As COVID-19 continues to place strain on healthcare workers, McMaster University provides isolated and affordable accommodations

For many healthcare workers, the struggle to keep society safe has come at a personal cost. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers have faced an increased risk of infection, as well as the emotional impacts of dealing with this public health crisis.

Offering residence rooms to healthcare workers was a way for McMaster University to provide support to those on the frontlines. The aim of this program is to provide frontline healthcare workers with a safe and affordable place to self-isolate.

As these workers are at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19, living away from home for a period of time helps them to protect their families.

According to Laurie Ham, manager of conference and event services at McMaster, an organization heavily involved with this program is the Thrive Group. As Ham explained, the Thrive Group is a non-profit organization that has been helping to connect McMaster with healthcare workers who are interested in accessing this program.

“They receive the initial inquiry and they work with people interested,” said Ham.

The Thrive Group’s Vice-President of Business Strategy, Vickie Baird, reflected on the importance of having this program in place.

“We knew that there was some anxiety that these healthcare workers would bring the virus home to [their] families, so we wanted to be able to give them an affordable option that would allow them to stay somewhere safe during their work term,” said Baird.

The program, which launched on Jan. 20, allows healthcare workers to book a stay in McKay Hall at an affordable rate, with the option to order meals to their rooms as well.

“We had heard that [healthcare workers] really did want some options, other than calling a local hotel and paying a hundred plus dollars per night,” Baird explained.

“We had heard that [healthcare workers] really did want some options, other than calling a local hotel and paying a hundred plus dollars per night,” Baird explained.

Ham explained that McKay Hall was well-suited for this program.

“The building has just completed a major modernization of all of the washrooms throughout, so it makes it a perfect opportunity to have [healthcare workers stay in] a safe, comfortable setting,” said Ham.

Healthcare workers can stay at McKay Hall from three to 14 days, a policy which was created to accommodate as many workers as possible. Baird added that McMaster would be willing to consider extension requests.

As of Feb. 4, the program has received nine inquiries from healthcare workers, although none have registered yet. According to Baird, healthcare workers may be waiting to see if their employers would cover the cost, or they may be unsure about the meal plan, as it isn’t designed with long shift schedules in mind.

“I think it's still early. Even though we launched the program two weeks ago, it takes a while for the information to filter through,” Baird said.

Along with space reserved for healthcare workers, McMaster’s campus is still inhabited by a small number of students currently living in residence. To ensure effective social distancing and other safety protocols, Ham highlighted that healthcare workers and students are isolated from one another.

“It's entirely separate. It's a separate building; it's a separate series of standard operating procedures and protocols,” said Ham.

A number of McMaster departments have been involved to create this initiative. From parking to hospitality services, it takes a village to bring the community together.

“To be able to come up with a comprehensive [program] requires participation from [many] people,” said Ham.

Overall, Ham described this program as an opportunity for McMaster to give back to Hamilton’s healthcare workers.

“We were able to work through a plan to demonstrate the university's commitment to supporting these dedicated, passionate, relentless professionals who are caring for everyone else to make sure people stay well,” said Ham.

Student job applicants need to be vetted more to prevent harm within our communities

CW: sexual violence, racism

As a student, there are many ways you can get involved at McMaster University. Whether it’s becoming a representative for Welcome Week, being a mentor for McMaster’s many mentorship programs, volunteering for the Student Wellness Centre or getting involved with the McMaster Students Union — there are plenty of opportunities for everyone. Some positions are paid as well — for example, a few part-time paid roles that students can apply for are the Archway mentor position where you mentor around 40 first year students, and a Residence Orientation Assistant, which manages a team of Residence Orientation Representatives throughout the school year.

Notably, a number of student jobs involve interacting with other students or prospective students, whether it is providing support to certain individuals or helping first-year students transition into university. Thus, it is important that individuals in these positions are properly trained for situations that may arise, such as sexual violence disclosures and situations surrounding discrimination. However, I believe that individuals entering these paid positions should also have some form of background check during the application process to make sure that they can respond to serious issues properly.

While training for paid positions is often provided surrounding these topics, the training can come in the form of a short Mosaic quiz or a two-hour workshop done by the Equity and Inclusion Office on responding to sexual violence disclosures. As someone who has completed many pieces of training on sexual violence, bystander intervention and anti-oppressive practices, I believe that training is often not enough to aid individuals in responding to disclosures if they’ve never done so in the past. If a student has responded to a disclosure in a harmful way in the past, I am doubtful that training will be able to equip these students adequately so that they do not cause harm again. As a result, they may intentionally or unintentionally cause harm to the people they interact with.

If a student has responded to a disclosure in a harmful way in the past, I am doubtful that training will be able to equip these students adequately so that they do not cause harm again. As a result, they may intentionally or unintentionally cause harm to the people they interact with.

Currently, many student jobs are heavily involved with the student body, such as McMaster Students Union part-time managers, Archway mentors or ROAs. However, in applications for these positions, there is little to no focus on how applicants have responded or would respond to serious incidents unless the job directly entails responding to disclosures, such as being a part-time manager of a peer support service. Many positions that my friends and I have applied for often focus on what relevant experience you have for a job or what ideas you want to bring to the role. Unfortunately, questions that focus on responding to incidents of violence are far and few between. It is especially vital that students in these positions know how to deal with difficult situations so that they do not cause harm to others.

As comprehensive as training can be, you can’t always train individuals to change their beliefs. By performing some form of background or reference check on applicants, you can vet whether they would be able to respond to harmful incidents well. Jobs outside of university that involve providing care, minors or vulnerable people require vulnerable sector checks. If certain student jobs involve support, students that are minors or people in vulnerable situations, it only makes sense that this standard is applied to students as well. 

Checking to see how students have responded to incidents regarding harassment, sexual violence or discrimination in the past is important because it can be a good indicator of how they will respond to these things in the future. Whether you check their history by seeing if they have a negative record with McMaster or ask their co-workers or past bosses, this is something that should be done more frequently. Sure, training may be able to alter someone’s behaviour to some extent, but it is unlikely to completely reform someone from a few hours of training.

Checking to see how students have responded to incidents regarding harassment, sexual violence or discrimination in the past is important because it can be a good indicator of how they will respond to these things in the future.

In addition, many student job interviews lack questions where one can ask the applicant about issues such as sexual violence or racism to highlight any red flags. Even if the job is not directly related to dealing with discrimination or sexual violence, these situations can come up regardless, so it is important to make sure that people can respond appropriately.

Although student jobs are often part-time and temporary, they can still have a big impact on our community. That’s why it’s important to make sure that students in paid positions are adequately prepared to respond to any situation that may come up so that they don’t respond to an issue in a way that harms someone else.

Photo by Hannah Walters-Vida

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]

In an effort to improve the off-campus first-year university experience, McMaster Housing and Conference Services introduced the optional Commuter in Residence Experience program in 2017. But the program did not launch without its hiccups.

“CoRE grew out of the recognition that first-year off-campus students have unique needs, and commonly struggle to make the same connections to the campus as their counterparts in residence,” said Simon Wilmot, Residence Life coordinator.

To sign up for the program, students must pay a $325 registration fee. Some benefits of CoRE include the opportunity to participate in residence Welcome Week activities, access extra study spaces and consult with off-campus Community Advisors.

CoRE students can also join on-campus communities, attend events, access residence academic centres that provide free drop-in tutoring services and organize community events through the Community Activity Fund.

In spite of these benefits, the program has not been in high demand from first-year off-campus students, with only 20 registering for CoRE in 2017. Although 11 CAs were initially hired, this number was reduced to three due to the lack of student interest.

“As this was a new program our marketing came out late in the admissions cycle and unfortunately did not resonate with incoming students.”

 

Scott Wilmot
Coordinator
Residence Life

Wilmot believes that CoRE did not attract a sufficiently high number of off-campus students because of the high cost and lack of advertising for the program.

“As this was a new program our marketing came out late in the admissions cycle and unfortunately did not resonate with incoming students,” said Wilmot. “We also believe that the initial cost of the program was a barrier to participation for many students.”

A former Society of Off-Campus Students representative, however, believes that CoRE’s low demand stems from the fact that most first-year off-campus students were not consulted in the development of the program.

“[CoRE] first years were isolated from Welcome Week events and only interacted with their CAs and not at all with the SOCS reps,” they said.

To improve the program, the SOCS representative suggests that HCS schedule events at accessible times as off-campus first-years tend to miss concerts, for instance, because the last Go bus leaves campus at 10:45 p.m.

The rep also recommends increasing outreach to off-campus students from the university.

“The outreach to first-year off-campus students from the university is non-existent,” they said. “Whereas residence students get emails from Residence Life, off-campus [students] don’t get that because of the privacy act, so we cannot gain the emails of first years to let them know the schedule before Welcome Week.”

To ignite more interest from first-year off-campus students, Wilmot will be working to rebrand the 2018 CoRE program. HCS will specifically be connecting the CoRE program to Living and Learning Communities, which bring together like-minded students in residences at the university.

“We hope to connect off-campus students with these communities and provide them with access to exclusive LLC programming and resources,” said Wilmot.

HCS is also plans to lower the program fee.

“We are also reducing the program fee from over $300 in 2017 to less than half of that in 2018,” said Wilmot. “We are still working on some of the details, but our intention is to dramatically reduce the cost of the program.”

Wilmot’s objective is to recruit over a hundred students to the program in 2018 and then double that the following year.

As the university takes steps to rebrand and lower the cost of the program, HSC will need to ensure the needs of CoRE students, reps and off-campus first-years’ voices are met. Jennifer Kleven, who leads the CoRE program at HCS, is open to hearing feedback from students and reps.

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

McMaster Housing and Conference Services recently announced its proposal to redevelop Bates residence.

According to Kevin Beatty, the director of Housing and Conference Services, all of the internal aspects of Bates residence, such as room configurations, common rooms and amenities, will be redeveloped. Students can look forward to enjoying increased natural light and improved amenities, such as a games room, gym and music room.

“Adding expansive exterior windows and removing large sections of the ground and second floor plate will infuse the building with natural light and activate the basement level while celebrating the beautiful views surrounding,” said Chelsea Alexander, one of the architects of the project.

Nevertheless, Bates Residence’s structural foundation will remain.

“We are eager to create a harmonized Bates residence community, full of opportunities for social interaction, enjoyment and educational advancement within an extensive 1970s shell,” said Alexander.

The redevelopment project is in the design phase. Although the final construction timeline has yet to be solidified, Beatty has confirmed that the redevelopment will not begin until after the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning opens in Aug. 2019.

Students with an average of 83.5 per cent or higher are guaranteed a place in residence on campus. After securing a spot in residence, students are entered into a lottery that determines what room style they get placed in.

Since Bates is currently the only apartment style residence on campus, closing it during the construction phase may have repercussions for students. It is unclear how the renovations will affect the number of residence spots available to students.

“Housing and Conference Services is committed to continuing to keep students and the university community updated when more details are finalized over the next few months,” said Beatty.

According to Alexander, the Bates residence redevelopment will solve the current building’s most pressing accessibility problems.

In particular, the new building is slated to improve navigation through washroom facilities, doorways and narrow corridors. The new Bates building will also be AODA compliant, consisting of improvements such as accessible suites and auto-door operators.

“Accessibility to all building amenities and spaces have been of critical importance since the onset of the redevelopment discussions,” said Alexander.

Students can share their feedback on the McMaster Housing and Conference Services website until Feb. 12.

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

Every September, a new cohort of first-years come to McMaster, some for the very first time. With these new students comes a new election, this time for the McMaster Students Union First Year Council. By the time you have read this article, the 2017-2018 council will have been voted in and will begin their journey in representing first-year students in student governance.

The need for FYC is simple: the MSU holds elections for their Student Representative Assembly and their committees during the winter for 12-month terms, meaning first-year students do not have any representation within the governing body of the MSU. FYC attempts to fill that void.

Last year, much of FYC’s structure changed to make up for the shutdown of the Inter-Residence Council in 2016 following an internal audit. The IRC was a student council who represented students living in residence and worked with the Residence Life to enact change. IRC was largely responsible for material changes to residence improvements, such as the extended Centro hours during the exam periods.

Following the IRC’s dissolution, FYC took on their roles. They introduced residence councillors, who act as a mini IRC within the larger FYC body.

FYC focuses on advocacy, mentorship, event planning and volunteering. They often collaborate with other MSU services such as Spark and the Maroons to hold events for first-year students. During the MSU presidential campaign in 2017, FYC held “meet the candidates” events in residence to introduce first-year students to MSU politics.

In particular, FYC held a formal in conjunction with Spark in November, first-year Olympics and a paint night with the Maroons.

Hazra Chowdhury, the FYC coordinator, hopes to continue the advocacy and events of their predecessors. She is currently working with Kevin Beatty of Residence Life to create consultation committees within residence. Her main goal is to make the committees more efficient and effective, by first condensing the original six committees into four and working on communication between both FYC and Residence Life.

“The six committees that were in place last year had been in place with the IRC for a very long time, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been the most effective,” said Chowdhury.

In addition, Chowdhury hopes to work with Residence Life, particularly residence orientation representatives, to put on more programming throughout the year.

“This year we’ll be extending [the programming] but I know that as a first year it’s difficult to run an event when you’re the only chair,” Chowdhury said.

“Since RORs this year have a full year contract and community advisors are there to help, it’s a part of the alternate programming committee; those RORs will help students put on events throughout the year,” she added.

As the election results are tallied, one can expect FYC to continue to do work throughout the school year to support first-year students and have their voices heard within the union.

[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]

Working towards a goal of providing further residence space for first-year students, McMaster University has purchased a group of nine houses surrounding campus for $9.5 million with a plan to develop a multi-storey, student residence building.

McMaster purchased a cluster of houses that are located adjacent to the university between Forsyth and Dalewood Avenue from Scholar Properties, an investor group that specializes in off-campus properties throughout Hamilton, London and Waterloo. The group owns several other properties within the neighbourhood and had been planning to demolish the nine houses in order to develop student residences before the sale to McMaster.

The lot provides a total of 1.45 acres of land for McMaster to develop into a multi-storey student residence complex. Working in partnership with Knightstone, a Toronto-based development company experienced in building student residences, the project is expected to be comprised of 800 beds.

There has been an incredibly high demand for on-campus student residence space in recent years. The 12 current on-campus residences are only able to house nearly 3,700 of 6,170 incoming first year students, leaving upwards of 40 per cent of first year students to look for housing alternatives.

“McMaster is at a disadvantage because it is one of the only universities in Ontario that cannot provide a first year on campus housing guarantee,” said Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s director of communications and public affairs. “This means some students coming to McMaster are left to find housing off campus, while other highly skilled and qualified applicants may choose another university.”

Once complete, this development will be managed under the McMaster residence system and allow incoming students another housing option with the same codes of conduct, services and benefits as the other residences on campus.

The project’s plan show the structure to have its highest point facing Main Street West, then to be tiered back towards Traymore Avenue, eliminating shadows on area homes while creating interesting architectural elements.

Once complete, this development will be managed under the McMaster residence system and allow incoming students another housing option with the same codes of conduct, services and benefits as the other residences on campus.

Another project in the works is the McMaster Living and Learning Centre. Currently under construction where temporary buildings T28 and T29 once stood, the new building will be compromised of 12 storeys, eight of which will be student residences. The remaining floors will consist of classrooms and student services, including the Student Wellness Centre, Student Accessibility Services and the Children’s Centre daycare.

The LLC sees a total of 500 new suite and traditional style spaces to house first year students, contributing to the ongoing demand for further residence space on campus. The project is set to be completed by September 2019.

“[The Living and Learning building and the Main Street residence] are required to meet existing demand. There is a shortfall in terms of campus housing for first-year students. With these two new residences online, well be able to better meet the current demand of first year students,” said Arbeau.

The university is currently beginning the planning stages of this new development and a completion date has not yet been determined.

If you thought choosing between a single or double room was tough, imagine the struggle for the Residence Admissions Office as they attempted to squeeze in 200 additional students this year into residence due to the high enrollment growth of the university.

Historically, McMaster has guaranteed residence space for students entering first year who meet the academic cut-off average. And while the 12 residence buildings on campus house 3,578 students, the large majority of whom are first years, enrollment growth and higher entrance averages have led to this capacity being exceeded by nearly 400 students in an earlier forecast.

To deal with these matters, Housing and Conference Services followed through on a contingency plan which alters traditionally large double rooms, and converts them into three-person units. Each unit has a loft bed on top, a desk and wardrobe underneath, thereby maximizing the workable space in the room.

“We are using what is called an Expanded Space Plan to create the equivalent of 200 extra bed spaces within residence to accommodate the overage. As for the other 200 students [of the 400 surplus], they often choose for whatever reason to not participate in the residence experience,” explained Kevin Beatty, director of Housing and Conference Services.

McMaster University has grown in popularity over the years as a site for higher-level education and innovation. The Class of 2020 is possibly the biggest year yet, with enrollment numbers estimated to be 14 percent above that of the year prior.

“The quality of McMaster’s teaching and learning and our reputation continues to attract more and more students to come here,” said Melissa Pool, the University Registrar.

While the numbers certainly do serve as a testimony for the quality of education McMaster offers, it also creates a tricky situation for the residences to deliver in terms of quality of living. “We did not want to diminish the student experience by just randomly assigning people rooms. We wanted to make sure it is our best effort to make [the rooms] as comfortable as possible,” said Beatty.

“We also spent a significant amount of money upgrading the furniture in the Expanded Space rooms. They have brand new furniture and brand new mattresses, so even though the students have a little less space to themselves, the living space is beautiful,” Beatty added.

While there are plans for a new building with student housing options to be complete by 2019, it is unlikely that all first-year students would be given guaranteed residence. The current system being used is an academic average cut-off of 81 per cent or higher to guarantee residence.

And while this may seem open to large deviations between years, the reality is that any change to the guaranteed residence cut-off average would require collaboration amongst all faculties. With programs and faculties all varying in their own acceptance averages, it is important to ensure a proper distribution of students from across all faculties living on residence.

This is certainly not the first time student rooms have been modified to accommodate more students. “A similar situation with the extended space plan was put in place in 2002 and 2011, and although the plan would be to return to the current occupancy level next year, we will watch the enrollment target and respond to it appropriately,” said Beatty.

“The key thing is that we do not sacrifice the quality of the student experience and we are able to deliver on an experience we think is important to students,” Beatty affirmed.

Residence life can be full of surprises, but a change to the residence meal plan should eliminate one of the shocks.

McMaster Hospitality Services has changed the structure of the meal plans this year in response to student concerns raised over recent years.

Under the previous system, students would surrender leftover basic meal plan money when they moved out of residence.

Now, half of a student’s basic meal plan money immediately goes to McMaster Hospitality Services to cover the organization’s overhead costs.

To give full value, Hospitality Services gives a 50 percent discount on all basic meal plan purchases.

“Every year, we sit down throughout the year with the Student Dining Committee and we do surveys with students,” said Chris Roberts, director of Hospitality Services.

“The main beef with the meal plan – and our meal plan hasn’t changed in 25 years – is that if you had a balance at the end of the year, Hospitality Services would keep that money. That was a sore spot with parents and students.”

Roberts said he would spend the month of April on the phone each year with parents and students providing explanations.

“If a student has a $3,000 meal plan, we don’t know what they are going to spend. A lot of them don’t spend anything, they might spend $100 throughout the year for whatever reason that may be and we’re not covering our costs. The money that’s confiscated at the end of the year by Hospitality goes towards paying our overhead costs,” Roberts said.

There are significant costs for Hospitality Services that provided the justification for keeping the leftover meal plan money at the end of the year.

“We are committed to keeping our residence dining operations open basically all year round, seven days a week. We pay rent, we pay utilities, we pay for equipment and we pay a unionized staff,” said Roberts.

With students looking for change, Hospitality Services looked outwards.

Roberts looked at other universities like the University of Guelph and Western University for inspiration. These universities use similar programs and Roberts said all the feedback about their system was positive.

“What we did was take half of your basic, just your basic meal plan money not all of it, your basic. We take that up front. That way we’re guaranteed that our overhead costs are covered throughout the year,” Roberts explained.

The Student Dining Committee, the now-disbanded Inter-Residence Council and former McMaster Students Union President Ehima Osazuwa approved the change.

“I thought it was progress compared to what we had before. In the past, students went home with nothing even if they had $1,000 in their account. But now, with the new changes that were made… you can go home with that money,” said Osazuwa.

Roberts also noted that Hospitality Services is “an ancillary department” of the university. Any profits they make are put back into the university.

“We’re here for the students, that’s the bottom line. There’s no more money in it for us, we’re not making extra money.”

This is Weekend Warriors, a joint program initiated in tandem by the MSU and Residence Life that aims at fostering campus involvement on weekends. There's music, there's a barbecue and board games. Most importantly, it's a chance for you to make friends and get involved on campus.