Upper Canada College

Drawing of former UCC campus at King and Simcoe Streets, in downtown Toronto.

Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys in midtown Toronto, Canada. Students between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve study under the International Baccalaureate program.

Founded in 1829, UCC is the oldest independent school in the province of Ontario, and the third oldest in the country. A link to the Royal Family is maintained through Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is the College's Official Visitor, and a member of the Board of Governors.^[3]

History

Beginnings and growth

Founded in 1829 by then-Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Major-General Sir John Colborne (later Lord Seaton), in the hopes that it would serve as a "feeder school" to the newly established King's College (later the University of Toronto), UCC was modelled on the great independent schools of Britain, most notably Eton College.^[3][4] The school began teaching in the original Royal Grammar School, however, within a year was established on its own campus at the corner of King and Simcoe Streets, to which Colborne brought Cambridge and Oxford educated men from the United Kingdom, attracting them with high salaries.^[5] UCC was faced with closure on a number of occasions, threatened by withdrawal of funding by the provincial government that once administered it, or by having no building in which to operate.^[4]

The school survived its denigrators, but after the government of Ontario stopped funding it in 1891, thus making UCC a completely independent school, the College was forced to move to its present location in Deer Park, which was then a rural area. The College thrived at this new location, both physically and culturally, as the buildings were expanded and bright instructors attracted. Central to this development was principal William Grant, who appointed a group of teachers described as "eccentric, crotchety, quaint, though widely travelled and highly intelligent,"^[6] and who saw the student enrollment and teacher salaries double, bursaries grow, and a pension plan established.^[7] UCC expanded to take in lower year students with the construction of a separate primary school building, the Prep, in 1902, allowing for boys to be enrolled from grade three through to graduation.

U.C.C. march for piano composed by J. Bedford Campbell is the Upper Canada College march and two-step. The music was published in Toronto; New York; Chicago by W.F. Shaw Pub. Co., circa 1896.^[8]

UCC maintained a Cadet Corps from around 1837, becoming the only student corps called to duty in Canadian military history when it assisted in staving off the Fenian Raids in 1866.^[4] Through the two World Wars, a number of UCC graduates gave their lives and provided leadership. Historian Jack Granatstein, in his book The Generals, demonstrated that UCC graduates also accounted for more than 30% of Canadian generals during the Second World War; in total, 26 Old Boys achieved brigadier rank or higher in World War II.^[9]

After the war

UCC faced a major crisis when, in 1958, it was discovered that the main building was in serious disrepair, due to poor construction during previous renovations, and was in danger of collapse. A massive fundraising campaign was started within the year, and, with the assistance of Prince Philip, all the necessary $3,200,000 was raised from Old Boys and friends of the College; Ted Rogers, Sr.'s contribution paid for the clock tower. Construction of the present building began in early 1959, and it was opened by Governor General Vincent Massey near the end of 1960. The crisis forced the school government to rethink their stance on foresight and planning, leading to a years-long program of new construction, salary improvements, and funding sources; as of 1958, despite benefactors, UCC had no endowment.^[10]

In teamwork with principal Rev. Sowby, whom he had helped select, Massey had further influence on the College, bringing about somewhat of a renaissance for the school. A number of distinguished visitors made themselves present, and leading minds were brought on as masters.^[11] At this time the curriculum began to shift from a classical education into a liberal arts one; options besides Latin were first offered after 1950.^[12]

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh speaks with UCC First Football team members at the College's 150th anniversary celebrations, 1979

1965 to 1975 was a decade of constant change at UCC; Tremendous global and local cultural influences such as the Vietnam War, "Yorkville", Woodstock, changing fashion trends (e.g. longer hair, frayed bell-bottomed jeans), "Rock Bands", Watergate, collided head-on with the conservative, traditional culture and environment at UCC. Individual freedoms trumped institutional discipline and moral authority had lost its clout.^[13]. Patrick T. Johnson (Principal 1965-1974) managed the cultural transition during these years with skill and dexterity. He successfully integrated societal trends, traditional values and individual self expression. One of the casualties of this period was the cadet corps. It was disbanded in September 1975 in favour of a smaller volunteer corps because it had outlasted it's value as a compulsory school wide activity. Under principals educated at Oxford (Johnson) and Cambridge (Sadlier), the College pointedly refused to adopt the new provincial educational standards issued in 1967, which it considered lower than the old standards.^[14] UCC also moved forward with new educational and athletic facilities across the campus, while opening the campus to the community at the same time.^[15] By the 1990s summer camps were set up on the campus for any child who wished to enroll.

The College adopted the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in 1996, which augments the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Following this, grade two was added in 1998, and grade one the next year. Since 2003 UCC has offered places from senior Kindergarten to Grade Twelve.^[16]

Early into the new millennium, UCC also followed the trends in environmentalism when the Board of Governors unanimously voted to establish the Green School initiative in 2002, wherein environmental education would become "one of the four hallmarks of a UCC education."^[17] Plans to carry this out saw not only upgrades of the school's physical plant to meet environmentally sustainable standards, but also an integration of these new initiatives into the curriculum.^[18]

Controversies

Ethnic and gender issues

Though Upper Canada College has accepted ethnic minorities since the first black student enrolled in 1831, these students' representation was fewer than expected from the population.^[19] UCC attracted accusations of racial bias and sexism. Michael Ignatieff considered the school's ethnic makeup during his time there, between 1959 and 1965, reflective of the culture of Toronto in general; according to him, "basically Tory, Anglican and fantastically patrician."^[20] Peter C. Newman, who attended UCC a decade before Ignatieff, and himself Jewish, said anti-semitism was "virtually non-existent."^[21] According to school historian Richard Howard, UCC transformed its culture during the 1970s, as it began to offer assistance to the less affluent, and made attempts to attract boys from visible minorities, becoming what he called "a small United Nations" that echoed Toronto's emerging ethnic variety (today, students from over 16 different countries attend UCC),^[22][23] though, as recently as 1990, there were references in College Times editorials to anti-semitism and sexism.^[24][25] These aspects of College life came to light through James T. Fitzgerald's book Old Boys, in 1994, which published old boys' recollections of the school. The school took the criticisms seriously, hiring one of its critics to help open UCC to the broader community.^[26]

Further information: Ethnic & gender issues

Scandals

In the years following 1998, five Upper Canada College staff were accused of sexual abuse or of possessing child pornography; three were convicted of at least some of the charges against them:

The first was Clark Winton Noble, who admitted, while under trial for an assault against a student at Appleby College in 1998, to an earlier advance on a UCC student in 1971. However, he was never tried for the admission as the charges were withdrawn.^[27][28] Five years later, eighteen students sued UCC in a very public case, claiming sexual abuse by Doug Brown, who taught at the Prep from 1975 to 1993. He was eventually found guilty in 2004 of nine counts of indecent assault,^[29] and was sentenced to three years in jail. That same year, Ashley Chivers, a teaching assistant at UCC from 1996 to 2003, was charged with possession of child pornography, none of which featured UCC students.^[30] He was convicted of one count and was given an 18-month conditional sentence.^[31]

After himself being charged with sexual abuse of a minor,^[32][33] former student Douglas Mackenzie launched various suits against the school in 2004. Upon learning he was one of those accused, former teacher Herbert Sommerfeld surrendered to Toronto police in December, 2005.^[34] He was eventually acquitted due to what the judge called "vague and inconsistent" testimony by the plaintiff.^[35][36] Lorne Cook, a teacher at UCC between 1978 and 1994, was also named by Mackenzie and four others in a class action suit. He was found guilty of one count of indecent assault and one of sexual interference. In November, 2006, he was sentenced to house arrest.^[37]

In response to the allegations put forward, in 2001 UCC formed a review team to assess school policies, and create new ones, under the direction of Sydney Robins, QC, a former Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and author of Protecting Our Students: A Review to Identify and Prevent Sexual Misconduct in Ontario Schools.^[38] Robins tabled his report in May 2003, with an emphasis on identifying and preventing misconduct before it occurs.^[39] In early 2007, the school, in a letter to the entire UCC community, apologized for the sexual and physical abuse that occurred, calling the affairs the most difficult issue the school has faced in its 177-year history.^[40]

Though media attention has subsided, the lawsuits that began for UCC after 2003 continue today in the form of a still unsettled $19 million case against the school by Douglas Mackenzie.^[32][33]

Further info: Scandals

In 2010, Accused murderer Col. David Russell Williams, a former top commander of the Canadian Army, was charged with the murder of two women, the sexual assault of two others and 82 break-ins was a former student at Upper Canada College. .^[41]

Campus and facilities

UCC's Upper School on a snowy winter morning

Upper Canada College occupies an open, 17 hectare (43 acre)^[42] campus in Deer Park, near the major intersection of Avenue Road and St. Clair Avenue, in the residential neighbourhood of Forest Hill, with 15 buildings on the site. The main building (the Upper School), central on the campus, and with a dominant clock tower, houses the secondary school component of the College, in a quadrangle form. Laidlaw Hall, the principal assembly hall, holding a pipe organ, is attached to the west end of the main building; at the other end is the Memorial Wing, the school's main infirmary; and forming the north end of the main quadrangle is the building containing the two boarding houses, built in 1932.^[16] A 17,000 volume library is also part of the Upper School.^[43] Satellite to this complex are townhouse-style residences for masters and their families; Grant House, the residence of the College's principal, built in 1917, and a small, two-storey cricket pavilion, inaugurated by Governor General Raymond Hnatyshyn. The Preparatory School attributed to by Eden Smith is at the south-west corner of the campus, near which is a home for the Prep Headmaster, and a small gatehouse.

The athletic facilities include an indoor pool, three gymnasiums, as well as, around the campus, the William P. Wilder sports complex (containing an NHL sized rink and an olympic one), a sports activity bubble, tennis courts, a sports court, a running track, and nine regulation sized sports fields. The two major fields of the Upper School are called "Commons" and "Lords", after the British House of Commons and House of Lords. In the summer of 2006, the UCC Oval (the main sports field) and running track were renovated thanks to an anonymous multi-million dollar donation to the school. The field was replaced by a partially synthetic astroturf/grass hybrid, while the track was made entirely of rubber turf. Several meters below the field, geothermal pipes were laid which provide alternative energy heating for both the Upper School and a future sports complex.

UCC also maintains its own archives with records, including those that outline the history of Upper Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the city of Toronto, dating back to the mid-19th century.^[44]

Aside from UCC's main campus, the College owns the Norval Outdoor School near Georgetown, Ontario.

Capital building project

UCC launched a decade-long $90 million capital building campaign. The plans call for two new arena complexes (now completed), an Olympic-standard 50-metre swimming pool, a new racquet centre (squash, badminton and tennis), a rowing centre, the expansion of both the Prep and Upper School academic buildings, a new state-of-the-art turf football field (completed), and an expansion of the archives.

In January, 2007, the school announced the arena campaign, dubbed "At Centre Ice." UCC raised $17.5-million for the construction of the new arena complex. The facility contains one NHL and one Olympic-size ice rink.^[45] The complex is named the William P. Wilder Arena & Sports Complex, after the alumnus who was the project's key donor.

William P. Wilder '40 Sports Complex

After fundraising, and three years of building, a new UCC sports complex has been built. The arena was officially opened on February 6, 2009, as part of Winterfest. The complex has had many donors, the most noted ones being William P. Wilder, the Miklas family, John Eaton and George Mara. The arena has heated seating for over 500 spectators, with a heated seating area for alumni(old boys) to watch hockey games, football games and track meets over the new oval. The complex was built on the exact spot of the old Patrick Johnson Arena, which stood from 1971-2007. It was named after the former principal of UCC, the late Patrick Johnson. The total cost of the sports complex was $32 million which was entirely raised by donations from old boys and parents.

Tuition, scholarships, and assets

Upper Canada College is Canada's wealthiest independent school^[46] having an endowment of more than $40 million (CAD).^[47]

As of 2007, tuition fees range from $24,700 to $27,700 CAD(not including books and uniform) for day-boy students, and $40,500 to $42,000 for boarding.^[48] The institution is well-known for its strict admissions standards, accepting approximately 25% of all applicants.^[49] To those, UCC offers over $1.4 million in financial aid to students in Grade Seven and above,^[50] providing needs-based assistance.^[51] The school plans to increase financial assistance over the next decade, and to help a more diverse range of students attend UCC.^[52] Scholarships include the McLeese Family Scholarship - founded in 1992 to assist international students in attending UCC and taking advantage of debating opportunities; Willis McLeese donated $1.8 million towards this scholarship in 2003.

The College has a notable collection of artwork, antiques, and war medals. This collection includes Canada's first Victoria Cross, awarded in 1854 to Old Boy Alexander Roberts Dunn, and a Victoria Cross awarded to Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn. These medals were given to the Canadian War Museum on permanent loan on May 17, 2006.^[53] UCC holds a collection of original paintings from the Group of Seven, though several were auctioned by the College in an effort to pay for the lawsuits it faced in 2004.^[54] The school holds an original Stephen Leacock essay, titled Why Boys Leave Home - A Talk on Camping, donated in 2005, and published for the first time in the Globe and Mail.^[55] In UCC's possession is a chair owned by Sir John A. Macdonald, and another that once belonged to George Airey Kirkpatrick.^[56]

Government, faculty, and staff

Upper Canada College is administered by a Board of Governors as a public trust, with the current Chair of the Board being Michael MacMillan, Executive Chairman of Alliance Atlantis.^[57]

The school's Principal is Dr. James Power, with both the Preparatory School and Upper School headed by Donald Kawasoe. The Upper School is in turn divided into the Middle Years Division, directed by Derek Poon, and a Senior Years Division, directed by Scott Cowie. There are 72 faculty members in total, 64 of which teach at the Upper School. Within the Upper School faculty there are 52 men and 12 women, 26 of which have advanced university degrees. Ten faculty members reside on the campus.^[58]

Student body

UCC is a non-denominational school with 1,000 day students and 110 boarders, who all study the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme during Grades Eleven and Twelve.^[59] From Senior Kindergarten to Grade Seven (known as Remove) students attend the Preparatory School (the Prep). Following this, a boy may move on to the Upper School, which consists of Grades Eight to Twelve. The Upper School years are known as follows:

• Grade Eight: Year One
• Grade Nine: Year Two
• Grade Ten: Foundation Year
• Grade Eleven: IB1
• Grade Twelve: IB2

400 boys are enrolled at the Prep,^[60] while the remainder are at the Upper School; boarding is only available to students in Grade Eight and above. Though the administration planned to phase out boarding in favour of increased socio-economic diversity, widespread protest from the college's old boys led to the abandonment of such plans and the administration re-committed to revitalizing the boarding programme. The current student-to-teacher ratio is 18:1 in the lower grades and 19:1 in the upper grades.^[50]

Like several other Commonwealth schools, UCC divides its students into ten houses, though only in the Upper School (Prep students are divided into Forms). The house system was first adopted in 1923. There were only four houses until the late 1930s; there are now ten houses in all. Two of these, Seaton's and Wedd's, are boarding houses while the remaining eight (Bremner's, Howard's, Jackson's, Martland's, McHugh's, Mowbray's, Orr's, and Scadding's) are for day students. The houses compete in an annual intramural competition for the Prefects' Cup. Each House is also paired up with a "sister house" from Bishop Strachan School, and the boarders also take part in weekend events and trips with boarders from neighbouring girls' schools such as Havergal College.^[61]

The school's student government, known as the Board of Stewards comprises 17 elected members of the Leaving Class. The Board represents the students at many events such as Association Day and Hockey Night, and relays their wishes during times of change or concern to the upper administration.

Curriculum

Upper Canada College educates boys from Senior Kindergarten through to Grade Twelve, in two separate buildings on the main campus. Graduates receive both the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

International Baccalaureate

In 1996, UCC adopted the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Today the entire curriculum is guided by the IB program, beginning with the IB Primary Years Program (PYP) from Senior Kindergarten to Form Six, which attempts to foster attributes characteristic of a "globally minded" student who inquires, thinks, communicates, and is knowledgeable and principled; an emphasis is placed on the development of positive attitudes towards people, the environment and learning. French, language, mathematics, science, outdoor education, physical education, the arts, and more are covered.^[62] Form Six and Remove (Grade 7) are bridging years between the PYP and the Upper School, though the same courses are taught.

Once boys move to the Upper School in Year One (Grade Eight), they begin university preparation through a liberal arts program. The courseload includes mathematics, history, geography, science, English, civics, and the dramatic, visual, and musical arts, as well as computer science. All students must study at least one language in addition to English before graduation.^[63]

Students earn the IB diploma on top of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma; the additional diploma aids students in Canadian University acceptances.^[64] UCC boys average a point total of 36 in the final examinations, and 2 bonus points.^[65] The majority of boys take Mathematical Methods; as well, UCC pioneered and wrote the syllabus of the IB's newest, and still developing course, World Cultures. As an IB World School, UCC is in charge of internally administering both CAS, Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay.^[63]

Extracurricular activities

The arts

UCC runs a variety of extracurricular theatre programs, ranging in scope and scale, with at least one large scale and one small scale production each year. Productions have included The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Alchemist, several variations of Hamlet, as well as musicals such as The Boy Friend and West Side Story. Smaller, student written and run plays are also produced, some of which feature provocative material, including references to drugs and sex, the on-stage smoking of cigarettes by minors, and UCC's first ever publicly performed homosexual kiss. The school awards the Robertson Davies Award for outstanding achievement on-stage.

UCC also supports a music programme, with education taking place both within classrooms as well as through numerous bands and music groups which practice extra-curricularly; including a wind ensemble, concert band, stage band, string ensemble, jazz ensemble, and singers. These groups, as well as individual students, have won various prizes, including gold at MusicFest Canada, and numerous levels of award from the Kiwanis Music Festival.^[66][67] UCC hosts the fundraising Youth 4 Youth concert, which also features bands and performers from underprivileged areas of Toronto.

College ensembles have toured various parts of the world, including Hungary, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou, China.

Athletics

UCC teams compete in the CISAA and OFSAA, and regularly place high in the standings at national and international competitions, such as the Head of the Charles Regatta where UCC placed third overall, just behind Princeton University.^[68] UCC is currently building a new twinpad hockey arena. The arena will have some environmentally friendly facilities such as using the heat produced by making the ice to heat the bubble.

School events

Every year the school plans and runs several on or off-site events, some of which are open only to students in certain years, while others to the entire student population, alumni, and their respective friends and family. These events are intended to serve a variety of purposes – promoting school spirit, for enjoyment, fund raising or philanthropic causes. Many of these events are organized by the Upper Canada College Association, with the help of parent and student volunteers.

• Association Day is analogous to UCC's homecoming. Held since 1979, "A-Day," as it is informally known, constitutes the school's largest annual event, taking place over the last weekend of September, and culminating on the Saturday with a large festival, including competitive matches for all fall sports teams. Association Day is also used as a fundraiser for charities. Following the daytime events is the Association Dinner, attended by Old Boys, and honouring those celebrating their five year incremental (i.e. 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, etc.) class reunions.^[69]

• The Founder's Dinner commemorates the school's founding, and has been held for more than a century, typically taking place on the third weekend in January, to coincide closely with Lieutenant Governor Colborne's birthday. The formal dinner is held on the Thursday night before a four day weekend, given to the students to commemorate the occasion. The dinner itself consists of addresses, a keynote speech given by UCC alumni, and presentation of awards.^[69]

• UCC Gala is black tie fundraiser, held every 3 or 4 years in May traditionally in UCC's Lett Gym, however in 2007 it was moved off-campus to reduce disruption at the school during year end exams. It was established for both family and friends of current or former students, and is the school's pre-eminent source of donations, raising over $1 million at each event.^[70] It is held in conjunction with a silent auction of donated goods and services.

• The Battalion Ball is a yearly dance held off-campus, at venues like the Royal York Hotel or Arcadian Court. The event began in 1887, when it was called the "At Home," and was a UCC community-wide event, similar to a modern homecoming. The revival of the UCC Rifle Corps in 1891 resulted in students attending the At Home, in their cadet uniforms, and by 1897 a dance was held that evening, known as the Rifle Corps Dance. The event was titled the Battalion Ball in 1931, just before the UCC Cadet Battalion. By 1971, the colloquial nickname "The Batt" was devised, and in 1975 the dance was held off the UCC campus for the first time in its history, at the King Edward Hotel. After 1976, when the Cadet Corps was disbanded, school uniforms replaced the military attire, rock bands played, and the Batt became more of an end-of-the-school-year prom. Today attire is traditionally tuxedo for boys, and evening gown or cocktail dress for girls, and music is provided by DJs. This event is open for students in grades 11 and 12.^[71]

• The Stewards' Dance is UCC's fall semi-formal, and is typically fashioned around costume party themes such as "Great Couples in History." The dance takes place in late October, and is administrated by the Board of Stewards for all students in grades 11 and above.

• Hockey Night has been held by College since 1933 as an evening where the First Hockey team would play a feature game against one of UCC's rival schools in competition for the Foster Hewitt Victory Trophy.^[16] The game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens, thanks to the generosity of the arena's builder, Conn Smythe, and its (as well as the then Toronto Maple Leafs) owner, Harold Ballard, both themselves Old Boys. After the closing of the Gardens in 2000, the event was moved to the Air Canada Centre and then the Ricoh Coliseum. Over the decades other games were added to the roster, including a game involving the school's Junior Varsity team, the final game of the house hockey tournament, and a game between Havergal College and Bishop Strachan School. By the early 1990s, pleasure skating, and Prep School games had been added to the evening's schedule.

• The Terry Fox Run is one of Upper Canada College's most successful events. The school is an official site for the run, acting as the starting, ending point, and event part of the course, which ventures throughout Toronto's Belt-Line. UCC's Terry Fox Run is also the largest site, and has also raised the most money in the world since 2000.^[72]

• The Prep Games Day is an annual held event at the prep and is wildly anticipated by prep students and faculty alike each year.

School programs

• The World Affairs Conference is Canada's oldest student run conference, and one of North America's most successful. It is held annually, attended by over 750 international students from 20 schools;^[73] providing a forum for students to hear opinions of leaders in the global community and discuss current and pressing world issues amongst themselves. Past speakers have included Ralph Nader, Stephen Lewis, Michael Ignatieff, Susan Faludi, Gwynne Dyer, and Thomas Homer-Dixon,^[73] all of whom have spoken on a variety of topics including Human Rights, Gender Issues, Justice, Globalization, and Health Ethics. The current chair of WAC is Shahab Fadavi.

• The Wernham West Centre for Learning is the most comprehensive and endowed secondary school learning facility in Canada. Created in 2002 with a $6.9 million donation by the Wernham family to fund the establishment of a department pertaining to the refinement of academic skills and assisting the students with learning disabilities, its primary focus is to facilitate improved learning skills and abilities, as well as accommodate for students with particular learning disabilities.^[74] During the late 1990s, many requests for such a centre were made.

The logo of UCC's Green School program.

• The Ontario Model Parliament (OMP) is a simulation of a provincial parliament. Upper Canada College and St. Clement's School students make up a majority of the Executive Committee that organizes and runs the Model Parliament. It is composed of two events: an Elections-Day at UCC followed by a three-day Simulation takes place in the Chamber at Queen's Park. The first OMP event took place in 1986. Past Elections Day speakers have included Art Eggleton, John Tory, John Aimers, Bob Rae, and Rex Murphy. The current head of OMP is James Henderson.

• The UCC Green School is an environmental organization composed of student, teachers and faculty from all over the school. Through this program UCC has planted and maintained an organic garden, reduced landfill waste by twenty percent, and water consumption by twenty-six percent.^[75] The Green School has won many awards for its work, especially in the domain of water, including the 2006 "Green Toronto Award" from the City of Toronto and an Environmental Stewardship Award from the National Audubon Society.^[76]

• The International Club is a student commitee focused on expanding the cultural and religious horizons of the school.

School media

The College maintains and administers its own publishing company, the UCC Press. The press, which produces all school publications, also once printed professional texts, novels and histories, such as those by Robert Lowell. Today, the UCC Press still prints the majority of school-related publications (newspaper, alumni magazines, financial reports, etc.), save the College Times. UCC provides a several publications, most of which are written, directed and printed by students.

Robertson Davies, editor of the College Times while a student at UCC.

• College Times, UCC's yearbook, is the oldest school publication in existence, having been printed without fail since September, 1857.^[4] Past editors include Robertson Davies, Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Leacock.

• Old Times is the school's alumni magazine, which reports on the lives of Old Boys, and highlights recent and upcoming events.

• The Blazer is the college humour newspaper. It has recently been combined with Convergence in part of a school media concatenation strategy initiated in 2007.

• Quiddity is the school's annual arts and literature publication, which showcases students' creative work.

• The Blue Page is the "opinionated voice of UCC". It is a one-page weekly publication of letters to the editor, expressing the opinions of the UCC community regarding any relevant issue.

• Convergence, founded in 2000, is the school's student newspaper, which reports solely on school issues. Since its inception, Convergence has emerged as one of the leading student-run publications in Canada, receiving awards from the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail - most notably the award for "Best Student-Run High School Newspaper", which it has won several times. It has also received numerous donations from the National Post.

• BluesTV was a student led school television network and was started in 2007 by the installation of one television. The closed-circuit television network was expanded to include 5 large screen televisions. The network aired multimedia created by UCC students, slideshows of pictures from various school events as well as promotional material created for the College. BluesTV became a subsidiary of the Media Association in 2009, fostering the operation of a school live-announcement submission and display system.

Community service

UCC offers a Service program that directs students to engage in voluntary community service.^[77] UCC runs its own united program with Habitat for Humanity: twice a year, the school administers a fund raiser with which one full housing unit can be built in the downtown Toronto area. As well, over 50 students annually commit over 60 hours to the building of this unit.

Horizons is a year-long, UCC run program with which local underprivileged children are tutored twice a week by current UCC student volunteers, and has recently been expanded to include athletic games and training. UCC graduates studying at McGill University launched a spin-off program in Quebec, between the Collège Jean-Eudes and inner-city Montreal schools. In 2003 the program was honoured by the Toronto District School Board, and the program in Quebec won first prize at the Gala Forces Avenir. In 2006 the programme was awarded the Urban Leadership Award by the Canadian Urban Institute, which itself is dedicated to the enhancement of urban life.^[78]

Each year UCC also organises trips for 15 to 20 its Upper School students to various third world countries where they take part in community building services such as constructing schools, wells and homes, or aiding in conservation work. These trips usually take place during the March Break. Students have ventured to places like Venezuela, El Salvador, Kenya, and China.^[79][80] One of the most recent trips was an OLPC laptop implementation at a secondary school in Kenya, designed and deployed by Grade 10 and 11 students.

Norval

Upper Canada College owns and maintains an outdoor educational facility, Canada's oldest "outdoor school," located in Norval, Ontario. Though the College only uses a select few, the Norval property is over 450 acres (181 hectares) in area, through which much of the area's Credit River flows.^[42]

By the early 20th century, the city of Toronto was already growing quickly around the College's Deer Park campus, causing the trustees to begin an exploration into the possibility of once again moving the school. The present Norval property, north of the city, was purchased in 1913, and plans for a new college building were even drawn up by a Toronto architectural firm. However, due to the First World War and the depression, plans to move the school were abandoned in the 1930s.^[4]

Still, the property remained in the hands of the school, and it was developed into an outdoor education centre for UCC students and community. Beginning in 1913, an annual picnic was held at Norval, this first being catered by the King Edward Hotel. As it was originally land cleared for agricultural uses, much of the site was open field. However, since the 1940s over 700,000 seedlings were planted by staff and students.^[81] The first bunk-house was built in the 1930s, and in 1964, an arboretum was planted, while a modern bunk-house, designed by Blake Millar (Class of 1954), and which won him a Massey Medal for excellence in architecture in 1967,^[16] was constructed.^[4] Stephen House not only contains residential spaces for students and staff, but also a classroom/laboratory. There is also an older structure that was the original bunk-house, and a bungalow-style residence for the property caretaker. In 2003, several log cabins were built for writing retreats.

Norval's main focus of management is toward improved diversity of forest cover and the related protection of wildlife and the Credit River watershed,^[82] aiding the school's primary function of providing outdoor learning programs to students;^[62] other Ontario schools use the property and its facilities during the weeks when UCC students are not in residence. Throughout the school year, entire classes, houses, or portions of certain grades will have a several day stay at Norval, where they will learn about a range of topics including environmental systems, sustainability, archeology, plant types, river study, and survival, in addition to participating in trust building exercises, meditation, and athletic games. Some of the programs are held in conjunction with Outward Bound Canada.^[83]

Into the 2000s, the school came under criticism for keeping the entirety of the increasingly taxed Norval property, while so little of it was actually used; this argument is gained increased credence in light of the consistent yearly tuition hikes, and mounting legal costs. Despite the fact that the school repeatedly stated that it had no intention of selling the property, citing not only rapidly increasing land value, but also an intention to hold it in order to prevent industrial development of the property, which contains a variety of wildlife, including spotted deer and hares, UCC sold a small portion of the land in 2007 to help cover legal costs.^[84]

Norval hosts an "Open House" each season with the spring "Maple Madness" focusing on the site's traditional maple syrup manufacturing.^[85]

Affiliations

UCC is a member of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS), the Canadian Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), the Secondary School Admission Test (SAT) Board, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) and an associate member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the International Boys' School Coalition (IBSC), the Toronto Boys' School Coalition (TBSC), and the Principal is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) in the UK.

The school also remains one of the "Little Big Four" along with the other Ontario boys' independent schools established in the 19th century of St. Andrew's College, Ridley College and Trinity College School.

Though Bishop Strachan School (BSS) is located only two blocks from UCC, BSS is not UCC's sister school, as is sometimes thought. Instead, BSS's historical brother school is Trinity College School in Port Hope; both share Anglican High Church origins. UCC students work on joint projects with students of other nearby girls' schools, including St. Clement's School, Havergal College, Bishop Strachan School, and Branksome Hall. Lower Canada College, a co-educational private school in Montreal, Quebec, is not affiliated with UCC.

Alumni

The College states that almost 100% of graduates go on to post-secondary schooling, though some will take a sabbatical.^[86] Though the career paths of the College's alumni are varied, UCC has a reputation for educating many of Canada's powerful, elite and wealthy, having a worldwide network of over 6,000.^[87] As is common in single-sex male schools, UCC's alumni are known as "Old Boys".

UCC Association

The Upper Canada College Old Boys' Association was established in 1891, on the day of the closure of the College's Russell Square campus. The name was changed to the Upper Canada College Association in 1969,^[16] when the association expanded its mandate to include parents, faculty, staff and friends of the College.

The Association's purpose is to "preserve and perpetuate the associations and traditions of the College." Managed by an eight person Board of Directors, elected annually by members at the Annual Meeting, the Board meets six times annually to discuss matters facing the College and plan Association events. Four of the 17 members of the College's Board of Governors come from the Association board, including the President of the Association, and serve on the larger body for a three-year period. The Association has an office at the College, and is run by Old Boy Paul Winnell.^[69]

The UCC Association Speakers Series and the Common Ties Mentorship Program, established to link successful young Old Boys with students preparing to take on a career in a similar field, are also run by the UCC Association.^[88] The group also organizes Old Boy reunions all over the world, through the branches that it operates in fifteen locations outside Toronto, in Canada, the United States, UK, China and Hungary. The local branch president organizes events for all members of the Association, which are held either annually or bi-annually in the relevant location. Branch Presidents also act as the Association's representative in each location, helping members re-locating in the area make contact with other Association members and helping find "lost" Association members. In the summer of 2006, UCC created a social network hosted on the school's homepage.

Noted alumni

The school has produced six lieutenant governors, three premiers, and seven chief justices. At least 15 graduates have been appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, 24 have been named Rhodes Scholars,^[89] 10 are Olympic medallists, and at least 13 have been accepted as fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. No less than 40 have been inducted into the Order of Canada since the honour's inception in 1967.^[86]

Noted faculty

Faculty have included:

• Robertson Davies - CC, FRSC, FRSL, noted author
• David Gilmour - Author, broadcast journalist
• Rev. Charles Gordon - Noted author^[90]
• Stephen Leacock - PhD, FRSC
• J.P.M.B. "Jock" de Marbois - CBE, Légion d'honneur, commodore of Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy^[91]
• Sir George Robert Parkin - CMG, KCMG, leader of the Imperial Federation League and First Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship^[92]
• Sir Edward Robert Peacock - Receiver General to the Duchy of Cornwall and the Director of the Bank of England^[93]
• Henry Scadding - Canadian intellectual
• Arnold Walter - OC, Austrian musician, founder of the Canadian Opera Company, Director of Music at UofT^[4]
• Bruce Littlejohn - Widely published and internationally recognized photographer/writer/conservationist^[94]

Ontario Heritage

The Ontario Heritage Trust, a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, recently erected three plaques outlining UCC's presence and history in Toronto. One is on the north-east corner of 20 Duncan Street (the only existing building from the College's original campus), the second at the south-east corner of 212 King Street West, and one at the main entrance of the current campus at 200 Lonsdale Road.

See also

• Lower Canada College

Footnotes

External links

• Upper Canada College
• Ontario Plaques - Upper Canada College