Not quite Belgium but close enough

Well it has been a hectic few weeks in preparation for the move to Waterloo. The trip down was fairly fun – seeing all the companies on the way through Toronto was pretty neat. Upon arrival there was much cleaning to be done but things worked out quite well in the end. Now, I have not had much time and will need to sift through the 1000+ Google Reader feeds that I have, but I thought I would take this opportunity to brush up on some University of Waterloo history.

Walking around campus you hear the names of all the buildings – Hagey Hall, Douglas Wright, and so on. These names correspond to the first administrative faculty on campus. Interestingly enough, UW’s roots sprout from Wilfrid Laurier University, formally known as Waterloo College. In 1957, the first 75 students began to pour in and the university began a rapid expansion. First came the chemical and engineering building followed by the ‘physics and mathematics’ building. Faculties began to sprout, and Waterloo held the first faculty of mathematics in the world followed by the Applied Health Sciences and Environmental faculties.

Today, the university holds 30,000 undergraduate students and an excellent coop program that runs through all of its departments. Waterloo contains St. Jerome University as well as three church colleges: Renison, Conrad Grebel, and St. Paul’s. Expansion continues today with several buildings and investment into ongoing research.

Well as the classes approach I feel that I should prepare in some way or another but perhaps that might not quite happen today.