Ryerson University recently opened an overnight hostel intended for the thousands of students who commute to school.
Unveiled last month, students planning to stay overnight have the option of renting one of nine bedrooms on campus for a night. The cost of renting a room ranges from $35-45.
The hostel will allow students who need to stay late at school or get to campus for an 8 a.m. class to avoid the cumbersome commute out to the suburbs, said Ian Crookshank, Ryerson’s housing director.
Ryerson’s location in the heart of downtown Toronto makes it impossible to meet the demand of residence housing for its student population of more than 39,000 students, Crookshank said.
“We can’t meet the residence living demand in terms of what we have for on-campus supply,” he said, “and what we were noticing is that it was impacting students’ ability to either be involved on campus, or it was impacting their ability to get home at night.”
Currently, Ryerson provides 850 beds in its three residence buildings. The majority of students use the Toronto or regional public transit systems to get to campus.
Crookshank cited research suggesting commute times longer than 45 minutes severely impact students’ level of engagement with their university, resulting in less academic success.
These long commute times are something Rajean Hoilett said he knows too well. Hoilett, who served as a past president of the Ryerson Students’ Union and is currently chairperson of the Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students, commuted from Ajax every day, which is a three-and-a-half hour round trip.
Students told Hoilett they needed to find places to stay on campus after a late night class or a shift at work, something that would be dangerous as there were no designated spaces, he said.
Hoilett said the commuter hostel allows students to do things they wouldn’t have been able to do before, such as attending late events or volunteering.
Although Hoilett said the nine rooms are helpful, they only serve as a “band-aid” solution to a much larger issue for students.
“While this is a really thoughtful plan to be able to provide for students, it isn’t the end all, and really it speaks to a larger problem of needing to provide more affordable housing options,” Hoilett said.
In Ottawa, thousands of students living in outer areas such as Orleans and Nepean have to commute via public transit to Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.
Laura Storey, director of housing at Carleton University, said she thinks Ryerson’s commuter hostel is an amazing idea.
In order for the school to implement a space for commuting students at Carleton, Storey said the school would first have to determine the demand as well as what space would be suitable.
“I think it’s absolutely a possibility but I’d really want to see numbers to back it up,” she said.
“Because, if we were going to hold spaces in residence, that would not allow a student to live in residence for the entire year. I don’t think that would be very practical from a financial perspective or for first-year students who could be guaranteed those spaces,” Storey said.
