Celebrating TMU’s triple anniversary: Reflections from 3 alumni

This is a special year for Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). In 2023 we are celebrating three significant milestones — the 75th anniversary as a school, the 30th anniversary as a university and the 1st anniversary under its new name. We caught up with graduates from these three different eras to hear their memories of the school, learn what they went on to do in their careers and see how far the institution has come.

Fashion graduate Donald Campbell (’52), who designed clothing worn by Princess Diana, says that he knew he wanted to be a dress designer since he was eight years old. So, years later when his mother heard Sarah Murdoch, head of the Fashion School at Ryerson, being interviewed on the CBC, she encouraged him to apply. 

Campbell, who lived in a small town in Ontario, sent his sketches to Murdoch and was asked to come to Toronto for an interview. He was accepted into the fashion program, but because he was too young and could not sew, he was put into the men’s tailoring facility for six months to learn how to machine and hand sew. In 1950, he started the two-year program at the school at the age of 17. 

It was an adjustment for Campbell to move to Toronto because he was not used to living in a big city or attending a large school. “After settling in though, I soon enjoyed the program and taking part in extracurricular activities, which included designing and making costumes for several musical productions under Jack McAllister [founder of the theatre school],” he says.

After graduating from the fashion program in 1952, Campbell worked at the Title Dress Company in Toronto before moving to London, England where he spent his career. He established his own business in 1973 and opened two ready-to-wear shops in Chelsea and Knightsbridge where he designed and produced annual collections.  

He says that his best-known client was Princess Diana, who came to one of his shops shortly before her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981. “Her first five purchases were bought straight from the rack,” he says. “I was thrilled to have her as a client.” Many of his clothes were featured in Charles and Diana’s earliest official engagements, including their honeymoon and first overseas trips.

After a long and successful career in the fashion industry, Campbell retired in 2009, and closed both of his clothing shops. 

Campbell credits his post-secondary institution for giving him his start. “Without the basic technical skills that I acquired at the school, I would never have been able to set up my first business, as I had no capital, just my skills,” he explains. While he didn’t think much of being part of one of the first graduating classes at the school in the early 1950s, he says, “Now, I feel proud.”

Despite leaving the school more than 70 years ago, Campbell still remains connected to it. He has stayed in touch with one classmate and a friend who later taught at the school, and he has also attended several alumni events held in London. In fact, at an event that took place in 2018, he met a more recent graduate — Brock Groombridge (RTA ’09) — who has become a good friend. “So, the Ryerson connection goes on!” he says.  

The school connection also goes on for journalism alumna Nicole Blanchett (’93), but in a much different way. After a successful career working at a Toronto TV station and then shifting to a career in academia, she came back to her alma mater to teach in the very program she studied. She jokes that she uses her graduation photo in her introductory lecture to help break the ice.

Blanchett says she enjoyed her experience at the school as a student because the journalism program was very hands-on. “We learned the craft of writing and the importance of research from these great instructors who were working in industry,” she explains. “We also learned how to work as a team to put a story together.” And downtown Toronto was a good place to cover stories, she adds, because Queen’s Park, City Hall and the courts were right there. 

Coupled with that, in 1993 there were two major things happening in Blanchett’s final year at the school that she feels honoured to be a part of. Firstly, she was in the inaugural cohort of students to use the Rogers Communications Centre. “It was this state-of-the-art facility with all this brand new equipment, and it was bright and airy,” she recalls. The old journalism building was basically a basement, she notes, so it was quite a big difference. 

Secondly, Blanchett was in the first graduating class of the school as a university. “I remember it being quite special and thinking, ‘Wow, this is really neat that I’m part of this first graduating class,’” she says. “It did, even in the moment, feel like there was a little bit of history.”

In her final year in the journalism program, Blanchett won the Citytv Scholarship Award, which gave her the opportunity to be an intern at the station. After working in the Citytv newsroom for a few months, she got a job in the video library. She later became a news writer there, and was then promoted to a show producer. 

In the early 2000s, Blanchett started teaching in the journalism program at Sheridan College, and went on to get her master’s and PhD. She was hired as an associate professor at TMU in July 2020. 

“I had such a positive experience as a student at TMU, so to all of a sudden be someone who was then in a professor role, felt very special,” she explains. “In a way, I felt like I was coming home.” 

Blanchett marvels at how much TMU has grown since she was a student here. “The school is sort of ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” she says. “It started as this smaller Polytechnic Institute that just kept expanding. And one of the things I like about TMU is that it isn’t done.”

The opening of the Lincoln Alexander School of Law in 2020 is part of TMU’s recent growth. In spring 2023, the inaugural class had its convocation ceremony, and Safia Thompson served as the valedictorian.

When Thompson saw that TMU was adding a new law school — one that was committed to doing things differently — this told her all she needed to know about the university’s values. “As a woman of colour, representation is very important to me,” she explains. “At TMU, you see a lot of colour in its leadership — something that was also carried forward when creating the law school.”

Thompson says that she had an incredible experience at TMU and is immensely proud to be part of the law school’s first graduating class. “The bravery, grit and intellect of the students is unmatched, and I am thrilled to have learned the law alongside such giants and leaders,” she notes.

One of the fondest memories Thompson has of her time at the school is the renaming of the university in April 2022. “As Canadians, while we still have much work to do towards Reconciliation, I think the renaming sends a powerful message and speaks volumes to our solidarity with the Indigenous community,” she points out.

One year after the school’s renaming, Thompson is part of the first cohort of graduates to have Toronto Metropolitan University printed on their degree. “To receive my degree with the university’s new name is a reminder that I was a part of institutional change,” she says.

Thompson is now articling at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and is excited to learn from some of the best lawyers in the country. She will be called (early) to the Bar of Ontario in October 2023.

She advises future students about the importance of attending a school that is constantly evolving, and one that understands the value in equity, diversity and inclusion. “You also want to go to a school that will prepare you for the real world, and TMU will prepare you in so many ways.”

“TMU graduates are known for their grit, fearlessness and future thinking,” she adds. “They come from a plethora of backgrounds, but many, if not most, come from places and spaces where they’ve had to overcome the unimaginable to be here.” 

“And we stand here, together, always thinking of those who are to come after us,” Thompson says. “So, when we think of the future, it’s not just about innovation and technology, it’s also about building legacy. As students, if we can make it even just a tiny bit easier for future generations of TMU students, we’ve done our job.”