JUST AN AVERAGE DAY AT THE UOTTAWA LRT STATION
A U of O professor has come under fire from city residents and students alike for hosting his class in an O-Train car, causing a domino effect of delays for commuters. Professor Braughken Axel, of the engineering faculty, sent out an email to his ENG1104 students on Aug. 31 to inform them that the first week of classes will be held in the O-Train car; he did not specify which car, but did confirm that class would begin at 8:30 a.m on Tuesday.
“The university didn’t assign me a classroom so I took matters into my own hands,” said Axel, who teaches first-year engineering courses. “In fact, I still don’t. The O-Train shows up—well sometimes—so I figured that would be better than nothing.”
Unfortunately, many witnesses describe a “chaotic scene” at around 8 a.m. at the uOttawa station, as over 300 students enrolled in ENG1104 tried to enter the same train car at the same time. Students trying to enter the train car for class were shoved around until they made it into the train, but found out too late that they were supposed to be on the westbound Blair platform, and rode to Tunney’s Pasture.
Stittsville resident and first-year mechanical engineering student Shirley S. Tuck has an average campus commute of two hours. But it took S.Tuck over three hours to get to the uOttawa station on Tuesday morning.
“I went through all of that effort to get to class, just to get stuck on the train and had to get off at Hurdman,” said a disgruntled S.Tuck. “No one would move so I couldn’t get out. Then I had to wait another 20 minutes because of the delay.”
Axel regrets the inconvenience he caused for his students, and sent out a following class email with icebreakers as bonus points for the student who missed. “I thought the ten minutes during peak periods would be enough time for students to get to class,” he said. “Maybe building a couple extra trains can give us more space for learning.”
