More microwaves, please

We need some microwaves. Most students can’t afford to eat at the school cafeteria every day. Cafeteria food is pretty much just a treat. Think about it: a slice of pizza from the Pizza 73 in Building 6 costs $5, whereas you can order a large pizza for around $15 and get five more pieces of pizza. Aside from that, any other proper and filling meal will cost you around $10 regardless, which is a lot to spend every day.

However, the worst part of the cafeteria isn’t the food prices; it’s the lack of microwaves. In Building 6, there are only three microwaves available for students. This means that even if you do intend to save money and still eat a warm lunch, you’re going to have to wait in a very long time — this could be especially bad if you have a class around lunchtime. More microwaves would serve students as much, if not more, than lower food prices. Additionally, food prices are difficult to control, but it’s easy to add microwaves, and they would definitely be a welcome addition to MacEwan.

-Thai Sirikoone

Create a game room

Once the new Centre for the Arts and Culture opens in fall 2017, the population of the downtown campus will increase significantly. As such, there won’t be enough room in the existing recreational areas. Students are going to need new spaces for relaxation and interaction.

That’s not to disparage the existing amenities. Towers is doing a great job of quenching students’ thirsts, and between the gymnasium, fitness centre, and pool, there’s enough space to satisfy our fitness demands. However, as it currently stands, there is not enough space for communal activities.

My proposal is to have a gaming room for students to enjoy. It would be furnished with MacEwan’s patented couches, and equipped with board games, cards, pool, air hockey, foosball tables, and so on. This will cost money, but the cost can be substantially reduced by accepting board games by donation, and having coin-operated air hockey and pool tables.

A game room would provide a new experience for MacEwan students to interact with their peers and enjoy campus life.

-Vonn Gondziola

New ways to meet people

MacEwan is known for its smaller class sizes, which allow you to get to know your professors and fellow classmates. However, I feel that we’re missing ways to meet people outside of class. Joining a club is a great way to meet people with similar interests, but I would love to meet random students with similar class schedules to mine. Finding ways to meet up with new people who have class breaks at the same time as I do would really improve my days, as I often spend my four-hour class breaks sitting alone and texting my friends or doing homework.

A room or meeting place dedicated to introducing students with similar class schedules would be a really nice addition to the school. Long class breaks can be pretty lonely, and I feel like this could change that.

-Lydia Fleming

Are two Timmies enough?

The endless line-up for Tim Hortons is a familiar site at MacEwan, and a clear sign that there are not enough places to buy coffee here. I mean, sure, we have the two Timmies, Starbucks, The Bean’s List, and Campus Convenience, but are five places enough?

For too long we have wasted our precious break time just standing in lines. This school needs another Tim Hortons. A third Tims would not just benefit caffeine addicts; bacon sandwich munchers and Timbit fanatics would also reap rewards. Too often, students have stood in these lines only to find out their favourite pastry is sold out, or that they have to go a whole day without their breakfast sandwiches because Tims ran out of eggs before 10 a.m. Really, Tims? There are eggs in more than half of your breakfast menu items. How could you not have enough foresight to buy more eggs? You ruined my morning, Tim Hortons. Ruined it.

A third Tim Hortons can even benefit students in their academics. Another Timmies would mean shorter lineups, so students can actually get to class on time. There would also be fewer shortages of our favourite menu items, helping students concentrate more on their studies and less on their all-encompassing rage at the franchise.

Give students another Tim Horton’s, MacEwan — for everyone’s sake.

-Danielle Carlson

Photo by Casey Pollon