New College, University of Toronto

New College is one of the constituent Colleges of the University of Toronto in Canada. It is named after New College at the University of Oxford, in Great Britain. One of the larger colleges with 4000 students, it stands on Huron Street in the historic campus' west-end, nestled alongside the major Science research buildings.

Historical Context

Founded in 1962, it evolved the College system at the University of Toronto. Paradoxically, it is the oldest of the non-federated colleges--University College (founding: King's College), St. Michael's, Victoria, Trinity --and thus the first to be formed under the federated administration. In fact, its original name was to be "New King's College" in homage to its forerunner.

Namesake Cousins

New College shares with Trinity College, St. Hilda's College, and Wycliffe College, the distinction of being Dominion cousins to namesakes in the University of Oxford in Great Britain, upon which the College system at the University of Toronto is itself modelled on.

Character

Designed under the "multi-faculty" concept, 3500 of its students are from the Faculty of Arts & Science with the rest drawn from Applied Science/Engineering and Pharmacy. In fact, what is now known as Innis College--the second "multi-faculty" college--was originally designed as another wing onto New College before it was built separately in 1964.

Unique for its integrated "serpentine" design, New College consists of three halls -- Wilson Hall, Wetmore Hall, and an as-yet unnamed new residences hall. In the integrated approach, 850 living units are built in the upper floors; the lower floors include the library and reading room, computer labs, staff offices and lecture theatres, dining halls, and recreation lounges.

New College is most attractive to students who wish to live near to many of the central facilities of U of T such as Robarts Library or the Athletic Centre. It is also well known for having the best food of any U of T college. It has had problems attracting students in recent years, however, and has had the lowest entering average of any of the downtown colleges over the last few years. This has much to do with the quality of the Wilson and Wetmore hall residences which have not been rennovated since their construction. New College also has the smallest of the college libraries and does not have as much money for scholarships as the older colleges with more alumni and land holdings.

Specialization

The College though maintains its grounding in the Sciences. Many of its early officers were from science backgrounds--including Wilson from Engineering and Ivey from Medicine.

As many of its students are in the Science track, New College is home to the main Mathematics Aid Centre as well as the Statistics and Economics Aid Centres. As do all the Colleges, it co-ordinates a number of academic degree programmes; Human Biology is its largest and most well known. It also features Equity and Women's Studies.

Further Reading

• The University of Toronto - A History by Martin L. Friedland