Retired law professor Martin Friedland held a public lecture entitled “Reflections: a History of the University of Toronto,” last Monday at Northrop Frye Hall, the third in a series of six lectures.
The University Professor Lecture Series is presented by the Global Knowledge Foundation and sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Elderwood Foundation. The featured speakers all hold the title of University Professor, the highest distinction given by U of T.
“My task tonight is to reflect on the U of T through my role as a historian,” Friedland said.
Throughout the lecture, Friedland spoke of how the university has evolved, from the early days to its current role as one of Canada’s leading research facilities.
Friedland discussed many subjects, including the increase in diversity at U of T over the years.
He noted there was a “growing ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity of the university in the 1990s” that is a “reflection of Canadian immigration patterns in the 1960s and 1970s.” In 1900, he said, almost all students were white.
The number of visa students has also been relatively small until recently. “In the 1960s, there were approximately 250 visa students, compared to 2,000 today,” he said.
Women, too, are attending U of T today more than ever before. At the turn of the last century, women were only ten per cent of the student body. “Today, they are roughly half of the student body,” Friedland said, adding that “before the first war, women concentrated on English and modern languages,” whereas today women are much more diverse and welcomed in their chosen fields of study.
Friedland also touched on the evolution of the governing structure of the university, from early government control to the evolution of a modern, self-guided institution.
Friedland drew heavily from his recent book, The University of Toronto; A History, which took him four years to produce. In it, Friedland traces the origins of the university from the early days of King’s College in 1827 up until the present day.
