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Birge Carnegie: The Awkward Years

The theme of the new faculty building is to make the spirit soar – what happens to our spirit while it’s in limbo?

Attendance was rather sparse at the January 16th meeting about the ‘accommodations’ for next year, so for your convenience we bring you a brief about what life is going to be like during the big reno. This way you can send your requests to the SLS or have something to say when the Building Consultation Survey comes out.  3Ls, you can stop reading now and continue enjoying your carefree lives. For the rest of the student body, read on for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

  • The Home base: Birge-Carnegie across the street will be where all the hangouts go down. They’re knocking down a few walls to make one large chill space to serve as a faux Rowell Room. We can only speculate as to whether it will be complete with rodent. The bad news: there’s no Pit to clique out in.
  • Bora who: Birge will also house the library and librarians and the most used parts of the collection will be accessible here. Obscure book lovers, you might have to find another hobby…we highly recommend The Internet
  • Classrooms: Gone are the days that everything will be housed under the same roof.  Via SLS: “Classrooms will be in a combination of Vic rooms (in Northrop Frye), Falconer and possibly some Flavelle rooms. The Faculty is doing their utmost to ensure that there will be sufficient plug capability”…this is where it gets ugly. Get ready to duke it out with your classmates for outlets. On the upside we have the satisfaction of knowing MCR’s days are numbered
  • Food and Stuff: The legendary Wymilwood Café will be a considerable upgrade in the food department. There will also be a kitchen on both sides of Queen’s Park for those packed lunches we in debt are so fond of.
  • Book keeping: Best effort is being placed on locating all the lockers across the road. Unfortunately, it’s looking like some people will still have to return to good ol’ Flavelle to grab their books. Advice to those people: invest in some decent running shoes, or perhaps a Segway. And get used to that Museum station walk-through.
  • Youths: Hopefully we’re all good at sharing, and tolerating the wily ways of youngins. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks to the interim time is that we will be sharing buildings with undergraduate students. And we all know their zest for life and fun can be obnoxious.
  • Office Space: It looks like the faculty and administration offices are staying put. This could lead to a downturn in office hours attendance. Wait…who are we kidding. Nothing can keep a law student from their prof ‘n’ me time.

There’s some great accommodating being done here, but we think that there could be more accommodations to accommodate us (of course we do!). Here are a few concerns to get the ball rolling:

  • Flavelle High: everyone being under one roof should be a HUGE priority. Law students love to hang. We’ve got to preserve that high school feeling. Plus, in the words of a good friend of ours, “How am I gonna scope all the hot first years?” (Our answer: go younger – start scoping those undergrads).
  • Option B: If there just isn’t enough room, it’s only fair that, because the first years will get the benefit of the new building, they should get the shaft with lockers and classroom locations next year. They won’t know any better any way. How about we assign three 1Ls to a locker and we each get our own? Do the numbers work out okay there?
  • Option C: If we’re all going to get the shaft, CAN WE GET A DISCOUNT ON OUR TUITION? WE KNOW YOU HAVE AT LEAST $10 MILLION DOLLARS IN THE BANK AT THIS POINT.

In conclusion, although our current space may need a face lift, we’re going to miss our current set up and the few amenities we have. If you have any requests or ideas for the Birge, speak up now with what’s important to you.

 

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