The traditional style of frosh week doesn’t appeal to all students, which is exactly why universities offer alternative frosh week programming in order to be more inclusive.
Here at Carleton, there are two frosh week programs that are separate from general fall orientation: EngFrosh, for engineering students, and Sprosh, for students entering the SPROTT School of Business.
Gillian Moore, one of the CEO’s of Sprosh this year, said the program has 285 students registered to participate.
Moore said new business students should enroll in Sprosh rather than the general frosh week because it will give them the opportunity to meet other business students.
“I think alternate programs are important because of the community they create,” she said. “The people you meet in Sprosh are going to be your classmates for the next four years, so why not get to know them as soon as possible?”
McGill University has gone beyond offering program-specific frosh weeks, according to their orientation week website. They offer “Fish Frosh” for Christian students, a completely dry frosh that combines traditional frosh activities with the Christian faith.
Jennifer Jesmer, a now fourth-year English literature student at McGill, said she chose to participate in Fish Frosh during her first year.
“I chose to participate because I wanted to have a chance to meet other Christian first-year students at McGill,” Jesmer said. “I felt more comfortable spending my first week in a non-drinking environment.”
She said she is glad she chose to participate in Fish Frosh because it allowed her to connect with more people.
“Fish Frosh was so much fun. I especially liked that it was a smaller frosh, so by the end of the events I felt like I had a chance to connect with almost everyone who participated,” she said. “If I had chosen arts faculty frosh, that would not have been possible given the number of people in the arts faculty at McGill.”
Jesmer said one reason she chose Fish Frosh was to avoid some typical frosh activities, such as chanting, rowdiness, and drinking.
Since most first-year students are the legal drinking age in Montreal when they participate in frosh, drinking is allowed at events. Jesmer said she was not comfortable with this as a first-year and was happy she had an alternative option with Fish Frosh.
“I think everyone has different comfort levels. As I get older, I am getting better at knowing myself and the areas I’m comfortable in, I’m better able to handle these kinds of environments. As a first-year this wasn’t the case,” she said.
McGill also offers frosh week programming for Muslim students, Jewish students, an outdoor frosh, theatre frosh, and rad frosh, which involves workshops students can attend to become more aware of social issues.
