CAMPUS ORGANIZATION OF THE WEEK: Sexual Education Centre at the University of Toronto

This week the Campus Organization of the Week Award goes to….the Sexual Education Centre at the University of Toronto!

We chose them as our winner this week because of their out-of-the-box thinking when planning their Sexual Awareness Week kick-off party. They rented out the Oasis Aqua Lounge, an upscale sex club, in downtown Toronto and hosted a student’s only night.

The party was meant to offer students an inexpensive and safe environment where they could explore their sexuality. There were baskets of condoms and lube scattered throughout the club and students were allowed to freely engage in sexual activity, whether it be publicly or in the closed rooms on the top floor of the club.

The mission of the Sexual Education Centre is to help foster a sex-positive attitude on campus by providing students with “information on all aspects of human sexuality in a comfortable and welcoming environment”. University is a time when a lot of students struggle with their sexuality and discovering who they are and this center provides programming, workshops and peer-counseling to help them out.

The night ended up being extremely popular. By 7 p.m., the hour when nudity became allowed, the club was at capacity and shortly thereafter there was line-up of students waiting to get in. The popularity of this year’s event is most likely due to the intense media attention. The party was covered several times on TheStar.com and there were even posts about the event on Reddit!

If you’re interested in nominating a campus organization at your college: contact us on our Facebook page, tweet us @OOHLALAMobile using the hashtag #COOTW or send us an e-mail to [email protected].

CAMPUS ORGANIZATION OF THE WEEK: Warwick Students' Union

This week, the award for the Campus Organization of the Week goes to... the Warwick Students' Union! The University of Warwick's student governing body's mission statement goes as follows:

"Warwick Students' Union - creating a better experience for students at Warwick."

This is exactly what they've been striving to do in the past week! In fact, the president of Warwick SU, Nick Swain, addressed the student body in a blog post last week announcing that they're currently working with Warwick Retail - the campus entity that provides a range of retail services including cafes, bars, restaurants and shops - to improve the late night food available on campus. One of the motivations behind Warwick SU's efforts is to make a wider range of foods available to the students as they leave events held by them in the evening.

In order to increase student satisfaction, Warwick SU and Warwick Retail are encouraging students to fill out a "Late Night Food Survey" on their respective websites. This questionnaire asks questions like What style of late night food would you be interested in? and Regarding location, where would you prefer to buy your late night food?. On top of this survey, Warwick SU is entertaining constructive conversations on their social media channels and on their blog.

There it is! Congratulations to the Warwick Students' Union's executive members for winning the Campus Organization of the Week award. Their efforts to change the status quo while actively listening to students' opinions and openly discussing current issues have earned them the title! We'll be contacting the members soon to inform them of their win!

If you're interested in nominating a campus organization in your college: contact us on our Facebook page, tweet us @OOHLALAMobile using the hashtag #COOTW or send an e-mail to [email protected].

College Tips: 5 Alternatives To Buying Brand New Textbooks

College students have important choices to make at the beginning of semesters. To buy or not to buy textbooks? That's the question. And it shouldn't be. A survey has found that 7 out of 10 students decide not to buy textbooks altogether because of cost. The college textbook market is currently one-sided and broken. College professors come in on the first day of class and require students to buy textbooks that they've chosen, often times, disregarding the price tag attached to it. College students typically take on extra debt buying these books, adding to the already difficult financial situation students are in with college tuition being at an all-time high. In fact, textbook publishers who establish textbook prices have increased their pricing 186% since 1986! That's almost double the price!


Students typically have limited resources and many can't afford to pay about $900 per year on textbooks. There are many ways however that students can circumvent the textbook headache and start spending in more clever manners to limit textbook expenses. Here's an infographic by Online Education entitled "The College Textbook Shakedown" that lists those ways. See below: