Vanier College (French: Collège Vanier) is an English-language public college located in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public college of Quebec's public college system, after Dawson College. Vanier is located just north of CEGEP Saint-Laurent, a French-language public college. Today, the student population numbers over 6,700 full-time Diploma students with an additional 2,000 students attending through the Continuing Education Department (credit and non-credit courses and programs). Vanier College is one of 48 public Cegeps in the province.
Programs
Vanier College provides a wide range of programs, offering more than twenty-five areas of study in two-year pre-university and three-year technical fields [1] With an average student population of eight thousand, Vanier College is the second-largest English-language college in Québec. The college offers two program types: a full-time pre-university program and technical career programs that lead to a Diploma of College Studies (DCS). The pre-university programs span two years and cover subject matters that align with the additional year of high school education typically provided in other parts of Canada to prepare students for their chosen university fields. Graduates from Vanier College's programs are well-prepared for further studies at the university level [[2]
Vanier College today consists of 10 different buildings on a single campus. Each of its buildings was built at a different point in the college's history, and is identified by a letter of the alphabet.
The land that the campus is located on today was first used for the Village de Saint-Laurent chapel, opened in 1817. Thirty years later, a convent, known as the Couvent Notre-Dame-des-Anges, was built nearby by the Sisters of Holy Cross (fr: Sœurs de Sainte-Croix[4]). The original Convent building was later expanded into the building known as the "C building" today. [1]
In 1897, the sisters opened the first college on the campus land, on the location of today's "E building". That building was expanded in 1848 and 1857 to become today's "E building".[2] In 1873, a chapel was built that connected the convent and college buildings. That chapel was a forerunner of today's "F building".[3] The "B building" was a further expansion of the convent built on the north side of the "C building" in 1904. It was unclear exactly when the "D building" was built, but it appears to have been at around this same time. The "D building" connected to the rear (east side) of the original "F building" chapel.
Originally, both the "D" and "E" buildings had elaborate balconies on every floor, which were removed in the 1970s. This is why several windows on both buildings today are taller than the rest of the windows in the building - these windows were doors to the balconies in the original building design.[4]
In 1911, the original Village de Saint-Laurent chapel was demolished, to be replaced by a new school for young girls, Académie Saint-Alfred. The cupola at the top of the new building was designed to reflect a similar cupola on the original chapel building. This new building eventually became Vanier's "H building".[5]
In 1933, the Sisters opened the yet another college, Collège Basile-Moreau, within the existing convent buildings. This soon required further expansions to the campus. In the 1940s, the "A building" was built at the north end of the "B building".[6]
In the 1950s, the original "F building" chapel was demolished and replaced with the building that stands as the "F building" today. In 1967, several institutions were merged and became public ones, when the Quebec system of CEGEPs was created.
Since becoming Vanier (1970–present)
A view of the campus
In 1970, the Quebec government purchased the entire property and it was re-opened as Vanier College, Quebec's second English language public college (after Dawson College that had opened the year previous). Enrollment in its first year was approximately 1,400 students.[7]
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