University of Winnipeg (U of W) President and Civilitas honorary board member, Lloyd Axworthy held a press conference on September 9th to announce updates and changes at the University this year. One of the more notable updates was the enrollment; the University shattered the 10,000-student mark for the first time this year.

In the first week of the U of W 2011 fall semester, preliminary enrollment was 10,003 undergrad and grad students, up 3.6 per cent from the 2010/2011 academic year. "We all feel there's a real surge going on in Winnipeg now," said Mr. Axworthy on Friday.

One thing that surely spurred the enrollment jump at U of W is the huge growth in attracting aboriginal students. U of W has 970 self-identified aboriginal students, up 24 per cent from last year, bringing aboriginal enrollment at the downtown campus to 12 per cent of the student population. That's one of the highest proportions of the student body at any Canadian university.

Other changes Axworthy announced were campus and community renewal projects, new degree programs in human rights and disability studies and other community learning initiatives.

A few hours after the press conference, the University celebrated one of it's well-known non-academic traditions, the 40th Anniversary of the Great Rock Climb. The competition features teams of three who race down Wesley Hall’s front lawn and scale the 25-ton granite "Rock of Remembrance" in the fastest time possible. The record for getting to the top of the rock in front of the campus is 9.8 seconds which was set in 1979. The climb takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.