Trent University is one of the few Canadian institutions to offer unique university college scarves, a tradition that dates back to nineteenth-century England. Trent’s college scarves were created in 2009 utilizing colours and designs traditional to the colleges and were an immediate hit with students, who wear them proudly to intercollegiate activities.   

Until now, the colleges have made scarves available only as gifts to first-year students and distinguished guests and visitors to Trent.  According to Gzowski College head Dr. Melanie Buddle, many other students, faculty, alumni and staff have asked if they might be able to purchase a college scarf.  Now, thanks to a partnership with a local company and an easy online ordering system, undergraduate and alumni scarves can be purchased online.

Trent University alumni college scarves are also available for purchase, including scarves from Julian Blackburn College, Peter Robinson College and Traill College. Like the undergraduate scarves, alumni scarves use crests and colours of the colleges but they also include a Trent University Alumni Affairs logo to differentiate them from those worn by current students, which include only the college crests.

In addition, purchasing an alumni scarf provides support to the colleges to help them continue to provide scarves to first-year students. Dr. Buddle indicated that this program is valuable because it connects alumni’s fond recollections of their college experience to the engagement that current students can also have with their colleges.

“There is a cycle of giving that reminds our newest students that alumni also loved their colleges, and this program helps us continue to give this very important symbol to our incoming students,” she said.

Dr. Buddle expects that the opportunity to purchase a scarf will interest many alumni, especially with the University’s 50^th anniversary celebrations beginning in summer 2014.  Some students may also wish to purchase their own alumni scarves as they graduate this spring, to mark their achievement and to close the circle, from receiving a scarf as a gift from the college in first year to becoming a graduate with fond memories of their own college experience.

Branded Merchandise is currently the official provider of college scarves for Trent University. To view and order an official Trent college or alumni scarf visit the website: http://www.trentalumnistore.ca/Products.htm?CD=979