Dear ...
I am writing to add my voice to those protesting the planned closure of Trent University's downtown colleges in Peterborough. As a graduate of Trent and an alumna of Catherine Parr Traill College I find it hard to believe that such shortsightedness and poverty of imagination have come to prevail at my alma mater.
The town colleges at Trent are an essential part of the university's unique intellectual atmosphere and of its academic success. The central location of the colleges help integrate university members into the community in a manner that is productive for both. Faculty, staff, students in residence and off-campus students use the town colleges as a focal point for living and working in Peterborough. The neighbourhoods immediately surrounding the colleges are kept alive by an organic mix of people of all ages and social milieux, unlike so many other decaying small city centres in Ontario.
I lived at or within a stone's throw of Traill on and off for nearly a decade. The confluence of local and transient populations at Trent's downtown colleges encouraged me to stay on and make my own small economic and cultural contribution to Peterborough, even while pursuing graduate studies elsewhere. I now teach at Brock, a university of a similar age and isolated suburban location. My students and I have no immediate need or even opportunity to live, learn or work in the city of St. Catharines and I think we are all poorer for that lack of local social and historical context and sense of place.
My understanding of the situation, primarily through word of mouth and media coverage – not through any efforts at public accountability on the part of Trent's current administrators – is that both financial costs and potential savings have been misrepresented in advancing the Superbuild application. This disturbing possibility aside, Trent's history of excellence and independence as a small university is gravely threatened by this proposal. The amputation of the Trent's downtown colleges will eliminate the creative interactions that occur between uniquely identified colleges and decentralized sites of learning. Highly regarded Trent programs like Canadian Studies, Cultural Studies, Native Studies and International Studies have been built around the values of diversity and independence that the town colleges help foster.
I have studied or taught at five other universities in Canada and the UK. I can say, with feeling, that Trent stands out in providing students with the foundations of intellectual rigour and with a sense of character and community that is unparalleled in undergraduate education in this province. The town colleges are one of Trent's most attractive features and the current Board and administration should seriously reconsider their proposal.
Yours sincerely,
Marian Bredin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Communications, Popular Culture and Film
Brock University
St. Catharines ON L2S 3A1
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