Simon Baker - Voice of Reason
Ian Caldwell is to be congratulated. His swift action in erecting a marquee in Princes Gardens has prevented much distress and inconvenience befalling a large group of people. I’m not referring to the poor sods that are having to sit their exams in a tent, but the directors of the water companies, because there has been a bountiful supply of much-needed rain since its construction.
In all my time at Imperial, I am pushed to think of a bigger cockup than this. At this rate, IC will be elevated to such a pinnacle of ridicule within the university sector that we shall not be able to raise our heads. Would any other institute treat its students in such a disgraceful way? They say this move will minimise noise, though even a very senior member of the Suite Five brigade was heard to say that yes it will be noisy, but it will be cheaper. But would any other body of students allow itself to be messed about to this extent. Unfortunately there are too many students here who, if told that their exams were to be held in Piccadilly Circus during rush hour, would dutifully assemble by the Eros statue, and that’s the clincher. We let them get away with murder.
It does not take a genius to realise that if a building project lasting more than 12 months is situated next to the Great Hall it stands a pretty good chance of disrupting exams. Schal realised this. They asked College repeatedly for exam timetables several months ago so that problems could be avoided. Did they get them? What do you think. Once they received them a few weeks ago, the options were put to our friends in Sherfield. Either suspend work, which would cost about Ł3,200,000 as crews were stood down, or reschedule exams. ‘Reschedule exams!’, they cried, ‘we can’t do that, they’ve been fixed for two years.’ The Great Hall was booked in January 1996 and exact times finalised by March. Since the Great Hall is not used back to back, all day every day, surely anyone could have foreseen that the solution was to arrange the exams so as to give Schal a number days per week on which they could work through without disturbing anyone, save for the odd daydreamer in Estates. Secondly, why was the handover date for the new building chosen as June 16th? This is a mere week from the end of term and, try as I might, I can’t think of any good reason for it. If the project at its inception had been scheduled to finish later, much more flexibility would have been gained. Still, dear reader, you could give some people in Sherfield all the flexibility of a troupe of limbo dancers and they would still snatch chaos from the jaws of order.
This is sadly yet another example of the conflicting agendas at IC. The academic departments for the most part are world class, doing a sterling job against a barrage of petty bureaucracy that flows from Sherfield incessantly. I heard one of the Sherfield engine room boys say that IC would be great if it weren’t for all those academic departments. He said it tongue in cheek, but it seems clear that for some people in that ivory tower teaching and education are not the prime objectives of the College.
While departments received little or no increase in their teaching grants this year (2% overall), Sherfield ‘headquarters’ will receive an extra 5.8% next year, with the Rector, albeit not personally, getting 11.7%. This does not send the right message to College. While we have the fourth highest spend per student on central administration and the highest on premises, we come in at 29th on Careers services and 15th on grants to student organisations.
I’m all right, Jack
