“A lot more love could be poured into this space” – Niko Williamson
Kate Henderson (she/they) // Crew Writer
Catherine Rosales // Illustrator
On the Birch Building’s third floor lies a hidden spot, quiet and spacious. room filled with couches, lamps, a kitchenette for tea and outlets for charging. It’s room 310, the Women’s Centre, one of Capilano University’s support centres. The room is accessible with a student ID card (that identifies the holder’s gender according to what was indicated in the CapU student profile). The Women’s Centre should feel like a cozy haven, but a closer look reveals that the couches have stains, there’s a kettle on the floor, the lamp shades are dusty and shifted, the fridge cradles empty plastic and blotches of grime. Altogether, this state can only bring to question who is responsible for maintaining this space, why it is in such disarray and what this could imply about this school’s care for its community of women.
Managed by the Capilano Students Union (CSU), the Women’s Centre has been a resource at CapU for approximately five years, during which it moved spaces frequently. Niko Williamson, the Women’s Student Liaison from 2022 to 2023, explains their “move during COVID was the most difficult,” elaborating that “the CSU updated the website with its new location directly after the move, but CapU was slow to update the location online.” Williamson shares frustration with the confusion this has caused. From lockdown until now, the Women’s Centre continues to be hidden in plain sight. With the last move to an old computer lab on Birch’s third floor, Williamson (assumming her role after the move) advocated to develop what has become the permanent home of the women’s centre.
Capilano Courier spoke with current Women’s Student Liaison, Sukham Kaur, on the aftermath of the Women’s Centre’s settling, and the upkeep of this new space. “I try to regularly check up on the space, restocking tea Mondays and Thursdays, while my friends restock tea on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” Kaur explained. However, Williamson has not seen the tea restocked this fall semester. Additionally, the Courier interviewed student Maya Hickling, who visits the Women’s Centre weekly, sharing that, “the cleanest [she’s] seen the women’s centre was in September,” with only gradual decline from there.
When asked about the maintenance of the space, Kaur shared many goals about improving its current state, such as installation of more cozy furniture, as the current furniture was recycled from an unused space at CapU during its move (according to Williamson). Kaur also expressed a desire to buy multiple blankets, cushions and even quiet activity options such as board games or magazines, wanting to bring the, “cozy back to the space.”
Altogether, it brings into question when and how this “cozy plan” will be enacted. “Each resource space is allocated a budget, which we then put proposals forward for spending within this budget.” Kaur shares, “Sometimes, if a budget extension is needed, a separate request must be sent before the proposal can actually be made.” The Courier asked whether a budget extension request was inhibiting Kaur’s timeline for her current plan of improvement for the Women’s Centre. Kaur replied that no budget extension would be required, elaborating that it is a matter of submitting the proposal. All of this considered, it brings to question how effective this system of executing student services is. “I remember when I was the Women’s Student Liason, it took four months for facilities to process my request to move a larger table into the Women’s Centre,” Williamson elaborates, showing the clear delay that comes in the bureaucracy of CapU’s proposal processing.
With an understanding of the Women’s Centre history, and a complicated strain of communication within and outside of the CSU, it brings to question what level of disarray is acceptable to the CSU, and when Kaur will successfully complete this request, and when that request will even be approved and completed with facilities. In the meantime, the hand sanitizer unit of the Women’s Centre remains on the floor, gathering dust.