Expanding Student Services at SFU Surrey

It’s hard to believe that the Spring semester is already halfway over! I hope you were all able to take some time for yourselves over the Family Day long weekend and Reading Break.

This month’s blog puts a spotlight on supporting the needs of our students, both now and into the future at the Surrey campus.

If you are not already aware, we have recently made several additions to our Student Services at the Surrey campus. For one, the newly opened Centre for Accessible Learning in the SRYC building is now fully operational and dedicated to providing academic support to students with disabilities. As well, we now have two Multifaith Centres (MFC) that opened last August to provide students of different religious backgrounds with dedicated spaces to meet and pray. In the SRYC building, two conjoining rooms make up multipurpose prayer and worship space, as well as office space for different MFC staff, chaplains or groups. Over at SFU on University Drive (SRYE), new spaces include a multipurpose studio, a meeting space and upgraded showers with wheelchair accessible ablution stations.

In addition, construction is currently underway in the west-side of the Fraser Library, near the periodicals collection. This work is the first phase of a project to expand the space for research, study, and collaboration.

I am also excited to announce that the Surrey Campus Administration office, currently located in SRYC 2715, will be moving to the fourth floor very soon. As a result, the Student Services offices will be expanding into our current space on Podium 2. This will help ensure that a wider range of services, including academic advising, can be provided to students in a more central location.

Collectively, this is great news for our students! As the student population at the Surrey campus continues to grow, these expanded services are critical to the academic success and mental, physical, spiritual and emotional well-being of our learners.

Looking ahead, there are lots of exciting things coming to the Surrey campus that I look forward to sharing with you through our other campus communication channels (the ED blog will be taking a hiatus for a little while). As we approach the final weeks of the semester, be sure to take care of yourselves and one another, and let’s finish the semester strong!