Simon Fraser University (SFU) Simon Fraser University Latin: Nous sommes prêts Rank: 298 worldwide Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. It was founded upon the recommendation of a 1962 report entitled Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future, by John B. Macdonald. He recommended the creation of a new university in the Lower Mainland and the British Columbia Legislature gave formal assent on March 1, 1963, for the establishment of the university in Burnaby. The university was named after Simon Fraser, a Northwest Company fur trader and explorer. Architects Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey won a competition to design the university, and construction began in the spring of 1964. The campus faces northwest over Burrard Inlet. Eighteen months later, on September 9, 1965, the university began its first semester with 2,500 students. Simon Fraser University has three campuses, each located in different parts of Greater Vancouver. SFU's original campus is in Burnaby, atop Burnaby Mountain. The Vancouver campus consists of multiple buildings in downtown Vancouver and the Surrey campus is located inside Central City. The downtown campus has expanded to include several other buildings in recent years and all these three campuses are all accessible by public transit. The Vancouver campus is a block away from the Waterfront SkyTrain station while the Surrey campus is adjacent to the Surrey Central SkyTrain station. The Burnaby campus is linked to the Production Way–University, Burquitlam, and Sperling–Burnaby Lake SkyTrain stations by frequent shuttle bus service. The largest of the three SFU Libraries, the W.A.C. Bennett Library, is based on the SFU Burnaby campus, and holds over 2.7 million print and microform volumes. SFU also has a Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, which holds many exhibits created by students as part of the museum studies courses offered in the Department of Archaeology. The SFU Library's Digital Collections provide internet access to digitized documents from a number of archival collections, such as Harrison Brown's Xi'an Incident collection, and the history of British Columbia and Western Canada in general, including documents from the Doukhobor migration from the Russian Empire to Saskatchewan and then to British Columbia assembled for donation to the university by John Keenlyside. Simon Fraser University is known for their strongest Co-op education programs, which has placed students in local and international internships at organizations like Tesla and Facebook. It also offers a wide range of subjects such as Arts and Humanities, Biology, Chemistry, Clinical Medicine, Computer Science, Economics and Business, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Engineering. Here are some of the famous and successful alumnus of the university namely, Terrance Stanley Fox (Terry Fox) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist, Minh Le, creator of the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike, Gordon Campbell and Glen Cark, former premier of British Columbia, Dino Patti Djalal, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysian politician and former Chief Minister of Sabah, Isabel Ge Mahe, Vice President and Managing Director of Greater China, Apple Inc and Sam Sullivan, former Mayor of Vancouver. Famous international actors such as, David Usher, singer, and songwriter, Choi Woo-shik, South Korean actor and Calvin Chen, Taiwanese actor, singer, host. The university's varsity sports teams are called the Simon Fraser team, and the mascot is a Scottish Terrier named McFogg the Dog. In sports and other competitions, there tends to be a strong rivalry between SFU and The University of British Columbia. The team is the first and currently the only athletic program from outside of the United States that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before joining the NCAA, the team used to compete in both the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS, now U Sports) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). In total, SFU has 15 varsity sport teams and 300 athletes. Besides the varsity team, SFU also houses various competitive club teams, including Men’s Lacrosse, Men’s Hockey, Rugby, cheerleading, rowing, quidditch, and field hockey.