The university has announced that the development of College 9 will begin in as little as nine weeks. The proposal for the college went through the city council with only one abstention. This college should now be up and running in 2014.
YUSU have explained that they are now in full support of the Heslington East venture, despite Vision reporting last year that they had “serious concerns.” The University and YUSU have come to a compromise that asserts that there will be a new student centre up and running, no later than 2015, to make the campus more inhabitable.
Kallum Taylor, YUSU President explained that when he was battling for the welfare of the Hes East students, he suggested that members of the University spent a month on the campus and then saw whether or not it was liveable.
The student centre will ideally be a combination of the Information Centre, Market Square and YourSpace.
Kallum explained to Vision: “We’re very pleased that we finally have a commitment from the University which acknowledges and addresses the lack of student social space and service provision on a growing Heslington East.
“It would be bogus, if not an insult to Hes East students to not to have this with College 9 on the way, and this was a key condition of our support.
“2015 at the latest is something to work with, and now we’re going to stop arguing the toss over it and actually crack on with it. YUSU will be at the heart of the planning and we look forward to kicking off plans with the working group and involving students as much as possible in them.”
After the announcement that Heslington East will become more densely populated and that there is a hopeful prospect of a centre, students are now feeling much more positive about the extra part of the University.
Freya Sydney-Smith, a second year History student explained that she now felt that the other campus could be becoming part of the University, rather than it feeling like two completely separate campuses.
“With the news of the student centre as well as the promise of more of a population over in Heslington East, I predict that it will stop feeling like there are two campuses and more like one whole university. There will be a reason to go over there apart from using it as merely a pathway to the gym.”