McMaster University

[highwater]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

What's up??

You're right RTH. Something's off with Adam tonight. I shouldn't have been so hard on him. Sorry, Adam.

Seriously, though. Try not to drink and post. Learned that the hard way.

[adam]

My blood alcohol level is 0.00!! But I'm about to open a bottle of wine...

[highwater]

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by adam

My blood alcohol level is 0.00!! But I'm about to open a bottle of wine...

maybe that'll bring you back to your senses. Lol.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by crhayes

It is true that any student would rather be ON campus.

I agree. I can't picture too many out-of-town students wanting to stay downtown rather than on campus, where nearly all student activities are held and nearly all students are found.

[emge]

Originally Posted by crhayes

Yeah that is what I initially thought too....it would be sick. The way I see it: they create some residences downtown that are CHEAPER to stay in than the residences on campus. It is true that any student would rather be ON campus. So make some rez's downtown and charge the students less money to stay there; I bet there would be tons of kids interested.

In fact if more students were placed of campus like that, couldn't the city use it to their advantage when bargaining for LRT?

Great tie-in to LRT..

I think there's a couple schools of thought about students wanting to be near the campus (I was a resident advisor in university so this reflects what I saw).

Generally its first and second years who want the residence experience and to be on-campus, or ones whose parents are paying/planning their education. Third and fourth-year students often move off campus and are moving towards more independence, responsibility and maturity, as well as familiarity with the area and more comfort in commuting.

I think the trend you'd see over the long-term are older students choosing to live downtown, and younger students who are less independent choosing the on-campus residences. One would likely want the more mature/serious/job-minded students downtown anyways if you had to pick between the two groups. That doesn't take into account the culture adjustment from moving downtown after already spending a couple years on campus but that likely wouldn't be a deterrent to most.

[geoff's two cents]

I am actually quite glad we chose to live near downtown over Westdale when we first moved to Hamilton. By comparison, the short time we spent housesitting in Westdale before we left was quite boring.

Given the higher quality of food available downtown and the lower prices, I'm not even sure a student discount would be necessary - only at first, perhaps, to get students interested in the idea of moving downtown.

There's definitely a large proportion of the student population at Mac who prefer the campus life, but there's enough out there like me, particularly in the third or fourth year (or in my case, grad school) who prefer a more cosmopolitan experience, to justify having a student residence downtown. I'm sure the people watching their formerly posh Westdale neighborhoods turn into ghettoes with garbage on the streets and rowdiness every weekend would appreciate it as well.

[coalminecanary]

Transit is a huge issue in getting students downtown- I can tell you from first hand experience that many students, even in upper years, are reluctant to live downtown because they worry that the transportation barrier when coupled with occasional laziness would cause too many missed classes. We can say "grow up and set an alarm clock" all we want, but many students don't want to put the onus on themselves. If there was a 5 minute LRT ride to campus, with max 5 minute wait -all day- the barrier would be removed. In fact, with LRT I could see that if you have class in one of the buildins near main (presumably where lrt would stop), it cwoudl be faster to ride the train fron downtown than to walk from brandon hall!

HSR does a pretty good job with the B line, but most students' first hand experience is "full buses blowing past without stopping". Even if that's not the case for the downtown stops, the perception of transit issues is a big one...

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by geoff's two cents

I'm sure the people watching their formerly posh Westdale neighborhoods turn into ghettoes with garbage on the streets and rowdiness every weekend would appreciate it as well.

Holla!

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by coalminecanary

Transit is a huge issue in getting students downtown- I can tell you from first hand experience that many students, even in upper years, are reluctant to live downtown because they worry that the transportation barrier when coupled with occasional laziness would cause too many missed classes. We can say "grow up and set an alarm clock" all we want, but many students don't want to put the onus on themselves. If there was a 5 minute LRT ride to campus, with max 5 minute wait -all day- the barrier would be removed. In fact, with LRT I could see that if you have class in one of the buildins near main (presumably where lrt would stop), it cwoudl be faster to ride the train fron downtown than to walk from brandon hall!

HSR does a pretty good job with the B line, but most students' first hand experience is "full buses blowing past without stopping". Even if that's not the case for the downtown stops, the perception of transit issues is a big one...

So true.

LRT would remove so many barriers.

[SteelTown]

Student charged in McMaster arson

November 04, 2008
Jackson Hayes
Hamilton police have charged a 19-year-old McMaster University student in the arson that left 600 residents of Brandon Hall homeless Oct. 18.

Police have charged Emerson Pardoe of Scarborough with arson endangering life and arson to property. He is a first-year student who was living at Brandon Hall.

 Fire broke out at McMaster’s largest residence in the early morning hours of Saturday October 18th forcing the nearly 600 students who call the 11-storey building home, out into cool morning.

The blaze originated in the buildings bank of elevators and severely damaged the electrical and elevator systems. Four people suffered smoke inhalation and were treated in hospital.

Residents were told at a public meeting days later they could not return to their rooms until repairs to the buildings systems were completed which might last till January at the earliest.

A majority of students now reside in a series of downtown hotels and are waiting until they can return to live on campus.

Investigators have questioned more than 500 people in relation to the case and today’s announcement is expected to be the first update in the investigation.

[markbarbera]

What's going on at Mac?

Electrical fire closes 10 McMaster buildings

November 04, 2008
Rachel DeLazzer
The Hamilton Spectator

Ten buildings on the McMaster University campus are closed after an electrical fire in the basement of Gilmour Hall around 9:30 this morning.


Hundreds of students and staff poured out on the grounds to be told the buildings are closed until noon when a further update will be given. Gilmour Hall is the main administration building and includes the offices of McMaster President Peter George.


Mike Maciejewski was in the shower in the athletic centre when the power went out.
“I have a paper I need to hand in in half an hour”. He said he needed access to a computer to hand it in on time.


At this time the university email system is down because of the fire.


Spokesperson Andrea Farquhar said McMaster hasn’t had three fire related incidents so close together in her memory.

[SteelTown]

Crap load of renovations. Literally every campus building is under renovation at McMaster.

[raisethehammer]

who the heck is doing the reno's??

[SteelTown]

Bunch of contracts from various contractors. McMaster tends to stick with local contractors. My uncle's steel company has a contract with McMaster for the Camco building, they supply all the steel beams.

Yea my family has a history with steel haha.

[oldcoote]

http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/468970

[raisethehammer]

Westdale residents have it pretty good compared with that.
The odd time a dozen young people will get too noisy on the front porch/lawn and that's about it.
Sounds pretty crazy in Kingston.

[highwater]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

The odd time a dozen young people will get too noisy on the front porch/lawn and that's about it.

I wish. I used to live on Sterling. I won't bore you with the vomit, urine, and excrement soaked details, but it was a nightmare.

Nothing like what goes on at Queens though, that's for sure. Mac knows this, and every time we complain we're told "but it's not as bad as Queens!" Part of it has to do with the fact that the neighbourhoods around the Queens are pretty much exclusively students. Behaviour like that tends to get out of control when there's a mob mentality. It's one of the reasons Westdale residents fight so hard to keep a healthy ratio of students to permanent residents.

[raisethehammer]

definitely...more highrises downtown and along Main St for students would be a good thing.

[emge]

Westdale doesn't want them, downtown needs to attract and keep them. Even if there was a 2-3% increase in retention of Mac students downtown after graduation... its a no-brainer.