At Carleton University, if you’re a business student or an engineering student you are able to participate in Sprosh or EngFrosh, respectively, and have your own orientation week separate from other faculties. But if you happen to be one of the “freshies” going into a computer science, law, or journalism degree, you’re mixed up with everyone else. It raises the question: if the idea of a student orientation week is to orient and welcome new students through a variety of events held on and off campus, then why aren’t all “freshies” welcomed together as one group? After all, we are all Ravens, right?
At Carleton, instead of promoting a welcoming environment to meet people with different interests, we promote three orientation programs that include some students while leaving others behind. Carleton’s frosh should reflect our unified school and bring everyone together, instead of having two programs representing a faculty and another one representing the university’s name and history.
Take for example Concordia University in Montreal, where the students are invited to meet and greet one another, spending their first week getting to know people from all different backgrounds and interests. On Concordia’s orientation week webpage, it reads, “Kick-off your year and branch out from your faculty: meet an artist, engineer, entrepreneur, aspiring journalist, and create a lasting bond.”
Having all new students in one group would not only emphasize the sense of belonging to Carleton, but it would also enable the students to create a larger network as they begin this new experience. Some “freshies” are in a new town, others in a new country, some even on a new continent. EngFrosh and Sprosh have a limited number of registrations, therefore they do not even guarantee a place for all the new students in their faculties. Having only one orientation program would give the same starting experience to all new students.
In the end, frosh week is meant to be fun and welcoming while making the students’ first days in university memorable. It’s also a chance for all “freshies” to meet new people and make friends to kick off the year, so what better way to do so than gather everyone together and have a week-long party?
Frosh week is different from one university to another, some going for an all-included package with pizza delivery, concerts, and frosh Olympics, while others choose to host beach days and coffee meet and greets. In the end, it is the university’s own choice to decide what’s on the itinerary, the amount charged to students, if anything, and how long the orientation will take place for. But regardless of what school one attends, all university students will spend the rest of their time in university divided into faculties, classes, and even group projects, so spending the first couple of days all together would allow students to make long-lasting connections with those outside of their academic programs.
If it is your orientation week this year, maybe grab a coffee with an artist, engineer, entrepreneur or even an aspiring journalist.
