New university dorms on Dollarton Highway mark the first time post-secondary students in the Seymour area are sharing sleeping quarters.
Attending Capilano College, which opened in 1968, was a rite of passage for many North Shore students after high school. When Cap College moved to university status in 2008, it drew attention from prospective students around the world and those still close to home.
The start of the 2017 school year saw the first cohort of Capilano University students bunk down in a repurposed boarding school on Dollarton Highway.
The rents are affordable. The food is good. The students who live in them are making important connections and friendships. And they’re now just a 15-minute bus ride from campus.
Despite the images that “student housing” may conjure up – beer pong, Bob Marley posters and toga parties, we found the place looked more like a study hall than a National Lampoon movie.
The scarcity of available apartments on the North Shore makes it extremely difficult for young people to find a place of their own. And the price makes it almost impossible. Because of its location, commuting to Cap either means more cars on the highway or hours a day spent on a series of buses.
Cap is no longer the community college it once was. It’s a university drawing students from around the province and around the world.
We have nothing but praise for CapU’s administrators and for the landowner, Darwin Properties, for coming up with this elegant solution in the midst of a housing crisis. This is an excellent start but it is only a temporary measure as the land will eventually by redeveloped and it’s not like there is another unused boarding school sitting around waiting to be repurposed.
There are a couple projects coming down the pipes in the District of North Vancouver that may include student housing. When these projects come before council, we urge our council members and our residents to keep an open mind and to fondly remember their own dorm days. ■
