A morning shuttle bus has had little effect on the enthusiasm of Quest University students.
The private school's 80 students are staying at Sea to Sky Hotel while they wait for their residence rooms to be completed at the end of the month.
Student Aidan Nikiforuk said the delay was mildly disappointing, but noted some people around the world would kill to have such nice accommodations. "Maybe we had too much comfort in the first place," said the Alberta native, referring to the school's first block of classes at Red Mountain Resort in the Kootenay Valley.
There, he said his classmates enjoyed some of the more exciting sides of first year life. "Everyone really enjoyed themselves. There was a hot tub on the deck, everyone could party."
Returning to Squamish has helped students get back into a more focused frame of mind.A shuttle bus makes seven trips a day from the hotel to the hilltop campus. What doesn't fit in the rooms is stashed in a luggage bay students can access during the day. The students have embraced the surrounding construction, creating a giant thank-you poster in the cafeteria for all the workers on campus.
Nikiforus said his evenings are largely spent doing homework or exploring the outdoors.
"They are a real self-regulating bunch," said Quest spokeswoman Angela Heck, adding they are an extremely well-travelled group, most having spent time in Europe.
The energetic group seems unfazed by major changes on campus and to the school's administration. A week earlier, the school's president and founder Dr. David Strangway announced his retirement. Teacher Thomas Wood, who was not available to comment, will replace him. Heck said the school "continues merrily along" as the position changes hands.
On this Wednesday morning, coffee-toting students veer around landscape workers laying sod grass on the sloped lawn. Classes take place in small seminar rooms inside a spherical building, hollowed out in the centre.
The small rooms mean that the school is architecturally bound to keep its classes to 20 people or less. It was this feature that hooked Nikiforuk when he was torn between the University of Alberta and Quest. He said he wanted a small class experience where he was "not just sitting at the back of the class at 9 a.m."
A faculty member known as a tutor, Eric Gorham, is also interested in creating an unconventional learning experience. His Democracy and Justice class has been divided up into small clusters that are contemplating how to turn different sectors of society into democracies. One tackles a basketball team, another looks at the Canadian family, and another looks at a Grade 11 science class.
Nikiforuk said Quest's approach to teaching keeps students on their toes.
"It encourages people to be more independent because you can't just go through the flow of things," he said. "You have to actually ask questions."
Heck said students have begun making their own groups such as an environmental club and student newspaper.
