Pranks bring down Animal House - Male residence will now be coed
Lucas Oleniuk/torstar news service
December 19, 2007


Animal House has been neutered.

The University of Toronto’s last all-male residence — Gate House, which lays claim to being an inspiration for the 1978 movie Animal House — is going coed after what a senior administrator calls "gross insensitivity ... flagrant acts of defiance and behaviour ... disparaging and demeaning of women."

Recent incidents included putting a cooked pig’s head in a women’s washroom and building a 2.5-metre snow penis outside the residence.

The 28 students who lived in Gate House are being rehoused by U of T’s Victoria University. Gate House is part of Burwash Hall, classic academic architecture with ivy-covered grey stone walls.

Some Gate House residents were studying for exams yesterday as others packed. They believe the university is overreacting. Most didn’t want their names used, fearing more trouble.

The penis was erected by 18-year-old first-year environment student Grayson Lee during Toronto’s first snowfall last month.

"I was stressed from exams and looking for something to give everyone a laugh," Lee said. "It lasted a couple of days. Someone pushed it over but I rebuilt it. Then they sent a bulldozer."

Lee said he and his friends "had good intentions. We’re not misogynists."

Not a sad farewell for some

Gate House will become male and female with foreign exchange students in the mix, said Jason Hunter, dean of students at Victoria. "I’ve talked to residents who were happy to move out."

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