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About Trinity College in the University of Toronto
Trinity College in
Toronto, Canada is one of the smallest and most prestigious colleges on the St.
George Campus of the University of Toronto. The College has approximately 1,700
undergraduate students who are enrolled in the university's Faculty of Arts and
Science, and about 140 students in Trinity's Faculty of Divinity, Canada's
oldest Anglican theological school. Since its founding in 1851 the College has
valued and fostered a high level of academic achievement. A majority of Trinity
students graduate with Distinction or High Distinction and go on to professional
and graduate programs throughout the world. Among the College's graduates are
writer Malcolm Gladwell, filmmaker Atom Egoyan, businessman Ted Rogers, former
Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, and Canada's ambassador to Washington,
Michael Wilson. Those who have taught here include Robertson Davies and Margaret
MacMillan, the College's former Provost.
Mission
Statement
Trinity, a small, distinctive college at the heart of a great
university, offers an exceptional academic experience and fosters community,
responsibility, and leadership.
Historical Background
Trinity
College is a small academic college with a long and illustrious history within
the University of Toronto, the largest university in Canada.
Trinity was
founded in 1851 by John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. Strachan
had arrived in 1799 in Upper Canada (as Ontario was called before 1867) as a
teacher, and within a few years established his first school, at Cornwall. In
1827 he obtained a royal charter for the University of King s College at York
(Toronto), which admitted its first students in 1843. Despite Strachan's strong
opposition to the move, on January 1, 1850 King s College became the secular
University of Toronto. Gravely disappointed, he turned his attention to
establishing yet another university, Trinity College, which received a
provincial charter in 1851.
Trinity College admitted its first students
at a new building designed by Kivas Tully on Queen Street West on January 15,
1852. The first class consisted of fifteen divinity students who had begun their
studies at the Cobourg Diocesan Theological Institute (also founded by
Strachan), plus four students in Arts, and some students in Medicine. On July 16
of the same year Queen Victoria granted Trinity College a royal charter.
During its first fifty years the College was one of the most important
degree-granting institutions in Canada, and its graduates in Arts, Divinity,
Medicine, Law, and Music (the College also granted some degrees in Pharmacy and
Dentistry) were substantial contributors to society in Canada, the United
States, England, and other parts of the world. The first woman student was
admitted in 1883, and in 1888 Trinity established St. Hilda's College for women,
putting the College in the forefront of the movement for higher education for
women.
In 1904 the College joined the University of Toronto,
relinquishing its rights to grant degrees in any faculty other than Divinity.
Its Faculty of Arts became part of what is now known as the Faculty of Arts and
Science of the University of Toronto, though the College continued to have
exclusive responsibility for certain College subjects until 1974. In 1944
the Faculty of Divinity became a member of the Toronto Graduate School of
Theological Studies, which brought together the various theological faculties on
the University of Toronto campus; and later of its successor, the Toronto School
of Theology, in 1970.
Though part of the University of Toronto, Trinity
College retained its distinctive character and many independent features,
including its charter, governing bodies, administration, and control over its
budget, endowment, and maintenance. It now has about 1,700 undergraduate
students in Arts and Science and about 140 who study at the Master's level and
beyond in its Faculty of Divinity. Sports, a debating society (the Trinity
College Literary Institute is the oldest university debating society in Canada),
and dramatics (many well-know actors did their studies at Trinity) are among the
many activities Trinity students are known for. Thirty-five of the College's
students have become Rhodes Scholars.
Trinity moved to the Univerity of
Toronto St. George campus in 1925, occupying new buildings that were modelled on
the old ones, at a choice location close to the other colleges, libraries, and
teaching departments of the University. The new St. Hilda's College opened in
1938, a large new chapel was built in 1955, and the final side of the College
quadrangle was completed in 1963. The Gerald Larkin Building was finished in
1961, and the George Ignatieff Theatre in 1979. The University of Toronto's Munk
Centre for International Studies at Trinity College opened in 2000; the Munk
Centre is located in three beautifully renovated historic buildings, one of
which houses Trinity's John W. Graham Library.
A new era began for the
college in 1974 when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the
University, allowing Trinity to expand its academic program beyond its
traditional courses in the humanities. New interdisciplinary programs of study
were begun at the College; the first was in International Relations and it has
become one of the largest in the University. The other college interdisciplinary
programs are Ethics, Society and Law; and Immunology. |
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