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Anger over Corpus housing

Many Corpus students have expressed their dismay this week, as plans by the college to refurbish fresher accommodation mean that next year’s finalists will be housed predominantly in a new building behind Park End nightclub, rather than in college.

Traditionally, all freshers and most finalists have been accommodated in and around the college’s Merton Street site, with most freshers housed in the 1960s New Building. However, for five terms beginning January 2014, the college intends to carry out a refurbishment of New Building, meaning that significantly fewer rooms than normal will be available on the college’s main site. To make up for this shortage of rooms, the college will be accommodating displaced students, mostly finalists, in a new building on Park End Street, located behind the popular nightclub Lava Ignite.

While the JCR was predominantly in favour of prioritising the needs of finalists and moving freshers to one of the remote annexes after Michaelmas Term, the unanimous decision of the college’s Governing Body was that freshers should be prioritised: speaking to a meeting of JCR members on Thursday, Professor Richard Carwardine, President of Corpus Christi College, said, “While there is a case for finalists being prioritised, experienced tutors felt that the case for first years was stronger.”

Tom Cummings, a second-year chemist at Corpus, told Cherwell, “I think it’s a disgrace, and what makes the disgrace an even bitterer pill to swallow is the deceit. I deliberately opted for a low ballot this year on the understanding I would get a good college room in third year.”

Several students have expressed concern at the location of the building where many of them are expected to live during finals. The college insists that noise from clubbers should not be an issue, as student rooms will have triple-glazed windows, although one student at the meeting suggested that opening windows in summer might pose a problem.

Joe Dawson, a third-year classicist due to be affected by the plans, said, “The primary thing that’s pissing people off is the fact that it’s so close to Park End. People are very suspicious about whether or not the sound-proofing will be sufficient.”

Concern has also been expressed about the manner in which the college’s decision was communicated to junior members. JCR President Patricia Stephenson commented, “I think it’s shameful that the JCR were not consulted at the very early stages of deliberation, but only brought into discussion almost as an afterthought. This prevented the JCR from influencing college opinion before a decision was made, which I believe was definitely a disadvantage to our cause, and which led to a feeling of alienation within the JCR.”

Professor Carwardine denied that JCR opinions have been ignored, telling students, “We have taken the JCR’s views very seriously.” 

He also expressed surprise at many students’ reluctance to live in the Park End complex, saying, “I rather naïvely thought that the first inhabitants of a brand spanking new £6 million building would find that an attractive prospect.” 

Dr Neil McLynn, Senior Tutor at Corpus, admitted that “for the whole of living undergraduate memory, finalists have lived in college”. He pointed out, however, that nowhere in any official college documents is it stated the finalists have the right to live in college, describing this as a “false belief”, and suggesting that junior members may derive some “educational benefit” from having this belief corrected. 

McLynn denied that revision would be compromised by having to live out of college, saying, “It did not seem that living out of college would have an effect on finalists’ academic performance.” 

Responding to the suggestion that travelling to and from examinations is made harder by living out, McLynn said, “If the subfusc walk of shame is the worst of your fears, then you are in a very good place indeed.” 

He acknowledged, however, that the situation was “anything but perfect” and suggested that the college might try to compensate aggrieved students, saying, “We will try to find some way of demonstrating that we take your concerns seriously.”

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