UTM is a fun place. Don’t believe it? Try grazing with the deer, grooving to the soft hum of a jackhammer, or sprinting from your parking spot in the tennis court of lot 4 to your class on the second floor of the North Building. Try and tell me those aren’t fun activities. Yep, UTM sure is an interesting place once you get used to it.
WHERE AM I GOING?
UTM has six main buildings, not including the residence buildings or the Erindale Theatre (which are both very important, but not for our purposes today). There’s the South Building, which you might also like to call Home Base, the Big Cheese, or the building with all the offices (such as the T-Card office, Registrar’s office, the Meal Plan office, and the Career Centre). The South Building also houses a Tim Horton’s (no need to look for it; the lineup will give you a clue), the RAWC gym, lecture halls, and an eating area called the Meeting Place, where a popularity contest always seems to be taking place. Lastly, this is also the place where all you lucky OSAP students get to fight over the limited amount of cushioned chairs and wait at least 2.2 hours before having your number called.
Next is the CCT building, the one with UTM’s largest lecture hall, room 1080. Look for the wall with green lights, you can’t miss it. The CCT Building is the home building of the CCIT program, though a lot of psychology classes also take place here. If you have a class on the second or third floor, I suggest packing a tent and bottle of water—you’ll need to rest and rehydrate after climbing all those stairs. Waiting for the elevator is no solution: it often takes even longer.
CCT connects to the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre, better known as the Library. Lots of books, not enough computers and far too much loud-talking. Beside it lies a Starbucks, where the lineup can get almost as bad as the one for OSAP. Speaking of which: bringing your own coffee from home might just save you enough money to pay for your tuition, but hey, to each their own.
MIKE THE HOTDOG GUY.
OK, this is not really a building, but it has become something of an institution at UTM. Unlike the aforementioned places, you’ll never see any profs here. Mike has been selling hotdogs at UTM for many years; he began with a little cart and now has a big trailer, electricity, a radio, and his own employees. Talk about business savvy. Mike probably doesn’t even know what a recession looks like.
Close to Mike stands the Kaneff Building, which seems to contain more lockers than classrooms. Management classes are taught here (hence the earnest air of most students and the high ratio of suits). A quiet alternative to the South Building, Kaneff is unique in that it barely has any seating or rest areas.
The Student Centre is located close to the Kaneff Building. It is the place to hang out between classes, buy tickets, meet friends, make new ones, or enjoy chicken at the Blind Duck Pub.
The Student Centre also houses most of the clubs on campus. This is the place where you’ll find S.E.C., UTMSU, OUT@UTM, and yes, The Medium—the people who bring you the news on campus (you’re welcome!). You can also rent a locker, find used books, get your UPass, do your on-campus advertising, buy transit tickets, and pick up an ISIC Card (International Student Card). Not to mention you can buy tickets at the Info Booth for Cineplex Odeon or AMC at $8 each, as opposed to the usual $12 per movie.
If the Kaneff Building is quiet, the North Building is in a coma. Language majors and deer know it well; everybody else has probably heard of it but never been there. If you must go, pull out a tank top and bring a gallon of water—the classrooms feel like saunas. Many students have been known to fall asleep during the pivotal moment of Shakespeare’s Othello.
