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Discount for Southside Shambles

Sep 29 2007 03:56

Ashley Brown

Students in Southside will receive a 25% discount for their first month, as the building is still not complete 5 hours before they are due to move in.

Kitchens were still being finished at 8pm

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Felix may have reported on Southside's opening this week, but the three new halls of residence were far from ready just 12 hours before students were due to move in. Members of College staff, re-apps, wardens and student volunteers were still in Southside at 2:30am this morning, helping with the effort to get Southside ready for the influx of students at 9am today. Despite being on schedule for most of the project, it fell at the final hurdle with much still to be done on Friday.

Lamps await delivery at 7pm (there were in place by 2am!)

Director of Commercial Services Paddy Jackman described himself as "apoplectic" upon seeing the building Friday morning. When Live! arrived on the scene at 7pm it still resembled a scene from a reality TV hotel renovation show, with lamps, bins, contractors, power tools and toilet brushes still in the corridors with 14 hours to go. By 10pm Jackman described it as "Mission:Impossible, becoming Mission:Possible if we keep going until 7am". Having seen the place at 2:30am, 7am seems a little optimistic.

The lift in Falmouth-Keogh hall is currently out of action, leaving freshers with a long trek upstairs if they are unfortunate enough to be on the fifth floor. Other gremlins include the fire alarm system showing an earth fault and the new RFID room access control system malfunctioning, with cards unable to open doors. Conventional keys will be issued while the door gremlins are being resolved.

Nice Curtains

The portacabins outside Southside have received a leafy facade, but some students will have a decidedly poor view - curtains in a number of rooms will not be fitted until Tuesday, so corrugated plastic has been taped over the windows in the meantime.

While he was working through the night, Jackman told Live! that residents of the Southside halls will receive a 25% discount for the first month of their stay, while the remaining problems are fixed. This will cost College in the region of £56,000.

We would like to stress that everyone involved in the project, along with a number of other volunteers, are doing everything they can to ensure as much as possible is ready for 9am. Deputy President (Education & Welfare) Kirsty Patterson - ably assisted by RCS Motor Club - was in the building until nearly 3am helping with room checks and delivering freshers welcome packs. All faults are being collated and should mostly be fixed overnight.

The fire alarm has a bad day

Bins a plently

A stack of letters ready to tell students the bad news

Paddy Jackman prepares for a long night

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Discussion about “Discount for Southside Shambles”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. joker

Sep 29 2007 07:53

this is a bit of a joke, they had so long to prepare and left it to the last minute, a bit like us students with our work.

only difference is, i'd be a bit more p***ed off if i couldnt go to the loo cause there wasnt any toilet paper than if i handed in a report a few hours or days late...

2. Andrew Holland

Sep 29 2007 09:44

Little last minute jobs always take a lot longer than you expect.

3. Ashley Brown

Sep 29 2007 11:16

There's definitely toilet paper in every room up to level 3. We've checked every single one of them...

Little things like missing lamps and room fittings should all have been fixed by 9am - a full inventory of the building was done with those sort of problems highlighted.

The missing curtains on the other hand, that's a bit of a problem...

4. pg

Sep 29 2007 11:24

25% discount? That makes the rooms about ?116 for the first month, which seems pretty good as:

most freshers won't be in their rooms for the first week
curtains will be in on Tuesday

Besides, the sheer scale of things make it difficult to get it all correct and on time. At least they didn't just give up and go home in the evening, but stayed to sort the place out.

5. Deputy President (Education and Welfare)

Sep 29 2007 12:13

Having left at 2:30am and returned at 10:00am (after a quick round trip to Wilson at about 8:15am) the place looks completely different. Someone has managed to sort out some of the room swipes and keys are being given out for those rooms which are still being tempremental. It's really strange to see the fresher's being handed their swipe cards with their welcome packs. No more queueing to get a ghastly photo taken!

Anyway back to Selkirk to unload more excited fresher's! I don't know who wants to live there the most - the students or their parents. Mums are running around chatting to each other squeeking things like 'Isn't this great!'

Thanks to Ashley and RCSU Motor Club for sticking around till 2:30 this morning to make the place look great for all the new arrivals. Who would have thought Live! had a heart?! ;-)

6. C@p

Sep 29 2007 21:34

"Ashley and RCSU Motor Club for sticking around till 2:30 this morning to make the place look great for all the new arrivals. Who would have thought Live! had a heart?! ;-)"

Is this a DP struggling to remember which FU is which so early in office?

Or maybe just a great bit of undercover Journalism by Ashley...they thought he was helping when actually he was just getting another good story. ;-)

7. alumni

Oct 01 2007 08:23

Hvaing left Imperial and now working for another student union I am living in college halls a 1hr journey from central london and paying the vast sum of ?45 a week, damn i could even get to imperial with a pretty easy commute

8. jokes

Oct 01 2007 10:41

the freshers will need the discount to be able to afford the WHOPPING ?14 for the freshers ball (note: not actually a ball) at the union! there is no way that event should cost more than ?5 says i, who has attended it the last four years running for some retarded reason

9. Spencer Smith

Oct 08 2007 19:11

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_8-10-2007-15-42-40?newsid=19454

That's the official news release from Imperial about Southside... All the chaos nicely hidden.

10. Ashley Brown

Oct 08 2007 21:50

That is just asking for a spoof...

11. Andrew Holland

Oct 09 2007 08:48

See if you can find one of the 90% of freshers who did not get one of the single ensuite rooms in southside!

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