On June 23, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) doubled their upcoming graduate orientation, GradFest, budget to $85,650, anticipating greater attendance after last year’s unexpectedly high turnout. The budget now covers the costs for a new venue and increased expenses for catering, facilities, and overhead.

GradFest will now be held at Front Campus on September 16 from 4:00–8:00 pm. 

To break down the budget and the event, The Varsity reached out to executive members Vice President (VP) Graduate Life Eliz Shimshek, VP Finance Farshad Murtada, and President Amir Moghadam. As the lead on the event, VP GradLife Shimshek emailed The Varsity on behalf of the entire team.

Budget

Every year, the UTGSU hosts GradFest in the fall and winter semesters to welcome new and returning graduate students to the university. Last year’s fall GradFest budget projected 1,400 attendees, with 2,200 registering, including 1,200 on the last night of registration. 

“The decision [to increase the budget] is easy because of our membership’s engagement level,” Shimsek wrote.

To allocate expenses for food, bulk purchases, and logistics, the board must present a budget at a summer Board of Directors meeting, since GradFest occurs in the first month of the fiscal year, before UTGSU’s approval of a full 2025–2026 budget.

This year, in the early stages of outreach in July, over 200 students registered for GradFest. Shimshek explained that the majority of these budgetary decisions emerged from the high level of engagement from last year, and remained proportional to attendance levels. 

“[I]t’s no secret that we are seeing massive cuts in post-secondary education due to underfunding from the provincial government and continued austerity measures in the university,” Shimshek wrote to The Varsity, “At a time like this, it is important for students to see that their students’ union is not cutting corners and that we are investing in them.”

Location

This year, GradFest relocated from Bancroft Avenue — where the event has historically been held — to Front Campus. Last year’s larger-than-expected turnout led to space constraints and fewer amenities, including limited giveaways prepared by the union. 

According to the June 2025 Budget explainer, Bancroft Avenue is no longer considered a viable or safe venue given the high anticipated turnout. 

“The reality is that the road was not built for a 2500+ person event. We had hosted GradFest for so many years at Bancroft and we needed to reflect and understand that to host the event we wanted to, in a safe way, we needed a larger space,” Shimshek wrote. “This means more student services and student groups, activities outside of just tables and a barbeque, and ultimately more students to engage with the UTGSU.”

Future considerations

UTGSU’s GradFest planning emerged from multi-year discussions on membership programs and graduate life engagement. Ahead of winter GradFest, “a much smaller operation” than its fall alternative, Shimshek identified UTGSU’s work to foster relationships with the Multi-Faith Centre toward hosting indoor events and increased funding throughout the year for a “burst of programming.” In reference to fall GradFest, Shimshek wrote, “it is a great litmus test to show how many students want to engage in the campus experience.”

“In many ways, graduate studies is what you make of it,” Shimshek wrote. “We hope that GradFest shows our members that they can get involved outside of the classroom and department, that graduate life is thriving at UofT, and that there is an active students’ union willing to hear their ideas, engage with their needs, and treat them as more than a number.”