Academic year 2004-5
From Chelsea Wiki
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4 Notes from Meeting to investigate Student complaint. February 10th 2005 10.00am
Week8 March 9th - more bad news!
Week 10
Summer Term: week 4 Informal meeting with Reps to review the Special Event and course re-structure
Diary of 'disruption'
Log your gripes here.
Simply click edit at the top of this page then add your content, and save the page.
Reasons not to take things as they are/Recognition for those that didn't.
28-01-05
no telephone lines for academic staff -although administration and management are sorted. No computer access in the 'staff hub', so course administration, email and blackboard are all renedered useless. The staff temporary'open access' suite in the administration building - it's freezing in there even on a warmish day- three machines, often down no printer connected [or to be precise there is on one machine with printer, but you have to guess which one it is] no photocopier, no signage, no furniture in tutorial rooms, no tutorial rooms..........
The library's complete opening is being continually pushed back. We were promised, on day of enrollment, that the Library would be open on the 24th. Third year Fine art students are now allowed to take 3 books out of the library, this is being done manually by the staff using the old , pen and paper technique to record the lendings. This does mean that if you already have ten books out you can still get 3 more, as they have no system to tell them your current loans. Why couldn't they have done this two weeks ago though? For other courses it looks like its going to mean waiting for the computers to arrive, a little unfair??
- Helen Thompstone, Fine Art (BA), 3rd Year
"The Chelsea Library is now open at Millbank. However, there will be no access to either the internet or to Talis until further notice. Therefore, as we are unable to issue items, the library is currently for reference use only. We are able to take books for return (although they will not be discharged) and can hold a limited number of items on reserve. We hope this problem will be resolved as soon as possible.
Opening hours are 10am - 7pm Monday - Thursday, 9am - 5pm Friday.
There is currently no access to Special Collections (artists' books, artists' multiples, rare books etc.)
Apologies for any inconvenience."
(Official Library Statement)
--8/2/05 Library and Computers--
Yesterday I couldn't find any of my files on my computer, this meant I could access none of my saved documents which is pretty crucial when you're writing a thesis. I was told this is due to technical staff making alterations on the system. This also occured last week when the computers failed. Added to this the system in the library crashed again last night meaning that no books were allowed to be issued and that no one could access either the search page or internet.
Open Access is poor. the one that is 'up' is usually locked. Thin Client terminals still hang every 2 minutes.
General IT - Printers don't seem to be as available as they might be. Access to computers at Manresa road used to be 9.30 til 7.30. now it's 10 til 5!!! That's a considerable erosion of facilities i hope it's not going to stay that way
- Trevor Giles, Fine Art (BA), 3rd Year
- I've been told it will stay that way because a tutor needs to lock up!
- I'm very confused and rather annoyed about the status of the computer rooms. after being told that we have access to all computer rooms unless there is a class going on, I am repeatedly told by descom and textiles tutors that 'their' rooms aren't for use of fine art students and that we should use our own room (which is not in operation yet) or the open accss room (which is frequently locked). One Descom tutor stated that nondescom student's will'fuck up the special programs' that they have... Now the Textiles room has an official (perhaps unofficial) NOT OPEN ACCESS sign - can we have some clarification of the status of the different rooms - It doesn't really say much for the college policy on interdepartmental commnication/integration.
- - Tom Neill, Fine art BA. 'Stage 3'
Max - descom technician has locked a room of 20 computers today and says that fine arts students should use the open access room (thin client - internet 'hangs' and no photoshop etc.) instead even though there is another room of 20 decent computers (with only 4 descom students working in it). His reason is that fine art student's mess up the settings on specialist programs such as autocad. Thanks max. So to get decent internet access, use specialist programmes like photoshop or autocad (we are not monkeys) we have to sit in a near empty room as a favour as long as we go somewhere else next time. - Pissed Off, Fine Art, BA
-You will find that there is no descom technician called max and descom don't use autocad -you will find that max works primarily with another course. Please dont quote technicians until you have their name and course correct first. Tech
As third year fine art students are the only course to still be working on thesis material, surely we should be given some computing facility, the opening hours seriously hinder the way a thesis can be developed. Having the space and time to consider written work is vital, spending a day working on written with such limited access means progress for me has been personally quite slow, everyone works differently but having a working day end at 5 is nothing but frustrating.
- Helen Thompstone, Fine Art (BA), 3rd Year
--I totally agree - the concensus among staff is that in normal circumstances we work in the studios on weekdays during the day and art history and theory is completed at evenings an weekends. It's only down to the fact that little or no studio practise is possible that we can access IT during office working hours to work on our theses.
-- The situation with the computers seems to be getting worse as far as I can tell. Having been sacrificing studio time to adhere to the 10-5 opening hours, it now seems the only computer room (textiles) has classes running in it so no access from other courses is available. Having located a computer that does has microsoft word, I now find myself without a disk drive on which to save my work. I found myself yesterday having to go to charing cross road just to print information out that I needed to read last night. The fact is this is beyond ridiculous and I'm really struggling with the continual hassle of not being able to get on with my work. The only solution I can personally see is that I shall end up going to Charing cross road at the end of each day to get on with thesis, or even to save my work to disk. Its really beyond a joke, and now I've spent a valuable half hour writing this damn thing when I should be working. AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGG helen thompstone
I saw Pete last week to find out about borrowing A/V equipment and using sound editing facilities... apparently it's temporarily lost and re-instating it's not very high on the list of priorities. If anyone knows if there have been any developments re: A/V equip - post it here - finding things out in the building is impossible!
-Abby 3rd yr sculpture
--Further to the above message - I found Chris today who kindly let me interrupt his continuing unpacking duties to offer me one of a range of microphones etc from the cupboard in one of the AV rooms yet to be set up (currently just lots of crates and equipment all over the floor). Pete said he didn't even know we owned that microphone when he saw me signing it out.
Since starting the Fine Art BA I have seen…
A reduction in seminars - from 6 sessions to 4. To the credit of the staff they continue to try and offer a diverse program.
A reduction in studio spaces - The soft-launch of hot-studio/booking system in 2003.
A reduction in residential studio space – to make room for more students (more students = more money + more opportunity?). Is this a more realistic model or a loosely democratic argument for a financial rear-guard action? Why is the college/education in such bad shape?
No more lectures for Stage 3 students ?
though so far it seems one can stay in college until at least 9... a concession or just bad housekeeping?
No more Option seminar attendence for Stage 3 students in Spring Term ?
- Trevor Giles, Fine Art (p3)
Further more...
Thesis Tutorials cut to 4 half hour sessions, and further to this the tutors being tied to these 4 x 1/2 hour slots. They have every right to say they won't read what we email outside of this if they're not getting paid, but it doesn't seem like the most appropriate model?
- Ian Drysdale, Fine Art (p3)
- to add to the reduction of thesis tutorials: no access to library and borrowing facilities between tutorials 2 and 3 does somewhat reduce research material potential. no access to books results in little contemplation time and therefore a further reduction in the potential of tutorials. aagh.
STILL NO PROVISIONS MADE FOR ACCESS TO ANY PHOTOGRAPHY LABS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSITY! - Wei-Ho, fine art, (s3)
Why do admin need a third of the buildings? Does it really take one admin person to look after two students. Maybe they could consider relinquishing the ground and first floors of the admin building, provide a dark room and use the rest of the space for studios, and bookable spaces. Year after year after year the budjet for teaching staff has been cut whilst more and more students are beeing crammed into less and less space. Who was the genious who thought it would be a good idea to have a 'hub' and not have a functioning communication system? Why are students not marching on the admin building and demanding satisfaction?
