On September 9, students arriving at the University of Toronto will experience a SAC Orientation Day that differs substantially from years past.
Orientation coordinators Paul Bansal and Luke Stark have infused the traditional clubs fair, parade, and concert with a host of innovations aimed at demonstrating the Students’ Administrative Council’s commitment to enriching student life on campus.
With previous years’ SAC frosh activities shrouded in bad memories of gross overspending and poor management including a reported $10,000 on a golf cart and thousands more on a trip to Wonderland and a party at a large concert hall, frosh organizers are looking to distance themselves from all that. SAC President Paul Bretscher has stated his commitment to “keep Orientation deficit-free.”
The Orientation Day concert on the back campus, featuring Canadian bands Sloan and Controller.Controller, is connected to the “Make Poverty History” campaign, a change from the straightforward hedonism of yesteryear.
Bansal and Stark chose to organize the concert for the late afternoon so that it would not conflict with evening frosh events hosted by individual colleges.
SAC has encouraged university organizations to provide funding instead of relying on large-scale corporate sponsorship.
University College’s own parade around campus was already getting underway Monday, as hundreds of orange T-shirted frosh trekked up Spadina Ave., stopping to collectively give a flower to a taxi driver. The driver backed up in order to receive the gift from a student, drawing cheers.
Tom Marshall, an international student who was marching in the parade, said that he was enjoying the diversity of the people he was meeting as a frosh. “There’s a guy from Pakistan, from Dubai, from everywhere,” he said, adding that he was from England. “I could do without all the yelling, though. When you’re meeting a few people it’s fine, but a huge group like this makes me a bit nervous.”
Vice President and Provost Shirley Neuman’s 2003 report “Stepping Up: A Framework for Academic Planning at the University of Toronto” inspired many of the changes to SAC Orientation. The report stated that “welcome and orientation events during the first week on campus can develop a student’s pride in his or her university or sow the seeds of alienation.”
Bansal and Stark recognized that one of the most effective methods of developing new students’ pride in U of T is to encourage them to become involved in campus organizations during orientation week. Stark noted that “once you have alienated a student, it is much harder to get them involved.”
In order to facilitate this involvement, the clubs fair will take place on orientation day itself, and a new student handbook will help students navigate the rows of club booths on King’s College Circle. Stark describes the handbook, which also includes contact information for numerous clubs, as “a good springboard for involvement at U of T.”
Bansal and Stark conceived the idea of a partnership between the frosh concert and “Make Poverty History” campaign as an opportunity for students to support a common cause. “SAC’s Blue Crew will distribute banners for all students to sign, pledging to make poverty history,” Bansal said.
Stark regards the campaign as an opportunity to highlight the advantages of U of T’s size, something many students blame for causing alienation. “The campaign demonstrates what is possible when the entire university rallies around a single cause. Even if a student isn’t engaged in this cause, it may encourage them to become involved in another event on campus or in society as a whole.”
Both organizers acknowledge that the financial difficulties of last year’s orientation have affected the organization of the upcoming frosh events. “SAC orientation hasn’t always had the best reputation. It is important to overcome the stigma of the year before,” explained Bansal. This year sees increased financial support from the U of T Bookstore, Hart House, the Athletic Centre, and other campus institutions.
Stark hopes that SAC Orientation will serve as an opportunity to demonstrate that “we’re not the same old SAC anymore.”
