Welcome to the new school year. At this time, many begin new experiences here at UTSC. With such experiences comes memorable first impressions of the campus and community. When conducting oral histories for this project, our participants, who include alumni, faculty, staff, and community members, are often asked to describe their first impressions of UTSC. Below, we highlight some of our participants’ answers, and how these first impressions may have changed with their subsequent experiences on campus.  

For those entering the newly opened Scarborough College in 1966, their first impressions may be like Maureen’s, a member of the 1969 graduating class of Scarborough College. As Maureen remarked, “The first impression was ‘Wow’… It was just so much space and it was so connected to the Valley, and we began to realize we were an iconic, in an iconic building. It’s actually when Time Magazine came and took pictures, we thought ‘Well, we’re important then’” (Allahwala and Irani 2015). That being said, students soon became aware of the issues that come with new buildings. Maureen remarked that due to the lack of heat in the stairwells, “in the winter, we were putting our hands on the walls and leaving over finger… our handprints in the frost, that’s how cold it was” (Allahwala and Irani 2015). Heating has since been added to the stairwells.  

By 2000, the campus still consisted of its original buildings, namely the Science Wing, Humanities Wing, and Bladen or Recreation Wing. When Maydianne Andrade, Professor of Biology and later Vice Dean, Faculty Affairs and Equity at UTSC, recalled her first impressions of the campus, she remembered parking lots with cracked pavement and a sparse number of buildings in a state of disrepair. While change was being discussed at the time, she remarked that “It didn’t look like a place in which there’d been much investment” (Berkowitz 2020). However, perhaps as a testament to the change that has occurred to the campus, Maydianne later remarked that “we’re now a campus that people come to you and say, ‘It is beautiful here’” (Berkowitz 2020). 

Prior to attending the campus, Naresh Sritharan, of the graduating class of 2017 and later Academic Advisor at UTSC, was told that the campus was a former jail, comparable to a high school with its small size and lockers. After experiencing the campus for himself, Naresh remarked that “I appreciate that smaller space … it did allow me to connect with many people, make lot of friends and interact with professors and TAs” (Ainsworth 2022). Additionally, he encountered “people of all sorts of cultures and countries, from international students and domestic students, to faculty, to staff, to you name it, everyone where you go, it just felt comfortable, felt like Scarborough” (Ainsworth 2022). Ultimately, Naresh reflected that such diversity and small size “made [UTSC] feel very close to home and comfortable” (Ainsworth 2022). 

This brief compilation of first impressions showcases the diverse, multifaceted, and ever-changing ways that Scarborough College and later, UTSC have been perceived. Thus, with the start of the new year, remember your first impressions, as they may be subject to change as time goes by.  

Bibliography 

Ainsworth, Amelia. 2022. “Interview with Naresh Sritharan.” Oral history conducted by Amelia Ainsworth, Scarborough Oral History Project, University of Toronto Scarborough. https://ark.digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/ark:/61220/utsc34357.

Allahwala, Ahmed and Adon Irani. 2015. “Interview with Maureen.” Oral history conducted by Ahmed Allahwala and Adon Irani, Scarborough Oral History Project, University of Toronto Scarborough. https://ark.digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/ark:/61220/utsc10746. 

Berkowitz, Christine. 2020. “Interview with Maydianne Andrade.” Oral history conducted by Christine Berkowitz, Scarborough Oral History Project, University of Toronto Scarborough. https://ark.digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/ark:/61220/utsc11494. 

Jones, Ken. 1999. “Group of Students Seated Outside Beside UTSC Sign.” University of Toronto Scarborough Library, Archives and Special Collections, Memory Collection, Identifier 61220/utsc25684. https://ark.digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/ark:61220/utsc25684.