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University of King's College

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For other uses, see King's College.
The King's Quad in a Halifax spring fog. The main building is the Arts and Administration building.

The University of King's College is a post-secondary institution in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. King's is a small, elite liberal arts university offering only undergraduate programmes; the highschool average required for admittance has been in the high eighties ("A") for many years now. King's maintains an affiliation with Dalhousie University for some programmes and its campus is located at the northwest corner of Dalhousie's Studley Campus. Enrollment as of August 2006 was exactly 1,105. Its current Chancellor is Senator Michael Meighen. Senator Meighen has just accepted a second term, which will see him remaining Chancellor of the University until 2011.

King's main programme is the Foundation Year Programme (FYP) for first year students, which is billed as an intensive survey of famous works and western philosophy. The Contemporary Studies Programme (CSP), the Early Modern Studies Programme (EMSP), and the History of Science and Technology Programme (HOST) are offered as combined honours subjects and each is paired with a second honours subject at Dalhousie; Journalism is offered as a single-honours subject. King's students almost always take FYP in their first year and choose a major to pursue in their final three years.

Early years at Windsor

The University of King's College, Canada's oldest chartered university, was founded in 1789 in Windsor, Nova Scotia by a group of United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, led by Bishop Charles Inglis, the first Anglican bishop of Nova Scotia; King's Collegiate School pre-dated the establishment of a university by a year. (There had been a King's College in New York, which after the Revolution became Columbia University; whether there is a historical connection between the two is a matter of debate. The University of New Brunswick, upon its establishment by Loyalists in 1784 was also called King's College.). The Windsor campus was granted a Royal Charter by King George III in 1802. It is now the oldest English-speaking university in the British Commonwealth outside Britain and continues to celebrate King George III's birthday with a holiday from classes every year.

It is asserted by locals that students at King's invented hockey circa 1800, reinforced, apparently, by the notion held by the town of Windsor, Nova Scotia that it is the area in which hockey was invented, and as such, King's was originally located in that same region; a similar game developed, perhaps independently, in Kingston, Ontario a few years later, leading to occasional misattributions of the sport's history.

During the 19th century all students were required to take oaths confirming their devotion to the Anglican Church.

In the university's formative years, many more types of degrees were offered than the present institution offers today; while King's has never lost nor relinquished interest in these granting powers, they are held in abeyance due to agreements with King's College's neighbour, Dalhousie, as part of the agreement to allow King's space to use as a campus. There is debate of whether or not someday these degrees will be restored to King's, as presently, they are not offered by Dalhousie either.

On February 3, 1920, a fire was set on the campus (though the cause of the blaze is still unknown, tradition states it was caused by students 'playing with matches' in a dormitory), and because the fire hydrants were frozen the blaze could not be put out and the buildings burned to the ground.

Move to Halifax

In 1922 the Carnegie Foundation offered King's money to rebuild, on the condition that they surrender their independence and enter into an affiliation with Dalhousie University in Halifax with the projected plan that one day all of Nova Scotia's universities would merge into a single body, much like the University of Toronto. King's joined with Dalhousie but they subsequently chose not to pursue the broader plan, nor have any of Nova Scotia's other universities. King's built a new campus on the northwest corner of Dalhousie University's land at Studley Campus in southern Halifax. The contract with Dalhousie stipulated that degrees in Arts and Sciences would be granted jointly by Dalhousie and King's; King's would continue to grant its own degrees in Divinity, while the granting of the types of degrees set out in the 1802 charter were to be 'temporarily' stopped.

When World War II broke out King's was requisitioned by the military for the training of naval officers. King's functioned as a "stone frigate", providing a facility for navigation training before officers were sent to their ships. The academic life of the College carried on during those years elsewhere in Halifax, aided by Dalhousie University and the United Church's Pine Hill Divinity Hall. In reflection of this naval past, the student bar on campus is still known as the HMCS King's Wardroom, or simply "the Wardroom."

During the war the Germans would occasionally broadcast names of Allied ships they had sunk. Because the ships had to keep radio silence these reports could not be verified, and it was suspected that many were false. Allies circulated lists of non-active ships in the hopes of feeding the Germans disinformation; when the German's broadcast that they had sunk HMCS King's their ruse was made plain.

After the war the campus was returned to the university,where the university granted graduate theological degrees as well as undergraduate degrees until the spring of 1971. The Faculty of Divinity was moved to Pine Hill where, in 1971, it was formally amalgamated into the Atlantic School of Theology, an ecumenical venture with the United Church of Canada and the (Roman) Catholic Church. While this new institution now grants its own degrees, King's still holds in abeyance its rights to grant divinity credentials and grants annual honorary degrees.

King's reformed

In the early nineteen-seventies, King's faculty and alumni created the Foundation Year Programme (FYP), a first-year "Great Books" course that would count for four of a student's first five credits. The programme consisted of six sections from The Ancient World to The Contemporary World, in which students would read the work of major philosophers, poets, historians, and scientists, receive lectures from a range of experts in all these areas, write critical papers and engage in small-group discussion and tutorials. The programme initially had 30 students; it now draws about 300 a year, nearly all—274—of whom live in space reserved specifically for them in their course on campus.

In 1977 King's introduced two bachelor of journalism programmes: a four-year Honours degree and a one-year compressed degree for students who already had a Bachelor's degree.

In 1993 King's created the "Contemporary Studies Programme," an interdisciplinary humanities programme that could constitute one of a student's majors in a Combined Honours degree.

In 2000 and 2001 King's launched an Early Modern Studies Programme and a History of Science and Technology Programme modelled after Contemporary Studies but with different subject matters. Each are modeled on FYP and focus on individual intellectual development and interdisciplinary study as opposed to traditional university departmentalization.

Enrollment
1984 517
1994 691
2004 1109
2005 1151
2006 1105

Today there are just over 1,100 students at King's, which, although a small number for a university, represents significant growth over the few hundred students more typical in the 1960s and 70s. Its first year class is made up almost exclusively of Foundation Year Programme students (though a number of non-FYP first year students typically live in residence). In 2001, the FYP class was 274 students, with slightly over a hundred of these students coming from Ontario. King's has been accused of catering more and more to wealthier students from Ontario and Quebec, ignoring its own province. However, many students still come from Nova Scotia, the number of Nova Scotians rising 23% between 1994 and 2004.

The largest ever FYP class was in 2004, with 309 students. However, the administration wants to cap future classes at 300. With improved retention rates, the school's population should then stabilize at around 1200 in future years. The number of students leaving after first year has dropped significantly since the introduction of the upper year inter-disciplinary programmes.

One problem for King's, as for all Nova Scotia universities, has been the relative decline in government funding. In 1990, 78% of the university's operating costs were government funded; in 2004 only 31% were. Part of the reason has been a large expansion of the university, with only modest increases in government funding. Another reason is that the government of Nova Scotia funds the universities on a "per Nova Scotia student" basis, resulting in under funding to universities with large numbers of out of province students. Large increases in tuition fees have been used to cover the university's costs. As of 2005 over 50% of costs were covered by student fees.

In 2005, the Nova Scotia government reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the universities of the province. It limited tuition increases to 3.9% for 3 years. In exchange the government guaranteed a 5.8% increase in fuding the first year, and slightly smaller increases for the remaining 2 years. Since King's relies more heavily on tuition than government funding, the university's financial situation will suffer as a result.

A library building was built in 1990, replacing a smaller one in the A and A. The library won numerous architectural awards. The same architect designed the New Academic Building (as it is fondly called) in 2000, but it did not win any awards. Additional residence rooms were added in the basement of the female residence (Alexandra Hall) in 2001 to accommodate some of the new students. Currently residence can accommodate 274 students, and nearly all on-campus living spaces are reserved for FYP students, though some spaces are reservesd for upper-years who often provide valuable advice on what can be a daunting program. All buildings on the present campus are celebrated reconstructions and derivations of the buildings of the original 1789 campus in Windsor, Nova Scotia. Built in the Georgian style typical of the original campus, the residences retain the name of 'Bays', as the original residences were termed in Windsor. Each Bay—modeled on the system of 'staircases' at England's Oxford University—has been named with a seemingly ironic moniker (except Middle Bay); one Bay, Chapel Bay, is named for the campus chapel, but located the furthest distance from it, while Radical Bay originally housed the refined, quiet divinity students, and North Pole Bay sits atop the university's boiler rooms, arguably, the warmest location on campus. A system of tunnels connects the residences to the other buildings of the campus: a feature common to North American universities, and particularly common to many institutional buildings in Halifax.

The King's Library houses an impressive and unrivaled collection not only of rare Anglican church documents, but also a vast collection of original artwork, Rennaisance and Medieval books, considerably-extensive archival material of relevance both to the history of Nova Scotia and the university, as well as even some ancient artifacts, and the Weldon Collection of Loyalist pottery. Many of the rare books stem from the original, private collection of university founder, Charles Inglis. Recently, the blueprints for the buildings of the current campus were consulted in the library to restore the famed cupola crowning the A&A Building to its original, 1920s condition.

A new president, Dr. William Barker, was installed in October 2003, replacing Dr. Colin Starnes, to lead the university for at least the following five years. Dr. Barker and the rest of the university administration believe that King's has grown as much as it can and should. They describe the coming years as 'a time of consolidation'.

The university's growth has changed some King's traditions. Formal meals, with Latin grace and academic gowns, formerly held at regular intervals, were suspended from 2001 until 2003. Only with the arrival of Dr. Barker were they reinstated. Traditional residence parties, known as 'bay parties' were cancelled for the first time in 2003, theoretically because of the increased number of minors enrolled due to the elimination of grade 13 in Ontario. The university administration felt it would be inappropriate to expose so many young people to the excesses of alcohol that usually mark those events. However, Bay Parties saw a revival during the 2005-06 school year, with both Radical Bay and Cochran Bay hosting several highly successful events.

Another consequence of increased enrollment has been a more unbalanced composition of the residences. Traditionally students from all years of study have lived in residence, but increasingly, very few upper year students continue to live on campus making way for extra first years. In 2006, Alexandra Hall, the traditionally all girls residence, was made co-ed with the floors (with the exclusion of the basement) alternating between male and female. As well for 2006, two of the five bays will be converted to co-ed living spaces, while one becomes entirely female and two remain entirely male. North Pole Bay, and Cochrane Bay had periodically been co-ed for years before this.

Also new to the university was the university of King's college bookstore, opened in July 2006; it stocks every title on the FYP Reading List, as well as all necessary books for King's' other courses and general interest fiction and non-fiction as is open to the public. Presently, its prices seem to closely match the suggested retail ones but will hopefully be reduced to allow more accessibility.

King's College Administration has not avoided controversy. After the Sodexho-Marriott cleaning and kitchen staff unionized in 2004, the housekeeping contract was awarded to a different company during the summer. The King's Student Union had been important in encouraging the workers to unionize in order to improve their working conditions. This followed cuts in services offered by the hospitality contract. Until the 2002-03 school year, housekeeping cleaned every residence room once a week; this was then downgraded to once a term.

University of King's College in Autumn with Castine Way along the foreground

Notable staff

  • Bishop Charles Inglis - Founder, 1789
  • Dr. John Godfrey - President, 1977–1987
  • Dr. Marion G. Fry - President, 1987–1993
  • Dr. Colin Starnes - President, 1993-2003
  • Dr. William Barker - President, 2003–present
  • Dr. Elizabeth Edwards - Vice-President, 2001–2006, first director of the Contemporary Studies Programme
  • Dr. Angus Johnston - Director, Foundation Year Programme
  • Dr. Stephen Boos - Director, Contemporary Studies Programme
  • Dr. Kathryn Morris - Director, Early Modern Studies Programme
  • Dr. Gordon McOuat - Director, History of Science and Technology Programme
  • Dr. Stephen Snobelen - Featured in BBC documentary Newton: The Dark Heretic
  • Dr. Dorota Glowacka - Director, Contemporary Studies Programme, 1998-2001, 2nd runner up "Best Professor" in the Coast's "Best of Halifax" 2005
  • Walter Stewart, once head of the journalism program
  • Lezlie Lowe - Journalism tutor, columnist for The Coast Halifax's Weekly
  • Stephen Kimber - Journalism Professor, prominent journalist and columnist for The Daily News

Notable alumni

See also

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