Unprepared

A shocking series of inexcusable miscalculations by the university administration has left York’s campus unready for the arrival of both new and returning students.

Changes in the library’s renovation schedule and serious underestimations in the number of both home and international students have led to a campus that seems wholly unprepared for any form of students.

The problems facing home freshers appear to be the most drastic. Accommodation cock-ups have forced some students to pay up to £1500 more than they had first anticipated in order to live on campus in their first year. In addition a number of international students were left high and dry when the university shamefully failed to provide pillows, duvets and bedsheets for their first ever night at university.

Returning students are also expected to suffer due to ongoing construction work in the JB Morrell Library. Many students have complained that ongoing loud construction work and the general disruption is likely to have a detrimental effect to their studies.

Inside Story:

New and returning students arriving in York this weekend were welcomed to a campus riddled with remaining construction work after the summer. Both Heslington East and Heslington West campuses are caught up in construction projects, whose deadlines have over-spilt into the start of term.

The rescheduled refurbishment of the library will no doubt cause inconvenience for freshers and returning students alike. The full overhaul is not scheduled to be done until March 2012, however the initial plan saw the second floor due to be completed nearly three months ago. During the primary construction period, the university decided that it would also be prudent to change the windows due to the existing ones letting in damp air, damaging the books. The deadline for the reconstruction was therefore recently pushed forward, meaning that construction work will be taking place in the second floor throughout the start of term.

Nevertheless, senior University Press Officer David Garner argues that the library refurbishment programme is fully on track: “The second floor was re-opened as planned in July. It is fully operational, though a decision was made during the project to replace the windows and that work will be completed by the end of the month. Work has been taking place on the main staircase and the lift but it will be complete by the start of term, again as planned.”

However, second year English Language and Linguistics student, Elizabeth Bovey, commented that “It might be fully operational, but it still makes for a pretty big annoyance when there is construction work going on when you’re trying to study.”

In addition, several other unfinished projects are taking place around Hes West. The bridge between Vanbrugh and Wenthworth Colleges is still very much under construction. This has posed a problem for new students trying to make their way to the postgraduate college. One international student told Vision that he had difficulty finding his way to Wentworth to get his visa scanned. Similarly, the Vanbrugh College bridge has been under scaffolding for over 12 months with no deadline for completion set in stone.

Furthermore, the Vanbrugh refurbishment saw the college remain closed until the 9th of October, days after the arrival of several hundred international students. On the same day, the college experienced extra trouble when the new automated doors stopped working. The main entrance to the Courtyard and the Langwith JCRC is still partially blocked, due to construction work, while the pathway between Langwith and Vanbrugh currently has ongoing construction work, leaving a gaping hole in the road.

Additionally, there are still numerous other buildings around campus that are still being redone, clearly evident by the scaffolding mounted outside of them, including large amounts of the music department.

The situation is the same on the ever-expanding Hes East campus. New Goodricke students were last Friday greeted by numerous builders working on the Catalyst building. It is set for completion in mid-October, but with that time fast approaching, the new students don’t seem impressed with the progress.

Goodricke fresher Greg Walsh said of the construction work: “it’s ridiculous that this building work is still going on, when we heard that it was meant to be done already. You can hear the work starting from early in the morning and going on all day from my room.”

The University promises more construction work, stating on their expansion website that the works on campus activities listed on these pages are only “the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the proposed plans for investment in the expansion and improvement of our University campus.”

“During this year and next you will see an increasing amount of activity as we complete new buildings and seek to refurbish others and replace worn out resources.”

Admin Cock-up leaves freshers’ out of pocket

Poor planning by the University has resulted in a number of unlucky York students being forced to accept 51-week lets for campus accommodation despite the fact that this will increase their costs for the year by almost £1500.

Problems began when far more students achieved their grade offers than university administration had planned for. As a result places filled up exceptionally quickly and many students who applied for accommodation on campus were forced to take unwanted accommodation deals so they were able to come to York.

The situation was made worse when it transpired that the students would be forced to take 51-week contracts in Goodricke on the newly developed Heslington East campus, meaning that affected students would have to pay between £106 and £112 per week: some of the highest possible accommodation fees at York.

Speaking to Vision about the situation, the Chair of Goodricke’s JCRC, Tim Ellis commented: “We’re obviously more than happy to welcome these students to Goodricke, but I definitely find it incredibly unfair that so many students have essentially been given a choice between paying through the teeth or being totally abandoned by the Uni.”

The only other option presented to students was that they could try and find themselves private accommodation elsewhere in York, a task made difficult when you’re brand new to the city.

Ellis continued: “There are more than just the obvious issues associated with trying to find yourself a house in a city you don’t know. Living on campus is a major university experience. Nobody deserves to miss out because they were unable to afford such high rent prices.”
Adding insult to injury, if students choose to take the accommodation deal offered to them by the University they are also letting themselves in for even more problems further down the line.

Since the overwhelming majority of York student rental properties follow a July-to-June rental schedule, students who are being forced to take the university’s October-to-October lets will be left paying for two residences next summer, at a time when they won’t even need to be in York.
When asked about the situation, a university spokesperson agreed that it was an undesirable state of affairs, but that nevertheless they had no choice but to allocate some students 51-week lets even though they specified a preference for 39-week lets and applied within the deadline.
In order to avoid the problem in the future, the spokesperson did however promise that the university “will consider ways to address this issue for future years.” To make sure student concerns are properly addressed the university also pledged that they “shall involve YUSU in these deliberations.”

Would you sleep on this?

Vision has had reports that there was a shortage of duvets and pillows for international students arriving in Vanbrugh and James last Wednesday, and consequently several students didn’t have bedding in their rooms for at least the first night.

York University offers a bedding set consisting of a duvet and cover, pillow and pillow slip, one sheet and a bath towel to all international students. They are encouraged to pre-order the pack, but the university website states that they are “available to all international students even if they forget to order them.”

However, Vision has been in contact with representatives from the International Office welcome team, wishing to remain anonymous, who could tell of several instances where international students were forced to spend their first night in York without a pillow or duvet.

The University, however insisted, “every International student that has booked a bedding bale has received a bedding bale in Vanbrugh and James and elsewhere.”

“We have six times as many students booking bedding bales this year and we have supplied all those that have booked. We have 850 bedding bales available, 100 more than last year.”

Despite this, Vision has been told that even students who did book beddings in advance, did not receive them. A member of the International Office welcome team commented “I have heard of several students who had ordered bedding bales in advance, but who had to borrow sleeping bags or talk to the facilities manager about sorting something out. We’ve even had reports of people who didn’t have anything to sleep in at all.”

Vision contacted the international student support coordinator about the issue, and was referred to the Vanbrugh and James college administrators Georgina Heath and Sarah Doughty. At the time of print, they were unable to respond to our queries.