WISC Rooms and Spaces

The WISC General Gathering Space in room 228 can be requested to book special events, workshops, and presentations by Indigenous groups and/or directly supporting Indigenous Peoples. The space cannot be closed to Indigenous students during operational hourse, so please be aware that Indigenous students will be utilizing the space if you request a booking during regular operational hours.

WISC houses a commercial kitchen where the weekly Soup & Bannock Lunch takes place. Indigenous students are welcome to utilize the WISC kitchen during operational hours. In the 2022-23 academic year, many Indigenous students, the Indigenous Students Association (ISA), WISC and In-House Elders engaged in the co-development of protocols for individual use of the kitchen. WISC requires that Indigenous students, staff and community follow the protocols for continued use of the space – the protocols are available under “Important Document, Applications & Forms” and are posted outside the kitchen access door.

Indigenous students living on-campus are also offered after-hours access through an application process – you can find this information in the same places as the protocols. If an Indigenous student would like to use the kitchen during operational hours or after-hours, completion of Food Safety Training (FS 1001 on Learn under self-registration) and a completed and approved WISC User Agreement are required in advance.

Inside the kitchen you will find it fully equipped with an oven and stovetop, cooking utensils, fridge and freezer, a variety of small appliances, sinks and cleaning supplies. For Indigenous students, WISC also supplies the kitchen with a Keurig coffee machine and coffee pods, snacks and supplies to make Bannock – let’s see who has the most deadly fry bread recipe!  Good luck beating our longtime volunteer Sylvia who makes Bannock nearly every week for Soup Lunch.

If you are looking for a quiet and focused room to study, WISC has a dedicated room equipped with four individual work desk stations available for drop-in at any time during operational hours. Here you will also find a computer station and printer all available on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is a large whiteboard and markers for all your brainstorming and study sessions and the room is supplied with paper, pens, pencils, highlighters, calculators, timers, mini whiteboards, stapler, paper clips and sticky notes. Indigenous students are welcome to close the door to block out noise from the general WISC space, but keep in mind that many Indigenous students often utilize this space as it is a community working space to help you succeed in your academic studies and/or work search.  

During the Spring term, the WISC Indigenous community grows and maintains a small but mighty food garden on the greenspace area between the United residences and United parking lot.  It is a lot of work to upkeep the food garden every year and WISC is always looking for volunteers to pitch in some help and become a part of our community.  Feel free to connect with WISC staff anytime to talk all things food garden and to offer shared learning about the growing and harvesting of plants here.

WISC carries a small but might selection of Indigenous literature in a quite, calm, comfy reading lounger that adjoins the main space. There are four single comfy chairs with pillows that students can access behind white french doors. While not as quite, and noise blocking, as the study space this is still available for students that need to step into a calmer environment. In this space you will also find some wonderful art to view and musical instruments that students can use after business hours.