Albany Park
From sinner
| Albany Park | |
| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Status | Current |
| Size | 340 students |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Contact information | |
| Address | St Mary Street St Andrews KY16 8BP |
| Phone | 01334 467097 |
| Website | www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~apra/index.html |
| Warden | Ingrid da Silva |
| Residence Manager | Mrs S. Pay |
Albany Park is known about town as Albany, Albania or Gatty, and is a collection of 56 boxy, budget student houses situated by East Sands on the road south out of town. Most houses accommodate undergraduates but there are several postgrad houses with slightly different layouts; all are self-catered. The residence offers easy access to the beach and cliff-top path heading south and is right next to East Sands Leisure Centre, which has a small swimming pool and gym. The walk into town, either up St Mary St./Abbey Walk or along the coastal path, takes about 20 minutes, depending on where you're going and how fast you walk. If you're a science student, leave yourself about half an hour to get to the North Haugh, or invest in a bike. A taxi into the town centre is under £4 and there's also a bus stop right outside the entrance.
Contents |
Houses
Undergrad houses comprise six single bedrooms, a common room, a kitchen and two bathrooms, although only one of them has a shower (and it's not the kitchen …). Fees for 2008/09 are £2,110, easily half the price of any other uni accommodation, and include rent, heating, electricity, internet and any run of the mill repairs. You can stay in your house from the first Saturday of Orientation Week until the Saturday after the end of the exam period in May – there's no moving out over Christmas or Easter.
Houses follow the same template but differ in terms of how far renovations have got, most noticeably in the kitchen. The kitchen has an electric cooker, microwave, fridge, freezer, kettle, assorted pans and baking sheets, a basin and a couple of drainer things for the sink. You'll have to provide crockery, cutlery, mugs, utensils and a toaster if you don't want to use the grill in the oven. You should get your own cupboard, half a shelf in the fridge and a small amount of space in the freezer. There are six stools but not quite enough room for everyone to sit down, so meals for several people should be planned in the common room. More than two or three people trying to cook at the same time gets hazardous.
The common room features assorted seating for six and a small table. Don't hope for much. Décor throughout is beige and blue and fairly Spartan, but you can use posters to brighten things up (these aren't officially allowed, but blutack doesn't mark the walls). You can also hook up a TV in here, but you'll need to pay the licence fee yourself or co-ordinate paying it with your housemates.
You'll also get an iron, ironing board, clothes airer, broom, dust pan and brush, mop and vacuum cleaner, but other cleaning items (e.g. cloths, washing up liquid, toilet cleaner) have to be provided by the residents.
Bedrooms
Each bedroom contains a single bed, a wardrobe with a mirror, a bookcase (or two), a small chest of drawers and a desk with a desk lamp. If you only have one bookcase, you may have access to your notice board. There are a couple of plug sockets and one radiator (heating is generally fine in Albany, and all windows are double-glazed). There's not much room for anything apart from your furniture, but there's storage space under your bed and on top of your wardrobe. There's also space at the top of the stairs, but storing stuff there is frowned upon in inspections (the space under the stairs is locked). A quilt and pillow are provided, as well as a blanket for colder nights, but you'll need your own bed linen.
Staff and Inspections
Houses are inspected about once a month, but individual bedrooms usually aren't checked. They don't tend to be too harsh as long as everything is reasonably clean, but definitely don't have any forbidden items (bikes, candles, door stops, etc.) lurking around. Houses which fail inspection are given a re-inspection a week later. The uni can then take action if you still don't meet standards. They'll also check for anything faulty or broken, but you can go to the office at any point to report problems. The office is allegedly open from 8.45am-1pm Mon-Fri, but you won't always find anyone in it. That said, repairs are usually carried out pretty quickly, and you can always ring DRA during office hours (x7100) or drop them an email.
In 2008/09 a Warden has been reintroduced to Albany Park; she is responsible for discipline issues but is also keen to be seen as a point of contact for student problems or queries. There are also four Residence Assistants who live in Albany and are responsible for student welfare and discipline; one will always be on duty outside office hours (x7099). Their new website can be found here. If all else fails, you can contact Estates on x3985 for major urgent repairs (e.g. no heating), or Student Support (x2720) for welfare issues.
Albany also has a committee made up of and voted for by students (senior student, treasurer, secretary, sports rep, charities rep, environmental rep, etc.). They organise events within the residence and can help with problems relating to their specific remit. Although out of date the page listing committee members can be found here.
The best way to stay up to date with the committee and goings on in Albany is through the Facebook group. You need to be in the University of St Andrews network to join, but it will be the best thing you've ever done as an Albanian if you do join. The committee also send out regular emails, but the amounts of these may or may not be reduced depending on the warden's mood, so join the group to be kept up to date regularly.
Facilities
There are two rooms to the laundry, which has in total seven washers and seven dryers, of debatable quality. A 40 minute wash costs £1.80 - save up your change - and a 50 minute drying cycle costs £1. Access is by key card, so you can do your laundry any time.
A new cycle shed was built in 2007, near the entrance. Access is by code.
There are some 12 computers and a temperamental printer in the computer room. Albany should have an IT rep to contact if things go wrong. Access is by (a different) code.
Under the computer room is the 'new for 2007/08' common room. It features a pool table (50p a game) and drinks/snacks machine, and at the time of writing is still being added to by the committee. Access is by key card.
There are recycling points in both Albany car parks where you can recycle paper, cardboard, glass, cans, plastic bottles and clothes. If you have anything else to recycle it's best to head to the big recycling point at Morrisons.
Atmosphere
The best time to meet your fellow residents is during Orientation Week at the events put on by the hall committee. Some of these now involve alcohol other than Tennants, and some no alcohol at all. These events aren't restricted to freshers' week, but tend to tail off as the year continues. It's really down to that year's committee (which you can run for if you get into Albany for a second year). Past events include multiple inter-hall sporting events, the Albany clean-up, Race to Anstruther and the Albany Ball (introduced in 2007, this ball offers a night of food, drink and dancing in a seafront hotel for a fiver).
Parties in Albany are ideally situated for migration to the beach for bonfires and/or December skinny-dipping. There's also grassy space outside most houses, but be aware of your neighbours if you're planning a big bash.
Outside of Orientation Week it can feel hard to meet people, as everyone is divided into houses and there are no communal meals as in traditional halls. Get to know your housemates and knock on the doors of the houses next to and opposite you at the beginning of the year. Freshers are normally placed in (single-sex) houses together. In the past returning students have applied singly or in groups of up to six, but applications for 2008/09 were only open to groups of six or single applicants. There are also quite a few international students and JSA/JYA students dotted around. Albany might be a good option for the latter who don't fancy a traditional hall with a large majority of first years.
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