What do you think of this project?

  • I dislike it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I dislike it a lot

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    31
With this new building in a downtown location, I could see MacEwan moving ahead of the U of A over the next few years particularly with respect to business education.

The U of A's downtown location still seems like an empty shell, a place for odds and ends or overflow from their main campus. They have not really committed to downtown in any significant way.

To be fair, the downtown U of A campus was doing well until COVID hit. Although these days, a pandemic from 4 years ago shouldn't be an excuse anymore.

Do you know what MacEwan can really do that the U of A can't (or refuses to) do?

Open a School of Architecture.
I'm serious.
 
With this new building in a downtown location, I could see MacEwan moving ahead of the U of A over the next few years particularly with respect to business education.

The U of A's downtown location still seems like an empty shell, a place for odds and ends or overflow from their main campus. They have not really committed to downtown in any significant way.
I think it's fine for U of A not to have a strong presence downtown. They're already the anchors for Garneau/Strathcona, and under their current budget situation a downtown expansion would be an overextension. I just wish they weren't keeping a whole block of Jasper mostly empty...
 
To be fair, the downtown U of A campus was doing well until COVID hit. Although these days, a pandemic from 4 years ago shouldn't be an excuse anymore.

Do you know what MacEwan can really do that the U of A can't (or refuses to) do?

Open a School of Architecture.
I'm serious.
Yes, it was four years ago so it is really not an excuse any more. As a U of A alumni, I am so very disappointed in them these days.

Perhaps they should sell Enterprise Square to MacEwan and it can then go ahead with a School of Architecture. If the U of A don't have the ability to make full use of this asset it has, let someone else do it.
 
I think it's fine for U of A not to have a strong presence downtown. They're already the anchors for Garneau/Strathcona, and under their current budget situation a downtown expansion would be an overextension. I just wish they weren't keeping a whole block of Jasper mostly empty...
I thought the U of A said they'd have around 500 staff back at work out of Enterprise Square now that COVID WFH is over, no? Wasn't there an announcement or something about that?
 
I thought the U of A said they'd have around 500 staff back at work out of Enterprise Square now that COVID WFH is over, no? Wasn't there an announcement or something about that?
I'm not sure what ended up happening, but whenever I'm there (which is not often) it still feels pretty empty.
 
With this new building in a downtown location, I could see MacEwan moving ahead of the U of A over the next few years particularly with respect to business education.

The U of A's downtown location still seems like an empty shell, a place for odds and ends or overflow from their main campus. They have not really committed to downtown in any significant way.
Would need to add a lot of programs for that to happen. Does Macewan even offer finance yet?

And no shade to Macewan…but there was a pretty stark contrast when I did uni between UofA and Macewan business students when it came to coops, case competitions, and general sense of education quality. Some of that is just the history at the UofA helping it have better profs, alumni, funding. And entrance averages/competitiveness. You used to get into Macewan with 70-80s. UofA you didn’t have a chance under 80. And coop was like 3.6-3.7 at UofA vs 3.0 for Macewan. Certainly can change like nursing has though.
 
I think MacU is the little university that tries harder. I don't think that they have finished fleshing out their various programs and they've spent years zig-zagging around the identity that they wanted to pursue -- lately that seems to be coming more into focus.
 
Love that the crane has a MacEwan logo and is also strung up with Christmas lights (too small to see in the photos)

20250828_204624.jpg
20250828_204513.jpg
20250828_204511.jpg
20250828_204326.jpg
20250828_204431.jpg
 
I thought the U of A said they'd have around 500 staff back at work out of Enterprise Square now that COVID WFH is over, no? Wasn't there an announcement or something about that?
They do, but they still have a generous hybrid program, and from what I understand, there is a lot of grumbling about being downtown.
 
I think MacU is the little university that tries harder. I don't think that they have finished fleshing out their various programs and they've spent years zig-zagging around the identity that they wanted to pursue -- lately that seems to be coming more into focus.
I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but on a somewhat related note here is some MacEwan news:

 

Back
Top