Residences at Langara would create a stronger sense of community, says student

Reported by Tierney Grattan

The places most post-secondary students spend their time building relationships—the campus pub, the fitness centre, the residences—Langara doesn’t have.

Though relationships students build in university and college can last a lifetime, in the shorter term, they can help students feel less lonely and that they are part of a community.

David Erasmus, a second-year theatre student at Langara and a former University of Alberta student, said if there was a residence at Langara, there would be a stronger sense of unity right away.

“I think there’d be more friendship, less isolation as you walk down the halls,” Erasmus said. “More of like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s that guy who was at that party that one time.’”

Yvonne Ohara, manager of alumni relations at Langara, said graduates sometimes forget after they transfer to another institution that they are still considered Langara alumni.

“They have memories of Langara and the education they got here,” Ohara said. “But they don’t necessarily understand that they are still considered one of our alumni.”

Transfer schools give students opportunities

Many students who attend a transfer school, like Langara, do it to improve their grades for a better chance at being accepted into a university.

Computer science student Jeff Schwanebeck came to Langara because he wasn’t accepted at his first choice of post-secondary institutions.

Schwanebeck said he applied for and had hoped to get into SFU but ended up at Langara instead. Now in his second year here, he said he’s glad he chose to come to a transfer school first.

“They have smaller classes instead of big auditoriums and the professors, in my experience, are a lot more personable here,” said Schwanebeck.

Some students, like Gurvir Kaur, decide just to go to transfer school for a diploma and then head straight into the workforce.

“I want to study first and then when I’m finished I’ll think about if I want to do it again or not,” Kaur said.

Reporter Tierney Grattan asks students about their experiences attending transfer schools, like Langara College, versus other post-secondary institutions.