This week the College agreed to fund the refurbishment of rooms above The Packhorse. Co-President, Societies and Media, Pippa Gentry reveals all.
Something we hear time and time again from student groups is ‘there aren’t enough rooms for us to book’, ‘the room booking system makes me cry’, or ‘I was forced to hold a society meeting in a cupboard’, all of which I’m sure anyone who has the responsibility of booking rooms for student activities can identify with.
This problem is seemingly never-ending (and ever-expanding) as the number of groups grows and as each strives harder to put on more and more events.
For a long time the Students’ Union has been trying to solve this problem, attempts that date far beyond my measly seven months in office, and we finally have some good news to share with you!
New Space For Students
Last week, we got confirmation that the College will provide funding to refurbish the top floor of The Packhorse (currently The Monkey’s Forehead) into high quality space for students, students groups and members of the wider College community to book out during the day and in the evenings.
There will be three rooms in total which can be booked for anything from committee meetings to debates - completely for free at any time of day AND at weekends. The best thing about this news is that it creates some really nice spaces for student groups, with obviously the added perk of being able to pop downstairs for a pint of coke and portion of chips mid-meeting!
The exact specifications of the rooms aren’t final yet, so if you have any ideas or suggestions about what these rooms should look like or feature please do get in contact with me, I would love to hear your thoughts! You can see what they look like stripped back to their bare bones in the photos below.
We’ll be keeping you updated with further information on the launch of The Packhorse as it becomes available, but we wanted to share this news as soon as we got the go ahead from College!
Pippa Gentry, Co-President, Societies & Media
PS. If you love the idea of being involved in projects like this that make life better for students, keep your eyes peeled for election nominations opening on Monday 30 January!
