Question 13 When asked What could be provided? , non of the students had any suggestions. 4. 3 STAFF BASED STUDY. The staff-based study was completed in two parts; informal interviews, and secondary data in the forms of the minutes of meetings. 4. 3. 1 SECONDARY DATA Any secondary information contains considerable bias. Minutes of meetings are an interpretation and summary of what is said. The information is then interpreted by the researcher. Because of the high level of bias involved with interpretation, the emphasis was placed upon the action followed up from the meeting.
Unfortunately the CCPC has not met in the last four years, and it was decided that any information that contained within previous minutes would not be relevant to this study. However, a meeting was held on the 27th October 1998, between the College Club committee, the Academic Registrar, the Chief-of-Staff and the Deputy Principal. These minutes can be found in Annex F. The meeting covered seven main topics; the meeting itself the post of Bar Manager the opening times the culture property entrance i. e. membership funding.
The meeting began by stressing the importance that future meetings should take place… on a regular basis. Between October and March, no further meetings have taken place. One had been planned for the beginning of December, but it had to be cancelled due to prior engagements of the staff. A paid Bar Manager was discussed at length with the job description (Annex G), being based upon the hours of 12:00 until 15:00, Monday to Wednesday to cover the lunch time openings. The outcome of the discussion was that the funding would be provided by Prof.
Brown, the Deputy Principal to pay for the post, for one year. The position was advertised around the campus, and in the local area, but to no avail. As such, the lunch time openings are still being run by a student. The subject of the opening times was discussed at length with the students stressing that attendance was reduced due to the earlier closing, but the staff were adamant that there was no possibility of reverting to the original times. The staff expressed their wish that the parties were moved onto a Friday night so that the following day’s lectures would not be affected.
The committee expressed their concerns over the funding for these parties, and Prof. Brown offered to provide the funding. Three parties were held on Fridays, the first being on Halloween. The success of these were limited, with approximately 70 people attending each. The future likelihood of success was likely to be limited, as identified when the students were questioned (Fig. 4. 4), and therefore the College Club committee took the decision that the Friday events would not be continued in the Spring term. Culture was the next item to be discussed.
It was noted that the student body saw the club as being a facility for after-hours drinking. It was acknowledged that this would take some time to change. It was suggested that if we increase the facilities in the club, then people would use it more often. Again the question of funding arose. It was brought to the attention of the committee that there was a fund that could be used for such items and that a request should be made. The Bar Manager did submit a bid in the order of i?? 2000 for some sound and lighting equipment, unfortunately the proposal was not accepted, and no money was received.
It was the discussions about membership to the club in this meeting, that led to the inclusion of the relevant question in the student study. The meeting ended with the club remaining officially non-rank conscience but it later came to the attention of the College Club committee that the majority of the people on the short courses, similarly the other ranks were told that the club was not for their use (College Club minutes Dec 1998). As such no decision was made in the meeting to restrict the membership, but someone decided to tell people otherwise.
The area of funding was brought up continually throughout the meeting with the College Club committee highlighting the fact that extra costs are being incurred because of the students living in Swindon. The final point that was made was that the College Club was not there to make money. The success measurement was not profit, but a positive balance of payments.. (Minutes, dated 27/10/98) 4. 3. 2 INFORMAL INTERVIEWS The informal interviews were carried out in order to identify whether any member of staff could suggest events that the College Club could host.
This part of the study focused on those members of staff who had daily interaction with the students The main suggestion came from the Student Co-ordinator. This post involves interaction with not only the undergraduate students, but also the postgraduates and the families of those attached to the college. A new initiative was starting in the beginning of the Michealmas term, for a Families Group to be formed. The initially used the Mess to meet in, but found that it was not suitable, and was quite expensive. The College Club on the other hand, provided a large area for the children to play in, a seated area and the facility for refreshments.
The only cost that would be incurred would be people to run the bar if required. Since the idea was suggested, the Families Group have used the College Club every Wednesday morning as a informal meeting place, and once a month for a larger social event. The other suggestion was to use the College Club as a venue for the lunches when there were UCAS visits, i. e. prospective students visiting the college. Again the advantage of the College Club over other venues on college is that it has a large area so seating can be arranged, but also, it is the only student area that is on the college grounds.
This again was taken aboard as a suggestion and has been implemented successfully, although some more furniture would be advantageous. 4. 4 CONCLUSION Although the students were not overly enthused with the College Club facilities, the results were encouraging on the whole. The attraction of the College Club seems, from the results, to be the cost of the drinks, and as a facility to meet friends. The entertainment did not rate highly on a Wednesday night and it did not seem to be a deciding factor when people considered whether or not they would attend Friday night functions.
As a facility for lunch-times, the College Club did not rate highly. The provision of hot drinks, food nor longer opening hours did not encourage it’s use. The staff based study identified that the college hierarchy were in favour of the club being used during the lunch-times, and even offered to fund the post for a paid Bar Manager. The other two suggestions from the general staff emerged a success, and they seemed to have empathy for what was trying to be achieved.
However, those in the College hierarchy, were not overly supportive, especially where the Wednesday night parties were concerned. They were ready to point out the problems with the College Club but did not seem concerned that the solutions that they came up with were not productive.
