AOF GIFT A SHARED McCain donation shapes LSC transformation by ryan mcnutt
DALHOUSIE
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MAGAZINE
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The McCain Learning Commons will take shape in the courtyard area, just outside the main entrance to the LSC. It will be Dalhousie’s second learning commons, building on the success of a similar space in the Killam Library. The university’s campus master plan envisions four such spaces, spanning all three Halifax campuses. For students, it’s a space that’s long overdue. “I can already see myself spending a great deal of time in the new learning commons,” said Mahmoud Hashish, president of the Dalhousie Science Society, who thanked the McCain family for the gift. “It’s quite challenging at times to find space to study, space to meet with your group, or space to just take a break... The Wallace McCain Learning Commons will be a space where students can exchange ideas, promote creativity and engage in healthy debate – things I find to be quite central in a high-quality university experience.” President Tom Traves described the Wallace McCain Learning Commons as “a space where students can come together and access the latest technology for their learning purposes; have access to advisors and mentors who are on site...to create, essentially, a kind of intellectual and social sector for the university.” Though the exact design is still being developed, the project is expected to transform the underutilized courtyard into an indoor atrium, and provide a new entryway to the LSC facing the Hicks Building. It will include open workstations, study rooms, offices and the newest learning technology.
Photo: Danny Abriel
LEARNING
nyone who’s ever studied in or visited the Life Sciences Centre could be forgiven for not thinking of it as one of Dalhousie’s most desired destinations. In fact, for years, the LSC has been ridiculed as one of the least attractive spaces on campus. “Anybody who has spent any time [here] knows that it’s not the most welcoming of buildings,” admits Chris Moore, Dalhousie’s dean of science, noting that the mazelike structure was built for a different era, both in terms of architecture and the university’s needs. “It was always equipped with generous laboratories and lecture halls, but what it has lacked is a space where students can gather. So every day, hundreds of students come through this building. They go to their lecture halls, they go to their labs, and after their studies are done, they leave. And they leave because there’s nowhere for them to get together.” Now, that’s all about to change. Beginning this summer, the LSC will be transformed with the construction of the Wallace McCain Learning Commons. The new space will be created thanks to an $8-million gift to the university’s Bold Ambitions campaign from Margaret McCain and her late husband, Wallace McCain.
www.boldambitions.ca