Clubs Week began on Monday at UTSC, with more than 20 different clubs and associations setting up information booths in the central Meeting Place intersection of the campus. The record number of clubs wooed students with planned events such as parties and dinners, offering a chance to make instant connections with people outside of the classroom.
The common thread of most of the clubs was overwhelmingly a shared world culture, ethnicity, or religion. Activities were offered aiming themselves at Christians, Chinese students, Tamil students, Korean students, Caribbean students, Coptic students, and more, showcasing the incredible diversity of the campus. Even the new I Am Canadian Club, started last year by four students who felt they didn’t “fit in” anywhere else, is based on a common nationality.
Also displaying information were Unicef, Amnesty International, and the International Socialists. Notably, members of the Socialist, Muslim, and Afghan Student groups combined efforts to raise awareness of violations of human rights, especially surrounding the arrest and imprisonment of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim men on unclear or arbitrary grounds.
Although most students were eager to join up, there were others who appeared skeptical or even resentful of what they saw as the clubs’ exclusionary attitudes. Membership of the clubs is open to all students, regardless of their ethnicity or religion, but at least one student, who asked not to be named, claimed this wasn’t the case in real life.
He was once told, after asking questions about a club for Muslim students and leaving, that he “wasn’t Muslim anyway.”
