Quick, it's time to study up on your university history before the pop quiz
BY Lynn Cunningham
Photography by Courtesy University of King’s College Archives, Concordia University Archives, I002-02-857, Dave Donald, UTA, IB001, A1965-0004 5.28, McGill University, PL00769
1827 Toronto’s King’s College, the precursor to the University of Toronto, receives its charter. While now the biggest university in Canada, with just over 70,000 full- and part-time students, it wasn’t the first: King’s College, Nova Scotia, was founded in 1789. Toronto’s King’s was a little late on its first assignment. Classes didn’t start until 1842.
1912 The first female professor in Canada, Carrie Derick, is hired by McGill, where one of the courses she develops is “Evolution and Genetics.” There’s been some evolution in the appointment of women since, but they still only make up 30 percent of full-time faculty and their median salary is about $13,000 less than their male colleagues.
1917-1984 
The RCMP creates
and maintains thousands of files on
students, professors, campus papers
and such subversive elements as gay
rights groups and the entire U of T
mathematics department (“Mathematics
… is more akin to philosophy…. This
means it … attracts a more freethinking
and unconventional individual”).
Among the fellow travellers the men in
red investigate are Pierre Berton, Peter
Gzowski, Bora Laskin and members of
McMaster’s Hillel organization.
1968 
Memorial
establishes the country’s
first B.A. in folklore.
Before this, a number
of urban legends about
university architecture
were in circulation: York
University’s original
buildings were built from
plans drawn up for UCLA;
a residence at Guelph
was designed by the
Kingston Penitentiary’s
architect; the library
at Waterloo is sinking
because its designer
failed to take
into account the weight
of the books.
1996 Dr. Nancy Olivieri, a U of T clinician, runs afoul of mega-drug manufacturer Apotex, after she questions the safety of one of the company’s medications on which she’s running a trial. Apotex terminates the trials and threatens legal action. The case becomes a lightning rod for the issue of creeping control of universities by powerful private interests. Observers draw a direct line between declining government support and increasing corporate control of campuses.
2007 
Fifteen years ago, 770,000 full- and part-time students attended Canadian
universities; now, there are more than a million. Enrolment isn’t the only thing
that’s risen: tuition fees have gone up 196 percent since 1990-91. The same degree
that cost $1,500 a year at the beginning of the ’90s costs $4,500 annually now. One
result: almost 60 percent of all graduates emerge with an average of close to $25,000
debt. The non-degree granting Fraser Institute isn’t troubled: “Research suggests
that, in fact, Canadian students are managing admirably with their debt loads after
graduation.”
