Langwith College Chair, Sam Maguire, has sent a letter to the Vice Chancellor demanding better heating in the College.
Students have recorded temperatures of sub-15 degrees Celsius. In the University Accommodation Contract for 2012/13, point 9.8 states ‘We will provide reasonably adequate heat to the radiators during the Period of Residence.’
The letter has been signed by members of the Langwith JCR and the University Student Union’s President, Welfare, Academic and Activities Officers.
Students are paying over £120 per week to live in Langwith. In the letter Maguire writes, “All students should be provided with enough heating that they should be able to go about their daily lives and study within the accommodation; the current situation is completely unacceptable. How are the college and the university going to improve on a community and academic level when we cannot even provide these students with proper heating?”
YUSU Welfare Officer, Bob Hughes told Nouse, “YUSU support Sam and the JCRC’s letter because the new Langwith build has been fraught with problems since day one, and we feel that it is now reaching the point where many students’ issues with their accommodation are reaching boiling point.
“This is an issue of basic standards of living, and students getting what they are paying for, and YUSU will continue to support Langwith JCRC’s efforts to provide the best, and most basic, services for their students.”
The JCRC and college welfare team intend to record temperatures to support their claims. The Vice Chancellor, Brian Cantor, has been sent quotes from the Langwith College Freshers Facebook page, and some of the photos.
One Langwith student commented on the Facebook page, “I recorded just under 11 degrees during the day a few weeks ago, but nobody from the University was interested. In a standard workplace, anything below 16 degrees is generally classed as unreasonable.”
Maguire writes, “but these are just a small sample of the complaints which have now been received. As you will have noticed from the snow outside, it is very cold at the moment; I therefore demand that immediate action is taken to resolve the problem.”
24 Jan ’13 at 10:45 am
James Stephenson says:
Of course when summer comes around they’ll be begging for relief from the unrelenting heat, as we were in Goodricke’s debut year. Contemporary building design at its best.
Perhaps the powers that be just can’t afford to heat the place :(? Oh, wait: http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/01/22/tax-haven-company-in-1-2m-hes-east-profit/
27 Jan ’13 at 5:27 pm
Will Speak says:
I don’t see as there can be much argument in this comment thread. There is no leg to stand on from the Uni’s point of view, possibly because it was amputated due to frostbite.
30 Jan ’13 at 12:19 pm
christopher perry says:
I had been wondering about the state of the nearly 50 years old Langwith when I managed to reach the Ron Cooke Hub on Monday night in some of the worst weather I remember sweeping the University campus since my period as a student 1964-67. Along with the exposure to sweeping wind and rain and snow Heslington East has failed to protect students staff and visitors to violent climate change. For comfort you cannot beat the student digs I had in Clifton in 1966 when my landlady Mrs Hinde always made sure the sitting room used for our study had a blazing Yorkshire coal fire.