Irene Oakes speaks on behalf of her family at the sod turning ceremony for the centre named in honour of her father.

Construction on the long-awaited Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre is finally underway. The project officially kicked off with a sod turning ceremony at the centre’s future site on June 21.
The centre will be connected to the Arts Tunnel through a separate tunnel running to the D-wing of the Health Sciences Building.

Although the sod turning ceremony marked the official beginning of the project, actual construction on the centre began June 23 and is expected to finish late 2014.
When completed, the Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre will be home to both the Indigenous Students’ Council and the Aboriginal Students’ Centre. It will also include additional space for ceremonial activities.

The centre is intended to improve Aboriginal education at the University of Saskatchewan. Promoting the unique elements and needs associated with being an Aboriginal student is one of the primary goals of the completed project.

“This building is a visual sign of our commitment to being culturally respectful and to honor a very important part of our past and future,” said U of S President Ilene Busch-Vishniac.
U of S Students’ Union President Max Fineday has made Aboriginal education a centrepiece of his executive term. At the sod turning ceremony, Fineday praised university administration for finally moving forward with the project.

“Every year, we wait and we talk about it and we pass down the legend [of an Aboriginal students’ centre] to the new students,” said Fineday in a speech during the ceremony “And now it’s here and it’s great to see.”

The Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre will be located at Wiggin’s court — the green space between the Arts Building and the Murray Library near Wiggins Road.
The site was chosen was to establish an Aboriginal presence in the core campus. Other factors that led to the site decision include proximity to the bowl and visibility to pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

There were 14 other site options as part of the U of S’ Core Area Master Plan in 2003. The decision was made in conjunction with the Indigenous Students’ Council.

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Photo: Jordan Dumba/Photo Editor