The University of Windsor ushered in a new era in the fall of 2015 with the opening of classes at the first phase of the downtown campus.
A new building at the corner of Pitt and Ferry Streets houses the School of Social Work and the Centre for Executive and Professional Education (CEPE), and retains the historic facade of the former Windsor Star newspaper building.
The second phase—now complete — houses the School of Creative Arts (SoCA), located in the century-old site of the Windsor Armouries and the new, stand-alone Freedom Way building across the street from the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel plaza.
SoCA—created following a merger of the School of Music, the School of Visual Arts and the Film Production Program opened for classes in the core in January 2018.
About 1,000 students, faculty and staff from the School of Social Work, the Centre for Executive and Professional Education, and the School of Creative Arts now call the downtown core home. The university’s downtown campus is already helping to drive the economic revitalization of Windsor’s core.
In addition to state-of-the-art classrooms, the downtown campus offers a unique setting close to Windsor’s acclaimed riverfront park system, a view of the Detroit skyline and dozens of fine restaurants and outdoor cafes. A short walk from the downtown campus, you can find the city’s art gallery, museum and world-class aquatics centre. There’s a bustling nightlife in the area that includes live theatre and regular appearances by some of the world’s best entertainers.
“The University of Windsor has created new spaces where our students, faculty and staff can be engaged in innovative teaching, learning and discovery, and where they can more effectively partner with local agencies in order to make an impact on our community,” says University President Alan Wildeman.
For example, through its field education programs, the School of Social Work directly contributes to the social and economic well-being of the Windsor-Essex region. Working together with faculty supervisors, students engage in field service education and provide more than 101,000 hours of services to health and human service organizations every year in the community.
The opportunity for SoCA students to work closely with those in the active downtown arts community is also be a bonus.
Along with music, the SoCA site houses learning studios and editing suites for media and film studies, workshops for metal and woodworking, digital fabrication labs and a printmaking studio.
The University’s main campus is only minutes away by bus or bicycle from the core campus and has everything you’d expect from one of the country’s top universities. It’s a student-focused institution with a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as such highly regarded professional schools as law, business, engineering, education, nursing and human kinetics. The University is also creating a world-class hub for innovation, research and the latest in classroom teaching technology.
UWindsor is one of only five Canadian universities ranked among the greenest in North America by the Princeton Review’s Guide to 353 Green Colleges, 2015 edition.
The ranking is based on a healthy, sustainable quality of student life on campus, environmentally responsible school policies and how well students are being prepared for employment in an increasingly green economy.