1960
University History 1960s
Saint Mary's High School closes but the University continues to expand, with five new buildings and Husky Stadium going up. The University becomes co-educational, and by the end of the decade total enrollment is in the 1000s.
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Oct. 18, 1961 |
Nov. 21, 1964 |
March 10, 1967 |
Timeline:
1960
The first Faculty Manual is published.
1960
A Business Administration major is offered to Commerce students for the first time.
4 October, 1960
The first Fall Convocation is held with twenty degrees conferred.
1962
The Enos Collins house is purchased for the construction of the Student Union Building. The acquisition of this property, and the subsequent outcry from local historians and preservationists, results in the establishment of the Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage.
14 May, 1962
Archbishop Gerald Berry announces Expansion Program which includes new library, science and student union building.
Fall 1962
Aileen Carroll becomes the first woman to attend Saint Mary's on a full-time basis, after receiving special permission from Archbishop Gerald Berry.
1963
The Board of Studies is renamed the University Senate; the former Senate is renamed Board of Governors.
1963
The High School closes with 25 students in its final graduating class. Roughly 2,000 young men attended the high school.
1964
Saint Mary's withdraws from the Halifax School of Journalism; the School closes in 1965.
1965
Bishop Burke Education Centre/Burke Library opens and is the first free-standing Library in Saint Mary's history.
27 November, 1965
The Alumni Arena opens to students, with a seating capacity of 2,000.
1966
The Saint Mary's University Students' Association is incorporated.
1966
Radio Saint Mary's CFSM begins broadcasting intermittently until 1998.
1967
Dr. Henry Labelle, S.J. is named President of Saint Mary's.
1968
Saint Mary's becomes co-educational; 50 women are admitted full-time.
1968
The Science Building (first three floors), Rice (men) and Vanier (women) Residences open. Residences had a grocery store, barber shop,salon and pool.
1968
The Institute for the Study of [Human] Values is established.
1969
Huskies (or Husky) Stadium is built for the Canada Summer Games.
200th Anniversary Oral History Interviews
Subject: Elizabeth Chard
Interviewer: Angela Baker
File Size: 309k megs
Time: 1 minute 19 seconds
(note: audio player may open in new window)
The University in the Early '60s
"Well it was interesting because of course I was not very much older than most of the students in my day classes and certainly younger than just about everybody in my evening classes. The university was all male at the time, as you are aware, and except in the evening division there were some part-time students studying there and they were women.
"The size of the university I think is probably the most area, or the area where I have seen the most drastic change, there were less than 300 students when I came here so that at least all the students knew the faculty and the administration by name, and you'd know a goodly number of them, themselves. More than half the students lived in residence at the time so that there was a different spirit here at that juncture, and a great, of course it was the early '60s and a great deal of discipline which would certainly not be acceptable, I am sure to people nowadays, but there was a dress code. The students were expected to wear shirts and ties to class at all times though, most of the classes started with a prayer, things of that nature."
(Elizabeth Chard, former Saint Mary's lecturer in History, Dean of Women, Dean of Residence, and current University Registrar. Recorded as part of the Summer Research Interviews, June 3, 1993. Archives Record 1999.21)
The Campus Expands, 1966
"To many Freshmen this year, the whole of SMU will be a confusing and unfamiliar experience as Registration Week opens: but to the returning students as well, much will be new.
"The new library and rink, now in operation for almost a year, were the first of four new additions to the campus in a big building spree...new buildings are now going up to provide facilities for increasingly large number of students.
"In the academic field, the Administration has announced a number of changes as well, most important of which is the addition of a Graduate Faculty in Philosophy...Saint Mary's will offer courses leading to the degree of Master of Arts in medieval, modern and contemporary philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, logic and the philosophy of science..."
("Changing", Saint Mary's Journal, Sept. 14, 1966, p.10. Author uncredited.)