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‘Project L’: campus party out of control ‘TWERKING IN THE KITCHEN SINK, GARBAGE DUMP FOR A KITCHEN FLOOR AND DRIED VODKA AS A TABLE CLOTH’
Zoe Ambrozewska A party on campus on Friday 11 October became “uncontrollable” when an estimated 500-700 people turned up, leaving disorderly behaviour and plenty of damage caused to property in its wake with a similar figure confirmed by University staff. Residents of Lancaster House accommodation had used various social networks to organise the party, nicknamed ‘Project L’, with over 500 individuals accepting the open Facebook invite. With growth in the use of social media over the past few years, Facebook events are now notorious for breeding destruction, and recently led to the eruption of a riot in a Dutch town. Hundreds of students descended on the Lancaster House building resulting in drunken, unruly and damaging actions by some of the more rowdy students. One of the Lancaster House residents at the helm of ‘Project L’, who calls herself “Mintie”, told that: “We had no idea of the way people would behave”, and went on to recall various events, including a smashed window and damage to four of the fire extinguishers. Despite the danger associated with
these acts, however, nobody involved in causing the damage and none of the residents have been cautioned or reprimanded by the University housing office. Additionally, facilities in the kitchens and bathrooms were subject to more destructive behaviour; with corridors leading up to the flat covered in broken bottles, cigarette butts, and general litter. The University has warned that “Although this party passed off largely without incident, it is a timely reminder for students to be mindful about putting up open invitations, whether on Facebook or elsewhere”. While cautious that large numbers might flock to flat, Mintie insisted that she wasn’t expecting the event to draw as monolithic a crowd as it did. “We really weren’t worried about the numbers I guess because there is quite a lot of space on the floor”, she said. “We had no idea how many people would turn up as we couldn’t be sure if it was all just hype. “If I’m honest I was quite sceptical because I thought the most people I’d seen at a uni house party was about 50, so there was no way 500 plus people would come to ours.”
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A campus party spiralled out of control when up to 700 people congregated at Lancaster House, with accusations of broken windows, busted fire extinguishers and stolen possessions.
Sussex excels at student dissatisfaction Gabriel Webber
Statistics released last month show that the University of Sussex received almost four times more formal complaints from students than the national average for institutions of a similar size. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) revealed that one in every 63 students had filed a formal complaint against the University last year, with Sussex coming second in the band of institutions with
up to 7,000 more students. For the last eight years, students across England and Wales have been able to refer unresolved complaints about their universities to the OIA, which also has the legal power to demand information from higher education institutions. Of cases which were escalated to this final stage at Sussex, 3 complaints were found to be either ‘Justified’ or ‘Partly Justified’, compared to an average of 1. The University declined to provide The Badger with a summary of any of these appeals. The results compare ‘Band E’
universities with between 12,000 and 20,000 students with an overall average of 53 formal complaints per year. Sussex, with its 12,500 students, falls at the lower end of this range. In 2012, ‘Band E’ institutions received, on average, one such complaint for every 480 students they had registered. At Sussex, one in every sixty third student filed a formal complaint, behind only Cardiff Metropolitan University. By contrast, Canterbury Christ Church received only one complaint for every 2,248 of its students.
Recognising the “relatively high number of Completion of Procedures letters” issued, a University spokesperson said, “We would argue that this is because we are scrupulous about advising students of their right to go to the OIA once appeals processes are completed.” The University also disputes the relevance of the statistics, claiming that 95% of Sussex’s Completion of Procedures letters related to the academic appeals process, and only 5% to general complaints such as those relating to accommodation, discipline or discrimina-
tion. “The issuing of a Completion of Procedures letter does not signify the ‘seriousness’ of any complaint,” said the statement, “It simply means that all the internal avenues for appeal have been completed.” Juliette Cule, Education Officer for the Students’ Union, said, “I am glad that our students feel confident enough to lodge complaints against the University. The Union’s Advice and Representation Centre can offer independent advice for students who wish to lodge a complaint.”