I fell asleep the first time I rode the shuttle bus between the St. George campus and UTM. Unsurprisingly, I woke up dazed and didn’t recognize my surroundings, I wondered where I was. As the vehicle pulled into the Erindale campus, and I was washed over not only by the thickets of beautiful old trees, but also by ‘Boundless’ U of T signs I felt, on some level, as though I had arrived home.
The University of Toronto is not a singular entity. You cannot hope to know its every corner, learn all it has to over, or recognize its every face. My experience as an arts student at the St. George campus is worlds apart from the experience of a UTSC management student in co-op.
And yet, despite these differences, we can all simultaneously belong to the University of Toronto, and as I recognized that day in first year, the university — in all its vastness — can be a place that belongs to each of us individually.
This handbook is just one gateway into the gargantuan, dynamic, bustling, and diverse home that is now yours to discover. Our writers at The Varsity have attempted to bring you a taste of what it means to be a student at U of T — whether that be from involvement in one of the many arts clubs (page 14), or taking advantage of the bountiful athletic offerings (page 17), or painting the towns of Mississauga (page 10), Scarborough (page 11), and downtown Toronto (page 12).
What I hope you can derive from these pages is that no matter which program you’re in, what campus you’re on or where you came from to get there, you’re now part of this place that connects you to a vast network of possibilities.
First of all, I hope you enjoy this handbook. Then, I hope you leave it behind, and make your time here your own.
Alex McKeen
— Features Editor 2015-2016