Improving halls in a way that works

[Tweedle-Dum]

Ladies and Gentlemens, at some point in your life, you've probably experienced the conditions under which the University of Saint Andrews Residential and Business Services department deems as acceptable accomodation.

The bloated behomoth, supported by the Student Association's internal bickering and electioneering has left the monster which exists to provide in the summer average lodgings for golf and artsy types free to piss on the students the University claim duty of care over.

The pissy provision of undertrained wardens is insanely repeated year on year, with them being incredibly nice but totally unable to help with any real problems.

The staff are paid above minimum wage in a captive job market where students whose parents aren't rich need to work to pay for rents kept artificially high by ResBus whether University owned or private.

ResBus staff act in a manner consistent with third reich generals, and continually sass those who pay their wages with the knowlede that they won't get fired without a collapse of regime.

Cleaners aren't contracted to clean anything remotely difficult, and are paid for chatting, drinking tea, and talking about the private sexual exploits of students, one of which recently complained because she believed that there were too many condoms in the bins she was emptying.

The ineficiency of hall committees lead by the least offensive candidate standing for the post of senior student NEVER take up their right under the 1994 Eduation act and earlier acts to act in a representative committee for the students, instead bowing to every residencial assistant's whim (clean this up, take attendance during fire alarms, etc.)

Food provisions are ridiculous, with the staff providing non-recyclable single use plates, cups and cutlerry when they don't feel like washing up, and staff are paid for an entire hour more than they are working, because there isn't enough of a job to do. Knowing what is good and what is not, because they've been here forever, Residencial assistants insist on ordering Thai Green Vegetable Curry for dinner, either through spite or retardation. Chefs are allowed to thicken soup with potato through sheer bloody mindedness because there is nowhere you can go if you want to leave (especially first year and JS/YAstudents).

There are many more things which can be improved if people care to list them, so I ask, what would you change and how?




[hr]Live by the sword, die by the arrow.

[David Bean]

Firstly, I think it's hard to blame the Students' Association and hall committees for the fact that they operate essentially without any bargaining power; I'd like to know specifically what you think they aren't doing that they should be. Second, so far as the administrative staff are concerned, I do agree that there are certain problems, but it isn't reasonable simultaneously to argue for increased performance and lower pay. Yes, they have breaks, as does everyone, and the University pays more than the minimum wage because it's trying to generate harmony within the wider community - that, at least, is what Derek Watson would say if you asked him, and the argument is at least not completely devoid of merit.

[hr]"For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?- Matthew 16:26

[flossy]

I'm glad to know that my debt is helping bridge the town-gown gap.

I honestly think that the wardennial staff should be sent on a customer care course. We are customers of this system and deserve to be treated as such. I don't like the fact that when two of my mates came across to visit me on a Sunday afternoon, they were greeted with a "What do you want?".

[spockette]

I agree that the wardennial staff SUCKS. I vividly recall last semester, when I had to get taken into hospital and a certain person bitched and moaned at me because he had to phone an ambulance and then direct the paramedics to my room, which must've been a major effort on his part, and really, how dare I have the audacity to need an ambulance in the first place?

So, yeah, the wardennial staff sucks, and at the very least, need sensitivity training or some such...

[hr]http://standrews.thefacebook.com/profile.php?id=37100069

[tintin]

Have you ever considered writing for a left-wing propaganda machine Tweedle-Dum - you'd be really good at it!

[Tweedle-Dum]

[s]tintin wrote on 11:10, 17th Mar 2005:
Have you ever considered writing for a left-wing propaganda machine Tweedle-Dum - you'd be really good at it!


Left wing propeganda? I don't see politics coming in to this, or bringing the slightest bit of help to the case that ResBus are exploiting a monopolistic position. Real solutions would be nicer.

As for bargaining, the Hall committee has a large amount of bargaining power as regards the St Andrews experience, refusal to do anything or look good reflects on the University.

[hr]
Live by the sword, die by the arrow.

[Light the Rag]

Have you asked the people responsible about the details of the staff's contracts?

Have you questioned the wardennial staff about their training, or ever put it to test?

Did you stand for Senior Student, so that you could make a difference?

What else would you thicken soup with? Would you prefer to use modified starch or other chemicals? Potatoes have been used to thicken sauce for years. But considering you set the fire alarm off when you cook and the hall has to be evacuated, it's not surprising that you don't know about cooking.

[pea]

Er, wasn't there paper plates/plastic cutlery etc because the water had been switched off on North Street and therefore there was none to wash up with?

[Light the Rag]

Are you just talking shit, Tweedle Dum?

[liliputian]

Yes he did run for Senior Student.
He didn't win. This post is a continuation of his hecklings speech.

And just so you know, Tweedle Dum - the RMs like to read The Sinner in their spare time, and they have seen what you have written. I'm sure they'll take it into great consideration...

[hr]i know you want the sin but not the sinner...

[Prophet Tenebrae]

It's a well known fact that all great political movements, including communism and facism started from ill-advised ego-centric rants on the Sinner.

And as long as they continue to make the earth shattering impact that they do - people should continue to make them.

[quarterstaff]

[s]liliputian wrote on 16:12, 17th Mar 2005:
Yes he did run for Senior Student.
He didn't win. This post is a continuation of his hecklings speech.

And just so you know, Tweedle Dum - the RMs like to read The Sinner in their spare time, and they have seen what you have written. I'm sure they'll take it into great consideration...

[hr][i]i know you want the sin but not the sinner...
[/i]

glad to see you are concerned with the views of all the students who are your constituents, miss association socs officer.

i personally think its great to see that jules is genuinely passionate about this.

have to say that the halls system is a farce:

the RM's job is.... what exactly?
well, we have the cleaners who are in charge of cleaning, but don't clean.
the wardens are incharge of student welfare and needs (apparently though it seems that they actually are in charge of trying to control and contain us)
there is rocky who is, apparently in charge of repairs and maintenance - i dont see him out on the scaffolding doing builing works.
the chefs do the cooking
the wardens also, through some students control fire safety.

now, we can argue about how well these employees of ours, who look after the premises in which many of us live, actually do their jobs... and whether they deserve the good pay and easy conditions they get... BUT we can still give them job descriptions... WHAT ABOUT THE RM's???????

they dont have anything to do with the students - thats the warden and the committee... so they look after the building then, right? and the things it contains?

well, you pay for your rooms... its YOUR home... you have certain rights. so they dont really control all the building - they control the maintenance and upkeep of it, particularly its comunal facilities and areas.

BUT, arent the wardens the ones who police the corridors?

ok, so the RMs... they dont really conrtol the corridors.

in my mind... all that is left is -

coordination of other staff rotas; ensuring that bills are paid on time;
and, deciding when repairs are needed.

WELL... the head chef could organise his/her staff, the head cleaner could organise his/her... and the bills being paid on time... why do we need 2 or 3 or 4 people employed all year round to ensure this... a bloody computer program could do this!

and deciding when repairs are needed?! they have showed contempt to the plight of students putting up with shoddy conditions and workmanship.

so... WHAT do they do??

well, nothing that other staff couldnt be doing already. i know the RMs have to look towards costs, and cant do everythin they wish - but urely they could start saving money, so it can spent on the residents and customers that students ARE, by SACKING THEMSELVES.

[hr]
god damned mongolians!

[puzzled]

[s]liliputian wrote on 16:12, 17th Mar 2005:

And just so you know, Tweedle Dum - the RMs like to read The Sinner in their spare time, and they have seen what you have written. I'm sure they'll take it into great consideration...


I trust in their spare time at home and not in the office.
But seriously, could you clarify what you mean by 'take it into great consideration', as it sounds almost like a threat to me.

[Cain]

[s]quarterstaff wrote on 16:36, 17th Mar 2005:
glad to see you are concerned with the views of all the students who are your constituents, miss association socs officer.


How is Tweedle Dum one of Liliputian's consituents from her role as Association Societies Officer?

or are you confusing that with her role as Second Year Rep?

[hr]
I hold an element of surprise

[Al]

"we can argue about how well these employees of ours...actually do their jobs"

Repeating, ad nauseam, the fatuous notion that staff of the university are somehow employed by the students is pointless and only liable to make any fair points you wish to have considered equally laughable...

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.

[Tweedle-Dum]

[s]Al wrote on 17:32, 17th Mar 2005:
[i]"we can argue about how well these employees of ours...actually do their jobs"

Repeating, ad nauseam, the fatuous notion that staff of the university are somehow employed by the students is pointless and only liable to make any fair points you wish to have considered equally laughable...

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.
[/i]

To be frank, unlike the academics whose value is not to be measured by what they do for students, but what they do for the great quest of knowledge, the residential staff are employed soley to serve US. By paying the wages of members of staff, we, the students, are the direct employers of the staff of farcical chain of hotels owned by the University we like to call "halls."

Living in such conditions should lead us to treat it like a hotel: We should not have to list spurious damages in corridors or toilets, as the cleaners clean them every day, testing the lights once a day would hurt nobody. We should not have to eat rancid food, knowing full well that the people who make it are capapable of so much better, the chef should write the menu so that he has control of his job, and cooks what he likes cooking and is good at cooking rather than the delight which is "ploughman's lunch." (Do I look like a fucking ploughman; though chicken kiev for dinner, yay!). Quarterstaff, as usual, you have excelled yourself on the subject of residencial assistants and I need say no more. None of the easy measures, chef choosing menu, or at least helping, cleaners noting repairs in communal areas, damages being fixed within a reasonable period (no, several months is not acceptable for fixing a door handle).

I ran for Senior Student on a platform of representation, and, if elected to a position next year, I will work for that representation, but the problem is not insular.

On the point of the residencial assistants catching a glimpse of the sinner either during a teabreak from their busy schedule, or in their own time at home, they can take all these suggestions and act upon them in the way that the Union took up the points about it being "shit" on the Sinner and acted upon them. So suggest away, and with the RAs looking at it, they might take some of the advice.

[hr]
Live by the sword, die by the arrow.

[Al]

I am not suggesting that there are not entirely valid complaints over how the residences are run. The "service" has always been hit and miss. That said, suggesting that the students employ the residence staff work is nonsense.

[hr]Life is too important to be taken seriously.

[Tweedle-Dum]

qualify

[antisthenes]

It's not this nonsense of Co-operative Housing (create an election issue so that you can get re-elected, anyone?) we need - it's an RBS system that works for us. Tweedle-Dum and Quarterstaff hit the nail on the head - efficiency savings are attainable, with an increase in service. Will we get them? No, because Our Union would rather spend £7,000 on some referendum for something that is unlikely to happen(do we have any guarantee to the land?) than save some of the £7,000 a day that RBS saves on wages alone.

[Tweedle-Dum]

[s]antisthenes wrote on 19:18, 17th Mar 2005:
It's not this nonsense of Co-operative Housing (create an election issue so that you can get re-elected, anyone?) we need - it's an RBS system that works for us. Tweedle-Dum and Quarterstaff hit the nail on the head - efficiency savings are attainable, [i]with an increase in service. Will we get them? No, because Our Union would rather spend £7,000 on some referendum for something that is unlikely to happen(do we have any guarantee to the land?) than save some of the £7,000 a day that RBS saves on wages alone.
[/i]

Since the Union has lots of money it's not using, and £7,000 is a drop in the ocean, could they not spend a similar or greater amount on an efficiency study for ResBus, or they could do it themselves, it'd pay for itself.