Events Calendar

• Spring Convocation 2012 | Fri, May 25, 2012 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Grant Hall.
• Grand Opening: Human Mobility Research Lab | Fri, May 25, 2012 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM *Please see event details…
• Queen's MiniU - six educational sessions | Fri, May 25, 2012 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM *Please see event details…
• Open House: MSc Healthcare Quality | Fri, May 25, 2012 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM School of Medicine, Foyer.
• Spring Convocation 2012 | Fri, May 25, 2012 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM Grant Hall.
• Queen's MiniU - welcome dinner with guest speaker… | Fri, May 25, 2012 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Ban Righ Dining Hall.
• Tim Murray Quintet | Fri, May 25, 2012 8:00 PM - 11:30 PM *Please see event details…
• Queen's MiniU - 12 educational sessions! | Sat, May 26, 2012 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM *Please see event details…
• Queen's MiniU: the Last Lecture on Earth with… | Sat, May 26, 2012 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Grant Hall.
• Queen's MiniU - six educational sessions! | Sun, May 27, 2012 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM *Please see event details…
• Workshop: Personality Theory & Communication | Tue, May 29, 2012 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Gordon Hall, Career…
• New Staff Orientation | Wed, May 30, 2012 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B176.

New living arrangements and social situations

Residence Life

• Change of routine, sharing a room, communal bathrooms, restricted opportunities for cooking, lots of activity, living closely with the opposite sex...Residence life may be comforting or exciting sometimes and troublesome at others.
• It can be tiring and distressing to be surrounded by strangers, and feeling the (normal!) need to gain the approval of others. Your student may not yet have well formed opinions on politics, religion, the environment, etc. and feel left out if the floor-mates have discussions. Or your student may feel "different" for many reasons, and therefore lonely. Upper year students, called "Dons", live in the residences to help new students with the transition.
• The opportunity exists to form rich, close and long-lasting friendships, as your student experiences the transition to university with their peers.

Living Off-Campus

• Students may live with you, board with another family, live alone, or share a student house. If they form connections to campus through extra-curricular clubs, sports, etc. they are more likely to feel like a member of the Queen's community.

Social Environment

• A sense of belonging- among friends, at Queen's, in Kingston, and possibly in Canada- will take time and effort to develop.
• Meeting new people means having new experiences, which may involve making new moral decisions. This may cause stress for both you and your student as the journey of self-discovery unfolds. It is also an accurate reflection of urban adult life and the need for independent problem-solving skills.

Homesickness

• Homesickness is common in the early adjustment period, and may last for months in some students.
• Creating a feeling of "home" (through photos, scrap books, familiar objects, blogs to friends, calls home, etc.) helps establish a "safe place" when away from family.
• Seeking distractions, through social events or eating with a floor mate, helps dispel the feeling of "nobody cares about me".
• Regular quiet time to relax in familiar ways helps build resiliency to the stress of the new situation.
• Homesickness may persist until the student can make the shift: "You'll never be able to enjoy the present if you are living in the past."

• Queen's Code of Conduct