Super’16, with a theme of superheroes, took place last week after UTMSU and the Office of Student Transition decided to hold one orientation week together.
Last year, UTMSU had complained about creating a competition as the Office of Student Transition held a separate orientation.
“The hope was that this [uniting with UTMSU] would better align with the students’ perception of a singular orientation experience,” said Jonathan Hersh, an orientation and outreach coordinator at the Office of Student Transition, in an email to The Medium.
Over a thousand students have registered in total for the orientation week. According to Hersh, this number is higher than that of last year.
“The overall turnout was phenomenal. The energy that our leaders brought forth for first years was incredible, and we really saw our first-years break out of their shells by the end of the week,” said UTMSU’s president Nour Alideeb in an email to The Medium.
According to Alideeb, students were divided into 2 universes, Marvel and DC, and then were divided into eight houses with titles like, “Wonderous Warriors”, “Incredible Beasts”, and others based on Hollywood superhero movies.
“We picked this theme because we wanted our students to channel their inner superhero powers to challenge the fears that come with starting first year,” said Alideeb.
For Hersh, the Carnival and Resource Fair, which took place on the first day, was one of the most successful events of the week. The location of the event “captured a large central portion of campus” and it attracted over a thousand students.
For Alideeb, it was the foam party, which took place on Wednesday night and was the first of its kind in Frosh week.
Other events during the week featured a paint party, talent show, scavenger hunt, boat cruise, and parade in downtown Toronto.
Students in Frosh this year also decided to help those in need. According to a tweet by United Way Peel, hundreds of frosh students made a human chain and passed along donations for those who can’t afford a ride on a bus.
“A number of our activities were targeted to help our first-years learn about our campus, meet our different campus partners, give back to the community, and make friends,” Alideeb stated.
Other orientation activities aside from Frosh are expected to continue this week as well, with a carnival on Tuesday, a concert on Wednesday, and a charity day and social night on Thursday.
