Xxxtremely educational things to do on campus

Valuable condom info on display in the S.E.C. office.
McGill has its Playboy-ranked party school reputation. Western has its strippers unfathomable acts of promiscuity. Queen's has its infamous Homecoming craze. York, Ryerson and OCAD have their fair share of hot 'n' bothered bodies. And U of T has...Canada's answers to the world's questions?! Boy, we suck. (Probably less often, literally.) But, my friends, the day has come for U of T to stand up to its overachiever reputation. So what if we have a time-honoured tradition of burning the midnight oil in 24-hour libraries, fighting for front-row seats in lecture halls that hold over 2,000, and walking around with coffee mugs glued to our hands even when it's not midterm season? All of this doesn't mean we don't know how to pleasure ourselves when we're not making headlines demonstrating our academic fitness. To prove my point, I took the liberty of scouring for some of the fun ways to get down and dirty, U of T-style. Check it out. 1. Free condoms, lube 'n more!
a truly sexy landmark.
SEC's ceiling decorations: a truly sexy landmark.
It's called SEC: Sexual Education Centre. The cozy office has just moved from what is now the bare foundation of the new Rotman building on St. George Street to the Sussex Club House, located at 21 Sussex Ave, room 612. Upon entry, you'll be greeted by some racy red and black lace lingerie hanging from the ceiling on what appear to be chains used for S & M purposes. If this doesn't turn you on, wait until you catch up to your senses (or catch sight of the stacks of condoms that are up for grabs). The centre offers more than just freebies, however. There is also a small but deeply intriguing collection of sexual literature (like this book here) that you can sign out with your T-card, as well as an anonymous phone helpline you can call - expect student volunteers who are carefully selected and trained in peer counselling to answer any questions you may have regarding your sexual health. 2. We celebrated Sexual Awareness Week with sushi and hentai Each year, SEC hosts all kinds of kinky events during Sexual Awareness Week. While this year's events, like Porn and Sushi and Faith, Food & Fornification have just passed, there will be more exciting events to come this time next year! 3. U of T's secret porn stash: the Sexual Representation Collection (SRC) at University College Being one of the most prominent post-secondary institutions in Canada (and worldwide), it's no surprise that whatever U of T chooses to do, it does with a bang. Take this Sexual Representation Collection (SRC), for example. The library, run by U of T's recently established Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, is a fount of X-rated materials, ranging from 400 copies of Playboy magazine to over 1,000 skin flicks to hundreds of computer disks packed with images collected from the Internet. However, the collection is non-circulating and access is restricted to scholarly purposes only. Besides the need to contact the SRC curator to first make an appointment for viewing the materials, researchers are also asked to sign the Agreement for Conducting Research with SRC.  Materials can only be used on the premises and under the supervision of the Curator or an appointed designate. So somebody will be watching you watch the "research materials"...not awkward at all, if you're into that kind of thing. The collection is located in a quiet and isolated corner of the third floor hallway in University College, behind locked doors in Room 351. To confirm this location, I actually ventured over to UC in hopes of discovering some spectacular gate to some even more spectacular archive space. But alas, all I had manged to find was this: I'm not going to lie: it was a real letdown. Standing in front of this door with my camera, I couldn't help but feel, for a second there, a bit punk'd. There are several possibilities, I figured, one being that the information I had regarding the location of this place--thanks to Macleans--is actually outdated, another being that there is more than one room 351 in UC, and a third being that the door simply serves as a plain deterrence to undergraduate students such as myself who have trouble curbing enthusiasm. Despite the lack of success on my SRC escapade, I had a blast getting lost in the maze of University College. I was amazed by how we can find extraordinary things in the most unexpected places. In a way, the same goes for our education. Dare to explore and dare to experience, because some types of education are not easy to come by. --Lucy
East Hall, University College
East Hall (Rm 266), University College, University of Toronto

5 comments on “Xxxtremely educational things to do on campus

  1. Great post Lucy! How did you find out all this cool (and, in the case of our smut collection, shocking) stuff?! 🙂

  2. aww, poor lucy. But i do love that you used the term “skin flicks”, which i, for some weird reason, can’t imagine you articulating. Without giggling a little.

  3. just quit this med/dent/pharm/research thing and go into journalism.

    u are even armed with a camera now.

    :p

  4. @heather: I owe it all to you 😉 After writing this, I was actually considering taking on your super outdated offer for The Window…but it seems like the paper’s taken up a more serious and er…academic angle on certain relationship-related columns. Less racy overall speaking.

    @ban: Actually my other camera is a DSLR and takes much better pictures than the one I used here…but nonetheless…journalism…broke me heart. We’re no longer together.

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