This week we sat down with Haley Qualizza and Mack Murphy, student leaders at St. FX Students’ Union, to discuss housing challenges, drinking culture shifts, the need for third spaces, and what it means to call Antigonish home
When you live in a university town but aren’t connected to the institution, it’s easy to develop incomplete—sometimes inaccurate—impressions of student life. Students become visible mainly during high-impact events like homecoming or St. Patrick’s Day, when downtown streets fill with revelers and tensions between “town and gown” surface in predictable patterns.
But what’s student life actually like in Antigonish? What challenges do young people face here? How has campus culture changed? And do students actually feel like they belong to this community, or are they just passing through?
To find out, we spoke with two St. FX Students’ Union executives to share the student perspective: Haley Qualizza, VP External Affairs (a second-year public policy and governance student from Fernie, BC), and Mack Murphy, VP Campus Affairs (a fourth-year honors public policy and governance student in her second year in the role).
Their conversation revealed a complex picture—one where students deeply love Antigonish while struggling with housing affordability, transportation isolation, and a shortage of alcohol-free social spaces. It’s a story of a generation navigating cultural shifts around drinking, mental health, and inclusion, while simultaneously trying to bridge the persistent divide between university and town.
The Biggest Challenges
When asked about the unique challenges facing St. FX students, Murphy didn’t hesitate: inclusion and safety, particularly for LGBTQ+ students. While she emphasized that Antigonish has “an amazing community” and noted significant progress through involvement with local Pride initiatives, the small-town dynamic still creates challenges. “Sometimes I really do struggle with that small-town feel of just some people cannot grasp the fact that the world is changing and that’s okay.”
Qualizza identified a very different challenge: transportation and geographic isolation.
“A lot of students that come to St. FX come from large city centers like Toronto and Calgary,” she explained. The adjustment from cities with public transportation and easy access to amenities to Antigonish—where you “really need a car if you want to leave”—proves difficult for many.
“I knew five people who dropped out because they came from Calgary or Toronto. And they’re like, there’s nothing to do here,” Qualizza recalled. Coming from a small rural town herself, she understands “how to find the joys in sitting in a parking lot with your friends and going to Shoppers Drug Mart.”
The lack of reliable public transportation means students can’t easily explore Nova Scotia. Qualizza didn’t go to the beach her entire first year because she had no car and didn’t know anyone with one. “So it’s hard to get out and see the province that you’re living in when you have no way of seeing it unless you have money and can buy a car.”
This creates a visible tension: downtown Antigonish is increasingly filled with student cars, prompting complaints from residents who wonder why students can’t just walk to campus. But without cars, students struggle to access basic necessities like groceries—Qualizza lives a 20-minute walk from Sobeys and 40 minutes from Atlantic Superstore, distances that become prohibitive when carrying heavy bags.
The Antigonish Community Transit System is currently running a referendum asking students to pay a small fee to support more buses and more reliable service. Whether students vote to support it will reveal how important they consider this issue.
Key Insights from Haley Qualizza and Mack Murphy:
* The Third Space Problem: Students lack non-alcoholic social spaces off-campus. While campus societies organize hikes and activities, “sometimes you want to get off campus. You want to feel like a human again.” The town has third spaces for families, but not specifically welcoming to students seeking alternatives to bars.
* What Students Want: Board game cafes (like those in Halifax), movie theaters, video game arcades, pottery studios (they celebrated the recent opening), rec spaces—anywhere offering activities with friends that don’t center on drinking. “There is an expectation that you get a beer” even at music venues, creating social pressure.
* Food Desert for Students: When Grape Leaves opened, Murphy “thanked God” for cuisine beyond “Maritime time food.” Students crave diverse, affordable options. “What I would do for like a really good curry.” But most restaurants in town are too expensive for regular student budgets.
* Transportation Reduces Drinking: Both students believe reliable public transportation would significantly impact drinking culture. “I think it’s as simple as sometimes giving access. People’s first choice wouldn’t be to drink if they could just go to the beach or go do something.”
* Housing Crisis Timeline: Every student lives on campus first year. Then there’s “this huge rush in October where every student is trying to find a place to live off campus. And I swear, if you miss the two-week window in October, you will not find housing for the entire year.”
* Predatory Rental Market: First-year students with no rental experience sign agreements they don’t understand for places that “aren’t necessarily the best place to live. Because if I don’t take this place, will I have anywhere else to live?” Qualizza signed a lease with rent higher than average, no washer/dryer, for the first place she viewed—driven by fear of homelessness.
* Campus Living Costs More: Residence requires purchasing meal plans (minimum $1,000 in “declining credit balance”), and it’s only an eight-month lease costing the same as a 12-month off-campus lease. Off-campus is cheaper if you can find it, but campus offers guaranteed repairs and avoids landlord issues.
* Non-Market Housing Solution: Qualizza advocates for affordable, student-targeted non-market housing—nonprofit apartment buildings specifically for students, like those emerging in Halifax and Wolfville. “There should be safe, affordable housing for students who want to do that.”
* Strong Sense of Belonging: Despite challenges, both rated their sense of community connection at 9-9.5 out of 10. Qualizza: “People in Nova Scotia are the epitome of the friendly Canadian person.” Murphy: “People are so kind.”
* Town-Gown Collaboration Works: Students sit on committees with town and county councils, collaborating on issues from stop sign placement to high-impact day management. While perspectives differ (“the town is trying to protect the town and the students are trying to protect the students”), meaningful collaboration happens.
* Students Can Vote Municipally: After living in Antigonish for about nine months, students can be sworn in to vote in local elections. Murphy voted and attended all debates, having learned that “what’s happening on the ground” matters as much as federal politics. Qualizza couldn’t vote her first year but would “love to vote here. I love voting.”
* Drinking Culture Has Changed Dramatically: From “top party school” reputation to something very different. Murphy: “I love to see people having fun. But I think the drinking culture has changed. And I would argue it’s not because of anything the administration has done. I think it’s changed because students have taken it into their own hands.”
* Gen Z and Social Media Shifts: Less peer pressure, more empowerment to advocate for yourself. “It’s more appropriate now to be like, hey, guys, I don’t feel like doing this. And everyone’s like, OK, whatever.” Students crave community more than alcohol—societies organize hikes, dog walks, creative events.
* Students Are Respectful at Street Parties: Despite disruption, RCMP reports at town meetings consistently note that when asked to move, St. FX students comply respectfully. This isn’t a St. FX-specific problem—it happens at universities everywhere, including Toronto.
* Craving Community, Not Chaos: “Students really crave community and big events like that are huge community building events. And it is very disruptive and a lot of parts of it are illegal, but it’s gotten a lot better. And there’s a lot of harm reduction practices going into these events.”
* Multicultural Progress Through Student Action: Students are driving real inclusion initiatives. International students are joining the Students’ Union board; Shirley, the representative of students of African descent, is creating a black hair care business with “the most well flushed out thought through plan.”
* Representation Over Consultation: Murphy: “There’s some stuff I just shouldn’t speak on. I hand the microphone over so they get to do it. That for me is what’s important.” Students of color face less racism than five years ago, partly because peers call out bad behavior more actively.
* Record Society Involvement: Campus has a record number of student societies creating community through shared interests and activities—a healthier alternative to alcohol-centered socializing.
The conversation tackled the perennial tension around student drinking and street parties. Qualizza’s response was both diplomatic and pointed: “I hope that the town folk think back to when they were 20 and when they were in university and what it felt like to be in university.”
She emphasized that students “really crave community and big events like that are huge community building events.” While acknowledging disruption and illegality, she noted substantial improvement and increasing harm reduction practices.
“Try not to characterize all students by three really bad students that are a misrepresentation of the entire student body,” she urged—a point both hosts readily endorsed.
Murphy added that even with abundant third spaces, “you’re going to have homecoming. That’s just humans being humans. The students crave the streets.”
The deeper question centered on whether students feel they truly belong to Antigonish or see themselves as temporary visitors. Co-host Anuj, who arrived in Antigonish 16 years ago, noted a persistent “artificial divide” in his mind: “There’s a town, there’s a county, and then there’s university... and somehow that boundary refuses to go away.”
Do students feel that boundary?
“Yes, you can feel it,” Qualizza acknowledged. But she described it as different demographics within a larger community circle. “They can peacefully and thrive really together and coexist in a really beautiful way, but also be very separate entities.”
The key difference: “Not every undergraduate student loves their undergraduate institution the way that students love St. FX and love Antigonish.”
Both students call Antigonish “home” when talking to their parents—”much to their dismay,” Murphy laughed.
“This is students’ home, and we love it here,” Qualizza emphasized.
This love manifests in alumni who return every homecoming, who wear their X-rings with pride decades later, who speak of Antigonish with genuine affection. The town may feel separate from the university in some ways, but the connection runs deep.
When given the final word to share something important with Antigonish residents, Murphy was direct: “Students are people too. Yes, we’re disruptive sometimes. And yes, your economy kind of relies on us, so it can get stressful. I would be stressed out too if my economy relied on some random 22-year-old named Brad.”
Her core message: “Students really care. They really, really care. And I know there’s always a couple crazies, and don’t let them wreck it for everyone else because everyone’s really excited to be here.”
The conversation revealed areas the hosts wanted to explore but ran out of time for: student access to healthcare, mental health support, and drug-related issues. Both Qualizza and Murphy eagerly agreed to return, noting these topics fall squarely in their wheelhouse—they’ve recently worked on harm reduction initiatives and have written extensive policy on these subjects.
What emerged most clearly from this conversation was a generation navigating significant transitions—in how they socialize, how they advocate for themselves and others, how they build community, and how they relate to place. They face real challenges around housing affordability, transportation access, and creating substance-free social opportunities. But they’re also actively working to solve these problems, pushing institutions toward genuine inclusion, and building the kind of community they want to live in.
And perhaps most importantly for Antigonish residents to understand: despite being transient by definition, despite the persistent town-gown divide, students consider Antigonish home. They love this place. They want to be part of it. They’re not just passing through; they’re building connections that will last a lifetime.
As the X-rings worn by so many Antigonish residents attest, St. FX students don’t just attend university here. They become part of the fabric of this community, carrying Antigonish with them wherever they go.
Note: Haley and Mack will return to the podcast to discuss student access to healthcare, mental health support, and drug-related issues facing the St. FX community.
Haley Qualizza - VP External Affairs, St. FX Students’ UnionMack Murphy - VP Campus Affairs, St. FX Students’ Union
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