University of Toronto
The Skule, UofT’s Engineering Society, holds a host of events during Frosh Week. Like Queen’s, the engineers dye themselves purple and sing the Lady Godiva hymn (“We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the engineers,” and so on).
On the Monday night before Frosh Week begins, Skule President Peter Suddard told the Journal, the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad—and yes, Band is spelled Bnad just as School is spelled Skule—will parade around campus at around 2 a.m. and perform a wake-up call, which includes firing a canon.
Later in the week, the frosh are given hard hats. If “artsies” are able to steal one of the hard hats, they are told they can trade them in for beer. But once this is attempted, the engineers ambush them and take their hats back—sans beer.
Each year, the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) president is invited to speak to the frosh and during this talk, he or she is “gooned.” This year, “gooning” entailed attaching a metal bar between his legs, keeping them permanently apart. Three years ago, Suddard explained, “a traffic cone was bike-locked to the SAC president’s head, which read ‘SAC sux.’” Frosh Week culminates in a scavenger hunt. Last year, Toronto Mayor David Miller was on the list of items. Frosh videotaped Miller holding a beer in his hand saying “It’s Miller time.”
University of Waterloo
The Math Society at the University of Waterloo has a long-held tradition whereby math frosh all don pink ties. Each year, a 40-foot pink tie is draped over the math and computers building, according to Darren Hutz, director of the Village Orientation Committee.
However, a long-standing rivalry between the math faculty and the engineering faculty resulted in the theft of the tie by the engineers and spawned the creation of the “Tie Guard” in 1992. That body’s sole purpose is to guard this massive tie.
The Math Society is so protective of the tie that there is actually a law against stealing it, and the police could become involved.
University of British Columbia
According to Trevor Gilks, the executive coordinator of student services, engineers at UBC have an annual tradition of placing a Volkswagen Beetle somewhere on campus or around the city of Vancouver. This tradition began approximately ten years ago, when the engineers hung a VW Beetle off the Golden Gate Bridge.
A large cement “E” located outside the engineering building at UBC is a target of further mischief. Every year, each faculty schemes to try to spray paint the “E” in their faculty’s colours in the middle of the night. Come morning, the engineers repaint the “E” and the battle continues.
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