Trinity College, Toronto
43°39′56″N 79°23′45″W / 43.66556°N 79.39583°W
| Coat of Arms | |
| Latin: Collegium Sacrosanctæ Trinitatis apud Torontonenses | |
| Motto | Μετ Αγωνα Στεφανος Met’Agona Stephanos (Greek "After the Conquest, the Crown") |
|---|---|
| Type | Federated college at the University of Toronto |
| Established | 1851 |
| Endowment | CAD $64.7 million (2006)[1] |
| Chancellor | Bill Graham |
| Provost | Margaret MacMillan |
| Students | 1,840[2] |
| Undergraduates | 1,700 |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | trinity.utoronto.ca |
The University of Trinity College, referred to locally as Trinity College or colloquially as Trin, is one of the federated colleges making up the modern University of Toronto (U of T). It also houses an Anglican divinity school and is part of the Toronto School of Theology (TST), an ecumenical federation of seven theological schools affiliated with the University of Toronto. Students enrolled in the Trinity Faculty of Divinity can take courses from any of the member schools.
Trinity is one of the smallest of the University of Toronto's seven colleges, with approximately 1840 students.[3] Throughout Trinity's history, it has managed to maintain high entrance averages for incoming students, with a majority of entering students fielding an Ontario secondary school academic average of 90 per cent or greater.[4] Of the seven colleges, Trinity has the highest proportion of students who graduate with "Distinction" or with "High Distinction", and the majority of Trinity students go on to pursue professional or graduate degrees.[5] The college is also well known for striving to continue an old fashioned Oxbridge-type atmosphere including mandating the wearing of gowns at dinner and, until 2005, preserving sex segregation in the residences. The college maintains a thoroughly Anglican flavour in both academic and daily life, even though many of the students that attend the college are not Anglican themselves.
Trinity's Faculty of Divinity is one of six Anglican seminaries in Canada, and is considered liberal and Anglo-Catholic in its theology.[6] Trinity is also home to the Munk Centre for International Studies, Canada's premier International Relations school.
History
Founding
In 1827, Bishop John Strachan, an Anglican deacon who arrived in Canada in 1799, received a Royal Charter from King George IV to build King's College at York (now Toronto).[7] At the time the British Empire was being reformed along financial and religious lines, and one of the goals of the "new system" was to form churches (by way of land grants) and schools in all of the colonies. However, York was so small at the time that there were no funds available for actually building the college, and the first classes were not held until 1843.[7]
In 1848, the first local elections were held, and the land grants to the churches reverted to "crown" ownership.[7] Strachan's support for the school vanished when, in 1849, the school was secularized and became the University of Toronto on January 1 1850.
This action incensed Strachan, who immediately set about creating a private school based on strong Anglican lines. In 1850, the Cameron property on Queen Street, at the western end of Toronto, was purchased for £2,000, and the school was built on this site, on the west side of Garrison Creek (now buried).[7] On 2 August 1851, the legislature of the Province of Canada passed an act incorporating Trinity College.[7] This was supplanted by a Royal Charter for the University of Trinity College, granted by Queen Victoria in 1852.[7] The construction work was completed quickly, and students arrived in January, 1852, including some from the Diocesan Theological Institute in Cobourg, Ontario, which the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College replaced.[8] In 1884 the college admitted its first woman student; in 1888, St. Hilda's College was created for the women students of Trinity.
Federation with the University of Toronto
With Strachan now long dead, efforts began in the 1890s to unite Trinity with the University of Toronto. Most of the degrees granted were turned over to the University of Toronto, with the exception of the degree in Divinity. In 1904 the college was federated with the university, and efforts began to move to a location on the main Queen's Park campus. Land was purchased in 1913, but due to World War I construction was not begun until 1923.[9] Bishop James Fielding Sweeny laid the cornerstone.[10] The new building was opened in 1925, at which point the land and original building were sold to the city, then later torn down in 1950. Only the old gates of the college still stand, at the southern entrance to Trinity Bellwoods Park on Queen Street West. The former women's residence building for St. Hilda's students is now a home for senior citizens and overlooks the northern end of the park from the west side.
Recent History
In the latter part of the twentieth century, longstanding college institutions and traditions have declined in the face of staunch criticism. By October of 1992, Episkopon, present within the college since 1858, was officially dissociated from Trinity.[11] Traditions long considered to be central to the atmosphere of the college began to seem antiquated to certain members.[12] Thus, in 2004 the college board of trustees voted narrowly in favour of ending Trinity's long practice of same-sex residency. Beginning in 2005, large portions of Trinity's residences became home to people of both sexes. Corresponding changes to student government followed: regular gender-specific college meetings were eliminated, and in March 2007, the Trinity College Meeting (the highest student-run governing authority at the college) voted narrowly to end the practice of gender segregated voting, thus making all students eligible to vote for all elected positions, including those which are gender specific, such as the male and female Heads of College.
Buildings and environs
Quadrangle
The back courtyard of the main Trinity building has long been a centre piece of student life at the college. At the original location of Trinity on Queen’s Street, the area backed on to an open ravine, still present at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Additions to Old Trinity began in 1877, with the erection of Convocation Hall to the north of the main entrance.[13] This, along with the erection of the Chapel in 1883, created east and west wings of the college. Thus in 1903 it was held that Trinity was deserving of a significant expansion to the north, forming a double quadrangle found throughout the constituent Oxbridge colleges.[13] However, after federation with the University of Toronto, it became clear that the relocation of Trinity to the grounds of UofT was a necessary reality, and thus hopes of a double quadrangle soon disappeared.[13]
It would be a half-century for dreams of a Trinity quadrangle to finally manifest themselves, with the construction of Body house and Cosgrave house in the 1950s creating a fully enclosed quadrangle.[citation needed] Today the quadrangle (known colloquially to students and faculty as the quad) remains a hub of student life in the fall and spring academic sessions.[14] Early in its life, the site was once home to the largest outdoor Shakespeare festival in the country.
In the summer of 2008, the quadrangle will be renovated with money from an anonymous donor.[citation needed] The new design features flagstone paths, in place of the current asphalt, as well as the Greek letter Chi (X), also the character for Christ, writ large in intricate flagstones.[citation needed]
Chapel
Trinity College Chapel is the gift of the late Gerald Larkin (1885-1961), who headed the Salada Tea Company from 1922 to 1957. He contracted the renowned English architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who designed the great Gothic Liverpool Cathedral and the ubiquitous red telephone boxes seen throughout the UK.[15]
Built in the modified perpendicular Gothic style, the main chapel extends 100 feet to the reredos and is 47 feet high at the vault bosses.[10] Using only stone, brick and cement, the architects employed Italian stonemasons using ancient building methods; the only steel in the construction is in the hidden girders supporting the slate roof, with the exterior walls being sandstone.
Junior Common Room
The Junior Common Room (commonly referred to as the JCR) is located in the western wing of the main Trinity Building, very near Strachan hall. A large portrait of C. Allan Ashley, a professor of the college, hangs above the fireplace.[10] The room is used by many student organisations, including the Trinity College Literary Institute and the Trinity College James Bond Society.
Strachan Hall
Strachan Hall, colloquially referred to as Strachan, forms the bulk of the western wing of the main Trinity building, and serves as the central dining hall for students residing in that building, as well as the venue of all regular formal High Table dinners.[16] The hall was erected in 1941, immediately prior to war-time restrictions on building materials.[9] The construction, like that of the chapel, was financed by Gerald Larkin.
Adorning the walls of the hall are portraits of important figures in the history of the college. The largest potraits, of Bishop Strachan and Provost Whitaker, Trinity's first provost, hang from the north wall.[10] On the front wall of the hall, prominent behind the High Table, hangs a large mediaeval tapestry. The tapestry is believed to have been woven in Flanders in the fourteenth century and is meant to depict the coming of the Queen of Sheba to the court of King Solomon.[10]
Before formal Hall each evening (Monday through Thursday), one of the Student Heads or another upper year (in order of precedence determined by seniority) is responsible for saying the Latin grace:
Quae hodie sumpturi sumus, benedicat Deus, per Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen.
May God bless what we are about to receive this day, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Hilda’s College
The University of Trinity College admitted its first women students in 1884. In 1888, it was decided that a distinct college was required for the women of Trinity. St. Hilda's College was initially opened in a building at 48 Euclid Avenue, Toronto, with two resident students.[17] The college was moved to a building on Shaw Street in 1889, then to a set of two larger houses on the same street in 1892, and in 1903 to a larger, purpose-built building on the main Trinity College grounds. In 1925, when Trinity College moved from its original location on Queen Street to the main University of Toronto campus, St. Hilda's College was moved to 99 St. George Street. The final move took place in 1938, when the current St. Hilda's building on Devonshire Place was opened. In 2005, the administration of Trinity College elected to end the practice of same-sex residency; as a result, St. Hilda's College now houses both men and women.
Academics
Profile
Trinity's student body consists of approximately 1700 undergraduate students, with a first-year enrollment limited to 400 Arts & Science students, and 140 Divinity students.[18] Students are admitted to Trinity in line with the common framework (with the exception of the Faculty of Divinity)[citation needed] of the University of Toronto Colleges adhere to, which lays down the principles and procedures for admission to the University of Toronto, which they all observe. Trinity maintains a tradition of academic success, with thirty-five of its graduates having been awarded Rhodes Scholarships.[4] In recent years, over one half of entering undergraduate students have fielded an Ontario academic average of 90 per cent or greater.[4]
The college has two active academic faculties, that of Arts and that of Divinity. Trinity maintains its university status by maintaining a doctoral program in the latter faculty.
Undergraduate
The Faculty of Arts offers undergraduate major programs in Immunology, International Relations (IR), and Ethics, Society, and Law to students at U of T. Associated with the latter two is an academic program called Trinity One. Admission to the Trinity One program is separate from that of the college itself, with enrollment limited to 25 students per stream.[citation needed] At least one prominent professor teaches in each stream; for example, Margaret MacMillan in International Relations and Mark Kingwell in Ethics, Society, and Law.[19]
The International Relations program benefits from the presence of the Munk Centre for International Studies (seen above), which is the centre of much post-graduate research, with a specialization in issues pertaining to the G8. Janice Stein, a prominent Canadian academic, is the current Director of the centre.
Divinity
Beginning in 1837, representatives of the United Church of England and Ireland in Upper Canada met with the Society for the Propagation for the Gospel to solicit support for fellowships to enable the education of local clergy.[citation needed] With a guarantee of support, in 1841 Bishop John Strachan requested his Chaplains, Reverend Henry James Grasett and Reverend Henry Scadding of St. James' Cathedral and Reverend Alexander Neil Bethune, then Rector of Cobourg, to prepare a plan for a systematic course in Theology for those to be admitted to Holy Orders.[citation needed] The three chaplains recommended that all candidates, including those being prepared by the Reverend Featherstone Lake Osler in Tecumseth, should be sent to Cobourg to be instructed by Bethune.
On January 10, 1842 the first lecture was given at the Diocesan Theological Institution at Cobourg, with two students being present. Eight students were enrolled by the start of the next term and thirteen by midsummer.[citation needed] By January 1852, when the work was transferred to Toronto to become the Faculty of Divinity in the new Trinity College, forty-six of the Cobourg Institution's students had been admitted to Holy Orders.[citation needed] The Debating Society, the precursor of the Trinity College Literary Institute, and other student traditions were founded in Cobourg and brought to Toronto by the continuing students.
Today, the Faculty of Divinity is a graduate faculty and a member of the Toronto School of Theology. At the basic degree level, it offers several Master of Divinity programs - a basic program, a "collaborative learning" model with self-directed study components, and an honours programme, which includes a thesis. For students not seeking Holy Orders, a Master of Theological Studies is offered. At the advanced degree level, students may pursue the Master of Arts in Theology, the Master of Theology, the Doctor of Theology and the Doctor of Ministry. A PhD in Theology can be earned through the University of St. Michael's College. Applicants to the ThM must hold an MDiv. Students can also enroll jointly in the MDiv and MA.
Student Life
Literary Institute
The Trinity College Literary Institute (TCLI or, more commonly, "the Lit") predates Trinity itself, and plays a central role in undergraduate student life at the College. The Institute moved to Trinity from the Diocesan Theological Institute, another school founded by John Strachan.
The Lit holds weekly debates in the Junior Common Room (JCR) that satirize the Parliamentary system, while also actively maintaining a committee for formal debate.
Anyone attending a Lit expecting to hear a formal debate relevant to current events would be disappointed; most Lit debates are on humorous topics and involve many references to popular culture. Many debates are themed to holidays or Trinity social events (ie, "The Thanksgiving Debate" or "The Saints Debate," in reference to an annual formal dance at Trinity) The Lit does on occasion hold "serious" debates, which are, as their name implies, themed towards socially relevant topics of a more solemn nature.
Trinity College students participate in the University of Toronto Hart House Debates Club, and throughout its history have fielded some of the top-ranked teams in the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate.[citation needed]
Student Publications
Trinity maintains several student-produced publications. The Salterrae (Latin: Salt of the Earth), is the official newspaper of Trinity College. The present incarnation paper began as Trinlight in 1981, and is currently in its eighteenth volume. The college also publishes an undergraduate yearbook, known as Stephanos (Greek: Στεφανος, meaning 'crown'), as well as a bi-annual journal, the Trinity University Review (established in 1880 as Rouge et Noir), featuring a collection of student short stories, photographs, and poetry.[16]
Trinity College Dramatic Society
A Trinity College Dramatic Club was first formed in 1892 at the University of Trinity College, apparently under the auspices of Lally McCarthy who graduated that year. The Dramatic Club produced plays in Toronto and toured Guelph, Woodstock, Brantford, and Hamilton in 1894, which caused the club to bankrupt itself later that year. The club re-emerged as the Dramatic Society, producing “Two Modern English Plays” in 1919, but its “Annual Productions” did not begin until 1921. It was in that year that the Dramatic Society was first able to use Hart House as a performance venue.
Since 1927, the Dramatic Society (or TCDS) has usually produced at least one full-length production a year. In some years an additional two or three short plays have also been produced. The main role of the Dramatic Society has been to support and run productions at the college; it has also been responsible for Trinity’s involvement in the University of Toronto's annual Hart House Drama Festival.
Currently, the primary venue for the Trinity College Dramatic Society’s productions is the George Ignatieff Theatre in the Trinity College campus. TCDS plays have also been staged in Seeley Hall, Cartwright Hall in St. Hilda’s, and the Trinity quadrangle.
Episkopon
Episkopon (Greek: Επισκοπων, meaning 'overseer') is a highly controversial secret society that was founded at Trinity College in 1858.[9] In 1992, Episkopon dissociated itself from the college following allegations of racism and homophobia.[12] Despite official policies prohibiting Episkopon from engaging in any activities on college property, the society continues to play a significant role in undergraduate life at Trinity.[20]
Alumni
The atmosphere of rich traditions and close knit community of Trinity College has traditionally shaped its students to become extremely successful in Canadian society. Trinity has graduated numerous notable academics including Michael Ignatieff and current Trinity provost Margaret MacMillan, numerous politicians including the aforementioned Michael Ignatieff, his father George Ignatieff, former leader of the opposition and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada Bill Graham, former leader of the New Democratic Party Ed Broadbent, and former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson as well as numerous notable diplomats including former Trinity Chancellor and Canadian Ambassador to the United States Michael Wilson. To the field of business, Trinity has contributed Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications. To the arts, Trinity has contributed poets Archibald Lampman and Dorothy Livesay. Numerous high ranking officials in the Anglican Church are also former Trinity students, including Andrew Hutchison the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.[21]
Film and fiction
Trinity College is believed by many to be the setting of Robertson Davies’ novel The Rebel Angels and that Davies based the College of St. John and the Holy Ghost (or "Spook" as its often called in the novel) on Toronto's Trinity College.[22] Evidence for this connection includes the superficial similarities between the fictional and the real life college; the fact that Davies lived across the street from Trinity while master of Massey College; and perhaps most convincingly that a picture of Trinity's central tower is prominently featured on the cover of the novel's first edition (seen right).
References
- ^ Audited Financial Statements 2005-06
- ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/Students_Applicants
- ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/Students_Applicants
- ^ a b c http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/About_Trinity/History/Rhodes_Scholars.htm
- ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/About_Trinity/
- ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/Faculty_of_Divinity/Dean_of_Divinity.htm
- ^ a b c d e f Reed, T.A. (Ed.) (1952). A History of the University of Trinity College, Toronto, 1852–1952. University of Toronto Press.
- ^ Westfall, William (2002). The Founding Moment: Church, Society, and the Construction of Trinity College. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2447-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ a b c Trinity Review (1952). Watson, Andrew (ed.). Trinity, 1852-1952. University of Toronto Press.
- ^ a b c d e Office of Convocation (2001). Trinity College : a walking guide. Trinity College.
- ^ "TORONTO LIVE Links to Episkopon cut". The Globe and Mail: A16. 1992-10-06.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ a b Mitchell, Alanna (1992-09-05). "Is the student society at venerable Trinity College guilty of offensive human-rights abuses? Or is this another sanctimonious outcry from the prissy ranks of the politically correct?". The Globe and Mail: D1.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ a b c Kenrick, Charles (1903). Picturesque Trinity. G.N. Morang.
- ^ http://www.salterrae.ca/archive/2005/8/article2.php
- ^ http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-phone-box/biography/the-red-phone-box-biography-finished
- ^ a b Trinlife 2004 Jenn Hood and Graeme Schnarr. Retrieved on 4-1-2007.
- ^ Sutton, Barbara (Ed.) (1988). Sanctam Hildam Canimus: A Collection of Reminiscences. University of Toronto Press. pp. xi.
- ^ Students & Applicants. Students & Applicants. Retrieved on 3-22-2007.
- ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/trinityone/
- ^ Talaga, Tanya (1999-03-27). "Secret student group divides U of T's Trinity College; Once banned from campus, society returns". The Toronto Star: 1.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ http://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/About_Trinity/History/Distinguished_Graduates.htm
- ^ Hill, Declan. "The Tempest at Trinity". Ideas, 1993. Toronto: CBC Radio
- Melville, Henry. (1852). The Rise and Progress of Trinity College, Toronto; with a Sketch of the Life of the Lord Bishop of Toronto as Connected with Church Education in Canada. Toronto: Henry Roswell.
See also
External links
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