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Simon Fraser University, commonly referred to as SFU, is a public research university in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain and satellite campuses in Downtown Vancouver and Surrey. The 1.7 km2 (0.66 sq mi) main campus on Burnaby Mountain, located 20 km (12 mi) from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and comprises more than 30,000 students and approximately 950 faculty members. The university is adjacent to an urban village, UniverCity. The university was named after Simon Fraser, a North West Company fur trader and explorer. Undergraduate and graduate programs operate on a year-round tri-semester schedule. It is the only Canadian university competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
In 2014, SFU placed 24th in Times Higher Education's 100 Under 50 category, a ranking of the top 100 universities in the world under 50 years old. SFU was ranked first among Canada's comprehensive universities in 1993, 1996-1998, 2000, 2008-2013, 2015 and 2016 by Maclean's. Based on solely Canadian Universities for 2014, SFU is ranked 17th in CWUR, 8th in ARWU, 11th in Times, and 2nd in Maclean's Comprehensive. To date, SFU faculty and alumni have won 43 fellowships to the Royal Society of Canada, three Rhodes Scholarships and one Pulitzer Prize.
History
Founding
Simon Fraser University was founded upon the recommendation of a 1962 report entitled Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future, by Dr. John B. Macdonald who recommended the creation of a new university in the Lower Mainland. The British Columbia Legislature gave formal assent on March 1, 1963 for the establishment of the university in Burnaby. The original name of the school was Fraser University but was changed because of the initials "FU", which evoked the profane phrase "fuck you". In May of the same year, Dr. Gordon M. Shrum was appointed as the university's first Chancellor. From a variety of sites which were offered, Shrum recommended to the provincial government that the summit of Burnaby Mountain, 365 meters above sea level, be chosen for the new university. Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey won a competition to design the university, and construction began in the spring of 1964. The campus faces northwest over Burrard Inlet. Eighteen months later, on September 9, 1965, the university began its first semester with 2,500 students.
Early activism
The campus was noted in the 1960s and early 1970s as a hotbed of political activism, culminating in a crisis in the Department of Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology in a dispute involving ideological differences among faculty. The resolution to the crisis included the dismantling of the department into today's separate departments.
Coat of Arms
The school's original coat of arms was used from the university's inception until 2006, at which point the Board of Governors voted to adapt the old coat of arms and thereby register a second coat of arms. The adaptation replaced two crosslets with books after some in the university asserted the crosses had misled prospective foreign students into believing SFU was a private, religious institution rather than a public, secular one. In 2007, the university decided to register both the old coat of arms and the revised coat of arms featuring the books. In 2007, a new marketing logo was unveiled, consisting of white letters on block red.
The University today
SFU's president is Andrew Petter, whose term began on September 1, 2010. Petter succeeded Dr. Michael Stevenson, who held a decade-long post as President from 2000 to 2010.
In 2009, SFU became the first Canadian university to be accepted into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Starting in the 2011-2012 season, SFU competed in the NCAA's Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) and has now transitioned all 19 Simon Fraser Clan teams into the NCAA.
SFU has the highest publication impact among Canadian comprehensive universities and the highest success rates per faculty member in competitions for federal research council funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In 2007, the University began offering dual and double degree programs by partnering with international universities, such as a dual computing-science degree through partnership with Zhejiang University in China and a double Bachelor of Arts degree in conjunction with Australia's Monash University.
On September 9, 2015, SFU celebrated its 50th anniversary. Over its 50 years, the university educated over 130,000 graduates.