{"id":1412,"date":"2020-10-28T10:10:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T10:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2021-02-25T10:36:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T10:36:40","slug":"you-are-ordered-to-return-whether-you-want-to-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/10\/28\/you-are-ordered-to-return-whether-you-want-to-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"You Are Ordered to Return Whether You Want to or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spare a thought for our returning second-, third- and fourth-year students; particularly those with rooms on campus this year. It seems that, whilst first-years were offered rooms on relatively flexible terms this year, including the option of studying remotely over Michaelmas Term and only beginning to pay rent after Christmas, returners are being held strictly to the conditions they signed back in December. The university’s stance is: You signed for the room, so you’ll pay for it from October, whether you’re occupying it or not.<\/q> Students who decided to study away from campus, and hence declined to start paying rent, are reportedly now receiving formal letters demanding payment from college accommodation staff.<\/p>\n

The University makes it clear in Our Promise<\/cite> to new students:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/our-promise\/<\/a><\/p>\n

that for those unable to join us on campus in September, a warm welcome will await you later in the year<\/q>. Specifically, for all new students, accommodation contracts will only begin when students collect their keys, which means that if you need to move in later than expected, accommodation fees for the period before you arrive will be waived.<\/q> What about returning students, though?<\/p>\n

The official terms and conditions, at:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/accommodation\/terms-and-conditions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

make a strict distinction between contracts accepted on or after 23 July, where deposits will be returned if the agreement is made remotely and not completed by the collection of the keys in the presence of the Lancaster University member of staff<\/q>, and contracts accepted before 23 July, where no such exception applies. Hence our promise<\/q> to returners seems to be pay up or else<\/q>, despite the goods not exactly being supplied as originally promised.<\/p>\n

The city councillors for the campus have pressed senior university officers on this point, most recently on 22 October:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LancsUniLabourCllrs\/posts\/1571437339725303<\/a><\/p>\n

The councillors feel that no one should have to pay for accommodation they are not living in<\/q>. As reasonable as that sounds, it appears that Lancaster University begs to differ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spare a thought for our returning second-, third- and fourth-year students; particularly those with rooms on campus this year. It seems that, whilst first-years were offered rooms on relatively flexible terms this year, including the option of studying remotely over … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[572,13,601],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-facilities","tag-issue-195"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-mM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1277,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/06\/19\/cancel-the-rent\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":0},"title":"Cancel the Rent","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A contributed report from your socially distanced subtext correspondent Student members of ACORN, the tenants and community union, put up a banner saying cancel the rent above the University underpass, and cancel the rent and housing is health posters onto white boards across campus on Monday 25 May, as part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1487,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/struck-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":1},"title":"Struck Off","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Lancaster's student rent strike, which saw thousands of learners organise remotely to challenge the University's insistence that they pay for campus rooms that they weren't using, ended last week. The Director of Finance reported, at the Vice-Chancellor's all-staff meeting on 29 January, that 2,000 students had accepted management's initial offer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1490,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/campus-update-quieter-but-not-that-quiet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":2},"title":"Campus Update: Quieter, But Not That Quiet","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"What's campus like this term, then? With even fewer of us likely to be visiting any time soon, your intrepid correspondent reports. You might expect the answer to be empty, but, despite what you may have read about everyone staying in their parental homes until March, there are still plenty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1485,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/02\/19\/diary-of-a-rent-strike-organiser\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":3},"title":"Diary of a Rent Strike Organiser","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed article by Jude Rowley Lancaster students have spent the last five weeks calling on University management to cut the rent and start taking student wellbeing seriously. When the pandemic hit last March, students \u2014 fed-up with being abandoned by University management and following in the footsteps of their predecessors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/shart-attack-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":4},"title":"SHART ATTACK","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"FROM: Mike M. Shart, VC, Lune Valley Enterprise University (LuVE-U). TO: Jacob Woolly, President, LuVE-U Student Experience Coordination Unit. CC: Hewlett Venkklinne, Lead Negotiator: External Cognizance. SUBJECT: Rent increases. Dear Jacob, Please see attached the official university response to the rent complaints. ** LuVE-U has some of the best student\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "shart attack"","block_context":{"text":"shart attack","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/shart-attack\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":219,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/the-rent-is-too-damn-high\/","url_meta":{"origin":1412,"position":5},"title":"THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Visitors to campus in recent days may have been rather baffled by the amount of pasta being handed out to passers-by. Those in the know, however, may well have been pleased to see some protest activity from the Students\u2019 Union around an issue that clearly matters to students. The issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1436,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}