Hundreds of students swarm campus for move-in day at UBCO

The residences at UBC Okanagan were a hive of activity Sunday as hundreds of students moved in ahead of the start of the school year on Tuesday.

“It’s the best day of the year, other than graduation,” said Shannon Dunn, director of business operations. “Move-in day is an incredibly busy day. We have more than 2,100 students that live on campus.

One of the new arrivals was Logan McGivery, a first-year student from Whitby, Ontario, whose parents came out to help him get settled.

“I wanted to go out to the coast, I wanted to explore Canada. So, it was either the east coast or the west coast and when I came and toured here, it just…I fell in love with it,” explained Logan.

His dad Steve, said he was a little bit anxious about having Logan living so far away. “But he’s coming to a great community here in Kelowna, but also a great facility here on campus.”

UBC Okanagan guarantees housing to first-year students. They make up about two-thirds of those living on-campus.

There are different types of residences available, including large facilities like the Nechako building that opened in 2021. It offers 220 units with two single rooms sharing a bathroom, and students can access a meal plan through the Pritchard Dining Hall.

Moving in for her second year was Emily from Toronto. One of the reasons she chose UBCO was the proximity of the mountains and snowboarding at Big White.

“I think I just heard really good things. I know this guy that I would ski with in Ontario and he came here the year before and he loved it. So that pushed me to come here.

“And they have the language major here, which it’s nowhere else. No other schools have it,” said Emily.

The waiting list for on-campus housing is approximately 1,000 students long, but finding housing off-campus isn’t any easier. The Vacancy rate in Kelowna is 0.6 per cent, which is one of the lowest of any city in Canada.