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HOUSING GUIDE
RED FACED Union manager, David Hooper, had to face the music when The Waterfront was forced to stay closed on Good Friday.
UNDERGRADUATES across UEA have been left reeling from a change in the structure of the academic year. For Registry chiefs have rought forward the as- .----By----. Niall Hampton sessment period for the Spring semester with the result that teaching time has have more time to do our revibeen cut by one week. sion: And as a result, thousands of students are facing a frantic three weeks as they prepare for the onset of exams with fewer seminars and lectures than those given in the Autumn se-
mester. One third year EAS student echoed the sentiment of many of his colleagues. "I think it's an absolute disgrace", he said. "You've got less time to prepare for exams, especially if you're working on a topic not covered until the end of the course." "I don't understand why it should be different across the two semesters, especially when there's two weeks spare at the end of the year. "Surely that time could be used a bit better and we could
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Others thought the workload "unreasonable", especially when having to find a job at Easter, then come back and face assessment within three weeks when more time should have been allocated. Yet Registry bosses claim the change in timetabling was necessary to fit assessment and grading within the semester, and in the case of third year students, to publish their final degree classifications before June
16. They blamed individual schools of study for not passing on the information, which they s~id was available last year. "I understand students complaining about this, and if so can only apologise' , said Academic Registrar, DrTony Rich.
"But it's a failure of communication within schools. "Information about the change was told to be passed on in October 1994 and then again in January.· He added, "Anyone with real difficulties should raise them with their school administration, and I hope they will treat genuine cases of difficulty fairly.· But DJ Owen, Union Academic Officer, condemned the University's attitude, stating it was an "absolute disgrace.· "it's about time somebody in the University took responsibility for something", he said. "I don't know how it's thinkable that a decision can be made in October to bring forward the exam timetable by a week and for it not to occur to anyone to tell the students. "lt is quite simply ridiculous and is no way to run a university." And he added, "What angers me is that they've left themselves with too little time to go back on that decision, and the students as usual are left stuck with that:
The bungling boss- sole licensee of the Union's City entertainments venue - may have missed out on up to £10,000 in takings ... by failing to apply for a licence to open on the festive Easter day. For a quirk in Norwich's laws means that on Good Friday, a special licence to trade has to be applied for prior to opening. And to make matters worse, resident club Milky Lunch had planned to hold their first birthday bash with a host of top DJs, and were expecting a sell-out crowd of more than 900 clubbers. But Mr Hooper, who is responsible for all the Union's commercial services, was away at a conference and realised his blunder too late to be able to do anything. Said Milky Lunch promoter Jay Pate!, "Obviously we're disappointed; it doesn't make us look very organised, and it certainly hasn't done any good for our clientele." He and his eo-promoter, Andy Bunn, were faced with a catalogue of problems when they heard of the disaster. They: • immediately had to shell out around £500 in 'cancellation' publicity, ehad to transfer the event to the 200 capacity Zoom nightclub, on Prince of Wales Road, and ewere faced with a 'knock-on effect' when fewer than usual punters turned up at their Waterfront event on the following Friday.
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Union•s Easter licence gaffe could cost£ l Ok
But one of David Hooper's bosses, Sabbatical Union Finance Officer, John Holmes, moved to allay their fears, even though he admitted that the incident was "an embarrassment." "It was money we couldn't afford to lose, and I hope it hasn't done too much damage, especially seeing as January, February and March were such good months for The Waterfront". But John was reluctant to solely blame Mr Hooper, stating: "It was an oversight of the management." Discussion is now under way between the Union and Milky Lunch about the payment of compensa-
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tion . Despite the Good Friday gaffe, both Jay and Andy have reitera~e<! their intention to carry on staging their events at The Waterfront, although they feel that things could be better organised. They say they are committed to putting both The Waterfront and Norwich firmly on the club map.