Region : Ontario
City : Peterborough
Web site : www.trentu.ca
Trent University is a public liberal arts and science-oriented university located along the Otonabee Riverin Peterborough, Ontario,with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham.
The enabling legislation is the Trent University Act, 1962-63.The university was founded through the efforts of a citizens' committee interested in creating a university to serve the City of Peterborough and the surrounding counties. The committee recruited Dean Thomas H.B. Symons of the University of Torontoto serve as chair of the academic planning committee and Symons became the university's first president.
The Symons campus of Trent is approximately 5.6 km (2.2 sq mi), over half of which is a part of Trent's Nature Areas, an ecologically diverse wild-life preserve. It is divided into a series of colleges: Champlain, Lady Eaton, Catharine Parr Traill, Otonabee, Peter Gzowski, and Julian Blackburn. Each college, with exception of Blackburn, which is non-residential and serves Trent?s 1,700 part-time students, has its own residence hall, dining room, and student government. The Symons campus plan and the original college buildings, including Champlain College, Lady Eaton College, Bata Library and the Faryon bridge which spans the Otonabee, were designed by the renowned Canadian architect Ron Thom. Canadian General Electric, a major industrial employer in Peterborough, donated a 100-acre parcel of land along the Otonabee and other lands were subsequently acquired on both sides of the river to serve as the site of the campus. This donation included a functioning hydroelectric power plant dating from the 1890s, which still generates a substantial portion of the university's electricity and produces income for the university; the power plant underwent a $22.8-million upgrade in 2013. Trent owns 50% of the power plant along with Peterborough Utilities Group owning the remaining 50%.
Close to 6,800 undergraduate students and nearly 500 graduate students are enrolled at the Peterborough campus while Trent University Durham serves over 800 full and part-time students at the Thornton Road campus in Oshawa. The university is represented in Canadian Interuniversity Sport by the Trent Excalibur. Some of the specialized programs at Trent include the Human Resources Management Certificate Program, a joint program with Fleming College allowing students to earn a B.Sc.F.S. in Forensic Science, and a B.Sc.N. program in Nursing.
This college was named after the pioneer writer and biologist Catharine Parr Traill, who settled with her husband on the Otonabee in 1832 and lived there until her death in 1899. It serves as the base for the Departments of English, Cultural Studies, and Canadian Studies. The college also includes the Alan Wilson reading room as well as the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies, where the M.A. and PhD. programs are housed.
Traill College consists of Wallis Hall, Stewart and Crawford Houses, which are residential; as well as Scott House ? the original location of Catharine Parr Traill College in its entirety ? Kerr house, and the Principal's Lodge which houses the on-line political and cultural theory journal, Theory and Event. The university previously owned Bradburn and Langton House but both properties were sold to the Peterborough Housing Corporation in 2009. Bradburn House is a fully functional affordable housing unit converted into its present state by a provincial and federal grant given to the corporation, however funding was not available to convert Langton House into a functional housing facility.The property was sold to Hospice Peterborough in 2012 and will to be turned into a residential hospice.
In fall 1999 an in-house task force recommended closing the college as a cost-saving measure, which led to a flurry of protest and a successful campaign to save Traill, which has since been converted to a centre of graduate studies.
Located on Symons Campus along the Otonabee River, this college was opened in 1967. It is named after the early 17th century explorer Samuel de Champlain, who explored the Otonabee area in 1615 and founded Quebec City in 1608 and whose sword is featured in the Trent crest. It originally served as an all-male residence, along with Peter Robinson College. The college is home to the Political Studies department and the Trent University Alumni Association.
The fourth college, established in 1968, it is named in honour of Flora McCrea Eaton, Lady Eaton. It contains the offices for the departments of History, Philosophy, Women's Studies, and Modern Languages. It originally served as the Female Dormitory and still today has an all-female section.
Otonabee College was founded in 1972. The buildings of Otonabee range along a cedar ridge overlooking the river from which the College derives its name ("fast water" in Nishnaabee).To the east of the College are located the new buildings of the DNA Cluster and the Forensic Science program. To the west are Peter Gzowski College and the Science buildings, leading to the Faryon pedestrian bridge, which provides access to the Bata Library, Murno Gladst, the Athletics Complex, and the colleges on the West Bank. Eight "houses" connected by an interior walkway called "the Link", make up Otonabee's residence. The residence is co-educational, although there are single-sex areas within the houses. Past "the Link", (a path leading to the instructional area of the College which bisects the residences) are a set of faculty offices, the mailboxes, College Porter's office, and the main dining hall looking to the north and east of the grounds. The academic wing is directly connected with the Science Buildings and houses the School of Education, the departments of Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, and Computing & Information Systems. Teaching facilities include a 125-seat lecture theatre, various seminar rooms, laboratories for Anthropology and Psychology and Computer Science, and a Sociology resource room, offices for faculty in many of the disciplines in arts and sciences, and the Wenjack Theatre, which provides a venue for multimedia lecture presentations as well as theatrical productions by amateur and professional companies. Nearby are the Archaeology Centre, Mackenzie House, and a wildlife sanctuary with walks and ski trails. Students at Otonabee play a major role in organizing and conducting cultural, social and athletic activities. The student government (Cabinet) and its committees cooperate with the College Office and dons in planning and delivering a variety of events for both its non-resident and resident members: visiting scholars, artists, musicians, scientists; College dinners and dances; Fall and Winter College Weekend; and intramural co-educational competitions in a number of sports.
Founded in 2003, it is the newest of the Trent University colleges, named for CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski, who was Trent's 8th chancellor. At one point the college had two campuses: on Peterborough's Argyle Street in buildings leased from the Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, now Master's College and Seminary, which housed the Teacher Education and Nursing programs; and the Enweying building on the main Symons campus ("enweying" means "the way we speak together" in the Anishinaabe language.)Enweying housed the Indigenous Studies, Economics, Mathematics and Business Administration programs. Programs at the Argyle location were moved to Enweying prior to the 2006?2007 academic year.
The first college to open at the university, it was dedicated to Peter Robinson, the member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada who oversaw migration of Irish settlers to the area in the 1820s. The college used to have a residence (apartment style) until its sale to a private landlord in 2004. The college was shut down by the university administration, against the protests of many Peter Robinson students and faculty.By referendum in March, 2003, Trent students voted to create and operate a non-profit educational and cultural student facility, to be shared with the community as a whole. Chosen to house this new facility was Sadleir House: one of the original university buildings at the PR site, it holds special historical significance for both the Trent and Peterborough communities. Funded by a new student levy and organized as the P.R. Community and Student Association (PRCSA), the students' offer to purchase the property was accepted by the current non-university owners. The Trust secured a mortgage for the property and the students took possession of Sadleir House on 27 February 2004. Currently, each student pays a levy fee each year of over $25 to support the mortgage on the house. Among other things, Sadleir House contains the offices of the Arthur, the Trent student newspaper, and the Sadleir House Alternative Library. Another building on the premises, housing Trent Radio headquarters, is also affiliated with the University.
This college offered programs for part-time students in Peterborough until 2011. It is named after Julian Blackburn, one of the original professors who helped establish Trent and is now home to Trent's administration, as well as medical, counseling, printing, parking, registrar, financial aid, student affairs, student accounts, and several other important university services.
Trent's Oshawa campus in the Regional Municipality of Durham has been offering courses for over 40 years, initially in classrooms rented from Eastwood Collegiate and Vocational Institute. Later, Trent took space at Durham College and steadily expanded the range of courses available before acquiring a former elementary school on Thornton Road. Trent renovated the building, added an addition and officially opened its new Oshawa campus on Monday, October 18, 2010and was inaugurated for the 2010?2011 academic year. Over 800 students attend Trent University Durham, who can study full- or part-time for degrees in Anthropology, Business Administration, Communications and Critical Thinking, English Literature, History, Media Studies, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology,and the Teacher Education Stream.In addition to the above, there are several course offerings (some with the possibility of a minor) at Trent's Durham campus that students can take and later major in at the Peterborough campus, including: Biology, Computer Information Systems, Cultural Studies, Economics, Environmental & Resource Studies, Geography, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Political Studies, and Women's Studies.
Trent has a number of graduate programs including Anthropology M.A. (current focus is in physical anthropology and archaeology), Applications of Modelling in the Natural & Social Sciences M.A./M.Sc., Public Texts (English) M.A., History M.A., Theory, Culture and Politics M.A., Environmental and Life Sciences (formerly known as Watershed Ecosystems) Ph. D / M.Sc, and Materials Sciences M.Sc. The Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies offers an interdisciplinary Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies M.A. program. In addition, the Centre offers, in collaboration with Carleton University, a Canadian Studies Ph.D. program, which was the first of its kind in Canada.The university's Indigenous/Native Studies program was the first in Canada, and only the second in North America.The new Ph.D Program in Cultural Studies is the first in Canada. Trent was also recentlyapproved for Psychology M.A./M.Sc. graduate studies.
On July 2014, Trent announced they will open a Masters in Educational Studies program that will begin in July 2015.
Trent University's First Peoples House of Learning houses the Indigenous Studies Department and a focus for Indigenous intellectual and cultural activities on campus. The Indigenous Studies Department offers undergraduate and PhD programs designed to meet the needs of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Trent University offers a program in Indigenous Environmental Studies in addition to a specialized Indigenous Learning Program that provides access for people of Indigenous heritage. The First Peoples House of Learning also houses Nozhem, a First Peoples performance space.
Trent University is ranked 29th among Canada?s top universities and 884th among the world's universities, according to the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) 2016 list of the world?s top 1,000 universities,up from number 31 nationally, and number 910 overall worldwide in 2015.This places Trent University in the top 3.6% of universities worldwide. Trent University was one of only 32 universities to make the list in Canada (of the 98 Canadian universities). Trent University also ranked #1 in Ontario in Maclean's University Ranking in the Primarily Undergraduate Category and #2 in Canada.
Trent University offers a number of Internet-based courses to their students and approximately 70 per cent of all Trent courses use some form of web-based component. Trent's primary LMS is Blackboard. Many course lectures are also webcast for students using PANOPTO.
Sources : Wikipedia, www.trentu.ca
