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Christina Lépine, Features Editor » thecampus.features@gmail.com
An inside look at the new residence hall Gabrielle Liu - Junior Copy Editor
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he new, yet unnamed residence hall that has been in construction since May 2021 is now housing students for the first time. Featuring multiple common rooms, recreational spaces such as a yoga room, and design elements like floorto-ceiling glass, modern lighting, and exposed cement textures – it is quite the suave upgrade for students moving in from NoPo. According to first-year RAs Malika Bédard and Alice Roberts, NoPo students who were still on-campus on Dec. 19 started moving into the new residence before the break. The day before classes began, Jan. 10, was the other main move-in day, where moving services were available to assist students. The main entrance features automatic doors into an intermediary lobby before a card reader is tapped to bypass a second set of doors. Multiple common-use and recreational rooms occupy the first floor. Immediately on the left hand side of the entrance is the pool table room. Bédard and Roberts wholeheartedly agreed that this was the most popular room of the residence. “Around 5 p.m., the same group of guys will be down here,” Roberts said, smiling. On the weekends, by 11 in the morning, people would fill the room. “People from all residences will be here. People will bring their friends over,” Roberts added. Nearby is a yoga room – floor to ceiling windows, yoga mats rolled up in a box, and a hanging chair in a corner. It is still sparse in its first few weeks of use, but Bédard and Roberts mentioned that a massage chair and TV are supposed to arrive soon. Going one room down the hall, they pointed out the study room. Dividers separate the space into tucked-
in nooks for tables and chairs. “Views from the common rooms are amazing,” Bédard mentioned – the floor to ceiling windows are a front seat view to sunsets, and on upper floors, you can apparently see the Massawippi river from some bedrooms. Moving down the hallway is what Roberts and Bédard called the hanging chair room. The clean white space and
swaying chairs appear to offer a peaceful space to relax or read. At the end of the building, a sprawling, spacious lounge with high ceilings and soft grey carpets is still midway in its furnishing, and comparable in size to Paterson Hall or MacKinnon’s first floor common room. Bédard and Roberts said this will eventually become a multipurpose room for conferences and meetings. The first floor also houses a common kitchen, which Bédard said residents have already begun getting comfortable with – especially during late hours – and a waste room for
students to bring their garbage bags. The waste facilities include compost bins, something Bédard noted they did not have in Munster. Bédard and Roberts, who had been living in Munster last semester, praised the new residence’s improved accessibility. There is an elevator close to the entrance and almost all locks in the building function by card-tap. The second floor and third floor is where all bedrooms are located. Its bogstyled rooms echoed Munster, Abbot, and Keuhner’s layout, but unlike these buildings, two bogmates share a common entrance that leads into a mini-foyer (for changing into shoes and jackets). The shower and toilet flank the two sides of the foyer instead of being a unified bathroom like in the other bog-styled apartments. Then, each student has their own door into their bedrooms from within the foyer, giving an added sense of privacy. Bédard found that this feature added a layer of hassle when doing RA rounds. If there was a student making noise, RAs can only knock on the door directly connected to the hallway, not the bedroom doors within the foyer. Bedrooms are comparable in size to other bog-styled halls, but feature noticeably higher ceilings. Students go to the basement to use the laundry room and a storage room that can only be accessed upon request with security or the RAs. Inside are a few bikes, but the room can also keep sporting equipment like skis or hockey bags. Bédard thought this was an especially great perk for securing gear, since in other residence halls anyone could walk in and steal items from the storage space. A multimedia room and an adjacent
enclosed space are yet to be decorated, but according to Roberts, the Games Club will potentially begin meeting there soon. Both Bédard and Roberts expressed that the rapid construction meant that the building still had its “quirks” to work through, and that many spaces were still not 100 per cent furnished. But overall, they had few complaints from the residents. “We’ve been here for just two weeks, but there’s already a sense of community,” Bédard said.
Photos Courtesy of Gabrielle Liu
Health activists share Indigenous perspectives on medical science
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ednesday’s lecture on health science from an Indigenous perspective opened with a greeting to the universe, mother earth, the moon, the sun, and all living beings. Spoken in Mohawk and translated to English, this greeting is traditionally performed every morning and encourages a worldview where human beings are part of a larger circle of life. The presenters, Alex McComber, Amelia Tekwatonti MacGregor, as well as MacGregor’s daughter, used this opening as a way of describing holistic science, medicine, and lifestyle. This event, organized by the Indigenous Student Support Centre (ISSC) and the Dean of Science, shared some of the challenges facing Indigenous people in a colonized country, while also presenting an alternative way of looking at knowledge, nature, and power.
Leo Webster - Senior Copy Editor
Knowledge can come from many sources, not just traditional education, and Indigenous scientific knowledge comes primarily from observation of nature. McComber described how European colonizers were not able to see harmony with nature as civilization because they associated progress with the exploitation of the natural world. McComber and MacGregor are Kanien’keha:ka, known to Europeans as Mohawks, from Kahnawa:ke, an area on the south shore of the St. Lawrence that is now a First Nations reserve. They are both Bear Clan, a Clan commonly associated with medicinal knowledge, partly due to the story of bears sharing medicinal knowledge with humans. Now living in Montreal and teaching at McGill, McComber shared the difficulties of feeling close to nature in a busy urban environment, but also the benefit of cultivating a respect for nature in that
situation. The presenters also spoke about the stress and the baggage caused by colonial systems that continue to affect Indigenous people. MacGregor shared that it is a part of her life to come to terms with those feelings, and it can cause anger, frustration, and sadness, which is something that non-Indigenous people can be aware of. The loss of community members to residential schools continues to cause incredible grief for the community. MacGregor urged the audience to be free from this baggage, whether Indigenous or European, but not to forget the story behind it. McComber and MacGregor have both been involved with diabetes prevention programs, and MacGregor mentioned the “white sisters” or colonized food of flour, sugar, and salt that has infiltrated Indigenous diets and caused harm, as opposed to
the traditional three sisters of corn, squash, and beans. The speakers emphasized how health is more than the body, but has everything to do with broader systems and environments. The lecture ended by asking the students in the room to be caretakers of the future for the generations to come. The lecture was preceded by a smaller event for faculty and advisors about how to best support Indigenous students. The ISSC, led by Vicki Boldo and Shawna Chatterton-Jerome, has an office in the bottom floor of Centennial and are available by email at indigenous@ubishops.ca
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