J-Pod (based on the book).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ SFU March 2008 financial statement
  2. ^ SFU Facts
  3. ^ SFU Facts - Stats and graphs
  4. ^ Simon Fraser University
  5. ^ "Maclean's Comprehensive University Rankings" (PDF). http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/comprehensiveflat.pdf. 
  6. ^ "Webometrics Ranking of Canadian Universities". http://www.webometrics.info/rank_by_country.asp?country=ca. 
  7. ^ http://www.peak.sfu.ca/gopher/94-3/issue4/another.ans
  8. ^ SFU News Online - SFU's new coat of arms - February 07, 2007
  9. ^ SFU News Online - SFU launches new brand - February 07, 2007
  10. ^ http://www.sfu.ca/facts/stats.html
  11. ^ http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912&rem=32389&red=80121823aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm
  12. ^ Harrison Brown: The Sian Incident and Beyond
  13. ^ The Doukhobor Collection "AQ Magazine", June 2001
  14. ^ Award-winning SFU Surrey
  15. ^ http://www.translink.bc.ca/About_TransLink/News_Releases/news12200501.asp
  16. ^ http://www2.sfu.ca/athletics/ other awards
  17. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/07/10/simon.fraser.ap/indexhtml
  18. ^ Simon Fraser University Archives
  19. ^ "New Social Club Sponsored by W.U.S.: International Organization, Phrateres to be Installed", The Ubyssey 17 (17): 1, 1934-11-23, http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/ubyssey/UBYSSEY_1934_11_23.pdf 
  20. ^ "Phrateres Installation", The Martlet 1 (3): 4, 1961-10-17, http://library.uvic.ca/site/archives/featured_collections/uvic_newspapers/martlet_1960/The%20Martlet_1961_10_17.pdf : "...Saturday, October 21, Omega Chapter of Phrateres will be installed in a formal candlelit ceremony. Eleven executive members of the Theta Chapter at U.B.C. will help..."
  21. ^ SFU 2008 Honorary Degree Recipients
  22. ^ Truth as a Measure of Life and Politics - aq November 2004

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 49°16′36″N 122°55′05″W / 49.276765°N 122.917957°W / 49.276765; -122.917957

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