Students in off-campus Vanbrugh accommodation Fairfax House feared their exam preparations would be thrown into disarray in the past few weeks, following a year of poor maintenance at the Heslington Road accommodation block.
Vanbrugh’s College Administration staff proposed that work on replacing carpets in study bedrooms would commence on Monday of Week 5, continuing throughout the exam period. For this to happen, students were told they would have to remove all of their belongings from their rooms.
Within 48 hours of the announcement, 70 students of the 90-capacity ex-nurses home had emailed Head of Administration Georgina Heath with complaints, requesting the times of their carpet fittings be changed. Heath said that the announcement “in no way meant to cause the upset and [the] furore that followed”.
David Garner, University Press Officer told Vision: “Students did not tell Campus Services that their exams would be complete by June 14th. Had we been informed of this, we would have scheduled carpet replacement then.”
Garner insisted it was the University’s foresight which ended the works and that “it was not stopped as a result of student complaints.”
One Fairfax resident went as far to describe this term’s issues as “a year in hell, made worse.”
On Thursday of Week 6, students were left without any internet connection, and after being told that the problem would be fixed an hour later, were ultimately informed that the contractors could not be brought in to fix the problem. This resulted in many residents being unable to access essential exam information and revision material in the vital lead-up to exams.
In addition, students have also been disrupted by contractors entering study bedrooms to fit long overdue window alarms. For a short period last week, residents were even left without running water.
One Fairfax resident, Sarah Rudeforth vented her anger to Vision, “It’s a disgrace, with the work being conducted so close to exams, it just causes unnecessary disruption to, and distraction from, my work. How the college staff were deluded enough not to predict that the work would be horrendously loud is ridiculous.”
YUSU President Tim Ngwena reacted to the events: “It’s clear that a little more joined-up thinking in this situation would have gone a long way. The repair and maintenance teams need to implement closer checks with the exams office and the accommodation office to ensure the work they do won’t have a negative impact on learning space, which is at a premium on campus.”
However, these issues are not a new occurrence for the residents of Fairfax, with some even labelling it as “The Forgotten Block”, often being overlooked when salient issues are reported.
Residents have complained in vain regarding issues such as cooking, washing and drying, toilet and security facilities. These problems even caused two students to move out of their accommodation permanently after they had to vacate the room due to water leaks following the Winter break.
Perhaps most alarmingly, one student was left locked in his room during a fire drill, unable to leave the building after reports of a faulty door lock at the beginning of the Summer term were ignored.
In March a student saw his room broken into after thieves entered through an inadequately secured window, without a lock. This led to residents campaigning for CCTV to be installed onsite, due to Fairfax’s off-campus location on Heslington Road, a notorious burglary hotspot. Their requests went ungranted.
On a tour of the accommodation block two weeks ago, his first time visiting the house, Vanbrugh Dean David Hickman said he “noticed some equipment failures”, though he added, “I doubt my opinion adds up to much”.
One resident and member of the Fairfax Committee, Kate Ratcliffe further commented that: “Fairfax is a fantastic place to live when it comes to the friendships you build, however the negative is that the condition of the building is outright horrendous in comparison to the weekly price we pay”.
Nicholas Dunn-McAfee, another resident simply stated that “this standard simply isn’t up to scratch. The University overlook our issues time and again. As far back as freshers’ week, our kitchen went two weeks without a working oven, something that we haven’t been compensated, or apologised to for.”
With current weekly rent on a 39-week let being £96, rising to £101 for the 2011-2012 academic year, students have questioned how the University can justify its position within the 2B accommodation band.
yawn. everybody has problems with accommodation. get over it.
Manz shud no bi now dat no internet on thursday week 6 is a strong par. i was on internet on my iphone on dat date, downloading tunes to listen to. gettin man siked for BIG D
I think by reading this article you’ll see that we have more than a few problems with our accommodation at Fairfax, to the point where it’s dangerous. Had it been a real fire, the guy locked in his room would have been screwed.
We’ve had our case reviewed by the uni and been offered a very small sum each; we’re currently voting on what to do next, but they’ve offered us like 3 days rent. Absolute joke.