Over the summer, I got involved with a project called Love at U of T. It’s an online dating service just for U of T students (and alumni), created by U of T students as a fun project.

The dating service does not attempt to be revolutionary in any way; it’s pretty much just like any other dating service, except you know that all of the users are from U of T. Our goal is to make our school not only more romantic but also friendly (you can use the service to find friends).

We first launched on clubs day (September 10th) and had mixed reactions. Some people didn’t believe that this was real, some were embarrassed to take our flyer, and some even gave the flyer back after realizing what it was. There seems to be a negative stigma attached to people who use online dating, but I personally don’t see anything wrong with it, especially when you are swamped with assignments and tests.

Everyday you are surrounded by thousands of students, many of them just like you who have similar interests as you. Ironically, people have a hard time meeting each other because they are too busy to stop and talk. Our hope is that we can help fix this for even a handful of people, so try it now and find your love.

p.s. If you are a computer geek who wants to read about the development process, click here.

When I first came to U of T, I was on a diet of pizza from Cora’s (which was once closed for health code violations) and fries from that truck in front of Sidney Smith. I just found the food from the U of T cafeterias to be crappy and overpriced (one time I found a plastic wrapper inside my salad…).

After several years, I’ve been able to figure out what places have decent — if not awesome — food around campus, which is affordably-priced, filling, reasonably healthy, and has vegetarian options (I am a vegetarian). Hopefully this will help you stop buying hot dogs and Burger King, which I know you hate yourself for eating. While you won’t find food at these places that costs less than $3, let’s be honest — no meal that costs that little can be good for you.

1. Veda

I think this place opened fairly recently. I ran into it today and almost exploded in excitement that there was indian food on campus. Though I didn’t have time to buy anything, the menu looked pretty good (and it smelled really great in there too!).

Type: Indian
Location: Sanford Fleming

(more…)

U of T already has a student-developed iPhone app, but now we also have a handy tool for searching for U of T courses online. Created by psychology student Ammar Ijaz, it allows you to search by course code, term, professor, date and time, enrollment indicators, enrollment controls, and whether or not there is a waitlist. Ammar says:

Don’t you hate trying to find courses to take? Using the timetable and calendar books is bad enough, but the archaic website is even worse! I hate searching for courses, too, so I decided to create a website to make the task easier. Looking for 3rd year psych courses? Just put in “PSY3″ as a course code and hit “Show me!”

Check it out!

You’ve seen him do the Soulja Boy in his underwear and you’ve seen him in a banana costume. This time he’s running through the U of T campus, New Ho King, and a grocery store dressed as a chicken. Why?

I believe being confident or cocky is a personal characteristic that’s developed over time. Being confident has nothing to do with one’s race.

SexyDragon (a.k.a. Yang) is back with another video in which he is running around Toronto in a banana costume. Why? A banana is white on the inside and yellow on the outside — this is how some people describe Asians who are so-called “white-washed.” Yang wants to emphasize how silly it is to label people this way, by being an actual banana!

Image by Reveus from the blogUT Flickr pool

We read the news so that you don’t have to!

UTSC students voted in favor of contributing money to build a “high-performance athletic facility” on their campus for the 2010 Pan Am Games. The facility will include two Olympic-sized swimming pools and a dive tank. Full-time students will be paying $40/semester and part-time students $8/semester. However these numbers will go up significantly to $140/semester and $28/semester in 2014, which is when the facility is supposed to open. A representative of the campaign against the levy says that students were fooled into paying for the construction when it would have been opened regardless.

A construction worker and recent immigrant from Turkey, Hilit Mutlu, passed away last week after falling 10 meters through UTSC’s new Instructional Center. Sadly, the incident was cited as “preventable.”

On a lighter note (I guess), the UTSU election was a rather dramatic event, with a lot of controversy and both sides — “Change” and “Stronger Together” — harassing campaigning all over campus for days. Stronger Together came out on top, winning all of the executive positions. The voter turnout was approximately only 16.4%.

After years of student complaints regarding marks appearing late on ROSI, U of T is finally doing something about it by transitioning to electronic mark submission (professors currently have the option to submit marks on paper). Now if they could only address all of the other problems we have with ROSI…

As of this year’s admission cycle, 250 spaces in PhD programs will be cut, while 500 spaces in Masters programs will be created. The change was decided after receiving demands from students, though the details of how this will affect each department are not mentioned.

In the year 2008, U of T lost $1.5 billion from its pension and endowment funds — nearly 30% of its total value. The U of T Asset Management Corporation invested in high-risk assets and suffered the worst losses out of all other Canadian Universities with more conservative investments.

If you missed the last Overheard on Twitter, you can check it out here.

• @Lisa_Dunn: “U of T just called me to ask for money for students to be able to sleep over in Robarts library. Ew!”
• @scarletqueen: “if U of T taught Buffyology (aka Buffy studies, i mean we have women studies, why not?) i would totally major in that shit. MAKE THIS HAPPEN”
• @hughdashhyphen: “I am the urinal cake to U of T’s disintegrative parabola of piss.”
• @otakupeter: “family.utoronto.ca is a REALLY BAD IDEA, I will PERSONALLY deliver letters explaining why to David Naylor’s house if you give them to me”
• @carmisandiego: “i hate when people say “UFT” instead of “U of T”. please tell me what the F stands for. fools.”
• @moepickles: “This reading “week” is only going to make me procrastinate more. #UofT“
• (more…)