Ajax Division

History

In the 1940s, Skule was faced with a problem much larger than that of the current double cohort. Before the end of World War II, the University of Toronto anticipated a possible engineering class of up to 1500 first year students (mainly war veterans) at the conclusion of the war. At this time, the St. George campus facilities could only accommodate around 350 students.

The University began planning to secure additional facilities for the incoming veterans, and in August 1945 a suitable place was found to accommodate them all: the Ajax munitions plant, some 40 kilometers from the St. George campus. With less than one month until the start of classes it was impossible to open the new campus for September, so 400 first year engineering students were accepted at the St. George campus. Ajax was to accept an additional 1500 students four months later in January.

With hardly enough time to complete the construction, university staff frantically converted buildings into residences, labs, and lecture halls. It was an incredible effort, as described in the The Varsity:

For example, some of the earlier [women's residences] to be constructed went up so quickly that fire exits were forgotten: so later two rooms had to be chopped out. The Varsity, January 16, 1946

Another article, one day before classes started at Ajax, mentioned:

One classroom is called for at 9 a.m. on Thursday’s timetable. The Superintendent’s staff expect to have it ready by Wednesday midnight. The Varsity, January 15, 1946

But in the end, everything was finished according to schedule and on January 16, 1946, the Ajax Division opened its doors to 1400 first year engineering students. By the time it closed in 1949, over 3100 students had completed their first two years at Ajax and moved downtown to continue their studies. Closing Ajax was only possible after two new buildings were completed at St. George: the E.A. Wallberg Memorial Building in 1948, and the Mechanical Engineering Building in 1949.

An L-shaped campus with each side a mile long and an area four times that of the home campus, the Ajax Division had residences for 3000 students and staff; a gymnasium; theatre; dance hall; library; 8 tennis courts; baseball diamond; skating rink; soccer field; a 32-bed hospital; and a cafeteria that could seat 700 and serve 2000 men in an hour and a half – men, since there were only 9 women enrolled that year at Ajax.

Spirit

All these, however, are not what Ajax alumni fondly remember to this very day. And they are definitely not what make Ajax so special in Skule history.

From crowding 150 engineers at a time into the "green dragons" (the semi-trailers used to move students between classes), to having to trek the great distances between classes during winter when one missed the green dragon, to the many dances and sporting events, everything brought the students much closer together than was possible at the St. George campus. Many students fondly recall Big Red, the Irish settler around the cafeteria – but they less fondly recall the food served there.

Pranks were not uncommon, be it a car on a roof; a student’s room filled to the ceiling with straw; switching the lights in front of the girls’ residence with red light bulbs; or giant water wars between entire residences using fire hoses. One such war occurred between houses 734 and 736, and was described in detail on the front page of the next day’s Varsity. There were also the fabled evenings at the Rouge Hills Golf Club where disciplines "competed to see which could throw the best party with the best strippers and the dirtiest movies". Johnny Bahen of Civil Engineering – whose name you might recognize – reportedly "had a lock on the best movies."

At 5pm every day, dozens of student cars started racing on the road back to Toronto – to the point where truck drivers on that road would just pull over and wait until it all passed. And, of course, there were many traditions that survived to this day. For example, a certain engineering semi-formal named Cannonball started at Ajax. A.J. Paul La Prairie was an Ajax student – a 5T0 known for, among others, stealing the University College Gargoyle to recover the Skule Cannon; and for forming the beloved Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad.

Written by Alex Curelea, Archivist 0T3-0T4 and published in the Cannon, October 1, 2003