With its ever-climbing enrolment numbers, the University of Guelph has seen an increasing need for student space, prompting a proposal from vice-president of finance Don O’Leary to renovate the University Centre (UC).
The proposal for renovations to the first floor and Peter Clark Hall area will be presented to the University Centre board of directors at an open board meeting on September 20, 2016. The plans focus on creating an open-concept student space that would occupy the front of the building closest to the bus loop. This would mean relocating UC103’s meeting space, as well as the current first floor washrooms, and UC107, which houses the Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity (GRCGED).
“The UC is sort of the face to the public here for students [and] visitors,” said O’Leary in an interview with The Ontarion. “It’s looking pretty tired, so we have been doing a few things over the last couple years to fix it up a little bit.”
Originally opened in 1974, the UC was built with a student population of approximately 11,000 in mind. Now with an enrolment of approximately 23,000, the University is looking to modernize and build a more contemporary, multi-functional space, similar to the renovations in MacDonald Hall, the Athletics Centre, and the Science Complex.
“[We’re committed to] listening to what we’ve heard from the students and its makes a lot of sense that we need to create more student gathering spaces,” said O’Leary.
The plans also propose new men’s, women’s, and universally accessible washrooms, bringing them up to code and accommodating for the increase in people and usage.
While the plans call for UC 103 to be reconfigured in the Peter Clark Hall area as a bookable conference space with sliding partitions, Brenda Whiteside, associate vice-president of student affairs, explained that there has been some discussions as to where GRCGED will be relocated:
“There are a couple of opportunities where we can reconfigure things on the second floor or create a different kind of space on the ground floor.”
According to Whiteside, some spaces currently in consideration are the offices for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), The Ontarion, and UC Administration, as they are all spaces owned by the UC board of directors.
While the University will be funding the proposed multi-million dollar renovations, any changes to UC space is under the jurisdiction of the UC board.
Comprising 20 voting members, the UC board represents the interests of both students and administration with 10 undergraduate student members, two graduate students, two alumni, two faculty club members, and two president appointees chosen by Whiteside.
“The UC was built in the early ‘70s and initially there had been plans to build two buildings: an administration-type building and a student building,” Whiteside explained that government funding for both buildings collapsed and they were merged into one shared building under the condition that it be governed by a student-majority board.
Shari Dorr, acting chair of the UC board and coordinator of the Undergraduate Academic Information Centre, explained that the proposed changes must be approved at the board level before the University can move forward with any renovation plans for summer 2017.
“By virtue of the constitution, any changing use of University Administration space […] is submitted to the Management and Operations committee prior to being submitted to the UC Board,” said Dorr.
After receiving an official proposal from O’Leary on June 23, 2016, Dorr explained that the Management and Operations committee developed a formal plan to seek input from any groups that were directly affected when considering the proposal.
GRCGED was informed of the proposal in late July and were later asked to compile a list of space requirements should their current location merge with the open-concept student area.
As acting outreach coordinator at GRCGED, Hong Lam explained that the staff at GRCGED would have liked to be more involved in the planning process from the beginning.
“They basically just asked us in the last week of August for requirements on what we need for our new space, but they haven’t asked us—what if we don’t want a new space?” said Lam. “I don’t think people realize how awesome the GRCGED space is and you’re not going to be able to find that kind of space on campus in any other capacity.”
Lam said that some of GRCGED’s space requirements include: a large, accessible space with double doors, enough wall space to contain their resource library, and a private safe room where students can go if they need some time alone.
Occupying UC107 since 1991, GRCGED, formerly the Women’s Resource Centre, is an established special status group (SSG) that acts as an intersectional feminist resource centre and safe space for students and community members.
“We want to have more student space for our students, but removing GRCGED [from the first floor] and moving them somewhere else just takes a group that was already in the margins and putting them even farther in the margins, because we are already so accessible and so visible,” said Lam.
O’Leary is looking at these renovations as an opportunity to provide better facilities for the affected groups.
“If the decision is made to move, then at the end of the day, they will have a better space than they have right now,” he said. “It may not be a better location than they think they have right now, but it won’t be that far away. It will be in the building and it will still be accessible.”
Once the proposal is presented to the board on September 20, O’Leary said that the University will take direction from the UC board.
“Our job is to look at all the pros and the cons and weigh the options and see how we can best accommodate everyone’s needs,” said Dorr, recognizing that it can be difficult to make everyone happy. “We’re doing our best to work with everyone to make sure their needs are taken care of.”
According to Whiteside, this is just the first step in trying to resolve pressures for more space in the UC: “We’ve got space problems everywhere in this building, but we’re going to start with the first two [levels].”
A decision must be made by the UC board in the first week of October in order to go through with proposed renovations for next summer.
Representatives from the CSA and UC Administration declined to comment at this time.
Photo by Mariah Bridgeman/The Ontarion.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Shari Dorr’s position as associate vice-president of academic affairs. Dorr is the coordinator of the Undergraduate Academic Information Centre in the office of the associate vice-president academic.