The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!
Community chat for current Cambridge students and alumni.
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Catered halls at other universities often don't have cooking facilities either, for example one of the catered halls in Liverpool only has microwaves. Makes sense if you're near a canteen, but college houses without proper kitchens are a bit silly.(Original post by Craghyrax)
College accommodation is so mental
I don't understand why they're so anal about it. Or why students couldn't just group together and force them to give us ordinary facilities like students in other Universities get. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Mr Dactyl I've met students from a very wide range of Universities who all had proper ovens, freezers, work space and so on in their hall kitchens.
Of course they do, but everyone knows its bullcrap.(Original post by alex_hk90)
In regards to the limited cooking facilities, they have the standard excuse that they want everyone to eat in hall to "foster a community spirit across the college" (or something to that sentiment). -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Fire hazards are the reason as far as I know, but at Emma there's no attempt to work around it really, and a lot of the combi ovens have been replaced with microwaves, which there seems to be absolutely no reason for other than cost.
I think it's partly that the people in charge just don't think about the totality of kitchen facilities and what you can actually cook with access to only a microwave, and there's also an assumption that if you live in college you'll eat in hall for the majority of the time. That's a dangerous assumption because hall food is very restrictive for anybody vegetarian or with dietary requirements, and it would extremely unhealthy for me to eat there for all of my meals. My timetable also doesn't work with that - last term when I was doing evening rehearsals for my play I physically couldn't get to hall, and I would come home anywhere between 10 and midnight and have to go to my boyfriend's house to make my dinner.
It just adds this extra element of irritation to my day because there's no pleasure in eating if my diet is this restricted. I often have sandwiches for dinner because I can't face pasta or baked beans again. If I want to cook properly, or even just have a supermarket pizza or a Chinese ready meal I have to go somewhere else. I can't cook meat at all. Microwaveable food only makes up a very small portion of the supermarket, and it's surprising how many of the ready meals aren't microwaveable either. It's not like there's even another kitchen in my building that I could go to, as we all have our own little kitchens in our rooms. I have to walk to the other side of college and get a friend to let me in if I want to cook anything reasonable. I don't think it's a malicious oversight on the part of college, but I think there is an element of them not really being willing to sit down and say 'okay, how can we enable our students to feed themselves?'. Emma is really really good at looking after its students, but it does sometimes feel like they don't really let us look after ourselves. I think that's partly just me having come back from living completely on my own on my year abroad and having to adapt to the restrictions of college life though. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!That's what they go on and on about in Robinson. What they don't seem to realise is that the floors, walls and ceilings of the kitchens are red bricks. They. Don't. Burn.(Original post by around)
I always thought the fire hazard was the main reason. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!The fire hazard excuse is quite ridiculous - when I was at Selwyn, students had access to hobs but weren't allowed microwaves. At many other colleges, students have microwaves but are not allowed hobs. The reason given in BOTH instances is 'fire hazard'...
The real reason is that insurance polices arbitrarily define fire hazards completely differently.Last edited by scarlet ibis; 23-04-2012 at 16:57. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!As Amy said, I don't really buy the fire hazard thing. Why do other University halls of residence who are equally obsessed with regulations allow them facilities if it really was a problem?(Original post by Zoedotdot)
Fire hazards are the reason as far as I know, but at Emma there's no attempt to work around it really, and a lot of the combi ovens have been replaced with microwaves, which there seems to be absolutely no reason for other than cost.
I think it's partly that the people in charge just don't think about the totality of kitchen facilities and what you can actually cook with access to only a microwave, and there's also an assumption that if you live in college you'll eat in hall for the majority of the time. That's a dangerous assumption because hall food is very restrictive for anybody vegetarian or with dietary requirements, and it would extremely unhealthy for me to eat there for all of my meals. My timetable also doesn't work with that - last term when I was doing evening rehearsals for my play I physically couldn't get to hall, and I would come home anywhere between 10 and midnight and have to go to my boyfriend's house to make my dinner.
It just adds this extra element of irritation to my day because there's no pleasure in eating if my diet is this restricted. I often have sandwiches for dinner because I can't face pasta or baked beans again. If I want to cook properly, or even just have a supermarket pizza or a Chinese ready meal I have to go somewhere else. I can't cook meat at all. Microwaveable food only makes up a very small portion of the supermarket, and it's surprising how many of the ready meals aren't microwaveable either. It's not like there's even another kitchen in my building that I could go to, as we all have our own little kitchens in our rooms. I have to walk to the other side of college and get a friend to let me in if I want to cook anything reasonable. I don't think it's a malicious oversight on the part of college, but I think there is an element of them not really being willing to sit down and say 'okay, how can we enable our students to feed themselves?'. Emma is really really good at looking after its students, but it does sometimes feel like they don't really let us look after ourselves. I think that's partly just me having come back from living completely on my own on my year abroad and having to adapt to the restrictions of college life though.
I think that colleges want to force people to eat in hall to keep the costs of mass catering down. And I think they also don't want to shell out for the costs of paying bedders to do a much larger amount of cleaning as would be necessary if people cooked all the time.
I really like hall and I agree with encouraging people to eat there. However they could do what Peterhouse does (require you to eat 50% of evening meals there) while also providing facilities in accommodation. That way you'd have a lot more control over situations like you mention where you have something that clashes with hall, or you have special dietary requirements.
There was one time where I truly lost it and was rude to the staff. I feel bad but I was absolutely furious. It was Easter term of final year and for the second time in my whole degree someone had required me to put my essay in their pigeon hole at Jesus college. I had four essays in 7 days that week so I finished it at 5:40 and got to Jesus at 6 on the dot. However this meant I only got back to Peterhouse at 6:20 and by the time I got there there was literally only pizza. Nothing else.
I'm gluten intolerant, and in exam term I was solely reliant on hall for evening meals because of having no time to cook. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of requirement that they have to cater for certain categories but it was evident that night that whoever was in the kitchen couldn't be arsed. I was soooo angry!
Anyway... have you considered buying a halogen oven? They're not that expensive and you could hide it under your bed when not in use. I know someone who did that successfully.
Oh and Homerton students get proper kitchens! -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Ok so which of the posts preceding this did you miss?(Original post by BigFudamental)
I thought most colleges do!?
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Downing definitely do, we have hobs and ovens in most staircases - this year I've only got hotplates, but we're a tiny staircase and definitely in the minority. My house next year has two ovens (with 8 hobs) shared between 10 of us. It even has a proper table!(Original post by BigFudamental)
I thought most colleges do!?
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Ok, so by 'proper kitchen', I mean a kitchen that contains an oven, hobs and a freezer and a fridge that actually has space for everyone's stuff. Not just a microwave, toaster, kettle and tiny fridge.(Original post by BigFudamental)
Well exactly, I'm surprised that there's so much grief.
Since this whole discussion started with people sharing frustration over only having access to microwaves, or at most a hob, I'm a bit confused by your claim that everyone has a proper kitchen. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Yeh some of Trinity Hall's accommodation was amazing for this. It was a fairly big motivation in moving there. The house I lived in as a grad had four rooms and a kitchen on each floor which each had freezer, oven, hobs, etc. and a round table and chairs.(Original post by Topaz_eyes)
Downing definitely do, we have hobs and ovens in most staircases - this year I've only got hotplates, but we're a tiny staircase and definitely in the minority. My house next year has two ovens (with 8 hobs) shared between 10 of us. It even has a proper table!
The exception was the downstairs kitchen which was for everyone in the house, and that had a big dining room table, oodles of surface space and then all the appliances aforementioned. It was brilliant!
But yeh... you were lucky. Lots of colleges don't provide this, or only provide this in a minority of their housing on offer. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!My (admittedly limited to only a few unis) experience is that that's true of self-catered halls, but catered halls are less likely to be like that. That was the distinction I was trying to make. I mean, I certainly view living in college as catered, so it makes sense, but it doesn't make sense in college houses, hence why I mentioned them above.(Original post by Craghyrax)
Mr Dactyl I've met students from a very wide range of Universities who all had proper ovens, freezers, work space and so on in their hall kitchens. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Sorry, I didn't appreciate that your point was that we should compare catered accommodation with other catered accommodation. That's true to a degree!(Original post by Mr Dactyl)
My (admittedly limited to only a few unis) experience is that that's true of self-catered halls, but catered halls are less likely to be like that. That was the distinction I was trying to make. I mean, I certainly view living in college as catered, so it makes sense, but it doesn't make sense in college houses, hence why I mentioned them above.
However I think just pointing to non-catered University accommodation elsewhere is good enough to bust the 'fire hazard' crap. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!I said I thought that most colleges have proper kitchens. I don't know who's at what college, so for all I know that discussion was centered around two or three colleges.(Original post by Craghyrax)
Ok, so by 'proper kitchen', I mean a kitchen that contains an oven, hobs and a freezer and a fridge that actually has space for everyone's stuff. Not just a microwave, toaster, kettle and tiny fridge.
Since this whole discussion started with people sharing frustration over only having access to microwaves, or at most a hob, I'm a bit confused by your claim that everyone has a proper kitchen.Last edited by BigFudamental; 23-04-2012 at 19:50. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!**** me that means my 8th is around the corner(Original post by scarlet ibis)
Today is my 8th TSR birthday.
This thread has also been going for over 8 years now...
Edit I know my Join Date says Sept 07 but this is my second account.
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Do you know that? I got the impression that its a a fairly mixed bag... And even if it were just four or five colleges that's already 2000 odd really inconvenienced students.(Original post by BigFudamental)
I said I thought that most colleges have proper kitchens. I don't know who's at what college, so for all I know that discussion was centered around two or three colleges. -
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Re: The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!Quite. Colleges generally benefit financially from having students eat in hall, as they don't have to pay to provide decent cooking facilities (which, if students were to use them regularly, would result in a loss of revenue from hall...). I know that at least up until a couple of years ago (not sure if it's still the case), Caius made a net gain from Hall, as the number of students multiplied by the number of dinner tickets each was obliged to buy was greater than the dining hall's capacity ...nice little earner there(Original post by Craghyrax)
I think that colleges want to force people to eat in hall to keep the costs of mass catering down. And I think they also don't want to shell out for the costs of paying bedders to do a much larger amount of cleaning as would be necessary if people cooked all the time.
