Keen eyes may have noticed that there’s basically always a lot of construction happening at Camosun College’s Lansdowne campus. The Slum Building has been caught up in a legal battle for years now, and students can’t actually walk around it. Meanwhile, Wisher’s construction, slated to be done by September 1 of 1998, is still not finished.
On Sunday, April 1, the college announced to a crowd of students and faculty that it’s taking the next step.
“We have no idea where we’ll get the money because the government has frozen funding again, but today we are making it official that every building on both campuses will have scaffolding erected around it,” said Camosun president of facilities and buildings Bolan Ski. “Then, on May 1, both campuses will have scaffolding around the whole perimeter. And on September 1, to celebrate 20 years passing since the Wisher building’s original construction finish dates, I personally am going to put goddamn scaffolding around every student we’ve got. It’s an amazing step forward for the college.”
Ski went on to explain how this is one of the college’s 16 “signposts” in a monologue that left the audience scratching their heads.
“This might sound theoretical, but let’s bring it down to concrete terms, real-life terms—one of our 16 signposts to a greater formulation of communication, and we can never forget indigenization, is the manifestation of, well, let’s be real here: scaffoldization,” Ski said at the press conference. “Scaffoldization. It’s what the college has been working toward for a few years now and I feel like the signpost is here. Scaffoldization.”
When reached for further comment and clarification, Ski said that it was simply the college’s most recent signpost and wouldn’t say anything else.
“Scaffoldization,” he says. “It’s a signpost. Sixteenth one.”
First-year creative writing student Zander Zanderson says that he’s excited.
“Listen, everyone loves construction. Everyone loves scaffolds! So dangerous and archaic. And, not to be weird or anything, but who hasn’t fantasized about just having one of those things around their own body all day long?”
When asked about the future of the college and how the scaffolding fits into it, Camosun quasi-president of lifestyles, branding, and student zen River Yogashine didn’t actually say words, she just stared into my eyes and made a humming noise.