Derwent College has defended its low spending on Welfare, RAG and Sport, pointing to the planned increase in fresher numbers and the success of various low cost initiatives.
Recent figures show Derwent have spent as little as £22.97 on Welfare, and only £199.20 on sport since the current JCRC took over. This is despite being given a sport specific YUSU grant of £300 a term.
The figures stand in stark contrast to those released by other colleges. Vanbrugh announced Welfare expenditure this year of £720, and a projected sports expenditure of £1640 a term.
Halifax posted similarly impressive figures, spending £879.89 on college sports. Derwent’s spending on welfare was also dwarfed by Langwith, who spent an astonishing £1617.27. The money went on events such as the casino night, housing event and de-stress from exams BBQ .
It is thought that the overwhelming majority of Derwent’s spending is allocated to its Club-D events. The JCRC has so far declined Vision’s requests for Club-D finances, citing commercial sensitivities.
Derwent treasurer Anmoli Sodha told Vision the discrepancies in the welfare expenses could in part be explained by the college’s reluctance to utilize their Grenville grant of £2143.
“The Grenville grant is there to provide funding for non-alcohol related events, an area Derwent has not traditionally spent large amounts of money on.
“However, we have always had a great collection of non-alcoholic events and activities, which have never really cost much money. Things like movie nights, and college FIFA tournaments have always proved successful.
“We’ve also had an eye on next year, where there will be a huge increase in fresher numbers with no increase in the grant, so we’re hoping to have a lot of extra funds available for the fresher’s [week].
“There is much more to come from Derwent this term.”
The treasurer also defended the apparent overwhelming financial support for the Club-D events, claiming their continued financial success justified the spending.
“Club-D is continually the one of the best performing college run events on campus. It success speaks for itself.”
It would appear Derwent students agree. First year Economics student Max Bond consented that the events spending was worth the money.
“If I’m being honest, I didn’t choose Derwent for its welfare support. There’s a reason why it’s commonly held to be the most social college.
“It’s good that people come across campus to come to our events, and long may it continue.”
However, one Derwent student, choosing to remain anonymous said that non-alcoholic alternatives left a lot to be desired.
“Although there are options for those who don’t want to get hammered, the movie nights are a bit uninspired. Both Langwith and Halifax had really great Casino themed nights recently, showing what is possible if you spend a little bit of money towards non-alcoholic events.”
Derwent Chair Francesca Knight was unavailable to comment despite attempts by Vision through various channels to do so.
Surely the problem is more to do with treasurers not making the JCRCs aware of money which is available to be spent…
This article just proves money doesn’t buy happiness I guess..
Doesn’t this just prove that Derwent gets good value for money and Vanbrugh is wasteful? Derwent events are always well attended which you can’t say for some other colleges.
Seeing as Club Ds actually make money throughout the year, they shouldn’t really be count as net expenditure. More of an investment…
I was never asked to comment on this article… Had you asked me to do so I would have pointed out that in the next few weeks we have a number of welfare events running including a de-stress bouncy castle, 3 BBQs, a Jubilee event, a live music night, a day trip to Scarborough and a day trip to Flamingo Land – all of which are going to subsidised using our funds. I am extremely disappointed that Vision failed to ask me for a quote and how this article has been written and hope in the future you will ask for my perspective so I can provide you with more accurate information.
Considering the incredible coverage of College Sports in campus media. From my own experience it is not as hard as most people would think for local York businesses to support College teams-Derwent rugby managed to get 4 separate sponsors, pretty much paying for all costs of having to run the team.
Sorry Joe, this under-spending is definitely not a bad thing. Halifax and the other colleges do not show ‘impressive’ numbers, it just shows a huge amount of over spending. Their Presidents of those college sides should get their ass in gear and get some sponsorship!
Just over £20 on welfare is appauling, welfare is probably the most important service a college can give, despite what some students may believe.
Agree with Wesdog, but Derwent JCR should spend the £300 a term funding the smaller college sport teams that struggle to get sponsorship.
Just wait till Derwent has to bail Langwith out.
@anon don’t worry, they do in my opinion. asked for money for a derwent tennis tournament last year and amy the treasurer was cool with it.
college sport is all about participation. so money should be spent on how to improve that. no qualms with halifax spending loads on college sport as they might not have to rely on uni players to fill their college sides out in the future. derwent are lucky to have really good particpation across all sports in general so they don’t go spending money like a madman.
Derwent are happy to spend hundreds of pounds on a duck mascot suit but are not willing to help financially support their sports captains who have to foot the bill of training facilties …
You got hit by a car?
Why is this a story? Pissing money up the wall doesn’t make other college’s events any better. Either way, no one picks Derwent because of its reputation for outstanding housing events, they pick it for the social aspects that money can’t buy.
Money should always be spent on welfare. It’s about *preventing* any issues that arise rather than adopting a reactionary response.
anon…’Derwent are happy to spend hundreds of pounds on a duck mascot suit but are not willing to help financially support their sports captains who have to foot the bill of training facilties …’
I am one of the sports reps for Derwent college feel free to get in contact on sv559 if you are one of these ‘captains who have to foot the bill of the training facilities’, At a guess your probably not though and just like Joe Softley an observer who doesn’t really know what’s going on?
Until recently JCRCs refused to publish any of their accounts.
Circumstances can vary between Colleges, so quite frankly, I feel that Vision maybe should have chosen to present this information in a less sensational light which enabled students to see how all the JCRs did things.
Whilst this was a well written article and not un-entertaining; I am worried that having been shown up for how they’ve chosen (so far!) This year to spend their grants from the Uni and YUSU JCRCs might be more reluctant to publish even that information in the future.
Which would hardly be a victory for transparency would it?
Derwent is by far the smallest college so of course their spending is always going to be less than for others. Also, there have been plenty of “non-alcoholic” events to go to, just obviously not as well funded as this article seems to want.
Also Derwent has the best rugby team (I think?!) and possibly the best football 1sts; money can’t buy you talent (at least not in this context.)
So I’m not really sure what this article is complaining about, seems people are just bitter they’re not in Derwent ;)
@simon varley. so you didn’t buy an overpriced mascot suit then? You seem pretty dismissive of an genuine concern with the way the JCR spend their sports budget. Spending money on trivial things like the duck suit might seem unimportant to the JCR, but can you honestly not see how frustrating that is for captains who fork out their own money for courts and practices when this should be covered by money allocated to the JCR specifically for sports.
Am I not completely mistaken here or is this article not even overly critical of Derwent? The lack of welfare spend is completely backed up by quotes from their treasurer, and the article in itself seems fair enough.
I’ve seen Francesca Knight moaning on Facebook about not being asked for comment which is fair enough but I think the treasurers quotes justify what’s written here.
It’s just an article which sets up an interesting debate. Stop moaning and start debating guys!
Leave off the duck! It has helped get supporters down, looks great and inspires the people on the pitch. #solidbuy
YUSU have stipulated that from now on court bookings and practise sessions cannot be funded by the sports budget. It isn’t a Derwent specific thing.
Derwent are still allowing captains to claim for this money though, as they are giving the captains money back from their Own Funds, as I know the Treasurer thinks that making the captains pay is unfair – Joe Boughtflower the old footie captain has his money back this way.
Just because francesca knight has put a facebook status saying she didn’t get asked for a comment, who’s to say the paper didn’t try and get one from her??
@Mr X – Does it really set up an interesting debate? This article completely ignores the intricacies of JCRC expenditure and particularly the Own Funds account, which can support both Welfare and Sporting provisions, without being represented officially as such. On top of this, you’ve got separate accounts like the Big D account, which is independent and will also fund events throughout the year which would be considered “Welfare” for any other college. This pretty much renders the figures above meaningless for any kind of debate. Oh and spending hundreds/thousands promoting gambling can hardly be considered as Welfare, surely?
Also, as Chesca stated on Facebook, Derwent have got “a de-stress bouncy castle, 3 BBQs, a Jubilee event, a live music night, a day trip to Scarborough and a day trip to Flamingo Land”. And that ignores other events such as WimbleDon and Little D. All these events, as both Anmoli and Chesca have made clear, will add substantially to the current figures.
I think the only real contentious issue here is that sports teams have to spend their own money to participate in college sport, whilst the JCRC is spending however much money on a mascot. Seeing as the funding is there it should really be used to encourage/subsidise participation. Other than that, Derwent JCRC seem to be doing a pretty good job, in my opinion.
NOBODY GIVES A SH*T
What the f*ck is a “de-stress bouncy castle”?
@woolpack … A bouncy Castle… where you de-stress…. #selfexplanatory