University of Guelph - History

History

The University of Guelph traces its origins back to when the Ontario government bought 500 acres (200 ha) of farmland and opened the Ontario School of Agriculture on May 1, 1874, which was renamed the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in 1880. Its first building was Moreton Lodge, located where Johnston Hall now stands, which included classrooms, residences, a library, and a dining room.

The Macdonald Institute was established in 1903 to house women's home economics programs, nature studies, and some domestic art and science. It was named after its financier, Sir William Macdonald, who worked to promote domestic sciences in rural Canada, and founded Macdonald College and McGill University College. The Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), originally founded in Toronto in 1862, was moved to Guelph in 1922.

These three adjacent colleges would be amalgamated into the single body of the University of Guelph by the Ontario Legislature on May 8, 1964. The University of Guelph Act also brought about the Board of Governors to oversee administrative operations and financial management, and the Senate to address academic concerns. The non-denominational graduate and undergraduate institution was, and remains known especially for the agricultural and veterinary programs that shaped it.

Wellington College was established shortly after the University of Guelph Act, and five years later, was split three ways into the College of Arts (COA), which exists in the present day, the College of Physical Science and the College of Social Science. The Macdonald Institute would also be renamed the College of Family and Consumer Studies during the split. After this split, the University of Guelph started reorganizing into its present day form, starting from the establishment of the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) in 1971. The College of Physical Science would be married to the OAC's School of Engineering in 1989, creating the College of Physical and Engineering Sciences (CPES). The College of Social Science and the College of Family and Consumer Studies were joined to create the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (CSAHS) in 1998. Finally, the College of Management and Economics (CME) would be established from the segregation of offered business, management and economic degrees and courses in 2006.