Just to clarify ... there is University of York (the one in York, England with ducks and bad sixties architecture - apparently), and York University (in Toronto, Canada with geese and sharing a curse of some bad sixties architecture). This is about the latter. York University was founded in Toronto in 1959 and has grown to become the third largest University in Canada. When it moved to its current campus in 1965 it was on the fringes of what was then North York (now part of Toronto) and in the middle of a farmers field. I went to York in the early 80s and no one I don't think for then or before remembers the campus with much affection (that sixties architecture with buildings connected by wind tunnels). Today (2001) the campus is much transformed with some splendid buildings and located smack in the middle of the greater Toronto area as urban life (for better or worse) has sprawled around us.
http://www.yorku.ca