Page "Burwash Hall" Paragraph 10

Gate House, with the rest of Upper Burwash, opened in 1913 and has held students every year since then except 1995, when it was renovated.

As an all-male residence from 1913 to 2007 it held a number of unique traditions.

For 20 years Gate House hosted an annual party called Novemberfest in the Burwash dining hall.

The Victoria Dean of Students cancelled Novemberfest in 2003, when police discovered widespread underage drinking and over 800 people in the dining hall, in violation of the fire code.

Another Gate House tradition that no longer occurs is the " stirring the chicken ," a dinner and keg party where house members cook chicken fajitas for hundreds of guests.

Until 2007, Gate House held secretive first-year initiation ceremonies called Traditionals, which involved writing slogans on campus buildings in chalk, singing songs to the all-women's residence ( who would then sing back to them ), and leading first-years around the house blindfolded.

Since Novemberfest, Gate House continued to have conflict with the Administration.

In 2004 the Dean evicted three Gate House residents for allegedly " hog-tying " a first-year student.

In 2007 President Paul W. Gooch wrote that Gate House undertook an " escalating series of actions " that were " defiant " and " disparaging of women ", in response to Gate members constructing a 2. 5-metre snow penis and placing a cooked pig's head in an Annesley bathroom.

As punishment, during the fall exam period Gooch evicted two residents and relocated the remainder of Gate House to other places in the residence system, banned all current Gate House students from entering the building in 2008.

Since this decision Gate House has become a co-ed residence identical to the other Upper Burwash houses.

Notable residents of Gate House include Lester B. Pearson, former Prime Minister of Canada, and Simon Pulsifer, who Time Magazine nicknamed " The Duke of Data " for his contributions to Wikipedia.