It is now just three days before the event, and I have yet to deliver my bowls to the venue. While I still have to assemble my questionnaire booklets, I have to mention that there is no way I can deliver all my bowls until Tuesday morning, simply because I cannot get into my studio.

During first year we were told that we would have access to the graduate studies building 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Notwithstanding that a new winter break policy eventually made 365-day access impossible, I have to point out that students in my program do not have any studio space or even locker space. I cannot store my work (let alone make any of that work) in the graduate studies building; they have to stay in the ceramics studio, which is in the main building.

Access to the main building has never been ideal, but in the summer hours are so restrictive I cannot imagine how any student could get any work done. I know undergrad students who are taking two ceramics courses this semester and this weekend the building is not open a single hour; they paid regular tuition, the course schedule is compressed, yet they have only half the access they had in the previous semester.

So even if I could finish assembling my questionnaires today, I still cannot deliver all my bowls because half of them are still in the studio, locked due to the “long weekend”. Why students are not allowed to do coursework during long weekends when they have extra time to catch up is a great mystery; it is unacceptable and needs to be rectified.