“Everywhere we gooo, people want to knooow, who we are areee, so we tell them, we are from ‘Sauga, Mighty Mighty Mississauga, UTM.” This is one of the first Frosh week chants that students from UTM learn on their first day of Frosh week. The University of Toronto Mississauga is such a small and quaint campus. But don’t let its size fool you, we house a diverse array of people that can be identified from miles away tucked in the little nooks and crannies that make up UTM. Keep reading for 10 people you will always run into at The University of Toronto Mississauga!
1. The Academics
This is the most glaringly obvious one. The University Of Toronto Mississauga holds the title of being one the Top 50 best Universities in the world, so it would be a slur against that reputation if we did not house some studious students. The students can be found all over campus, but you will often find them hunched over at their cubicle in the Silent Zone section in the library, the small wooden counter barely seen through piles of textbooks, papers, scattered pens and the signature Macbook. Any academic would tell you that the best spot to study in the library is the silent zone section of the basement by the floor to glass windows. Kudos to natural light.
2. The Aspiring Politicals
These aspiring politicials are everywhere on campus. The tricky part about them is that there is no certain look to them, so you can’t exactly identify them on sight. However, find out their name, stalk their Facebook and if they like playing devil’s advocate on political posts or even post a slew of perhaps controversial statuses, then there is your answer. You can find them anywhere, but perhaps you would overhear two students, elbows on a greasy lunch table in the Davis cafeteria, exchanging rapid fire political views.
3. The Dead Poets Society
No hair out of place, with nails perfectly manicured, their lips painted burgundy, where leather is an absolute staple, where jeans are perfectly cuffed, and trench coats are back in style – all of which would be irrelevant without their famed pens – are the poets of UTM. They have Instagram photos perfectly curated with wooden backgrounds and rustic coffee shops and the crisp two line print on blank white pages. They meet in not so secret, but exclusive rooms once a week to share their poems together.
4. The Drama Peeps
If you ever need a loud and over gesticulating actor or actress, you can no doubt find them in the Erindale Theatre on campus conducting their own poetry slams (not to be confused with the other poets of UTM), one-man plays and talent shows. Both loved and hated by the general UTM community, these people are fondly looked upon for the stellar plays they put on and also criticized for the air of arrogance and exclusivity they seem to put across.
5. The Starbucks Lovers
Note: I am not talking about the misheard Taylor Swift lyric. These are the people who flock to the little café inside the Starbucks across the library. They sit around the small checkered tables, sipping their specialty drinks and cappuccinos. For some, this Starbucks café is a social hangout, for others it is a place to get some work done. If you hang around the Starbucks often enough, face begin to look familiar, and sooner or later, without you realizing it, you become a ‘regular’. It’s a lot easier to go to Starbucks than wait for almost 30 minutes in that Tim Horton’s line anyways.
6. The Muscleheads
These people live and breathe in Davis, which is consequently connected to the RAWC (Recreation, Athletic and Wellness Centre). Easily identifiable by the large tubs of protein powder they lug around or by the signature gym bag slung over their shoulders. They are always in Davis, as if ready to tighten their laces and do another round at the gym. They are always in athletic gear with Under Armour shirts, Under Armour sweaters and you would spot at least one Nike logo somewhere on their person.
7. The Hipsters
Being on such a small campus can lead you to pick up trends almost simultaneously. You won’t notice at first, but all of a sudden, everyone has the same kind of brown combat boots, or the same kind of half up, half down hairstyle, or the exact same color bomber jacket. Then you have those who fight against these trends, to stay away from the mainstream: the hipsters. But these hipsters fall into their own mainstream with their leather jackets, and square rimmed glasses. You have at least one friend with those square rimmed glasses. They can often be found milling together in groups outside of any building door, smoking their cigarettes.
8. The Lost Strays
On a typical day in the middle of Midterm season, you grab yourself a coffee from the Starbucks across the library and decide to head to the fourth floor to get some studying done – only to find that it’s been taken under siege – by all the other students from various universities. A secret (or maybe not so secret) resentment is the fact that the UTM library is a public library. With that being said, the maroon color sweatshirt of McMaster University is no stranger to you on the fourth floor.
9. UTMSU Supporters
The University Of Toronto Mississauga has their own student union, along with other Universities in Canada. These are the people who walk around tirelessly talking to students, informing them of upcoming campaigns and keeping them updated and who is really running the school. You have definitely seen them around or talked to at least one UTMSU representative while being half awake, clutching a Tim Horton’s cup in the Davis cafeteria.
10. The Returned
Last but not least, we have ‘The Returned’. These are the people that never truly leave UTM, they are always there, even after they graduate. And no, I don’t mean, they are coming back for the graduate program. They come back to visit and to reminisce. Some of these people are here so often, found kicking back in The Blind Duck Pub or hanging around the Student Centre, it’s like they never left. If that isn’t true loyalty, then I don’t know what is.
