by Anonymous
You are all aware of the new engineering building, E7, that was recently built on campus.
The university spent almost $100 million on this new state of the art building in order to enable engineering students to have access to state of the art tools and a better environment to conduct their work in. It feels almost as if the university only cares about the engineering faculty. What about updating the rest of the campus?
There are numerous areas of the school that could use safety reinforcement and a renovation, but the school blatantly ignores them. Students in other faculties need to feel appreciated and know that what they are studying matters. Unfortunately, it’s hard to feel that way when the university fails to treat each faculty equally and give funding to enable other areas to be modernized and match up to buildings like E7. It would be nice to have all the buildings match up in terms of amenities and resources. PAS is an old and dilapidated building, MC could use new washrooms, and the silent study rooms in the Davis Centre make you feel more depressed than motivated.
Last year, Claudette Millar Hall opened and was hailed as Waterloo University’s new residence building. Each room has its own thermostat and each floor has its own study rooms. It is a stark contrast to the living conditions in other residence buildings. Village 1’s central heating system is horrible. I lived there for one semester and had to have my heating vents fixed twice.
The lights in my room kept flickering on and off and this was not an environment conducive to studying. The University of Waterloo Place (UWP) does not have an AC system at all. In the summer, the buildings feel like a heated death trap and if you do not own an extremely powerful fan or at least five mediocre ones, be prepared to simmer through the summer months.
I often find myself drifting to more modern and newer buildings to study and these are usually buildings in different faculties because my own faculty building is a sad place. Being there does not motivate me or foster any sense of creativity and motivation. It is such a shame that funding cannot be spread evenly throughout the campus. Other areas of the school are suffering but nothing is being done and from the looks of things, it feels like things are not going to change any time soon.
