By Matthew Kwong
It’s not only fashionable to be a fashion student in the fashion lounge –it’s mandatory.
“They probably don’t want vagrants getting in,” says Linda Lewis, chair of the School of Fashion, explaining why the fashion lounge is restricted to fashion students and faculty only.
The majority of program lounges, including those for nursing, business and early childhood education are open to all students. However, the fashion lounge, located in Kerr Hall West, sports a sign that says it is exclusively for those in fashion.
“We have an eighty-five per cent female population in fashion … [if] strange, random people are in that room [it] can be threatening,” says fashion technologist Rosemary Doupe. Doupe is one of several fashion employees responsible for ensuring the lounge is not occupied by outsiders.
However, Doupe cannot recall any harassment taking place in the lounge.
Fashion is not the only program that views sharing a lounge as a faux pas.
A note taped to the door of the geography lounge reads: “If you are not enrolled in the Geography Program, you do not belong here. This lounge is for Geo Students only!!”
Geography students say their lounge is exclusive because it is funded by their student fees.
Perhaps the most private student lounge at Ryerson is the Kodak Polychrome Graphics Canada Inc. Survivors’ Lounge in the new Graphic Communications Management building on Bond Street.
The lounge was built and funded by the Kodak Corporation two years ago and is only accessible to fourth-year GCM students. In fact, the only way to enter the lounge is by key-card access.
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