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arts & life
Inside the business of Laurier’s campus bars, Wilf’s and the Turret.
The Region of Waterloo is seeing a decline in health and nutrition.
Now that fall is here, take advantage of Waterloo’s best outdoor spots.
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KOI Fest hits Kitchener-Waterloo
Arts & Life, page 14
THE CORD
the tie that binds wilfrid laurier university since 1926
Volume 55 Issue 7 september 24, 2014
in the eye of the beholder How do your peers at Wilfrid Laurier University define the word beauty? We surveyed 10 students all over campus to find out what their definition is Features, page 12
student experience
community
‘They’re not all like that’
Class sizes in review shelby blackley campus news editor
Wilfrid Laurier University’s enrolment on the Waterloo campus for 2014-15 is expected to be down an estimate of 250 students, with the official enrolment numbers to be released on Nov. 1. As school is now a few weeks into the term, students will have noticed if this has had an impact on their experience at Laurier. Ruth MacNeil, acting university registrar, said the decrease in enrolment is not a large enough number to come into play for classroom sizes, continuing that most of the impact is at the first-year level. “There’s always going to be some attrition — students decide they’re not going to come back after firstyear or decide to graduate early and don’t go into fourth-year.” Accordingly, if students going from first-year into second-year
marissa evans senior news editor
ies in classes, MacNeil said, could be attributed to students’ decisions when it comes to course selection. Programs such as English have a diverse range of courses students can take to fulfill their requirements. “It’s up to the student to register for the course. So if you [like a certain course] but it doesn’t fit in your schedule ... then that comes into play as well. It’s all about freedom of
Kelly Miller was woken up at 6 a.m. on Saturday to the sound of a student across the street throwing objects — including an axe — at a tree to try and get a wasp nest down. This is not the first time the Millers have had problems with the students living in their neighbourhood. Miller explained that she has been living in the neighbourhood between Regina Street and Weber Street around Marshall Street for the past eight years. Over the years, the student population in the area has been growing. “We don’t mind so much,” Miller said, referring to the parties that take place. “It’s when the parties get to —
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Local, page 9
ryan hueglin/file photo
notice a difference in their class sizes this might not necessarily be due to the enrolment gap, but rather is a regular occurrence. MacNeil explained that most of Laurier’s upper-year courses are between 30–60 students, which is normal for university. According to a 2012-13 table from the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre that outlines the class sizes by year level, the majority of second and third-year classes at Laurier were
between 30–60 students and 61–100 students. In second-year, 38 per cent of classes were between 30–60 students, and only .9 per cent of classes were over 251 students. In third-year, 56.5 per cent of classes were between 30–60 students, and there were no classes with over 251 students. MacNeil said the 2012 numbers and the current numbers haven’t seen much variance. A decrease in the amount of bod-
We went on a quest for the perfect poutine so you don’t have to Arts & Life, page 16