University of Toronto's The Varsity - Monday, September 8, 2003

All froshed out: a GTA recap

By Feon Chau, Sarah Barmak, and Skye Plowman
Media Credit for photograph: Kara Dillon

Save the best for last" was SAC's plan for this year's Frosh Week.

Last Friday was SACSTOCK Orientation 2003 and thousands of students came out for the event. With the great weather, freebies, wrestling and live band, it was hard to believe that school was just around the corner.

SACSTOCK began at noon with the Clubs Carnival, which filled the streets of Hart House and King's College Circle with booths and displays. Many clubs and organizations handed out freebies such as hats, whiteboards, highlighters, cotton candy and posters. L'Oreal gave out Pure Zone samples, the U of T Equity Gardeners gave out free plants and Craig Cook from the Varsity Christian Fellowship gave out freezies, which were a crowd favourite.

Heaven sent: Two U of T students wear their alliances somewhere besides their sleeves.

"It's a hot day and we figure people would like some freezies. Our motto is experiencing and accepting God's love and we are giving out freezies as part of that," said Cook.

Besides clubs, many of the fraternity houses also set up display booths hoping to recruit new members for the school year. Brandon Cook (not related to Craig Cook) is a member of Phi Kappa Pi and is proud and excited about the coming year. "The excitement is the same every year. We get new guys that are looking to have a good time...looking to help out with the community. We do a lot of charity work and we raised a lot of money for Sick Kids [hospital] last year, so it's a good time."

When asked how about he feels having younger students on campus, Craig smiled and gave the following advice, "Be careful. Obviously, there are lots more younger girls out there and we all know what could happen. Just be careful and we try to keep our events all ages."

Like Brandon Cook, many students were concerned about drinking regulations during Frosh Week since there are younger students this year. But Andrew Case, a member of the Blue Crew and one of the many volunteers for SACSTOCK said SAC did a good job in accommodating everybody.

"For the most part, people understand everybody is younger so we have to make accommodations. For those who are older, they can always make arrangements for that. But no, as far as I can see, everybody is happy that we've accommodated everybody. There's something for everybody."

Case was impressed with how everything had turned out. "It's been absolutely amazing. It's totally incredible. People come in and have great spirits and I think everybody is working to make it totally amazing for everybody. We started in May to get things rolling and everything came together in the past weeks. We handed out about 7,500 frosh kits. So it's coming smoothly," said Case.

Students from the Scarborough and Mississauga campuses also came out to be part of the celebration.

Copyright 2003 The Varsity features@thevarsity.ca.