If you rolled up to Queen’s University on move-in day five years ago, your car would be greeted by purple-skinned engineering students surrounding your car and slamming their leather jackets to the ground.
A 2014 article in the National Post said this tradition, dubbed “jacket slamming,” was intimidating for some incoming first-year students.
Lizzie Williams, a third-year mechanical engineering student, said the tradition is much calmer now. Groups of engineering students now beat their jackets on the ground in celebration of the end of exams or during a designated frosh week event.
“I did the jacket slam first year and it was amazing,” Williams said. “With everyone slamming together, the ground was shaking and sounded almost like thunder.”
It’s strange, but not nearly as intimidating as it was five, 10, or 20 years ago, as is the case with many frosh traditions and activities today.
Orientation week, frosh week, Fall-O, welcome week—whatever you call it, the goal is the same: to welcome new students to campus and help them have a smooth, fun transition from high school to university.
Frosh week is about inclusivity and making incoming first-year students feel comfortable in a new environment. However, it hasn’t always been that way.
Traditions have changed and so have the students. There was a time when frosh week focused more on hazing new students, and drinking and swearing were more prevalent, unlike the safe-spaced based fall orientation activities of today.
How did these changes get made, and why?
How did these changes get made, and why?
The evolution of frosh week at Carleton
Prior to 2010, Carleton’s frosh week was entirely student-run, according to Carleton graduate and former fall orientation facilitator Jacky Chen.
Chen said she considers herself lucky to have experienced her first frosh week in its last student-run year, but said she believes her orientation week was not a place of safe space.
“A student-run frosh inherently welcomed a level of inappropriate behaviour you might expect from unsupervised university students,” Chen said.
This meant raunchier cheers and a lot of swearing, she said. That changed when Carleton’s administration decided to step in and take over some of the organization of fall orientation week in 2010, after 2009’s frosh organizers released a DVD to summarize the week’s events.
Chen said the DVD was one of the main pushes for Carleton’s involvement in fall orientation.
“From profane chants to MuchMusic sponsored dance parties . . . Let’s just say it’s not a video I would ever show my mom,” she said.
This was the beginning of what many consider to be calmer fall orientation weeks at Carleton.
In 2012, Chen was vice-head of her own frosh team, and she said it was much more tame than her own frosh week.
Jeremy Brzozowski, manager of the Student Experience Office (SEO) at Carleton, said the fall orientation program remains student-run, but that those students are just in closer collaboration with Carleton’s administration.
“Students are hired to plan the week with the involvement and leadership of [Carleton University Students’ Association] and [Rideau River Residence Association],” Brzozowski said. “The role of the SEO is contract oversight, risk management oversight, and leading the infrastructure for registration.”
Chen said another part of collaborating with the administration was the introduction of their safe space policy.
“The admin wanted to encourage a safe space for all students, [and] I can understand that,” Chen said. “But the overall control seemed very unnecessary. I definitely support the concept of safe space, but I feel like it’s been taken to an unnecessary extreme.”
Carleton’s safe space policy was implemented in an effort to reduce homophobia, heterosexism, and discrimination on campus, according to Carleton’s equity services website. An example of a safe space measure is that when leaving any nighttime activity during frosh, frosh facilitators offer to walk students back to their rooms.
Safe space, however, isn’t just about hysical space; it also means a space free from vulgarities and discrimination based on race, gender, religion, and/or sexuality.
Chen said the facilitators that year weren’t allowed to teach the new students Carleton’s beloved but vulgar “Fuck you, Ottawa U” chant.
“I understand that a completely student-run frosh can have its problems,” Chen said. “But to think that first years can’t handle a bit of swearing is almost insulting.”
On the other hand, Marwan Othman, a third-year business law student at Carleton and a second-time frosh facil, said he is supportive of Carleton’s safe space policies because they made him feel comfortable and welcome when he first arrived on campus.
“As an international student, I came here knowing nothing about anything and I was really welcomed beyond imagination,” Othman said.
“I could and can still be myself. I can say that I’m from Saudi Arabia without feeling a need to hide or like I will be an outcast.”
Othman said he thinks some safe space measures are unnecessary, but that he is willing to uphold safe space policies because everyone’s comfort levels are different.
“It’s about making people feel comfortable in their first few days in a new place,” Othman said. “I’m all for [safe space], I don’t mind.”
Drinking and frosh week
While drinking was not allowed during Chen’s time as a frosh or a facilitator, she said she thinks drinking was more prominent in the past compared to recent years.
“To me, it felt that because it was more profane, inappropriate behaviour was accepted, drinking and the like felt more accepted too,” Chen said.
Due to the fact that most first-year students are under the legal drinking age in Ontario, frosh week at Carleton is officially dry, meaning no facilitators or frosh are allowed to consume alcohol.
Othman said drinking still happens among facilitators and frosh despite the law and the facilitators’ contracts.
“Unfortunately we see it every year, whether people come in to events drunk, or bring alcohol into events,” Othman said.
Frosh week mischief
According to Ottawa Police staff sergeant Sam Fawaz, there is usually an increase in calls for service in the areas around campuses at the beginning of September.
Fawaz said the most common problems the police encounter during frosh week include noise complaints, drug use, drug and alcohol seizures, public intoxication, and property damage.
Fawaz said his advice for students participating in frosh week is to stay close to friends, keep an eye on each other, and plan a safe ride home in advance.
“Trust your instincts. If you don’t feel safe, tell someone and find a safe way home,” he said.
Why frosh is important
Carleton psychology professor Anne Bowker said frosh week helps students develop connections, which can increase their success in university.
Bowker’s research focuses on youth development and youth participation in extracurricular activities.
“We know that students who have a sense of being ‘connected’ to the university tend to be less likely to drop out, and to feel more committed to the university,” Bowker said.
“Frosh week helps students develop connections by allowing them to meet other first year students, and to find out about what the university has to offer that is non-academic.”
Second-year Carleton history student Aleisha Hibbit said participating in frosh week was a decision she’ll never regret.
She said her frosh week was a smooth transition into university, during a time when she was moving to a new city and surrounded by unfamiliar faces with no idea what to expect.
“The energy and positivity you receive from the frosh facilitators is contagious. You can’t help but join!”
Why frosh week isn’t for everyone
Holly Sinclaire-Bates, a second-year cognitive science student at Carleton, said the rowdiness of frosh week made her want to break away from the crowd rather than join in the boisterous cheering.
“I was one of the people who spent their time hiding out from the crowd, but I would have really appreciated it if frosh week [had] something for the introverts,” Sinclaire-Bates said.
Second-year student computer science Mohab Abdelkader said he thought the week was too much like a summer camp.
“I felt like I was being babysat the whole time,” he said.
“I’ve been out of high school for a couple years [and] the environment they created was that of a high school pep rally.”
Frosh: new friends, new experiences
While some, like Jacky Chen, say they think frosh has been toned down in recent years, Jeremy Brzozowski said he thinks the increased collaboration between Carleton and students in planning frosh week has only improved the program, since registration numbers have increased 35 per cent since 2009.
“Between all three orientation programs there are 1,200 volunteers, and what that tells me is that Carleton is a wonderful community that cares about each other,” he said.
Chen said once you get beyond the countless hours of cheering and activities, the core purpose of frosh is about new experiences.
“It’s all about being open to making new friends and coming out of your shell,” she said.
Graphics by Shirley Duong
