Courts funded by the Student Life Enhancement Fund will be available for student use in the fall
On Aug. 7, the McMaster Students Union announced McMaster University agreed to refurbish two outdoor volleyball courts for the upcoming year. Previously part of a project under the Student Life Enhancement Fund, the courts at the Oval, located near the David Braley Athletic Centre and the Ivor Wynne Centre, will be open to students later in the fall.
In partnership with McMaster Student Affairs, the MSU has historically used the SLEF fund to support the development of student proposals for projects that enhance student life and community. Reviewed by the Student Services Committee, these proposals must meet specific criteria for approval, including being student driven, innovative and considerate of environmental impact.
Recent examples of projects backed by the SLEF include the Mac Community Kitchen, napping pods in the McMaster University Student Centre and the MacAccess Resource Library.
The courts’ revival was proposed by MSU president, Jovan Popovic, in Student Representative Assembly reports on Jun. 18 and Jun. 20. In the Jun. 20 report Popovic referenced a sign posting for the outdoor volleyball courts in Parking Lot H. The space had been originally outlined as a temporary parking lot for the construction of the Peter George Living and Learning Centre.
Despite the building’s completion in 2019, the parking lot has since remained with the construction gear still present on the site. In a remote SRA meeting on Jun. 25, Popovic stated that approximately $20,000 of money collected from undergraduate student service fees was being wasted with the uncleared gear.
About a month and a half later, the MSU followed up with an Instagram video announcing that the university had agreed to revive the courts in time for the upcoming fall semester at no additional charges to students. A key focus of the project’s restoration was centred around the development of opportunities to promote recreation and student life across campus.
“Ultimately [the courts are] a big contributor towards student life because it’s providing students with the ability to come back [to campus] for reasons aside from academics,” said Popovic.
In his report on Jun. 18, Popovic explained that his two goals with the volleyball court revival were the recovery of the wasted student life money and the construction of new replacement facilities for those that were taken away from students.
“What this project was about was recovering what was lost. Hopefully this acts as a gateway for greater things, but ultimately this was the easiest and fastest way to get something done and to get it done in a timely manner,” said Popovic.
Popovic also indicated that he would be advocating for a new tennis and basketball court to be built on the Oval. Other potential additions to this space could include green garden spaces and communal areas for both off-campus and residential students.
In April 2017, construction for McMaster University’s Peter George Centre for Living and Learning began. Situated directly beside the Ron Joyce Stadium, PGCLL is projected to be a complete 14-storey, 335 000 square foot building by Nov. 4, 2019.
Holly Gibson, manager of marketing and communications for McMaster’s Housing & Conference Services, revealed that that the rationale for building PGCLL was based on demand for student housing and wellness services, a movement towards active learning at McMaster and a commitment to replace the daycare that was removed when Wilson Hall was built.
Meeting minutes from a McMaster Faculty Association meeting on Apr. 23, 2019 reveal that the new McMaster Children’s Centre was set to open in PGCLL by Aug. 7, 2019. In addition to the daycare, other non-residence areas of PGCLL such as the active learning classrooms and Student Wellness Centre still remain under active construction.
Currently, McMaster has six other active learning spaces in L.R. Wilson Hall. PGCLL will introduce a seventh, larger and more refined active learning space to McMaster’s campus. As Gibson said, “Whereas most active learning classrooms accommodate 30-90 people, the PGCLL active learning classroom was created in consultation with designers, architects and campus stakeholders to be one of the largest active learning spaces in North America (according to FlexSpace.org) with a capacity of 405 participants.”
The purpose of an active learning classroom can be defined as a way to teach content through group-based learning. Gibson stated that instructors who utilize the spaces effectively tend to focus less on lecturing and more on facilitating active engagement amongst students. The technology of these rooms is built around fostering collaboration. For example, instructors can control whether a student’s work is displayed within their group or to the whole class. Self-directed problem solving through case studies are just one example of how professors can use active learning classrooms. The active learning format is being successfully implemented across many faculties at McMaster.
Gibson believes that not only will PGCLL be valuable for student education, but that the size and scale of PGCLL will provide a central “hub” for student life on campus.
“In PGCLL, we expect to see up to 2,200 students going to/from class every hour or an hour and a half; this represents 18 per cent of the total classroom space on campus,” said Gibson. “In addition, the Student Wellness Centre handles over 50 000 student appointments a year and our on-site student residence will be home to 518 students during the academic year.
The 518 students will be distributed between four different residence room types. All students in these rooms also incur a $40 residence life fee per year.
During Welcome Week, students were moved into PGCLL while it was still undergoing construction. Classes which were scheduled to take place in PGCLL have been relocated due to the fact that the building is incomplete. With over two months left until the projected completion date, it is unclear whether changes will need to be made to ensure the safety and comfort of students living in PGCLL.
This will likely not be the last renovation project on McMaster’s campus. Potential future prospects include a Main Street West residence, a grad residence downtown, and a Bates redevelopment project. In addition, the Student Activity Building is projected to be ready for summer 2020.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]