GUELPH POLITICAST #119 - Move Out Madness

It's April, and you know what that means! No, we've already had Easter. And April Fools' Day. Sure, Earth Day is next weekend, but we're here today to talk about Move Out Madness, the annual scramble by University of Guelph to pack up their Guelph lives and head home for summer jobs or vacations. This is easier said than done.

The picture above is from the film Diverted: A Story About Modern Day Treasure Hunting and Second Chances, in which first-time director Kalev Jason chronicles the collection, reclamation, and donation of things he collected from bags in that very same dumpster pictured above. The documentary follows Jason as he sorts bag after bag of unopened food, clean and wearable clothing, useful and functioning kitchen gadgets, and even some pricey video game accessories.

The treasure Jason found underlines a problem with the Move Out Madness process, and undermines the Green acumen of both the City and the University of Guelph. It's hard to argue you're environmentally friendly when every April our garbage bins are filled with clothing that can be given to goodwill, food that can find its way to the food bank, or furniture that next year's class of students might be able to get some use of. The City seems to shut down for Move In Day, could there not be a Move Out equivalent?

Not so fast, because there are some difficult logistics that go along with that. To talk about those, Student Life officials Kathryn Hofer and Matthew Gysbers talk about the coordination done to try and get students out of town as smoothly as possible, the challenges in trying to do so much in such a short stretch of time, the time crunch for students who are all on different schedules according to when their exams are done and when they have to move out, and the limits of storage. Hofer and Gysbers will add the context before we dig in about dumpster diving with Jason.

So let's get ready to move out madly on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can watch Diverted: A Story About Modern Day Treasure Hunting and Second Chances, right now by clicking this link and watching it on Vimeo. Meanwhile, if you're a student moving out and are looking for a way to not send your Guelph life to a landfill, you can visit Student Life online by clicking here.

The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.

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