Despite frosh week becoming a virtual experience for most students in Canada, some schools have opted for in-person parties and events to welcome the school year.
Dalhousie University, located in Nova Scotia, is one school attempting to maintain the traditional frosh experience and incorporate in-person activities.
Jad Ghiz, vice-president (student life) at Dalhousie, said the first two weeks of frosh will center around online programming, such as trivia, online concerts, and yoga.
The remaining portion of fall orientation will consist of events with less than 50 people, abiding by provincial guidelines.
“The university itself is stricter than provincial bylaws and (the events at Dalhousie) have to pass both safety regulations of the university and the province,” Ghiz said.
Despite Dalhousie’s attempt at maintaining normalcy during frosh week, Ghiz says there has been a significant drop in participation, which he attributes to the lower number of students living near or on campus this year.
“The need is still there, but where there were 2,000 students last year, there are now 700 because of the number of students not in the city,” Ghiz explained.
Ghiz said frosh week and in-person events held at the university are part of the post-secondary experience, adding that these events “connects the [Dalhousie] community.”
While some universities in Canada, such as St. Francis Xavier University, require students on campus to self-isolate upon arrival, Dalhousie will not be following the same procedure.
Ghiz explains this is because orientation leaders have already been in the city for over two weeks.
“There is no need for physical contact for the events planned, and the six feet bubble will not be broken. We will be giving out masks and following other precautionary measures,” said Ghiz.
Ghiz said he is confident that Dalhousie is taking all the measures necessary to keep students safe during orientation. Events will take place across multiple days, rather than on the same day like in previous years, as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.
Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que. will also host in-person frosh week activities.
Hannah Wallace, the communications and marketing director for the Students’ Representative Council at Bishop’s, said the university is executing partially in-person frosh week activities this fall.
“We’ve had a very successful in-person and virtual O-Week. We strongly enforce face covering and physical distancing at all times throughout the week,” said Wallace.
The university has opted to adapt their approach to O-Week by dividing the entire incoming class into six “safety groups,” each consisting of three O-Week teams.
The safety groups each have their own individual O-Week schedule, including events such as archery, golf, tie-dye, beach day, and nights out at one of the university’s three outdoor bars.
This choice of scheduling aims to avoid having more than 60 people in one outdoor event location by staggering the start time of the activity, said Wallace.
Some health experts have shared their concerns about students returning to university campuses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These concerns are directly applicable to the orchestration of in-person events for the frosh weeks of these universities.
“As much as universities are going to have rules, there’s going to be an element of wanting to socialize and interact with people,” said Ashleigh Tuite, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, in a recent CBC article.
Carleton’s frosh week differs from those of Western University, Dalhousie, Bishop’s, and other universities that have opted to incorporate in-person events to their schedules.
The centralized and Sprosh fall orientation schedule centres around activities such as a DJ at-home dance party, bingo, speed mingling and trivia night held over online web conference platforms.
There is only one exception to the university’s virtual frosh week—a drive-in movie showing of Wonder Woman, which will be held on campus and abide by social physical distancing practices.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
