Bursar’s Update

Deborah Griffin OBE

This will be my last piece for the Homertonian as I am retiring after 10 years at the end of September. It has been full on, and never more so than the last two and half years. The last six months have been relatively normal although the completion and opening in April of the new buttery and dining hall, with the associated kitchens, servery and backof-house stretched everyone.

The reward for the hard work of all the staff is seeing the students enjoying the spaces. In the first week when a student sat in one of the wide window sills with their laptop propped on their knees, I had to thank them for using the space as we envisaged! It has also been well-received by the architectural press and we are hoping it might be nominated for an award or two. Watch this space!

As we work out how to use the new spaces and our existing meeting rooms, our Events team, rebranded from the Conference team, are busy launching and selling space to new and old clients. We also now have North Wing, a light and airy 120-seater auditorium with the ability to stream and film presentations, together with 18 hotel-quality guest rooms which we completed in June 2020. We have also refurbished Bamford and Skillicorn and installed AV capable of hosting effective hybrid meetings. Of course our gardens and the highly regarded Homerton BBQs are in great demand as everyone catches up on celebrations and socialising!

As you will appreciate, our Events business has been decimated over the last two years by the pandemic and the College has made significant losses. The income from external business is a vital pillar in the College’s financial sustainability, and even more so with the inflationary increases across all our costs which we will incur in 2022-23. Increases in energy costs and payroll alone are budgeted to add £1m to our cost base. We try to manage the Events business to minimise any impact on the College especially during term time. A dedicated staff member oversees internal events bookings made by staff and students, and we are currently investing in a software package to make this easier. Even so, we sometimes get accused of running a conference centre rather than a College! This is clearly unfair and students are the main beneficiary of the trading business as it allows us to offer the lowest accommodation rents in Cambridge, and provide Hall food effectively at cost. It is also not a new phenomenon…. the University and Colleges have been attracting conference business for over 100 years.

The effects of the pandemic will be with us for some time to come, especially as many of our students have had very disrupted school education. In the new academic year we are investing in more teaching staff and a wellbeing coordinator to spread the ever increasing workload on our existing staff. We are reconfiguring some of the large rooms on the ground floor of Cavendish this summer to improve the office accommodation for our increasing Fellowship and staff.

Many of the facilities and additional spaces we have provided over the past six years are intended to allow our students different spaces for work, rest and play. We value their participation in the many activities they contribute to across the University through the Representation Award. This year we awarded 73 awards of £200 each for students participating in University societies and groups as diverse as the Robotic Society and Women in Business. We were also able to resurrect the garden party in May Week on the Principal’s lawn, to which Lord Woolley provided a lively soundtrack. It was a great event to show our students that we value their extra-curricular activities alongside their academic achievements.