Update on Orillia’s Residence Life
This article was last updated on November 15th, 2022
I have received mixed reviews on the residence experience throughout my time at Lakehead Orillia. I met many of my lifelong friends while living in Residence and have a mixture of fond and unfortunate memories... Still, I was curious to hear about the recent experiences of others in Residence. After all, everyone has a different perspective on the happenings of residence life.
Has Residence improved? Gotten worse? Or is it the same as it has been for years? Keep reading to find out!
Since Residence is what many Lakehead students call ‘home’ for months at a time, I was hoping to hear that Lakehead is making it as comfortable and fun as possible for their students.
I spoke to a peer who lives in Orillia residence, an education student in their first year of teacher’s college. The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained that there are some additional fees for students who will be living on residence during the winter break. This is problematic for many education students as they return to class on January 3rd, a week before the start of the winter term and the official move-in date for residence. Although the start date for classes is out of the student's control, they seem to be paying for it (quite literally).
On the other hand, it seems as though the residence team does take the time to have the students engage in fun, engaging activities! My peer says:
“It can get boring really quickly, I can't lie, but the residence floor reps and RA's try their best! There are about 40 students per floor to keep up with. During our weekly floor meetings, they really allow us to express what we are interested in doing, and they take our voices into account often."
I have to say, 40 people per floor? It was nowhere near that in 2018! It is safe to say that Lakehead Orillia is undoubtedly growing. When I asked my peer what they were able to do with their friends when it got boring or what kind of activities they did as a floor; they perked up and said:
“We have done an activity called ‘chalk and talk,’ which was an actictiy where we wrote affirming messages on the sidewalk with chalk. Also we have gone to a pumpkin patch, the movies, did some pumpkin carving and more! Sometimes, we watch movies and play video games together in our common room. If we need to study, the study rooms are really soothing as well.”
Despite some issues that deserve attention, the Lakehead Orillia Residence is doing well, which is excellent! I hope the positivity remains and they improve as the years go by. From the sounds of it, students are making friends and memories to last a lifetime.
My final note would be that Students are not expecting perfection from Lakehead staff, as perfection should not be expected from anyone. Students, however, want to see more effort put into making the decisions that affect them financially and emotionally.
Are you a student that lives in Orillia Residence and has an opinion on your res-life experience that you’d like us to dive deeper into? You can message The Argus on Instagram or comment below this article. Thank you again to my source for giving me the inside scoop!