Toike Oike (Newspaper)
The Toike Oike is the humour newspaper produced by the Engineering Society, billing itself as "The University of Toronto's Humor Newspaper since 1911". At the time of its creation in 1911 it served as a means of serious communication between EngSoc members, notably to provide a platform for the discussion of Engineering Society elections, but over time it has developed into a newspaper whose prime focus is humour. The Cannon (Newspaper) now fulfills the role of the "old" Toike. The Toike is run completely by a group of student volunteers and publishes on a monthly basis. Copies are available at news stands across campus and outside the EngSoc office in the basement of the Sandford Fleming building, on the Skule™ Newsstands.
History
The origin of the meaning of "Toike Oike" has been lost in time. One popular theory states that in the early days of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, there was a caretaker named Graham who worked in the Little Red Skulehouse and had a thick Irish accent. This caretaker was fond of telling students, who would work until late hours in the lab, to "take a hike" when the building closed every night, but because of his accent the phrase was heard as "toy-kee-oyk". When it came time to establish a new Skule Yell, the students decided to incorporated this phrase into it, and later to use it as the name of the original engineering newspaper.
Toiking
In recent years, the tradition of "Toiking" has become a popular use of the Toike Oike newspaper. It is a form of "involuntary make-up application", where the back page of an issue of the Toike is rubbed vigorously against the face of a person. The back page always contains content printed almost entirely with black ink (covering the entire page) so that upon completing the action described, the person being Toiked is left with black ink residue all over their face. However, this look is not a source of shame, and many students who have been Toiked choose to proudly wear this new look for at least some time before heading to a bathroom to scrub the ink off.
Famous Examples of people who were Toiked:
- Coal miners
- Chimney sweepers
Positions
The Toike Oike does not have as large a hierarchy as most professional newspapers, but there are still defined positions within the paper:
Editor-in-Chief
The Toike has usually operated with only one Editor, an elected Project Director of the Engineering Society. The Editor is responsible for all administrative tasks from organizing meetings, collecting content, and managing the budget.
Head Writer
The head writer is a large mountain of comedic material and potential. They typically provide a large volume of the written content in the Toike and are charged with making up new content on the fly as the Editor requires.
Head Graphics Editor
The head graphics editor is an encyclopedia of Adobe Photoshop effects and hot keys. They typically provide a large volume of the graphic content in the Toike and are charged with making up new content on the fly as the Editor requires.
Layout Editor
The layout editor takes the content and arranges it into beautifully-set pages ready for printing. Their weapon of choice is Adobe InDesign.
Copy Editor
The copy editor checks all spelling and grammar in the paper, ensuring that the Toike is both hilarious and could be used as a sample to preserve the rules and etiquette of the English language.
Past Editors
| Year | Editor | Favorite Issue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-2012 | Andrew Jerabek | Mech 1T3 | TBD |
| 2010-2011 | Navid Nourian | NΨ 1T2 | Toike Goes to Asia |
| 2009-2010 | Tom Parker/Bryan Thompson | Mech .../Mech 0T9+PEY | International Toike |
| 2008-2009 | Amanda Bell | Indy 1T1+PEY | Reader's Digest Toike |
| 2007-2008 | Vesna Cemas | Chem 1T0 | Comic Book Toike |
| 2006-2007 | Christian Chicorli | NΨ 0T8+PEY | ? |
| 2005-2006 | Mei Ling Chen | Chem 0T7 | ? |
| 2004-2005 | David Kobayashi | ? | ? |
| 2003-2004 | Kevin Au | ? | ? |
| 2002-2003 | Mark Jaggassar | ? | ? |