Budget cuts mean rooms to be cleaned fortnightly
The University has confirmed that Room Cleaning is set to be cut by 50%.
After protracted negotiations between the SU and the University over a new Service Level Agreement, a decision has been reached to reduce room cleaning from once a week to once a fortnight, and kitchen cleaning to once a week, rather than every day.
These cuts come at a time when rents are increasing across campus by up to 9%.
Initially, Commercial Services proposed to cut room cleaning to once a month. However, when the SU protested that this would be detrimental to students, the two bodies entered into negotiations.
SU Services Officer Nat Thwaites McGowan, who was at the forefront of negotiations alongside President Micky Armstrong, reflected positively on the process. He said: “Jon’s a businessman. We both knew our positions, and we settled in the middle. It was refreshing to just be able to sit down, department to department, and talk things through without any politics.”
The cuts to room cleaning are as the result of what Thwaites McGowan described as “funding problems” in the University, following a projected budgetary shortfall of £3 million.
Thwaites McGowan claimed that Commercial Services were “looking to cut costs in an area where they seemed to be providing a service that wasn’t needed.” He added “Cleaning is a difficult issue: half of the students don’t want it; half do.”
One cleaner, who cannot be named, said of the cuts: “It’s just going to make our jobs harder. Most rooms we go into are disgusting after a week of no cleaning. Imagine what they’ll be like after two.”
When asked about the rent increases, Thwaites McGowan explained that the economic model applied by the university shows that the total cost of providing an en suite room per week, including “welfare expenses” such as porters’ wages, is £79.80; £0.45 short of the £79.35 students will be charged for such rooms from next year. This still represents a 9% increase from the £72.80 they are currently paying.
One Alcuin student said of the rent increase: “It’s ridiculous. You could get an absolutely gorgeous house in Heslington for that kind of money. There’s just no point in staying on campus.”
It is thought that the increased average cost of providing a room has risen so steeply as a result of the newly built accommodation in Alcuin. The cost of providing a single room in one of the new blocks is £31,000. The buildings have a projected lifespan of 35 years.
There will be a 5% rent increase for standard and economy rooms, from £61.88 to £64.97 for standard rooms, and from £58.45 to £61.37 for Economy rooms.
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