Features

The Bill Ellis Centre for Mature and Part-Time Students at 314 Unicentre opens into a large room, with a few people seated in the battered chairs which line the walls.

It is in the office to the left of the entrance that Leila Navabzadeh, 26, operates in her role as administrative co-ordinator for the centre.
 
The office is busy, and people interrupt the interview four times looking to speak with Navabzadeh, who tells them to come back later.

University of British Columbia (UBC) coaches were heavily recruiting Marc Trasolini in 2007.  

Trasolini, a six-foot-nine Vancouver native, says coaches took him to dinner, spoke with his parents and told him he’d receive a basketball scholarship.

In the end, he chose to attend Santa Clara University in California on a full scholarship, because he says Santa Clara offers him a better opportunity to play professional basketball after he graduates.  

Clare Burgham, a second-year Canadian studies student at Carleton, is part of an ever-growing minority.

Unlike many people her age, Burgham said she is still interested in politics, voting in the previous federal election in 2008.

“I’m interested in what’s going on and I follow the issues in the newspaper, when I have time,” she said.

Cases like Burgham’s are growing less and less in recent years.

“Oh, it will only take a second,” is your last thought before you check a notification on your phone.

Within 60 seconds you will disappear into a sea of endless links to emails, text messages and websites.

“Once you start, you’re usually lost,” said Timothy Pychyl, a Carleton psychology professor who specializes in procrastination research.

Students who live off-campus can be put through hell trying to find the perfect place — and once they’ve found it, their troubles aren’t always over.