Innis College to renovate West Wing of building

Innis College plans to renovate the West Wing of its building to provide more student spaces and increase accessibility. The Innis College Library will also be moved to the West Wing.

While there is no specific set date for when construction will start, the President of the Innis College Student Society (ICSS), Yolanda Alfaro, said it will be at least one to two years before the college will begin to break ground, “because they do want to take their time with student consultations.”

According to the Chief Administrative Officer of Innis College, Cameron Clairmont, Innis is in the early stages of planning the renovation.

“The build is motivated by a desire to serve students […] We also see an [opportunity] to provide essential services to students through improved classrooms, support spaces, faculty offices, which translates into expanded learning opportunities,” wrote Clairmont. “As well a great opportunity to relocate our current library to the new space allowing us to transform it into a student centric learning hub rather than just a library.”

Alfaro said that the building is “pretty inaccessible, especially the West Wing. That’s why it’s the target for the renovations and rebuild.”

She added that the West Wing renovation, “will definitely create a better community in terms of the college,” especially for commuter students. “I think it will be a lot easier on commuter students to come in and feel that they actually have somewhere to be.”

On the subject of improving campus life for students, Miranda Lees, President of the Innis Residence Council, echoed Alfaro’s statements, writing, “At the moment the space in which students can study or socialize in at the college is very limited, and I think that increasing the amount of common spaces available will also draw students to the building.”

Plans for the renovation are still ongoing, including details on where student group offices will go. “We haven’t even started a conversation about logistics or who’s moving where yet, so hopefully we have all those things figured out,” said Alfaro.