Trent University

Trent University is a liberal arts and science-oriented institution located along the Otonabee River in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

The enabling legislation is the Trent University Act, 1962-63. The University was founded through the efforts of a citizens' committee interested in creating a university to serve the Trent valley. The chancellor of Trent University is Tom Jackson and Dr. Steven E. Franklin is the president and vice-chancellor.

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 has its own residence hall, dining room, and student government, other than Julian Blackburn which is a non-residential college and home to Trent's 1,700 part-time students. The campus plan and the original colleges were designed by the Canadian architect Ron Thom. A large portion of the main campus consists of land that was donated by GE Canada. This donation included a functioning hydroelectric power plant dating from the 1890s, and which still generates a substantial portion of the university's electricity; the power plant is being updated and a second generating plant being considered.

Trent also runs a full- and part-time program in Oshawa at the new Thornton Rd. campus, with an enrolment of over 800 students. The university is represented in Canadian Interuniversity Sport by the Trent Excalibur. Some of the more notable specialized programs at Trent include the Queen's University/Trent concurrent education program, the Trent University School of Education, a joint program with Fleming College, in which students earn a B.Sc.F.S. in Forensic Science, as well as a B.Sc.N. program in Nursing.