Sault College plans new student residence to cope with housing crunch

The Sault College board of governors has unanimously approved a resolution to allow college leadership to plan a new student residence building for its main campus on Northern Avenue.

That plan would include recommendations on financing, the size and configuration of the residence and its location on campus.

“This opportunity is something that in my opinion has been long overdue in our organization,” said David Orazietti, Sault College president, addressing the board at its monthly meeting held Thursday.

The board of governors would have final approval on any new student residence plan brought forward.

Orazietti said a new residence building is a necessity, pointing to media reports of a housing shortage on campuses across Canada.

Sault College has an existing residence in Ray Lawson Hall on Northern Avenue.

“Ray Lawson Hall has served us well in its time but it needs work and we need more capacity,” Orazietti told the board.

“It’s a 31-year-old residence. It has 157 beds. Currently it has 25 international students and 129 domestic students. We’ve got a waiting list. We have a waiting list every year to access our residence simply because we do not have as much residence capacity as we would like on campus.”

Orazietti said that’s a challenge to the college’s growth.

As of July, there were 35 first year students and 24 returning students on a waiting list for Ray Lawson Hall.

In comparison, Sudbury’s Cambrian College has 677 beds for students on its campus while North Bay’s Canadore College has 764.

College officials spoke to a group of approximately 50 international and domestic students earlier this year to hear their concerns about housing and learned what they would like to see in a new residence.

Sault College has land available on Northern Avenue for a new residence building.

In regard to financing, Orazietti said the college could choose a ‘design, bid and build’ model for a new residence building, owned and operated by the school, or pursue a public-private partnership, also known as a P3.

However, Orazietti told the board “I am not asking the board of governors this evening to approve a residence project or to spend an amount of money or to decide whether a residence project would be a P3 model or a traditional design, bid and build. What I am asking the board to make a decision on this evening is to allow the leadership team at the college to work toward a plan.”

“We know that an international student needs housing. They don’t have family here. We have 25 international students in our residence and we have a thousand international students in our (college) community. Our community has been stepping up in a big way to support and provide housing for international students in our community but there are capacity limits,” Orazietti said.

The idea to draw up a plan for a new student residence had support from several board members.

“This hasn’t been dealt with in 31 years and now we’re playing catch up,” said board member Orlando Rosa.

“If we do not build more housing we are not going to be able to sustain present enrolment levels in my view,” said Richard Peters, vice president of strategic enrolment, partnerships and employment.

Orazietti said the number of new residence beds would have to be finalized but projected there would be 200 new beds in a new residence building in addition to the 157 beds at Ray Lawson Hall.

“We’ll meet to discuss next steps,” Orazietti told reporters after the meeting’s open session.

“That will help us determine what type of financing model we will be using and we’ll have further consultations with students in terms of the amenities and requirements that students want to see in a new residence and we’ll talk about a location, whether that is adjacent to the college or on the main campus proper.”

Orazietti said there is no fixed time as to when the plan will be brought back to the board, but anticipated a plan would be presented before Jan. 1, 2024.

He added that he would like to see construction begin in the next construction season.

There are no projections as to what a new building would cost.

Despite the unknowns at this early stage, Orazietti told reporters "it is very apparent to me that we need to move forward on building housing capacity,”

Orazietti said Ray Lawson Hall would stay operational if a new residence building is constructed, though he added the old residence may be modernized and modified.

Numbers for Sault College’s main campus on Northern Avenue show that as of mid-September there are 1,520 domestic students and 1,000 international students enrolled.  

There has been a 21 per cent increase in enrolment across all the college’s campuses, including those in the Sault, Toronto and Brampton.

The college welcomed new students from 169 communities across Canada and 30 countries around the world.

303 international students are from India, 93 from The Philippines, with significant numbers of students from Nigeria, Brazil and Colombia.

30 per cent of 2023-24 domestic students self-identified as Indigenous.