University of Toronto at Scarborough: Past and Present 2000/2001

University of Toronto at Scarborough, a constituent college of the University of Toronto, was established in 1964. Since that time it has grown from a modest beginning of ten evening courses in a local high school to a thriving campus where over 200 faculty teach more than 700 courses to 5500 students.

The first full-time Scarborough students enrolled in 1965. Classes began on the St. George campus that fall and moved to Scarborough campus when the first building, made up of the Science and Humanities wings, opened in January 1966. The building, designed by Toronto architect John Andrews, won immediate international attention for its striking architecture.

1973 saw the opening of the R-wing (with classrooms, office space, a gymnasium, and other sports facilities) and the Student Village, a complex of townhouse residences with room for 260 students. In 1985 the original Student Village was expanded and in 1990 the West Village opened, creating a second residential area on the campus with some wheelchair accessible houses. A total of 536 students can now be accommodated in residence.

In 1982, the Vincent W. Bladen Library, named in memory of a former member of the Economics faculty of University of Toronto at Scarborough, was added to the R-wing. The library has more than 200,000 books and periodicals, thousands of maps, and a media centre with recordings and fine art slides. Bladen Library, in conjunction with the College's Computer Centre, has also become one of the leaders at the University of Toronto in the use of electronic resources. The Soil Erosion Research Laboratory opened in 1989, the N'Sheemaehn Child Care Centre in 1990, and the Leigha Lee Browne Studio Theatre in 1993.

Originally an integrated part of the University's Faculty of Arts and Science, in 1972 University of Toronto at Scarborough became a separate arts and science division of the University of Toronto and assumed more independence in curriculum development. It was the first college in the University to adopt a credit system allowing both full and part-time students to complete their degrees at a rate of their own choosing. The College offers the only formal co-operative programmes in the University. Currently, Co-operative Programmes are offered in the following areas: Arts Management; Computer Science; Environmental Science; International Development Studies; Management. In addition, both the Physical Sciences Specialist programmes and the Education of Teachers in French Specialist Programme offer an Early Teacher Project component, in cooperation with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto. Successful completion of the Early Teacher Project together with the required academic standing will guarantee admission, on application to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education / University of Toronto, for at least thirty students a year.

Scarborough Faculty also make an important contribution to the School of Graduate Studies, teaching graduate courses and training graduate students both here and on the St. George campus. Many Faculty have received world-wide recognition for their research and scholarship. The well appointed research laboratories, the high level of technical services, the relatively small size of the College and the diversity of the faculty foster an ideal environment for intellectual exchange and development.

Scarborough students have full and up-to-date resources available on campus; as full members of the University of Toronto, they also have access to the resources of the University as a whole. On the Scarborough Campus, regular events include concerts, drama productions, and a literary reading series. The Snider series and the prestigious Watts lectures have brought such distinguished speakers as Nobel Prize winner and former Prime Minister Lester Pearson, architect Raymond Moriyama, philosopher and theologian Hans Kung, scientist and television personality David Suzuki, union leader Bob White, Assembly of First Nations chief Georges Erasmus, and Israel's Ambassador to Canada Itzhak Shelef, co-lecturing with Abdullah Abdullah, P.L.O. Ambassador to Greece.