Dear Dr Nolan and Wg Cdr Milloy,

You will have recieved in your pigeonholes, an open letter of complaint
signed by 89 students of Robinson College, about the 3rd Year Ballot. The
full text of the letter is below, but to summarise:

1. We are dissatisfied that College has decided, due to their own
admissions mistakes, and with no further reason, to force 10 (out of only
~40) students from the current 3rd year to live in Romsey Terrace next
year. Dialogue between the RCSA and Senior Tutor has failed to reach a
satisfactory resolution, or an explanation to be communicated to students.
We ask that the Senior Tutor and Domestic Bursar provide an adequate
explanation as to why they feel that finalists in four year courses, and
not for example the graduate students, should be singled out to live at
Romsey Terrace.

2. Having viewed the property, we feel that rents charged on Romsey Terrace
are disproportionately high compared to those charged on rooms in the main
college building. We ask that these are reviewed downwards.

Copies of this letter have been circulated at the RCSA open meeting on
Sunday, and in the Garden Restaurant today, gathering 89 signatures (more
that two thirds of all people in attendance on these occasions). If
undergraduates feel they support the issues raised in this letter, but were
not present to sign the letter in person at these times, we will recommend
that they email you directly (wpn1000@cam.ac.uk, pdgm2@cam.ac.uk) with a
short message of their agreement.

Copies of this letter are also on display in the Bar, JCR and outside the
Garden Restaurant.

Thank you for your time. I hope that you can swiftly respond to our
concerns.

Robinson Students




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Sunday 20th February 2011

Dear Dr. Nolan and Wg. Cdr. Milloy,

This is an open letter to express the concerns of current third year
students, and other members of the student body, about housing for next
year. As we understand it, this is the current situation:

1. College has made an error in giving out too many offers to incoming
undergraduates for the next academic year. This has created a predicted
excess of ten students more than the total capacity of the main college
building and its surrounding houses. 2. It was announced, on 8th February,
with no consultation, that ten 4th year undergraduates will have to live in
rooms in 33 and 35 Romsey Terrace, to ensure other students may have
accommodation in the college site. 3. Graduate students are being offered
accommodation for next year in 3A Sylvester Road. 4. Romsey Terrace was
undergraduate accommodation until 2008, when concerns about average tripos
grades of undergraduates living so far from the college community caused it
to be changed to graduate accommodation. 5. Rents in Romsey terrace are in
the Value, Standard Minus and Standard bands, despite even the largest room
in each house being noticeably smaller than a Standard room in the main
college building.

This raises two major points that have upset us. Firstly, why are current
third year undergraduates being singled out for this? Secondly, regardless
of who lives in Romsey Terrace, the rent charged by College seems to be poor
value for money.

We understand that students at Cambridge University are in the privileged
position of being offered more than one year of guaranteed university
accommodation during their undergraduate studies. We also appreciate that
the offer of accommodation for fourth year students is not made by all
colleges. However, considering that Robinson College does have the resources
to do this, and advertised this fact to us as prospective applicants, we
feel that the situation has been mismanaged.

Many current 3rd year students contribute heavily to college life - through
sport, volunteering, other societies and the RCSA committee. Many of us have
put in a lot of work to improve the college during our time here, and would
like to continue this on into next year and be able to appreciate the
difference we've made. Additionally, current third year students are already
about to lose many of their friends from their own year in Cambridge.
Isolating them in Romsey Terrace, away from the majority of the fourth year
and the entirety of the rest of College, is not going to make that any
easier.

Also, as we understand it, College stopped undergraduates living in Romsey
Terrace after it was realised that living there reduced the average Tripos
score. Considering the terrace's location, distant from the academic centre
of the city, it is clear why this may have been. Even disregarding human
nature to work less hard when at a distance from authority, the additional
commute to lectures etc. each day would be detrimental to the academic
welfare of students in the terrace. Fourth year results, as finals, are
surely among the most valuable to the college, and certainly to the students
themselves, so disrupting our education comes at the most inopportune
moment.

We appreciate that the welfare of graduate students is important too, but we
do not see why the graduates should not be at least as likely to be forced
to live in Romsey Terrace as us. It could even be argued that graduates, as
older, more independent students, should be more suited to living away from
the college site and therefore it would be preferable to move graduates from
3A Sylvester Road to Romsey Terrace. Also, graduate students starting PhDs
would only have to live there for one year of their three or four years in
Cambridge, so the potential impact of being far from town on their final
result would be less.

It seems a little as though the small size of the potential fourth year
student body has made it be perceived as an easy target by College. We are
concerned that College feels that as a group of only 40 students, it can
dictate whatever it likes to us because our concerns do not largely affect
the rest of the undergraduate community. This will be even worse once the
ballot is drawn this evening, because then only the ten selected students
will be direct victims of this policy. However, the excess of first year
undergraduates next year is not going to be resolved until they graduate in
2014/5, so this is a problem that affects all students considering four year
courses at Robinson College. If College does feel that we can be more easily
bullied into moving to Romsey Terrace than the graduates, we hope that it
has been proven wrong.

Regardless of who is accommodated next year at Romsey Terrace, we feel the
rents charged for the rooms are far too high, considering their current
condition. On Saturday, a group of 7 current third years visited Romsey
Terrace. We were greeted by a current resident, whose first words to us
were, "Don't live here".

On touring the property, we observed that it is somewhat smaller than might
be expected from the plans on display in the JCR. We were unable to visit
all of the types of room available at the terrace, but we did visit the top
floor Standard rent band room. This room has perhaps 80% of the floor space
of a typical, equally priced room in the college building. Additionally,
most of the Romsey Terrace room is under a sloping ceiling, reducing both
the effective space and the natural light to the room. Considering also that
the resident of this room shares his bathroom with another four people,
rather than just one in a Standard room in college, and that college rooms
are within easy reach of college resources like the library, computer rooms
and the Garden Restaurant, we find it hard to believe that Romsey Terrace
rents are so high. Additionally, the current students reported that they
have had problems with the heating which have not been fully resolved, and
that the internet was until recently broken there too.

Regardless of who lives there next year, it is essential that college visit
the property and reassess the rent bands the rooms are in. Gonville and
Caius, whose students currently live there while Harvey Court is under
renovation, subsidises the rent charged by Robinson because they feel it is
unfair to pass on such high rents to the students for such poor
accommodation.

We would ask that the Senior Tutor and the Domestic Bursar: 1. Review their
decision, based on the evidence we have presented, and at the very least
offer us a written, public explanation of why they feel this is the best
course of action. 2. Re-evaluate the rent bands for rooms in Romsey Terrace,
to take into account both their location and their small size, for whoever
is forced to live there next year.

Yours Sincerely,

Students of Robinson College