New name proposed for Maids Hall residence

If passed, the residence will be known as Odena

Maids Hall, a residence located behind Creelman Hall on the northern side of the University of Guelph campus, could have a new name by the beginning of the upcoming academic year.

Maids Hall is one of the smaller residences on campus, housing approximately 50 students, including those living in Arts Hauz.

Nolan Polkinghorne, the president of Arts Hauz, is among a group of students who have proposed to the Alumni Association that Maids Hall be renamed to Odena.

“Maids Hall pays tribute to the service staff that worked while Creelman Hall was a residence community for soldiers and the service staff actually lived in Maids Hall,” said Polkinghorne, explaining that the connection has lost its meaning over time.

Brenda Whiteside, associate vice-president of student affairs, originally gave Polkinghorne the idea during his Interhall Council training.

“It did function as a dormitory for the maids that provided service in Creelman Hall from 1914 until 1941,” Whiteside told The Ontarion. “I have always been agitated with the name.”  

After deciding to follow through on Whiteside’s suggestion to change the name of Maids Hall, Polkinghorne began a long process to come up with a fitting name for the residence.

“First we had to find a name, which was incredibly hard. We came up with a few names, a few arts students wanted to name it after Robert Munsch,” but Polkinghorne explained that it’s a detailed and difficult process to name a building after a living person and deemed the idea unfeasible.

After one student suggested that the hall be renamed in honour of local Aboriginal communities, Polkinghorne began to work with the Aboriginal Resource Centre and was connected with Rene Meshake, a local Anishinaabe writer and artist, to find an appropriate name for Maids Hall.

Meshake visited the residence and met with the community to better understand the individuals who were living in Maids Hall and to find a name that would fit the building. After visiting the residence, Meshake suggested the residence be renamed to Odena.

“Odena means town, like the basic definition of it, but in Ojibwe and other Native languages, there’s more to it than just the idea of town,” said Polkinghorne. “The root word for Odena is ‘ode’ which means heart, so it’s the community where your heart lives.”

Unlike most of the residences on campus, the word “hall” will be dropped if the name is changed because, for Polkinghorne, there is no need to incorporate an English word into the residence’s new name.

“We want it to just be Odena—and not Odena Hall—just Odena, which we think encompasses the community that lives there.”

For Polkinghorne, it was important to involve the Aboriginal Resource Centre in the decision, and for himself to be a facilitator instead of submitting the name directly, to avoid disingenuous tokenism.

“I really took a step back from the process, I talked to the people and put things together, but it was really a way for them to decolonize.”

Before Maids Hall is officially renamed to Odena, the proposal must be brought forward to the Alumni Association for approval. If the proposal is approved by the Alumni Association, it will need to be presented to the board of governors for one final approval before the change is implemented.

Photo by Sapphire Liu.