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Calendars > Faculty of Arts > History of the Faculty
Faculty of Arts
HISTORY OF THE FACULTY
The University of Ottawa was founded in 1848 and named the College of Bytown. Then, in 1861, after Bytown had become the City of Ottawa, the College changed its name to the College of Ottawa. In 1866, it was incorporated under Royal Charter and assumed full university status. It was the eleventh and last university to do so, as all universities in Canada incorporated following Confederation in 1867 are under provincial charters. In 1933, the University's degree-granting powers were confirmed and extended to include "in all branches of learning any and all degrees which may properly be conferred by a university."
Traditionally, the humanities have been the University's main field of interest, but programs in engineering and in law were opened in the 1870s and 1880s, and the faculties of Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law were established under an ecclesiastical charter in 1889. After 1945, rapid expansion took place in all fields, and this led in 1965 to a major change in the University's status and form of government.
In that year the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who had governed the University since its foundation, handed over control to the Board of Governors established by an act of the provincial legislature, and the University took its place in the system of provincially supported universities in Ontario. The ecclesiastical faculties of Theology and Canon Law became part of Saint Paul University, which is federated with the University of Ottawa.
Since then the Faculty of Arts has steadily grown and evolved. The different departments were scattered for a long time between several "grey houses" and Simard Hall; this latter building was opened in 1956, and named in 1971 in memory of Father Georges Simard, o.m.i. (Dean of the Faculty of Theology from 1932 to 1938). The faculty underwent a radical expansion in 1996 when the new Arts Hall was completed, adjoining Simard Hall. Most of the departments or teaching units of the faculty are now gathered in these two buildings.
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