Comings and Goings: University students in Canadian society, 1854-1973

McGill Journal of Education, Fall 2003 by Gillett, Margaret

CHARLES MORDEN LEVi. Comings and Goings: University students in Canadian society, 1854-1973. Montreal & Kingston. London. Ithica: McGill-Queen's University Press (2003). 172 pp. $65.00. (ISBN 0-7735-2442-8).

Independent scholar Charles Morden Levi has successfully converted his Ph.D. dissertation and his experience as senior researcher at the University of Toronto History Project into a compact little book with a curious title, Comings and Goings. In 104 pages of text, 20 pages of tables, plus notes, bibliography and index, Levi details the demographic backgrounds and post-graduate careers of certain students of University College of the University of Toronto. His research sample is a large one, focusing on 1,876 former officers of the Literary and Athletic Society (The Lit) as well as the Women's Literary Society (WLS) and its successor, the Women's Undergraduate Society (WUS). His time-frame, stretching over a century, is divided into four periods: 1854-90, 1891-1921, 1922-58 and 1958-73. His laudable intent is to fill a gap in the history of Canadian higher education, "an effort to make students the centre of the story" (p.xii).

Levi attempts the daunting task of situating the students of each cohort into the social context of their time and analyzing differences in the experiences of male and female students. This involves recognition of the changing nature of the university as an institution, the increasing complexity of Canadian society, the declining status of religion, the development of technology and the multiplication of career choices. It is a major research project which Levi rigorously pursues despite "missing early census records and cold trails in the British Isles" (p.14). His diligence allows him to revise some old assumptions and challenge accepted truths. For example, he can show that the traditional view of 19th century University College students as the "unhewn products" of Ontario farmers is not supported by the evidence - rather, they were the sons of clergymen, politicians, lawyers, merchants and men of many other callings and, rather than returning to the farms, they embarked almost entirely on professional careers in Toronto. He says, "One figure stands out: fifty-eight Toronto lawyers, half the numbers of lawyers, stayed in Toronto ten years after graduation". he follows with the striking conclusion that "the history of the early days of the Literary and Scientific Society is the history of the Toronto Bar" (p.17).

One of the attractive aspects of Levi's heavily statistical study is the occasional foray into anomalies. For example, he reveals that not all Law graduates were successful in their careers and that one, unable to find a suitable position, became bursar of the Toronto Lunatic Asylum where "too close proximity to the inmates drove him to suicide" (p.21). he later discloses that one lawyer was debarred and one clergyman defrocked.

According to Levi, there are no generally accepted assumptions about the social origins of the second cohort of students (1891-1921). The most striking feature of this period, he says, is the decline in the number whose fathers were clergymen and the significant increase in those who were academics and businessmen. Further, there was no longer such a concentration on one profession for the male graduates but there was a "bewildering array of possible careers" for "those wishing to promote the prosperity and advancement of Canada as a modern, industrial nation" (p.52).

From this reviewer's point of view, one of the most important things about Levi's second period was the appearance on campus of women students in 1884 - the same year that women were admitted to McGiIl. Relatively few statistics were collected on these early women students at University College and Levi found himself "dealing with a vast area of silence" (p. 54). Consequently, he relied to some extent on the work of other historians of other Canadian institutions of higher learning. However, he managed to locate the admission forms of 87 of the 211 women officers of the WLS and WUA and found at least one significant difference between those and the men's. In 42 cases (almost half of the forms found) "intended occupation" was left blank - a very rare phenomenon on the male side. The obvious career for women, even for college graduates, was still assumed to be marriage and the only other assured occupation was teaching. However, university programs were not designed for marriage and prejudice toward (or even fear of) highly educated women resulted in low matrimonial statistics. Only 124 of 211 WIS and WUA women were known to have married by the time they were 60. Women students were both restricted in their choice of careers and limited in the courses they could take and in the degree to which they could participate in the extra-curricular life on campus. Levi comments sympathetically, "The combination of lower expectations and reduced choice of study was a dual attack that none of the male students had to face" (p.57).