Celebrating Celebrating past and future at UTS Homecoming

We have come home to the school of our dreams, thanks to the incredible support of our community, which raised $63 million to build our new school. In September 2022, we invited alumni, parents, staff and students to come home for an epic celebration of the future we created together.

Over 1,000 community members came out to celebrate the UTS Homecoming Community Open House and see the school we have become.

Friends new and old, alumni past and future mingled in communal spaces like the Fleck Atrium and the Learning Stairs, marvelling at how UTS has changed, while still maintaining the facade and some of the character of the old building. Glimpses of the past still present in the school gave visceral reminders of years gone by like the speckled stairs by the Eureka! Entrance and the music rooms on the Level 1, where students once swam laps in the pool.

Just before noon, a trumpet fanfare, followed by the resounding boom of the UTS Taiko drum group welcomed attendees into the new 700-seat, state-ofthe-art Withrow Auditorium for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Principal Rosemary Evans and UTS Board Chair Jim Fleck C.C. ’49, P ’72 were joined on stage by many members of the UTS community who shared integral roles in making the project a success, including Cheryl Regehr, vice-president and provost representing the University of Toronto, and Don Schmitt C.M. ’70 of Diamond Schmitt Architects. Together, they cut the ribbon on the new building to thundering applause, and a new era of our school began.

Into the New: Black Student Affirmation and Dismantling Anti-Black Racism

At the Homecoming event, it was standing room only as UTS hosted a community conversation, Into the New: Black Student Affirmation and Dismantling Anti-Black Racism. The sense of community growing in the room was palpable as parents, alumni, community members and staff discussed the challenges we face and the actions we can take towards greater inclusion for Black students, and all students, at UTS. Speakers included Sudz Sutherland P ’21, ’25, UTSAA Director Dr. Jessica Ware ’95, Daeja Sutherland ’21, UTSPA CoPresident Zahra Mohamed P ’25 and Dr. Kimberley Tavares , the school’s coordinating vice principal, anti-racism, equity, inclusion, access and program innovation, who organized the event with the UTS Black Equity Committee.

We always find a way to come back to each other and continue to be connected even after we left school for university. I see that really strong alumni connection almost everywhere.

Eva Huang ’10, who attended the Homecoming celebration