Named After: Emperor Constantine (Proclaimed Roman Emperor in York in 306AD)
Principle: Rob Aitken
College Officer: Kate Harper
Welcome Committee Chair: Cat Santini (insert obligatory committee chair joke here)
Firstly just before Vanbrugh come breaking through the shiny, new glass doors in the ‘Forum’ demanding our heads, our college colour is Magenta, not purple.
Opening its doors this September, we are the students who have been given the reins to designing our own college from scratch; building a 21st Century community out of the glass-clad beauty of the most modern college on campus.
The elected college Welcome Committee have been hard at work planning a fantastic ‘Founders’ Fortnight’ with the support of the newly assembled college team. All our efforts to date, and the work we will continue to do, is all in the aim of making every person who wants to join our college as comfortable and included as possible. We’re reaching out to all student types to get involved, not just new undergraduates!
It’s also the greenest college the University has ever had, using local and renewable materials in construction, and solar panels and water harvesting technology to reduce day-to-day emissions. So you can sleep happy in the knowledge that not only are you sleeping in the most modern rooms, but also the greenest college on campus.
We believe in a college based on providing not just a room to live in, but a chance to develop your own skills and experience. As a result, working alongside the college team we aim to provide support and funding for college clubs, where students can create their own clubs based on their interests and hobbies. Alongside this, the college also has strong links with external groups, which have an interest in student start-ups and enterprise. For example we are currently looking for students to lead consultations on the type of community and activities that our new members want, in conjunction with the student-led consultancy firm, York Community Consulting.
One look at the stylishly modern ‘Forum’ building, compared to the dilapidated concrete of Heslington West, and you know you’re in the 21st century. The ‘Forum’ has been built with the needs of student’s solely in mind and is comprised of two floors with the top divided into two flexible spaces. The ‘Loft’, a common-room of sorts, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows, and all the amenities of the lazy-day student; comfortable seating, a TV, games consoles and even a projector screen. The second space, the ‘Studio’ is a flexible study space with desks, chairs and more comfortable seating. We can also, should an event or activity demand it, remove the parting walls between the two and create a single space. The second floor also offers up a beautiful bonus in the form of an open-air balcony, complete with outdoor seating, year-round.
But we at Constantine also delight in one other uniqueness; being the closest college, within stone’s throw of the specialist York Sports Village on Heslington East. Offering top of the range fitness suites, the only swimming pool on campus, 3G football pitches, apparently the first outdoor Velodrome in the North East and if you are so inclined, a steam room, sauna and spa.
Should you choose to use the facilities or not, at the end of a day of hard studying or procrastinating, you will be returning to a fiercely inquisitive and inclusive community, because at Constantine we wouldn’t have it any other way. So in short:
Best choice if – You want to be part of the shaping of something unique.
Worst choice if – You don’t like magenta; deal with it.