By: Zainab Salam, Correspondent for Misguided Student Movements
As Canada’s top university for innovation, it’s unsurprising that SFU attracts visionary students. Today, we’re highlighting an SFU student with the potential to change the world.
I am reporting from the Student Union Building, where a student activist group has begun a passionate campaign with one mission: to protect the grey of SFU’s walls. They declare the grey concrete aesthetic as a vital aspect of SFU’s identity. The group plastered posters all over the Burnaby campus to advocate for what they deem to be the superior university design. I can see the confusion of passerbys, as they see the “Make Concrete Cool Again” protest sign, held by a student activist in Convocation Mall.
I managed to snag one of the group’s unofficial spokesperson and SFU psychology student, Xan, for an exclusive interview.
Q: What inspired you to join today’s protest?
A: A vision of structure. I was walking down AQ halls last month, and I was overcome. The beauty of the grey walls. The quiet dignity of poured concrete. I knew then, I must serve!
Q: Serve . . . concrete?
A: No. Serve the students. Through concrete.
Q: Right. OK . . . What is your favourite part of the university?
A: The walls are my favourite part. Specifically, the right side wall of room AQ 5007. There is a water damage stain on the fourth quadrant. I also have a soft spot for the second level of the Bennett Library. The vibes there are immaculate!
Q: What are you proposing to improve?
A: I am highly committed to making this campus better. Since I started attending this university, I found myself enamoured by the structure and colour. It’s soul-soothing. I believe all renovations on the Burnaby campus should be halted immediately as they pose a risk to the tradition and promise of our walls. Instead we should focus on making the Vancouver campus more natural. More grey. We need to do away with the whitification of walls!
(Xan leans over and strokes the wall beside us with unnerving tenderness.)
Q: So, who inspires you?
A: I think no one is as brilliant as Arthur Erickson! He revolutionized the way we approach educational spaces. May his angular legacy never be forgotten. Do you know what inspired his design for SFU? Brutalism. True brutalism. Not the watered-down minimalism they’re peddling downtown. Think of your experience walking down the halls of Vancouver’s campus or, worse, the Surrey campus. Too bright. Too uncultured. It’s like being attacked by a fully bright screen right as you wake up at 1:00 a.m. for a midnight snack. Both campuses are missing the distinctive grey that pulls people to carpe diem. I propose we erect a 15-foot-tall statue of Erickson mid-sketch. It’s necessary to commemorate the legendary fellow. I also think a mandatory concrete appreciation course in FASS would do us some good.
Q: That’s bold! And what would you say to critics who might not like your focus on SFU’s walls?
A: I say — without walls, what is a university? Just a gathering of people. Maybe attaining knowledge and forming connections. But how helpful is that?
Q: Do you have anything to say to the students of SFU?
A: Next time you’re braving the storm with an overpriced Blenz coffee cup in one hand and a Monster energy drink in the other, think about the battles that were fought to provide you with the perfect grey environment. Join our movement. Help us restore the concrete, my dear comrades.
Note: Xan urged me to ask all of you to follow his TikTok account: @Loving.the.Walls_SFU
