Courts funded by the Student Life Enhancement Fund will be available for student use in the fall
On Aug. 7, the McMaster Students Union announced McMaster University agreed to refurbish two outdoor volleyball courts for the upcoming year. Previously part of a project under the Student Life Enhancement Fund, the courts at the Oval, located near the David Braley Athletic Centre and the Ivor Wynne Centre, will be open to students later in the fall.
In partnership with McMaster Student Affairs, the MSU has historically used the SLEF fund to support the development of student proposals for projects that enhance student life and community. Reviewed by the Student Services Committee, these proposals must meet specific criteria for approval, including being student driven, innovative and considerate of environmental impact.
Recent examples of projects backed by the SLEF include the Mac Community Kitchen, napping pods in the McMaster University Student Centre and the MacAccess Resource Library.
The courts’ revival was proposed by MSU president, Jovan Popovic, in Student Representative Assembly reports on Jun. 18 and Jun. 20. In the Jun. 20 report Popovic referenced a sign posting for the outdoor volleyball courts in Parking Lot H. The space had been originally outlined as a temporary parking lot for the construction of the Peter George Living and Learning Centre.
The courts’ revival was proposed by MSU president, Jovan Popovic, in Student Representative Assembly reports on Jun. 18 and Jun. 20.
Despite the building’s completion in 2019, the parking lot has since remained with the construction gear still present on the site. In a remote SRA meeting on Jun. 25, Popovic stated that approximately $20,000 of money collected from undergraduate student service fees was being wasted with the uncleared gear.
About a month and a half later, the MSU followed up with an Instagram video announcing that the university had agreed to revive the courts in time for the upcoming fall semester at no additional charges to students. A key focus of the project’s restoration was centred around the development of opportunities to promote recreation and student life across campus.
“Ultimately [the courts are] a big contributor towards student life because it’s providing students with the ability to come back [to campus] for reasons aside from academics,” said Popovic.
“Ultimately [the courts are] a big contributor towards student life because it’s providing students with the ability to come back [to campus] for reasons aside from academics,” said Popovic.
Jovan Popovic, president, McMaster Students Union
In his report on Jun. 18, Popovic explained that his two goals with the volleyball court revival were the recovery of the wasted student life money and the construction of new replacement facilities for those that were taken away from students.
“What this project was about was recovering what was lost. Hopefully this acts as a gateway for greater things, but ultimately this was the easiest and fastest way to get something done and to get it done in a timely manner,” said Popovic.
“What this project was about was recovering what was lost. Hopefully this acts as a gateway for greater things, but ultimately this was the easiest and fastest way to get something done and to get it done in a timely manner,”
Jovan Popovic, president, McMaster Students Union
Popovic also indicated that he would be advocating for a new tennis and basketball court to be built on the Oval. Other potential additions to this space could include green garden spaces and communal areas for both off-campus and residential students.
By: William Alexander
Permanent compost bins will soon be installed in McMaster University Student Centre thanks to the efforts of a coalition between the McMaster Students Union’s Sustainability Education Committee and an independent project for a third-year sustainability course.The coalition has already met with MUSC’s administrator and has secured a grant from the Student Life Enhancement Fund to finance the project. They plan on installing the new bins at the beginning of the new year.
Currently, MUSC is serviced by temporary green compost bins. These were provided by members of the project to allow for composting in the interim, and have been dutifully emptied and sorted by members of the project since late October.
Fiona McGill, chair of MSU Sustainability Education Committee, explained that sorting the compost bins has been no easy task.
“People just see an open bin and they throw stuff in there,” she said. To confront the problem, a sign has since been added to the temporary bins reminding students that plastic is not compostable. As of Nov. 13, responsibility for the bins has changed hands to the custodial staff as members of the group reach the end of their pilot project’s term.
Permanent compost bins existed in MUSC in the past, but were removed in the last student centre renovation in 2016 and were never replaced.
“Lots of student groups tried to [implement bins] in the past, but they weren’t successful,” said Alicia Giannetti, a member of the project.
By meeting with several members of the administrative staff within the university, her group managed to finally get the bins approved.
The independent project is an assignment for a third year course titled Implementing Sustainable Change. In a course report from last year, Academic Sustainability Programs senior manager Kate Whalen wrote that the course encourages “interdisciplinary, community-based, student-led, and experiential education related to sustainability”. The project itself encourages students to go out into the community and find a way to make a positive difference for sustainability.
The bins will be financed with part of a $15,000 fund provided to the Sustainability Education Committee by the Student Life Enhancement fund last year. The coalition also plans on printing infographics informing students how to properly sort their compost. As for the remaining sum, McGill said that the committee is “looking for student input on how it should be spent.”
When asked about the future of the initiative, Giannetti replied that her team hoped that after the MUSC bins are installed they can expand and implement compost bins across campus. McGill added that they “would love to get more student groups on board.” They emphasized that improving sustainability can sometimes be a long process, but they hope that their success will motivate other groups to take action at further encouraging sustainability at McMaster.
“[I] love to work with other groups on campus dedicated to sustainability,” said McGill. She can be reached at [email protected]
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From world poverty to a vertical garden in downtown Hamilton, the McMaster Social Innovation Lab looks to allow students a haven for solving problems and expanding on ideas that could potentially benefit others on campus. Michael Hewlett and Brianna Smrke, co-directors of MSIL, had the vision of creating a place where students could be given tools to become better problem solvers.
“The Social Innovation Lab is an inventor’s workshop for undergraduates” said Smrke. “It is a space where students can come and apply their knowledge from what their learning in class and what they already know to solve some kind of real problem, big or small.” The Lab has accumulated a group of 30 volunteers who will help students in having their vision come to life through planning and prototyping.
The pilot project is partially funded by the Forward with Integrity movement, and partially by the Student Life Enhancement Fund.
“We’ve had two rounds of Forward with Integrity funding. First, was with the workshop in the spring for different people in the University to see if they were interested in supporting this idea further,” explained Hewlett.
“What that really helped us do, was give us a little bit of support by people saying ‘We think you have a nugget of something good here, develop it a little bit further.’”
The second part of their FWI funding was used for development over the summer, and the Student Life Enhancement Fund money will be used for pilot projects in the fall and spring.
The team prepared for the launch over the summer, with Smrke being granted a travel scholarship from McMaster to travel to India in order to observe a social innovation lab there.
Their official website has a feature, dubbed the “problem bank”, which has a varying collection of potential problems for MSIL to work on. The co-directors emphasized that no one problem is of a higher priority than another.
“I would say that we do not really have a priority and that’s the point of the bank being so open,” said Smrke.
“We’re really trying to get different kinds of people in the space at the same time.”
The Social Innovation Lab is currently working on a wide spectrum of projects, some of which are focused on campus life, others on issues regarding life outside McMaster. One project had the team brainstorm ideas to reduce the waste of food on campus, which led them to set up Twitter and Facebook pages, and after events, can be contacted to take the food. Another has them preparing a fundraising campaign for a student who has ambitions to go to Africa.
MSIL, currently located in Thode B117/A, is still developing the workshop for students. The space has tools for members to learn how to create prototypes on budget, with light hardware, utensils to draw, as well as space for students to keep their ideas stored in the room.
Hewlett and Smrke, who hosted the soft launch of their space on Oct. 2, are optimistic for the project’s future.
“I’m really grateful to the McMaster community, we’ve received so much support so far and I really hope that we can provide a good return on the investment that has been put into us,” said Smrke.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what will come about in the space, how people are changed by it and how people change the space, how the people take ownership of it, so it becomes a McMaster thing, not just something we’re both involved but something the whole campus sees as a place to try out their ideas.”
Photo credit: Brianna Smrke
Dina Fanara
Assistant News Editor
The Student Life Enhancement Fund is making a new leap this year in order to provide students with services and campus improvements to better suit their needs.
The change was set in motion by Student Affairs and the Student Services Committee this academic year. The Fund gives students an opportunity to propose improvements that can be made on campus to improve student life and well-being. Additionally, an initiative of this sort will give students a chance to take an active role in the change they envision.
This Fund has been used in the past, but making it more accessible for students this year stands as a testament to the fact that students’ voices are not only valuable, but necessary in order to improve the quality of education that each student at McMaster is entitled to.
A strong driving force behind the implementation of this program is the improvement of the quality of education for McMaster’s full-time undergraduate students.
Applicants whose projects are chosen can partner with either an MSU service or a sub-section of Student Affairs that best suits the needs of the proposed change.
Students who submit their idea will be given the opportunity to suggest services which may be beneficial as partners in the initiative. If no suggestions are made, the student will be recommended partnering services upon acceptance.
The partnership with a campus service is beneficial to those applying and the entire student body, as it promotes the use of services already in place.
There will be essentially no upper limit for the funding of a project, noted Matthcw Dillon-Leitch, president of the McMaster Students Union (MSU). Submissions may be of any size and may require anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars to complete.
According to Dillon-Leitch, “no matter the size of your project, there are funds for this,” as long as it is seen as something that will benefit the student body at McMaster as a whole.
Previous student-lead initiatives funded by the Student Life Enhancement Fund include the creation of study space on the second floor of the Student Centre, the addition of new couches in the David Braley Athletic Centre, additions to the Queer Students Community Centre (QSCC) library and the development and implementation of the Residence Information System (RIS), among many others.
By utilizing student input to such an extent. the hope is to not only listen to students and offer something that appeals to them directly, but to also give students an opportunity to come up with solutions to problems currently facing undergraduate education at McMaster that are perhaps often overlooked.
A strong supporter of student input and the power of the student voice, Dillon-Leitch explained that, “it will make us aware of all the ideas that students have to make this university better.”
Applications are being accepted until Feb. 17.
