Surprise eviction to force prestigious high school off U of T campus
April 28, 2011
Kristin Rushowy and Louise Brown
EDUCATION REPORTERS
The University of Toronto is evicting a one-of-a-kind high school for academic superstars located on its downtown campus — even though it has no plans for the land.
The university has given University of Toronto Schools, known as UTS, until 2021 to move, with a brief explanation that, in the long-term, it needs the space.
The move has baffled students and graduates. They don’t know why the university is ending a 101-year-old relationship, especially after working together for the past five years on a plan to refurbish UTS, a plan that did not cost the university a cent.
“I am extremely surprised and I have a lot of questions,” said John Duffy, who graduated from UTS in 1981, and whose daughter enters Grade 7 there this fall.
“I’m also an alumnus of the University of Toronto, and I’m pretty disappointed with my alma mater. . . . I don’t have a clear sense of what the university’s reasons are for doing this.”
Robert Lord, who graduated in 1958 and is chair of the school’s board, said the proposed $48 million renovation of the old building on Bloor St., east of Spadina Ave., also “created an opportunity for the University of Toronto to develop a significant part of the site for its own use over the long haul.”
UTS is a renowned private school for gifted students, known for its stringent merit-based admissions process and rigorous academic standards. It has spawned two Nobel laureates and 20 Rhodes Scholars.
Cathy Riggall, the U of T’s vice-president of business affairs, said the university “reviewed the development proposal and concluded that accepting it would not contribute to the academic mission of the university; that we would eventually want and need to do something with the site and that it was not appropriate to encumber the future administration of the university by making a long-term commitment.”
But the move is seen by some as a slap in the face to a school that has only added to the U of T’s prestige.
“The school’s given back a fair bit,” said Duffy, citing graduates John Polanyi, a U of T Nobel laureate, and John Evans, a former university president.
Riggall said UTS became independent and self-funding in 2006, and pays rent for the building. However, “the university views the site as a long-term gateway to the campus. We expect to need lots more space during the coming decades.”
Despite hopes by some there may be other space available on campus, Riggall said there’s none.
The UTS board hopes the school can find a site downtown.
Riggall also said she “can’t speculate on how the relationship will evolve when they move off campus” — UTS students currently have access to libraries and other facilities — “but we do have a 100-year history in common.”
The two will retain an official affiliation, and UTS can continue to use the U of T name.
UTS currently has 645 students, and admits about 100 students in Grade 7 each year from about 350 applicants. Students who wish to apply must take the secondary school admission test plus UTS’s own exam, and pass an interview. Only a handful of students are admitted after Grade 7.
Tuition is $18,300 but because admission is based on merit, students who can’t afford it receive subsidies.
David Rounthwaite, an alumnus who chairs the school’s building committee, said the plan is to keep UTS in a central location.
He also hopes the university will provide the school with financial support for the move.
Duffy wants to know if the U of T plans to demolish the building’s historic façade. “This is a pretty sensitive and large piece of real estate at an iconic corner,” he said.
“If they do have a plan, they should really share that with the community. If they don’t, what is their business case for evicting us?”