Nestled in the quiet eastern end of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Scarborough has grown dramatically over the years: from an Indigenous gathering ground to a nineteenth-century colonial township, the city is now home to a vibrant, culturally diverse community that has allowed Scarborough to develop a unique identity of…
“… let us accept Scarab, ugly and venomous though it certainly seemed when we first visited it last July, looking forward to the novelty, beauty and peace of our proper home in Scarborough where, ‘exempt from public haunt’, we shall indeed find‘Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in…
The Black Panther Party (BPP) came to Scarborough College to inspire a black revolution. “Black is beautiful” they declared to Scarborough Colleges’ predominantly white student population in March 1970. Six members of the BPP from Chicago took the stage in the Meeting Place in front of a large group of curious students to give a talk on their activist movement – and particularly, the politics of higher…
Arguably no situation has thrown postsecondary students and universities across Canada into as much confusion as the current COVID-19 pandemic. In an attempt to limit the spread of the virus over the past few months, most, if not all, of Canada’s major universities urged their students to move out of…
Do you recognize the landscape presented in the aerial photograph presented below? No? Take a closer look. Give up? This is an aerial landscape shot of Highland Creek community and campus land prior to Scarborough College’s construction in 1964 (photograph courtesy of the Scarborough Historical Society and Archives). With a current student population of nearly 13,000 and seemingly endless new building projects, it might be difficult to imagine a…
In 1984, thirty-six of Scarborough Colleges’ sociology students enrolled in SOCB24F: Sociology of Education; Primary and Secondary Levels, refused to write their end-of-the-term exam which would make up 30% of their final mark (Donlevy, 1984)! According to the students, to comply with writing an exam meant going against everything…
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re lucky to have online libraries available for our entertainment needs from the comfort of our own homes. In fact, can you imagine what it’d be like without a library, especially if you were a student? Scarborough College didn’t have a proper library until 1982, upon…
As the warm April sun begins to greet us, many of us are itching to sink our hands in soil and cultivate some earthly beauty. In the early decades of UTSC, students, faculty and staff were eager to do just that – and signed up for the Garden Club hosted…
In October 1964, after the formal opening ceremonies for Scarborough College, Varsity news reporter Margaret Sisson confidently reflected, “Scarborough College…will be able to provide students with a source of identity within the University structure” (Sisson, 1964). While the first classes of Scarborough College certainly actively negotiated (and fiercely contested) their “Scarborough Identity” (Marooned February 1967), building a collective student identity and community miles…
While present UTSC students look forward to cross-country skiing or winter hikes in the valley, former students of the ‘60s and ‘70s turned to the cafeteria for some outdoor winter fun. Yes, you read that correctly – students piled into the campus cafeteria in anticipation of heading outside. Upon finishing…