University of Waterloo - History

History

The University of Waterloo was originally conceived in 1955 as the Waterloo College Associate Faculties (WCAF), a semi-autonomous entity within Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University, formerly known as Waterloo Lutheran University). The non-denominational school was founded in 1957 by Dr. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles in Waterloo, Ontario. The Waterloo College of Arts became affiliated with the University of Western Ontario in 1925.

This university was established in response to community demand for improved education facilities, particularly in technical and scientific fields of study. Renowned for the success of its cooperative education programs, it now has the largest engineering school in Canada.

A plaque was erected just inside the entrance to the university on University Avenue West across from Seagram Drive, Waterloo:

The University of Waterloo
In 1956 community leaders, headed by Dr. J. Gerald Hagey, formed the Waterloo College Associate Faculties, a non-denominational corporation, to provide Waterloo with improved educational facilities, particularly in the technical, scientific and engineering fields. A year later about seventy students, attracted by a pioneer programme in co-operative education, attended the institutions first classes. Full university powers were conferred by a 1959 Act and the next year the University awarded its first degrees. St. Jerome's College, a century-old Roman Catholic educational institution, federated with the University of Waterloo in 1960 and within the next year Renison (Anglican), St. Paul's (United Church) and Conrad Grebel (Mennonite) became affiliate colleges of the University.

Today Wilfrid Laurier University is reputed for its business and liberal arts programs while the University of Waterloo is reputed for its engineering and math programs. The university's first president, Gerry Hagey, gathered teachers of engineering and basic sciences, and also obtained an initial grant of $625,000 from the government. The first 74 students began classes on 1 July 1957, in makeshift temporary buildings on the Waterloo College campus. In 1958, the University of Waterloo established an extension department.

In January 1958, Hagey and colleagues purchased 74 hectares (180 acres) of farmland a kilometre west of Waterloo College's main campus in order to meet the growing expansion needs. Soon, construction began of the first academic building on the new site, known as the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Building, later renamed Engineering 1 and now named after Douglas Wright, UW's first Dean of Engineering. Through a series of delicate negotiations which turned into bitter hostilities, the "Faculty of Science and Engineering" broke free from Waterloo College, partly due to the fact that the two campuses were now disjoint. Hagey himself was opposed to the break, as his dream had been to establish a world-class university built on the strengths of Waterloo College's liberal arts strengths and the applied science education of WCAF.

The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario was incorporated and granted a university charter in 1959. In early 1959, the government established three universities: Waterloo Lutheran University, University of St. Jerome's College, and the University of Waterloo.

The policy of university education initiated in the 1960s responded to population pressure and the belief that higher education was a key to social justice and economic productivity for individuals and for society. The governance was modelled on the provincial University of Toronto Act of 1906 which established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens) exercising exclusive control over financial policy and having formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the 2 bodies and to perform institutional leadership.

Initially, St. Jerome's and Waterloo Lutheran were both expected to federate with the new UW, but in the end Waterloo Lutheran chose to remain independent. Waterloo Lutheran Seminary is currently an affiliate of the nondenominational Wilfrid Laurier University and offers several programs at the master's level and a Doctor of Ministry in pastoral counselling and marriage and family therapy. The Waterloo Lutheran seminary established the Institute for Christian Ethics in 1986. UW then quickly created a faculty of arts in order to gain respect as a university. In the same year, arts students joined the science and engineering students in the new campus.

Three more church colleges ended up joining the university. These carried the name of "College" for many years, but this was later changed to the somewhat cumbersome "University College" designation in order to reflect the degree-granting nature of these affiliated institutions. These colleges are: Renison, Conrad Grebel, and St. Paul's. Waterloo created the first Faculty of Mathematics in North America, and the first co-op programs outside of engineering soon followed. The co-op system then was revised in involving four-month terms rather than the initial three-month terms. In 1967, the College of Optometry of Ontario, at the time an independent institution in Toronto, moved to Waterloo and became affiliated with the university as the School of Optometry. In 1967 the world's first Department of Kinesiology was created, which later grew into the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. The Faculty of Environmental Studies was created soon after. It was renamed the Faculty of Environment in 2008.

The University of Waterloo launched its program in architecture in 1967. More recently, in 2004, the School of Architecture was relocated to downtown Cambridge in an effort to enhance the school's facilities and strengthen its community ties. The School, located in a former industrial building on the Grand River, is an important part of plans to bolster the economy of Cambridge's downtown area. Additionally, Architecture is now part of the Faculty of Engineering. It formerly fell under Environmental Studies.

In 2001, the University of Waterloo announced its intentions to develop a Research and Technology Park on the university's north campus. The RT Park intends to house many of the high-tech industries in the area and maintain the partnership between university and private-sector innovation. Sybase/iAnywhere Solutions and Open Text Corporation were the first two tenants, and the multi-tenant Accelerator Centre building opened in April 2006. Google has since established an office in the RT Park. The RT Park continues to grow with 2- and 3-storey multi-tenant buildings, again surrounded by ample parking lots. Earlier suggestions to include medium- and high-density residential facilities, with the hope of enabling employees in the RT Park to have the option of not having to commute to suburban detached houses, have so far not come to fruition. In 2010, it was announced that the RT Park would bear the name of David Johnston, who departed Waterloo on 1 October 2010 to become Governor General of Canada.

University of Waterloo's Arms and Flag were registered with the Canadian Heraldic Authority on 15 February 2001.