Year after year, hundreds of new and returning McGill students spend their first days at university involved in Frosh. However, this year’s Frosh has undergone a number of changes: participants had to pay for alcohol, it was held in conjunction with Discover McGill, and took place over the course of only one weekend.

Meaghan Sky, a U2 Education student, enjoyed the experience so much last year that she returned as a Frosh leader. A future teacher, Sky said that she thought the event was valuable as she was gaining experience in how to deal with students.

“I love [Frosh],” Sky said, “especially ‘cause I’m in education. I think this is something really good because it shows you are able to handle situations that don’t come up every day.”

The number of returning students who attended Frosh seemed to be a testament to the fact that changes in Frosh had not negatively impacted the event. Some even appeared to welcome the changes.

“People seem to be enjoying themselves,” observed a U3 Science student who had attended Frosh all four years and wished to remain anonymous. “People aren’t drunkenly running through the streets of Montreal, which is helping the McGill reputation.”

“I think Frosh should be kept within the McGill gates,” he added. “Pub crawl is a fun activity, but it really ruins the reputation of McGill for students. As a fourth year, when I go around Montreal I don’t wear any McGill apparel because I know people will judge me on it.”

Others disagree. Austin Eagleson, a U1 who participated in Frosh last year, said “[The changes are] going to make Frosh more controlled this year … but I think some of the nuances are lost.”

Todd Plummer, SSMU’s VP internal and the coordinator for Frosh explained some of this year’s changes.

“Charging for beer was the product of a discussion I had with Professor Mendelson, the Deputy Provost. He didn’t feel comfortable letting Frosh be on campus unless he was sure that alcohol was controlled in some way. In his opinion, the best way to do that was to charge for alcohol and not have it included in the registration price,” he said.

Plummer added that charging for beer may have contributed to off-campus partying this year.

“What I’ve been hearing from students and faculty associations is that [charging for beer] encouraged a lot more drinking off campus, which is a safety concern if people are pre-drinking a lot off campus in the Milton Parc community,” he said. “We just wanted to contain the drinking as much we could to Lower Field where Frosh leaders and security were.”

While drinking is a part of Frosh, Plummer said that it was never meant to be the focus.

“It’s not the goal to get drunk. It’s an option, and the planners of Frosh this year tried to make sure that drinking wasn’t [the] focus … However, if our job is to provide a good social orientation to university life, it would be inadequate not to have alcohol. It’s central to Frosh but it’s not the focus.”

Faraz Alidima, a U0 Arts student, said he was pleased with Frosh so far.

“Frosh is pretty amazing. It lived up to my expectations plus some more,” he said. “It’s been great to meet new people and make new friends.”  

Many others seemed to agree.

“I feel like I’ll see people on the street that I’ve met here and I’ll know them and say ‘Hi’ and it will make it more comfortable to be here at McGill,” said Alwyn Rutherford, a U0 Arts student.

This, according to Plummer, was exactly what Frosh was meant to accomplish.

“The goal of Frosh is to provide a fun, inclusive, social orientation to university,” he said.