Campus Matters July 2014

CAMPUS MATTERS

July 2014 The newsletter for Campus Services

IN THIS ISSUE

CUBO SUMMER CONFERENCE ’14 “Aspiring to excellence” was the theme of the CUBO (College & University Business Officers) summer conference held in the Windsor Building last week.

The CUBO Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony took place in Founder’s Dining Hall with Vice Principal Katie Normington giving an opening address and Ken Livingstone delivering a With opening remarks by the lively after dinner speech.

Principal, the conference boasted Frances Stone, CUBO Chair and a mix of leading industry experts Director of Residential and from different backgrounds. Commercial Services at the Speakers were tasked with bring- University of Leicester closed the ing fresh ideas that delegates conference, saying “Every aspect could take away and use in their of the conference has been own institutions to help improve fantastic. I would like to say a not only individual and team huge thank you on behalf of performance, but also that of an CUBO to Royal Holloway for entire business. hosting the event and particularly Panel discussions focussed on what student life might look like in the next decade and what products, services and environments need to be created for that future.

The Hub Food Festival Our chefs excelled at this year’s Street Festival cooking us mouth wateringly tasty bites from around the world. More on page 4.

to all the teams in Campus Services, for their hard work in ensuring that everything ran smoothly”.

Interactive workshops enabled delegates to network with each other and share best practice, while an exhibition with over 30 display stands offered a range of Gala Dinner in Founder’s Dining Hall student products and services.

Poppy Campaign Find out how our gardening team encouraged students to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War on page 3.

Porters .. or professional removal men?

Most of us probably know that our porters play an important part in helping with the many office moves around campus, but their role is much more diverse than that. Campus Matters caught up with Premises Manager, John Brannan to find out a little bit more about this small team and the vital role they play at the College.

“Last month we were asked to reconfigure the entire Principal’s corridor in just one morning and during the floods back in February, we had to set up Imagine as a temporary classroom for local school children at short notice”.

As well as office moves, our porters are responsible for removing Waste Electrical Equipment (WEE) including batteries, keyboards and PCs and ensuring that the PCs are sent to charity.

They also play a vital role in re-figuring the layout of our buildings according to the diverse number of events held at The College. Events vary from College Open Days, Graduation Ceremonies and Honorary Fellows Days to examinations, conferences, weddings and many more and each event requires a total reconfiguration of each building.

“We often find ourselves in a situation, as we did recently, where the Windsor Building needed to be set up for a student open day, then changed to a conference layout the following day and then back to the configuration for an open day the day after that! It requires a lot of hard work in a very short space of time to get everything ready in such tight timescales”, said Premises Manager, John Brannan. “But the team is used to working quickly”, he continued.

Congratulations …... … to Sous Chef Gary Smith and wife Becky on the birth of their baby boy Logan, who was born on 12th April, weighing a healthy 7lb 15oz.

Darren

Transforming Imagine into a temporary classroom.

Not only this, but on a weekly basis, the porters are responsible for moving all of the new books from Bedford to Founder’s library as well as collecting prospectuses from Huntersdale and delivering them to Founder’s Post Room. They may also collect donations to the College from the homes of recently bereaved families of members of Royal Holloway staff, requiring them to demonstrate different skills altogether. All in all, that’s pretty impressive for a team of just three people.

…. and welcome... . … to Serena Hesse, who has recently joined as Chef at Kingswood. “Everyone has made me feel very welcome and I’m looking forward to inviting the students back to a brighter, fresher place to eat and meet”, she said.

Planting Poppies to celebrate 100 years Earlier this year, our gardening team, together with a group of student volunteers, planted poppy seeds in the flowerbeds outside the Student Services Centre entrance to the Windsor Building.

This was part of a national initiative to cover the UK with poppies, the traditional symbol of remembrance, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The campaign is aimed particularly at young people to help them understand the significance of what happened during the First World War and the events that changed the world a century ago.

Senior Gardener, Jo Roberts said “It was great to involve our students as part of a national campaign.

Sowing our seeds in the spring has ensured that the poppies will serve as a reminder for Sowing the seeds …... us all this summer that war was declared 100 years ago”.

Volunteer students plant the seeds with gardener, Chris Collins.

… and the poppies in full bloom

DRESSING UP FOR CHARITY TV and film was the theme of the day at The Store’s recent charity event.

Dressed as their favourite character, staff from The Store gave out free bacon sandwiches in return for a small donation and sold raffle tickets in aid of children’s charity White Lodge.

Proceeds from the day totalled an impressive £688.61.

White Lodge’s Community Fundraiser, Jane Cartwright said, “Please pass on our thanks to everyone who contributed and helped raise such an amazing amount of money. It will make a real difference to the work that we do with the many disabled babies, children, teenagers, adults, parents and carers who attend White Lodge Centre. It is thanks to such wonderful support from our local community that we are able to carry on offering all our vital services”.

Hub Street Food Festival Back due to popular demand, the first week in Catering Outlets Manager, Rebecca Nurse said June saw the Hub Summer Street Food Festival “Well done to everyone who worked so hard to make this year’s food festival such a return for its second year. success. The feedback has been overwhelmingly While the weather wasn’t quite as kind as the positive with students saying that it was one of soaring temperatures we experienced last year, it the highlights of the end of term celebrations”. stayed dry (for the most part) and the event proved a big hit with staff and students alike.

Indulged by our chefs, we were tempted to the delights of BBQ chicken, pulled pork, noodle soup, curries, paella, burgers, pancakes, cupcakes and more, every afternoon over the course of the three days.

Additional treats included Ben and Jerry’s, Innocent, a confectionery counter and cheese stall. With music playing in the background, it certainly provided the perfect tonic post exams.

FUN FOOD FACTS Fact: Honey is the only food that does not spoil. which allegedly exploded in Percy’s face. Despite literally getting egg in his face, he continued It is a preserve by name and nature. to investigate and perfect a means of containing This is due to two key facts. Firstly the microwaves and thus the microwave oven was honey has a pH of 3.26 to 4.48 and born. secondly, honey has an extremely high sugar content. These two facts work in perfect harmony to destroy bacteria and make honey completely uninhabitable for their growth.

Why do we call fizzy drinks “soft” drinks?

Fact: Microwaves were discovered by accident.

When carbonated drinks first appeared on the market, it was agreed that in the interest of making advertising easily understood all over the world, carbonated drinks would be referred to as “soft” drinks.

During WWII, microwave radar transmitters were widely distributed by the allies. Percy Spencer, an engineer involved in the production of these transmitters, noticed his chocolate bar had melted as he stood working on an active transmitter.

Historically the term soft drink refers to any beverage that does not contain alcohol. Alcoholic drinks were typically called “hard” drinks.

HAVE YOUR SAY!

This led him to experiment with microwaves which culminated in the creation of the first micro- Please email any news, stories or ideas from your areas that you would like included in the next issue of Campus wave oven.

Matters to carol.robinson@rhul.ac.uk. Next issue due

The first food ever deliberately cooked using out in early September 2014. microwaves was popcorn. The second was an egg

SPORTS ROUND UP Following completion of phase 1 of the project last year, which focused on improvements to the fitness suite and gym, phase 2, which aims to enhance the outdoor playing facilities, is now fully underway.

The aim of the project is to provide students and staff with new facilities on the main Nobles Fields sports area at the bottom of the campus and the East Fields sports area adjacent to Gowar and Making way for a new 3G pitch Wedderburn Halls. As well as improving the drainage and redeveloping the existing natural turf pitches, new high quality natural turf and the range of activities on offer to staff and artificial pitches and 4 new floodlit tennis courts students through the be.active recreational sport and fitness programme. In particular, staff will will be created. have the opportunity to participate in weekly The development of our sports facilities is part of social sports leagues, which will include football, a wider strategy to engage more staff and hockey, tennis and netball”. students in sport at the College. This ambition was given a significant boost recently with the SPORT AT THE COLLEGE announcement from Sport England that we had We are keen to ensure all staff have access to secured £92,000 of funding as part of their £15 the numerous benefits of maintaining an acmillion University Sport Activation Fund. tive lifestyle and would like to hear your views “To secure this amount of funding is fantastic on what activities and facilities we can offer to news”, said Sports Operations Manager, Mark help you achieve this. Take the survey now.

Hyndman. “ The funding will be used to expand

STUDENTS GATHER FOR “ONE BIG THING” Starting from the SU, about 30 students took part in the One Big Thing initiative recently, which involved a 5k campus run, led by Sports Centre Assistant Hayley Munt, followed by a 1.5 hour “zumbathon”.

initiative is a nationwide programme aimed at engaging students in individual and nontraditional activities to promote long term participation in physical activity.

“It was fantastic to see so many students of Set up by ukactive with British Universities and different abilities taking a break from their revision in order to College Sport (BUCS), the “One Big Thing” take part and have fun”, said Hayley.

“Many of them had never done any zumba before, but everyone really enjoyed it”. and having fun at the zumbathon!

Preparing for the 5K run ….