Space is limited for graduate students at the University of New Brunswick Saint John campus. This is the space offered. (Photo: Submitted/Courtney Pyrke)
Graduate students are feeling out of the loop when it comes to having space on the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus.
Courtney Pyrke said the Saint John campus feels unwelcoming compared to other universities they’ve been to.
“When I got back to UNB Saint John to get my PhD I was actually really surprised and disappointed with the lack of attention given to graduate students. It seems like every space on campus is solely dedicated to the undergraduate students,” they said.
Pyrke said the Masters Of Business students got moved to their own building in the uptown area in January on the basis of community interaction which just adds to the feeling of inequity, especially when many graduate students have their work based in that same community.
There was also a new student residence built which opens to students in January. Pyrke said they know there are residences which are quite old so this is needed but graduate students are still left with nothing.
Since this is the current on-campus space that @UNBSaintJohn offers to their graduate students, and since I have been told by administration that space at UNBSJ is "limited" (ie there's no current fix for this problem)
what if, and hear me out……. pic.twitter.com/nCeiVBZGpx
— Courtney Pyrke (@courtums) July 25, 2020
“Starting at the campus, normally you can meet a cohort of people. I felt very alone and very isolated and so because of that, I actually spent my first year, which was last year, at coffee shops uptown, in my apartment, pretty much anywhere but the university,” they said.
Pyrke said there have been promises from administration to students since 2010 when they started their undergraduate degree at UNB and they question why it’s taking so long and why they’re not speaking to grad students about how they’re making more space.
UNB Saint John vice-president Dr. Petra Hauf said she knows the university is tight on space.
“We are planning and moving forward with hoping to increase our enrollment and creating new infrastructure on campus to reach this goal,” she said.
Dr. Hauf said there’s a plan to have a meeting in the fall once the students are all back to discuss solutions with everyone.
“We have been working on this for a while, we’re actually creating new space for graduate students right now, we’re in construction in some areas with renovation. We take this very seriously,” she said.
Dr. Hauf said in the meantime there are some classrooms available which were normally used for teaching but can now be booked out by students as a short term solution.
Pyrke said the booking of classrooms has always been available as an option, but it’s not the solution. They said when they contacted administration to let them know the fall is not a great time to meet regarding space due to time constraints for graduate students, they never received a message back.
Pyrke said they want to help find a solution to this problem, and get graduate students the space they need.
“Space that I guess feels more inviting for grad students and we actually belong there. A lot of the times when I’m on campus, just because there’s so many undergraduate students compared to grad students, I don’t feel very welcome,” they said.
“If you aren’t able to have a foundation for graduate students, then don’t have a graduate program.”
