Victoria College is one of the seven colleges on the downtown campus to which students in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto belong. You will be asked to choose your College after being admitted to the university. Victoria College strives to give its students the experience of belonging to a smaller community with a long and proud tradition within the University of Toronto which is a world renowned, large, diverse university in which almost any subject can be studied and whose strengths lie in the richness of its resources and the excellence of its faculty.

For further information about Victoria College please contact the Registrar's Office, 73 Queen's Park Crescent, University of Toronto, M5S lK7, tel. (416) 585-4508, fax 585-4459. registrar.victoria@utoronto.ca

For details about admission criteria for the University of Toronto, please contact the Office of Admissions and Awards for the University of Toronto, 315 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A3.

Student Body
Victoria College had approximately 3,900 students registered in the 2002-2003 academic year. Like all the colleges, we try to maintain a balanced enrolment of Science, Humanities, Social Science and Commerce students which reflects the preferences of students in the entire Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Our students are drawn from every ethnic and social background, and are representative of Canadian society as it is today. This means that at Victoria, you will have an opportunity to encounter different ways of perceiving and knowing, and to make lasting friendships with others whose backgrounds and future plans are different from your own.

History
Victoria was established by Royal Charter in 1836 in Cobourg, Ontario, and became a federated college of the University of Toronto in 1892. Originally founded by Methodists, Victoria has always been open to all and continues to adhere to the terms of its Charter in selecting students for admission and awards without regard to race, colour, creed and national or ethnic origin.

Victoria's campus occupies the northeast corner of the University of Toronto campus, not far from Bay and Bloor streets. The original building in the Romanesque Revival style, opened in 1892, is surrounded by residences, dining hall and library to form a secluded space of lawn, trees and pleasing architecture. Students and teachers have been living and working together in this place for over 100 years, striving to achieve all that is best in university education.

Victoria's alumni include distinguished men and women in public life (the late Lester Bowles Pearson 1919, Prime Minister of Canada 1963-68; Pauline McGibbon 1933, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario 1974-80; Noor Hassanali 1947, President of Trinidad and Tobago; the present Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable H.N.R. Jackman 1953); writers (Margaret Atwood 1961, Dennis Lee 1962); scholars and scientists (Northrop Frye 1933, Arthur Schawlow, co-inventor of the laser, 1941); actors (Don Harron 1948, Donald Sutherland 1958); film directors and film critics (Norman Jewison 1949, Jack Batten 1954); business leaders and bankers (Graeme Ferguson 1952, president of IMAX Systems Corporation; Peter Cowperthwaite Godsoe 1961, president and CEO of the Bank of Nova Scotia; Maureen Kempston-Darkes 1973, president and CEO of General Motors Canada). The loyalty of Victoria's alumni, both those of earlier years as well as the more recent graduates, attests to the quality of their experience during their undergraduate years.

Student Life
Involvement outside the classroom is a very important part of a University education. At Victoria you will have the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities offered at the College and across the University. These can include some aspect of student government, social events, clubs, Amnesty International, theatrical productions, student newspapers and athletics, and Vic-Reach, an organization of volunteers providing tutoring and mentoring help to primary and middle-school students from multicultural backgrounds. Victoria has its own student centre, the Wymilwood Student Union, equipped with meeting rooms, Ned's Terrace Cafe, The Cat's Eye pub, a darkroom, a music room with grand piano, a games room with pool tables and lounge space for studying or for sitting and chatting with friends. Wymilwood provides a home base on campus for non-residence students. It is also the home of Victoria's student government and the offices of the student newspaper, The Strand. Many of the college clubs, such as the Film Society, Theatre Company, Vic Chorus and Music Society and the Photography Club are housed in Wymilwood.

The student government organizes Orientation, a four-day program in September when the newly-admitted students, including those who will commute to the campus when classes begin, move into residence to meet their fellow-students and learn about life at Victoria and the University of Toronto.

You are welcome to become actively involved in Victoria's student publications, the College newspaper called the Strand, as well as Acta Victoriana, a forum for contemporary prose, poetry, art and photography by Victoria students.

Theatre thrives at Victoria. You can take part in the Bob, Victoria's 126-year-old satirical revue, by helping backstage, writing scripts, or acting on stage. Little or no talent is required. During the winter session an active theatre company produces four to six plays. The first production of the year is usually the winner of the previous year's student one-act play competition.

VUSAC's Productions Commissioner is in charge of theatre at Vic. Responsibilities of the Productions Commissioner include a one-act play competition, managing the budget for the Bob, and supporting Hart House Theatre competition events.

Recent productions include Colin Tait's Another Antigone, which went on to Toronto's Fringe Festival.

Victoria has sports programs for both men and women, organized by the Victoria College Athletic Association (VCAA). And of course you have access to the ultramodern University of Toronto Athletic Centre and to the facilities at Hart House.

Residences
At Victoria we firmly believe that living and learning go hand in hand at university. The College provides comfortable and attractive living and dining facilities for men and women with an emphasis on creating and sustaining an atmosphere which promotes growth and learning both inside and outside the classroom. Contributing to this is an active residence student government working cooperatively with well-trained graduate student Dons to provide both leadership and support.

Most students in residence at Victoria are students who have demonstrated excellence in academic preparation and in meeting an increasingly demanding University admission standard. At the same time, they have tremendously rich high school and community backgrounds with extra-curricular experience and interests ranging from music to sports, from journalism to computer simulation games, from student government to stage productions. They are academically ambitious and have career plans which recognize that doing one's best at university is a necessary stepping-stone to the future. That is why at Victoria it is thoroughly understood and acknowledged that residence students support and respect one another, that different courses and programs make different demands, and that ultimately the residences are here to contribute to academic success.

Resources and Services
Victoria College students have access to all the courses and programs of the Faculty of Arts and Science of the University of Toronto. The College itself is home to about 80 members of the University of Toronto teaching staff, whose interests cover a wide range of subjects. Some teach in the special programs that Victoria offers: Literary Studies, Renaissance Studies, and Semiotics. We believe that our most important role is to provide outstanding resources and services to our students to help them achieve success in their work toward a University of Toronto degree.

The E.J. Pratt Library, one of the largest of the college libraries, is a major academic resource with special strength in Canadian Studies, Classics, English, French, German, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy and Religion. Its staff are friendly and helpful, and it provides excellent study facilities. Of course you also have access to the entire range of the University of Toronto's library facilities, and you can find out what is available and where by accessing the Universi