Please complain: Rant Week hits UMSU

Photo: Alena Eis

Complaints were welcome in the Students’ Union last week, when students were invited to vent their grievances at Rant Week.

Boards put up in the unions and across campus encouraged angered students to write down what ticked them off, and they were happy to comply. After mere hours, the boards were graced with everything from comments about bad lecturers and calls for cheaper pints to the obligatory drawing of male genitalia.

Contributors repeatedly questioned why all societies were “crammed into one room” during Freshers’ Fair and not spread out across the whole Union. Others complained about having to pay for rooms in the University, saying they had been forced to move to Manchester Metropolitan instead.

“People feel the Union doesn’t listen to them,” said Activities Officer Laura Williams, “this is what needs changing.”

Photo: Alena Eis

Williams assured that the rants are not condemned to gathering dust in a corner of the Union either: “We are going to go through them [next week] and divide them into comments that something can immediately be done about, like resolve misconceptions, and comments that need wider attention. We can either campaign directly or bring it up at General Meetings.

“By the end of the year, we’re going to compare what you said and [what] we did.”

Rude comments aside, Williams said she believed the results had been good. “On balance we got some really useful info that we can do something with, especially from North Campus, where students often feel isolated and out of touch with what’s happening at the Union. We got some serious comments there.”