James is the Executive Director of Residential Life, Campus & Conference Services. You can email James with any questions regarding Residence Life & Conference Services at UNB Fredericton.

I came to Fredericton and joined the Residence team at the University of New Brunswick, as Director, in 2005. Based on its national reputation, what I thought I'd find was a vibrant residence community committed to a high degree of student leadership and participation - one that puts a lot of energy and resources into residence life and the development and continuance of strong house teams. What I've found has exceeded even these high expectations. Each undergraduate residence building or "house" - generally 100 students - has strong individual traditions; and each house has an enormous impact on its residents. In my first month here, I met senior students who had gone on to graduate or professional schools at UNB or elsewhere, and they would tell me that they were "alumni" of a particular residence house. Now the terms "alumnus/alumna/alumni" are almost universally used in connection with a particular university after graduation. I think there are very few university residence systems in North America (or elsewhere) which have such a strong impact on students that, after graduation, they would so totally connect with their residences as to identify themselves principally as "alumni" of the houses.

I've found students who care deeply, where each house has strong ties to a specific charity and well established traditions of fund-raising for that charity. Year after year, tens of thousands of dollars are raised by residence houses for their charities, and the fund-raising activities of residence students have been featured in a series of articles in the local paper.

I've found residence students who learn together, have fun together, and build personal relationships which last a lifetime. 

I've found staff dedicated to the maintenance of this community, including its facilities and the administrative processes which allow it to function - also a highly developed conference operation, which makes the residences and other university facilities available to conference attendees and other guests, mainly during the summer period.

I have also found a community poised above wooded hills, facing down over the picturesque St. John River - a setting so physically beautiful, particularly in its fall colours, that the best photographs can barely suggest it.