Trent University

Trent University is a public liberal arts and science-oriented university located along the Otonabee River[2] in Peterborough, Ontario,[3] with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. The enabling legislation is the Trent University Act, 1962-63.[4] The university was founded through the efforts of a citizens' committee interested in creating a university to serve the City of Peterborough and the surrounding counties. The committee recruited Dean Thomas H.B. Symons of the University of Toronto[5] to serve as chair of the academic planning committee and Symons became the university’s first president. The current chancellor of Trent University is Don Tapscott,[6] the first alumnus to hold that position, and Leo Groarke is the president and vice-chancellor.[7] The Symons campus of Trent is approximately 5.6 km2 (2.2 sq mi), over half of which is a part of Trent's Nature Areas, an ecologically diverse wild-life preserve. It is divided into a series of colleges: Champlain, Lady Eaton, Catharine Parr Traill, Otonabee, Peter Gzowski, and Julian Blackburn. Each college, with exception of Blackburn, which is non-residential and serves Trent’s 1,700 part-time students, has its own residence hall, dining room, and student government. The Symons campus plan and the original college buildings, including Champlain College, Lady Eaton College, Bata Library and the Faryon bridge which spans the Otonabee, were designed by the renowned Canadian architect Ron Thom. Canadian General Electric, a major industrial employer in Peterborough, donated a 100-acre parcel of land along the Otonabee and other lands were subsequently acquired on both sides of the river to serve as the site of the campus. This donation included a functioning hydroelectric power plant dating from the 1890s, which still generates a substantial portion of the university's electricity and produces income for the university; the power plant underwent a $22.8-million upgrade in 2013. Trent owns 50% of the power plant along with Peterborough Utilities Group owning the remaining 50%.[8]