The College’s Response to #AgainstActon, and the Union Council’s Requests is out. A few people seem to be unimpressed by the Response, thinking it doesn’t say or commit ‘enough’. I can certainly see why people may hold this view; I think that the Response as a whole should be seen as a positive though.
Having been dealing with College (centrally – for the Union) for a few months now, and supported by staff who’ve been doing it for years, a Response like this is honestly not something to be sniffed at. The student body, the Union, have stood up to the College, made their views clear and I genuinely think the College have taken a step back, and taken everything on board.
My personal opinion is that the reviews and surveys of Garden Hall and Evelyn Gardens should have been carried out before North Acton was ever conceived as an idea; and I think a response from the Management Board promising to now carry out these reviews shows they know the decision on North Acton perhaps shouldn’t have been taken so early too. There’s nothing that can be done to reverse that now though – which is precisely why I didn’t propose the Union Council even ask for it to happen. If the Union, students and College want to have a grown up relationship with each other, we have to always make realistic and sensible demands. To do otherwise would undermine the voice of the students and thus the likelihood that we will have any impact on what happens to the College’s future.
College space plan, will consult with students and academics on the basis of hard facts and numbers
College have agreed to properly research how much redeveloping Evelyn Halls and Garden Hall would cost, and, as part of the College space plan, will consult with students and academics on the basis of hard facts and numbers. I think this is reasonable. They have said that, as a result of this they would re-open negotiations with ‘third parties’, which I take to be the Wellcome Trust should the desire still be (which, I resoundingly think it will be) to keep Evelyn Gardens.
This – as with lots of things – is going to be a long process. In speaking with the Chief Operating Officer and Pro Rector (Education), this year’s sabbatical team have informed them that the new team have been elected on a mandate of #AgainstActon. College know – now we’ve put it on their agenda - that the Union won’t stay quiet should the Management Board backtrack on their Response. I think the reason the Response is a little vague is so that they won’t backtrack on anything by accident.
I will be pushing for the Union Council to engage positively with the College from now on over Halls: subject to no backtracking taking place. The College Response gives the Management Board some negotiation space to still try save Evelyn and Garden. I think the Union and students should give them that space.
Without the #AgainstActon campaign, I do wonder if the building surveys commissioned would have happened – I’d like to think, if anything, the Union and students brought to light that perhaps decisions made hadn’t been backed by all the facts relating to Evelyn and Garden. Either way, I’d like to thank all the supportive messages received from the student body on #AgainstActon. There’s a long way to go for College’s Accommodation plans, but we’re definitely now going in the right direction. Before #AgainstActon, we definitely weren’t.
