On Feb. 11, McGill residents were shocked to receive emails from TRU Housing stating that the McGill Residence “will not be offering housing for the Academic year 2025/2026”. Following the announcement of the Westgate housing closures in October of last year, McGill will now be the second of five TRU residences to be closed in the upcoming academic year.
The email correspondence to residents explained that the McGill residence will no longer accept applications and that students still interested in on-campus housing should investigate alternate options. Similarly, the email announcing the Westgate closures last year informed residents of the dorm’s impending shutdown after the Winter 2025 semester and offered early priority applications to other TRU housing. This means that come the fall semester in September, the on-campus housing options for TRU students will be East Village, the Coyote Den (Skelepellcw in Secwepemctsín) and North Tower.
Between 1988 and 2016, the McGill residences were privately owned and operated with a lease from TRU. In 2016, TRU officially bought back the property and has operated it as a TRU-managed housing option ever since.
The Westgate dormitories are a more recent development. Set up in 2021 as a response to an unprecedented number of housing applicants, the residence was described as a “temporary” solution to a growing housing crisis. According to Vice-President Administration & Finance Matt Milovick, the plan had been to shut it down in 2023. However, high enrollments and the need for housing encouraged TRU to keep it open as they anticipated funding to build another residence.
Though surprising to many, the news of the housing closures did not come out of nowhere. Due to a number of factors, including the IRCC’s cap on international students entering Canada, this year TRU has seen a 59 per cent drop in new enrolments, according to a statement made by Provost Gillian Balfour at a recent Board of Governors meeting.
Per executive communications officer Robert Koopmans, the university is “managing residence capacity based on projected student enrolment.” This means that, with the expected decline of the coming academic year, there had been an ongoing plan to prioritise North Tower, the Coyote Den and East Village as the primary on-campus housing options.
“We lose about $700,000 a year on [the Westgage] property,” Milovick said. “About 59 per cent of students living in residence right now are international. With the issues created by the IRCC this is going to translate to empty beds next year. So, at a time when we’re cutting budgets, to carry that property means carrying perhaps hundreds of empty beds. It just makes no sense.”
Regardless of the university’s financial realities, residents of Westgate and McGill have felt slighted by the current circumstances.
Rubar Ossman, a second-year sociology major, recalled feeling “confused” and “upset” about receiving news of the Westgate closures. “It’s ridiculous they told us two months into moving in,” she said. “I was so excited [to be living in Westgate] because it felt like I finally found a place of my own. And now it’s getting taken away. It’s completely disappointing.”
“When I found out, I panicked,” said Jordan Segawa, an international student who has lived in McGill for two years. “I had to start looking for a new place because, as an international student, if you don’t have a place to stay, it’s hard.”
In response to the inconvenience, students in Westgate were, at the time, offered priority access when applying for other alternate housing options like East Village and McGill.
McGill students were not offered the same, though they were encouraged to apply to alternate on-campus residences or contact the TRU Housing team for assistance and support during their transition.
According to Milovick, though the university does not have “any obligations or rights to provide [residents] equivalent accommodation somewhere else,” it is interested in ensuring that any student who needs housing can access it.
For the 2024/2025 academic year (Sept. 1 to April 24), a self-contained Westgate unit cost $5,380. The average four-bedroom suite at East Village has a higher rate of $6,785. The real contrasts appear in North Tower and the newly constructed Coyote Den, where a private bedroom will cost students $10,300 per academic year.
The Coyote Den also offers a shared bedroom setup, in which two students pay over $4,000 to share a sleeping space.
“I’m not used to sharing my spaces,” Segawa said. “I can share a common area, but when it comes to where you sleep, that’s tricky.”
Ossman listed all the benefits she has experienced living in Westgate since last August: free laundry, privacy, cleanliness and most importantly: cost.
“With the closure, I’m figuring out if I even want to [remain] at TRU,” Ossman said. “I might just transfer back to my hometown. As a student who pays out of pocket, I can’t afford most of the rent in these other apartments. That’s ridiculous for me.”
As the university struggles to stay afloat despite the current policy changes, one can only hope the impact on students moving forward will be minimal.
Recently, residents in North Tower, McGill, East Village and the Coyote Den were notified of an approximately 5 per cent increase in housing fees for the following academic year. According to Koopmans, this adjustment had no relation to enrollment numbers. Instead, it was based on inflation, operating costs and maintenance.
With the latest announcements, students must grapple with the inevitable change to their routines and social structures.
“Westgate felt like a home,” Ossman said. “A home with siblings living next door.” “Now that McGill is closing, my friends are all just like, ‘Where do we go now?’” Segawa added. “They used to walk to my place from school all the time. We’d hang out, make plans, play video games. Who’s going to walk all the way to East Village now?”