The Commerce Times

Ryerson’s Bright and Promising Future

After a decade lying dormant, the Maple Leaf Gardens will once again be bustling and fans of the Master Plan are still in a blissful state.

By next school year, the doors will open to the new varsity centre alongside a Loblaws.

Ryerson will boast an athletic centre that will put the one at the corner of Spadina and Harbord to shame.

This was not the first attempt Ryerson made to turn the Maple Leaf Gardens into an athletic centre. And it truly has been a rollercoaster ride.

Ryerson made headlines back in April of 2000 with the possibility of purchasing Maple Leaf Gardens and turning it into a home for the Rams hockey and basketball teams, a potential business school and residences.

It’s hard to fathom the business school located within the Maple Leaf Gardens, but at the time it was the only suitable option over the rapidly antiquing Victoria Building.

Sheldon Levy’s Master Plan envisioned a better Ryerson ensuring that the facilities evolve with its growing status as a prominent university.

With the relocation of the athletic facilities and sports teams to the Maple Leaf Gardens being a tremendous burden lifted, and the promise that the facilities will be welcoming to each stakeholder at Ryerson University, the opportunities that exist are any project planners dream.

The following are a few unofficial suggestions that reiterate both our school’s potential through this acquisition and conceivably how to solve some current issues.

Ryerson has a lack of study space, meeting space and places to relax

Even with the impending construction of the Student Learning Centre (SLC), many students feel an even more important issue needs to be addressed promptly: study space.

The growing demand for space becomes frustrating when, especially during exam periods, it can take up to half an hour to find an appropriate place to study at school, and more importantly, a quiet one.

The Maple Leaf Gardens redevelopment will be complete before the SLC, but waiting another year for additional study and collaborative space is a lifetime away for current students.

The redevelopment of Kerr Hall has been indefinitely postponed so any solutions would be makeshift until additional funding surfaces.

With most of the school’s resources tied up with the Maple Leaf Gardens, a feasible plan could be to cost efficiently convert the old RAC into study, meeting and lounge spaces, instead of keeping it as additional athletic space.

Many faculties are still scattered throughout the university or could use a change of scenery

While plans have not been set in stone for the exact usage of the Maple Leaf Gardens, with a little shuffling around, many faculties could find new life making do with whatever limited resources are left.

The nutrition program currently maintains a small area in Kerr Hall South and students don’t have an adequate area to collaborate.

With the relevance of nutrition and health, relocating into the Maple Leaf Gardens could provide an outlet for the nutrition program to collaborate with athletes, Loblaw and the community.

While the dance students have the Theatre School to call their own on Gerrard, they too could significantly benefit from a new upgraded home. Studios are in the works for Maple Leaf Gardens and the environment could suit their intense programs.

The fashion program could then perhaps move into the RTS giving it a more prominent address than the basement of Kerr Hall.

The opportunities to introduce new programs in the future

With a state of the art varsity centre, Ryerson could legitimately decide to start related programs: physiotherapy, sports therapy, homeopathy, etc.

It must also be stated that Ryerson is not by any means on shaky financial ground. Being fiscally responsible is something that President Levy has made us the envy of many other universities.

The spacing issue will not be solved overnight, but ultimately while the addition of the Maple Leaf Gardens won’t mean a Stanley Cup in the future for the Rams, it will undoubtedly rejuvenate school spirit and make it a reality that the best is yet to come.