A Brief History of Rotman Commerce

A Brief History of Commerce at the University of Toronto 4

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Celebrating 90Years of Excellence

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Rotman Commerce: Celebrating 90 Years of Excellence 2

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his booklet has been prepared to mark the 90th anniversary of the first Bachelor of Commerce degrees being awarded at the University of Toronto. It draws heavily on Professor John A. Sawyer’s (BCom ’47) work The Rotman School: An Historical Perspective, 1901-1998, Ian M. Drummond’s Political Economy at the University of Toronto: A History of the Department, 1888-1982, and Dr. Martin L. Friedland’s (BCom ’55) definitive The University of Toronto: A History. Any errors or omissions are our responsibility and we hope you will bring them to our attention.

In looking back on our history, I feel great pride in our roots and a sense of accomplishment in what we have built over the last century. Our program has succeeded and grown thanks to the intelligence, engagement, and dedication of generations of faculty, students, alumni, and staff. Thank you for being a part of it.

Professor Kenneth S. Corts Director, Rotman Commerce Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education, Rotman School of Management

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The Early Years

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hile the first BCom degrees were awarded at the University of Toronto ninety years ago, the history of commerce at this university extends back further to the turn of the century and is, in fact, linked to the establishment of the first Bachelor of Commerce degree in the British Empire.

In 1888, Englishman William Ashley (later to become Sir William Ashley) was appointed the University’s first Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History, a move that presaged the institution’s burgeoning interest in the teaching of economics and finance. Ashley moved on to Harvard in 1892, returning to England shortly thereafter to establish the School of Commerce at the University of Birmingham, where he founded the program that led to Commonwealth’s first BCom degree.

Despite his short tenure in Toronto, Ashley maintained an influence here through his

hand-picked successor, Scotsman James Mavor, with whom he kept in contact.

It was Mavor who introduced the first formal post-secondary recognition of commerce at UofT, creating a two-year diploma course in the subject in 1901 at the request of the Toronto Board of Trade and the Canadian Manufacturer’s Association.

Beginning in 1909, students at the University could enrol in a four-year Honour course in Commerce and Finance, culminating in a Bachelor of Arts degree. This program was based on the University of Birmingham model introduced by Ashley – the aim of which was “to produce cultured men who would become leaders in the world of commerce”1 – and encompassed the study of economics, economic history, accountancy, corporate finance, actuarial science, economic geography, commercial law, foreign languages, and classics.

Left: William Ashley (courtesy University of Birmingham)

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Right: James Mavor (courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

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It was not until 1920, however, that the actual Bachelor of Commerce degree program appeared on the books under the purview of the Faculty of Arts. The 1920-21 Calendar for the University of Toronto introduced the aims of the program thus: “It is proposed in establishing this course to prepare [students] not only for business and commercial life generally, but also for Consular Service and the foreign representation of Canadian firms.” 2 Twenty-five students enrolled in the new program in the fall of 1920; only seven – six men and one woman – remained to convocate with the University’s first Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1924.

The early history of the Bachelor of Commerce program is inextricably linked with that of the Department of Political Economy, from which most of the faculty was drawn. Notably, Commerce and Finance (C&F), as it was commonly called, remained a course within the Faculty of Arts, even as several American universities

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began to offer commerce studies in schools or faculties of their own. The reasons for this lie in the ideological opposition of key members of the Department of Political Economy to the teaching of commerce in such an annex.

“It is proposed in establishing this course to prepare [students] not only for business and commercial life generally, but also for Consular Service and the foreign representation of Canadian firms.”

Importantly, this objection was not rooted in any territorial jealousness, but rather in the firmly held belief that the mission of the university was to offer a purely academic education rather than a training in the trades. Professor Robert MacIver, who succeeded James Mavor as Head of Political Economy in 1922 argued that “it was not desirable to add technical or semi-professional subjects … of a kind that would suggest any direct training in the actual conduct of business.”3

Class of 1924 (courtesy Chalotte O’Brien)

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In 1926, the Honour course in C&F that lead to a Bachelor of Arts degree was removed from the university’s offerings and the thirty-nine students that graduated in Commerce and Finance in 1927 all received Bachelor of Commerce degrees. By 1931, however, a commerce major (at that time called the Pass Course in Commerce) leading to BA was instituted to accommodate students who “had been interested only in receiving a training along the lines of Commerce and Finance.”4 Both streams proved extremely popular, and by 1932, sixty-three BCom degrees were conveyed, along with twenty-seven BAs with a commerce focus.

From its inception, the program (and the Department of Political Economy) had been housed at Baldwin House (now the Centre for International Experience) on St. George Street, but it soon outgrew the space, and in 1933, it moved to the old McMaster University building at 273 Bloor Street West – the current home of the Royal Conservatory of Music. The program remained there until 1961, when it was relocated to Sidney Smith Hall.

Opposite page: Baldwin House circa 1924 (courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

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This page: McMaster University building, now the Royal Conservatory of Music (courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

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The T Middle Years

he BCom program remained one of the most popular offerings of the Department of Political Economy which, in addition to commerce, encompassed political science, economics, and sociology. As the student body grew, so too did the need for qualified instructors. From 1937 to 1952, twelve new faculty members were added specifically for the commerce program. From 1952 through to the dissolution of the Faculty of Political Economy in 1982, forty-nine new commerce faculty were appointed; of these, twenty-three taught in the faculty for three years or less (with most of these short-term instructors serving between 1967 and 1977 – a period that corresponded with the “tidal wave of demand for commerce instruction”5 of the 1970s). It was through this period of great growth that the department

began to rely more and more on “special lecturers” – professionals drawn from the business community to teach on general business subjects such as accounting, taxation, and business law In 1968-69, five such special lecturers were employed; by 1980-81, there were fifty.

During this period, the program itself was the site of significant battles over curriculum and ideology that resulted, in part, in the creation in 1950 of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) – the forbear of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), which eventually became the Rotman School of Management. From the late 1930s onwards, Toronto’s business community had been agitating for a more “practical” program in commerce. As we’ve noted, the BCom was never intended to

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fulfill that need; as C.A. Ashley, Director of the Commerce Program from 1934 to 1952, put it, “the object … is not to prepare men so that they will rapidly command good position and high salaries in an expanding business world; it is to train men in the use of the faculties, to give them a sound knowledge of economic theory in the widest sense, and to turn out graduates who can expect to apply themselves with success to the task of learning a business quickly, of becoming good citizens, and of living a full life.”6 Thus, the IBA became the home of the Master of Commerce program – which was the university’s response to the demands from the business community – while the Department of Political Economy retained oversight of the Bachelor of Commerce program and stayed the course in offering its more academically focussed curriculum.

C.A. Ashley (courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

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In addition to external pressures from the city’s business community, the BCom program was also subject to internal pressure from the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS, renamed from the Faculty of Arts in 1960). The program had always required more than the twenty courses that from 1970 onwards constituted the standard four-year degree at UofT, with commerce students instead needing twenty-three courses to obtain their degree. As a result, it was considered an oddity by FAS, which advocated its transfer to the Faculty of Management Studies at that time. As Drummond notes, the arguments ultimately ended up failing, however, for three main reasons7:

1) nearly half of the teaching in the Department of Political Economy was explicitly linked to the BCom program; 2) there was widespread concern that if the program were transferred to FMS, it would lose the unique academic character that had been championed by MacIver and Ashley; 3) the Department of Political Economy could scarce afford to lose the financial resources allocated to them as a result of the large number of commerce students that fell under their auspices.

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Interestingly, as evidenced by a petition signed by a group of forty-nine BCom students in 1969, there was also student pressure to maintain the heavier course load of the commerce program, so as to “provide both for breadth and for specialization,” 8 demonstrating that there was still student support for the founding philosophy of the original Bachelor of Commerce.

Perhaps one of the most significant changes to the timbre of the program during these middle years came as a result of decisions taken by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO). As of 1971, the ICAO mandated that all aspiring CAs must be university graduates

and subsequently began taking a close interest in undergraduate commerce programmes, with accreditation being given where certain accounting courses were covered in the undergraduate curriculum.

UofT’s program met ICAO criteria, and enrolment in the commerce program rose. Despite the fact that no additional accounting requirements were implemented, the increased number of students focused on accounting led to a more general perception of the program as accounting-focussed.

Moreover, the influx of these students also seemed to bring with it more demand for vocational courses, and, as Drummond observes, “bit by bit such courses did make their way into the commerce curriculum.” 9

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The I Last Thirty Years

n 1982, the Department of Political Economy was dissolved after several years of increasing differentiation among its various sub-disciplines. Sociology had become its own department in 1963, and the dissolution of Political Economy paved the way for the establishment of the Departments of Economics and Political Science. Commerce became a joint program of the Faculty of Management Studies and the Economics Department – an arrangement that continues to this day. While management instruction is carried out by FMS (now the Rotman School of Management), the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS), through the Department of Economics, retains oversight of the economics portion of the BCom curriculum. At the time of dissolution, the commerce program also encompassed commerce instruction at Erindale College (now UTM – the

University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus). All future employment of faculty in accounting, finance, and other commerce areas at both campuses – excluding economics – was to be handled by FMS. Commerce faculty on the St. George campus joined their FMS counterparts in the former Texaco building on the northwest corner of Bloor and Bedford Road (the current home of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work), to which FMS had relocated in 1972. By 1984, the annual enrolment in the commerce program on the St George campus was 300 students – a number that by 2013 had more than doubled.

In 1995, a three million dollar donation from Joseph and Sandra Rotman made possible the construction of a new building for management at 105 St George Street. In recognition of that contribution, and a further fifteen

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million dollar bequest, FMS was renamed the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management (RSM) in 1997. In 2004, the commerce program, which had moved its operations to RSM with the construction of 105 St George, procured separate classroom space and offices for its career centre on the lower level of Woodsworth College’s just-constructed residence at 321 Bloor Street. In 2006, the rest of the program’s administration also relocated to the main floor of the residence, and completely vacated its space at the Rotman School of Management.

The Rotman Commerce offices remain there today, and the majority of the program’s RSM courses are taught in the four basement classrooms.

In 2008, yet another gift from the Rotmans led to the rebranding of the commerce program, which retained its standing as a joint program of RSM and FAS, as Rotman Commerce. The next year, Rotman Commerce collaborated with Woodsworth College to transform the former “drill hall” at 119 St George to a common study and events area, known as Kruger Hall.

Joseph L. Rotman (courtesy Rotman School of Management)

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The T Program Today

oday’s Rotman Commerce looks quite different from the commerce program of ninety years ago.

The Class of 2014 is 519 students strong, with its members representing 22 different countries and regions around the world (Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sudan, Taiwan, United States of America, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe). In 1924, only one

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woman – representing 14% of that year’s class – graduated. This year, women comprise more than 55% of the graduating class.

Our program retains a strong base in the arts and sciences, with fully 50% of required course credits coming from that faculty. Our curriculum has, however, changed somewhat over the years to address the demands of industry and the economy, and students now specialize in one of three streams within the program: Accounting, Finance and Economics, or Management.

Woodsworth College Residence, the present home of the Rotman Commerce Program (courtesy Simon P., Wikimedia Commons)

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Faculty and Students

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ver the years, the commerce program has welcomed, educated, and bid adieu to several luminaries, both as faculty and students. Robert Morrison MacIver, head of the Department of Political Economy in 1924, went on to become President of Columbia University and Chancellor of the New School. Gilbert Jackson, Director of the Program in Commerce and Finance from 1926-35, served as the first economist for the Bank of Nova Scotia, before becoming Advisor to the Governors of the Bank of England.

Harold Adams Innis, one of Canada’s most celebrated economic historians, was an original faculty member in the program, later becoming the Head of the Department of Political Economy and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. Less well-known, but perhaps more intriguing, was the post-U of T career of Virginius Frank Coe, who

taught economics with the program from 1934 to 1939 (remaining on the calendar as “on leave” until 1943). Coe served as Secretary to the International Monetary Fund from 1944 until 1952, when he resigned due to accusations of his being a Soviet spy. He eventually ended up working with Chairman Mao and the People’s Republic of China and is reported to have contributed to Mao’s Great Leap Forward. Economics giant Harry G. Johnson was also on the teaching roster, albeit only for two years, in 1946/47 and 1952/53.

Robert H. Coats, Canada’s first Dominion Statistician, taught as a visiting professor for four years, following his retirement from the government in 1942. In later years, George Leonidas, former executive director of Coca Cola Canada joined the department, becoming Associate Chair and Director for Commerce.

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Since 1924, the BCom program at UofT has graduated more than 13,000 students, among them many leaders in business, politics, law, and academia. In 1973, C. Alan Ashley, retired director of the commerce program, was compelled – upon the threat of a radical change to the academic composition of the program by the Faculty of Arts and Science – to defend the commerce program by invoking a list of its successful graduates. He wrote: “I bring to mind a number of graduates from C&F. A Roman Catholic priest, an Anglican Priest, and a United Church Minister; the President of Abitibi Paper; two Ambassadors, a High Commissioner, and half a dozen others in the foreign service; the President of Imperial Oil; a Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada; the Deputy General Manager of the Hudson’s Bay Company; two Vice Presidents of Bell Telephone; one Federal and two Provincial Deputy Ministers; a President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants; ten Professors of Economics and three School Teachers; several Actuaries and other officers of Insurance Companies; the General Manager of the TTC; the Dean of the Faculty of Law; a Professor of Obstetrics; the General Manager of the

Royal York Hotel; many Investment Dealers … They would be surprised to learn that they were all the product of one professional course.” 10 Indeed, the commerce program has among its alumni many distinguished individuals who have represented the program in all areas of industry and society. Today, we boast an alumni base of over 13,000 graduates from around the world.

Presidents and CEOs, lawyers, accountants, tech executives, entrepreneurs, musicians, politicians, professors, physicians, writers, bankers, soldiers, teachers, economists – our graduates have made their marks on the world in many different ways.

In 1931, Professor Gilbert Jackson, then director of the commerce program, wrote to the graduating class: “The training has been designed mainly so that those who have undergone it may understand the world in which they live – not to make them permanently filing clerks and recorders of business statistics, but to give them a broad understanding of the great economic issues which we face on the threshold of a new generation. It is hoped that their training will assist them in

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making wise decisions, when it is their turn to carry the burden of responsibility. If they do not – a considerable proportion of them, at least – ultimately qualify for burdens of responsibility, they will disappoint the hopes that have been formed concerning them: for much is expected of those to whom much is given.” 11 Looking back on the roads that our graduates have traveled, there can be little doubt that they have borne their burdens admirably, and excelled not only in business, but across disciplines.

And of that, we remain incredibly proud.

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Harold Adams Innis (courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

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Endnotes

Sawyer John A., The Rotman School: An Historical Perspective 1901-1998 (unpublished manuscript, 1998), 13.

1

University of Toronto, The Calendar of the University of Toronto for the Year 1920-1921 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1920), 230.

2

Drummond, Ian M., Political Economy at the University of Toronto: a History of the Department, 1888-1982 (Toronto: Faculty of Arts and Science, 1983), 55.

3

Torontonensis, Yearbook of the University of Toronto 1931 (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1931), 76.

4

5

Drummond, 133.

6

Ashley, quoted in Drummond, 68.

7

Drummond, 142.

8

Ibid.

9

Drummond, 146.

10

Ashley, quoted in Drummond, 143.

11

Torontonensis, 72.

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Bibliography

Bissell, Claude. Halfway up Parnassus: A Personal Account of the University of Toronto, 1932-1971. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.

Brown, Robert Craig. Arts and Science at Toronto: A History, 18271990. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.

Drummond, Ian M. The Rotman School: An Historical Perspective 1901-1998. Toronto: Faculty of Arts and Science, 1983.

Friedland, Martin L. The University of Toronto: A History, 2d ed.

Toronto, University of Toronto Press. 2013.

Sawyer, John A. The Rotman School: An Historical Perspective, 1901-1998. Unpublished manuscript, Toronto, 1998.

Torontonensis 1931, Yearbook of the University of Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1931.

University of Toronto, The Calendar of the University of Toronto for the Year 1920-1921. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1920.

Wallace, W. Stewart. A History of the University of Toronto, 1827-1927.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1927.

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