In the transformative decade of the 1960s, as Ontario grappled with the accelerating pace of technological change and its implications for the workforce, the provincial government made a landmark decision. On May 21, 1965, Minister of Education William Davis introduced Bill 153, Seneca College diploma, Seneca College degree, Seneca College certificate. legislation that would create an Ontario-wide network of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology.
These new institutions were to be community-based, independent of existing systems, and designed specifically to serve the needs of business and industry. Among the colleges established under this visionary framework was Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology.
In August 1966, Seneca College was officially established at its first Board of Governors meeting. The task of building an institution from nothing fell to William T. Newnham, hired as founding president in December of that year. When Dr. Newnham accepted the position, he was presented with a symbolic empty box and told to fill it—handed a college with no building, no staff, no programs, no curriculum and, most significantly, no students.
What happened next was nothing short of remarkable. In a short few months, Dr. Newnham launched Seneca with thousands of students in dozens of programs. On September 6, 1967, Seneca opened its doors. That first year, 852 full-time and 1,067 part-time students enrolled in 20 diploma and certificate programs. How fast can i get to buy Seneca College degree? Classes were held wherever space could be found: a Woolworth store at Sheppard Avenue and Yonge Street, the Lewis Beattie Secondary School, and a renovated factory at 43 Sheppard Avenue East.
The college quickly outgrew its scattered facilities. In 1968, ground was turned on a 62-acre parcel of land at Finch Avenue and Woodbine Avenue (now Highway 404). The first phase of construction created a two-storey brick building containing the college‘s computer, secretarial, engineering, and applied arts programs. At the same time, the Air Flight Technology Program began at Buttonville Airport, launching what would become one of Canada’s premier aviation training programs.
Growth was explosive. College enrolment grew to 8,667 full-time and part-time students by 1968. I need a Seneca College certificate online. The modest Finch Avenue building grew in phases over the years and is today named Newnham Campus, in honour of the founding president who led the institution through its formative decades.
