If anybody has walked by Sidney Smith Hall lately, they will have probably noticed a new glass façade encircling what was once an outdoor patio. This is the Patio Enclosure Project-a new student space serving students study and common space needs, paid for entirely by the university-most notably the Faculty of Arts and Science-and outside donations. Upon entering it, however, you will notice its most glaring problem right away: you can’t find a seat anywhere and during the day it is almost always at capacity. This is a fine example highlighting our need for more student activity space on campus.
Student space at U of T is a decentralized conglomeration of scattered spaces poorly networked together. Additionally, we do not have spaces that truly link students with the services and student support structures that can greatly enhance a student’s experience.
In general, students at U of T face a space shortage. According to the Council of Ontario University (COU) guidelines, space at the University of Toronto St. George Campus is only at 88 per cent of what it should be at for a university of our size and population.
As a result of this, student life at U of T suffers. Clubs do not have adequate facilities on campus. Out of 340 registered clubs on campus, there are only 58 offices in the Sussex Club House allocated to house them. Student support services are scattered all across campus in various spaces and students have to walk up to several city blocks to access them. Additionally, one can often find many students having to study or eat lunch in the hallways because common spaces are routinely at-capacity. In student satisfaction surveys and benchmarks such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), U of T ranks very poorly, often barely in the tenth percentile, compared to over 450 other North American schools in the areas directly related to student life.
We can definitely do better than this.
One of the proposals currently being explored by the Students’ Administrative Council is the concept of a central Student Centre at the St. George Campus to house all of these space needs. This idea is nothing new; UTM and UTSC already have Student Centres. In fact, U of T St. George is one of the few remaining campuses in Canada without one.
Imagine a Student Centre where there is lots of lounge and study space, more space for campus clubs, meeting rooms that are solely dedicated to student use, diverse food service options that are student operated, multi-faith space, a community kitchen, and space that could be used for large licensed events or performances, open 365 days a year. The Student Centre would become the anchor node in a large network of student spaces across campus, connecting our currently existing student spaces. A Student Centre will also bring about a stronger sense of student empowerment as we would directly manage and control all aspects of the facility.
However, additional student spaces will not come easily. On the funding front, we still have no firm commitments from the university on how this project will be funded, and our borrowing capacity for new construction is running dry [U of T has borrowed over $750 million since 1999 to fund its current building expansion]. Additionally, building sites for the Student Centre are disappearing fast as academic divisions seek to expand.
If this is to become a major priority for the university, students need to stand up to fight for it. Go talk to your student leaders, faculty administrators, and the folks at Simcoe Hall. SAC is leading the charge on this, and we want all students to join us in our Student Centre Campaign. (Check out www.uoftstudentcentre.ca for more information.)
Who knows? We might just get a Student Centre out of it.
