MOPA faculty have tried and failed before to open student space
Christine Beyleveldt // News Editor
The Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) advocates remodelling a space in the Bosa Centre for Film and Animation to serve as an additional CSU-supported lounge. Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts Representative Abbey Doucet explained to the board of directors on Jan. 26 that for the time being she’s looking for support and sponsorship for the concept. She’s brought the idea to Motion Picture Arts (MOPA) faculty, who she says are very passionate about bringing a new lounge to campus. However, there is pushback because faculty have attempted to arrange for a student lounge before and it hasn’t come to fruition.
Fourth year MOPA student Noah Penner inquired where there could possibly be space for a lounge, stating that the Bosa building can barely contain classes as it is. “A Bosa lounge would have to be open 24/7,” he added, “because that’s the MOPA schedule.”
The issue highlighted by Doucet was students not leaving the Bosa building to join the rest of the campus community, so instead of pushing for MOPA students to leave the Bosa building and interact with their peers in other programs elsewhere on campus, she believes the solution is to take the student space to them. Furthermore, she already has a space in mind that can be used as a boardroom and as a lounge, because at the time being, students are constricted mainly to computer labs.
“I’ve heard the exact same concerns that Bosa students feel isolated,” said Queer Students Liaison Kaschelle Thiessen. “That they don’t feel part of the campus community and that they don’t know what’s going on, and I wonder if making a space in Bosa actually addresses that or if it means that Bosa will continue to be isolated. And maybe what needs to happen is having a secondary plan in place about how we can actually better engage Bosa students to bring them down to the rest of the campus?”
“After weeks of stress and sleep deprivation, nothing is worse than a noisy, dirty and crowded space, especially when people crank their music up,” Penner added.
Thiessen questioned the cost of supporting another lounge. The CSU rents their spaces from the University, which right now includes the lounges in the Maple building and in the Library. However, they would only need to look into another lease agreement if they decide to create a CSU space, but they can help MOPA faculty to create their own space instead. Thiessen suggested that the CSU could even help MOPA faculty open a lounge and install a bulletin board so that the CSU can continue to advertise without having to infer the costs of leasing another space. However, the board supported the concept.