High On The Hunny Plus;
Issue 128 · Wednesday, October 3, 2001
First v.ea rs
•
STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
FREE
en two dav.s notice to leave guest suite
BEN CANNON
ANGRY Freshers were given just two days to find new accommodation - after UEA bosses threw them out of the Nelson Court guest suite. The first years were housed in the suite after arriving at the beginning of term to find they didn't have a room. However, last week University bosses broke a contract signed by the students, which meant they could stay there for 14 days by ordering them to leave and move into either a shared roor.1 or stay with a member of staff. And the students were warned that if they didn't accept the places, they would be evicted from the guest suite and put to the bottom of the housing list which would leave them homeless.
Outraged The residents are outraged at the move, which comes in the light of revelations that an email was circulated amongst UEA staff asking them to house those who haven't been allocated rooms on campus. "it's disgraceful. I had to wait almost two hours to get my key when I first arrived on Wednesday, I felt that I was treated like a child. All this hassle has made it hard for me to think about my academic work now," said CHE student, Sarah Lehayns
Patronising And Roisin McReynolds agrees - and claims she was treated badly by University staff. "We have been dealt with in a rude and patronising way by the accommodation staff, we're supposed to be adults now at university but we've been treated like children," said the first-year SOC student. Union Welfare Officer, Polly Evans stepped up the battle to
•.
find suitable housing for the students by giving them a furthe r five days to move out and offered them help transporting thei r belongings.
Confusion And she understands why the students were so angry with accommodation staff. "The accommodation office can 't expect understanding from the students unless an explanation is made. I'm keen for the university to take stock that students welfare has suffered as a result of recruitment pressures," said Polly. Despite the fact that UEA has expe rienced accommodation problems in the past , the University claim that the problem is due to A-level results being published so late. "lt would seem that the unpredictability of A-level results and the clearing system, and the short time between results coming out and the start of term, cause much of the confusion. This year, the situation has been complicated by UEA having had a bumper recruitment year," said University spokesperson , Annie Ogden .
Struggling But the crisis is not exclusive to UEA. Universities around the country are struggling to cope with the increased intake. There have been reports of students around the country sleeping in old pubs and dinif)g rooms miles away from their universities.
...
'
Pictured above: Kart Ryan and Becky Warner, JUSt two of the freshers who have been affected by the housing shortage
NUS ISSUE EXTREMIST WARNING UNION officers have downplayed fears of a militant Islamic extremist gang visiting UEA despite the group lashing out at other universities. The National Union of Student' issued a warning la'>t week after
they were alerted to the racist AIMuhajroun gang, who targeted Freshers' Fairs at universities across the country, writes Briony Thompson.
The group also attempted to recruit students by distributing racist and homophobic leaflets at institut1ons in Manchester,
Bradford and Sheffield - wh ich supported the recent terrorist attacks in America. The AI-Muhajroun was banned from the US Annual Conference earlier this year and the nion has encouraged Students' nions to adopt the ~ame approach. But Union Communications
Officer, Emma Reynolds claims that UEA is not going to be targeted by the organisation . 'Thi s warning is primarily aimed at universities where there has previously been trouble of thi; kind. There is a Mus lim population in Norwich but there is little history of confl icts con tinued page 2
.. '
· INSIDE: STALKING ·EXPOSE PAGES ~.~:~·_;·
.