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ISSUE 703 14 OCT 2019 exepose.com @Exepose
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1987
Guild closes St. Luke’s Guild Shop without consulting students
Decision was made by Guild Trustees before start of the new academic year Sabbatical Officers “were not told in time” about closure Over 4,000 students left without access to stash and stationery on campus
Image: Scarlett Parr-Reid
Aaron Loose Editor
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HE Students’ Guild has accepted their decision to close the St. Luke’s Guild Shop was poorly communicated to the 4,037 students who use the campus’s services. No emails or official notices were distributed to students to declare the closure. The Guild’s Board of Trustees decided to close G47 in preparation for the 2019/20 academic year, before the current student leadership team were in office. Image: Aaron Loose
However, the closure was not discussed by the St. Luke’s Executive Council, who are responsible for St. Luke’s representation, until 2 October, over three weeks into the new term. Action logs taken from the St. Luke’s Executive meeting record Sunday Blake, VP Postgraduate, admitting the Sabbatical Officers were “not told in time” about the decision. Katie Heard, VP Welfare & Diversity, added the Sabbs did “understand that if it was Streatham, there would be much more notice.” St. Luke’s students were disappoint-
ed by the lack of consultation. Many students did not learn about the closure until they saw the closed shop. Iain Logan, a second year Medicine undergraduate, told Exeposé: “I found out by walking up to the door to get a drink and realising there was nothing inside, with no notices explaining what was going on.” Logan added “I’m very disappointed. It was a great place to get a snack without having to join the increasingly long queues in the more expensive Cross-Keys. They also had a larger selection of snacks and useful stationery.
INTERVIEW
tain anywhere else on campus. “As a member of the Medical Sciences SSLC, I feel students would have benefited from a discussion about how best to use the space, considering our limited options on the seemingly forgotten campus.” A Students’ Guild spokesperson said: “The difficult decision to close the shop was taken to readdress the balance between the retail and membership services available to our membership...
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Surely a few more study spaces could have been found elsewhere without losing such a key utility in a small space.” Elinor Jones, a third year Medical Science undergraduate and a member of the Medical Sciences SSLC, further explained “as a student of St Luke’s Campus, I am disappointed at the lack of communication and consultation between the Guild, staff and students. Until its closure in the last few weeks the space was popular, a hub for activity and the opportunity to buy essentials from stash to stationery, items you cannot ob-
Image: Dennis Jarvis
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