Event: Thousands of students move in to UBC residence on September 5 with help from the Thunderbirds Men’s Football team
Time/Date: Media are asked to meet at 9:45 a.m. with UBC representatives at Marine Drive Residence (2205 Lower Mall) where parking is available. From there it is a short walk to Totem Park and Vanier Residences.
Location Map: http://bit.ly/1yIR99R
New students moving into UBC residence will kick off their school year with a fumble-free handoff thanks to a small army of UBC staff and the Thunderbird Men’s Football team.
The team will be outside Totem Park and Place Vanier residences on Saturday September 5 starting at 10 a.m. to help haul and hustle student belongings up and into residence rooms. Approximately 6,000 students are moving in to UBC residence rooms over the coming days.
“Move-in day is the perfect opportunity for UBC students and members of the Thunderbirds football team to connect. I want our student body to meet the young men who take to the field every Saturday to represent our school. I want them to take pride in the team, their team, and what they stand for,” said T-Birds coach Blake Nill.
UBC welcomed its first class of 379 students on Sept. 30, 1915. One hundred years later that number is closer to 50,000 and the university is now the largest student housing operator in the country. The Vancouver campus has 9766 beds for students. Another 680 beds are operated by Theological colleges, fraternities and sororities.
“Despite recent growth demand is still far greater than supply. Our summer wait list, at its peak, set a record with 6,300 students,” said Andrew Parr, managing director of UBC Student Housing and Hospitality Services. “The Vancouver rental market isn’t growing fast enough and that means students are looking to the university to provide more. We also know students who live in on-campus residences have an enhanced academic and social experience as compared to those students who commute.”
Five new projects in the pipeline for 2020 will add some much needed capacity, bringing the inventory up to 12,471 beds over the next five years. In the short-term, Ponderosa Phase 2 is set to open its doors to 303 students on Labour Day weekend and another 252 students in January of 2016. It’s anticipated that Orchard Commons will be finished by the summer of 2016 which will provide rooms for 1,049 first-year students. The T-Birds Football team will need some help a year from now.
For more information about student housing at UBC, visit http://www.housing.ubc.ca/
For photos of current UBC residences, click here.
Historical background:
• UBC’s first residence on the Point Grey Campus, Fort Camp, opened in 1945 when enrollment tripled after the war. Veterans were offered one month of free education for every month they’d served in the armed forces.
• Fort Camp was home to 125 male students. Each was issued an army cot, straw mattress, table, chair and ashtray. Bathrooms were in separate huts.
• Family housing was also available in huts at Acadia Camp, Wesbrook Camp and Wesbrook Crescent. Families had to provide their own electric stoves and refrigerators.
• Work began on the first permanent women’s residences in 1950 and was completed a year later. Each of the four buildings housed 52 women.
• The four original Totem Park residences were built between 1963 and 1965. The Nootka-Dene building was surrounded by a wall with a crushed glass top intended to keep young men from liaising with the young women who lived there.
Historic photos of UBC housing are available here. Please credit “UBC Archives”.