Ryerson Engineering Traditions [Covies Protest]

This past week I had an opportunity for some event photography. This event is a pretty odd one. It involves froshies (first-year students, in our case first-year engineering students) to get into their undergarments and parade through campus and one of the busiest intersections in Toronto (Yonge and Dundas).

Why a Covies Protest?

The Covies Protest is a tradition in Ryerson Engineering [RyEng] where froshies who tried out to be a RyEng frosh leader for the next school year have to "protest" to earn their covies. Covies are the blue overalls that past and present frosh leaders are wearing. These covies are very special and are not just given to everyone. They have to be earned through this protest. The following is the process.



RED ROUTE
During the protest, protesters have to leapfrog to the Lake Devonian (A man-made 'lake' for the Ryerson Campus). After they are given pen and paper and are forced to get 15 signatures from random strangers to petition themselves to be a frosh leader.

BLUE ROUTE
Next after getting the signatures, there is a conga line down Victoria Street to Dundas Square.At Dundas Square froshies are lined up and are then forced to perform the 'Macarena Dance' in front of everyone in Dundas Square.

GREEN ROUTE
After that we parade back to Lake Devonian to take a 'swim' (at the time of the protest it is usually the transition of winter to spring) so the lake is still frozen but not really so its quite painful.

PURPLE ROUTE
After swimming froshies are lead back to "The Quad" where they are to do a victory lap to end the protest. This whole tradition takes no longer 30-45mins and all froshies are in pain after.

All leaders have performed this, and I too have done it before. I proudly wear my covies cause I earned them. I was wearing mine at the time of this protest.

The following is a hint of the tradition. I won't post a lot of pictures from it because there are obvious reasons, mainly a lot of skin being shown.