By Anthony Lippa-Hardy
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) is partnering with Imagine Cinemas this winter semester to create more classroom space for students.
The university announced in December 2022 that it would add nine additional lecture halls at the Carlton Cinema located at 20 Carlton St.
“Over a 10-year period, full-time enrolment at TMU increased by nearly 50 per cent from almost 25,000 students to almost 40,000,” TMU said in a statement sent to The Eyeopener. “Our campus precinct has seen an intense increase in density over the same period resulting in a fierce competition for space.”
Although the partnership with the theatre creates new learning spaces, some students say they’d prefer to have classes in a dedicated TMU building rather than a temporary workspace that isn’t designed for long lectures.
“From a nap perspective, I could sleep for hours in there”
Zain Ahmed, a second-year business technology management student at TMU, said his main concern is that the movie theatres near campus don’t feel like they’re a part of the university, largely because they aren’t TMU buildings.
“I get it that we’re not on a campus like York [University] or [the University of Toronto] but I like the feeling of having a campus. I like having a building that’s actually ours,” said Ahmed.
Some students and faculty also find the theatre atmosphere challenging for teaching and learning.
Sukrit Singh, a first-year biomedical engineering student, said the chairs are comfortable but from a working perspective, there are problems.
“You can’t take a laptop out or anything. So from that perspective I don’t enjoy it. From a nap perspective, I could sleep for hours in there,” said Singh.
Lacking the ability to fully dim the lights, TMU English professor Ruth Panofsky finds the movie theatre is either too bright or not bright enough.
“If you dim them, it goes really dark, so that’s too dark at the front of the class for me to see to teach,” said Panofsky. “There needs to be a way to modulate the lighting.”
TMU said in their press release that the university’s media services team and cinema employees will be available on-site to help with technical issues and audio or visual support, much like the buildings on the main campus.
Panofsky believes the partnership is needed to accommodate the number of students but that it should be a temporary solution.
“Instead of building outwards, if they built upwards, they could add more classrooms”
She said TMU needs more buildings that are safer for students, faculty and staff. She said buildings like Kerr Hall should be removed in favour of better designed spaces.
“[It] takes up a big chunk of campus and it’s a building that ought to be replaced, really, altogether,” said Panofsky.
The possibility of redeveloping older TMU buildings was mentioned in the campus master plan for 2020-2030. Concept redevelopment plans include demolishing Kerr Hall to make way for modern, taller buildings on the space and an urban park.
“Instead of building outwards, if they built upwards, they could add more classrooms,” said Singh.
Currently, TMU has a partnership with the Yonge-Dundas Square Cineplex. The university told The Eye that the end of the university’s lease date with Cineplex is not yet confirmed. The university said the need to extend the long-term partnership with Cineplex is being considered.
The university said in their statement that the Cineplex partnership is set to finish with the completion of “a number of priority capital projects.”
“The need to extend the long-term partnership with Cineplex is being considered along with these projects, evolving teaching methods and the student experience,” it reads.
CORRECTION: In a previous version of the story, The Eye was told by the university that the lease agreement between TMU and the Yonge-Dundas Square Cineplex will continue until 2028. However, the university reached out later to say the lease end is not yet confirmed.
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