The History of UTSC Project
Menu
The Spaces & Places guided walking tour explores the history of locations on and around the UTSC campus by sharing the personal recollections of members of our campus community — reflecting a variety of perspectives, positions, and points in time.
For quite some time, UTSC lacked a dedicated space for outdoor recreation on campus. The S Wing Field, located on the lower campus at the rear end of the Andrews Building, provided an easy early answer to this problem. Comprised of two multi-sport grass fields, the field, surrounded by the imposing brutalist buildings of the Science Wing, is a versatile area that hosts a variety of activities, from impromptu games of soccer and frisbee to organized sports events and outdoor classes. During the summer months, students can often be found on the field sprawled out on a mosaic of picnic blankets, unwinding between lectures, studying in the fresh air, and socializing with friends, while, during the winter, the field provides an ideal setting for snowball fights and snow trekking (for the brave, that is). In this way, the S Wing Field, with its blend of natural beauty and campus activity, offers a perfect balance of leisure and community spirit, making it an essential part of campus life at UTSC.
Franco Vaccarino, who worked as an Associate Professor in the UTSC Department of Psychology before serving as the campus’ President from 2007-2014, speaks about the lack of instructional space on the original campus and some of the different strategies adopted to deal with this problem.
Credits: Conceived and produced by Maria Bacchus. All images courtesy of UTSC Photographic Services, UTSC Archives Legacy Collection, The Underground, and Historical Aerial Imagery Toronto.
It turns out a lack of space isn’t just a modern problem, though; even students like Linda Cahill, who attended Scarborough College in the 1970s, found themselves dealing with the same. Here’s what she has to say about her experience with the issue.
There was also no library, so a makeshift library used space in the Science Wing as well as storage spaces located elsewhere to house books. Storage spaces were like 3 houses across the street, the barn in the valley, and the freight access tunnel. The music program used a portable outside the Science Wing, as did the bookstore, and honestly I felt that it taught us resourcefulness. We put on some damn good productions in that space.
Jennifer, who attended Scarborough College in the 1970s, looks back on the colonial connection that brought different members of the early College community together: cricket.
Credits: Conceived and produced by Amena Ahmed. All images courtesy of the Memory Collection via UTSC Library Digital Collections.
