What usually goes on during the days of Welcome Week? Is it more residence-geared? I heard there are tours around the city and University during the day and floor parties in residences during the nights. I'm just curious

Wow. that's a loaded question.
It's for people with a mac pass mostly. It seems to focus on those living in residence however SOCS (off campus students) are around too! It's basically a week of cheering, events, getting to know students and lots of fun! There are Bloc parties (bbqs with activities), Mac Connector (you do awkward things and activities with like 1000 students), IRIS (watch a play created by mac students about mac life) and so on. I'm pretty sure more information will come out in the form as an article closer to the time so keep on the lookout.

Originally Posted by amplified

What usually goes on during the days of Welcome Week? Is it more residence-geared? I heard there are tours around the city and University during the day and floor parties in residences during the nights. I'm just curious

Welcome Week is for ALL first year students, off campus and on! To participate in most of the activities you must buy a MACPASS which pays for the events that you go to. However, if you don't pay for this you can still enjoy Welcome Week with your residence and your floor. There are campus wide events that don't require money, like scavenger hunts and capture the flag. Your floor might go out for dinner together to get to know everyone or have a social/mixer that you don't have to buy the MACPASS for.

SOCS (Society of Off Campus Students) has a lot of their own Welcome Week activities a lot of which overlap with the residence events!

Over all, Welcome Week is here to kick off your first year at Mac with entertainment, silliness and hopefully making friends. If everyone's in the same boat called "Oh my goodness, what the heck is going on?" then you're all together correct?

Also, there are things you can do around the city, one of the events (MACPASS needed) is to go to the first soccer game of the season, this is a jump start to learning how to get around the city as many students end up coming back via the Hamilton Street Railway (or the HSR) which is Hamiltons public transit system.

You'll also have Welcome Week Reps who are there to facilitate Welcome Week for you and take some of that ice breaking awkwardness away from first encounters and of course to show you around Mac! They'll be the ones dressed in the brightly coloured jump suits jumping around making fools of themselves!

Nicole thanks for that upliftingly positive explanation of MacConnector...

Here's a more up-to-date report, allthough Kokosas' one was very good.

The intention of Welcome Week is to create an atmosphere where First Year students make interesting connections to: the MSU, the school, the community, their residences, their peers and upper years. The events are based around that.

There are a lot of residence events, dependant on the residence you are in, just to get your accilimatized, and to get you friendly with peers.

There are MSU Campus Wide events life the aforementioned MacConnector, two Concerts, movie nights, PJ Parade, Airbands, Comedy Nights.

There are Residence Wide/SOCS events like Charity Casino, Amazing Race (new event), Block Parties, SOCS Evening Social and other stuff I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting. (sorry RWWWPs)

There is Shinerama of course, Saturday morning dedicated to raising funds for Cystic Fibrosis research, and Shine-Off, a competition between Residences.

IRC does BedRacers.

Faculties also have their own time with their people, and I know faculty planners have been doing a lot of work getting stuff ready. They have faculty day, usually used to introduce people to professors, SRA members, getting icebreaking stuff done, and tours of areas you would likely have classes. There is also faculty night, aimed purely at getting to know the people who you will be doing the same courses as.

Basically it will be a lot of stuff aimed at getting you ready for everything. I recommend getting a MacPass, they will have a lot of awesome stuff, and let you into many events which you wouldn't otherwise get into. AND to people who have heard about MacPasses being too expensive, or other complaints, rest assured that ths year they will not only be more economical, getting one will definitely be to your advantage. Also haha don't ask what events are MacPassed and what aren't as we are still working on fine tuning everything for the best WW to date (haha sorry everyone else) but one of the concerts definitely shall be and I have it on good authority that it isn't one to miss. By good authority I mean I am personally endorsing it.

As for tours of Hamilton and the surrounding areas, Welcome DAY is more the setting. We are setting up bus tours to get people, new to Hamilton, familiar with their surroundings. There will also be Residence tours, Library tours, Athletic tours and a lot of other informative good stuff, including our MSU President Azim Kasmani's very own information session geared for students featuring some very good looking people. Welcome Day is on August 8th.

As always, look out for the Maroon suited people, they are pretty much the awesomest, if you have any information on any of the aforementioned time periods. Chances are, if you get ahold of the one with the megaphone and walkie talkie, your life will be changed.

My rep name should be Narcissus...

Well, I think that just about covers it
Guess I'll find out when the time nears. With the above information, I will now definitely buy a MacPass. Sillyness is fun, no?

I'm like... the actual MSU embodiment of said silliness and spirit.

Seriously

ALSO I forgot to mention: MacConnector is amazing. You get to listen to Baillie: potentially the best speaker/MC out there, and a Mac alum, and you'll be introduced to the *fanfare* Welcome Week Cup.

Also Airbands is emceed by one wonderfully amazing gentleman. Oh yeah and Azim Kasmani...

Am I to assume that this said "amazing gentelman" is actually just you?

I'm sworn to secrecy.

Narcissus? As in the guy who made love to his own twin sister just because she looked like him? =] Hahahaha.
Anyways, its good to know that the MacPass will be cheaper this year... but I'm hoping this means by more than 10-20dollars... Anyways, is getting the MacPass worth it's money? And is the only use of it for Welcome Week?
Also, Welcome week sounds awesome, I'm extremely excited already!

Narcissus is the guy who fell in love with his own reflection, not his twin sister!

Quite excited for welcome week now though! If it doesn't live up to my expectations, I'll know who to blame, haha.

Hi all.

MacInsiders will be discussing all about welcome week, with heavy-duty coverage of all the events, explanations of the events, information explaining what the macpass covers and what it doesnt, what you get, and whether we think it's worth it or not. We'll also have details on what to expect and which events we recommend going to the most... plus a WHOLE BUNCH of surprises coming closer to August, as well as special announcements of what we'll be doing at our MacInsiders CLUBSFEST BOOTH this year!

HOWEVER... thats all coming in July/August when we're closer to the amazing week of fun and we'll have all the final details. So just hold off the macpass discussions for now... coverage IS coming and you'll know when it arrives. Trust me

let's just all agree that science ww will be the shiznet (really good).

Mac Connector and Bed Racers are the best welcome week events, in my opinion.

Shinerama! Philanthropy w00t!

I like the part where my building won bedraces last year and we all got to dance our booties off!