While working on another assignment for our beloved paper I stumbled upon a rather fascinating webpage. Were you aware that Arthur has a Wikipedia page? I wasn’t up until a week ago, and the information posted is more detailed that one would expect.
It tells you how the newspaper is structured and organized, gives a history of previous editors, and even talks about where we plan our weekly meetings. The article further states that the Trent newspaper has had a “left-leaning political stance”, focusing on issues such as LGBT rights, feminism, and administrative issues with Trent University as a whole.
Even though it’s Wikipedia it has relatively accurate information that many Trent students might be unaware of. For example, contrary to popular belief, Arthur is not named after King Arthur, which is usually assumed based on the fact that the institution’s varsity teams are named Excalibur and the supposedly correlating sword in the school’s crest. It was actually coined by the first editor-in-chief Stephen Stohn; Trent alumni who went on to be the executive producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Who knew? Furthermore, on the matter of Excalibur, the sword in our crest isn’t Excalibur; it’s the sword of Samuel de Champlain. There’s Trent History 101 for you!
In any case, plan A was a bust so I decided to scope the Internet so as to ascertain what other appealing bits of information on Trent I could stumble upon. I decided to go back to a link I bumped into when I was trying to find out more about Trent during the application period. I recall two entries on the website and, although the creators the site have no authority in evaluating or rating an institution, one would be surprised how posts such as this can influence the minds of potential applicants, for better or worse. This is what that site had to say about Trent:
Trent
A small university in Ontario, Canada in the city of Peterborough. Peterborough is located approx 1 hour 40 minutes Northeast of Toronto. This university is known for small class sizes and a close teach-student relationship. You are not just another number, everyone knows each other. The Environmental Engineering program is one of the best in Canada.
Also known for the drunken hoe’s in the 11pm Pub-Bus, the Trent Queer Collective (guys making out on the bridge over Lake Champlain) and an amazing international student association (TISA) and a kick ass MSA (TMSA). The city literally closes down at 4:30pm and everything shuts down (except ‘the rooster’ and galaxy cinemas). Primary industry (if you can call it that) is senior citizens housing.
As in: Maaahn .. I can’t wait to get outta this ghost town trent got me into. Or, Where the HELLL is the trent bus its 11:45am and -30 Celsius. I’m going to kill the bus driver (by the way you would normally know the name of the bus driver since everyone knows everyone important and cause he wears Oakley sun glasses).
Bata Bullshitter
A Trent University student who spends most of their time outside the Bata steps talking about things that they pretend to feel, dreams they won’t chase, and hoping that staying in school will never allow them to confront their failure to chase their dreams head on.
[Example:]
T: I really want to have my own place, go to grad school, and really live for myself. It’s all other peoples’ fault that I can’t accomplish these things.
N: Trust me, grad school’s great. It’s alot of fun...wonderful. I dream of being a prof, or just having sway over other peoples’ fertile young imaginations because someone torched mine so long ago that it’ll render me thoughtless to how I treat others permanently. Academics is the place for me.
Geez, there’s a lot of Bata Bullshitters out today
I have not overheard any conversations on campus that reflect those sentiments, at least not in entirety. I would assume that most would agree with the positive qualities described in those entries. However, is that to say that the negatives do not exist or are we too afraid to confront the inconvenient truth? I haven’t been at Trent long enough to have any justifiable issues with the environment in all of its faculties, but one can appreciate how it is that potential applicants to Trent University may or may not be dissuaded from coming here when information such as this is all over the Internet.
