Growing Pains is an Arthur Newspaper podcast about the corporatization of Trent University and how it affects students, faculty, and the community in which our university lies. We want to tell you the story of how this small, collegial, liberal arts university has grown into something else… something perhaps unrecognizable from its original form. 

In our first episode, ‘The Company Trent Keeps,’ we break down Trent’s Board of Governors and attempt to explain how and why a small group of corporate elites make all the most important decisions at our university. Dr. David Tough takes us on a walk down memory lane to help us piece together how we got here, and how we might imagine a more democratic way forward. 

Growing Pains graphic by Cameron Noble.

Correction: In this episode, we say that there were 10 presidents between Tom Symons and Bonnie Patterson, but there were actually just five: Thomas E. W. Nind (1972–1979), Donald F. Theall (1980–1987), John O. Stubbs (1987–1993), Leonard W. Conolly (1994–1997), and David C. Smith—Interim President (1997–1998).

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