Expanding Access to Higher Education: A History Of The Academic Bridging Program, Woodsworth College, University Of Toronto

By Thomas Socknat

 

The Academic Bridging Program at Woodsworth College has a long, evolving history of expanding university access that began with the launching of the Pre-University Program in 1967.

The year 1967 was a momentous one in Canada because it was the year of the Canadian Centennial celebration.  The big birthday bash mainly took place at Expo 67 as Montreal hosted the world exposition on a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River that came to be symbolized by two futuristic, architectural landmarks: Buckminster Fuller’s famous Geodesic Dome and Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67, a model community and housing complex.  Over 50 million visitors from around the globe discovered Canada, its new national flag, and its optimism and confidence.  But it wasn’t just Montreal that celebrated since almost every community in the country joined in by launching a variety of “centennial projects” that have left behind numerous “Centennial” themed parks, beaches, arenas, schools, roads, etcetera.  The University of Toronto didn’t have a major centennial project per se but it did launch a new program that year that can be seen as one—the Pre-University Program, the first in North America to expand access to a university education to those who didn’t meet the usual university entrance requirements. It would eventually grow to become the largest program of its kind, at one time admitting 1700 students a year.

In order to fully understand this development, it is important to keep in mind the social climate of the time.  The 1960s, especially the late sixties, were years of immense change brought about, in part, by colonial liberation movements, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and the Quiet Revolution in Quebec but also by the new explosion of youth culture as the large baby boom generation came of age and came to represent a new lifestyle of freedom and equality. They eagerly took part in a variety of protests and, after

“Beatlemania” swept North America by mid-decade, registered their influence in all realms of popular culture, particularly folk and rock music, as well as in alternative lifestyles. The American sociologist, Theodore Rozak, dubbed them the “counterculture” and the moniker stuck. By January 1967 thousands of these young people gathered in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for a “Human Be-In”, with music provided by a variety of rock bands and where the Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary coined his famous slogan: “Turn on, tune in and drop out.” 

In a few months it was followed with the so-called “summer of love” but the crowning event for the counterculture came in the summer of 1969 as thousands assembled in upstate New York for the famous Woodstock Music Festival.  Across North America, and indeed the Western world, the young “counterculture” generation was rejecting the old order and demanding broad social, economic and political changes, some calling for outright revolution.    

By 1968 mainly student led demonstrations in France, the “Paris Uprising,” brought down the government of Charles de Gaulle while in the United States massive student led anti-war demonstrations more or less caused President Lyndon Johnson to decline renomination.  It was a year of major unrest, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, urban riots and demonstrations, epitomized by numerous peace rallies and student demonstrators clashing with police at the Democratic Party national convention in Chicago.  In the aftermath of the riots that plagued American cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Brandeis University was the first in the United States to establish a Transitional Year Program specifically designed to encourage and help African-American youth pursue a post-secondary education.  A similar endeavor was later started in Toronto and offered as the Transitional Year Programme at the University of Toronto’s Innis College beginning in 1970.

Meanwhile, Students for a Democratic Society, in the United States, and its Canadian equivalent, the Student Union for Peace Action, continued to press not only for an end to the Vietnam War but also for social and economic justice at home, especially for visible minorities. In the spring of 1968 students at Columbia University went on strike and occupied several campus buildings, including a week-long sit-in in the President’s office. The following spring in Montreal the 14-day student occupation of the computer centre at Sir George Williams University ended in violence and an estimated $2 million in damages in what has been called the largest student riot in Canadian history. At the University of Toronto students attended “teach ins” on Vietnam and rallied against the war but they also demanded empowerment regarding their courses and instructors (resulting in student course evaluations), in the governance of the University and a recognized role in campus activities. (For instance, by the summer of 1971 students were openly pitted against the University administration after they constructed “Wacheca,” a tent hostel on campus for traveling youth, claiming it was their campus.)  They had also been calling for increasing student access to a university education, especially for underprivileged youth facing socio-economic barriers. 

By mid-decade the University of Toronto had partly responded to demographic pressures with the creation of two branch campuses, Erindale College in the West and Scarborough College in the East. But it was the central St. George campus, physically sandwiched between the counterculture hubs of Yorkville coffeehouses and the American ex-pat community in Baldwin village, that was the site of the most radical development, a student-run experiment in co-operative housing and alternative education—Rochdale College. It was founded in 1967/68 as an idealistic, non-degree, free university with no structured courses, exams or marks where students and faculty would live and learn together, directly challenging the traditional view of higher education.  As the U of T historian Kenneth McNaught later observed, the elitist campus disappeared as students attempted to “take over the universities and run them as structureless happenings.”   [McNaught, Conscience and History p. 190]     Change was in the air, fueled by student activism and growing demands for widening educational opportunities. This was the context in which the Pre-University Program was born.

Despite the fact that the Pre-University Program would be known as expanding access to higher education, that idealistic goal was not what originally led to its creation.  Rather, the introduction of the so-called “New Math” in the 1960s resulted in a widespread concern that recent University of Toronto graduates, who had missed the “New Math,” as well as international students, were not adequately prepared to enter graduate studies in a variety of disciplines which were now requiring backgrounds in calculus and statistics.  In the fall of 1965, G. H. Boyes, director of the University of Toronto’s Division of University Extension, proposed offering a non-credit, preparatory math course, through the Division of Extension, designed to prepare mature students with the tools necessary to meet those new requirements in calculus and statistics.  The idea was overwhelmingly endorsed by faculty members across the university, including those in Mathematics, Business, Zoology, and Psychology, and the new preparatory math course was launched in 1966 academic year. [UTARMS, A-1974-0023/008]  However, although a number of university graduates did enroll in the course to brush up their math skills, a keener interest was shown by mature students who had never taken Ontario Grade 13 math in high school, revealing an increasing demand for access to higher education by nonmatriculate students without university preparation.  As a result, in addition to the introduction of only a grade 12 math prerequisite for the math course, Boyes went further and in the fall of 1966 proposed the creation of a new course in English parallel to the preparatory math course. The idea met with encouraging approval, first from the Department of English and finally the Senate Committee on Academic Standards. 

Together the two preparatory courses would form the basis of a new Pre-University Program which would offer mature students the opportunity “to prove their ability without going through all of the high school courses.”  “At the same time,” Boyes wrote, “we could introduce them to the level of performance expected here, and the adjustments that might be required in their personal lives when they enter into a strenuous study programme.” [UTARMS, Memo, 16 Sep 1966, Boyes to E. M. Gruetener, A-19740023/008] Thus it was that the Pre-University Program was created with a clear focus on expanding university access to mature students, most of whom could only attend on a part-time basis. 

Both Pre-University courses provided the equivalent of Grade 13 preparation but at a faster pace and on a higher academic level.  The Math course emphasized algebra, analytic geometry and trigonometry while the English course, composed of lectures, seminars and writing labs, covered poetry, drama and fiction. It was agreed that the instructors in the Program would have to be experienced in teaching and evaluation and might be chosen from the university faculty or exceptional Grade 13 high school teachers or retired professors. To design an appropriate English course, the Assistant to the

Director of University Extension, F.J.P. French, enlisted graduate students Keith Andrews and Harold Burke, who would also serve as the first instructors of a pilot course in the spring of 1967, reminding them that unlike Grade 13, the Pre-University English course had to emphasize testing student comprehension and written expression in order to ensure they achieved university standards. [UTARMS, Letter, Oct. 3, 1966, French to A. K. Andrews and H. Burke, A-1974-0023/008]  Almost immediately the academic integrity of the English course was challenged when an English professor from the Ontario College of Education suggested that their composition course should be seen as an equivalent.  G. H. Boyes, Director of Extension, rejected the idea, explaining to the University’s Office of Admission that the new Pre-University course was much “more than just composition.”  [UTARMS, Letter, April 5, 1967, Boyes to E. Davidson, Director, Office of Admission, A-1974-0023/008] 

It was in September 1967 that the Division of University Extension officially launched its new Pre-University Program, under the supervision of W. S. Jevons, with the stated purpose of assisting mature students to qualify for admission to the University of Toronto.  To be admitted as “mature,” students had to be at least 25 years of age and with at least a 60% on a minimum of one grade 13 course or equivalent. They could choose one of two non-credit courses:  English, specifically designed to help mature students fulfill U of T admission requirements, or Math, designed to do the same but also with its earlier goal of assisting students who intended to do graduate work involving the use of statistics and calculus or those who felt the need for a stronger foundation in math, specifically targeting elementary or secondary teachers in the use of the new curriculum.

Rather than returning graduates, however, the vast majority of those enrolling in the PreUniversity Program courses were mature non-matriculants, from a variety of backgrounds, trying to qualify for university admission, many of them with part-time status since they already had job and family responsibilities.

All part-time degree students at the University of Toronto were registered in the Division of Extension (the various Colleges that comprised the U of T only enrolled full-time students), usually in various certificate programs, and their numbers were increasing.  Consequently, the Division of Extension began a number of initiatives to promote the interests of these degree-course students, both in and out of class, including a newsletter, reading instruction, a writing laboratory (with the cooperation of Innis College), and counseling services.  As well, their student committee laid the groundwork for a part-time student association which would later become APUS, the Association of Part-time University Students. [UTARMS, U of T Presidents Reports, 1967-68. Part Two]   All of this activity aided and abetted the Pre-University Program even though it enrolled nondegree, part-time students in non-credit courses.  It all signaled that the university culture was changing and making room for non-traditional students.

The Pre-University Program, perhaps reflecting the equalitarian spirit of the time, proved immensely popular, especially the English course.  By 1968-69 there were two Math sections but five English course sections offered through the year both during the day and in the evening. [UTARMS, D091.003]  The following year a new course was added in Chemistry and the next year the Program was expanded again to include courses in Physics and Canadian History.  To meet the needs of part-time students the courses were offered during the day and evening during the traditional academic year and also during the summer.  The definition of “mature” was also changed from 25 to 24 years of age (the age of admission to the program would continue to be lowered down through the years). The University also clarified the requirements Pre-U students had to meet in order to continue in degree studies.  Admission to the Faculty of Arts and Science required high performance in at least one Pre-University course, Applied Science and Engineering required three Pre-U courses: Chemistry, Math and Physics, Nursing required two courses: Chemistry and either English or History, Physical and Health Education required one Pre-U course, as did the Certificate Programs (Business, Public Administration, Criminology, or Personnel and Industrial Relations) requiring either English or Math. And then in 1973 the Faculty of Music began to admit students with one Pre-U course plus the regular musical requirement.  Obviously, the Pre-University Program’s role in expanding the part-time student population was having an important impact on the University as a whole. [UTARMS, Brochure, Pre-University Program 1973-1974] 

The University’s response to this new reality of a growing part-time student population was the creation in 1974 of Woodsworth College as the part-time student college (The College was named after the social/democratic politician J. S. Woodsworth, partly because of his long advocacy of adult education as the best way to enhance and promote democracy.) The creation of the College was also part of a wide restructuring that included collapsing the Division of Extension into the School of Continuing Studies as the new home of non-credit courses aimed at the wider community. [M.L. Friedland, The University of Toronto: A History, p.572] Meanwhile, the Pre-University Program, because its non-credit courses prepared students for degree studies, and the various certificate programs were transferred to Woodsworth College at 119 St. George Street, the former home of the Division of Extension, with a drill hall in the rear (it had served as the campus headquarters, residence and training facility of the Canadian Officers Training Corp during the Second World War).

Carol Fitzpatrick, an administrative assistant from the Department of History, became the first Director of the Pre-U Program at Woodsworth, a position she held until her retirement in 1993. Through the rest of the 1970s, the 1980s and into the 1990s she oversaw a spectacular growth in the Program.  As an example, during the first two years Pre-U courses were not only offered on all three University of Toronto campuses but also off-campus at various locations across the city in keeping with the former Division of Extension’s philosophy of serving the community. English and/or History classes were held at the new Toronto City Hall, the Toronto Dominion Bank Centre and in the MacDonald Block at Queen’s Park so that downtown office workers could attend classes on their lunch hours or immediately after work. Some courses were also offered in community halls and various high schools such as York Memorial Collegiate Institute. As well, Pre-U courses were offered at Georgian College in Barrie and at Durham College in Oshawa.

From its beginning at Woodsworth, the Pre-U Program’s age of admission was lowered to 21 years of age and a final course mark of 70% (B-) was required to continue in degree studies.  In addition, especially since the Program was seen to be of special interest to newcomers to Canada, applicants for the English and History courses had to write a precourse language test before admission and those whose mother tongue was not English were required to take a recognized English test such as the University of Michigan English Language Test (both of these requirements were dropped in the mid-1980s). The College also launched a number of student supports, including a math lab and a writing lab that offered a special Program of Preparation (POP) consisting of 18 hours of lectures and lab work in reading effectiveness, essay writing and study skills. 

The Program flourished and by 1976, ten years after is founding, over 5000 students had completed the Pre-U Program and entered the University, the majority of them women and a sizable number of them visible minorities. And the courses themselves began to change. Mainly because of lagging interest, Physics and Chemistry were discontinued but a new course in Canadian Studies was added and by the mid-1980s the most popular courses were Canadian Studies, English and History.  Then the future and reputation of the Program was further enhanced with generous financial support from Manny Rotman, who had received his Bachelor’s Degree from Woodsworth College in 1985 at age 76 and wished to commemorate the memory of his daughter, Millie Rotman Shime, a University of Toronto graduate and Toronto secondary school teacher of History and English. In 1986 the Pre-University Program was named in her honour.

While the staff of the College always believed that the Pre-University Program was making an important contribution to university access for non-traditional students, in 1993 Principal Noah Meltz commissioned Dr. Adrianne Cohen to undertake a study of the Program, including a profile of its students, in order to document its success. Cohen’s detailed report revealed that not only were the majority of Pre-University students women (60%), most of the students (58%) held full-time jobs while a good number of others (24%) held part-time jobs.  Furthermore, the report showed in “the ultimate test of the effectiveness of Pre-University Program,” that its graduates performed “on a par” with direct entry students in their university studies and that any difference between the two groups was “statistically insignificant.” The report concluded that the Pre-University Program was “fulfilling admirably its mandate of preparing ‘mature’ students to cope successfully with undergraduate studies.” [Adrianne Cohen, The Millie Rotman Shime Pre-University Program: An Evaluation of Program Effectiveness.]

Also in 1993, Caol Fitzpatrick was succeeded as Program Director by Dr. David Nimmo, an associate registrar at Woodworth and a long time instructor in the Pre-U English course, and he continued the administrative practice of having one instructor in each course serve as the course coordinator. Nimmo remained coordinator of the English course and then appointed Dr. Robert Fraser as History and Dr. Thomas Socknat as Canadian Studies coordinators upon the respective retirements of Ian Stewart and Sheila Trant.  The next year a new course was created in Social Science (mainly a combination of Sociology and Political Science) coordinated by Cheryl Shook.

The growth and development of the Program continued through the decade.  In 1994, with an Ethno-Cultural Academic Initiatives Grant from the Provost, the Program sponsored university-wide panel discussions on “The Aboriginal Experience of Education” and “The Immigrant Experience in Canadian Literature.” As well, Thomas Socknat compiled a “Selected Bibliography on Canadian Ethno-Cultural Diversity” as a tool for Pre-University instructors to ensure an inclusive curriculum and held panel discussions with instructors on the topic of “The Diversity of Canadian Studies.” A ten- year longitudinal study of Pre-U students, from 1986 to 1996, revealed that 30% graduated with a degree within ten years, confirming the Program’s success.  Nimmo also launched an annual Spring “graduation” ceremony to celebrate those successful PreUniversity students transitioning to the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Then in 1999 Woodsworth Principal Angela Hildyard, and Program Director David Nimmo, entered negotiations, with the Provost’s Office, the Faculty of Arts and Science and relevant departments within FAS, to replace the existing Pre-University Program with a new, credit-based access program.  Since it was determined that the students in the new program would be better served as part of the Faculty of Arts and Science, the negotiations resulted in the creation in 2000 of the Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program offering four credit courses in the Faculty of Arts and Science: ENG185Y, Introduction to Literature (in conjunction with the Department of English),JWH100Y, Canadian History (in conjunction with the Department of History), JWU 100Y, Contemporary Canada (in conjunction with the Canadian Studies Program at University College), and JWM 100Y, Essential Mathematics (in conjunction with the Department of Mathematics).  By 2006, however, the Math course was discontinued mainly because it appeared that mature students needed more background in math and sciences than the course could offer and because comparable courses were being offered elsewhere.

There were also important changes in terms of course delivery.  Except for the Program Director, all of the Pre-University teaching faculty had been annually appointed sessional lecturers but now the College began to appoint some permanent professors in the Bridging Program.  The first were J. Barbara Rose in English and Dr. Thomas Socknat in History and Contemporary Canada. Others would follow under Principal Mariel O’NeillKarch: Brock MacDonald in English, once he replaced retiring Alan Stewart as Director of the Academic Writing Centre, and Dr. Theresa Moritz in English. However, sessional lecturers remained the backbone of the Bridging faculty. From its earliest Pre-U days, the Program always employed a range of experienced educators: a few were talented Grade 13 high school teachers while others held teaching positions at Centennial and George Brown Colleges or Ryerson University (now TMU).  Principal O’Neill-Karch also ensured that all Bridging instructors employ on-line course sites, the first being the Course Communication Net (and then eventually Blackboard and then Quercus).

Meanwhile, in terms of student academic support, the Academic Writing Centre continued to offer Bridging students one-on-one personal assistance and for many years J. Barbara Rose conducted a series of Study Skills Seminars on effective learning strategies, preparation and writing of the university essay, effective grammar usage, critical thinking for reading and writing, and the fine art taking exams (which basically replaced the earlier Pre-U Program of Preparation). Financial support for Bridging students received a big boost in 2004 through the generosity of William Waters, a Woodsworth College graduate, with the establishment of the William Waters Academic Bridging Awards.  Drawing on an endowment of over $2 million, a number of small bursaries are given to Bridging students in financial need during their year in the program and approximately fifteen Waters bursaries, varying from $2500 to $1250 each, are awarded to Bridging graduates annually as they continue their studies in FAS as either full-time or part-time students. Financial awards for Bridging students also include those established by individual donors such as Eleanor Morgan, David Nimmo, Mariel O’NeilKarch, Joe Desloges, J. Barbara Rose and Cheryl Shook.

Before he retired as director in 2005, Nimmo, and his administrative assistant Silvia Cocolo, conducted a study of the academic effectiveness of the Bridging Program which revealed that, compared to direct entry students coming in with B+ or A averages, the "Bridging graduates hold their own and show that they have been well prepared by the rigorous academic standards of the Academic Bridging Program." For instance, based on  the annual gpa’s of all 2003-4 Bridging graduates registered in FAS degree programs at the end of 2004-5, 71.4% were in good standing (44% in the top half of Faculty results). Based on the annual gpa’s of 2003-4 Bridging graduates eligible for full-time studies and registered full-time or part-time at the end of 2004-5, 86% were in good standing (60.9% in the top half of Faculty results).  In addition to these glowing statistics, a number of former Bridging students went on to post-graduate studies and to receive or compete for Mellon and Moss fellowships, Bronfman Gold and Silver Awards and Governor General’s Silver Medals. 

Despite these glowing statistics, the new Principal Dr. Joe Desloges instituted some administrative changes to increase the Program’s readiness for an upcoming external review. Following the departure of Nimmo as Director, the Registrar for Bridging, Winnie Wong-Nicholson, assumed the day-to-day administration of the Program and then in 2009 the course coordinator positions were discontinued and Thomas Socknat was appointed Academic Director to ensure the academic integrity of the Program and its pool of sessional lecturers met Faculty guidelines. Initially, clear Learning Objectives were adopted for the Program as a whole and for each course, but the main priority was to prepare for the Program’s external review.  Accordingly, the Academic Director chaired a committee, composed of College administrators, a sessional lecturer and undergraduate students, that conducted a self-study of the Program. In January 2011 the committee submitted its in-depth examination (19 pages plus appendices), including proposals for the future which included the idea of a full-time option (60% course load) which would qualify students for OSAP and the addition of new courses.  The external reviewers agreed.   They praised the Program and encouraged expanding its curriculum and options. 

Consequently, a new full-time Bridging option was instituted requiring three courses: a section of the Contemporary Canada course, a section of the Woodsworth One Program, and a non-credit course in learning strategies.  As well, responding to increasing interest in environmental issues, a new Bridging course in Environment Studies taught by a qualified sessional lecturer was adopted with the approval of the University’s School of Environment. Then, as part of its Indigenous Reconciliation initiatives and with the support of its Indigenous Studies Program, the University encouraged and financially supported the creation of a Bridging course in Indigenous Studies with a permanently appointed instructor, thereby broadening the Bridging Program to five courses.

Somewhat worrisome, however, were the declining admission numbers to the Program, a 30% drop from 2000 to 2010.  This was partly due to more pathways for mature students to access university education but it also reflected a shift in the Bridging demographic cohort.  At the height of the Pre-University Program, women over 30 years old accounted for at least 60% of students but by 2010 75% of students were under 30 years of age, more than 60% between the ages of 20 and 25, and with a higher percentage of males, resulting in the lowering of the age of admission to 19 years of age by 2013. Given these declining numbers and changing demographics, recruiting strategies were modified to include special articles about the Program and/or successful students, especially in education sections of publications, as well as a more aggressive advertising campaign in various GTA newspapers, such as the “You Can Do It” campaign, and on the internet through Facebook and YouTube. 

The College’s Bridging advocates have always been enthusiastic and innovative in recruiting for and promoting the Program. For example, initially in response to the influx of Syrian refugees to Canada, Registrar and Assistant Principal Cheryl Shook, assisted by Access Manager Curtis Norman, proposed a special arrangement to help refugees access postsecondary education through the Academic Bridging Program, including the usual financial assistance. By 2019 the ground-work was also laid for a full-time Bridging option for Science students which included Bridging courses in Math and Science and with a non-credit third course for additional assistance. Before these innovations could have much success, however, the program was faced with other challenges.  The departure of key teaching staff with the retirement of J. Barbara Rose, a longtime stalwart in the English course, followed with that of Theresa Moritz and the Academic Director Thomas Socknat coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The subsequent lock-down was difficult for all students, particularly for those in Bridging, but the dedication and agility of College administrators and teaching staff, especially the sessional lecturers in the Program, ensured a smooth transition of classes to an on-line format in a difficult time.

Throughout its long evolution, the Academic Bridging Program has offered universal access to a post-secondary education to thousands of mature students.  In its heyday the Pre-University Program admitted over 900 students a year, many of whom went on to complete their undergraduate degrees and some moving on to graduate studies. Although the admission numbers were somewhat smaller in the credit-based Academic Bridging Program, the academic success rates were much higher with healthy percentages of former Bridging students graduating with “high distinction” and “distinction” honours and competing for and receiving prestigious scholarships.  Most importantly, however, almost all the students who passed through the Pre- U and Academic Bridging Programs claimed the experience had literally changed their lives.  Certainly, in keeping with J.S. Woodsworth’s belief that an educated citizenry was the basis of a strong democracy, the Academic Bridging Program, by offering young adults the opportunity to expand their education, contributes to the improvement of Canadian society on the whole and specifically helps “newcomers” adjust to their new country.

 

Thomas Socknat

Associate Professor Emeritus

Woodsworth College, University of Toronto 

Academic Bridging Program Teaching Faculty between 2000-2020

 

Permanent Teaching Staff:

 

Dr. Jon Johnson

1. Brock MacDonald

Dr. Theresa Moritz

Dr. David Nimmo

1. Barbara Rose

Dr. Thomas Socknat

 

Sessional Lecturers:

 

Robert Aitken

Dr. Robert Fraser

Dr. Ryan Hackett

Michael Hume

Dr. Michael Lapointe

Robert Lewthwaite

Dr. Susan Lewthwaite

Ray Maher

James Meade David O’Rourke

William O’Sullivan Lisa Peden

Nellie Perret

Peter Sanders

George Sherwood

Cheryl Shook

Philip Stanbury

Alan Stewart

Ian Stewart

Dr. Kerry Taylor

Kathryn Voltan

Barrie Walker

Dr. Megan Youdelis

 

© Dr. Thomas Socknat, 2024