600 new students move into University of Regina

On Friday, the University of Regina welcomed 600 new students home for the year.

Classes officially begin Sep.6, but the school's hallways were busy.

Parents were helping theirchildren move into residences while thefresh-faced students navigatedtheir way around campus.

More students will move in throughout the weekend.

"It's such an exciting day to see these young people come from all over the world, all over Saskatchewan even Regina to move into residence," said university presidentVianne Timmons.

• University of Regina cracks down on smoking

All students and staff, whether new or old, will notice a couple of changes on campus.

Starting Friday, smoking will only be allowed on campus in three designated areas as opposed to 19.

Timmons said the new rule brings the school in line with policies that are in place at universities across Canada.

"This is time."

Theschool is also renaming street names on campus to honour Indigenous plants in English, French and four Indigenous languages.

"We're doing that now as a statement, an important statement that we are on Treaty 4 lands and that we have to honour our multicultural nature of our community, in particular Indigenous history," said Timmons.

"We have now 13per cent of our student population are self-declared as Indigenous, which is one of the highest in Canada."

She said university's population of Indigenous students has been steadily increasing over the past seven years.