University of Toronto
| 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. Its main campus lies about 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 Scarborough and Mississauga.
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. With the highest research expenditures of any university in Canada, the University of Toronto consistently ranks among the world's leading academic institutions.
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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 and the Ontario Parliament Buildings.[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. At the height of debate on the issue of coeducation, The Varsity published an article in 1880 voicing strongly in favor. In 1884, women were admitted to the university for the first time.[14]
A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and devoured thirty-three thousand volumes from the library.[15] The board of trustees commissioned a swift restoration of the building, and within two years the library was replenished with forty thousand new volumes.[15] The collegiate system began to take shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges, including Strachan's Trinity College. In 1896, the Royal Conservatory of Music became an affiliated institution of the university. Founded in 1901, the University of Toronto Press was at first responsible for printing university documents and examination papers, and began publishing books in 1912. The University of Toronto Schools, an independent secondary school, was established in 1910 by the Faculty of Education to conduct its training. The Royal Ontario Museum, the country's largest and preeminent museum, was administered by the university from its creation in 1912 until 1968, when it retained the close ties as an independent body.
The outbreak of the First World War curtailed some university activities and brought a sombre tone to campus. Undergraduate and graduate men were eager to aid the war effort in Europe; some enlisted in active duty while others joined the Canadian Officers Training Corps, which occasionally held drills on campus.[16] Intercollegiate athletic competitions were cancelled, although exhibition and interfaculty games were still held.[17] A similar effect was felt during the Second World War. The Hart House Debates were suspended, as were a number of university dances.[17]
The David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill opened in 1935, in midst of the Great Depression. A new centre for advanced research, the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, was established in 1949. The following year, the university opened the Institute of Business Administration, now the Rotman School of Management. The university opened branch campuses in Scarborough in 1964 and in Mississauga in 1967. First organized in 1959 as a subsidiary, York University became fully independent in 1965. Beginning in the 1980s, reductions in government funding prompted the university to intensify its fundraising efforts. The University of Toronto was the first Canadian university to amass a financial endowment greater than C$1 billion.
The main campus is situated about 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. 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. 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.
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. The centrepiece is the main building of University College, a National Historic Site, [18] designed by Frederick William Cumberland in an eclectic blend of Richardsonian Romanesque and Norman architectural elements. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.[19] 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. 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.
The University of Toronto has traditionally been a decentralized institution, with governing authority shared among its central administration, academic faculties and colleges.[20] The Governing Council is the unicameral legislative organ of the central administration, overseeing general academic, business and institutional affairs.[21] Before 1971, the university was governed under a bicameral system composed of the board of governors and the university senate.[20] 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.[21]
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.[22] 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.[21][22] 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.[22]
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.[23] In 1885, they entered a formal affiliation with the University of Toronto, and became federated schools in 1890.[24][25] 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.[26] Decades after the death of John Strachan, the Anglican seminary University of Trinity College entered federation in 1904,[27] followed in 1910 by the University of St. Michael's College, a Roman Catholic college founded by the Basilian Fathers.[28] Among the institutions that had considered federation but ultimately remained independent were McMaster University, a Baptist school that later moved to Hamilton,[23] and Queen's College, a Presbyterian school in Kingston that later became Queen's University.[29]
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Constituent colleges Theological colleges |
Federated universities Graduate college |
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.[30] 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.[31][2] Massey College was established in 1963 by the Massey Foundation as a college exclusively for graduate students.[32] Regis College, a Jesuit seminary, entered federation with the university in 1979.[33]
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.[31] 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;[34][27] St. Joseph’s College had existed as a college within St. Michael's until it was dissolved in 2006.[28] Ewart College existed as an affiliated college until 1991, when it was merged into Knox College.[35]
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 cinema studies, urban studies, and writing and rhetoric, New College with gender studies, and St. Michael's College with Medievalism. The theological colleges of Emmanuel, Knox, Regis, St. Michael's, Trinity and Wycliffe form part of the Toronto School of Theology.[36]
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, where each student belongs to one of seven colleges in the collegiate system: Innis, New, St. Michael's, Trinity, University, Victoria and Woodsworth.[37] 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. The School of Graduate Studies administers master's and doctoral programs in arts and science.
The Faculty of Nursing, the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Faculty of Dentistry, the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Public Health together comprise the professional schools of health science. The university was among the first to introduce a Hippocratic Oath for Scientists, extending to scientific fields a code of ethics that has long existed in the medical profession. 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 prestigious laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools. Other faculties and professional schools that confer graduate degrees include the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, the Faculty of Forestry, the Faculty of Information, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Social Work and the Rotman School of Management. Non-credit courses are provided separately through the School of Continuing Studies.
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.[38][39][40] 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."[40] 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, scholars in the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology have carried the mandate for teaching and advancing the Toronto School.[41]
The Munk Centre for International Studies provides undergraduate and graduate curricula with international focuses through its multidisciplinary collection of more than forty institutes and programs, including the Centre for International Studies, the International Relations Program, the Centre for the Study of the United States, the Centre for Russian and East European Studies and the Asian Institute. It is home to the G8 Research Group, a leading independent source of information 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 conflict, concerning the issues of revolution, interstate and civil war, terrorism, poverty and genocide.
In addition to subsidiary departments and centres that are governed and funded by its faculties, the University of Toronto is the host of several independent institutes. The Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for studies in theoretical astronomy and related subjects. The Fields Institute is a centre for research and international collaboration in mathematical sciences. The university is also home to one of the worldwide locations of Newman Centres, which seeks to provide a spiritual life for Catholic students attending the secular university, and to foster dialogue between the Catholic Church and the modern world through the university. The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies is the oldest humanities research institute in Canada, based in St. Michael's College for studies in the cultures of the Middle Ages.
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In addition to Havelock, Innis, Frye, Carpenter and McLuhan, notable former professors from the past century include Frederick Banting, C. B. Macpherson, John Charles Fields, Leopold Infeld, Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter and Robertson Davies. According to compilations of the two major citation indexing services, Thomson ISI and Scopus, the University of Toronto had the world's 8th highest per-faculty citation rate in 2007,[42][43] and had more publications than all institutions except Harvard University and the University of Tokyo.[44][43]
While comprising just 7 percent of university faculty in Canada, Toronto faculty receives international honours and awards in significantly greater proportions.[45] 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%).[45] 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%).[45]
The University of Toronto Libraries is the third-largest academic library system in North America, following those of Harvard University and Yale University, measured by number of volumes held.[46] The collections include more than 10 million printed volumes, 5.4 million microfilms, 70,000 serial titles and over a million maps, films, graphics, sound recordings and other audiovisual items.[47] The system is third in North America by material expenditures, third by total expenditures and fourth by staff level.[46]
The largest of the libraries, Robarts Library, holds about five million volumes in its fourteen-storey complex, forming the main collection for the humanities and social sciences. The Gerstein Science Information Centre contains the main research holdings for science and health sciences. Other holdings are dispersed at departmental and faculty libraries, in addition to about 1.3 million volumes that are held and maintained by the colleges.[47] 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, and to drafts and notes of modern-era scientists and writers.[48] 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.[49] The university has collaborated with the Internet Archive since 2005 to digitalize much of its library collection.[50] It is a founding member of the Open Content Alliance along with Yahoo! and the University of California, aiming to build a permanent public archive of digitized texts.
Housed within University College, the University of Toronto Art Centre contains three major art collections. The Malcove Collection ranges from ancient artifacts to 20th century art, but is primarily represented by about five hundred Early Christian and Byzantine sculptures, bronzeware, furniture, icons and liturgical items.[51] 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.[51] The University of Toronto Collection features contemporary Canadian art, including works by Ronald Bloore, Jack Bush and Harold Town.[52] The University College Art Collection holds significant works by the Group of Seven and 19th century landscape artists.[52]
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;[53] Princess Margaret Hospital, dedicated to oncology and home to the Ontario Cancer Institute;[54] and Toronto Western Hospital for neuroscience and musculoskeletal health.[55] The Hospital for Sick Children is among the world's largest pediatric medical centres, specializing in treatments for childhood disease and injuries.[56]
Mount Sinai Hospital's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute is a major centre for research in tissue engineering and molecular biology.[57] 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.
In the Academic Ranking of World Universities of 2008, the University of Toronto is placed at 24th in the world;[44] 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.[58] 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.[42] 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.[59]
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.[60] Since 2006, it has joined 22 other national institutions in witholding data from the magazine, citing continued concerns regarding methodology.[61] The university places second, tied with Queen's University, in the Maclean's ranking of 2008.[62] 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.[63]
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.[45][43][64] It also has the highest per-faculty research spending intensity, at $359,300 as of 2007.[64] 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.[43]
The first practical electron microscope was built by the physics department in 1938.[65][66] 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.[67] Development of the infrared chemiluminescence technique allowed scientists to conduct detailed analyses of a system's energy behaviours during a chemical reaction.[68] In 1972, studies on Cygnus X-1 led to the publication of the first observational evidence proving the existence of black holes.[69] Toronto astronomers have also discovered the Uranus moons of Caliban and Sycorax,[70] 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.[71] Multi-touch technology was developed at Toronto, and has since found uses ranging from handheld devices to collaboration walls, with new applications still emerging.[72][73] The university is also a major contributor to the research of wearable computers.[74][75] The Citizen Lab conducts research on Internet censorship as a joint founder of the OpenNet Initiative,[76] and is the creator of Psiphon, a software tool used to bypass government content filters.[77]
The discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto is considered one of the most significant events in the history of medicine.[78][79] Diabetes had been a death sentence from antiquity until 1921, when the Toronto team led by Frederick Banting conducted the famous experiment involving diabetic dogs, and within weeks produced purified insulin to treat humans. 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.[80] The finding resulted from a series of observations done by Ernest McCulloch and James Till, who demonstrated that bone marrow cells had abilities of self-renewal and differentiation. It was the first of many findings at Toronto relating to stem cells, including the identification of pancreatic and retinal stem cells.[81][82] The cancer stem cell was first identified in 1997 by Toronto researchers,[83] who have since found stem cell associations in leukemia, brain tumors and colorectal cancer.[84][85]
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,[86] 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.[87] 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.
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.[88]
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.[89][90] The Blues played their first intercollegiate football match in 1877 against the University of Michigan, in a game that ended with a scorless draw.[88] They were defeated in their first match against a Canadian opponent, McGill University, in 1881.[88] 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.[88] However, the football team has hit a rough patch following its last championship in 1993.[91] From 2001 until 2008, the Blues suffered the longest losing streak in Canadian collegiate history, recording 49 consecutive winless games.[92] This was preceded by a single victory in 2001 that ended a run of 18 straight losses.[93]
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.[94] 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.[94] Blues hockey competed at the 1928 Winter Olympics and captured the gold medal for Canada.[95] 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.[94] 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.[96] 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.[97] The University of Toronto Rowing Club was established in 1897 and is the oldest collegiate rowing club in Canada;[98] it earned a silver medal for the country in the 1924 Summer Olympics.[98]
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.
There are 380 student clubs and organizations associated with the University of Toronto.[99] Full-time undergraduate student government is headed by the University of Toronto Students' Union, formerly known as the Students' Administrative Council. Graduate students are represented by the Graduate Students' Union, the largest union of its kind in Canada, and part-time undergraduates are represented by the Association for Part-time Undergraduate Students. All three student associations are member locals of the Canadian Federation of Students and these student constituencies are represented on the Governing Council of the university.
The school has two main newspapers, The Varsity and The Newspaper. Each college, faculty, and many other groups also publish newspapers. CIUT is the campus' radio station.
The Hart House Review (HHR) is a Canadian literary magazine / literary journal which publishes a number of the university's bright and eclectic voices in poetry, fiction and art.
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.[100]
The University has borne witness to much activism over the years. In 1895, University College students, allegedly led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, boycotted classes for a week after the editor of the Varsity student newspaper was suspended for anti-administration articles. Although King is traditionally given credit for leadership of the strike, recent scholarship has suggested that his involvement has been overstated.[101]
The 1960s saw the creation of Rochdale College, a large high-rise residence where many students and staff lived. It was not officially connected to the university. Rochdale was established as an alternative to what had been seen as the traditional, authoritarian, and paternalistic structures within universities.[102] The college eventually became a haven for local drug culture, partially because the student organisers contracted a biker gang to provide security. Due to violent clashes with police, political pressure forced the college to close in 1975.[citation needed]
In the fall of 1969, after Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decriminalized homosexuality, the University of Toronto Homophile Association, the first gay and lesbian group in Toronto or on any Canadian university campus, was formed. Jearld Moldenhauer, a research assistant at the Faculty of Medicine, placed an advertisement in The Varsity, asking others to join in setting up an organization. While the first meeting drew a meager 16 people — 15 men and one woman — the group quickly established a significant profile within the community and the city at large. Two decades later, David Rayside, a professor of political science, would organize the Committee on Homophobia. Ten years after that, he would help introduce a sexual diversity studies program at University College, to much success.[103] 35 years after the start of LGBT activism at U of T, the student queer community is represented by the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans People of the University of Toronto (LGBTOUT).
On February 7, 2007, a number of students from all three campuses, joined by many students from across Ontario, staged one of the largest student protests in Canadian history.[citation needed] The student mass, which numbered in the thousands, demanded the provincial government to lower tuition fees. One month later, on March 8, a smaller number of students held another protest on the same issue. This protest, known as the ‘Student Day of Anger’ consisted of a group of students making loud noises outside the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to mark the one year anniversary of the lift on the tuition fee freeze.[citation needed] University of Toronto has subsequently suspended these students and brought criminal charges against them.[citation needed]
U of T has numerous prominent students groups. One of the most notable is the Hart House Debating Club, home to one of the top-ranked debating teams in the world, and champions at the 1981 and 2006 World Universities Debating Championships.[104]
The United Nations Society has also gained tremendous achievements in the past y