Home away from home

Pablo Bravo didn't know anyone in Montreal when he arrived last year from his native Venezuela, but soon, the students living in Loyola's Hingston Hall became his family. "Now I don't want to leave the Residence," he said recently.

Until last year, Andrea Blois had never lived farther than an hour away from her parents' home in Nova Scotia. "When I came to Concordia, it was a big adjustment," she recalled. "But I had such a good time the first year, it made me want to come back."

Bravo, who is majoring in
Economics and Political Science, and Blois, in her second year of Exercise Science, enjoyed themselves so much that this fall they are returning to Hingston Hall as Residence Assistants.

They will assist the 144 students moving this week into the four-storey building almost hidden at the back of the Loyola campus. They'll show the newcomers all the facilities, including a study room with two computers, a weight room, pool tables and TV lounges.

Director of Residence Life Mimi Littman has been managing Concordia's only on-campus residence for the past seven years. She likes to watch how students develop during their stay at Concordia. She has seen students coming out of Residence with lifelong friendships -- and in a few cases, with a spouse.

She happily remembered being invited to Norway to the wedding of two former residents, one from Norway and the other from British Columbia. "Some people would describe it as a family," she said, "a small, close-knit community."

However, she added, the Residence staff of four staff members and six Residence Assistants face the difficult task of trying to meet the students' needs while operating a business.

"In order to provide an environment that is appropriate for students and a positive impression of Concordia, we need to increase our revenue, and that's very challenging," Littman said. "We're responsible for taking care of ourselves, and that's isolating."

Like the on-campus catering and parking operations, the Residence is a self-financing department. Most of its revenue comes from rental of the facilities during the off-season.

From May to August, Hingston Hall trades its usual residents for Elderhostelers, members of music bands, summer campers, families and individual travellers. However, the hostel operation doesn't bring in much revenue, Littman said. "We're very small, and there is only a certain amount we can charge in rent."

Hingston Hall, which is running at full capacity, accommodates 144 residents, mostly first-year students, in single and double rooms. Students pay $285 a month for a single room and $246 a month for a double room.

Right now, Littman and her staff are getting ready for a Homecoming reunion of Residence grads on September 25, a determined attempt to better integrate Concordia's tiny Residence into the University community, and say, "We're here, too."