Around 150 Ontario engineering students attended a fiesta-themed pub night hosted by the University of Toronto Engineering Society (EngSoc) on Friday, November 21.
The event, which was held at Suds, the engineering pub, included festive music and salsa dancing, as well as themed foods.
However, some students have expressed concerns that the event could have devolved into something offensive, with racial stereotyping a particular source of unease.
“I received a few complaints from people who were uncomfortable approaching the rest of the officer team,” says Ryan Gomes, EngSoc vice-president, academic.
Gomes says that he raised these concerns but was met with general dismissal.
Teresa Nguyen, EngSoc president, says that she did not know of any issues raised by EngSoc members. “If they had [raised concerns,] I would have immediately followed-up and taken a more active role in the event,” she says, adding: “As a general rule of management, EngSoc executives are quite hands-off with event planning processes unless something extremely egregious catches our attention.”
“Inclusiveness is a high priority for student leaders on this campus, and I am no exception,” says Nguyen.
“Being a female president of a student organization that may be stereotyped to be male-dominated and to have [a] knack for being vocal and opinionated on this campus, I am always advocating for an inclusive student environment for the engineering student membership,” she adds.
Gomes was uncomfortable being associated with the event, and claims that he did not promote it, support it, or attend it. “That being said, I did hear from some attendees that some of the people in attendance did have racially insensitive attire and/or made jokes,” Gomes says.
According to Nguyen, EngSoc informed its guests that the party had a fiesta theme, and that they were free to come dressed however they wished. Many of the attendees came in their school’s spirit wear and coveralls. “EngSoc absolutely did not encourage guests to dress Mexican as that is blatantly inappropriate,” Nguyen says.
When at the event, Nguyen said that she did not sense fear or offense from any of the attendees, and she believes that the event was generally well-received by the guests. “With any of EngSoc’s Friday bar events, the server team is trained to protect and maintain the safety of the space and attendees. The experience of building relationships with our fellow engineers across Ontario was what really pulled the event together, rather than the chosen theme,” Nguyen says.
For his part, Gomes remarked that many Arts & Science students on campus feel that Engineering does not provide the sort of equity services that it should.
“[Events] like this only give more credence to those beliefs,” Gomes says, adding: “I really do hope that Engineering will be able to move past this and produce better-themed events in the future.”
“I would implore those in charge next year to reflect on this year’s event and select a theme that does not revolve around a group’s culture,” he adds.
