Student Activities Officer Chris West today announced major changes to the structure of this year’s Freshers Fair.
In a post on his YUSU blog, West outlined the changes that will see students use a card and individual bar-code stickers to choose up to eight societies of interest.
West said: “On arrival, students will receive a small card with 8 empty slots. When they stop to talk to a society, and decide they want to join the society, the society will give them a bar-code sticker, which is individual to their society. At the end of the day, or whenever they are leaving the fair, they will go to a centralised location, where they have 2 choices.”
The students will then have the option to either pay for their chosen societies at a manned till, or scan their card that will send an automated email with online shopping details.
West listed reasons why the changes should mean a significant improvement to students’ experience, suggesting “there will be a noticeable number of sign-ups to societies after this transition,” and “there will no longer be money going missing or not being counted into society finance accounts.”
He also said the new structure will result in a smoother running fair, “with less bottlenecking in busy areas.”
Reacting to the news, Freya Sydney-Smith, a second year History student, explained her “outrage” to Vision: “It seems like there is no space for trial and error. When I came as a fresher, I signed up for everything and I think this new system will deter people from doing that.”