Long commute times and the constant back and forth make it difficult for commuter students to have the expected university experience
With the academic year in full swing, students have been able to return to in-person classes and gatherings, socialize with friends and faculty and explore the thriving arts and culture scene in Hamilton.
However, for a significant portion of the student body, this is not their university experience.
The lengthy travel from home to campus, and vice versa, often cuts commuter participation short since students are forced to choose between commuting and enjoying university activities.
Commuters miss out on events, in-person lectures, especially if they occur too early or later, and socializing with peers due to the ridiculous transit wait times. Especially during busier periods of the school year, such as the first week of school and midterm season; commuting students find themselves choosing between three options: travelling hours in advance, waiting in enormous public transit lines or attending classes virtually as opposed to in-person, if they have the option.
This unjustifiable dilemma is one commuters face daily and results in them being left out from the university community.
Unreasonable public transit has been a hindrance in campus life for numerous years. Last year, students voiced concerns over the highly long line-ups and the insufficient amount of GO services available to university students. In fact, due to the complete return of in-person activities on campus, students have noticed worsening wait times and have demanded an increase in public transportation to and from McMaster University.
“I am very aware of the time now in the sense that I always have to keep an eye [on] what time it is. What time am I meant to get on the bus? Okay, if I didn’t get on this bus which bus would I get on then?” explained Zoha Irfan, a third-year commuter student.
Irfan also explained that she’s often forced to arrive at the bus stop a minimum of 30 minutes in advance due to the tremendously long bus lines. She explained that the buses are usually 20 minutes late, resulting in a continuously growing line and two missed buses if you are not patiently waiting.
Commuter students are hyperaware of the scheduling times and feel a constant sense of urgency surrounding public transportation. They prioritize commuting over their classes, campus events, networking and socializing with friends, which are all the pieces that make a student’s university experience whole.
Commuter students are hyperaware of the scheduling times and feel a constant sense of urgency surrounding public transportation. They prioritize commuting over their classes, campus events, networking and socializing with friends, which are all the pieces that make a student’s university experience whole.
Public transit is not the only issue plaguing commuter students; traffic is another massive concern for those students who drive to university. Last year, the Ford government proposed to build Highway 413 to reduce traffic individuals experience throughout the day. Although this seemed like a good idea on paper, research from the University of Bath indicates that building more highways is a short-term fix for commuters due to Canada’s rapidly increasing population.
Some steps have been taken to address the challenges commuter students face in participating in the university community, including the creation of the McMaster's Society of Off-Campus Students.
Some steps have been taken to address the challenges commuter students face in participating in the university community, including the creation of the McMaster's Society of Off-Campus Students.
McMaster SOCS has been around for several decades and aims to bring off-campus students back into the spotlight. The group works to create a supportive community for students sharing similar experiences by hosting events and opportunities that accommodate the average commuter’s schedule.
Although these initiatives within the McMaster community for commuters are a great start, we need to make a greater effort to support these students and create an accommodating, inclusive environment that offers everyone the opportunity to thrive.
Despite the pressure to take an "all-in" approach during our university years, minimizing overwork can actually yield maximum rewards in the long run
By Ardena Bašić, Opinion contributor
When you start university, everything seems a lot more challenging. Your high school teachers constantly warned about how strict professors would be, your peers spread the word about how difficult the courses are and the whole transition to this new stage of life feels incredibly intimidating.
With the fear of failure during this rather stressful point in their lives, what many first-year students turn to is an "all-in" approach. This approach could include of studying 24/7, never saying no to a party or social event due to fear of missing out, feeling the need to make friends with everyone and overall pressuring ourselves to put 100 per cent effort into all endeavours, all the time.
While this "all-in" approach seems logical in a world that tells us that hard work pays off, our success is not always guaranteed.
I personally focused all my energy on studying not only in just my first year but also in my second. This decision was motivated by the aforementioned factors of new beginnings and arduous challenges and my personal goals. As someone who desired a job in high finance or law — requiring grad school and the associated stellar achievements — I thought that any distractions or activities taken away from school and work would be impeding.
Very soon, however, the consequences of this approach become clear to me.
For one, you miss out on learning opportunities outside of your books. University is a time when we are exposed to new people, ideas and perspectives that can shape the way we think going forward; when we're trapped in the library all day, we fail to appreciate this and to build integral skills like social and emotional intelligence. As such, this "all-in" approach can limit our personal growth and development.
Secondly, we forget the importance of balance. I do not believe we are ever in a state of perfect equilibrium, but rather in a constant flow with different focuses at different points in our lives. However, making time to go for walks, read books for pleasure and not just to fill our brains, going to events and exploring Hamilton are pivotal to ensuring we are well-rounded individuals, experiencing all colours of the life we are meant to live.
Lastly, burnout, anxiety and stress are real — especially for students; the all-in approach only accelerates this fatigue and distress. Being too focused on achievement, as opposed to living, can cause us to resent the purpose of our hard work in the first place. Once this happens, it is easy to lose motivation and set yourself back, destroying the efforts of your focus and ambition.
With time and experience, I have come to embrace the "less is more" approach. You know yourself best and know how much you need to study for certain subjects and work to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Taking some time to reflect on your priorities can help you figure out how much time you need to spend in different areas of your life and how to allocate it accordingly.
Once I decided to spend my weekends with friends, breaks between classes at coffee shops and mornings at the gym, I felt clearer, healthier and more motivated to achieve my goals. Of course, there will be times when you must divert your energy elsewhere, like during exam season, but I believe that being flexible in your approach is the key to success in your dynamic university years and well beyond.
Education is a priority. This is something we are used to hearing in our society not just from our peers, but our parents as well. We are told that time management is the key to healthy and balanced life, and the prioritizing is necessary for time managing, especially in post-secondary education. However, that balance has diminished, and education has been prioritized over our personal lives.
Between commuting, studying, working hard and trying to find room for sleep, I hardly have time to say hi to my mother sometimes. By the time I get home, she is already asleep and all I can think about is doing the same.
Ideally, family time should be factored into our daily lives and our parents should be prioritized just like we prioritize our studies. But this is no longer the case.
However, on top of the stress of getting our assignments in on time and finding some room to do some last-minute studying for midterms, I now find myself stressing over when the next time I will be able to spend time with family will be.
This is not intentional. This is just how we are forced to respond to the demands of university life.
The standards seem to suggest that if you are in university, in order to succeed you should factor out work and family to give an adequate amount of dedication to your schoolwork and find a way to factor in extra curriculars to improve our CVs.
But how can we factor out these necessities and still manage to live the university life? For many of us, a part-time job is the only way we can afford to pay for our meals and with rising living costs in Ontario, unless you are fortunate enough to have your parents’ financial support, work is a necessity.
When bursaries and financial aid can’t cover for your university expenses and if your workload is more demanding than most, there is always the option of a holiday job if you are willing to take away from perhaps the one time you may be able to breath between books in the semester.
So, if school and work are both necessitates how can we find the time for family while keeping up with these demands. According to the Guardian, “It’s often said at Cambridge that students have to sacrifice one of three aspects of their lives to survive: work, sleep or their social life.”
I can personally vouch for this, where my social life has dwindled down to asking a friend to grab a self-serve coffee with me five minutes before our lecture starts and then walking in two minutes late to lecture.
Sacrifices must be made, but when sleep is a luxury, coffee seems to be one of my greatest expenses. In addition to coffee, with a total of three hours of my day being spent commuting, I also need to factor in the meals I need to spend on for my 12-hour school days since meal prep doesn’t always suffice.
University life has made me realize how important it is to find time to share a meal with my family, if I can ever find the time to do so. With the holiday break on its way, I’m hoping that without the stress of making it to lectures on time, I may be able to find a way to balance between work, school and extra curriculars to spend some time with my family. If only finals weren’t around the corner.
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By: Catarina Gonzalez
For most freshmen, this may not be as relevant. But for those of you who were hesitant to explain why you are older than most at Welcome Week and did not want to go through the trouble of explaining why, this one’s for you.
Recently a Reddit user on r/McMaster posed a question on making friends at McMaster as a 20-year-old freshman — what are the challenges, experiences, and the general consensus regarding the age gap?
McMaster’s subreddit community is a dedicated space for students, staff, alumni and future students to facilitate discussion about various activities, events, disciplines and streams, and ask questions regarding life at Mac or in Hamilton.
I initially missed the thread but I saw it a few days later and it led me to consider the challenges I’ve faced myself as a mature student.
After taking a gap year to focus on working and earning the money to pay for school, I applied to McMaster the following year and faced the same anxieties and concerns as the poster — would I fit in? Would I be too old to relate? Would I be able to make friends?
Though I was only one year behind in the game, the gap gave just gave me more time to multiply the normal stresses that most first years have earlier on.
I didn’t want to feel like an outsider in the first week, and was afraid to come out to the Welcome Week events that I presumed would consist of only fresh high school graduates.
Thankfully, McMaster had several helpful events in order to facilitate social ABC.
After taking a gap year to focus on working and earning the money to pay for school, I applied to McMaster the following year and faced the same anxieties and concerns as the poster — would I fit in?
Welcome Week was just one way to create a networking platform and help create the “life long friendships” that the university experience is supposed to come with
A few helpful Reddit users chimed in and gave their perspective on what it’s like to be a freshman after 20 years old. Most of the users offered a positive outlook and advantageous advice like being able to purchase alcohol for parties (but definitely not for underaged students), and having more life experience than most of your peers.
A few users suggested that most of your peers can’t even tell the age difference usually, and once you get over the initial awkwardness of introducing your age along with your year — people generally didn’t really react or care.
Not unlike high school, the student climate at McMaster is very relaxed and students from different years and disciplines intermingle socially.
Most of us can thnk of a few of our current friend taht we have made in our first year, and for the most part, you are probably unaware of the age gap between fyour group of friends.
Typically when meeting someone, they only ask about your program and not your age, so it wasn’t that difficult to avoid sharing your age and reiterating the reason why you may be older than the bunch.
Above all else, the best advice given in this thread was one user suggesting battling insecurity about your age with confidence — focus on staying true to yourself, and enjoy being able to walk into the LCBO without worrying about whether or not your cousin’s ID looks similar enough to you to pass it off legitimately.
The general consensus is in from this growing McMaster community: people probably won’t even notice, and if they do, they probably won’t even care.
Remember, the university experience is what you make of it. No one needs to know your story if you don’t want to share it.
And to all McMaster freshman of all ages, good luck in your friend-making university experience and remember: it is an experience so don’t be afraid to get out there and enjoy not being ID-ed.
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