Tag: Frosh

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Will iFrosh facilitate friendships?

See how Concordia’s first-years are feeling about meeting their peers virtually at this year’s online frosh.

Concordia first-year students from all over the world came together virtually for a COVID-safe spin on frosh. ASFA has been working tirelessly to find ways for new students to make friends in concordance with social distancing measures. From Sept. 2–5, iFrosh featured workshops and games that allowed students to get to know each other in a casual social setting.

According to iFrosh coordinator Victoria Videira, the week included a scavenger hunt, a game of Clue, and events hosted by professional actors.

“We have a lot of workshops this year, which is kind of different from traditional frosh. We’re having more of an academic and social justice perspective on frosh,” said Videira.

While some students jumped on the opportunity to give virtual frosh a try, many students were understandably skeptical. iFrosh did not see the same registration numbers as traditional froshes have in the past.

Videira says she expected these reduced numbers.

“We’re at about … two-thirds of what we had last year. It’s still pretty good, but you obviously see that some people are just not interested in doing a virtual frosh, and you know, that’s their point of view.”

“I would have gone were it in-person and there was the opportunity to have real interaction as opposed to having the facade of interaction through a screen,” said Creative Writing and Journalism first-year Victor Vigas. He adds that although this is not the ideal situation, “that’s how the world is right now and I’m not upset about it.”

Ximena Turmel, another first-year at Concordia who chose not to attend frosh, agrees that she only would have chosen to attend if the events were in-person.

“I wasn’t interested in iFrosh because I didn’t really think I would easily meet people online that way since … talking on Zoom … gives me anxiety and I feel like it’s just less authentic than meeting people in person.”

Videira says she expected these sorts of opinions.

“We’ve tried to have more of an educational frosh this year, mixed with obviously the fun aspects of it, but I think … even though we’ve really emphasized that we’ve tried to find ways to bring people together, some people just might not see it.”

Others were excited to see how the week would play out. First-year Annabel Durr said she had tickets to the event and hoped it would go well. She expected the event to be awkward at first, but to get better as the days go on.

First-year History major Scarlet Guy also planned on attending frosh. She said she was excited for the coming events. She feels that what you take from the experience will all be about your outlook.

“If I come to frosh with a positive attitude, ready to make friends, and open to anything, then I think I’ll have a good time. I’ve seen a lot of negativity about ‘oh, you’re just gonna be sitting in your room drinking, like not doing anything,’ but I don’t know, if you have positivity about it and you put all of yourself into it then you’re gonna get quite a lot out of it, I think.”

At the end of the day, Videira and her coworkers at ASFA have worked hard to make the best out of an unfortunate situation.

“Frosh is still going to be the way that you meet people and make friends,” Videira said, adding that “whether you’re meeting in person or meeting through a screen, you’re still interacting and making friends.”

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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Frosh week: an increase in alcohol-related injuries

A joint research project founded in Sherbrooke brought increased awareness of the frequency and impact of alcohol intoxication in youth – especially during frosh week.

The study, titled Youth Alcohol Use and Its Harms: Case Study in the Community of Sherbrooke, focuses on the city of Sherbrooke and reflects recurrent behaviours across the whole country.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Alcohol (CCSA), Sherbrooke Ville en Santé and Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux de l’Estrie joined forces in 2018 to evaluate and offer preventive solutions to the city as well as its universities.

According to the study, one individual between the ages of 12 and 24 years old is admitted to hospital emergency rooms due to alcohol-related medical emergencies once every two days on regular weeks. On week 32 – also known as frosh week – experts observed an increase of admissions since 2012.

“We are often under the impression that having an acute alcohol intoxication is simply a precursor of a big hangover, but it’s not the case,” said Catherine Paradis, Senior Research and Policy Analyst at the CCSA, in an interview with The Concordian. “Fifty seven per cent of people admitted in emergency have major complications.” These complications can include anything from fractures, hypothermia, comas, or even to – in the most extreme cases – death.

“It happens regularly, unfortunately. One death per year is regular in my opinion,” said Paradis. “I think that it makes no sense to go to university and die because you drank too much.”

Aside from health-related issues, excessive drinking during frosh can create social and professional consequences in some cases. Paradis gave an example of a group of intoxicated engineering students from a university she chose to keep anonymous. They triggered the fire alarm which flooded an entire floor during frosh. The university sued them. As a result, the students’ chances of becoming engineers were ultimately wiped out since one cannot have a criminal record to have a career as an engineer.

To break it down slightly, frosh is usually a week full of different events that include alcohol. Firstly, frosh is mainly for meeting new people in university and alcohol often acts as a social lubricant that facilitates interactions between individuals, according to Paradis. Secondly, it is easy to forget to stay hydrated and to eat when consuming alcohol, both of which are a recipe for disaster.

However, there are easy methods of prevention (referred to as protective behavior strategies). These include the following: eating and drinking water regularly, alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, always staying with a friend and having a plan to get back home. According to Paradis, such strategies can easily lower the risk of incidents during frosh.

Some universities went even further in regard to alcohol regulation, banning all alcohol during orientation week to discourage students from binge drinking. St. Thomas University in New Brunswick was the first Canadian university to create a “dry week” 15 years ago. Other universities, like Dalhousie in Halifax, followed the same strategy in 2017.

“They want to let students get to know each other sober,” said Paradis. “If during the first week, students manage to meet friends that share the same set of values and get along well [sober], they will create better friendships overall.”

Managing alcohol during frosh week is also used to decrease interference and nuisance within the neighbourhood. The University of Guelph put in place a party registration system. By registering a party to this system, students will have their information shared with the police as well as with the city for direct contact should an issue arise at the party. Registered students participate in consultations that include tips on how to properly manage a party and how to reduce neighbourhood complaints. In return, students decrease their chances of receiving nuisance fines.

The CCSA is working in cooperation with many groups in order to make alcohol consumption in universities safer for students even after frosh week is over. The main issues arise in “wet environments” such as Concordia where alcohol is easily accessible.

 

Photo courtesy of ASFA Frosh (2014)

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Concordia student executives advise frosh leaders against visiting TRH-Bar

TRH-bar is under fire because of a party it organized for former bouncer and convicted sex offender Steve Bouchard. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Concordia community responds to local bar’s support of convicted sex offender

On the morning of March 15, Le Journal de Montréal published an article revealing that TRH-Bar—a popular nightlife spot for many students—hosted a fundraiser for former bouncer and convicted sex offender Steve Bouchard.

The Journal’s article was centred around Bouchard’s victim and former girlfriend, Martine Beaudet-Aune. She expressed her anger at TRH-Bar’s event and said she felt as though the bar’s organizers were “laughing in my face,” according to the Journal.

Although TRH-Bar has been a frequent destination for many young people and students— especially during holidays and frosh weeks—Nick Gertler, the vice-president of communications and promotions for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA), and Leyla Sutherland, the student life coordinator for the Concordia Student Union (CSU), both insisted the organizations have never had any sort of relationship with TRH-Bar. Both Gertler and Sutherland also added that neither ASFA nor the CSU will have associations with the bar in the future.

“Certainly, I’d hope that any future frosh leaders would discourage from going to TRH-Bar,” Gertler said, adding that ASFA is working to address the “social context” that these types of issues emerge from.

Gertler outlined the steps the federation has taken toward encouraging a more consent-driven, informed community at Concordia. “We have a task force that is right now, in part, dealing with sexual assault issues within the Arts and Science community. There are consent trainings at frosh now,” he said. “I think what we’re trying to do is work within our domain to address those kinds of behaviours, so people know what to watch for and know what is and is not acceptable. That is the most direct action we can take.”

The afternoon after the Journal article was published, TRH-Bar released a statement on their Facebook page. The post did not deny their involvement in the event, nor the fact that it was held with the goal of raising money for Bouchard. According to the Journal, the money raised at the fundraiser, which was called “Free Steve,” was intended for the assailant’s “reintegration” into society after he was released. In the article by the Journal and another published by Eater Montreal shortly after, Bouchard was charged in early 2017 and is still behind bars.

TRH-Bar’s statement said the bar does not support rape culture and has always encouraged its clientele and employees to maintain a respectful environment. It also claims the fundraiser was an “error of judgement,” and that its organizers did not take the victim’s experience into account.

Since the initial article’s release, TRH-Bar’s Facebook page has been swarmed with negative ratings and reviews. One contributor wrote that she “regret[s] every night spent” at the bar, while another urged visitors to “think about […] next time you want to encourage a bar that shows no respect whatsoever for rape victims.” As of Monday evening, the bar’s overall Facebook rating sat at 1.5 out of five stars, with more than 2,000 one-star ratings.

In a recent poll The Concordian conducted on Instagram, 96 per cent of participants (most of whom were Concordia students) said they don’t intend to return to TRH-Bar after having heard about the fundraiser. Julieta Filippo, a third-year Concordia marketing student, said the news left her questioning whether she’d feel safe if she were to return. “I wouldn’t go back unless I felt like something had changed since this event,” she said. “It would just make me feel unsafe.”

Another Concordia student, who requested to remain anonymous, was interested in whether or not the incident would spark “a community commitment towards supporting survivors.” They added “it is easy to say that you stand behind the condemnation of TRH, but the next step is to actively choose to not support their enterprise.”

TRH-Bar did not respond to a request for comment.

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

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Consent workshops for freshmen at Concordia

Graphics by Alexa Hawksworth

For many freshmen, frosh is considered the ultimate social event to kick off university life. With everything from friends to beer to sex to textbooks on students’ minds, the question of consent often falls to the wayside.

“Frosh is here to make you feel like you’re included and accommodated for, but we’re also here to make sure that that happens in a really safe way,” ASFA president Julia Sutera Sardo told The Concordian.

As sexual assault is prevalent across university campuses, ASFA has made it clear to students that Concordia’s frosh events are no exception when it comes to prevention. For the past few years, ASFA has required mandatory consent training workshops for all students attending frosh events. Currently, ASFA and CASAJMSB are the only two Concordia student associations requiring these workshops.

“Sexual assault happens frequently at universities, and we have to be mindful of that,” Sutera Sardo said. “If [students] don’t do the training, they don’t come to frosh.”

According to Sutera Sardo, the consent workshops are organized primarily by the student associations and Terry Kyle, who is ASFA’s manager of student life. The training includes modules on harm reduction, consent, sexual assault, bystander intervention, gender and several other related issues.

Another Concordia organization that is heavily involved in sexual assault prevention on campus is the Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC). According to coordinator Jennifer Drummond, SARC provides many services, such as delivering workshops and working with students to create campaigns on the topic of sexual violence prevention. The centre provides support services to survivors of sexual assault through one-on-one appointments, a drop-in centre and weekly group meetings. Drummond said SARC also works with the university to develop and implement policies on sexual violence prevention and response.

Drummond said she believes the implementation of mandatory consent training for students attending frosh has an impact on reducing the number of cases of sexual violence.

“I think the more people are knowledgeable about consent and how to have respectful relationships and communication, the better,” she said.

For students who might experience sexual violence at frosh, Drummond said there are many options.

“Those options can include calling the police, going to a designated centre or coming to SARC,” she said. “If someone witnesses something, I encourage people to intervene safely, when possible, and to check in with the person being targeted.”

Second-year Concordia students Erin Dunlop and Ben Fraser said they attended last year’s ASFA frosh and appreciated the mandatory consent training.

“You hear so many stories of sexual assaults happening at university events around the world. It was nice to see Concordia doing something about it,” Dunlop said. “Making it a mandatory prerequisite for attending the frosh events made me feel safer.”

Fraser said much of the training revolved around the presence of alcohol as a factor in sexual violence, as frosh events often entail a fair amount of heavy drinking.

“It was mostly focused on what to do in situations where consent is in a grey area,” he said. “People do stupid things at frosh.”

Dunlop agreed, saying she definitely sees the link between binge drinking and sexual assault.

“Predators prey on people who are vulnerable, and when there is alcohol involved, consent is compromised,” she said. “I was very lucky to have had a positive frosh experience, but I know that isn’t the case for everyone.”

While both of their frosh experiences involved being surrounded by binge drinking culture, Dunlop and Fraser said their frosh leaders were always checking in with them and making sure they were comfortable. They said they never felt forced to drink more than they wanted, and the leaders kept them out of trouble. However, Dunlop also noted there is always room for improvement in the trainings.

“Consent workshops are a good start, but there is always more that we can do,” she said. “There needs to be harsh penalties for people who commit sexual assault. It’s super important to focus on prevention, but we have to be careful to make sure the message is ‘don’t rape’ and not ‘don’t get raped.’”

While ASFA is constantly working to improve their workshops, Sutera Sardo said the most important thing Concordia can do right now is to implement university-wide consent trainings before frosh.

“I just hope that everyone is going to have mandatory consent training in the future,” Sutera Sardo said. “The more people get on board and talk about it, the better it is. Destigmatizing is what we should all be working on.”

Graphics by Alexa Hawksworth

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ASFA tackles the culture of frosh

Photo by Florence Yee.

Arts & Sciences Federation Association (ASFA) will be kicking off Frosh week by hosting consent workshops for the first time on Aug. 30 and Aug. 31.

It will be mandatory for anyone who has purchased a ticket to Frosh for the full week to attend the workshop prior to being let into Frosh events. “We decided we would take precautions this year and be careful and [ensure] that everyone was safe,” said ASFA internal affairs and administrative coordinator Julia Sutera Sardo. “Executives, leaders and volunteers have already undergone consent, harm reduction and the safe serve program (SSP) in preparation for frosh week.”

This is part of ASFA’s goal to reduce the typical culture surrounding Frosh, said Sutera Sardo. She said that she had not previously attended Frosh, due to not appreciating the culture of binge drinking and lack of consent surrounding the week.

However, Sutera Sardo said ASFA wanted to change how frosh was organized this year to provide a safer space for everyone attending the events. “I was really happy I got to take part in changing the culture of how things work,” she said.

ASFA social events coordiantor Marc Da Silva said Frosh is really well organized this year as opposed to last year. “I’m definitely really excited about the consent workshops that are being given,” said Da Silva. “I think that’s a necessity in making sure frosh is safer.”

Sutera Sardo said that ASFA’s goal in changing the culture of Frosh has definitely been a group effort. ASFA is working in collaboration with the Dean of Students office to provide the consent workshops.

ASFA VP of community outreach and sustainability coordinator Agunik Mamikonyan said ASFA will be hosting five different sessions for the consent training, each session lasting an hour and a half each.

“We’re going to register [Froshees] when they come in and they are going to get their bracelets by the end of the session.” Mamikonyan said this is in order to ensure all attending the week of events at Frosh will have undergone consent training.

Dean of Students Andrew Woodall said ASFA reached out to the Dean of Students to get information about consent, bystander intervention and how to organize safer events. “We’ve been working with the execs—the outgoing and incoming since January as a group on trying to change the culture of orientation of Frosh,” said Woodall.

Woodall said Froshees will undergo workshops focused on consent training and understanding how alcohol may impact and limit decision making. While executives and Frosh leaders are undergoing workshops focused on not only consent, but risk reduction as well, said Woodall. “Generally what we’re doing with the execs and the Frosh leaders is more about risk reduction—so consent and bystander [intervention], alcohol, what to watch out for and some drugs, too.”

Woodall said that the extensive training for leaders and executives is due to them setting up the event. The training will address how to set up an event in a manner with least risk to the Froshies—such as having longer lineups for alcohol, having water and food available and not having alcohol as the point of a game.

Sutera Sardo also ensured Frosh participants would have a safe space if they needed it. “I made sure that we had a safe room [for beach day], because I feel having experienced panic attacks myself before, sometimes you just don’t feel comfortable in a specific zone with people or you may be dehydrated,” said Sutera Sardo. The safe room will help those attending Frosh by offering a separate space to relax and lay down.

In addition, there will be plenty of water available, first aid certified executives and security will be present. “By implementing some chill stations and safe rooms in all of our events we’re going to be able to have that place there, in case somebody feels uncomfortable and wants to speak to us,” said Sutera Sardo.

Sutera Sardo said that in order to create a more inclusive platform for Frosh week, ASFA is trying to involve not only first years, but undergraduate and graduate students. “Frosh isn’t only about freshmen,” she said. Sutera Sardo explained the first event being the cocktail mixer party is designed to incorporate more mature students. Sardo said her goal is to make more of a connection between new students, experienced undergraduates and graduate students, as well as creating a better network between students at Sir George Williams campus and Loyola Campus.

Sutera Sardo said while planning frosh there were many meetings with other student groups and associations, as well as representatives from Concordia’s security, hospitality, electricity department and facilities management departments to generate a greater communication with one another.

“I feel like a lot of times problems that arise at Frosh all start in the planning of it, so we took about four months to plan everything,” she said.

Last year ASFA changed the title of Frosh week to “launch week” in order to change the bad vibes associate with the events. However, this year the title has been changed back to Frosh. “Students were not familiar with the term “launch” and didn’t realize it pertained to orientation activities,” said Da Silva.

“We’re doing the best we can and I really buy into this team’s desire to do away with the reputation [ASFA] had a couple of years ago,” said Woodall.

“In the end, all we want is to be able to communicate and share our ideas in a really safe manner,” said Sutera Sardo. “[ASFA] council has sometimes been an unsafe place and by having these trainings [for frosh executives] hopefully it will be safer and will be conducive to just better communication.”

This article has been updated for accuracy and clarity since publishing. The Concordian regrets the error.

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Love Letter (And Simple Request) to ASFA

Frosh makes strange bedfellows, but this is a bit much.

To my representatives, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) – I’m sorry, and you’re welcome.

Wait, wait, no. No publication should ever start with something as insulting and pretentious as that. But that’s exactly what MTL Blog did in their open letter to Montreal, following mounting criticism due to their unsavoury business practices.

Frankly, there’s a rabbit hole of problems here. Here we have a self-identified for-profit organization that has a track record of not paying its writers. What we see is a revolving door of unpaid interns and university students, and according to Pierre Chauvin of Canadaland, only two paid writers actually on staff.

And it isn’t just the writers, either: the photographers are also getting the short end of the stick. Many bloggers have claimed that MTL Blog had stolen their pictures and placed them on the site with no credit and no payment. The anti-MTL Blog site StopMTLBlog.to even has a blog post detailing instances of stolen photography – three of them, actually.

When confronted for stealing a picture, the MTL Blog twitter claimed that “if there is no [credit] it is because it was found on Google with no [credit]”. In their Love Letter to Montreal, they admitted that their “lack of initial experience… has led to unacceptable errors on our end”, adding that “[t]he ethics of the internet are ever-evolving”.

Know what else is in an ethical gray area? Taking money to write stories. Wait, sorry, my mistake – pretty sure everyone can agree that’s just plain wrong, especially from a site that strives “every day to deliver important news”, according to their History page. One look at the “Submit Your Event” page makes it very clear: Twitter promotion, featured banner, a photographer and writer, event listings – all available to you, for a fee. (The words “Contact Us for Pricing” appear eight times on the page, by the way.)

Which brings me back to you, ASFA. You represent nearly 15,000 undergrads, including writers and journalists. Knowing what we know about MTL Blog, and considering who you are supposed to be representing, it begs the question – why did you partner with them for #FROSH?

When one goes to the ticket site for #FROSH, their logo is at the bottom of the page. Not to mention all the articles and pictures they’ve been posting of your events, with such great lines as: “This was definitely a great way for everyone to start their semester and academic program” and that “[y]ou definitely don’t want to miss out on this year’s Frosh celebration”.

Paul Jerajian, President of ASFA, said there was no exchange of money for the partnership with MTL Blog. “What they mainly get is exposure, and we get coverage of the event,” said Jerajian, who added that Concordia’s student body was likely “big market” for the publication.

But out of all the publications to promote, out of everyone you could have picked, why go with the one with a proven track record of shady operations? When the tuition of writers, photographers and journalists goes to keeping you running, why run with someone who would stab us in the back?

It might be too late for this year, but something to keep in mind, ASFA – if you’re going to promote yourselves, how about picking someone who wouldn’t try to swindle us? Strange concept, I know, but we’d all really appreciate it next time.

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PHOTOS: ASFA frosh kicks off at Loyola


Froshies clad in bright coloured t-shirts mingled and snacked on their first day of orientation at Concordia’s Loyola quad.

The week of events will include a pubcrawl, camping, a ‘brunch of champions,’ ice breaker games and much more.

Caroline Bourbonniere, ASFA president, says enrollment in 2012 frosh week has doubled since last year going from 200 to 400.

ASFA frosh week is also safer than ever, according to execs, because there is a ratio of one frosh leader for every four froshies.

Photos by Marilla Steuter-Martin.

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