The GG and U of T

When the Right Hon. Adrienne Clarkson was sworn in as Governor General this fall, she became the university’s highest-ranking Canadian alumna.

Clarkson graduated from Trinity College in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and earned her MA in 1962. As she developed a career in writing and broadcasting, she kept in touch with the university as a member and chair of the provost’s committee at Trinity. She was named an honorary fellow of the college in 1996.

The years at U of T were formative for the Hong Kong immigrant; here her love of literature and the arts was ignited, and she was sensitized to politics as vice-president of the Students’ Administrative Council and head of St. Hilda’s College.

Like the office of the governor general, U of T is an institution that must be reinvented by each new generation while standing the test of time. “Universities like U of T can maintain their reputation through excellence in academic standards, good student-staff ratios, and enlightened and decent human relationships,” Clarkson says.