Dear readers, sorry for the confusion from the article printed last week the following is where we really are in the student lead evaluation of Traill College. As you may know, we had a survey sent out to undergraduate students of which 411 replied. This was a wonderful response rate, and thank you for all of you who took the time to complete the survey. Based on the survey and on the opinions of the student taskforce who created it (all elected student representatives from across campus), we have come up with the following top five priorities that undergraduate students would like to see for Traill College.

The hope is that any students with further feedback will now take the opportunity to comment on this list so that it can reflect our general collective opinion. If there are changes to be made, as a taskforce we would like to have that discussion, including with the graduate students at Trent. The plan moving forward is to present this as the results of our gathering of student opinion, and ask that the administration consider these requests moving forward with Traill College.

As students of Trent University we have put an enormous amount of thought and effort into considering what we would like to see this part of the university to look like. The process of student consultation is an ongoing conversation and we have done our best due diligence when creating this list in the hope that it will be taken seriously. To that end, here is our list of recommendations.

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Top 5 Undergraduate Student Priorities for Traill College

Traill College should exist as a joint graduate/undergrad college

1. Give students opportunity to affiliate with Traill when selecting first-year affiliation
2. Give Traill an “identity paragraph” on housing website
3. Begin to establish a governing body for Traill through collaboration with existing college cabinets

Increase diversity of academic programs run out of Traill

1. Specifically more diverse classes from different departments beyond the humanities
2. Long-term look at encouraging various faculties to hold offices at Traill

Make Traill the hub of experiential learning for Peterborough

1. Increase awareness of Community-Based Learning Centre
2. Increase clinical and placement options around Traill (for instance for Nursing students at the hospice going in across the road, or for Social Work placements downtown)

Increase operating budget through undergrad student enrolment (by allowing students to affiliate with Traill College, and assigning a proportional number of undecided students to Traill)

1. In addition an increase of graduate student fees to support the college
2. Do NOT increase revenue through selling of assets
3. Do NOT make student space inaccessible through implementation of space fees
4. Begin alumni fundraising campaign to address deferred maintenance issues
5. Student space shall NOT be decreased in order to solve budgetary concerns

Increase student services

1. Keep college spaces open on weekends
2. Hire Traill-specific academic advisor and academic skills
3. Expand counselling services to Traill
4. Increase college office staff, including student positions
5. Maintain college head as an academic position
6. Emphasise programming for mature, transfer, and part-time students

If you have any changes you would like to see, questions, or concerns please email me at vpuc@trentcentral.ca .