As of spring 2025, the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre (WISC) will be merging with the Office of Indigenous Relations (OIR), operating from the main campus. This change aims to increase accessibility to support and resources for the growing number of Indigenous students at UW.

WISC has been in operation at UW since 2003 and, up until winter of 2025, was located at United College. Jean Becker, who formerly worked at WISC back in 2003 and is now the vice-president of the OIR, discussed how, due to United College being an affiliate of UW, the employees at WISC had difficulty connecting with other departments on main campus, and support for students was not as accessible. 

“The underlying reason for making the change is to… make sure that our staff working in those services have access to all of the supporting services, such as finance, HR, Student Success Office, counselling, etc, and to make sure that we are able to provide the best possible supports for our Indigenous students,” Becker said.

The decision to merge the offices was brought forward back in 2023, however discussions of centralizing the Indigenous student support services on campus had been brought up for many years before that. Becker discussed how merging the two offices and re-locating the Indigenous student services to be within Ring Road will achieve this centralization.

Becker further explained how this merger will also promote more accountability, as being one office within the main campus will allow them to have “more control over the expenditures” from the government funding the school receives to provide support to Indigenous students. Becker added, “We’ll have more input into what kinds of programming we’re creating and offering to students using those funds.”

Emma Smith, a UW alumnus who worked at WISC as a coordinator of student services until being given the role of Indigenous Student Experience Manager after the merger, said that the new centralized student service will be a more holistic experience for students. This will be achieved through the new location of the Indigenous Student Services, which is on the main level of Needles Hall across from The Center, “which provides more of a holistic circle of care in order to connect students with other student services,” Smith explained.

The Indigenous Student Services office in Needles Hall aims to be open to students some time in the fall. Currently students can access the office and resources in EC5, with both Becker and Smith encouraging Indigenous students to come into the office and use the space when they need. 

Despite the new change, Smith expressed the importance of acknowledging the important work WISC has been doing for decades at United College. She explained how the work being done at WISC was successful and impactful for many Indigenous students, but this merger is just one different avenue that is being taken to create a better campus.

While this merger is centralizing Indigenous student resources and support, Becker highlights that the OIR still remains as a separate office with their own mandate “to address the recommendations of the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] and to indigenize, decolonize, and reconcile the entire institution.”