Founded in 1962 it aims to be "Canada's small outstanding liberal arts and sciences university". Unfortunately this niche is disliked by the education policies of Mike Harris's Ontario government which has resulted in many funding cuts. In order to stay afloat, the administration has bitten the bullet of financial reform to the outrage of a minority of vocal students.
Trent has all the usual undergraduate degrees including Business Administration and Nursing, but no Engineering (Education is the latest addition). A long-time devotion to cross-disciplinary study has created a few less-usual such as Environmental Resource Science/Studies, Cultural Studies, Computer Studies, etc. All the degrees are also more modular than at most institutions, allowing students to make seemingly bizarre combinations (eg: my degree is a BSc in Computer Science and Philosophy). Breadth of degrees is also encouraged (and required due to the small size of most Depts) so full-time students take, at the most, two courses in their major in first year.
It is said that the student body has a high portion of left-wing radicals ("hippies") and homosexuals. I have never seen statistics in favour of either of these claims, however the average bus load of Trent students is certainly looks more heterogeneous than the average bus load of Queen's students. I have heard it theorised that the relative isolation of the university combined with the focus on small residences creates more of a unique culture than more metropolitan universities. There certainly seem to be more crazy professors than average...
Trent's motto is Nunc cognosco ex parte.