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REDBRICK
7th JUNE 2010 ISSUE 1 VOL 1
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1936 Guild Awards Winner: Most Outstanding Society 2010
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An innovative and growing society... Glen Moutrie HOUSING and Accommodation Services (HAS) has amended its decision to make Aitken Wing in the Vale Village entirely postgraduate next year. The new decision opts for a split between undergraduates and postgraduates (with block A remaining undergraduate). HAS will also use Chelwood accommodation to help handle the new population of students. This came after weeks of
work from Ed Sparkes, VP of Housing and Community, and the Aitken RA to try and amend the decision that the University had made on its own, allegedly breaking University policy and failing to understand the implications of their decision upon the residents. Furthermore, the timing of the decision to re-open Chelwood also means that the Guild will have no input to its fees. At ÂŁ6,812 per year, this will place it in the five most expensive accommodations that the
University provides. The University's motivation for this change was so that more time would be available to renovate the Spinney in Pritchatts Park, which is entirely postgraduate accommodation, all with 50-week contracts. The previous set-up would only have given the University two weeks to renovate. In order to find more time, they chose to swap Aitken's undergraduate accommodation with the Spinney's for the 2010-11 academic year. This change would
allow ten weeks to renovate the postgraduate accommodation. The University has now conceded to a split between undergraduates and postgraduates in Aitken, an outcome that saw all parties better off and took on board the concerns of the Guild and the RAs. However the concern lies with the manner in which the University initially handled the decision. Ed Sparkes was himself only informed of the change in March, after the decision to turn Aitken fully postgraduate had