Campus

The university grounds lies within the neighbourhood of Queen's in the city of Kingston, Ontario. The university's main campus is bordered to the south by Lake Ontario and Kingston General Hospital, city parks to the east, and by residential neighbourhoods, known as the Kingston student ghetto or the university district, in all other directions. The campus grew to its present size of 40 ha (99 acres) through gradual acquisitions of adjacent private lands, and remains the university's largest landholding. In addition to its main campus in Kingston, Queen's owns several other properties around Kingston, as well as in Central Frontenac Township, Ontario; Rideau Lakes, Ontario; and East Sussex, England. Queen's University is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee territory.

The buildings at Queen's vary in age from Summerhill, which opened in 1839, to Mitchell Hall, which opened in 2018. Grant Hall, completed in 1905, is considered the university's most recognizable landmark. It is named after Reverend George Munro Grant, who served as Queen's seventh principal. The building is used to host concerts, lectures, meetings, exams, and convocations. Two buildings owned and managed by the university have been listed as National Historic Sites of Canada. The Kingston General Hospital is the oldest operating public hospital in Canada. The Roselawn House, which is east of the west campus, is the core component of the university's Donald Gordon Centre.

Libraries, museums, and galleriesedit

Queen's University Libraries include six campus libraries and an archives in six facilities housing 2.2 million physical items and 400,000 electronic resources, including e-books, serial titles and databases. The library's budget in 2007–2008 was $18.1 million, with $9.8 million dedicated to acquisitions. The libraries are Bracken Health Sciences Library, Education Library, Lederman Law Library, Stauffer Humanities and Social Sciences Library, and Engineering & Science Library. The W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections Library notably harbors early-dated books from 1475 to 1700. The Engineering & Science Library and the W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections Library share facilities, known as Douglas Library. Since 1981, the Queen's University archives has been housed in Kathleen Ryan Hall. The archive manages, preserves, conserves, and makes accessible the information assets and historical record of the university. In addition to the university's archive, Kathleen Ryan Hall also houses the City of Kingston's archives.

Queen's operates the Miller Museum of Geology, an earth-science teaching museum which features an Earth Science and Geological Collections of 10,000 minerals and 865 fossils, as well as an exhibit of the geology of the Kingston area. The museum is largely used as an earth-science teaching museum for local schools and natural-science interest groups in eastern Ontario. The permanent exhibits feature dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, fossils of early multi-celled animals, and land tracks fossilized from 500 million years ago.

Queen's art collections are housed at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The art centre owes its namesake to Agnes Etherington, whose house was donated to the university and is used as an art museum, attached to the main art centre. Opened in 1957, it contains over 14,000 works of art, including works by Rembrandt and Inuit art. The university's student body and faculty run the Union Gallery, an art gallery opened in 1994. The gallery is dedicated to the promotion of student and contemporary art.

Housing and student facilitiesedit

The university has 18 student residences: Adelaide Hall, Ban Righ Hall, Brant House, Chown Hall, Gordon House, Brockington House, Graduate Residence, Harkness Hall, John Orr Tower Apartments, Leggett Hall, Leonard Hall, McNeill House, Morris Hall, Smith House, Victoria Hall, Waldron Tower, Watts Hall, and Jean Royce Hall. The largest is Victoria Hall, built in 1965, which houses nearly 900 students. In September 2010, 83.3% of first-year students lived on campus, part of the 26% of the overall undergraduate population who lived on campus.

Residents were represented by two groups, the Main Campus Residents' Council, which represents the main campus, and the Jean Royce Hall Council, which represents the west campus (Jean Royce Hall, Harkness International Hall, and the Graduate Residence). They were responsible for representing resident concerns, providing entertainment services, organizing events, and upholding Residence Community Standards. In 2013, the Main Campus and Jean Royce Hall Residents' Councils were amalgamated into one organization, called ResSoc, standing for Residence Society. ResSoc employs 7 Executives, 17 House Presidents, and 27 Residence Facilitators. ResSoc also has over 100 volunteer positions such as floor representatives and executive interns. In 2013, The Residence Society introduced the StAR (Student Appreciation in Residence) Positive Recognition program. The program encourages positive behaviour in residence and recognize individuals who help others in need. Recipients are given a certificate as well as remuneration for their contributions.

The Student Life Centre is the centre of student governance and student-directed social, cultural, entertainment, and recreational activities. It consists of the John Deutsch University Centre (JDUC), Grey House, Carruthers Hall, Queen's Journal House, MacGillivray-Brown Hall, and the non-athletic sections of Queen's Centre. Collectively, these buildings provide 10,500 square metres (113,000 sq ft) of space to the Queen's community. The JDUC contains the offices of a number of student organizations, including the Alma Mater Society of Queen's University (AMS) and the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS), as well as retail and food services. The university has 21 food outlets throughout the campus, as well as three major residence dining facilities.

Off-campus facilitiesedit

Queen's has off-campus facilities in the Kingston area and abroad. The university has a second campus in Kingston, known as the west campus. Acquired in 1969, the west campus is 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the main campus, and covers 27 ha (67 acres) of land. It has two student residences, the Faculty of Education, the Coastal Engineering Lab, and several athletic facilities, including the Richardson Memorial Stadium. In May 2007, the university approved the designs for the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, also in Kingston. The new centre for performing arts was expected to open in 2014.

The university owns a research facility in Rideau Lakes, Ontario, known as the Queen's University Biological Station. Opened during the 1950s, the field station encompasses approximately 3,000 ha (7,400 acres) of property, a range of habitat types typical of Eastern Ontario, and many species of conservation concern in Canada.

Queen's has an agreement with Novelis Inc. to acquire a 20-hectare (49-acre) property next to the company's research and development centre in Kingston. The agreement is part of the plan to establish Innovation Park at Queen's University, an innovative technology park at the corner of Princess and Concession Streets. The property was acquired for $5.3 million, a portion of the $21 million grant Queen's received from the Ontario government last spring to pioneer this innovative new regional R&D "co-location" model. Queen's leases approximately 7,900 square metres (85,000 sq ft) of the Novelis R&D facilities to accommodate faculty-led research projects that have industrial partners and small and medium-size companies with a research focus and a desire to interact with Queen's researchers. The remainder of the government funds support further development of the technology park to transform the property into a welcoming and dynamic site for business expansion and relocation.

The Bader International Study Centre (BISC) is housed in Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, England, which was donated to Queen's in 1993 by alumnus Alfred Bader. BISC is academically fully integrated with Queen's, although financially self-sufficient. Its mission is to provide academic programs for undergraduate students whose academic interests are oriented toward the United Kingdom, Europe, and the European Union; continuing-education programs for executives and other professional or "special interest" groups; a venue for conferences and meetings; a base for international graduate students and other scholars undertaking research in the United Kingdom and Europe; and an enhanced educational, social, and cultural environment for the local community, using the unique heritage of the castle. The opportunity to study at the BISC is not limited to Queen's students. Queen's has academic exchange agreements with Canadian and foreign universities.

Sustainabilityedit

Queen's Sustainability Office, created in 2008, is charged with the university's green initiatives and creating awareness about environmental issues. The office is headed by a sustainability manager, who works with the university, external community groups, and the government. In 2009, with the signing of the Ontario Universities Committed to a Greener World agreement, Queen's pledged to transform its campus into a model of environmental responsibility. Queen's was the second Ontario university to sign the University and College Presidents’ Climate Change Statement of Action for Canada, in 2010.

The university campus received a B grade from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its College Sustainability Report Card for 2011.