As 2017 draws to a close, we want to look back and revel in some of the outstanding events, achievements, and news highlights that made a splash on our campuses and the community at large. Let’s revisit a few of the stories that made this year, a year to remember.

1. Trent Tops the Rankings

Trent was tops this fall in both national and international rankings. Trent University was listed as the #1 undergraduate university in Ontario for the seventh year in a row in the Maclean’s university rankings issue. Trent also jumped to the #3 position for undergraduate universities in Canada, and was again ranked #1 in Canada for scholarships and bursaries. According to recently released international rankings from the Center for World University Rankings, Trent continued its upward trajectory this year, and was named among the top 3.4% of universities worldwide.

 

 

2. Durham GTA Expansion News

Trent Durham GTA’s expansion plans received a huge boost this year, thanks to Oshawa City Council’s approval of 1.8 acres of land. The expansion project builds on Trent’s more than 40-year history in the Durham region, and includes plans for two new buildings – one with both academic and residence spaces, creating a supportive community for student success, and the second will be an academic building fronting onto Thornton Road South and framing a central green courtyard.

 

 

3. Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies Launches

Coinciding with National Aboriginal Day, Trent University announced the newly named Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, a significant milestone furthering the University's long-standing leadership in Indigenous reconciliation and education. The announcement involved a substantial series of recommendations including a new academic requirement for all undergraduate students to successfully complete at least 0.5 credits from an approved list of courses with Indigenous content – making Trent only the third university in Canada to institute mandatory Indigenous course content.

 

 

4. Renewed Commitment to Teaching Excellence

Twenty-five new faculty positions and a transformational $1.25 million donation to establish the Distinguished Visiting Teaching Scholar Endowment – that’s one way Trent showed our commitment to teaching and learning this year. This past spring, the Board of Governors at Trent approved the new faculty positions—21 of which are teaching-intensive positions—distributed across a number of departments in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, education and nursing, as well as Trent’s Durham GTA campus.

 

 

5. New Student Centre Doors Open

The vision of Trent University students past and present became a reality this fall as the brand new Student Centre opened its doors. Designed to connect with the beautiful, existing Ron Thom architecture at Trent University, the new building includes unique features and spaces including: state-of-the-art lecture halls, adding 360 new seats to Trent University; a wide variety of formal and informal student spaces; a variety of outdoor spaces such as a patio located on the outside of the main floor of the building, connecting to Founder’s Walk; a second-floor balcony that overlooks the river; and an on-site Starbucks.

 

 

6. Outstanding Student Achievements

A winner of the 2017 Governor General’s History award for her free verse poem Kahnekanoron – Water is Life; a representative for students across Canada as the chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students; and a national fellowship for outstanding leadership – Trent students continue to make an impact both locally and nationally. Dawn Martin, a recent Trent grad, Coty Zachariah, a second-year Indigenous Studies student at Trent, and Erin Hayward an Environmental and Life Sciences graduate student, are just three students at Trent who were honoured with major awards this year.  

 

 

7. Innovative New Programs Grow Academic Excellence

Innovative programming continues to be developed at Trent University. Responding to the growing demand for environmental leaders in today’s world, Trent announced a unique B.Sc. degree in Environmental Geoscience to prepare graduates to become licensed professional geoscientists (P.Geo.). Trent also launched two new options for the aspiring doctor or veterinarian: the Medical Professional Stream, a unique program designed to boost students’ chances of admission into medicine, dentistry, veterinary, or pharmacy schools; and a new partnership with St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies to provide Trent students the chance to qualify for direct entry into St. George’s renowned Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

 

8. Training Ground for Future Olympic Rowers

Trent University has a long-standing tradition in the sport of rowing, which is imbedded in the University’s culture. This past fall, Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA) announced that Canada’s future Olympic rowers will soon call Trent home, as one of five university NextGen Hub partners selected to identify and train high-performance rowers to compete for Canada at the highest levels.

 

 

 

9. School of Environment Receives Monumental Gift

For over 50 years, Trent University has been a leader in environmental research and teaching. This past fall, an anonymous alumnus donated a transformational $1.4 million to the Trent School of the Environment, making it the largest gift in the University’s history for one of Trent’s prestigious schools of study. The generous gift will support a variety of initiatives, including undergraduate student summer internships, enhancing existing funds, prizes and scholarships, and a library fund.

 

 

10. What Makes Canada…Canada?

Hundreds of Canadians participated in the Canadian Difference project during Canada’s sesquicentennial, an initiative of Trent University's Canadian Studies department, which engaged people in an unprecedented national conversation about what makes Canada…Canada. The online forum which launched in July 2016 as a bilingual, interactive website, explored how Canada succeeded, or failed, at accommodating diversity across the country. The Trent team was comprised of faculty, staff, and graduate students in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies programs, with graduate students, in particular, playing an active role in the project.