When writing my blog about the North Acton proposal, it dawned on me that there were a few areas that greatly concerned me and so I decided to split it up into two posts.
Having previously completed an undergraduate degree at Imperial and having seen my old hall demolished (I'll admit that was required due to the state of the hall) and replaced with significantly more expenstive accomodation, it's something I feel strongly about. I was also a sub-warden for two years based in Bernard Sunley Hall in Evelyn Gardens, so I have another personal attachment to the issue.
As mentioned by Becky in her blog, no provision for wardening has been confirmed at this point. The Director of Campus Services, Jane Neary, mentions that a number of developments in Fulham, Hammersmith and Ealing were rejected as they were "too expensive, too far from Imperial Campuses or they couldn't achieve the critical mass to create a vibrant student community of at least 400 bed spaces in one location". My first issue is where has the number 400 come from? Is it actually based on something or simply arbitrarily picked out of the air? How about a survery, or maybe even talking to students about this. The lack of support for this number suggests to me it's just plucked out of the air. It seems to me the approach is just to condense as many students as possible in one location and by default this creates a vibrant community
Wardening is a major part in the creation of a community in halls.
From my experience, creating a vibrant student community has never been an issue before; neither a first-year undergradute in the old Southside Halls, or as a sub-warden in Evelyn Gardens for two years. There is currently a varied range of bed space numbers across college's portfolio of halls, each with different but strong communities within them. To me this quite obviously contradicts Jane Neary's comment on creating a community. Making 400 bed spaces then throwing in a few college catering outlets with over-priced coffee is some a simple end-all to create a vibrant student community.
As a sub-warden, a fantastic aspect is getting to know the first years in the hall. Obviously the larger the hall, the more difficult this is. If anything, this will create less of a personal environment (that goes to creating the community) and will just feel like a hotel in my opinion. The creation of a community within halls is driven by a number of factors and one of these is the wardening team. The interaction between the students themselves is another major factor. Part of the the point of the wardening teams is to encourage and facilitate this. no one is going to know everyone within a hall of this size. It will be even more difficult to build rapport between the students and between the wardens and students. I honestly think a development of this size would just come across as a very impersonal environment. Also how are halls events for up to 700 students going to be organised? The logistics seem bewildering. The halls experience is a big part of our time at university, and whilst we all have different experiences, the majority of students look forward to living in halls. I doubt so many would look forward to living in this development. Moving to London to start a degree at Imperial can be challenging enough without factoring in a long commute to and from campus.
I think locating a hall in North Acton will have a large negative impact on the overall student experience at Imperial. We've clearly seen this with the case of Paragon Hall in Brentford with comparable travel time. I think (assuming provision is made for one) it will be difficult to recruit a wardening team for a hall so far from the main campus. Given that wardening teams are comprised of college academics, staff and PhD students, it will be an equally unattractive place to live in terms of the commute coupled with their workload and the extra commitment wardening entails.
