Volume 50, Issue 9: Editor’s Desk
Carlo Javier // Editor-in-Chief
“The game ain’t always fair and that’s the thing though. You can play your heart out, everybody don’t get a ring though.” – Drake
Any member of the Capilano University community that has been a part of the school for at least the last three years knows that a sweeping change is enveloping the institution.
Last year’s rebrand is promising a refreshing new start to the school after a tumultuous period that saw controversial program cuts, very public spats between instructors and administration and steadily decreasing student enrolment and retainment. And less than a year since that reveal, this triumphant new CapU is already starting to blossom.
After a fairly surprising announcement late in the spring, CapU hastily and impressively launched its first-ever off-campus residence this year. A little over a month after the residence opened, the school unveiled a Campus masterplan that outlines a long-term vision that extends all the way to 2030. This masterplan included the school’s first-ever on-campus housing, which could break ground as early as fall 2018.
In conjunction with such grand projects by the administration, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) have also unveiled some of their own vision – one that includes a new Student Union Building that will not only serve as a primary administrative office for the CSU, but also as a social space for students.
The same type of growth can be applied to the Capilano Blues. All the Blues teams are either entering, or are already in the midst of an exciting time in terms of player development and success. CapU student-athletes are also not only excelling in their respective sports, but as we found out earlier this year, they are reaching levels of national academic achievement that the school has not seen in at least a decade.
As the recently-retired Susan Doig told me in our final interview, the school is undergoing exciting times – a phase where members of the community are openly collaborating and communicating with one another to achieve a greater goal. While we experience this sea of change, it is a little bit bittersweet knowing that most of the people working towards making CapU a better place likely will not even see the fruition of their hard work, much less the credit.
When the residence at 2420 Dollarton Highway opened earlier this semester, I did feel proud of the members of the CSU who time and again lobbied for student housing. And while some of the current executives and liaisons of the CSU are actively doing their part in improving the student experience at CapU residence, it would be a crime to completely ignore the work of the executives and liaisons that came before them, like the Gervais, Fabrys, Kolstees and Wilsons to name a few.
The same goes for the current CSU roster. When the Student Union Building is finally built, whenever that may be, it is likely that none of the current executives and liaisons will get to work there, they will be long gone by then. The work that they are doing now to ensure that the building does get built will ultimately be for the future members of the CSU, and the staff. I hope that when it does go up, names like Willis and Safari will echo with the eventual students who reap the results.
Recently, I found out just how big a change Erin Millar made when she ran the Courier, a little over a decade ago. It was a complete upheaval, essentially restructuring the Courier into what I like to think is a decently-respected piece of campus publication. In more recent years, I like to say that Scheitel built the character, while Rice rebuilt the administration.
I do not know what the Courier will be like years from now. I do not even know where the future staff will be located after the seemingly inevitable teardown of the Maple building finally comes. Even though I am the current editor-in-chief of the school’s campus publication, but I really have very minimal knowledge of what CapU will be like down the road.
What I do know is that whatever the future members of the CapU community see, much of it will have been because of the ones who came before them.