Published by Communications and Public Affairs (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338
News Release
June 05, 2003
Canadian stamp honours University of Guelph heritage
The story of the historical legacy of Guelph's Macdonald Institute will travel across Canada this summer in the form of a 48-cent postage stamp. The commemorative stamp will be issued by Canada Post on June 20 to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Macdonald Institute, one of the founding colleges of the University of Guelph.
On the same date, the university will host an official unveiling of the anniversary stamp as part of its annual alumni weekend events. Members of the community are invited to join Guelph alumni at the 10:30 a.m. unveiling in Creelman Hall.
"We are delighted that all Canadians will have the opportunity to share our pride in the legacy of Macdonald Institute, which lives on today in the traditions of applied learning and service to society that characterize Mac's modern successor, the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences," said dean Alun Joseph. "We are celebrating a century of education that began with domestic science courses for rural women and evolved into a world-respected, co-educational college that continues to meet the needs of the Canadian family and society in general."
Macdonald Institute was established in 1903 on the Guelph campus of the Ontario Agricultural College to teach farmers' daughters about good nutrition, hygiene and home management in the hope that educated young women would help to improve the social and economic conditions of rural families.
Closed during the Second World War, Macdonald Institute reopened in 1946 and added a four-year degree program in home economics. By the 1950s, it was one of the largest schools of home economics in Canada. With the Ontario Agricultural College and the Ontario Veterinary College, it was a founding college of the University of Guelph in 1964.
As part of a modern research university, Macdonald Institute transformed itself into the College of Family and Consumer Studies in 1970, accepted its first male students and developed an international reputation for its programs in child studies, nutrition, marriage and family therapy, hotel and food administration, consumer studies and business administration.
In 1998, the college amalgamated with Guelph's College of Social Science to create the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. Today's college offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs that draw on the Macdonald Institute tradition of blending academic theory with applied learning, said Joseph. The college claims one-third of the total undergraduate enrolment at Guelph and boasts 23,000 alumni working in all sectors of Canadian society and business and in a variety of roles throughout the world.
"Our Mac 100 celebrations would not be possible without the involvement of alumni from Macdonald Institute and its successors," said Joseph. "The commemorative stamp was conceived and achieved by an alumni committee that has also recruited dozens of volunteers and contributed to a full weekend of anniversary activities."
The red brick Macdonald Institute building is the central feature of the Mac 100 stamp design. The college coat of arms is also depicted on the 36mm x 45mm domestic stamp, which will be available at post offices across the country on June 20.
Stamp information can be found in the newsroom section of Canada Post's Web site at www.canadapost.ca. For details of alumni weekend at the University of Guelph, visit www.uoguelph.ca/alumni.
For media questions, contact Communications and Public Affairs: Lori Bona Hunt (519) 824-4120, Ext. 53338, or Rachelle Cooper, (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982.
