Lakehead University relocates Aboriginal Student Lounge; now more accessible

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—Lakehead University’s Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services office and Aboriginal Student Lounge are now located at UC1007 on the main floor next to the Agora.

“It’s right next to the main entrance so there is ease of access for our students who are coming and going off city transit or just getting dropped off,” says Yolanda Twance, coordinator of Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services at Lakehead University and a Pic Mobert citizen. “We’re really appreciative of this space … because we’re prominently featured within the university, being next door to Student Central. We have a great working relationship with them and that’s where our students need to be.”

Twance says the new Aboriginal Student Lounge is “much larger” than the old space, which used to be located next to the old Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services office on the lower level of the Regional Centre.

“There is a lot more room for students to move around and we are getting new furniture, so it will be a much nicer working space and definitely bigger,” Twance says, noting that a call-out was made to students for a new name for the lounge. “So we’ve got a lot of good suggestions and the Elders Council will be reviewing the names. We’re going to select one and the new Aboriginal Student Lounge is going to have a new name.”

Twance says there has been plenty of interest from faculty and staff about the new location.

“We’ve had a lot of faculty and staff stopping in checking out our new space,” Twance says. “Everybody is excited.”

Twance says there are a variety of services available to students at the Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services office, including academic, transitional and personal services.

“Academically, we do provide tutoring and academic workshops,” Twance says. “We do transitional support through the Aboriginal student counsellor, so if anyone needs help with housing or daycare or city services, we’re there to help them. If students have any personal issues they can see the counsellor for help with that.”

Twance adds that the Elders-in-Residence program is located in the Aboriginal Student Lounge.

“Elders will be coming in for the academic year to visit with students and provide one-on-one counselling or small group cultural teachings,” Twance says. “The Elders room is a very beautiful room.”

Sheila Pelletier-Demerah, administrative assistant with Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services and a Fort William citizen, says the new Aboriginal Student Lounge includes a lounge area, a study/work area and a computer work station area.

“Everything is more accessible,” Pelletier-Demerah says. “In the lounge with the students, the things we use for feasts are more available — we have a bigger counter space.”

Denise Baxter, vice-provost, Aboriginal Initiatives at Lakehead University, says the location of Aboriginal Cultural and Support Services on one side of the Agora and Student Central on the other side provides a “full one-hundred per cent service” for supporting students.

“People don’t have to go looking for supports,” Baxter says. “Given the large number of students we have who have self-identified as First Nation, Métis or Inuit at Lakehead, it is really important that we have a collaborative space and we also have a close-knit space that students can move back and forth so that we can ensure their success.”