University of Winnipeg: student tips for surviving life on campus

University Insider: Skylar Smallacombe, 22, English

Best place for a nap: The nap room, duh. It’s officially known as Bernice’s Reading Room in the library.
Best cheap lunch: 99-cent pizza or $10 pho across the street from the university
Best hangover breakfast: Stella’s
Best pizza: A Little Pizza Heaven (seriously, the thin crust and garlic butter, YUM)
Favourite watering hole: King’s Head Pub in the Exchange District, or for a quickie, Garbonzo’s on campus or Boston Pizza downtown (mostly for Fishbowl Fridays)
Perks of living in this town: There are so many festivals: Fringe festival, Fried Chicken Fest, Poutine Week, Burger Week, Food Truck Wars, Nuit Blanche and Pride!
Best place to study: The library, the fifth-floor mezzanines
Best electives and major: Women’s and Gender Studies, Urban and Inner-city Studies
Best cultural event: Festival du Voyageur! The largest winter festival in Western Canada. Celebrate French and Metis histories.
Best campus event: Puppy Day
Cool non-campus events: Folklorama, the largest and longest-running event of its kind
Best live music venue: The Good Will Social Club, the Pyramid Cabaret or the Garrick Centre

PROFILE: The University of Winnipeg | Winnipeg, Man. | Founded 1871

The University of Winnipeg is known as the downtown castle. Wesley Hall—which looks like a castle—faces out onto busy Portage Avenue, so it’s inevitable that everyone talks about the Winnipeg castle.

The university is also known for being the home of an artistic crowd. There are about 9,000 students on campus, so it’s not too crowded.
Another great thing about having small class sizes—sometimes as small as five people—is that the profs will actually know who you are. If you want to work for the university—as a research assistant, for example—you likely won’t have too much of an issue getting that position. If you need a referral from a prof for a job, you’ll probably be friendly enough with one who will help you out.

It’s a very easy-to-navigate campus. The main building has one central hallway that everything extends from. Rarely will you have to actually venture away from the main campus to find your class. If you do have to leave the main campus, you’re likely only going to walk a few minutes.

The University of Winnipeg has a lot of really cool opportunities like a co-op program with Red River College in communications.

Having the university situated in downtown Winnipeg means you have a ton of amazing food and drink options all within walking distance of campus. You are also going to be right in the middle of the amazing events and festivals that go on in Winnipeg.

Local Vibe
Winnipeg is a very interesting place. It has many different neighbourhoods that over the years have come together to create the city of today. We have the notorious Winnipeg Transit system that will get you everywhere. Osborne Village, the Exchange District and Corydon Village are always full of university students sitting on patios. We’re diehard patio-season people here, so we’re likely outside having a few drinks well before the rest of Canada.

Extras
You can always catch an interesting student play on campus at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film. There are a ton of student groups that are all very diverse and inclusive. We have our campus newspaper, the Uniter, which is always looking for volunteer writers. The university also has its own radio station, CKUW. Finally, we are a school situated on Treaty 1 territory and ancestral land, and by acknowledging that, we hope to be one step closer to reconciliation.

The Skinny
Visit Uniter.com or Theuwsa.ca.