The U of C, quantified

By Natalie Sit

Ever wonder, while waiting in the Art Parkade lineup, just how many parking spots are on campus? Or, during midterm panics, how many computers are in the Info Commons? Or, during a rare cold snap, how many kilometres of pathway must be cleared of snow? But that’s just scratching the surface: there’s a prodigious number of statistics the University of Calgary collects. But most don’t have the faintest clue what those stats are. Armed with ample time and curiosity, those numbers are available to anyone. Maybe it will help you understand why there’s a line-up at parking lots when there are 8,959 parking spots and over 20,000 students.

Information came from the Students’ Union, the Den, Ancillary Services, Campus Security, Administration, the Office of Institutional Analysis, Information Services, the Grounds Department and the Registrar’s Office.


Those dusty old tomes

The Mackimmie Library, worshipped by some and disdained by others, contains 2,424,540 books as of March 30, 2001. But there’s only a yearly circulation of 629, 803 books, which works out to a daily average of 1,774 books.

As for library fines, the library collects $250,000 a year. That number also includes lost books and service charges.

The Den and drinking

To some, university equals drinking. And after many, many hard-working nights in the Den, carefully analyzing all the numbers, we’ve found some interesting facts. It seems most Den patrons prefer a burger and fries for a meal and a pint of Canadian to wash it down. In fact, the Den will go through 1,500 jugs of Canadian in a standard week.

And those infamous Thursday nights? Roughly 800 people will stream through the doors to party it up.

Hey, there’s a spot!

If you do the math, it’s understandable why there are lineups for parking every morning. There are only 8,959 spots in the entire campus for potentially 21,700 students. So it’s understandable why Parking Services hands out about 12,000 warning tickets a year. And about one-fifth of students (about 4,000), receive a parking ticket.

Thirty Campus Security officers protect the campus and 38 closed-circuit cameras perch on buildings. If you’re doing something illegal, chances are the Campus 5-0 will catch you.

Not just for geeks

Phones are apparently outdated for registrations. During the first three days of the Winter 2002 semester, there were one million hits on the Infonet-that’s 40 per cent higher than last year. Good thing the Info Commons has a whopping 387 computers for students’ use.

We may be computer lovers, but the most popular major isn’t Computer Sciences (which falls second with 745 registered students). Instead, Biological Sciences boasts 782 students, and turned away 283 more last year. Third goes to Psychology with 641 students.





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