The story
Nineteenth century
Queen's was a result of an outgrowth of educational initiatives planned by Presbyterians in the 1830s. A draft plan for the university was presented at a synod meeting in Kingston in 1839, with a modified bill introduced through the 13th Parliament of Upper Canada during a session in 1840. On 16 October 1841, a royal charter was issued through Queen Victoria establishing Queen's College at Kingston. Queen's resulted from years of effort by Presbyterians of Upper Canada to found a college for the education of ministers in the growing colony and to instruct youth in various branches of science and literature. They modelled the university after the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. Classes began on 7 March 1842, in a small woodframe house on the edge of the city with two professors and 15 students.
The college moved several times during its first eleven years, before settling in its present location. Prior to Canadian Confederation, the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, the Canadian government, and private citizens financially supported the college. In 1869, Queen's was the first Canadian university west of the Maritime provinces to admit women.
After Confederation, the college faced ruin when the federal government withdrew its funding and the Commercial Bank of the Midland District collapsed, a disaster which cost Queen's two-thirds of its endowment. The college was rescued after Principal William Snodgrass and other officials created a fundraising campaign across Canada.
The risk of financial ruin worried the administration until the century's final decade. They considered leaving Kingston and merging with the University of Toronto as late as the 1880s. With the additional funds bequeathed from Queen's first major benefactor, Robert Sutherland, the college staved off financial failure and maintained its independence. Queen's was given university status on 17 May 1881.
In 1880, three women were admitted to the university's medical degree courses; however, their presence was met with such hostility by male students and staff that the university decided to expel the women in 1883. A Women's Medical College was founded to enable the three students to complete their studies. Theological Hall, completed in 1880, originally served as Queen's main building throughout the late 19th century.
Twentieth century
In 1912, Queen's separated from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and changed its name to Queen's University at Kingston. Queen's Theological College remained in the control of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, until 1925, when it joined the United Church of Canada. The theological college merged with the Queen's department of religious studies, and the program closed in 2015.
The university faced another financial crisis during World War I from a sharp drop in enrolment due to the military enlistment of students, staff, and faculty. A $1,000,000 fundraising drive and the armistice in 1918 saved the university. Approximately 1,500 students fought in the war and 187 died.
On 18 August 1938, a year prior to the start of World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Queen's to accept an honorary degree. In a broadcast heard around the world, the president voiced the American policy of mutual alliance and friendship with Canada. During World War II, 2,917 graduates from Queen's served in the armed forces, suffering 164 fatalities. The Memorial Room in Memorial Hall of the John Deutsch University Centre lists Queen's students who died during the world wars.
Read the full text
Queen's grew quickly after the war, propelled by the expanding postwar economy and the demographic boom that peaked in the 1960s. From 1951 to 1961, enrolment increased from just over 2,000 students to more than 3,000. The university embarked on a building program, constructing five student residences in less than ten years.
After the reorganization of legal education in Ontario in the mid-1950s, Queen's Faculty of Law opened in 1957 in the new John A. Macdonald Hall. Other construction projects at Queen's in the 1950s included the construction of Richardson Hall to house Queen's administrative offices and Dunning Hall. By the end of the 1960s, like many other Canadian universities, Queen's tripled its enrolment and greatly expanded its faculty, staff, and facilities, as a result of the baby boom and generous support from the public sector. By the mid-1970s, the university had 10,000 full-time students. Among the new facilities were four more high capacity residences: An Clachan, Elrond College (currently Princess Towers), a cooperative residence that the university no longer owns, John Orr Tower situated on the west campus, and Jean Royce Hall. In addition to this new facilities consisted of separate buildings for the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Psychology, Social Sciences and the Humanities.
During this period, Queen's created the Schools of Music, Public Administration (now part of Policy Studies), Rehabilitation Therapy, and Urban and Regional Planning. The establishment of the Faculty of Education in 1968 on land about a kilometre west of the university inaugurated the university's west campus. Queen's was an early pioneer of computer assisted legal research; it was the home of the QUIC/LAW Canadian legal research project from 1968 to 1973, when the project was spun off and commercialized. QUIC/LAW's software was licensed to West Publishing in 1976 as the foundation for the Westlaw database, and then the entire Canadian law database, by then known as Quicklaw, was sold to West's archrival LexisNexis in 2002. The first female chancellor of Queen's University, Agnes Richardson Benidickson, was installed on 23 October 1980.
Queen's celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary in 1991, and Charles, Prince of Wales, and his then wife, Diana, visited the campus to mark the occasion. The Prince of Wales presented a replica of the 1841 Royal Charter granted by Queen Victoria, which had established the university; the replica is displayed in the John Deutsch University Centre. In 1993, Queen's received Herstmonceux Castle as a donation from alumnus Alfred Bader. The university uses the castle to house the Bader College.
Twenty-first century
In 2001, the Senate Educational Equity Committee (SEEC) studied the experiences of visible minority and Aboriginal faculty members at Queen's after a black female professor left, alleging she had experienced racism. Following this survey the SEEC commissioned a study which found many perceived a 'culture of Whiteness' at the university. The report concluded "white privilege and power continues to be reflected in the Eurocentric curricula, traditional pedagogical approaches, hiring, promotion and tenure practices, and opportunities for research" at Queen's. The university's response to the report is the subject of continuing debate. The administration implemented measures to promote diversity beginning in 2006, such as the position of diversity advisor and the hiring of "dialogue monitors" to facilitate discussions on social justice.
In May 2010, Queen's University joined the Matariki Network of Universities, an international group of universities created in 2010, which focuses on strong links between research and undergraduate teaching.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, the university received $440,000 from the Government of Canada to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among health care providers, community organizations and vulnerable individuals who are vaccine hesitant.
In July 2021, former senator Murray Sinclair began his term as the 15th chancellor of Queen's. He was succeeded by broadcast journalist Shelagh Rogers in July 2024.
In 2023, the university disclosed a projected deficit of $48 million for the 2024 year. Stringent measures were unveiled by Provost Matthew Evans in response to the deficit, which included a cap on class size and a hiring freeze. The measures caused a backlash among faculty and students, with the latter organizing protests. Evans faced significant criticism for his handling of the crisis, which was widely covered in both local and national publications in Canada.
From Wikipedia’s article on Queen's University at Kingston, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4