Enrolment, construction increase at Thorneloe: Latin is an oddly popular course, says president.

Enrolment is up at Thorneloe University in Sudbury, Ont. and more students are taking Latin, a development that mystifies the new president, Rev. Stephen Andrews.

"We have 34 people enrolled in first-year Latin. Latin is making a comeback," he said in an interview.

There's no mystery as to why enrolment is up 27 per cent from the previous year, however. The Ontario government several years ago decided to eliminate the fifth year of high school, which meant that last June both grade 12 and grade 13 students graduated--twice as many students as in a normal year.

Sometimes, Dr. Andrews said, popular culture causes interest in certain courses. "The biggest program at Laurentian (University, with which Thorneloe is affiliated) right now is the Forensics program, because of CSI," he said. CSI, or Crime Scene Investigation, is a television series about forensics, the use of medicine and science to investigate crime.

Perhaps, he ventured, the desire for Latin is tenuously connected, to the Harry Potter stories, which use Latinesque phrases for spells cast by witches and wizards.

Dr. Andrews, who was previously dean of St. Alban's Anglican Cathedral in Prince Albert, diocese of Saskatchewan, said he had to ramp up quickly once he was installed as president in October, 2002.

"All the teachers are unionized and I had to negotiate a collective agreement," he said, which was something he hadn't done before. "If I hadn't been negotiating with people I trust, it might have come out poorly, but we are very fortunate to have fine professors and good people. There is lots that is painful about it, but we had a positive outcome," he recalled.

Dr. Andrews is also directing a construction program that will see a 4,400 square-foot, $600,000 building rise next to existing offices. It will hold new faculty and administration offices and two new classrooms. Thorneloe has a lively drama program and the new building will also house rehearsal space, freeing up the campus theatre for larger classes, said Dr. Andrews. "We are feeling the pinch in some of our larger classrooms. Teaching space is at a premium on the Laurentian campus," he said.

Thorneloe was founded by the synod of the Anglican diocese of Algoma to be a church-related university in the Laurentian University Federation. It received its university charter in 1961. It was named after Bishop George Thorneloe, who was bishop of Algoma From 1897 to 1927 and metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario From 1915 to 1927.

Now, students and faculty come from many backgrounds and membership or affiliation with the Anglican Church of Canada is not expected of students, faculty or staff. Thorneloe has a faculty of seven full-time professors and about 15 part-time instructors. It grants degrees through Laurentian University and maintains departments of classical studies, religious studies, theatre arts and women's studies. It also offers diplomas and degrees in theology. In the theology programs, Thorneloe teaches an average of 120 students by distance education.

Rev. John Harvey was hired last January to be director of studies of the theology program, a new position, in order "to make it more responsive to the needs of the church and the needs of postulants," said Dr. Andrews.

Lay people who take the theology program are interested in a broad range of academic disciplines, but postulants, who are heading toward ordination, have a more particular focus, he said. "We've added a course on preaching and we're looking at the Formation side of the program," he said.