Quick Facts

U of T Mississauga: A Timeline


Thumbnail of graphical, colourful timeline of U of T Mississauga

Click here to see how U of T Mississauga has evolved through the years (1960-2000).

 

Did You Know...

  • The first classes were held in September 1966 in temporary quarters at T.L. Kennedy Secondary School.
  • U of T Mississauga was officially established in 1967 as Erindale College.
  • Erindale College began with one building, two tennis courts, 155 students, 28 faculty and 40 staff.
  • U of T Mississauga motto: Tantum Nobis Creditum, "So much has been entrusted to us"
  • The university was granted its coat of arms in 1975. The colours green and gold are dominantly featured and represent the natural beauty of the campus. The oak tree is from the U of T coat of arms and the wavy blue and silver bars in the chevron signify the proximity of the campus to the Credit River
  • The campus is situated on 225 acres of protected green belt along the Credit River.
  • U of T Mississauga is home to about 10,500 undergraduate students (up from 6,500 in 2002-03), over 300 graduate students and more than 690 faculty and staff.
  • U of T Mississauga has over 34,000 alumni worldwide.
  • U of T Mississauga’s banner for growth — Grow Smart, Grow Green — balances campus development with environmental sensitivity and responsibility.
  • The South Building cafeteria, Spigel Hall, was named in memory of Prof. I. 'Mike' Spigel, a former professor of psychology, associate dean and founding member of Erindale College.
  • Colman House, named after the first dean of Erindale College (John Colman), served as the campus' first student centre, the student union office, offices for the first campus newspaper (The Erindalian), Radio Erindale, a game and book room and a makeshift pub known as "Ugly's." Now, the first year residence building, Oscar Peterson Hall, is built on that site.
  • Oscar Peterson Hall residence is named after the late international jazz legend and Mississauga resident, Oscar Peterson.
  • The campus pub moved from the Colman House into what became a legendary portable along the campus' "Five Minute Walk." At the the time is was known as the "Erindale Campus Centre" and unofficially as the "Blind Duck."
  • The university hosted the first public showing in Canada of moon rock samples - a 21-gram lump and a teaspoon of moon dust in a vial - from October 11-12, 1969. The showing is commemorated by the "lunar labule" structure on Principal's Road on the campus.
  • The university hosted a musician-in-residence, John Loomis, in 1975, who made music a vital part of campus life. At the time, the campus boasted a stage band, concert band, concert choir and string ensemble that performed on campus and practiced weekly in the "Music Hut," a portable that once existed north of the old pub on the Five Minute Walk.
  • The university purchased personal computers for the first time in 1986. Students paid a one-time user fee of $2 to access the 17 computers in the library throughout the year!
  • In 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar, a doctoral student at Erindale College in the early 1970s, became the first Canadian woman to fly in space. She kept an Erindale College crest among the personal items she took aboard her space flight.
  • Theatre Erindale's debuted its first production, "The Farm Show," in November 1993.