Flashback

Winter, 1966: Vanier Residence opens its doors for the first time. A solitary brick landmark on York’s Keele Campus, marooned in a prairie of snow. No neighbours, no shortcuts. Just wind, footprints and the occasional snowdrift pressed against the doors. Inside, the first residents hang up parkas and puzzle over a college named for a governor general most have only seen on postage stamps. The motto is “To belong and contribute,” but for now, it’s about finding warmth on the edge of nowhere. Sixty winters later, Vanier marks its anniversary at the heart of a sprawling campus, but in that first winter, it was simply this: a lone outpost, waiting for York to build around it.