Back To School

If you’re a new student, you’ve probably been told at every turn about how great this city is—that Halifax is so much more than the quaint hamlet overrun with lobsters that your friends back home warned you about. There’s a lot to enjoy here, from pastel north end neighbourhoods, postcard harbour views, a hearty community […]

After a summer that passed all too fast, Halifax’s students have started arriving in the city, their boxes and suitcases bulging with the clothes, books and school supplies they’ll need for the coming months of classes. Look closely, and you might just glimpse a few trunks, owls, wands and robes, too. Most of this year’s […]

When J.K. Rowling outed Albus Dumbledore a few years ago during a Q&A session at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the news went viral. Readers had their suspicions confirmed and members of the queer community held their wands high with pride. Dumbledore’s queerness made Hogwarts a safe place for sexual exploration. “University is naturally conducive to […]

A warning to all students enrolled in post-secondary education: your risk of weight gain is significantly higher than that of the general population. Luckily, it’s not as high as you may think. Weight gain during university has been researched for over 25 years. Numerous studies have shown that university students gain more weight than their community counterparts. […]

As Hogwarts headmaster, Dumbledore stood up to government influence within his school and made sure that the seven years of education it offered would be relevant to students after graduation. Halifax needs a Dumbledore to stand up for accessible education and relevant jobs for students, but it’s a tough role to play when you’ve got […]

Glen Hougan Design, NSCAD “I’m not just in making stuff, I’m interested in making stuff happen,” says Hougan, over the phone from Michigan, where he’s both on vacation at a cottage and working with furniture design companies. Hougan has done work with design for senior citizens and is probably best known for his “Empathy Suit,” a […]

For the student suffering acute big-wide-world curiousity, a passport is the most useful tool to carry into this school year. Earth Sciences your thing? Why not travel to the Bering Sea to study its subduction zones? Want to know more about living under communism in Latin America? There’s a Cuba program for that. Still not […]

Haliwood celebrities are your baristas by day, musicians by night. Due to an overwhelming urge to celebrate our community, Haligonians crown any talented about-town figure “Halifamous”, unnecessarily defined by Urban Dictionary as “a person who is considered famous within Halifax.” Plenty of the Halifamous aren’t even from here. If you’re creative but lack the posse, […]

A Chump At Oxford (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, 1940) The classic comedy duo play a couple of deadbeat ninnies so down-and-out they resort to temping as street cleaners. Fortuitously, they foil a bank robber by neglecting to pick up banana peel. The grateful banker then fulfills their dreams of getting an education, but before they […]

“Don’t go after the first opportunity that’s given to you…Or how ‘bout, don’t be so naïve about everything, about guys who are trying to mislead you. Don’t be easily persuaded.” Sarah Delaney Mount Saint Vincent University, 3rd year Arts “I would say don’t go after the athletes and if you go to a small university […]

How many bands can come from a single town in 20 years? A thousand? Seems like a low estimate, somehow. This storied burg has a musical history deep enough to drive a ferry through every half-hour—about the amount of time it takes for some kids on Agricola to put up a new Bandcamp page. Because […]

It’s an unfortunate fact that many a university student has a diet that is basically a salty, flash-frozen echo of a Jim Gaffigan Hot Pocket joke. The dorms at Dalhousie, St. Mary’s and Mount Saint Vincent all deem the presence of heating element strictly verboten, meaning the only cooking appliances allowed in dorm rooms are […]