University of Toronto
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| Motto: | Velut arbor ævo (Latin) |
| Motto in English: | As a tree through the ages[1] |
| Established: | March 15, 1827 |
| Type: | Public university |
| Endowment: | C$1.755 billion[2] |
| Chancellor: | David Peterson |
| President: | David Naylor |
| Faculty: | 5,970[3] |
| Staff: | 9,216[4] |
| Undergraduates: | 33,627[4] |
| Postgraduates: | 10,592[4] |
| Location: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Campus: | Urban, 68 hectares (168 acres) |
| Former names: | King's College (1827–1849) |
| Colours: | Blue and white |
| Nickname: | Varsity Blues  |
| Athletics: | CIS, OUA 44 varsity teams |
| Affiliations: | AAU, ACU, AUCC, G13, IAU, WUN, CBIE |
| Website: | utoronto.ca |
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The University of Toronto (U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated a mile north of the city's Financial District, surrounding Queen's Park. The university was founded by Royal Charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the colony of Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, it assumed the present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, the University of Toronto consists of twelve colleges that differ in character and history, each retaining substantial autonomy. It operates sixteen academic faculties, ten teaching hospitals and numerous research institutes, with two satellite campuses at Mississauga and Scarborough.
In academics, the University of Toronto is noted for its influential movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known as the Toronto school, where the concepts of "the medium is the message" and the "global village" originated. The university was the birthplace of insulin and stem cell research, and was the site of the first practical electron microscope, the development of multi-touch technology, and the identification of Cygnus X-1 as a black hole. It is also home to the Fields Institute, a centre for mathematical studies. The University of Toronto has the highest research expenditures of any university in Canada.
History
The founding of a colonial college had long been the desire of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. An Oxford-educated military commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War, Simcoe felt that a college would be needed to counter the spread of republicanism from the United States.[5] The Upper Canada Executive Committee recommended in 1798 that a college be established in York, the colonial capital.[5]
On March 15, 1827, a Royal Charter was formally issued by George IV of the United Kingdom, proclaiming "from this time one College, with the style and privileges of an University … for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature … to continue for ever, to be called King's College." The granting of the charter was largely the result of intense lobbying by John Strachan, the influential Anglican Bishop of Toronto who took office as the first president of the college.[6] The original three storey Greek Revival school building was constructed on the present site of Queen's Park.[7]
Under Strachan's guidance, King's College was a strongly Anglican institution that closely aligned with the Church of England and the British colonial elite known as the Family Compact.[8] Reformist politicians opposed the clergy's control over colonial institutions and fought to have the college secularized.[9] After a lengthy and heated public debate, the newly-elected responsible government of Upper Canada passed a law in 1849 to rename King's College as the University of Toronto, officially ending its ties with the Anglican Church. Having anticipated this decision, the enraged Strachan had resigned in 1848 to open Trinity College, a private Anglican seminary.[10] University College was created as the nondenominational teaching branch of the University of Toronto. During the American Civil War, the threat from Union blockade on British North America prompted the creation of the University Rifle Corps, which saw battle in resisting the Fenian raids on the Niagara border in 1866.[11]
Established in 1878, the School of Practical Science was precursor to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, which has been nicknamed Skule since the earliest days of its predecessor.[12] While the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1843, medical teaching was conducted by proprietary schools from 1853 until the faculty absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine in 1887, although it continued to set examinations and award medical degrees during that time.[13] The university opened the Faculty of Law in 1887, and the Faculty of Dentistry was formed when the Royal College of Dental Surgeons, founded 1875, affiliated with the university in 1888. Women were admitted to the university for the first time in 1884.[14]
A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and devoured thirty-three thousand volumes from the library,[15] but the university restored the building and replenished its library within two years.[15] The collegiate system began to take shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges, including Strachan's Trinity College. The university operated the Royal Conservatory of Music from 1896 to 1991 and the Royal Ontario Museum from 1912 to 1968; both still retain close ties with the university as independent institutions. The University of Toronto Press was founded in 1901 as the first academic publishing house in Canada. In 1910, the Faculty of Education opened its laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools.
The First and Second World Wars curtailed some university activities as undergraduate and graduate men eagerly enlisted.[16][17] Intercollegiate athletic competitions and the Hart House Debates were suspended, although exhibition and interfaculty games were still held.[17] The David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill opened in 1935, followed by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 1949. The university opened regional campuses in Scarborough in 1964 and in Mississauga in 1967. Created in 1959 as a subsidiary, York University became a fully independent institution in 1965. Beginning in the 1980s, reductions in government funding prompted more rigorous fundraising efforts. The University of Toronto was the first Canadian university to amass a financial endowment greater than C$1 billion.
Grounds
The university grounds lie a mile north of the Financial District in Downtown Toronto, and immediately south of the neighbourhoods Yorkville and The Annex. Sometimes referred to as St. George campus, it encompasses 68 hectares (168 acres) bounded by Bay Street, Bloor Street, Spadina Avenue and College Street.[4] An enclave surrounded by university grounds, Queen's Park is the site of the Ontario Legislature and several historic monuments. With its forested landscape and many interlocking courtyards, the university forms a distinct region of urban parkland in the city's downtown core.[18] The namesake University Avenue is a ceremonial boulevard and arterial thoroughfare that runs through downtown between Queen's Park and Front Street. Located near the campus are the Spadina, St. George, Museum and Queen's Park stations of the Toronto subway system.
The architecture is defined by a combination of Romanesque and Gothic Revival buildings spread across the eastern and central portions of campus, most of them dated between 1858 and 1929. The traditional heart of the university, known as Front Campus, lies near the centre in an oval lawn enclosed by King's College Circle.[18] The centrepiece is the main building of University College, a National Historic Site, designed by Frederick William Cumberland in an eclectic blend of Richardsonian Romanesque and Norman architectural elements.[19] Convocation Hall, built in 1907 with a gift from the alumni association, is recognizable for its domed roof and Ionic pillared rotunda. Although its foremost function is to host the annual convocation ceremonies, the building serves as a venue for academic and social events throughout the year.[20] The sandstone buildings of Knox College epitomizes the North American collegiate Gothic design, with the characteristic cloisters around a secluded courtyard.
A green lawn at the northeast is anchored by Hart House, a Late Gothic student complex. Among its assorted common rooms, the most architecturally significant is a Great Hall that features high timbered ceilings and stained glass windows.[21] To its west, Soldiers' Tower stands 143 feet (44 m) tall as the most prominent structure in the vicinity, its stone arches inscribed with the names of university members lost to the battlefields of the world wars. The tower houses a 51-bell carillon that is played on special occasions such as Remembrance Day and convocation.[22] The oldest surviving building on campus is the former Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory building, built in 1855 and now home to the students' union.[23] The engineering faculty's Sandford Fleming Building exemplifies Edwardian Baroque architecture. Trinity College borders the Back Campus lawn to the north of University College, its main building displaying the Jacobethan Tudor style. Its chapel is designed in the Perpendicular Gothic style by English architect Giles Gilbert Scott, featuring exterior walls of limestone and interiors of marble quarried from Indiana, and constructed by Italian stonemasons using ancient building methods.[24] Victoria College is located across from Queen's Park, with its intricate main building built from red sandstone and grey limestone.
Developed after the Second World War, the western section of the campus between St. George Street and Spadina Avenue consist mainly of modernist and internationalist structures.[18] Notable post-war buildings include the Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Wetmore Hall and Wilson Hall of New College, and Sidney Smith Hall. The most significant example of Brutalist architecture is the Robarts Library complex, a large fourteen-storey concrete structure built in 1972. Newer buildings completed after 2001 include the Bahen Centre for Information Technology, the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy Building designed by Norman Foster.
[edit] Governance and colleges
The University of Toronto has traditionally been a decentralized institution, with governing authority shared among its central administration, academic faculties and colleges.[25] The Governing Council is the unicameral legislative organ of the central administration, overseeing general academic, business and institutional affairs.[26] Before 1971, the university was governed under a bicameral system composed of the board of governors and the university senate.[25] The chancellor, usually a former governor-general, lieutenant governor, premier or diplomat, is the ceremonial head of the university. The president is appointed by council as the chief executive.[26]
Unlike most North American institutions, the University of Toronto is a collegiate university with a model that resembles those of the University of Cambridge, Durham University and the University of Oxford in Britain.[27] The colleges hold substantial autonomy over admissions, scholarships, programs and other academic and financial affairs, in addition to the housing and social duties of typical residential colleges.[26][27] The system emerged in the 19th century, as ecclesiastical colleges considered various forms of union with the University of Toronto to ensure their viability. The desire to preserve religious traditions in a secular institution resulted in the federative collegiate model that came to characterize the university.[27]
University College was the founding nondenominational college, created in 1853 after the university was secularized. Knox College, a Presbyterian institution, and Wycliffe College, a low church seminary, both encouraged their students to study for non-divinity degrees at University College.[28] In 1885, they entered a formal affiliation with the University of Toronto, and became federated schools in 1890.[29][30] The idea of federation initially met strong opposition at Victoria University, a Methodist school in Cobourg, but a financial incentive in 1890 convinced the school to join.[31] Decades after the death of John Strachan, the Anglican seminary University of Trinity College entered federation in 1904,[32] followed in 1910 by the University of St. Michael's College, a Roman Catholic college founded by the Basilian Fathers.[33] Among the institutions that had considered federation but ultimately remained independent were McMaster University, a Baptist school that later moved to Hamilton,[28] and Queen's College, a Presbyterian school in Kingston that later became Queen's University.[34]
| Constituent colleges
Theological colleges
| Federated universities
Graduate college
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The post-war era saw the creation of New College in 1962, Innis College in 1964 and Woodsworth College in 1974, all of them nondenominational.[35] Along with University College, they comprise the university's constituent colleges, which are established and funded by the central administration and are therefore financially dependent.[36][2] Massey College was established in 1963 by the Massey Foundation as a college exclusively for graduate students.[37] Regis College, a Jesuit seminary, entered federation with the university in 1979.[38]
In contrast with the constituent colleges, the colleges of Knox, Massey, Regis, St. Michael's, Trinity, Victoria and Wycliffe continue to exist as legally distinct entities, each possessing a sizable financial endowment. While St. Michael's, Trinity and Victoria continue to recognize their religious affiliations and heritage, they have since adopted secular policies of enrollment and teaching in non-divinity subjects.[36] Some colleges have, or once had, collegiate structures of their own: Emmanuel College is a college of Victoria and St. Hilda's College is part of Trinity;[39][32] St. Joseph’s College had existed as a college within St. Michael's until it was dissolved in 2006.[33] Ewart College existed as an affiliated college until 1991, when it was merged into Knox College.[40] The theological colleges of Emmanuel, Knox, Regis, St. Michael's, Trinity and Wycliffe form part of the Toronto School of Theology.[41]
Academics
Each of the university's faculties maintains a separate admission process and set of academic programs. The Faculty of Arts and Science is the main undergraduate faculty.[42] While the colleges are not entirely responsible for teaching duties, most of them house or sponsor unique academic programs and lecture series. Among other things, Trinity College is associated with programs in international relations, as are University College with peace and conflict studies, Victoria College with Renaissance studies, Innis College with film studies, New College with gender studies, and St. Michael's College with Medievalism. The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering is the only other faculty that allows direct-entry into bachelor's degree programs from secondary institutions; undergraduate programs in other faculties generally admit by second entry.[43] The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is the teachers college of the university. It is home to the Institute of Child Study and is affiliated with the university's laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools. Autonomous institutes include the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and the Fields Institute.
The University of Toronto is the birthplace of an influential school of thought on communication theory and literary criticism, known as the Toronto School of communications.[44][45][46] The school is described as "the theory of the primacy of communication in the structuring of human cultures and the structuring of the human mind."[46] Rooted in the works of Eric A. Havelock and Harold Innis, it grew to prominence with the contributions of Edmund Snow Carpenter, Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan, who coined the expressions "the medium is the message" and "global village". Since 1963, the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology has carried the mandate for teaching and advancing the Toronto School.[47]
The Munk Centre for International Studies provides undergraduate and graduate curricula with international focuses. As the Cold War began, Toronto's Slavic studies program evolved into a specialist centre on Russian and Eastern European politics and economics, financed by the Rockefeller, Ford and Mellon foundations.[48] The Munk Centre is also home to the G8 Research Group, which conducts independent monitoring and analysis on the Group of Eight and its annual summits. The Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies teaches qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing foreign policy and causes of conflict.[49]
Several notable works in arts and humanities are based at the university, including the Dictionary of Canadian Biography since 1959 and the Collected Works of Erasmus since 1969.[50][51] The Records of Early English Drama collects and edits the surviving documentary evidence of dramatic arts in pre-Puritan England,[52] while the Dictionary of Old English compiles the early vocabulary of the English language from the Anglo-Saxon period.[53]
In addition to Havelock, Innis, Frye, Carpenter and McLuhan, former professors of the past century include Frederick Banting, H. S. M. Coxeter, Robertson Davies, John Charles Fields, Leopold Infeld and C. B. Macpherson. While comprising just 7 percent of university faculty in Canada, Toronto academics receive international honours and awards in significantly greater proportions.[54] As of 2006, Toronto accounted for 15 of 23 Canadian members in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (65%) and 20 of 72 Canadian fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (28%).[54] Among honorees from Canada between 1980 and 2006, Toronto faculty made up 11 of 21 Gairdner Foundation International Award recipients (52%), 44 of 101 Guggenheim Fellows (44%), 16 of 38 Royal Society fellows (42%), 10 of 28 members in the United States National Academies (36%) and 23 of 77 Sloan Research Fellows (30%).[54]
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Library and collections
The University of Toronto Libraries is the third-largest academic library system in North America, following those of Harvard and Yale University, measured by number of volumes held.[55] The collections include more than 10 million printed volumes, 5.4 million microfilms, 70,000 serial titles and more than a million maps, films, graphics and sound recordings.[56] The largest of the libraries, Robarts Library, holds about five million printed volumes in its fourteen-storey complex, forming the main collection for the humanities and social sciences. The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library constitutes one of the largest repositories of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts. Its extensive collections range from ancient Egyptian papyri to incunabula and libretti;[57] the subjects of focus include British, European and Canadian literature, Aristotle, Darwin, the Spanish Civil War, the history of science and medicine, Canadiana and the history of the book.[58] Most of the remaining holdings are dispersed at departmental and faculty libraries, in addition to about 1.3 million volumes that are held by the colleges.[56] The university has collaborated with the Internet Archive since 2005 to digitalize some of its library holdings.[59]
Housed within University College, the University of Toronto Art Centre contains three major art collections. The Malcove Collection is primarily represented by about five hundred Early Christian and Byzantine sculptures, bronzeware, furniture, icons and liturgical items.[60] It also includes glassware and stone reliefs from the Greco-Roman period, and the painting Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated from 1538.[60] The University of Toronto Collection features Canadian contemporary art,[61] while the University College Art Collection holds significant works by the Group of Seven and 19th century landscape artists.[61]
Reputation
| Canadian university rankings University of Toronto 2008 | |
| Canadian Rankings | |
|---|---|
| Macleans - Medical[62] | 2 |
| World Rankings | |
| ARWU World[63] | 24 |
| ARWU N. America[64] | 19 |
| ARWU Natural Science & Math[65] | 34 |
| ARWU Engineering & CS[66] | 21 |
| ARWU Life Sciences[67] | 48 |
| ARWU Clinical Medicine[68] | 27 |
| ARWU Social Sciences[69] | 51-76 |
| THES Overall World[70] | 41 |
| THES Arts[71] | 11 |
| THES Life Sciences/Biomed[72] | 13 |
| THES Natural Sciences[73] | 9 |
| THES Social Sciences[74] | 16 |
| Newsweek (2006)[76] | 18 |
In the Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2008, the University of Toronto is placed at 24th in the world;[77] by academic subject, it ranks 21st in engineering and computer science, 27th in medicine, 34th in natural science and mathematics, 48th in life and agricultural sciences, and 51–76th in social science.[78] The Times Higher Education ranking of 2008 places Toronto at 41st in the world, 9th in natural sciences, 10th in technology, 11th in arts and humanities, 13th in life sciences and biomedicine, and 16th in social sciences.[79] Toronto is one of five universities in the ranking that places within the top 16 in every subject category. In the Newsweek global university ranking of 2006, Toronto ranked 18th in the world, 9th among public universities and 5th among universities outside the United States.[80]
The University of Toronto ranked as the nation's top medical-doctoral university in Maclean's magazine for twelve consecutive years between 1994 and 2005.[81] Since 2006, it has joined 22 other national institutions in withholding data from the magazine, citing continued concerns regarding methodology.[82] The university places second, tied with Queen's University, in the Maclean's ranking of 2008.[83] The Faculty of Law is named the top law school in Canada by Maclean's for the second consecutive year, placing first in elite firm hiring, faculty hiring and faculty citations, second in Supreme Court clerkships and fifth in national reach.[84]
Research
The University of Toronto has been a member of the Association of American Universities, a consortium of leading research universities in North America, since 1926. The university manages by far the largest annual research budget of any university in Canada, with direct-cost expenditures of $749 million in 2006.[54][85][86] The federal government was the largest source of funding, with grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council amounting to about one-third of the research budget. About 8 percent of research funding came from corporations, mostly in the health science industry.[85]
The first practical electron microscope was built by the physics department in 1938.[87][88] During World War II, the university developed the G-suit, a life-saving garment for fighter pilots in the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, later adopted for use by astronauts.[89] Development of the infrared chemiluminescence technique allowed scientists to conduct detailed analyses of a system's energy behaviours during a chemical reaction.[90] In 1972, studies on Cygnus X-1 led to the publication of the first observational evidence proving the existence of black holes.[91] Toronto astronomers have also discovered the Uranus moons of Caliban and Sycorax,[92] the dwarf galaxies of Andromeda I, II and III, as well as the supernova SN 1987A.
A pioneer in computing technology, the university designed and built UTEC, one of the world's first operational computers, and later purchased Ferut, the second commercial computer after UNIVAC I.[93] Multi-touch technology was developed at Toronto, and has since found uses ranging from handheld devices to collaboration walls, with new applications still emerging.[94][95] The university is also a major contributor to the research of wearable computers.[96][97] The Citizen Lab conducts research on Internet censorship as a joint founder of the OpenNet Initiative,[98] and is the creator of Psiphon, a software tool used to bypass government content filters.[99]
The discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921 is considered one of the most significant events in the history of medicine.[100][101] Subsequent research on diabetes led to the invention of the glycaemic index as a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood glucose levels. The stem cell was discovered at the university in 1963, forming the basis for bone marrow transplantation and all current research on adult and embryonic stem cells.[102] It was the first of many findings at Toronto relating to stem cells, including the identification of pancreatic and retinal stem cells.[103][104] The cancer stem cell was first identified in 1997 by Toronto researchers,[105] who have since found stem cell associations in leukemia, brain tumors and colorectal cancer.[106][107] The infant cereal Pablum was created in 1931, a product of nutritional science that helped prevent rickets in children. The university investigated the effects and safe techniques of hypothermia, and pioneered the use of protective body cooling during open heart surgery. The first artificial pacemaker was implemented by Toronto cardiac surgeons in 1950. Researchers identified the maturation promoting factor, a protein that regulates cell division and plays a major role in cancers. The first successful single-lung transplant was performed at Toronto in 1981, followed by the first nerve transplant in 1988,[108] and the first double-lung transplant in 1989. The discovery and cloning of the T-cell receptor in 1984 marked an important advancement in the understanding of immunology. The university is credited with isolating the genes that cause Fanconi anemia, cystic fibrosis and early-onset Alzheimer's disease, among numerous other diseases.
Between 1914 and 1972, the university operated the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, now part of the pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis. Among the research conducted at the laboratory was the development of gel electrophoresis.[109] After the sale of its laboratory, the university used the proceeds of $29 million to establish the Connaught Fund, which has since grown to be the largest university research grant fund in Canada. As of 2007, the fund awards more than $3.3 million annually in research fellowships, start-up funds and matching grants.
Medical institutes
The Faculty of Medicine is affiliated with a comprehensive network of ten teaching hospitals, providing medical treatment, research and advisory services to patients and clients from Canada and abroad. The University Health Network consists of Toronto General Hospital, specialized in cardiology and organ transplants;[110] Princess Margaret Hospital, dedicated to oncology and home to the Ontario Cancer Institute;[111] and Toronto Western Hospital for neuroscience and musculoskeletal health.[112] The Hospital for Sick Children is among the world's largest pediatric medical centres, specializing in treatments for childhood disease and injuries.[113]
Mount Sinai Hospital's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute is a major centre for research in tissue engineering and molecular biology.[114] St. Michael's Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre are the two largest trauma centres in Canada. The other full affiliates of the university are Bloorview Kids Rehab, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Women's College Hospital. Physicians in the medical institutes have cross-appointments to faculty and supervisory positions in university departments.
Athletics
The 44 sports teams of the Varsity Blues represent the university in intercollegiate competitions. The two main leagues in which the Blues participate are Canadian Interuniversity Sport for national competitions, and the auxiliary Ontario University Athletics conference at the provincial level. The athletic nickname of Varsity Blues was not consistently used until the 1930s; previously, references such as "Varsity", "The Big Blue", "The Blue and White" and "The Varsity Blue" also appeared interchangeably.[115]
North American football traces its very origin to the University of Toronto, with the first documented football game played at University College on November 9, 1861.[116][117] The Blues played their first intercollegiate football match in 1877 against the University of Michigan, in a game that ended with a scorless draw.[115] They were defeated in their first match against a Canadian opponent, McGill University, in 1881.[115] Since intercollegiate seasons began in 1898, the Blues have won four Grey Cup, two Vanier Cup and 25 Yates Cup championships, including the inaugural championships for all three trophies.[115] However, the football team has hit a rough patch following its last championship in 1993.[118] From 2001 until 2008, the Blues suffered the longest losing streak in Canadian collegiate history, recording 49 consecutive winless games.[119] This was preceded by a single victory in 2001 that ended a run of 18 straight losses.[120]
Formed in 1891, the storied men's ice hockey team has left many legacies on the national, professional and international hockey scenes. Conn Smythe played for the Blues as a centre during his undergraduate years, and was a Blues coach from 1923 to 1926.[121] When Smythe took over the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927, the familiar blue-and-white sweater design of the Varsity Blues was adopted by his new team.[121] Blues hockey competed at the 1928 Winter Olympics and captured the gold medal for Canada.[122] At the 1980 Winter Olympics, Blues coach Tom Watt served as co-coach of the Canadian hockey team in which six players were Varsity grads.[121] In all, the Blues have won the University Cup national hockey title ten times, last in 1984. In men's basketball, the Varsity Blues have won 14 conference titles, including the inaugural championship in 1909, but have not won a national title.[123] In swimming, the men's team has claimed the national crown 16 times since 1964, while the women's team has claimed the crown 14 times since 1970.[124] The University of Toronto Rowing Club was established in 1897 and is the oldest collegiate rowing club in Canada;[125] it earned a silver medal for the country in the 1924 Summer Olympics.[125]
The site of Varsity Stadium has served as the primary playing grounds of the Varsity Blues football and soccer programs for more than a century since 1898. The present structure was built in 2006, replacing an aging stadium that dated to 1924. At various points in its history, the venue had also been home to the Toronto Falcons, the Toronto Blizzard and the Toronto Argonauts, and it hosted the football and soccer preliminaries of the 1976 Summer Olympics. The adjacent Varsity Arena has been the permanent home of the Blues ice hockey programs since it opened in 1926.
Culture and life
In the heart of social, cultural and recreational life at the University of Toronto lies Hart House, the sprawling neo-Gothic student activity centre that was conceived by alumnus-benefactor Vincent Massey and named for his grandfather Hart.[126] Opened in 1919, the complex established a communitarian spirit in the university and its students, who at the time kept largely within their own colleges under the decentralized collegiate system.[127] At Hart House, a student can read in the library, dine casually or formally, have a haircut, visit the art gallery, watch a play in the theatre, listen to a concert, observe or join in debates, play billiards, go for a swim and find a place to study, all under the same roof and within the span of a day. The confluence of assorted functions is the result of a deliberate effort to create a holistic educational experience, a goal summarized in the Founders' Prayer.[128][127] The Hart House model was influential in the planning of student centres at other universities, notably Cornell University's Willard Straight Hall.[129][130]
Hart House resembles some traditional aspects of student government through its support of many student clubs and its standing committees and board of stewards comprised mostly of undergraduate students. However, the main student unions on administrative and policy issues are the University of Toronto Students' Union for undergraduates and the Graduate Students' Union for postgraduates, both with delegates in the university's governing council. Student government bodies also exist at the various colleges, academic faculties and departments.
The Hart House Debating Club employs a debating style that combines the American emphasis on analysis and the British use of wit.[131] Smaller debating societies at Trinity, University and Victoria College often serve as initial training grounds for debaters who later progress to Hart House.[131] The club won the World Universities Debating Championship in 1981 and 2006.[132] The United Nations Society hosts an annual Model United Nations conference in Toronto, in addition to participating in various North American and international conferences.[133] The Toronto chess team has captured the top title six times at the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. The Formula SAE Racing Team won the Formula Student European Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2006.[134]
The University of Toronto is home to the first collegiate fraternity in Canada, Zeta Psi, whose Toronto chapter has been active since 1879.[135] Because few other Canadian universities in the 19th century were deemed comparable to their American counterparts in repute, age and secularity, most early American fraternities chose Toronto for their first Canadian chapter, including Delta Kappa Epsilon, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Delta Phi, Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Nu, Alpha Gamma Delta and Lambda Chi Alpha.[136] However, Greek student organizations are not officially recognized by the university administration.
Theatre and music
Hart House Theatre is the university's amateur student theatre, generally producing four major plays every season. As old as Hart House itself, the theatre is considered a pioneer in Canadian theatre for introducing the Little Theatre Movement from Europe.[137][138] It has cultivated numerous performing-arts talents, including Donald Sutherland, Norman Jewison, Lorne Michaels, Wayne and Shuster and William Hutt. Three members of the Group of Seven artists (Harris, Lismer and MacDonald) have been set designers at the theatre,[139] and composer Healey Willan was director of music for fourteen productions.[139] The theatre also hosts annual variety shows run by several student theatrical companies at the colleges and academic faculties, the most prominent of which are U.C. Follies of University College and Daffydil of the Faculty of Medicine, both in production for more than eight decades.[140]
The main musical ensembles are Hart House Orchestra, Hart House Chamber Strings, Hart House Chorus, Hart House Jazz Choir, Hart House Jazz Ensemble and Hart House Symphonic Band. The Jazz at Oscar's concert series performs big band and vocal jazz on Friday nights at the period lounge and bar of the Hart House Arbor Room.[141] Open Stage is the monthly open mic event featuring singers, comics, poets and storytellers. The Sunday Concert is the oldest musical series at Hart House; since 1922 the series has performed more than 600 classical music concerts in the Great Hall, freely attended by both the university community and general audiences.[142][143] The public may also screen midday events held at noon, when concerts are recited prior to formal debut. Smaller musical groups at the university include the Gospel Choir, the Vic Chorus of Victoria College, and the Skule Orchestra of the engineering faculty.
Student media
The Varsity is one of Canada's oldest student-run newspapers, in publication since 1880.[14] The paper was originally a daily broadsheet, but has since adopted a compact format and is now published twice a week with three summer issues. Hart House Review, a literary magazine by students of the Literary and Library Committee of Hart House, features prose, poetry, art and photography from emerging writers and artists. The Newspaper is an independent student-run community newspaper, published weekly since 1978. CIUT-FM is a campus radio station owned and operated by the students of the University of Toronto. Students at each college and academic faculty also produce their own set of journals and news publications.
Student publications have contributed to activist causes on several notable occasions. At the height of debate on coeducation in 1880, The Varsity published an article in its inaugural issue voicing strongly in favor of admitting women.[14] In 1895, the university suspended the editor of The Varsity for breach of collegiality, after he published a letter that harshly criticized the provincial government's dismissal of a professor and involvement in academic affairs. University College students approved a motion by Varsity staff member William Lyon Mackenzie King and boycotted lectures for a week.[144][145] After Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decriminalized homosexuality in 1969, a medical research assistant placed an advertisement in The Varsity seeking volunteers to establish the first university homophile association in Canada.[146]
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: 'The Blue and White,' with words by Rev Claris E. Silcox and music by Clayton E. Bush; 'Honour Old Varsity,' with words by E.C. Acheson and music of Norwegian national anthem; 'Hurrah! for the Blue and White,' with the words by G.W. Ross and music by Elmer H. Smith; 'Varsity,' with words and music by A.E. Wickens.[147]
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