History of Upper Canada College - Late 20th Century

Late 20th Century

UCC welcomed the first woman to its Board of Governors in 1971 with the appointment of Pauline Mills McGibbon, although she resigned in 1974 upon her appointment to the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. Five years following her departure, UCC celebrated its 150th anniversary in the presence of the College's Official Visitor, Prince Philip, at the College's first Association Day, and Sandi Ryder became the first woman elected to the College's Board of Governors.

By 1980 boarding for Prep students ended, with some of the dormitories being converted to computer labs where students learned the fostering technology.

In 1991, UCC was visited by the Hungarian President Árpád Göncz, who would soon after enrol his grandson at the school, and in 1993, Prince Philip again visited to officially open the Foster Hewitt Athletic Centre, the Eaton Building, as well as the rebuilt College gates, the Mara Gates, at the foot of the main avenue. Two years later the College decided to greatly alter its academic course and adopted the International Baccalaureate programme.

James FitzGerald, a UCC Old Boy himself, published a book in 1994 titled Old Boys; the Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College. It stirred up some controversy in Canadian media due to its candid portrayal of life at the College, derived from excerpts of interviews that FitzGerald had conducted with former students, ranging from Conrad Black and Michael Ignatieff to unknowns who managed gas stations or worked in retail. Reactions varied; Charlotte Gray wrote in the Toronto Star: "My reaction to this book is fascinated revulsion - mainly because the school seems to have taught successive generations of boys that girls are some alien species that is both terrifying and stupid," while Jill Rigby said in the Toronto Sun: "Yeah, so what if some UCC teachers were pedophiles? All that stuff has been going on in educational institutions since Socrates met Plato."

Further information: Controversy at Upper Canada College

The publication of the book had an effect on the College, both in its internal structure, as well as its relationship with the broader community. Peter Dalglish, the founder of Street Kids International, criticised the school heavily in his interview for Old Boys, where he said "A prime failing of UCC is that they have no sense of being a part of a community within the city or country. The school has to change; it is still very upper middle class." Subsequently, he was hired by the College to change school culture. Under his direction, along with Nanci Goldman, the former Toronto Board co-ordinator of inner city services, UCC students have since been partnered with inner city Toronto kids in the College's Horizon program.

The Eaton Building was extended in 1999 to accommodate the school's curricular expansion to include grades 1 and 2. Senior kindergarten was introduced in 2003.