Harrison House
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Harrison House is a university residence at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It was built in 1962 as part of the largest building program ever at UNB which included several other residences and faculty buildings.
UNB Residence is loosely based upon the Oxbridge system of separate colleges within a federalised university system. Students were formerly encouraged to identify closely with the unique character and traditions of their house, often as a result of previous parental attendance at UNB. House Dons and Residence Fellows provided a modicum of adult supervision and generally set the tone for how the House operated. In recent times the Residence Administration has seen fit to impose many more rules and regulations and this has arguably changed residence markedly.
The House operates in a similar manner to other UNB and University residences, having a House Don as the head of house, followed by proctors or RAs and below a student elected body known as the House Committee. A House President heads the committee.
The social aspect of life in residence, and particularly in Harrison has changed substantially over the years with each subsequent time period referring to a past period as a utopia. Accurately, each change has imposed a greater degree of controls on social activity.
At one time, many residences operated in-house bars wherein they hosted regular parties. In later years, the bars were abolished, and the Dean of Residence office operated Campus Bar Services, a travelling bar service. Bar Services would be hired by each residence when hosting a regulated social event, of which several were permitted per term. There is now a limit of one such party per term. These limitations have been enforced to alter the image of UNB as a party-school. At one time, David Letterman's original Late Night show included UNB as the number-two spot on its list of party-schools. Also, the Liquor store on Prospect Street was named the busiest in the province, anecdotally because it was closest to UNB.
Orientation Week or "Frosh Week" has also proven to be a target of wild behaviour by students, and crackdowns by administration. In early days when hazing was considered normal and acceptable, the residences operated almost independent, and wholly student controlled week of events designed to welcome and train students to fit their pattern. UNB admin has deemed these things inappropriate and now run a tightly controlled frosh week, the aims of are to maintain a safe and non-offensive environment for new students to acclimate to university life. Students often argue that the real purpose is to limit fun and brainwash students.
For a few years, until the fall of 2006, Frosh Week in Harrison House included The Mr. and Mrs. Harrison contest. This was a voluntary cross-dressing pageant, in which new Harrisonians went before a panel of judges, composed of Orientation Committee members, to answer ridiculous questions while dressed as the opposite gender. The Mr. and Mrs. Harrison contest has since been disallowed by Residence Administration for being "degrading" to participants and offensive to actual cross-dressers. As it has been discontinued, the reigning Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are Kasey Menabney and Mike Cormier from Frosh Week 2005.
Harrison House maintains the longest running tradition at UNB, The Great Pumpkin Sacrifice, which began in 1973. For the event a large pumpkin is carved in the face of the Roman god Janus. One side of the face is a happy face, the other a not-so-happy one. This represents the 'academic' harvest and that some are happy with the crop reaped, while others are not. House residents decorate campus and the city with pumpkins in the lead-up to the event, and mark the coming of the event by a one-minute howl at midnight on each of the seven days prior to the event. Silence marks the daylight hours of 31 October in a mark of the solemnity of the occasion and the judgement that will come in the sacrifice.
Leading up to midnight on Halloween, the Great Pumpkin is escorted by a cast of actors, wise-people, and house residents guarded by the Pumpkin's militia out of the house front doors, and across campus, blessed at the former Lady Dunn Hall courtyard (now Joy Kidd House), and returned to Harrison House where it is risen to the roof and sacrificially dropped and exploded (under the supervision of a pyrotechnician). Although the event has always been prescribed to take place a midnight on Halloween, for several years in the early 2000's, the timing was adjusted to just before 10 PM, so that it would not interfere with university quiet hours. This policy has since been reversed, and the event has returned to the traditional midnight hour.
Harrison House Presidents
2008/09 Scott Carter
2007/08 Brian Koval
2006/07 Andrina DiFrancesco
2005/06 Kyle I. Dorken
2004/05 Kyle MacKenzie
2003/04 Brent McCumber
2002/03 Patrick "Hayseed" Rosebrook
2001/02
2000/01 Erin Hardy
1999/00
1998/99
1997/98 Andrew Dawson
1996/97 Ryan Howard
1995/96 Melanie Morrissey
1994/95 Doug MacLean
1993/94 Daniel Léger
1992/93 Larry Whitman
1991/92 Sean Daly
1990/91 Dean Mullin
1989/90 Ed Turpin
Harrison House Dons
2007-present
2006/07 T. M. Balls
2005/07 G. M. Bowen
2003/04 Bryna Fraser
2000/03 Vicky Hope-Gould
1999/00 Caroline Jones
1998/99
1997/98 Rashmi Geol
1996/97 Karen Geldart
1993/96 Andrew Johnston
1992/93 Ric Cuthberson
1990/92 George Multamaki
198?/90 Zalman Starr
1962/6? Peter Lovell
Ken Windsor
Dr Ken Windsor was Harrison Don from 1966 till his untimely death in 1974. A Professor of History at UNB, he was responsible for many of the traditions and innovations within Harrison House and across the residence system as a whole. From encouraging Pumpkin Sacrifice to introducing the student Janitorial Service, he inspired a generation of Harrisonians.
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Google Earth Co-ordinates 45°56'45.55"N 66°38'26.83"W
