The Transitional Year Programme (TYP) Revoluntionary Student Movement (RSM) Coalition was formed in the spring of 2013, after the TYP Preservation Alliance (TYPPA) organized a number of rallies and Town Hall meetings to raise awareness and organize around the preservation and expansion of the Transitional Year Programme, a 43-year-old Access and Equity program at the University of Toronto founded by Dr. Keren S. Braithwaite.

 

While staff, students, and alumni continued to be deeply affected by the persistent attacks on TYP by the institution's governing council through financial cutbacks and amalgamation proposals pressuring the program to join with the university's less successful Woodsworth Academic Bridging program, a number of students and grassroots supporters got on board to help preserve and expand the TYP.

 

RSM in particular, became a strong presence and aid to the TYPPA. Since the initial interaction of both groups, RSM has been heavily involved in organizing and rallying alongside TYP students and alumni to sustain the program for current and future students.

 

The TYP RSM Coalition aims to:

 

1. Prevent the dismantlement and eradication of TYP.

 

2. Retain the autonomy and the original structure of TYP, which has contributed to the success of the program.

 

3. Raise public awareness of TYP and build strong and healthy partnerships with supporters.

 

4. Encourage the university and community to support and expand the program in order to foster access and equity at U of T for the communities that are served through TYP.

 

Visit for more: http://bit.ly/11EPIol

 

Official TYP site: www.utoronto.ca/typ

"...[M]ore importantly, the initiation of access programs speaks to the fact that inequality and systemic discrimination within the university have operated to maintain a fairly homogenous population of university students. Hence, the issue is not only about racial minorities gaining entry to university, but also about addressing the systemic problems that have accounted for their absence from these institutions in the first place. Also, it is about changing the hegemonic culture of the institution to accommodate and indeed systemically represent the diversity not just of bodies, but of the interests, aspirations, pedagogy, knowledge, and expectations of the new insiders."