History of Campus

The story of Erindale College began when the University of Toronto purchased 150 acres of land along the winding Credit River in the early 1960s.

The area was typical for southern Ontario, with farmland and an elegant 1885 stone house, Lislehurst, in a village called Springfield-on-the-Credit. An excellent early example of Tudor Revival architecture, Lislehurst is the residence of UTM principals and their families. It was named a heritage property by the City of Mississauga in 1985.

The 1960s were an exciting time for the new campus, which opened the doors of Erindale College’s single academic building to 155 students in September 1967. In 1968, J. Tuzo Wilson, the college’s principal, invited a group of local residents to provide a link between the campus and the newly created Town of Mississauga. The Associates of Erindale College (now the Associates of U of T Mississauga) remain active today. Crowds thronged the campus in 1969, when the college mounted the first Canadian exhibition of lunar samples, freshly collected by Apollo 11 astronauts.

The next decade began with the graduation of the first Erindale class of 90 students in 1970. The campus entered a period of steady growth, with the South Building, designed by Raymond Moriyama, opening in 1973. The first new academic building, the Kaneff Centre for Management and Social Sciences, opened in 1992.

The 1990s also saw Erindale travel to the stars when alumna Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman to fly in space, brought an Erindale crest aboard the Discovery shuttle. Back on Earth, Erindale College became known as the University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) in 1998.

The dual demands of the double cohort and UTM’s commitment to sustainability resulted in the construction of innovatively designed and award-winning buildings in the 2000s, such as the state-of-the-art Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre (RAWC). The Communication, Culture and Technology Building (CCT), won a Governor General's Medal in Architecture in 2008.

In 2006, UTM became the first Canadian university to install solid oxide fuel cells to heat and power student residences. The next year, it opened the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre, the first LEED-certified building at University of Toronto.

Over the years, UTM has always maintained a close relationship with the community. Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is a welcome visitor to UTM events, and UTM is involved in many civic initiatives, including the Healthy City Stewardship Centre and the City of Mississauga Economic Development Advisory Council.

This close relationship extends to UTM’s academic programs. The Master of Biotechnology Program includes an industry co-op placement, while the Mississauga Academy of Medicine, located in the newly opened Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex, will partner with hospitals affiliated with the Mississauga community.

In forty years, U of T Mississauga has transformed from a constituent of the Faculty of Arts and Science to become the second-largest division of the University of Toronto with 740 faculty and staff, 148 programs, nearly 13,000 students and more than 40,000 alumni around the world.
 

By Lanna Crucefix