The Arthur Lewis Saga

DEAR STUDENT DIRECT,

THE STUDENTS’ UNION is doing a forgotten part of its membership a great disfavour in campaigning for open access to all areas the Arthur Lewis building - namely the hundreds of PhD students who have their desks there.

The restricted area beyond the sliding doors on the upper floors contains not just the offices of academic and administrative staff,
but open plan workspace for SED and SoSS PhD students. Having unrestricted access would greatly exacerbate the already unacceptable noise, disturbance and lack of security for possessions and person of these ill though out open plan areas.

PhD students have suffered more than anyone else with the Arthur Lewis building, as we have moved from quiet, secure offices in other buildings to being reduced to working in what is effectively a corridor. Whilst I sympathise with students who cannot reach tutors at all times, the Union needs to remember that more access for undergraduates means more disturbance and less security for postgraduates - who have to spend a lot more time working in Arthur Lewis.

Yours,

An anonymous Humanities PhD student

DEAR STUDENT DIRECT,

I AM rather confused by the emails I have received from disgruntled PhD students residing on the right side of the doors in the Arthur Lewis building.

At best their arguments seem to be greatly misinformed and at worst boil down to nothing more complex than ‘undergraduates are a nuisance’. While I am perfectly satisfied at the response by the University to address the hundreds of complaints made about the building, I am disappointed that certain students who are disproportionately favoured by the current restricted UG access are sullying a great success by failing to look past their own personal interests for the student population as a whole.

Anyone who has read the outcomes of the positive meeting I had with the Head of Schools would understand that what I was campaigned for and won was not simply full open access for all doors in the building for any Tom, Dick or Harry but a reasonable request for undergraduate students to access their teaching staff without prior appointment.

What is more is that efforts I made to meet and explain my arguments with the PhD students were ignored. Any claims that I did not take PhD interests into account at the meeting last week is simply not true and that’s why a balance was struck in both schools to allow undergraduates adequate access whilst retaining a level of monitoring. I personally have more faith in our students than to think that given half a chance hundreds of undergraduates will spontaneously descend on the open-plan offices, forming a sort of academic squat; making noise and stealing pens etc. The Arthur Lewis building must be accessible and useable by all students who belong to the schools within it - surely it doesn’t take a PhD to work that out.

Regards,

Jeff Meddemmen
UMSU Academic Affairs Officer