All non-academic related activities in Queens’ College have been INDEFINITELY SUSPENDED following vandalism to college property last term.
The event occurred in the small hours of December 3rd 2009, the morning of Fairbarns. Gyp rooms in Cripps’ Court bore the brunt of the damage, with fire extinguishers let off and work surfaces smashed.
In an email to the JCR, Queens’ College Dean of discipline Dr Martin Dixon outlined his punishment for ‘the interference with fire safety equipment and serious acts of vandalism to College property.’
The incident, which caused in excess of £1000 in damage, will see all organised fun HALTED, until the perpetrators make themselves known. This includes events already given permission, organised and even paid for.
First for the chop by Dr Dixon were events involving ‘numbers of non-members of College coming on to the premises’. ‘Queens’ Ents’ are the chief victim of this, with the first four ‘bops’ of Lent term unconditionally cancelled.
The fate of the remaining term’s ents hangs in the balance. Queens’ ents are extremely popular with students throughout the University, with over 1300 members of its Facebook group. Tickets consistently sell-out.
Queens’ JCR bar and 2nd year representative Charlie Bell expressed his real concern about the repercussions on Queens’ bar and coffee shop, now on the up after some time in stagnation. Bell explained, ‘bop nights are very lucrative for the bar. I worry that the cancellation will affect the bar very seriously, both in terms of finance and also the reputation, which we have worked very hard to improve in the last year.‘
Also CANCELLED are the first year dinner, ‘Halfway Hall’ and the MCR Ceilidh, a key graduate social event. Bell told The Tab, ‘I have promised the second years and I will deliver; there will be a Halfway Hall this year, in whatever form it has to take. Convincing those responsible to admit to the vandalism, and working with the Dean is obviously key to solving this issue, and preventing what has become, in the minds of the average second year, an overly harsh response to this serious incident.’
Spared the crackdown are bookings for sports courts, Queens’ films, and regular formal hall.
Amidst some confusion in the student body about both the incident and its ramifications, JCR President Emil Hewage told the student body in an email, ‘The JCR Committee is still involved in negotiations with various members of college over the current sanctions… To discuss our response to the current developments further, we will be holding an Open Meeting next Tuesday (19th January).’
One second year source who asked not be named said, ‘Everyone is angry but there’s a defeatist attitude- I guess seeing how hard College hits back no one wants to stick their neck out by speaking up.’
The clampdown comes just weeks after College disciplinarians ordered the removal of the sports board due to publicly visible offensive puns.
Why punish the majority of Queens' students when the vandalism was just a small minority? I hope the Queens' students protest, let me be the first to say Dr Martin Dixon is a…
NO THEATRE either
At the moment none of the BATS shows are allowed to go ahead as Martin Dixon is refusing permission for any events that have not already had permission – that is how outrageously out of proportion this punishment is – everything that made me apply to Queens' has been cancelled!
Serious action needed
Dixon is obviously eager for someone to blame, and also completely out of touch with his students if he believed this is the right way to go about digging out the culprits. I would have thought that a person worthy of his position would have the sense to approach matters with a little more tactical persuasion. Perhaps if the ‘Powers that be’ were more enlightened and progressive in their views of the world at large, and less immersed up their own bigoted A-****s…!?…but hey that’s just my opinion.
On a more critical note, a rather poignant concern was brought up by Mr Bell about the impact all this has on the Q-Bar. It is in my understanding that as of October last year, the Ents and Q-Bar switched responsibility for the staffing of Bop nights. Subsequently, the existing staff were welcoming of the opportunity for the extra hours of work available, and additionally a number of new employees were brought into the team to adjust to the demands. Now that the ‘Fun’ events such as the Bop and other ‘sociable activities’ have been banned, then the number of Staff needed must have to be cut. Either the Dean has totally overlooked this fact, or it just did not seem of much concern to a wealthy and privileged, every-convenience-i-need-and-want-laid-on-a-plate-and-spoon-fed kind of existence. But ultimately it is the working people, who are actually enduring the heaviest impact of the so called ‘student’ punishment seeing as their livelihoods will be affected through loss of wages. Hopefully the Dean will realise the weight of his actions on innocent people and see this (relatively trivial) incident in a more realistic light?
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