text:
Kapuskasing

Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 92 km east of Hearst and 130 km northwest of Timmins. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railway stop in Manitoba.

Etymology
The town of Kapuskasing gets its name from the Kapuskasing River, which was named long before the existence of the town. Kapuskasing is a word of Cree origin meaning "bend in the river".

The first reported survey of the district in which Kapuskasing lies was carried out in 1875 by Dr. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada. He referred to the Kapuskasing River as the "Kai-bush-ka-sing". According to Bell's information, the Kapuskasing River derived its name from the lake at its head.

In 1900, the Bureau of Colonization of the Ontario Department of Agriculture sent parties to survey the region north of the Canadian Pacific Railway between the Quebec border and Lake Nipigon. Their main interest was to seek out and delimit areas for further agricultural settlements that would give Ontario a new farming frontier to offset the attraction of the western prairies.

In 1900, the Department of Crown Lands commissioned a Survey of Exploration of Northern Ontario. Survey parties were sent out to explore, document and report back to the Province on the various resources of water power, timber, etc., that might be available for exploitation. No roads existed, but northern Cree Indians and fur traders had used the local rivers connecting to James Bay for centuries. In the summer of 1900 groups of surveyors traveled the many rivers of this remote area documenting their findings. The results were published by order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as "Report of the Survey of Exploration of Northern Ontario 1900". The section of the report detailing the exploration of the Kapuskasing River contains references to the local Cree names for Sturgeon Falls, White Spruce Rapids, Kapuskasing River, and Big Beaver Falls, among others. Surveyors who explored the Kapuskasing River and tributaries in 1900 had local Cree guides familiar with the country who provided the local place names and their meanings to them. In this report the word Kapuskasing is said to mean "Whispering Water".

At the location where the CNR crossed the Kapuskasing River in 1910, there was an island in the centre of the river. Power and storage dams were built at that location in 1923. Prior to the dam construction, the rapids at that location was known as "White Spruce Rapids" and later known simply as "Spruce Falls". The first Spruce Falls Company of 1920 took its name from these rapids.

Geography, climate, and wildlife
Kapuskasing lies in the heart of the Great Clay Belt. The topography of the region is very flat, dotted with numerous small lakes and muskeg bogs. Also in the heart of Canada's boreal forest, the region is drained by rivers running north to James Bay. The district is heavily forested, mostly by thick stands of black spruce that have commercial value as pulpwood.

Kapuskasing has a humid, continental climate (Koppen Dfb). Kapuskasing has long, cold winters and warm, sometimes humid summers. Spring and autumn are relatively short transitional seasons. Visitors often comment on the deep blue of the sky during clear weather.

Wildlife is abundant. Species such as moose, black bear, lynx and red fox are commonly seen in the area. Lakes and rivers are well populated with walleye, northern pike and yellow perch. Fishing and hunting are very popular recreational activities locally.

History
Located near the western edge of the Clay Belt of "New Ontario", the town was founded in the early 20th century after the National Transcontinental Railway, forerunner of the Canadian National Railway, was built through the area in 1911. An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected by the province to commemorate the founding of Kapuskasing's role in Ontario's heritage.

A post-war scheme to settle Canadian Corps combat veterans in the area proved unsuccessful. It was not until the start of pulp and paper milling operations in the 1920s that Kapuskasing began to develop as an organized community.

Val Albert

Name taken from that of an early settler and assigned by postal authorities on October 7, 1936, "to correspond with the village known as {Val} Albert" (CPCGN files). Annexed by Kapuskasing on January 1, 1974.

Spruce Falls
The Kapuskasing River Pulp and Timber limit, that included 4500 km2 of timber and hydro leases at Sturgeon Falls, White Spruce Rapids (Spruce Falls) and Big Beaver Falls, was awarded to speculators Saphrenous A. Mundy and Elihu Stewart in 1917, and Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper Ltd. was incorporated, but no development took place.

The still unexploited timber limits were sold to Kimberly-Clark in 1920. The new Spruce Falls Company Ltd. began the development of the first pulp mill in Kapuskasing under the direction of F.J. Sensenbrenner, a Vice President of Kimberly Clark Corporation for the next 20 years. The small sulphite mill started up in late 1922 with four 12-ton digesters and a daily output of 75 tons of pulp. Spent liquor was discharged untreated into the Kapuskasing River.

Early development was plagued by major setbacks. Fire destroyed the construction camp and power project at Sturgeon Falls. A year's supply of pulpwood that was boomed up in the river was washed away in the spring flood. A fire at the new mill killed two workers and brought production to a halt.

In 1923, a water storage and hydro electric dam was built by Morrow and Beatty Ltd. of Peterborough at Spruce Falls. In 1925, the Spruce Falls Company Limited was awarded additional timber limits to the north and south, bringing their total limits up to 11830 km2.

In 1926, the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company was incorporated under joint ownership of Kimberly-Clark and The New York Times. The new company negotiated two additional hydro power leases to the north on the Mattagami River at Smoky Falls and Devils Rapids. Work to build a 550 ton/day paper mill at Kapuskasing, a 75,000 HP hydro generating station at Smoky Falls and a 80 km railway and power line connecting the two got underway in the spring of 1926. The contractor for the entire project was Morrow and Beatty Ltd. of Peterborough.

Since July 13, 1928, The New York Times has been printed entirely on Spruce Falls paper. The mill has run continuously ever since. The company became known locally as "Uncle Spruce" in affectionate reference to the steady work and benefits provided to this distinct northern community for many decades.

The mill was the focus of the Reesor Siding 1963 Strike, which saw three union workers killed. In 1997 Tembec became the sole owner of the mill which is now known as Tembec — Spruce Falls Operations.

Kapuskasing Inn
The Kapuskasing Inn was built in 1927–28 by George Roper Gouinlock, son of George Wallace Gouinlock, together with the Civic Centre (built 1928) and the former Sensenbrenner Hospital (built 1929, now Drury Place, a geared-to-income housing complex). They were commissioned by the Spruce Falls Company Ltd. These buildings were all built in an impressive Neo-Tudor style and would form the nucleus of the town. In 1951, the inn hosted Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on their first visit to Canada.

The landmark inn closed in 2002 and fell in disrepair but was slated for renovation by new investors. On May 22, 2007, youths set fire to the inn. It was damaged beyond repair. The arsonists were not charged as they were below the age of criminal responsibility at the time of the fire. The remains of the inn were demolished in May and June 2008.

Internment camp
During World War I, the town was the site of one of the largest internment camps in Canada, at Bunk Houses in Kapuskasing from December 1914 to February 1920. The camp held over 1,300 German, Austrian, and Turkish prisoners, though originally the majority were civilian internees of Ukrainian descent who had emigrated from the provinces of Bukovina and Galicia, their homeland, which at the time were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the first wave of Ukrainian emigration to Canada prior to 1914. Prisoners were employed in the construction of buildings and clearing of land for a government experimental farm on the west side of the Kapuskasing River. Isolation provided ideal security for the minimum security camp, as the railway was the only access to the remote location. Prisoners who attempted to escape into the bush were turned back by endless muskeg and clouds of mosquitoes or minus-40 degree temperatures in winter. In 1917, most were paroled to help relieve labour shortages. Afterwards, the camp was used for prisoners of war and political radicals until its closure in 1920.

While serving as camp paymaster at Kapuskasing during its use for POWs, Captain Watson Kirkconnell, who was later to become a highly important figure in Canadian poetry, helped prevent a prisoner uprising and, on two occasions, he also discovered and foiled attempts to tunnel out of the camp.

Despite years of grief over the combat death of his brother, Captain Kirkconnell later wrote, "Generally speaking, I could feel little animus against our German prisoners. Guarding them was simply a job. It was their duty to try to get away and our duty to prevent it. The ingenuity that they displayed in their attempts to escape was being duplicated by our men in German captivity."

A small cemetery is all that remains of the internment camp near the Kapuskasing Airport where victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic were laid to rest. An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected by the province to commemorate the Kapuskasing Internment Camp's role in Ontario's heritage.

Kapuskasing Soldier Colony
Governments of the day were mistakenly impressed with the agricultural potential of the Great Clay Belt. A federal government experimental farm had been established on the west side of the river to explore and develop crops and systems for farming the area. Under the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Act of 1917, the Kapuskasing Soldier Colony was established to settle veterans returned from the Great War. Settlers received homesteads, grants, and guaranteed loans and were paid for clearing their own land. However, by 1920 only nine of more than a hundred original settlers remained, and the project was discontinued.

A 1920 Commission of Enquiry into the failed settlement scheme found that the settlers had not been up to the task at hand. The inhospitable climate and geography had won out. One bitter settler testified, "There are 7 months snow, two months rain and the remainder mosquitoes and black flies." Settlers had also counted on the development of a pulp mill at Kapuskasing that would provide a local market for pulp wood.

Radar site
During World War II, Kapuskasing was one of five Northern Ontario radar bases that were set up to watch for potential attacks on the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Kapuskasing was the headquarters for the radar bases, which were manned by the United States Army Air Forces. The town may have ceased its importance as a location for a traditional military radar base, but has become a site for the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network that is involved with tracking and measuring ionospheric turbulence.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Kapuskasing had a population of $8,057$ living in $3,790$ of its $4,134$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $8,292$. With a land area of 83.98 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

In 2006, 68% of the population identified French as its first language, 36% identified English as its first language, and 0.02% identified a non-official language as its first language (Cree etc.); 0.02% identified both French and English. The median age of the population was 44.2 years in 2016.

Transportation
Travellers reach Kapuskasing by car, by Ontario Northland bus or by plane.

The town's pulp and paper mill is served by the Ontario Northland Railway, which took over the trackage serving the mill in 1994. The mill is located near the original National Transcontinental Railway mainline (NTR) that was later nationalized as part of the Canadian National Railway. The railway line crossed the Kapuskasing River in 1913 and was the main means of transportation accessing the town until the late 1950s and early 1960s when Highway 11 became the main route to the city.

Kapuskasing Airport was once a refueling stop for Trans-Canada Air Lines flights in the days before jet airliners. It no longer has scheduled flights.

Economy
The former Spruce Falls, now GreenFirst Forest Products, had purchased the site from Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) in 2021. The pulp and paper mill is the town's major employer, soon to be replaced by the Ontario Power Generation's Smoky Falls Dam reconstruction site. A former employer was also the Agrium phosphate mine which shut down in 2013. General Motors Canada operates the GM Cold Weather Development Centre in Kapuskasing. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada operated an agricultural experiment station, or Experimental Farm, close to the town; the Experimental Farm closed in 2014.

Politics
Kapuskasing has a federal representative known as a Member of Parliament, or MP, and a provincial representative known as a Member of Provincial Parliament, or MPP. Carol Hughes of the New Democratic Party is the area's MP and represents the federal riding of Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing. Guy Bourgouin, member of Ontario's New Democratic Party, is the town's MPP and represents the provincial Mushkegowuk—James Bay riding.

Locally the town is led by Mayor David Plourde. The mayor works with six councillors to complete Kapuskasing's municipal government. Local officials are all elected through universal elections, meaning the town is not divided into wards.

Media
Kapuskasing's locally originated media include English-language commercial radio station CKAP (branded as Moose FM), French-language community radio station CKGN, and the English-language Kapuskasing Northern Times and bilingual Le/The Weekender community newspapers and the French newspaper L'Horizon. Le Nord, a French newspaper from Hearst, is also available in Kapuskasing. English-language daily newspaper the Timmins Daily Press offers minimal coverage through its regional reporting of the Cochrane District. The community receives its only aerial television coverage from CITO-TV-1 channel 10, a repeater of CTV outlet CITO-TV Timmins.

Radio

 * FM 89.7 - CKGN-FM, Franco-Ontarian community
 * FM 90.7 - CBON-FM-24, Ici Radio-Canada Première
 * FM 93.7 - CHYK-FM, Francophone hot adult contemporary
 * FM 100.9 - CKAP-FM ("Moose FM"), adult contemporary
 * FM 105.1 - CBOK-FM, CBC Radio One

Television

 * Channel 10: CITO-TV-1, CTV

Education

 * Public

 * District School Board Ontario North East (DSBONE):
 * Diamond Jubilee Public School (JK-8)
 * Kapuskasing District High School (9-12)
 * Eastview Public School (Closed)
 * Conseil scolaire de district du Nord-Est de l'Ontario (CSDNE):
 * École publique Coeur du Nord (M-8)
 * École secondaire publique l'Écho du Nord (9-12)
 * Centre d’apprentissage du Nord-Est de l’Ontario (9-12)

 * Separate

 * Northeastern Catholic District School Board (NCDSB):
 * St Patrick School (JK-8, JK-8 French Immersion), established in 1960.
 * Conseil scolaire catholique de district des Grandes-Rivières (CSCDGR):
 * École élémentaire Jacques-Cartier (M-6)
 * École élémentaire Jeanne-Mance (Closed)
 * École élémentaire André Cary (M-6)
 * École Sacré-Coeur (Closed)
 * École secondaire catholique Cité des Jeunes (7-12)

 * Other

 * Centre d'éducation Alternative High School (Adult Education)
 * Collège Boréal à Kapuskasing (Post Secondary)
 * Université de Hearst à Kapuskasing (Post Secondary)
 * D'Youville Academy (Religious, Closed)

Health
Sensenbrenner Hospital was built in 1927-1929 by the Spruce Falls Pulp & Paper Company for its workers. At the time the hospital was one of northern Ontario's finest. In 1988 the need for a more modern facility arose and the ultra-modern 53 bed complex was built in a different part of the town. Sensenbrenner serves a regional population of 14,000 residents. The hospital provides both in-patient and out-patient care. Clinical services include; emergency services, chronic cardiorespiratory, acute neurology, specialty clinics, general medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, obstetrics, pediatrics, chronic and long-term care, rehabilitation, and other related diagnostic and treatment services. The health care services are assessment, evaluation, screening, treatment programs and direct therapy. In 1995 the hospital built a private clinic wing near the Emergency Room.

EMS services are provided by Sensenbrenner Hospital, which is managed by the Northeastern Ontario Medical Education Corporation (NOMEC).

The Porcupine Health unit serves the town with preventive education, psychiatric services, social services and child social service.

Safety
The town operates a fire department which is a member of the Fire Marshalls of Ontario, Public Fire Safety Council.

A local branch of the Ontario Provincial Police is located at the site of the old Kapuskasing Inn.

Kapuskasing has Enhanced 911 (E911) service for Fire, Ambulance and Police.

Well-being
Children's Aid Services, Counselling services, Detox centres, Chiropractitioners, and many other services are offered for those who need it.

Notable people

 * Shera Bechard, model and Playboy Playmate
 * Maxime Boudreault, World's Strongest Man competitor
 * James Cameron, motion picture director
 * Roy Dupuis, actor
 * Paul Lefebvre, politician
 * Heather Mallick, author and columnist for the Toronto Star
 * Kirk McCaskill, retired pitcher, Major League Baseball
 * Shane Peacock, writer
 * Kelly Vanderbeek, alpine ski racer

In popular culture
Kapuskasing is mentioned in the 1994 children’s book Where is Gah-Ning, by Robert Munsch. In the story, a young Chinese-Canadian girl wants to visit Kapuskasing, but her father says no. She tries to go by bicycle and later on roller blades; she finally succeeds in getting there by floating on 300 helium balloons. It is also featured in Tomson Highway's award-winning play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. In Season 12 of Degrassi, junior pro hockey player Campbell Saunders comes from Kapuskasing.

The protagonist of Alice Munro's story "Train" (2012), set in the early 1960s, is hopeful when he heads for Kapuskasing: "Work there, sure to be work in a lumbering town".

Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge has a song called "Kapuskasing Coffee" on his album Valleyheart. The album won the Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year - Solo in 2014.

title: Kapuskasing


text:
Education in Canada

Education in Canada is for the most part provided publicly, funded and overseen by federal, provincial, and local governments. Education is within provincial jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the province. Education in Canada is generally divided into primary education, followed by secondary education and post-secondary. Education in both English and French is available in most places across Canada. Canada has a large number of universities, almost all of which are publicly funded. Established in 1663, Université Laval is the oldest post-secondary institution in Canada. The largest university is the University of Toronto with over 85,000 students. Four universities are regularly ranked among the top 100 world-wide, namely University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University, and McMaster University, with a total of 18 universities ranked in the top 500 worldwide.

According to a 2022 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada is the most educated country in the world;  the country ranks first worldwide in the percentage of adults having tertiary education, with over 57 percent of Canadian adults having attained at least an undergraduate college or university degree. Canada spends an average of about 5.3 percent of its GDP on education. The country invests heavily in tertiary education (more than US$20,000 per student). , 89 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, compared to an OECD average of 75 percent.

The mandatory education age ranges between 5–7 to 16–18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate of 99 percent. Just over 60,000 children are homeschooled in the country as of 2016. The Programme for International Student Assessment indicates Canadian students perform well above the OECD average, particularly in mathematics, science, and reading, ranking the overall knowledge and skills of Canadian 15-year-olds as the sixth-best in the world, although these scores have been declining in recent years. Canada is a well-performing OECD country in reading literacy, mathematics, and science, with the average student scoring 523.7, compared with the OECD average of 493 in 2015.

Assessment agencies
The Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC) works in collaboration with provincial and territorial departments that are responsible for education and training, on the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP). The CESC includes both the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and Statistics Canada. The CESC submits an annual report, Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, "supports the comparison of educational systems in Canada's provinces and territories with member [OECD] countries".

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) coordinates the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that is intended to evaluate educational systems—OECD members and non-OECD members—by measuring 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading.

Canada-wide
The federal government's responsibilities in education are limited to the Canadian Military Colleges, the Canadian Coast Guard College, and funding the education of indigenous peoples; all other matters of education in Canada fall under provincial responsibility. As such, there is much variation in the management of education from province to province. In 2016, 8.5% of men and 5.4% of women aged 25 to 34 had less than a secondary school diploma (340,000 young Canadians). In many places, publicly funded secondary school courses are offered to the adult population. The ratio of secondary school graduates versus non diploma-holders is changing rapidly, partly due to changes in the labour market that require people to have a secondary school diploma and, in many cases, a university degree. Nonetheless, in 2010, 51% of Canadians had completed a tertiary education, the highest rate in the world. The majority of schools, 67%, are co-educational.

Canada spends about 5.2% of its GDP on education in 2020. The country invests heavily in tertiary education (more than US$20,000 per student). Recent reports suggest tuition fee increases across all provinces ranging from a low of .3% in Ontario to a high of 5.7% in Alberta due to a provide-wide restructuring of fees. Since the adoption of section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982, education in both English and French has been available in most places across Canada (if the population of children speaking the minority language justifies it). French Second Language education/French Immersion is available to anglophone students across Canada. English Second Language education/English Immersion is also available in Quebec's french language schools.

According to an announcement of Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Canada is introducing a new, fast-track system to let foreign students and graduates with Canadian work experience become permanent eligible residents in Canada.

Most schools have introduced one or more initiatives such as programs in Native studies, antiracism, Aboriginal cultures and crafts; visits by elders and other community members; and content in areas like indigenous languages, Aboriginal spirituality, indigenous knowledge of nature, and tours to indigenous heritage sites. Although these classes are offered, most appear to be limited by the area or region in which students reside. "The curriculum is designed to elicit development and quality of people's cognition through the guiding of accommodations of individuals to their natural environment and their changing social order"

Subjects that typically get assessed (i.e., language arts, mathematics, and science) assume greater importance than non-assessed subjects (i.e., music, visual arts, and physical education) or facets of the curriculum (i.e., reading and writing versus speaking and listening).

Some scholars view academics as a form of "soft power" helping to educate and to create positive attitudes, although there is criticism that educators are merely telling students what to think, instead of how to think for themselves, and using up a large proportion of classroom time in the process. Social promotion policies, grade inflation, lack of corrective feedback for students, teaching methods that slow the development of soft skills compared to past decades, reform mathematics, and the failure to objectively track student progress have also forced secondary schools and colleges to lower their academic standards.

According to a November 2011 Maclean's opinion piece, Alberta's education system provides better results compared to other provinces, partially because of Alberta's rigorous "provincial standardized exams". According to a 2011 study by the University of Saskatchewan, Albertans have higher grades in university due to the comprehensive education compared to other provinces. Grades are also notably boosted when applying for many universities in Canada to entice Albertan students to go to those universities, such as the University of British Columbia. This also explains why the University of Alberta is quite competitive when applying with an out-of-province education.

Divisions by religion and language
The Constitution of Canada provides constitutional protections for some types of publicly funded religious-based and language-based school systems.

Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 contains a guarantee for publicly funded religious-based separate schools, provided the separate schools were established by law prior to the province joining Confederation. Court cases have established that this provision did not apply to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island, since those provinces did not provide a legal guarantee for separate schools prior to Confederation. The provision did originally apply to Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador, since these provinces did have pre-existing separate schools. This constitutional provision was repealed for Quebec by a constitutional amendment in 1997, and for Newfoundland and Labrador in 1998. The constitutional provision continues to apply to Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. There is a similar federal statutory provision that applies to the Northwest Territories. The issue of separate schools is also addressed in Section 29 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which reaffirms the rights of separate schools found in the Constitution Act, 1867.

Section 23(1)(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right of citizens who were educated in the minority language in a particular province to have their children educated in the minority language in publicly funded schools. In practice, this guarantee means that there are publicly funded English schools in Quebec, and publicly funded French schools in the other provinces and the territories.

Quebec students must attend a French school up until the end of secondary school unless one of their parents qualifies as a rights-holder under s. 23(1)(b) of the Charter. In Ontario, French-language schools automatically admit students recognized under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and may admit non-francophone students through the board's admissions committee consisting of the school principal, a school superintendent, and a teacher.

An example of how schools can be divided by language and religion is visible in Toronto, which has four public school boards operating in the city. They include two English first language school boards, the separate Toronto Catholic District School Board and secular Toronto District School Board; and two French boards, the separate Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and secular Conseil scolaire Viamonde.

Length of study
As education is a provincial matter, the length of study varies depending on the province, although the majority of public early childhood, elementary, and secondary education programs in Canada begin in kindergarten (age five typically by 31 December of that school year) and end after Grade 12 (age 17 by 31 December). After completion of a secondary school diploma, students may go on to post-secondary studies.

Exceptions to the aforementioned length of study include the provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as the Northwest Territories. As opposed to the other provinces, the Kindergarten programs in the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec consist of two years, with the first year open to students age four by 31 December. Ontario established its Junior Kindergarten program in the early 1940s. In 2016, the Government of Nova Scotia announced an expansion of its Pre-Primary program to be made available throughout the province by 2020. Implementation of Junior Kindergarten began in the Northwest Territories during the 2017–18 school year, an expansion of an earlier pilot project in several smaller communities in the territory. In 2019, the Government of Quebec announced the creation of kindergarten classes for four-year-olds in the province's elementary schools. The length of study at the secondary level also differs in Quebec, with the final grade of secondary schools in the province being Grade 11/Secondaire V.

Conversely, in Ontario, a student may choose to lengthen their period of study in a secondary school for an additional number of years, colloquially referred to as a victory lap. From 1989 to 2003, secondary education in Ontario formally included a fifth year (intended for students preparing for post-secondary education), known as the Ontario Academic Credit (age 18 by 31 December). Prior to 1989 Ontario secondary schools included Grade 13 (leading to the Secondary School Honours Graduation Diploma). Although OAC was phased out in 2003, a study in 2010 published by academics with Lakehead University noted that the province was only partially successful in its efforts, with a significant minority of students opting to take a fifth year. Approximately 14 per cent of students in Ontario opted to take a fifth year as late as 2012. In September 2013, the Government of Ontario introduced a 34-credit threshold (30 credits is required for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma) in an effort to limit the length of study for its secondary school students and reduce the financial burden from students returning for a fifth year. A "resident pupil" of Ontario has the right to attend a public secondary school until they've received their 34th-course credit, attended the school for seven years, or are age 20 and have not been in a school in the last four years, after which the secondary school reserves the right to refuse further admission to the student.

While the period of study in Canada begins as early as four years old, the age where a child's attendance becomes mandatory varies among the provinces and territories, ranging from ages five to seven. Children who turn five by 31 December are required to begin schooling in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Yukon; although parents are able to apply for a deferment. In Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec, a child is required to attend school at the age of six. Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the only provinces where the minimum compulsory attendance age is seven. Attendance in school is compulsory up to the age of 16 in all provinces except Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario, where attendance is compulsory until the student turns 18,  or as soon as a secondary school diploma has been achieved.

Authorities
Normally, for each type of publicly funded school (such as Public English or Public French), the province is divided into districts (or divisions). For each district, board members (trustees) are elected only by its supporters within the district (voters receive a ballot for just one of the boards in their area). Normally, all publicly funded schools are under the authority of their local district school board. These school boards would follow a common curriculum set up by the province the board resides in. Only Alberta allows public charter schools, which are independent of any district board. Instead, they each have their own board, which reports directly to the province.

Primary and secondary education
Primary, intermediate, and secondary education combined are sometimes referred to as K-12 (Kindergarten through Grade 12). Secondary schooling, known as high school, collegiate institute, école secondaire or secondary school, consists of different grades depending on the province in which one resides. Furthermore, grade structure may vary within a province or even within a school division; as to whether or not they operate middle or junior high schools.

Kindergarten programs are available for children in all provinces in Canada and are typically offered as one-year programs for students who turn five in that year. However, the provinces of Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario, and Quebec operate two-year kindergarten programs, with the first year beginning at the age of four. The names of these programs, provincial funding, and the number of hours provided varies. For example, the Department of Education in Nova Scotia refers to Kindergarten as Grade Primary. Full-day kindergarten programs are offered in all provinces except Alberta, Manitoba, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Yukon. Students in the Prairie provinces are not required by statute to attend kindergarten. As a result, kindergarten often is not available in smaller towns.

Since the 1940s, Ontario's kindergarten program has consisted of two years: junior kindergarten for four–five-year-olds and senior kindergarten for five–six-year-olds. At Francophone schools in Ontario, these programs are called Maternelle and Jardin. In 2017, Nova Scotia began to implement a kindergarten program (pre-primary, starting at age four), with provincial-wide service available since 2020. In 2017, the Northwest Territories introduced its junior kindergarten program throughout the territory. Quebec offers subsidized preschool programs and introduced an early kindergarten program for children from low-income families in 2013.

Grade 12 presently serves as the final grade in all provincial secondary curriculums, except Quebec, whose secondary schools ends after Secondary V/Grade 11 (age 16 by September 30, Quebec cut off date is earlier); after which students who wish to pursue further studies may attend a post-secondary institution. Quebec is currently the only province where it treats Grade 12 as a part of the tertiary level of education. Grade 11 also served as the end of secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador, until the province implemented Grade 12 in 1983. Conversely, from 1921 to 2003, Ontario's secondary curriculum lasted a year longer, with secondary schooling ending after Grade 13/Ontario Academic Credit (OAC). Grade 13 was reformed into OAC in 1988, and was offered in secondary schools until 2003, after which the grade was discontinued. A number of Canadian secondary schools offer the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) program. These courses prepare students for first-year university learning and can be used to replace or supplement existing courses in the curriculum. Many universities and colleges across North America offer advanced credits to students who excel in International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement courses.

Students may continue to receive publicly funded secondary schooling until the ages of 19 to 21 (the cut-off age for secondary school varies between provinces). Depending on the province, those who are the age of majority may continue to attend a standard secondary school, or may be required to attend an adult high school.

Students of secondary school age who have received long-term suspensions or have been expelled, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to attend conventional schools may be offered alternative learning options to complete their secondary education, such as drop-in programs, night school, or distance/online classes. An increasing number of international students are attending pre-tertiary courses at Canadian secondary schools.

Tertiary education
Post-secondary education in Canada is provided by universities (research universities, undergraduate universities, and university colleges) and vocational institutions (vocational colleges, career colleges, community colleges, institutes of technology or science, colleges of applied arts or applied technology, and in Quebec, collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel). Universities offer bachelor's, master's, professional, and doctoral degrees as well as post-graduate certificates and diplomas while vocational institutions issue diplomas, associate degrees, certificates, and apprenticeships. Vocational institutions offer career-focused training that is often practical where these institutions train their graduates to work as semi-professionals in various fields such as the skilled trades and technical careers and for workers in support roles in professions such as engineering, information technology, accountancy, business administration, health care, architecture, and law. University colleges and vocational institutions also offer degree programs where a student can take courses and receive credit that can be transferred to a university.

Nearly all post-secondary institutions in Canada have the authority to confer academic credentials (i.e., diplomas or degrees). Generally speaking, universities confer degrees (e.g., bachelor's, master's, professional or doctorate degrees) while colleges, which typically offer vocationally oriented programs, confer diplomas, associate degrees, and certificates. However, some colleges offer applied arts degrees that lead to or are equivalent to degrees from a university. Private career colleges are overseen by legislative acts for each province. For example, in British Columbia training providers will be registered and accredited with the (PCTIA) Private Career Training Institutions Agency regulated under the Private Career Training Institutions Act (SBC 2003) Each province with their own correlating agency. Unlike the United States, there is no "accreditation body" that oversees the universities in Canada. Universities in Canada have degree-granting authority via an Act or Ministerial Consent from the Ministry of Education of the particular province. Tertiary and post-secondary education in Canada is also the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories. Those governments provide the majority of funding to their public post-secondary institutions, with the remainder of funding coming from tuition fees, the federal government, and research grants. Compared to other countries in the past, Canada has had the highest tertiary school enrolment as a percentage of their graduating population.

University
The traditional path to Canadian higher education is typically through university, as it is by far the most prestigious form of higher education in the country. There is no universally prescribed set definition to what constitutes a "university" in Canada as they come in various forms that serve the different educational needs of various Canadians. Each province has its own legislative meaning of the term but universities do intersect in terms of the types of degrees that they offer, research, competitiveness, location, and global institutional reputation. Canadian universities require students' senior secondary school transcript along with an application for admission. Admissions criteria to a university in Canada involve the grades earned in core senior secondary school courses taken, and an admission GPA based on their senior secondary school courses calculated in the form of a percentage. Applications for admission outline additional academic and extra-curricular achievements that cannot be expressed through a student's secondary school transcript. In the case of more prestigious and selective university programs, an essay, statement of intent, or personal statement of experience must be submitted directly to the university. In addition, letters of reference, examples of extracurricular activities, volunteering and community service endeavors, athletic participation, student awards, and scholarships are also required for acceptance to some of Canada's most prestigious university programs. Generally, Canadian universities base admission with great weight emphasized around a student's academic performance in core senior secondary school courses taken during their grade 11 and 12 years as a measure of academic rigor in addition to assessing a prospective students capability to challenge themselves as predictors of future academic performance at the university level. In addition, most universities in Canada also denote a standardized GPA or an admission average cutoff. This admissions cut off is established based on the competitiveness of applicants applying to individual programs offered at specific universities. A typical competitive program at an esteemed Canadian university could have an admissions cutoff of 90 per cent or higher, while mid-tier universities have programs that maintain cut-offs around 80 per cent. Lower tier and lesser-known Canadian universities with more liberal application processes could have admission cut offs as low as 65 to 70 per cent.

Among the country's most prominent institutions are research universities that are domestically and internationally ranked such as the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the University of British Columbia. Other types of universities across Canada include denomination universities (e.g., Redeemer University College, Yorkville University), undergraduate universities (e.g., Acadia University, MacEwan University, Mount Saint Vincent University, St. Francis Xavier University, University of Winnipeg, Wilfrid Laurier University), liberal arts colleges (e.g., University of Lethbridge, Bishop's University, Mount Allison University, Nipissing University, St. Thomas University, Trinity Western University), art schools (Alberta University of the Arts, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, LaSalle College Vancouver, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Ontario College of Art and Design, Vancouver College of Art and Design), online universities with distance education (Athabasca University, University of Fredericton), and military schools (Royal Military College of Canada, which is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, a full degree-granting university, and the only federal institution in Canada with degree-granting powers) as well as institutions that serve people in more rural and remote parts of the country such as Brandon University, Royal Roads University, Thompson Rivers University, the University of Northern British Columbia, University of Prince Edward Island, University of the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island University.

The quality of universities in Canada is internationally recognized and is home to some of the top universities in the world making it a global leader in scientific and technological research and adducing the delivery of higher education to promising Canadian students and prospective students around the world. The nation's three top ranking universities are the University of Toronto, McGill, and the University of British Columbia. Canadian universities have placed in several international post-secondary rankings, with the Academic Ranking of World Universities including 25 Canadian universities in its 2023 rankings, QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings including 31 Canadian universities in their 2023 rankings, and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking including 39 Canadian universities in its 2023 rankings.

Vocational
Vocational education in Canada is delivered through vocational colleges, career colleges, community colleges, institutes of technology or science, technical schools, colleges of applied arts or applied technology, and in Quebec through collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel. Though it is cheaper in terms of tuition, less competitive to get into, and not as prestigious as going to a four-year university, vocational schools adduce another post-secondary option for students seeking to enter the realm of Canadian higher education. Admissions to vocational schools in Canada have requirements that are less stringent than a university and vary more significantly, but unlike universities, qualifications and entrance standards into vocational institutions are more lax as they do not delineate admission cut-offs so as long as students meet the minimum average requirements and possess the prerequisite courses, they can gain admission to most vocational institutions across the country. Many vocational institutes such as George Brown College and Mohawk College accept a very high proportion of students with averages above 70 per cent, although they may place no limiting minimum for acceptance, and consequently take students with averages below 60 per cent.

The typical Canadian vocational institute is analogous to that of an American junior college or community college where they offer specialized vocational oriented certifications in an area of training. However, there are some institutions in Canada that offer both vocational training as well as a limited number of 4-year undergraduate university degrees such as Seneca College, Sheridan College, Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver Island University, and Thompson Rivers University. There are over 200 community colleges in Canada. They are less academically competitive with lower and less stringent entrance requirements to get into compared with universities and are often found in remote and rural parts of the country.

Post-secondary vocational institutions in Canada offer apprenticeships, certificates, diplomas, and associate degrees. These are programs that offer specialized vocational education in specific employment fields related to the skilled trades and technical careers which generally last two years. In studying at a vocational school, a student can take the necessary courses needed to earn a certification that will allow for entry into jobs (such as becoming a beautician, licensed practical nurse, drafter, web developer, computer network support specialist, paralegal, medical laboratory technician, cardiovascular technologist, optician, or diagnostic medical sonographer, healthcare assistant etc.) requiring some level of tertiary education but not a full four-year university degree. After graduating from a vocational institution, some students continue their education by transferring to a university to complete a bachelor's degree, while others choose to enter the workforce. Apprenticeships are another form of post-secondary vocational education training in Canada, as students combine in-class instruction of theoretical principles with practical workforce training for careers related to the skilled trades. In addition, a series of exams have to be passed before the student is certified as a journeyperson. Skilled trades programs in Canada typically take four years to complete and once the final level is successfully finished, the person is conferred a trades certificate and can become eligible to work anywhere in the country, provided they pass a series of tests known as the Red Seal exams.

Private schools
About 6% of Canadian grade ten students are in private schools, most of which are in Quebec. A Statistics Canada study from 2015 found that these students tend to have higher test scores and future educational attainment than their public school counterparts. Rather than enjoying superior resources and educational practices, the most likely explanation for this discrepancy is the higher expectation of success that students experience from their parents, teachers, and fellow students.

Private universities
In the past, private universities in Canada maintained a religious history or foundation. However, since 1999, the Province of New Brunswick passed the Degree Granting Act allowing private universities to operate in the Province. The University of Fredericton is the newest university to receive designation in New Brunswick.

Trinity Western University, in Langley British Columbia, was founded in 1962 as a junior college and received full accreditation in 1985. In 2002, British Columbia's Quest University became the first privately funded liberal arts university without a denominational affiliation (although it is not the first private liberal arts university). Many provinces, including Ontario and Alberta, have passed legislation allowing private degree-granting institutions (not necessarily universities) to operate there.

Many Canadians remain polarized on the issue of permitting private universities into the Canadian market. On the one hand, Canada's top universities find it difficult to compete with the private American powerhouses because of funding, but, on the other hand, the fact that the price of private universities tends to exclude those who cannot pay that much for their education could prevent a significant portion of Canada's population from being able to attend these schools.

In addition to the issue of access, some Canadians take issue with protections instituted within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as ruled by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2001 and consistent with federal and provincial law that (private) faith-based universities in Canada based on the long-established principles of freedom of conscience and religion can exempt themselves from more recent human rights legislation when they insist in their "community covenant" code signed by staff, faculty and students that they act in accordance with the faith of the school. The covenant may require restraint from those acts considered in contradiction with the tenets of their faith such as homosexual relationships, sex outside marriage or more broadly abstain from consuming alcohol on campus or viewing pornography. However, private-Christian based schools do not preclude homosexual or lesbian students from attending. Some faith-based universities have been known to fire staff and faculty which refused to adhere or whose actions were in opposition with the tenets of the faith, although in some provinces, their dismissals have been successfully challenged in court based on the circumstances.

Religious schools
Each province deals differently with private religious schools. In Ontario, the Catholic system continues to be fully publicly funded while other faiths are not. Ontario has several private Islamic, Christian and Jewish schools all funded through tuition fees. Since the Catholic schools system is entrenched in the constitution, the Supreme Court has ruled that this system is constitutional. However, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has ruled that Ontario's system is discriminatory, suggesting that Ontario either fund no faith-based schools, or all of them. In 2002 the government of Mike Harris introduced a controversial program to partially fund all private schools, but this was criticized for undermining the public education system and the program was eliminated after the Liberals won the 2003 provincial election.

In other provinces, privately operated religious schools are funded. In British Columbia the government pays independent schools that meet rigorous provincial standards up to 50% of the per-student operating cost of public schools. The province has a number of Sikh, Hindu, Christian, and Islamic schools. Alberta also has a network of charter schools, which are fully funded schools offering distinct approaches to education within the public school system. Alberta charter schools are not private and the province does not grant charters to religious schools. These schools have to follow the provincial curriculum and meet all standards but are given considerable freedom in other areas. In all other provinces, private religious schools receive some funding, but not as much as the public system.

Levels in education
As the education system in Canada is managed by the varying provincial governments in Canada, the way the educational stages are grouped and named may differ from each region, or even between districts and individual schools. The ages are the age of the students when they end the school year in June.

 * Early childhood education
 * CPE Pre-school (French: Garderie or Jardin), Pre-Kindergarten, Pre-Primary or Junior Kindergarten (JK, ages 3–5 average age 4) (Nova Scotia and Ontario)
 * Grade Primary, Senior Kindergarten or Kindergarten (French: Maternelle) (SK, ages 4–6 average age 5)
 * Elementary education
 * Grade 1 (ages 5–7, average age 6), they start in the calendar year when they turn 6 (For example, someone born in July would be the average and be 6 all of grade 1, while someone born in December will be 5 when they start grade 1 and turn 6 during grade 1 and be one of the youngest while someone born in January will start grade 1 at age 6 and turn 7 during grade 1 and be one of the oldest.)
 * Grade 2 (ages 6–8 average age 7),
 * Grade 3 (ages 7–9 average age 8)
 * Grade 4 (ages 8–10 average age 9)
 * Grade 5 (ages 9–11 average age 10 )
 * Grade 6 (ages 10–12 average age 11)
 * Intermediate education
 * Grade 7 (ages 11–13 average age 12) (Secondary School starts here in Quebec)
 * Grade 8 (ages 12–14 average age 13) (in some parts of B.C. high school starts in Grade 8)
 * Grade 9 (ages 13–15 average age 14)
 * Secondary education
 * Grade 10 (ages 14–16 average age 15)
 * Grade 11 (ages 15–17 average age 16) (Secondary education in Quebec stops here)
 * Grade 12 (ages 16–18 average age 17)
 * Tertiary education
 * College: In Canada, the term college usually refers to a community college or a technical, applied arts, or applied science school. These are post-secondary institutions granting certificates, diplomas and, in some cases, bachelor's degrees. In Quebec, a diploma is also required from a college (CEGEP) to attend university and take the following forms:
 * Pre-university program, two years (typically Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, or Arts)
 * Professional program, three years (e.g. Paralegal, Dental Hygienist, Nursing, etc.)
 * University: A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides undergraduate (bachelor's degree), graduate (master's degree), and postgraduate (Ph.D.) education.
 * Graduate (or postgraduate)
 * One or two years leading to a master's degree.
 * Three or more years leading to a Doctoral degree.

Grade structure by province
The following table shows how grades are organized in various provinces. Often, there will be exceptions within each province, both with terminology for groups, and which grades apply to each group.

Notes:
 * In British Columbia some schools may group together the higher Elementary and lower Secondary Grades. These schools are referred to as Middle Schools or Jr. Secondary Schools. Some Elementary Schools consist solely of grades K–5. Likewise, some Secondary Schools may only have grades 11 and 12. In addition, some school districts including Vancouver may use just elementary (K–7) and secondary (8–12) schools. British Columbia informally subcategorizes the Elementary level into "Primary" (K–3) and "Intermediate" (4–6 or 7).
 * In Ontario, the terms used in French schooling consist of Maternelle in regard to Junior Kindergarten and Jardin in regard to Kindergarten. This differs from Quebec's Maternelle, which is the equivalent of Ontario's Kindergarten.
 * In Manitoba, grade 9 to grade 12 was for a short time referred to as Senior 1 to Senior 4.
 * In Newfoundland and Labrador, Level IV is used to collect missed grades that prevented a student from getting their graduation.
 * In Nova Scotia the terms for groups, and grades they apply to varies significantly throughout the province. A common, but not universal, organization is shown.
 * In Quebec college is two or three years, depending on what a student selects, based usually on what their post-secondary plans are. College in Quebec overlaps what other provinces consider the boundary between secondary education (high school) and post-secondary education (college and university). E.g. "Sec I" = "Secondary Year One" = "Grade 7"
 * In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, schools are now set up as elementary schools with grades K-5, middle schools with grades 6–8, and high schools with grades 9–12; however, high school graduation requirements only include courses taken in grades 10–12.
 * In Saskatchewan Elementary school is most often from K–8 and high school from 9–12. High school graduation requirements only taken grades 10–12 and require 24 credits to graduate.

Historiography

 * Bruno-Jofré, Rosa. "History of education in Canada: historiographic 'turns' and widening horizons". Paedagogica Historica (2014), Vol. 50 Issue 6, pp 774–785

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Education in Canada


text:
University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system, and was founded in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley.

With more than 31,000 students, UMASS Amherst is the second largest university in Massachusetts by enrollment after Northeastern University. The university offers academic degrees in 109 undergraduate, 77 master's, and 48 doctoral programs. Programs are coordinated in nine schools and colleges. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $211 million on research and development in 2018.

The university's 21 varsity athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I and are collectively known as the Minutemen and Minutewomen. The university is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference while playing ice hockey in Hockey East and football as an FBS independent school.

Foundation and early years
The university was founded in 1863 under the provisions of the Federal Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to provide instruction to Massachusetts citizens in "agricultural, mechanical, and military arts." Accordingly, the university was initially named the Massachusetts Agricultural College. In 1867, the college had yet to admit any students and had not completed any buildings but had been through two presidents. That same year, William S. Clark was appointed President of the college and Professor of Botany. He appointed a faculty, coordinated the completion of construction, and, in the fall of 1867, welcomed the first class of approximately 50 students. Clark became the first president to serve long-term after the school's opening. Of the school's founding figures, there are a traditional "founding four" – Clark, Levi Stockbridge, Charles Goessmann, and Henry Hill Goodell. The original buildings consisted of Old South College, North College, the Chemistry Laboratory, the Boarding House, the Botanic Museum, and the Durfee Plant House.

The fledgling college grew under the leadership of President Henry Hill Goodell. In the 1880s, Goodell implemented an expansion plan, adding the College Drill Hall in 1883, the Old Chapel Library in 1885, and the East and West Experiment Stations in 1886 and 1890.

The early 20th century saw expansion in enrollment and curriculum. The first female student was admitted in 1875 on a part-time basis and the first full-time female student was admitted in 1892. In 1903, Draper Hall was constructed for the dual purpose of a dining hall and female housing. The first female students graduated with the class of 1905. The first dedicated female dormitory, the Abigail Adams House (on the site of today's Lederle Tower) was built in 1920.

Modern era
By the 1970s, the University continued to grow and gave rise to a shuttle bus service on campus as well as many other architectural additions; this included the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center complete with a hotel, office space, fine dining restaurant, campus store, and passageway to the parking garage, the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, and the Fine Arts Center.

Over the next two decades, the John W. Lederle Graduate Research Center and the Conte National Polymer Research Center were built and UMass Amherst emerged as a major research facility. The Robsham Memorial Center for Visitors welcomed thousands of guests to campus after its dedication in 1989. For athletic and other large events, the Mullins Center was opened in 1993.

21st century
In 2003, Massachusetts State Legislature designated the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a research university and the "flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system". The university was named a top producer of Fulbright Award winners in the 2008–2009 academic year. Additionally, in 2010, it was named one of the "Top Colleges and Universities Contributing to Teach For America's 2010 Teaching Corps."

From World War II to 2023, the imagery on the official seal of the university was nearly identical to the state flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That image of the seal has been slowly removed starting in 2011, until March, 2023 when a new image of the seal, featuring a profile of the Old Chapel spire, was ratified by the campus.

Colleges and schools
The current Chancellor of the Amherst campus is Javier Reyes. The Chancellor resides in Hillside, the campus residence for chancellors. Reyes is the first person of Hispanic descent to serve as Chancellor of the university.

There are approximately 1,300 full-time faculty at the university. The university is organized into nine schools and colleges and offers 111 bachelor's degrees, 75 master's degrees, and 47 doctoral degrees.

Rankings and reputation
U.S. News & World Report's 2021 edition of America's Best Colleges ranked UMass Amherst tied for 66th on their list of "Best National Universities", and tied for 26th among 141 public universities in the U.S. UMass Amherst is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.

Commonwealth Honors College
Commonwealth Honors College at UMass provides students the opportunity to intensify their UMass academic curriculum. Membership in the honors college is not required to graduate from the University with designations such as magna or summa cum laude. In 2013, the University completed the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community (CHCRC) on campus to serve the college, including classrooms, administration, and housing for 1,500 students and some faculty.

Five College Consortium
UMass Amherst is part of the Five Colleges Consortium, which allows its students to attend classes, borrow books, work with professors, etc., at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges.

UMass Amherst holds the license for WFCR, the National Public Radio affiliate for Western Massachusetts. In 2014, the station moved its main operations to the Fuller Building on Main Street in Springfield, but retained some offices in Hampshire House on the UMass campus.

Community service
The Community Engagement Program (CEP) offers courses that combine classroom learning and community service. Co-curricular service programs include the Alternative Spring Break, Engineers without Borders, the Legal Studies Civil Rights Clinical Project, the Medical Reserve Corps, Alpha Phi Omega, the Red Cross Club, the Rotaract Club, UCAN Volunteer, and the Veterans and Service Members Association (VSMA).

The White House has named UMass Amherst to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for four consecutive years, in recognition of its commitment to volunteering, service learning, and civic engagement. They have also been named a "Community-Engaged University" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Research
UMass research activities totaled more than $200 million in fiscal year 2014 ($ in today's money). In 2016, the faculty adopted an open-access policy to make its scholarship publicly accessible online.

A team of scientists at UMass led by Vincent Rotello has developed a molecular nose that can detect and identify various proteins. The research appeared in the May 2007 issue of Nature Nanotechnology, and the team is currently focusing on sensors, which will detect malformed proteins made by cancer cells. Also, UMass Amherst scientists Richard Farris, Todd Emrick, and Bryan Coughlin led a research team that developed a synthetic polymer that does not burn. This polymer is a building block of plastic, and the new flame-retardant plastic will not need to have flame-retarding chemicals added to its composition. These chemicals have recently been found in many different areas from homes and offices to fish, and there are environmental and health concerns regarding the additives. The newly developed polymers would not require the addition of potentially hazardous chemicals.

Admissions and enrollment
In 2012, the university reported that applications to the school had more than doubled since the Fall of 2003 and increased more than 80% since 2005.

The incoming Class of 2022 had an average high school GPA of 3.90 out of a 4.0 weighted scale, up from an average GPA of 3.83 the year before. The average SAT score of the Class of 2022 was 1294/1600, and on average the students ranked in the top fifth of their high school class. Acceptance to the Commonwealth Honors College program of UMass Amherst is more selective with an average SAT score of 1409/1600 and an average weighted high school GPA of 4.29.

Campus
The University's campus is situated on 1,450 acres of historically Pocumtuc land, mainly in the town of Amherst, but also partly in the neighboring town of Hadley. The campus extends about 1 mi from the Campus Center in all directions and may be thought of as a series of concentric rings, with the innermost ring harboring academic buildings and research labs, surrounded by a ring of the seven residential areas and two university-owned apartment complexes. These include North Apartments, Sylvan, Northeast, Central, Orchard Hill, Southwest, Commonwealth Honors College Residential Complex., The two university-owned apartment complexes, North Village and Lincoln Apartments were demolished, and replaced by a private development called Fieldstone. These are in turn surrounded by a ring of athletic facilities, smaller administration buildings, and parking lots.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Library is one of two library buildings on campus and the tallest academic research library in the world, standing 26 stories above ground and 286 feet (90.32 m) tall. Before its construction in the late 1960s, Goodell Hall was the University library, which was built after the library had outgrown its space in the 1885 "Old Chapel" building. Originally known as Goodell Library, the building was named for Henry H. Goodell, who had served as College Librarian, Professor of Modern Languages and English Literature, and eighth President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. The Library is well regarded for its innovative architectural design, which incorporates the bookshelves into the structural support of the building. It is home of the memoirs and papers of the distinguished African-American activist and Massachusetts native W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as being the depository for other important collections, such as the papers of the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte. The library's special collections include works on movements for social change, African American history and culture, labor and industry, literature and the arts, agriculture, and the history of the surrounding region.

The Science and Engineering Library is the other library on campus and is located in the Lederle Graduate Research Center Lowrise. UMass is also home to the DEFA Film Library, the only archive and study collection of East German films outside of Europe, and the Shirley Graham Du Bois Library in the New Africa House. The university has several buildings (constructed in the 1960s and 1970s) of importance in the modernist style, including the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center and Hotel designed by Marcel Breuer, the Southwest Residential Area designed by Hugh Stubbins Jr. of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, The Fine Arts Center by Kevin Roche, the W.E.B. Du Bois Library by Edward Durell Stone, and Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium by Gordon Bunshaft. Many of the older dorms and lecture halls are built in a Georgian Revival style such as French Hall, Fernald Hall, Stockbridge Hall, and Flint Laboratory.

The campus facilities underwent extensive renovations during the late 1990s. New and newly renovated facilities include student apartment complexes, the Hampshire Dining Commons, a library Learning Commons, a School of Management, an Integrated Science Building, a Nursing Building, a Studio Arts Building, the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation facility, a track facility, and a Recreation Center. Newly completed construction projects on campus include the new Campus Police Station, the George N. Parks Minuteman Marching Band Building, the Life Sciences Laboratories, and the Integrated Learning Center.

Residential life
Residential Life at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is one of the largest on-campus housing systems in the United States. Over 14,000 students live in 52 residence halls, while families, staff, and graduate students live in 345 units in two apartment complexes (North Village and Lincoln). The fifty-two residence halls and four undergraduate apartment buildings are grouped into seven separate and very different residential areas: Central, Northeast, Orchard Hill, Southwest, Sylvan, North Apartments, and the Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community (CHCRC).

Located in the central corridor of campus, the Honors Community houses undergraduate members of Commonwealth Honors College.

Major campus expansion
The University of Massachusetts Amherst campus embarked on a 10-year, $1 billion ($ in today's money) capital improvement program in 2004, setting the stage for re-visioning the campus's future. This includes construction of $156 million New Science Laboratory Building, $30 million Champions Basketball Center, an $85 million academic building, and $30 million in renovations to the football stadium.

In early 2016, the construction of a new electrical substation located near Tillson Farm was completed. The purpose of the substation is to supply electricity to the university more efficiently and reliably, with estimated savings of $1 million per year ($ in today's money). The project was created in partnership with the utilities company Eversource, and cost approximately $26 million ($ in today's money).

In April 2017, the University of Massachusetts Amherst officially opened its new Design Building. Previously estimated at $50 million ( in today's money) the 87,000 sqft facility is the most advanced CLT building in the United States and the largest modern wood building in the northeastern United States.

Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst
On April 6, 2018, Mount Ida College announced that the University of Massachusetts would be absorbing its campus. Mount Ida students were given a guaranteed transfer to UMass Dartmouth, and the campus became part of UMass Amherst. The campus was named Mount Ida Campus of UMass Amherst and functions as a satellite campus for UMass Amherst. The campus primarily serves as a hub for Greater Boston-area career preparation and experiential learning opportunities for UMass Amherst students. The programs that are offered at the newly acquired campus will align the strengths of UMass Amherst with the growing demand for talent in areas that drive the Massachusetts economy, including health care, business, computer science, and other STEM specialties.

Campus safety
Campus safety features include controlled dormitory access, emergency telephones, lighted sidewalks, and 24-hour campus police patrols on feet and by vehicle.

Riots occurred after the Boston Red Sox lost the 1986 World Series and won in 2004 and 2007, after the Red Sox were eliminated in the 2003 and 2008 playoffs, after UMass' football team lost in the Division I-AA football championship game in 2006 and after the Patriots first Super Bowl victory over St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI. The majority of these riots have been non-violent on the side of the students, except for the 1986 riot in which an argument between hundreds of students intensified into racial altercations where a black student was attacked and beaten to unconsciousness by fifteen to twenty white students according to archives from The Republican. In the wake of these events, students have worked to have open dialogues with the administration and police department about campus safety, the right to gather, the police force, and better methods of crowd control.

Iranian student admissions controversy
UMass Amherst issued an announcement in early 2015 stating, "The University has determined that it will no longer admit Iranian national students to specific programs in the College of Engineering (i.e., Chemical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering) and in the College of Natural Sciences (i.e., Physics, Chemistry, Microbiology, and Polymer Science & Engineering) effective February 1, 2015." The University claims that this announcement was posted because a graduate student entered Iran for a project and was later denied a visa. This event along with urging from legal advisers contributed to the belief that such incidents inhibited their ability to give Iranian students a "full program of education and research for Iranian students" and thus justified changing their admissions policies. The ensuing criticism on and off campus, as well as wide media publicity, changed the minds of school officials. As a result, UMass made a statement on February 18 committing to once again allowing Iranian students to apply to the aforementioned graduate programs. On the same day, an official in the U.S. Department of State stated in an interview that: "U.S. laws and regulations do not prevent Iranian people from traveling to the United States or studying in engineering program of any U.S. academic institutions." UMass Amherst replaced the ban with a policy aimed at designing specific curricula for admitted Iranian nationals based on their needs. While less controversial, this policy has still generated backlash, with one student saying, "This university that's supposed to be so open-minded forcing him to sign a document saying he won't go home and build a bomb or something is just really disappointing to see."

Arts on campus
The UMass Amherst campus offers a variety of artistic venues, both performance and visual art. The most prominent is the Fine Arts Center (FAC) built in 1975. The FAC brings theater, music, and dance performances to campus throughout the year into its performance spaces (Concert Hall, Bezanson Recital Hall, and Bowker Auditorium). These include several performance series: Jazz in July Summer Music Program, The Asian Arts & Culture Program, Center Series, and Magic Triangle Series presenting music, dance, and theater performances, cultural arts events, films, talks, workshops, masterclasses, and special family events. University Museum of Contemporary Art in the FAC has a permanent contemporary art collection of about 2,600 works and hosts numerous visual arts exhibitions each year as well as workshops, masterclasses, and artist residencies.

The 9,000-seat Mullins Center, the multi-purpose arena of UMass Amherst hosts a wide variety of performances including speakers, rock concerts, and Broadway shows. In addition, the Music, Dance, and Theater Departments, the Renaissance Center, and multiple student groups dedicated to the arts provide an eclectic menu of performances throughout the year.

The Interdepartmental Program for Film Studies has been organizing the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival on campus since 1991.

Groups and activities
UMass Amherst has a history of protest and activism among the undergraduate and graduate population and is home to over 200 registered student organizations (RSOs).

Student Government Association
The Student Government Association (SGA) is the undergraduate student governmental body and provides funding for the many registered student organizations (RSOs) and agencies, including the Student Legal Services Office (SLSO) and the Center for Student Business (CSB). The SGA also makes formal recommendations on matters of campus policy and advocates for undergraduate students to the Administration, non-student organizations, and local and state government. As of the 2023 school year, the SGA had a budget of over $7.5 million per year, which is collected from students in the form of the $266 per year Student Activities Fee.

UMass permaculture
UMass permaculture is one of the first university permaculture initiatives in the nation and transforms marginalized landscapes on the campus into diverse, educational, low-maintenance, and edible gardens. Rather than tilling the soil, a more sustainable landscaping method known as sheet mulching is employed. In November 2010, "about a quarter of a million pounds of organic matter was moved by hand", using all student and community volunteer labor and no fossil fuels on-site. The process took about two weeks to complete. Now, the Franklin Permaculture Garden includes a diverse mixture of "vegetables, fruit trees, berry bushes, culinary herbs, and a lot of flowers that will attract beneficial insects."

Minuteman Marching Band
UMass Amherst has the largest marching band in New England. The Minuteman Marching Band consists of over 390 members and regularly plays at football games. The band also performs in various other places and events like the Collegiate Marching Band Festival in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bands of America in Indianapolis, Symphony Hall, Boston, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, and on occasion Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities, sororities, and honor societies have been present on the campus almost since inception, with its first fraternity, the Latin letter-named Q.T.V. emerging in 1869, and the first sorority, Delta Phi Gamma (local) in 1916. Approximately 1,500 students are active members each academic year.

Several fraternities had houses on North Pleasant Street until 2007 when several lots owned by Alpha Tau Gamma were sold to the University for $2,500,000 ($ in today's money). Alpha Tau Gamma, a local fraternity associated with the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, then donated $500,001 to endow the salary for the Director of the Stockbridge School.

Criticism of sexual and alcohol abuse, especially because of the role that Greek Life Organizations play at the university, has appeared repeatedly in Boston's and national news. Some students have called for changes in policy.

Today, most chapters are affiliated with national societies but are largely self-governing, within four councils.

The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the official newspaper of UMass Amherst, is published Monday through Thursday during the calendar semester. The Collegian is a non-profit student-run organization that receives no funding from the University or student fees. The Collegian operates entirely on advertising revenues. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914, and the Tri-Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily since 1967, the Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994.

WMUA 91.1 FM
The student-operated radio station, WMUA, is a federally licensed, non-commercial broadcast facility serving the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, and Southern Vermont. Although the station is managed by full-time undergraduate students of the University of Massachusetts, station members can consist of various members of the University (undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff), as well as people of the surrounding communities. WMUA began as an AM station in 1949.

WSYL-FM
There was a student-run, extremely-low-power FM radio station that used the self-assigned identifier "WSYL-FM" (With Songs You Like) which operated in the basement of Cashin from the mid-1970s through the 1980s.

Athletics
UMass is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The university is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference while playing ice hockey in the Hockey East Association. The football team joined the Mid-American Conference (MAC), to play at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; the sport's highest level) with games played at Gillette Stadium in 2012. In March 2014, the MAC and UMass announced an agreement for the Minutemen football team to leave the conference after the 2015 season due to UMass declining an offer to become a full member of the conference. In the agreement between the MAC and the university, there was a contractual clause that had UMass playing in the MAC as a football-only member for two more seasons if UMass declined a full membership offer. UMass announced that it would look for a "more suitable conference" for the team. UMass was unable to find a "suitable conference" for nearly a decade, remaining a full A-10 member and becoming an FBS independent, but during the early-2020s conference realignment entered into membership discussions with both the MAC and Conference USA. On February 29, 2024, it was announced that UMass would join the MAC as a full member, including football, in July 2025.

UMass originally was known as the Aggies, later the Statesmen, then the Redmen. In a response to changing attitudes regarding the use of Native American–themed mascots, they changed their mascot in 1972 to the Minuteman, based on the historical "minuteman" relationship with Massachusetts; women's teams and athletes are known as Minutewomen.

The UMass Amherst Department of Athletics currently sponsors men's intercollegiate baseball, basketball, cross country, ice hockey, football, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, and indoor and outdoor track & field. They also sponsor women's intercollegiate basketball, softball, cross country, rowing, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, field hockey, indoor and outdoor track & field, and tennis. Club sports offered which are not also offered at the varsity level are men's wrestling, men's rowing, men's tennis, women's ice hockey, men's and women's rugby, men's and women's bicycle racing, and men's and women's fencing. Men's and women's downhill skiing have been re-certified as club sports following the April 2, 2009 announcement of their discontinuation as varsity sports.

Notable alumni
There are 243,628 University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni worldwide. Notable UMass Amherst alumni include Greg Landry, Jeff Corwin, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taj Mahal, Bill Paxton, William Monahan, Kenneth Feinberg, Bill Cosby, Natalie Cole, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Rick Pitino, Bill Pullman, Betty Shabazz, Briana Scurry, Jack Welch, John F. Smith Jr., Jean Worthley, Jeff Reardon, Mike Flanagan, Lawrence Mestel, and Richard Gere.

Notable faculty and staff
Notable faculty have included Sheila Bair, the former Chairman of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Chuck Close, celebrated photorealist; Samuel R. Delany, author and critic; Vincent Dethier, pioneer physiologist; Ted Hughes, British poet laureate; Max Roach, considered one of the most important jazz drummers in history; Lynn Margulis, famed biologist; Stephen Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, heterodox economists; James Tate, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet; and Robert Paul Wolff, in both philosophy and African-American studies. Current faculty of note include poet Peter Gizzi, T.S. Eliot Prize–winning poet Ocean Vuong, media critic Sut Jhally, and feminist economist Nancy Folbre.

title: University of Massachusetts Amherst


text:
Talk:Desdemona

Untitled
I have questions about this title. Is there a reason why it can't just be at Desdemona? Or maybe Desdemona (Othello)? -- Zoe

 * That might be a better name (sorry I am sort of new and not used to the naming conventions). I did a link to Desdemona at first but its a page about a moon of Jupiter or something. Karl

Renamed Desdemona of Othello to Desdemona (Othello) and renamed Desdemona to Desdemona (moon), with Desdemona now being a disambiguation page between the moon and the fictional character. -- Curps

Is this name related to the Greek, deisidaemonia? Interesting. -a

Literary criticism
This page is rife with it. No editor has attempted to defend any of the claims -- what Des represents, etc. Omphaloscope » talk 00:04, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Structure
Could this page be based around the events of the play in order? eg. Desdemona marries Othello secretly, stands up to her father, befriends Emilia, talks to Cassio... I was thinking that this might make it easier to expand on. - raptor 07:33, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Desdemona


text:
Talk:Desdemona (moon)

Untitled
How about a disambiguation page branching Desdemona (moon) and Desdemona (Othello)? -- Zoe

 * I haven't read Othello but I think that any discussion about Desdemona the wife should stay in the article on Othello. --seav 22:47, Oct 31, 2003 (UTC)

Desdemona is now a disambiguation page. -- Curps

According to The Royal Shakespeare Company, this is pronounced [DEZ-de-MOE-nuh].

What happened to the Desdemona (Fame Song) page?

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Desdemona (moon). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111105040946/http://cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/04100/04164.html to http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/04100/04164.html#Item1

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 15:55, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Desdemona (moon)


text:
Oxfordian

Oxfordian may refer to:

 * Oxfordian (stage), a geological time interval in the Jurassic period
 * Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, the view that Edward de Vere wrote under Shakespeare's name
 * A person or thing associated with Oxford or Oxford University

title: Oxfordian