NSCAD move
NSCAD students hopeful about exit from Fountain campus
Wednesday’s student council meeting reveals positive attitude about the big move
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Student Union of NSCAD University (SUNSCAD) meets for the first time this school year.caption
Student Union of NSCAD University (SUNSCAD) meets for the first time this school year.NSCAD students say they are weary of the physical separation of students and programs — a situation that they hope will be partly alleviated when the university leaves its Granville Street campus.
Student representatives said at a meeting Sept. 30 they feel a disconnect exists between the different university faculties because of the university’s separation on three campuses. It’s time to move forward, they said.
The students made the comments at a meeting to discuss the university’s new plan to exit the Fountain campus by 2019.
The university made the decision last Thursday in response to the costly need for accessibility and architectural modernization at the Fountain campus. In order to meet these requirements, the school would have to “rebuild from the ground up,” the students said.
Student council president Gabriel Soligo and financial vice-president Julie Hall led the discussion. They both sit on the university’s board of governors and were present for the decision making process.
Hall and Soligo spoke with confidence that this decision was a possibility for growth for the university.
“I think there has been possibly, historically, this kind of ‘us against them’ mentality,” said Hall, referring to the relationship between the board of governors and NSCAD students. “But they really do care what we think.”
Breaking bureaucratic barriers
Hall and Soligo said they feel the “ice” between the board and the students has been broken.
“We’re carrying forward a lot of the work that was done by the student executive before us,” said Soligo. “We came in at an ideal time to have our voices to be heard and to assert what we are hearing and how we can work together to make the university work as a collective.”
Now, Soligo said, is the time for students to begin working with the administration to form their next plan of action. He foresees this will begin to materialize around January.
“We are students of the art world, which is in constant flux, and constant rebirth,” he said confidently.
A dream for NSCAD would be for it to exist on one site, the students said. Hall said the exit from the Fountain campus might be a chance for the school to move closer to this goal.
“We want to imagine what NSCAD can be,” said Hall.
