A particular apology was made to those Freshers who were not given the opportunity to purchase tickets for the event. Since all tickets were sold in advance to hall wardens to sell on to their residents, students living in intercollegiate halls, those not living in halls of residence and students whose wardens had not been quick enough on the uptake of the pre-sold tickets were denied the opportunity to buy tickets for the event.
For those students in intercollegiate halls, this was especially irksome since Imperial College term has started later than many other University of London colleges, hence many Imperial students at intercollegiate halls arrived to find themselves on the outside of pre-established friendship groups. Further exclusion through being denied the opportunity to attend the welcome party and meet other Imperial students there prompted many complaints to the Union, including some from parents. In response to this unfortunate oversight Union President, Mustafa Arif, has promised to personally write and apologise to those affected on behalf of the Union.
The root cause of the problem encountered this week is of course a perennial one; namely that the event, which filled the Union to its maximum capacity, had far fewer available tickets than the number of people who wished to attend. Though the situation was aggravated this year by the fact that a large number of Freshers did attend the Welcome Party and therefore those who didn’t felt excluded whereas in previous years, where tickets were not sold or allocated in advance, few Freshers have gained access to the event, given the perennial nature of the problem is it difficult ascertain exactly the objective of this public apology. It could be speculated that the issuing of this press release, which included comments such as “Unfortunately, space at Imperial College is at a premium and over the last few years the development of social space has taken a back seat” and “In the long-term the Union will be making the development of enhanced social space a key priority in discussions with the College”, is an attempt to highlight the supposed inadequacies of the Ents facilities within Beit in advance of a proposal for development of these facilities.
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