Having braved the slog that is semester the first, Trent University students are now back in force for the Winter term, bringing with it that oft-overlooked of Trent orientation activities: Frost Week. Thus named because it falls in the first week of January, a time of year generally characterized by an abundance of snow (save this most Climate-ominous of verdant winters), Frost Week’s three-day itinerary consists of a number of events designed to ease new students into life in the armpit of Ontario, or else placate returning students with distractions in the form of free food and flashing colours!

This year’s orientation began with Clubs & Groups Day, to which the TCSA curiously did not invite Arthur. Nonetheless, we persisted, and with the kind support of Trent Radio’s Jill Staveley, Coordinating Editor Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay set up a booth with our beloved sisterly student society and set about distributing Arthur print editions from his makeshift pulpit to the eagerly awaiting masses. 

The Student Centre event space is, however, where Clubs and Levy groups go to die, and it was there that we found ourselves on this day (as opposed to the primo spots in the atrium). While it's never said outright, the fact that students are simply less willing to walk the extra twenty feet into a separate room proves a rather cumbersome elephant occupying the room in question.

We shared the cramped space not only with Tradio (as we like to call them), but also with a number of enthusiastic guys representing the Muslim Student Association. Credit where credit is due, they drew considerably more attention than us for the duration of their setup, though that may well have been due to the abundance of snacks they brought along with them.

Sebastian, at this point, decided to disappear for several minutes, leaving me to man the Arthur side of our booth for crowds which didn’t appear to be coming. He later told me he’d been cornered by some Catholics eager to draw him back into the fold. Seems I wasn’t the only Evangelical present, even if in name alone. David texted me from the drive-thru of a nearby Timmies, asking for our respective orders. Sebastian and I committed to partaking in Trent Radio’s Record Production Month Challenge. Whether or not we succeed in this venture shall surely be the subject of a yet-to-be-written article.

That same afternoon, the TCSA hosted a follow-up to their original Sexy Bingo. “You requested this popular event again, and we are bringing it back!” said the announcement, though those having read Arthur’s print edition will also note a rather irate letter was previously directed at the very same occasion. Thankfully, Arthur’s fag-tastic transsexual twosome — in the form of Senior Journalist David King, and yours truly (with Sebastian in tow) — were on scene to afford a measured and objective account of the action on hand.

The event itself occupied most of the student centre atrium — and all of the student centre, insofar as it would prove hard to study over the veritable din of the PA and of students screaming “BINGO!” (even louder than myself and David screaming “Istanbul” by They Might Be Giants on the drive there). As to the event’s stated goal of sex education, it was hard to imagine much in the way of learning being done. Whilst the recipient of a “pocket pussy” (in the words of VP University and College Affairs, Shay Surujnarain) may well have done some “learning” of a rather intimate variety later that same night. In the absence of any discussion of safer sex practices, testing, disclosure, informed consent, and other important aspects of sexual wellness and navigating intimate and sexual relationships, the event proved — well, just bingo. In fairness though, attendance for the event was quite impressive, certainly more so than that of the TCSA’s November Burnout Bonfire Bash!

Thursday Night saw the TCSA collaborate with local bar The Social Pub to host a Toronto Maple Leafs watch party, with the student union forking the bill for the first round of virgin mocktails. Apparently, the Association is also giving away “wicked Leafs march,” (which I assume to be some sort of strange generation-Z slang for “merchandise”), on top of the regular bingo-night festivities of a Thursday at the bar. However, seeing that coverage of this event required going to The Social, a place for which I harbour no particular love, and given the additional fact that my colleague does not drink, we elected it better to eschew coverage of that particular outing.

The Social, interesting enough, has this year proved a fixture of sanctioned undergraduate entertainment activities. The establishment helped organize the earlier Head of the Trent Regatta aka Homecoming aka HOTT Beer Garden and subsequent afterparty in October, and remains a popular student bar outside of TCSA-endorsed cross-pollination. One might question the appropriateness of an orientation event being held at a student bar considering many first-years are still ineligible to drink, and further one might question the rectitude of a student union promoting a culture of drinking. A similar debate has been had for years in many of the queer circles I frequent with the point oft being made that a drinking environment is rarely accommodating of or accessible to those who — for one reason or another — do not drink. Certainly, the fact that the event in question is downtown in the evening despite Peterborough’s infamously spotty bus coverage to campus (especially at that time of night) further leads this journalist to question just who this event might be for. 

With Friday’s Frost Faire foreclosed on account of inclement weather, Frost Week came to a subdued conclusion. Little else can be said about the event, save that with the TCSA’s Sword Month announcement also falling this Friday, they seem to be moving onto other affairs, and where they go, so too shall the news surely follow. Looks then, like it’s back to business as usual.