Durham Rent Freeze!

Durham University

Durham

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Reply 20

Piggsil

chocolateflake99

Couldn't they have made it at a more likely time for people to be out of bed?

Who the hell is going to get up at 7am to freeze their ass off outside the DSU when the powers that be probably won't even listen anyway?

Cunning of the committee to think of that....."we'll have the meeting at a time when hardly anybody will want to get up!! Mwahaha!" :biggrin:

Durham University

Durham

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Reply 21

Itchynscratchy

I went, despite having a degree to do :biggrin:

Paying for it now though, need sleep but so much to do :frown:

Reply 22

Teehar

ditto to that scratchy, I am DYING here. anyway protest was great, was shocked by the number of Mildertians there, the main point being this was the start and it may have been 7am in the morning but hopefully the stuff we organise wont be at such a ridiculous time.

Reply 23

Agbonlaheto

http://www.durham21.co.uk/archive/archive.asp?ID=3317

with such an up-to-date news article on the breaking stories d21 gets more like the BBC every day

Reply 24

Teehar

And the 40 Butlerites get no mention.....
But its great that we've hit the news already, I just wish they would stop concentrating on colleges and realise this needs to be a university thing.

quote of the day:
"Who ate all the fees? Who ate all the fees? You fat bastard. You fat bastard. You ate all the fees"

Reply 25

salgueira

Yeah, there were like 4 socialist students and lots of people from Butler, who gets a paragraph? Ah well.

Meeting at 10am in the bar on Sunday, as says the facebook group. And socialist students are having a meeting on Monday night, I assume after the sit-in? I will go to that & ask about their plans. As much as they're trying to help/provide useful contacts I think the protest is in danger of being hijacked by the socialists like they did with the tuition fees march in London. We're trying to keep rent affordable, not have a revolution. (That can happen later...)

Reply 26

arkbar

There were a lot of Mildertians there, not bad.

Reply 27

socialist cook

salgueira

As much as they're trying to help/provide useful contacts I think the protest is in danger of being hijacked by the socialists like they did with the tuition fees march in London. We're trying to keep rent affordable, not have a revolution. (That can happen later...)

Hehe sounds like typical student politics happening all over again. :wink:

As to the poster who said, who would be up that early? My boyfriend who works in Durham was and saw the protesters on his way to work. He did point out that the people who he spoke to in work however didn't have much sympathy and just went along with the "bloody students" line again.

Reply 28

Shmerm

Most of my mates went. People were coming round Mildert all of thursday night telling us about it. I didn't go, but lots of my mates went. Also want to say well done to those from Butler who went... despite you lot being offered a deal to try and get you on board. But why did so many other Colleges not know about this? I would like to question the motives of those JCR Presidents who didn't want their JCR members to know. If Neil had been like that, we'd have been paying nearer 10% more.

And if all the colleges had been told, there would have been 3 or 4 times as many people there. This suggests to me that some of the Presidents didn't seem to disagree with the way it was handled, as they would just have let it happen.

Can anyone from a College who wasn't told about this tell me if they'd have prefered to know, and would perhaps have gone down there?

Reply 29

Fields

Castle were not told. This thread was the first I heard about it. Not that I would have bothered getting up at that stupid hour of the morning anyway.

Reply 30

salgueira

I knew it!

From the facebook group:

There will be a meeting for anyone interested in this on Monday night in Cuth's Dining Hall at 8PM -THIS MEETING IS NOT AFFILIATED TO ANY GROUP OR POLITICAL POSITION

Yet there are socialist student posters ALL OVER TOWN today stating that they are chairing the meeting.

I put up the 'Rent Freeze' posters around Hild Bede, DSU and Elvet Riverside but ran out of blu-takk so there aren't so many. They're just advertising the facebook group.

Reply 31

hanadeka2002

socialist cook

Hehe sounds like typical student politics happening all over again. :wink:

I think the local people/those who work in Durham should think about how much money we bring in to the city before complaining about 'bloody students'. Without us so many places would go out of business and so many jobs would be lost....

I understand that some students take part in stupid behaviour but tarring everyone with the same brush is just out of order,especially in this case,when the students are merely protesting against an issue which seriously affects them!

Even taxi drivers...ask them to come to a Durham college and it's either 'sorry we're busy' or they have an absolutely disgusting attitude,no pleases or thank yous.They need to realise that our money is as good as anyone elses.

Also I agree with Mattmoy_2000 about the 'paying customers' thing. The porters in Collingwood will happily sit and watch Hollyoaks all night but if you dare ask them to do anything they have a sarcastic and really quite rude attitude towards you. I remember asking them to change my light as it broke,a week later it still hadn't been changed so I went to ask about it and the guy hadn't even noted it in the book!

I think they need to realise we are paying their wages!

Reply 32

salgueira

Actually, wouldn't it be in local people's interest if college rent goes through the roof? If people can't afford to live in college they are going to look for cheaper private landlords.

Reply 33

Mattmoy_2000

It'll benefit private landlords (many of whom aren't from Durham) because it'll mean that they can charge more rent and still be competitive in comparison to collegiate accommodation.

Reply 34

Teehar

What most people dont realise is that its irrelevant if theyre living out. if you choose to live out and the number of students who mkae the same choice dramatically increases because of the higher rents in college, the rents for local housing will also increase.

Reply 35

salgueira

And that would hurt everyone, not only students. (Well, apart from rich buy-to-let landlord types who never fix their properties.)

A bit of honesty from the university would be nice. They keep going over-budget on building projects and aren't the best cash handlers in the world. They need to hire someone with experience of budgeting and finance in a REAL company, that has to make a profit and not piss off its customers. In the market, a company can't call its customers 'childish' for complaining about prices they can't afford, unless it wants to go under. Although it's a university, not a private company, when this kind of money is going into it you expect a decent quality of service.

Whatever Mary's president may say, we have not got a victory yet, as long as students are being priced out of college accomodation. We need a rent freeze at the very least while the university investigates cost-cutting measures. I just don't see how they can possibly levy so much money from the students and still complain for lack of funds!

Reply 36

arkbar

A university wouldnt really operate as a real company, because it would be under inspection for having 100% of the market in first year accomodation...

Reply 37

Teehar

lol to monopolisation point,

Anyway, I think people need to recognise this is a long term issue that we need to begin to deal with this year. at the same time I very much doubt we will get 0% rent freeze across the board, however I will know I didnt sacrifice my principles and tried to uphold my morals without taking the stance that its unrealistic. At the end of the day bargaining doesnt work with us going to the table and sticking to 0%, I can genuinely say I would be happy with a raise in line with inflation, simply because the university would NEVER go for 0% because of the precedent it would set.

However people are being naive in assuming we can simply go to the table and say "lets compromise" when we have no bargaining power. We have 14,000 students which is potentially explosive but everyone has failed to bring this as a bargaining chip to the table, holding protests, IMO, shows that we do have reason to ask them to come down and there will potnetially be consequences if they dont.

What we also need to recognise is that there will be differences of opinion on this issue and castrating those that dont support our cause will only damage any high ground we hold.

Reply 38

dave134

arkbar

A university wouldnt really operate as a real company, because it would be under inspection for having 100% of the market in first year accomodation...

And that is where the university is running a very big risk by raising the rent ( or even having at anything near the level it is )

Some people I know are planning on complaining to either OIAHE formally, or OFFA informally on the grounds that by having rent above the student loan level is a serious and real barrier to access when coupled with the compulsion to live in in your first year.

Both bodies can force the university to freeze/drop rent or give up its monopoly on first year accomodation.

Reply 39

socialist cook

I find it sad, but not unpredictable that this is now going to be ignored by a lot of students because of the socialist student takeover of the cause. :frown: