Every week we bring you a campus celebrity; a student, faculty member or an alumnus that is doing something exciting or important. This week, however, we are doing things a little differently! After receiving so many accolades, and being the die-hard Westerners that we are, it would be a crime to not mention UWO!
Founded on March 7, 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth, UWO started with four faculties; Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine. The present site of UWO was bought in 1916 and the first two constructed buildings were the Arts building (now University College) and the Natural Science Building (now the Physics and Astronomy building). University College was named the Middlesex Memorial Tower in honor of the men from Middlesex County who had fought in World War I; all forty of the male students at UWO had enlisted at the time.
That’s enough of the History lesson! Let’s turn to present day Western: as I’m sure you all know, UWO was named the fourth best party school in North America by Playboy. Now it’s a title that probably won’t be publicized on the next UWO brochure but it’s a tile that all we students have spent many drunken partying nights for! One thing to keep in mind though, in addition to requirements such as the music scene and male to female ratios, one of the requirements was academic standing; Playboy also took into account students’ academic achievements in the midst of all the partying. So congratulations Westerners!
In addition to the Playboy award, UWO has received many more accolades from more promotable sources! Recently, Western was named the best student experience for the ninth year in a row! Now for all of us who are at Western, we can definitely vouch for that! The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Western as 201-300 in the world and 9-18 in Canada in 2010. Maclean’s ranked Western 9th in their Medical Doctoral ranking and 8th for Law School. The Richard Ivey School of Business was ranked 6th as the best business school outside of the United States by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Fun Facts about Western:
- There were only 15 students when classes began in 1881 and the first student graduates in 1883.
- UWO was originally known as the Western University of London Ontario and was changed to the University of Western Ontario in 1923
- UWO campus covers 455 hectares (1120 acres)
- The acceptance rate at Western fell from 66% in 2005 to 58% in 2010
- There are more than 180 student clubs and over 19,500 club members
- UWO has over 220,000 alumni in over 100 countries, some of whom have won the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize
- The UWO motto, Veritas et Utilitas means truth and usefulness
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Western_Ontario