Before signing your lease, make sure to read the fine print on the people you may be living with

Aside from obtaining a higher education through post-secondary institutions, university can be considered to be a time when students gain their independence - especially if they were to move out of their childhood home.

The adult responsibilities of grocery shopping and doing your own laundry finally begin, and we aren't able to rely on our parents anymore. Moving away from home also creates opportunities for character-building as students may need to live with a variety of individuals who may be unfamiliar to them.

With many student leases coming to an end and house-hunting season in full swing, it's no surprise that many of us may be reflecting on our prior housemate experience.

Whether it's your first time house-hunting as a student or your last, it's important to know that the people you will be sharing a home with have the power to make you feel part of a second family, or despise every moment of your academic year.

Don't get me wrong, not all housemates make there are always positive moments with housemates that can overshadow the annoyance you experience. Yes, you may fight about them always stealing your food, even when you write your name on the container. However, at the end of the day, when they need advice, you're always more than happy to talk with them about whatever troubles you.

I would say these are the best kinds of housemates. Although you may have to remind each other to take your laundry out of the dryer machine because it's been sitting there for a few days, they are motivational and comforting. These types of housemates make you miss home a little less.

On the other hand, we have the housemates that make you regret moving to a post-secondary institution so far from home.

Although no one intends to be an unfavourable housemate, we don't always get along with everyone we meet.

At such a diverse university, it's no surprise that our housemates were raised differently from us.

However, this often leads to conflict within the house. Someone may have to pick up the slack or provide constant reminders for everyone to pull their weight within their house. There may be an unfair division of household chores or overall your personalities don't match causing other lifestyle conflicts.

It's not favourable to live with people who you cannot agree with on simple things such as buying house supplies or are inconsiderate of your preferences like being excessively loud or passive-aggressive in the house group chat.

Elements such as these can break your university experience because you become miserable within a space where you are spending the majority of your time. The energy should be welcoming. You shouldn't be mentally exhausted anytime you think of heading back to your room. By experiencing these negative feelings, we begin to associate school with the unpleasant situations we constantly experience with our housemates.

Overall, we either get really lucky when gambling for housemates or we get placed into situations that make us regret moving out of our childhood homes.

Although I don't think there's a way we can avoid this completely, there are some preventative measures we can take to avoid this even before the lease is signed.

For example, creating a group of people to rent an entire house with you rather than looking to rent a room for yourself alone ensures that you personally know your future housemates. This can help avoid conflict as you may have better insight into their personality, lifestyle and their living preferences. If this doesn't work for you, you could also look for parts of houses to rent like the basement where you would only need to convince one other friend to move in with you.

It is very important to know who you are living with before you sign the lease.

In the event that you are living with random people, set house rules that accommodate everyone's lifestyle in some capacity and remember to hold mutual respect. At the end of the day, you are tied together by a lease. If this still doesn't work, find some trusted friends to laugh about these issues with and think about seeking other alternative living solutions next year.

By: Lauren Beals

Many students on campus have developed a relationship with T-13. The home of first-year math exams and chemistry tutorials, this supposedly temporary building has been a student staple for over 40 years.

But room 127 is creating a new type of legacy. Recently outfitted with upgrades including projectors, white boards and student seating on wheels for easy movement, 127 has transformed into an active learning space created for student interaction.

The changes mark one step in a larger movement away from passive learning and towards the active learning missing from many university classrooms.

Arshad Ahmad, McMaster’s Associate Vice-President of Teaching & Learning says that there are many drawbacks to traditional lectures. “It really is an old-school thought. [Lectures] were an efficient way of conveying information when information was not accessible, but now the information is very accessible. If a student can go online and read the information they are not going to find it very interesting in class,” he explained.

Unlike traditional lecture halls, 127 provides students with the opportunity to apply knowledge and collaborate with peers to solve problems.

Projector screens along all four walls allow instructors to display multiple resources, while white boards encourage students to actively work out practice problems. A central screen and command system also preserves instructor control over the busy classroom and its technology.

Ahmad thinks that students want to learn actively from an early age. “It brings out the best in people by giving them the opportunity to show motivation and interest,” said Ahmad. “If you ask a parent how their child completes a project, it isn’t just by sitting and watching them. They are moving around, they are doing things, that is how they learn.”

Despite the advantages, the spread of active learning across campus requires more renovations, smaller class sizes and the commitment of instructors to reshape course structures. Students must also prepare to embrace group work and more frequent problem-based evaluations.

“There are definitely a lot of real challenges associated with this type of learning, that is for sure. But we need a cultural shift where this type of learning is the norm. This needs to be the norm. Students and teachers need to demand this type of learning,” said Ahmad.

Currently, room 127 can be requested for use by student groups by contacting student Conference and Event Services. Faculty can request academic booking by contacting the registrar’s office.

“We need a cultural shift where this type of learning is the norm.“

For students who wish to pursue active learning in other ways, Ahmad urges them to speak with professors and peers about how they learn beyond the course outline. “You would be surprised how many people are willing to have that conversation,” he said.

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