Vice Chancellor Brian Cantor failed to attend a meeting to hear student views on the delayed building of Langwith bar. The lack of communication marks increasing resentment by YUSU after it was announced that the university would not remove asbestos from the area in time for the Autumn term.
Last Thursday nearly 200 students put on costumes to protest against the delays. They turned up to a meeting with Cantor in Vanbrugh, only to discover he had gone to Oxford for dinner. Policy and Campaigns Officer Tom Langrish said: “next time we do something we want to see double the number there!”
Societies and Communications Officer, Sam Bayley, told Vision: “we are very disappointed that he didn’t show up. .. we don’t think it reflects well on the university for the VC not to attend a meeting like that.”
Students have shown their dissatisfaction with the bar’s opening being pushed back from Freshers’ Week to January with a resounding vote in favour of a YUSU campaign. The online vote on the decision to mandate the campaign passed easily by 353 votes to 16.
Anne-Marie Canning told a Union General Meeting that the university’s behaviour was “disgraceful,” arguing that “facilities are being taken away and not being replaced.” Bayley commented that teh Vice Chancellor appearing to shy away from the issue “means that he has noticed the student pressure, because otherwise he would have been at the meeting.”
Many students who originally opposed the bar have now joined the campaign to open it next term. Following YUSU’s decision to book events in Langwith bar every Friday of the term, Derwent Chair Oliver Lester admitted he had been “initially pissed off,” but the JCRC is now in full support of the bar after they “sat down as a committee and planned some truly amazing events for next term. In the end we are actually quite satisfied with the planner.”
However, if the bar is not opened in time, YUSU will be forced to re-arrange all the events that have been booked.
Bayley has warned that delaying the building will have serious effects on both students and YUSU. Langwith freshers will be the third college of students not to have a bar. Instead, there will be a construction which will “cause an awful amount of disruption to students.”
With the most profit from the bar expected in the first few weeks of the Autumn term, failure to complete refurbishment in time will also be financially damaging for YUSU.
In a statement to the Union General Meeting, Langwith Chair Zach Pepper said: “It’s going to be very detrimental to the whole project, first of all, and not least, because Langwith won’t have a bar in Freshers’ Week, a massive impact on the freshers that are arriving.”
As the Summer approaches, pressure is growing on Cantor to take note of the overwhelming student voice. Sam Bayley said: “We think that he should take more notice of what students want and not back off from students just because they have turned up to express their opinions.”