By Ava Whelpley
Some Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students without official program merchandise in the campus store are designing their own sweaters, emphasizing the significance of these items in fostering identity and community.
The TMU campus store and website sell department hoodies and t-shirts for various TMU programs but programs such as creative industries, language and intercultural relations (LIR) and public health are among the majors missing from the campus merch store, leaving many students feeling excluded.
“It feels like [creative industries students are] not as established or we’re not as official as other programs,” said Aniqah Khatri, a fourth-year creative industries student and the fourth-year representative on the Creative Industries Course Union (CICU). “Which doesn’t make sense, because I’ve heard that we’re one of the largest programs in The Creative School.”
Second-year LIR student Elizabeth Hoppe remembers not having official merch during her first-year orientation.
“I would be standing next to my friend who gets to be decked out in her program’s merch but I don’t get that,” she said.
Hoppe described those with program-specific merch as having a sort of uniform, a “navy blue hoodie with yellow block letters.”
“It kind of makes my program feel small and very insignificant,” she said.
However, many programs have taken matters into their own hands by taking the initiative to design and sell their own merch through their course unions.
“It’s unique, it’s fun and it’s another initiative to do for the year, to connect the students as well,” said Nesrin Hassan, the president of the Occupational and Public Health Course Union and a fifth-year public health student.
Hassan described a particular feeling of ingenuity when her team added the year their program was established at TMU and the year each article of merch was created to their sweaters, adding to its sentimental value.
Fourth-year creative industries student and president of CICU, Sabrina Rajput said, “It can be sometimes a little bit frustrating, because all of the printing, finding the printer every year, finding somebody to supply the sweaters and stuff, it all falls on CICU.”
Hassan also echoed Rajput’s concerns. “It is a lot of work to have to find your own vendor and fight for a good quote and drag the sweaters onto campus, which was a lot for me.”
While Rajput and Hassan discussed the hurdles they jump through to provide merch for students in their fellow programs, their efforts are clear that it is highly valued by these forgotten programs.
“There’s definitely the aspect that we get to decide what we value about the program, and everyone gets to put [in] their input. I’d say that’s a big difference versus the school just designing what they think would work,” said Henil Shah, a fourth-year creative industries student and vice president of Marketing at CICU.
TMU president Mohamed Lachemi expressed that “[the Campus store] maintains stock for a variety of departmental programs based on demand…and the campus works with student groups and departments on a case-by-case basis.”
Shah added that the creative industries program makes an effort to represent their student body by creating merch from their designs that will build an identity and give students something to take pride in.
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