For many students, living in residence is an important part of the first year experience. In recent years, universities across the country have had to act quickly to meet the increased demand for residence space on campus.
McMaster has 12 residence buildings that house approximately 3,700 students. The demand for student housing, however, is far higher. Currently, there is only enough residence space for about 40 per cent of incoming first year students.
McMaster is one of the only universities in Ontario that does not provide guaranteed campus housing for first year students. In order to be guaranteed admission to residence, students must meet a minimum grade average. All other students are placed on a waitlist.
In 2016, McMaster had to fit 200 additional students into residence due to higher than anticipated enrollment numbers. As an immediate solution, double rooms were converted into three person units.
The Living Learning Centre currently being built on the north end of campus will help to meet the need for residence space. In addition to classrooms and student services, it will also offer 500 suite and traditional-style residence rooms.
But there is only so much space on campus. In order to meet the rapidly increasing demand for residence space, universities across Canada are rushing to create new housing options.
One novel yet controversial approach to the problem of minimal housing space comes from the University of British Columbia’s “nano suites” pilot project.
Enrolment numbers at UBC have been steadily increasing and have led to space and resource shortages. The university is now considering scaling back admission of international students, according to UBC’s student-run newspaper The Ubyssey.
Nano suites are 140 square foot housing units containing a bed, desk, bathroom and kitchen. A desk sits under the bed, which can retract into the wall to save space.
The nano suites will account for 71 rooms in a new 362 unit student residence building on UBC’s campus.
One of the main draws of the nano suites is the cost. Each unit costs around $700 a month which, compared to Vancouver’s notoriously high rent costs, is a strong draw for students.
However, living in such a small space is not a feasible option for everybody. The Ubyssey notes that the units are less than double the size of a minimum-sized single occupancy Canadian prison cell.
While scaling down the size of residence rooms is one approach to the problem, the more common approach is to build residences off campus.
Private developers have noticed this trend. In some cities such as Waterloo and Toronto, the demand for student residences is so high that private companies have built student residences independently of the universities.
Since privately operated residences are not affiliated with universities, students do not get access to the same benefits and support systems that are typically available in traditional residences. Additionally, privately owned residences are often far more expensive than traditional options.
Due to a lack of government funding for residence construction, many universities are unable to build their own new residence buildings. In recent years Canadian universities have begun exploring public-private partnerships to fund university-affiliated student residences.
York University, U of T and McGill are among the growing cohort of Canadian universities who have partnered with private companies to fund student residence buildings.
In 2017, McMaster announced its plan to follow suit. The university bought a group of nine Westdale houses around campus for $9.5 million with the plan to develop a multi-storey residence building in partnership with Knightstone capital management, a Toronto-based company that specializes in student residences.
While the construction will be handled privately, McMaster will run the residence as part of the university-wide student housing system.
The proposed first phase of the residence will have 950 beds, and there will an additional 455 if there is sufficient demand.
In addition to the Westdale residence, McMaster is also partnering with Knightstone to build a residence in downtown Hamilton for graduate students and their families.
Knightstone aims to build residences that challenge the perception of unclean, unsafe student living. Their website claims that they cater to the new generation of students with higher expectations about their student living conditions.
“These expectations, taken together with security, cost and cleanliness as their parents’ hot buttons, have created consumers that seek a student residence experience at a level that corresponds to their home life,.” read a part of their site.
Some of the new privately developed student residences across Canada more closely resemble luxury condominiums than traditional student dormitories.
CampusOne is a student residence in downtown Toronto that houses students from the University of Toronto, Ryerson and Ontario College of Art and Design. The building houses movie theatres and a fitness studio, and the website advertises Feng Shui compliant rooms.
While privately and jointly funded residences offer luxury, they also tend to be more expensive than university owned buildings. A standard room at CampusOne, for example, costs about $1700 a month, not including the meal plan.
McMaster has yet to announce the costs of the new residence buildings in Westdale and downtown Hamilton.
By building student residences the surrounding city, universities are better able to meet the increasing demand for housing. However, building residences off campus means that universities must account for the needs of the surrounding community members.
The proposed Westdale residence concerned residents, who worried that the height and density of the proposed building would alter the community. A letter from Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association Of Resident Homeowners Inc. to the city of Hamilton expressed concern about foot and vehicle traffic and, as well as the plan for yearly move in and move out.
“We understand the need of the University, and we endorse a development on the proposed site; however, we feel that this development in its present form will have long-lasting negative effects on the immediate community,” states the letter.
Community resistance to off-campus student residences is not unique to Hamilton.
In 2013, a proposed private residence for U of T students faced similar backlash from members of the surrounding community. The Harbord village residents’ association found issues with the proposed building’s height and density, among other concerns.
A new proposal was announced this past summer that accounted for the concerns raised by the HVRA. However, it took five years of negotiation to come to the agreement.
While building residences off campus may be necessary to accommodate for increasing enrollment, it requires careful consultation with community members.
As university admissions continue to rise across the country, so too will the demand for student housing. While many incoming students want the first year residence experience, the future of campus living is anything but traditional.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
When I was in first year, I hated Welcome Week.
I’m a naturally small and quiet person who gets easily lost in crowds, so the tradition of thousands of students swarming small fields and screaming at each other is a surefire way to erase me from any and all social activities going on at the same time.
I didn’t get along with the reps in my faculty, was generally neglected by the off-campus reps that were supposed to show me around, and after the week was finished, I could safely say that I made no new friends. My Welcome Week story is not an uncommon one, and I’ve finally pinpointed why: Welcome Week Rep Fatigue Syndrome.
WWRFS is a problem that has hounded our student body for years now, and it’s time we did something to stop it.
Contrary to my horrible Welcome Week experience, come the spring of first year, I still decided to apply, and consequently become, a faculty representative for the next two years of my undergrad. And it was during that fall of 2013 that I experienced WWRFS for the first time.
Representing the faculty of Humanities, I was a “Hummer” (a name my dear former faculty should look into changing for solely innuendo reasons) and I was ready to have a great Welcome Week this time around. But shortly into it, I grew tired. At the time, Welcome Week occurred during regular class schedules, my part-time job at The Sil had just started, and our faculty planners and reps were in the middle of a melodramatic and unnecessary power trip. I was sick and tired, but I put on a smile for first years and tried my best to have a great time.
A few of my housemates were also repping that year for residences and the Society of Off-Campus Students. They had it worse. Even though they enjoyed helping first years, waking up and going to sleep at ungodly hours all while trying to keep up with schoolwork and work-work, their bodies were only allowing them to do so much to get the people going.
Over the course of the week, there were reps around me coughing up a tasty mélange of bodily fluids from the amount of screaming and yelling, and those who weren’t hit with this plague were starting to snap at each other and first years from a lack of sleep and exhaustion.
By closing ceremonies, everyone seemed to have come down with a combination of strep throat and possibly SARS, and we were all excited to hibernate over the weekend before our next round of classes started.
I know way too many people who had comparably bad first-year Welcome Week experiences, and it’s because you can’t expect a group of exhausted over-worked students to put on a week-long spectacle without a few people suffering from the side effects — and more often than not, those people are first years.
With applications for Welcome Week representatives currently circulating across social media, the emphasis seems to be on “first years first,” but we can’t forget to also throw the needs of reps somewhere in there. Welcome Week representatives are not paid to work 12+ hour days, so the least they should get is a relatively healthy experience. Whether this means bringing on board more students to lighten the loads of each rep, or reassessing the number of events that take place during the week, our university and students union should strive to make this an event that all parties can enjoy. First years should be first. But if reps are neglecting their health, no one is going to feel like they’re coming in first.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
By: Yara Farran
I’m a first year. I’m the girl who’s probably asked you (yes, you specifically) how to get to the Student Centre from BSB/Hamilton Hall/Faculty Hollow and the like. I’m the one who casually tries to help other first years find their classes, getting them even more lost than they already are. “Oh that room, it’s probably here,” I say with a smile, slowly realizing that it is actually probably not. Most likely, you’ve spotted me walking in and out the Health Science Library like a lost little lamb and frantically trying to access the Internet on one of the computers (why is the Internet button named “Health Sciences Library?”). It’s not like I’m proud of my shortcomings as a newly knighted freshman, it’s just easier for me to digest this whole new experience if I recollect all of the things that I’ve done wrong thus far.
Exhibit A
While scouring Limeridge (For
all you kids new to Hamilton, it’s the main mall. Unfortunately, it’s not the Eaton Centre. Fortunately, it’s not East Gate) I began to collect some pieces for school. “I’m going to dress up every day,” I said. “My hair is going to be straightened every day.”
Now, as I begin to contemplate the actual reality of my closet and grasp the real demands of university, I’m shaking my head. All I want to do is sit in yoga pants, gorge on some Union Market bagels in elastic waistband sweats, and bury myself under a spaghetti sauce stained sweater. The very thought of jackets (shivers), jeans (holding back vomit right now), and shoes (wait, what do you mean flip flops aren’t shoes?) is making me violently ill.
Exhibit B
Socializing has never been my strong point. I once said a joke to an unsuspecting stranger that went along the lines of, “Oh em gee, I have so much homework. I’m going to cry tears – tears of blood.” The poor girl took a step back. Then another. Then turned as politely as she could. Cleary she (bless her) didn’t think my (obvious?) joke was funny and felt that her young life was in danger in my presence. I hope she’s recovered from the experience. I know I haven’t. During this past week, every time I have made a questionable joke, I thought back to that moment. Luckily, none have been as disastrous as my previous example, but I have thrown out a few tankers. Now, this would be okay if I had been in the company of long time friends who’d give a few pity laughs or say, “Oh, that’s so you! You’re so wild.” However, that didn’t happen in front of my new colleagues. They still think I’m wild, though. I consider that a start.
Exhibit C
This what I’m most guilty of doing. Maybe it’s the lifetime of media consumption and Dawson’s Creek conditioning. Perhaps, my imagination is wired to be completely ridiculous, and disbar the truth about life as a university student. The thing is, I came into this whole situation with a plethora of grand expectations and a bucket load of romanticized notions. University is a lot different than high school, and in some ways, it seems to be worlds away from the one portrayed on television. Once I entered my first lecture in Chester New Hall, I didn’t have an epiphany and discover that I’m meant to be a doctor/dancer/disc jockey. As I casually ate lunch, a handsome, slightly older British guy didn’t ask me out on a romantic date. I haven’t even joined a nu-wave Indie rock band yet. Even though it’s literally been a week, it’s safe to say that these expectations are probably never going to come into fruition.
It’s okay, though. University, as I’ve learned, isn’t about the obvious happening. It’s not about travelling concrete, rigid paths and arriving to the predicted destination. It’s about discovery. It’s about mistakes. It’s the time in your life – and remember it is your life – when it’s okay to not have any expectation and just go with the sweat filled, anxiety ridden wind.
Although, I’m only a first year and have got a ton of first years lost already, so maybe my advice shouldn’t be heeded. Maybe.
