Fall orientations are approaching at both major Ottawa universities, but this year, the event comes with controversy after a local entertainment company, Aficionado Studios, posted a video online promoting its own private frosh week event.
The Aficionado Studios event is not affiliated with any of the academic institutions in Ottawa, including Carleton, but is open to students over the age of 18 from all schools, according to the company’s Facebook page.
The first promotional video released for the frosh week event showed scenes of young people binge drinking and using illegal drugs.
The first video is no longer available online, and is listed as “private” on YouTube. According to the Facebook page, the video was removed Aug. 2.
A second promotional video was released, showing some of the same aspects as the first, but with milder content to avoid further controversy.
In an interview with CBC, Jarett Lopez, the founder of Aficionado Studios, said he stands by the racy promotional video.
“The whole point of it was to generate reaction,” he said. “We’re going to obviously be really safe and make sure nobody gets too drunk. But the whole point is that you learn your limits in first year.”
Lopez did not respond to requests for comment.
The event is hosted in Ottawa, where the legal drinking age is 19, and the admission age to the Aficionado Studios frosh week is only 18.
The Aficionado Studios event costs $100, with an additional $50 package including a boat cruise.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) president Folarin Odunayo released an official statement regarding CUSA’s stance on the alternate frosh week.
“Carleton University encourages incoming students to participate in one of its supervised Fall Orientation programs,” Odunayo said.
“The university does not endorse, nor is it affiliated with, any third party frosh events.”
The statement also said no alcohol is served during any Carleton orientation activities.
“Our focus has always been on how we can provide the most engaging, safe, and welcoming experience for students, and I think our frosh week programming does that,” said Jeremy Brzozowski, manager of the Student Experience Office at Carleton.
He said Carleton’s registration numbers are higher at this point than they have been in other years.
Carleton’s frosh week package costs $125 and covers the costs of all programming and admissions to the Chromeo frosh week concert, a varsity athletics season’s pass, and a day pass to Ottawa Folk Fest.
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