Finalists' fury as Mansfield goes back on college room plans
Alumni were asked to donate to student accommodation but the money will in fact benefi t conference guests instead.
Mansfield finalists have criticised their college after plans to house students in a new building from Hilary term onwards were changed without the knowledge of the JCR. Students were under the impression they would be able to live in the new building, but have instead discovered that the college plans to house conference guests there instead.
The Garden Building is being constructed behind the existing accommodation block and will eventually house 24 students, but was held up due to problems with planning permission. The college had originally intended to start using the building during Michaelmas term, but were forced to renew leases on properties in Jericho. Many fi nalists who were living out in Jericho had believed they would have the opportunity to move onto the college site after Christmas for their crucial exam terms.
However, during a chance conversation with accommodation manager Zoe Belcher, JCR Vice President Andy Mitchell discovered that instead these rooms will be let to conference guests for the rest of the academic year. Mitchell told The Oxford Student: “I thought I had a verbal agreement with the Bursar that we would be able to use these rooms next term for finalists. “The JCR as a whole is upset by this decision. We are unhappy with the way in which the decision was made and the fact that we were neither consulted nor officially notified of it - I only found out by accident. I don’t know when they were intending to tell us.”
First year Alex Craven, who has been living in the tiny converted JCR office since a room was lost when two were knocked together to create disabled facilities, was also under the impression that he would be living in the Garden building. “I’m very annoyed about this. I was always under the impression I would have a new room for next term, and I don’t think it’s appropriate that they should put conferences before students and have guests around during term time.”
It seems that the decision to let the new rooms was taken when a fourth year, who had been promised a room on his return from a placement in Hilary, informed the college he would no longer need this place.
At this stage the college decided it would make more sense to start letting the rooms to students at the start of the next academic year. Mansfi eld Bursar Steve Waterman said the college took the decision in order “to defray the loss of income we are likely to sustain by having to rent extra accommodation to house all of the students.
“The commitment to allow them [to move into the Garden building] was never given… the income gained from renting out the building will be quite considerable.” However Mitchell, himself a third year who has had to put up with noise and inconvenience during the construction of the Garden Building, is not satisfi ed with this explanation. “We all understand the fi - nancial pressures and we recognise the excellent work Steve Waterman and the other staff have done to ease this burden.
However, it seems like they’re prioritising conference guests over students.,” he said. Waterman refuted this accusation, stating: “The conferences will raise money for our core focus, and that is students.” In a JCR meeting last Sunday, Mitchell informed students of these changes. “Some people were worried about becoming a target for thieves if there are lots of people with their expensive laptops on site,” he said.
Students are also angry because a signifi cant proportion of the money for the new block came from telephone campaigns by JCR members. Jack Sheldon, a third year PPE student, worked for the campaign, ringing alumni to ask for donations. “Many of the alumni donated under the impression that it was going straight to benefi t the students, so for the college to turn around and say that conferences are more important sets a really bad precedent.”
17th Nov 2005