The common lounge on the third floor of the Canadian Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) building is one of Trinity Western University’s best-kept secrets. Frequented by staff and faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, the lounge fosters an atmosphere of community at a level rarely seen elsewhere. There, the students interact with professors over their lunch break; graduate students work on their thesis at the same table where undergraduate students struggle over their grammar homework.

Professors and students agree that the best thing about the CanIL department is the warmth and community that springs from having a space in which faculty and students can interact in a casual setting, as well as the classroom.

For Rachel Sissans, a fourth year Linguistics student, what makes the community possible is the common room: “We can feel comfortable sitting at a table with profs and undergrads and graduate students.”

Nathan Niesley, a second year Masters of Applied Linguistics and Exegesis student, remembers that the first thing he noticed about the CanIL setting was that everyone was genuinely excited and interested in hearing about what is going on in other people’s lives.

Another Linguistics student, Chami Nagai, notes that the professors, who are willing to engage students on an everyday level, are a large part of what sets the CanIL faculty apart from others on campus. Nagai says other faculties have a “doctor’s office mentality” where students are welcome on the basis of their “right” to be there, but at CanIL, students are received on a less utilitarian basis.

Another unique aspect of this faculty is the split-level classes. “All but one of my classes have grad students in them,” says Sissans. According to Nagai, this fosters a high level of maturity in the undergrads. They are expected to work hard and have a deeper understanding of cross-cultural issues and experiences.

However, the sense of belonging fostered in the CanIL building does create a sense of isolation from the rest of campus. Sisssans says she connects more with CanIL than with TWU: “I’m pretty happy just maintaining my community at CanIL; I have enough there.” Niesley says that CanIL is like a bubble within a bubble.

Further distance is created between CanIL and the rest of TWU due to the fact that CanIL is associated with Wycliffe Bible Translations. Most staff and some faculty are directly related to Wycliffe and, as Nagai points out, are sometimes oblivious to other TWU events and happenings. This affiliation, she adds, creates a “transient setting.”

“It is difficult to have an established class because the faculty leaves a lot and that has the potential for academic compromise,” says Nagai.

But as more students from other faculties take Teaching English As A Second Language (TESOL) as a minor or concentration, communication with the other areas of campus is increasing. This change in dynamic brings up questions regarding possible changes to the CanIL community in the future.

But Dr. Mike Walrod, President of CanIL and Chair of TWU’s Linguistics department, doesn’t think that the sense of community will be lessoned. With the increase of students, “more efforts for a collective sense of community will be made and plans are already being generated to foster that atmosphere in the summer program.”

Although Wycliffe had originally intended to take the CanIL program to University of Calgary, Dr. Walrod is convinced that TWU is the right place to be. As it continues to be on the cutting edge of speech technology, with an increasingly stronger faculty and united student body, indeed it seems to be.