Nouse.co.uk » Freshers face housing crisis for third year

Freshers face housing crisis for third year

October 9, 2007
Anjli Raval and Nicky Woolf

The University of York is facing its third consecutive Freshers’ Week accommodation crisis, which will see 200 Vanbrugh freshers forced into temporary accommodation on campus and 47 Langwith students into a hotel, until construction of residential blocks is complete.

Students whose accommodation blocks have not been completed will stay in shared rooms in Goodricke, Derwent and Wentworth Colleges, as well as rooms in the National Science and Learning Centre (NSLC), Franklin House, near Alcuin College, which normally acts as a hotel for conference guests.

Due to the late running of kitchen refurbishment, 47 new Langwith residents will have to spend their Freshers’ Week commuting to campus by University-organised coach from the Holiday Inn Tadcaster Road, at a projected cost to the University of £30,000.

The Vanbrugh accommodation blocks are currently on a staggered completion schedule, which will see residents of Block 3 being allocated their rooms on October 26, Block 5 on November 16 and Blocks 1 and 2 at the start of the spring term. The displaced students will also be provided with meal vouchers.

According to the Director of Estates Services, John Street, the delays were caused by “the arrival of the wet weather in June and July” which “caused considerable flooding problems throughout the partially completed buildings, most of which were not wind and water-tight.”

Street also drew attention to the fact that the severe flooding in Hull “attracted a considerable number of sub-contractors to migrate towards the highly lucrative flood clearing and renovation work,” leaving the Vanbrugh site without a sufficient workforce.

The University has suffered a similar crisis at the beginning of the previous two years. In 2006, students in Langwith, Goodricke, Derwent and Vanbrugh colleges suffered cuts to facilities and kitchen refurbishment work that overran its completion deadline and in 2005, construction of the new Alcuin accommodation blocks overran, forcing freshers to be housed in the NSLC.

Anne-Marie Canning, YUSU President, was keen to stress that the University had “learned a lot from last year, and the problems they had with kitchens.” She continued, “They’ve communicated a lot better… they’ve learned how to handle situations much better.”

Vanbrugh JCRC Chair, Ryan Bennett, said “We’ve got a bit of a problem having our freshers spread all over the place, which is going to make it very difficult for our JCR.

“I sometimes think that the University doesn’t recognise how difficult it is for us to organise a Freshers’ Week. Obviously we put all our own money into printing things, and we’re going to incur a lot of extra costs which we’re not going to get back from anywhere. As things stand at the moment, we’ll have to manage those costs ourselves, and we haven’t had any help from the University on that which is a shame.”

David Garner, the University’s Press Officer, said: “These issues are due to a number of factors. It was always going to be a fairly tight timetable to get all those blocks ready for the start of term”.

He continued: “As far as Langwith is concerned, the progress of the work has been complicated by the complexities of working in a building which has to be adapted to meet modern requirements. I think they’ve found that it took rather longer than anticipated.

“Unfortunately, that is how it is, and we’ve got to deal with the problem,” he said. The displaced students received the news in an email and a personal phone call from the University.”

Canning said that most students had reacted positively to the news, saying, “they’re quite cool about it, about finding their roomies. Some of them are a bit put out, obviously, but only naturally so. They’re anxious about coming to university.

“I can appreciate that freshers might be upset, but we’re doing everything we can to ensure they get a good Freshers’ Week,” she concluded.
The news has been met with mixed responses from the displaced students. Ellie Whitwell, 20, from Nottingham, said: “It’s a bit of a pain but I don’t think it will ruin my experience in any way (well, I hope not!) I’m still generally a bit confused about where I’m living.”

Marianna Wilde, 19, from London, said “I’m really excited, actually. It’s a good chance to get to know people in another college.” Ursula Krawczyk, 18, from Hertfordshire, said that she was “a little disappointed that I wasn’t told sooner, but I can understand why that happened.” She continued, “I am a little more apprehensive now that I?know I?am sharing.”