We aren’t so nimbyist as to complain about the eyesore that campus has become or so stupid as to think that building works can be completed without a bit of disruption, but we draw the line at people being unable to work. As reported in subtext 166, Bowland North spent the tail end of summer covered in polythene to be sandblasted, blocking out all natural light. With no warning as to what work was even being done on the building, some staff members rather innocently left their windows open, leading to numerous colleagues spluttering and choking in the dust filled corridors.
Meanwhile, a disabled toilet was carpeted in stone dust and written off for the day, because its window couldn’t close.
But never mind the staff – the university is all about the students, and about providing a top ten educational experience. In the nine-and-a-half-grand-feez climate, students deserve to have their sessions spruced up a bit. Spruced up they most assuredly have been, with the intense seismic episodes, deafening crashes, strange chemical smells, dust showers, and contractors popping in to check the ceilings haven’t caved in proving to be a welcome addition to the learning experience. Yes, Fylde is the place to be if you want your learning to be exciting, but students who find learning boring may have enjoyed their sessions in the Charles Carter building, where a large generator was drowning out everything anyone was saying. In many cases, students and lecturers abandoned their sessions entirely in search of somewhere else. If they fancied moving into Management School Lecture theatres 5-8, they were bitterly disappointed. Apart from some turf being removed, seemingly nothing was done to it for the entirety of Michaelmas term. Why it was completely closed for all of that time, as we reported in subtext 171, was anybody’s guess…
… Until subtext 177, when we revealed that everything stopped because the project turned out to cost more than originally quoted. So work will resume in January 2019. Great. Hopefully they’ll get it right on the second attempt, rather than on the third, which was the case for some paving stones on the south end of campus. Cancelling or suspending part of a vast building project for financial reasons causes us to question how well this project has been managed. Doing so to make sure campus is going to be at all navigable by the start of 18-19, as is the case with the cancellation of the ‘Wetlands Bridge’ project near the Charles Carter building, leaves us in no doubt that this has been a logistical cock-up from one end to the other. See our earlier article, DISABILITIES for more commentary on the implications that all of this has had for disabled students.
We at subtext will continue to keep a close eye on how well promises are being kept and deadlines are being stuck to. Until then, please enjoy our efforts to do so from the last year, below.
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2017/10/12/the-building-plot-thickens/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2017/10/12/contributed-article-darwin-and-my-trousers/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2017/10/26/boom-shake-shake-shake-the-seminar-room/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2017/11/09/shake-rattle-and-roll/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/01/18/nurse-the-screens/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/02/01/a-dispatch-from-the-front-line/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/02/15/is-it-safe/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/03/01/tales-from-the-bunker/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/05/10/notes-from-the-potting-shed/
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/2018/05/10/social-construct/