Rooms yet to be refurbished at FitzwilliamJames Sutton

Refurbishment of an accommodation block for incoming freshers at Fitzwilliam College has caused disruption, as returning second-, third- and fourth- year students are being asked to share rooms in an effort to temporarily accommodate the new arrivals.

In an email sent to returning students, the Senior Tutor has requested that students with rooms deemed large enough to be ‘twin rooms’ volunteer to share with a friend, so that freshers who would have been housed in the block undergoing refurbishment can take up the empty rooms.

The college insist that the move is “temporary”, citing delays with the building work which could mean that the redeveloped block is not ready until week two or three of the new term, despite the work having begun in June. JCR President Alex Cicale, speaking on behalf of the executive committee, stressed that the work is “in its final stages”, although at the time of publication wires were still visible from the outside of the building, suggesting that the electrics, redecoration and possibly more remain uncompleted.

The contract the builders signed with the college includes penalties for late completion of the work.

The returning students affected by the move are due to be reimbursed by the college, and alternative arrangements for storage will be made.

For Cicale, the fact that the college has now managed to secure enough volunteers to house the displaced freshers indicates that “many students sympathise with the unfortunate nature of the situation, and believe that the deal being offered is fair.”

One third-year student who has volunteered to share a room describes how she was “very worried” when she first received the request from college, “especially given the short time-frame that we were given to make a decision.”

However, she says that “choosing to share was the right thing to do given I am already settled into college life, and the incoming freshers are not.”

The room sharing plan was developed through discussions between the college and members of the JCR in early September as a contingency against delays. Conscious that the disruption will occur within the important first few weeks for the new arrivals, the JCR has “tailored its entire Freshers’ Week programme to this situation,” but denies that the affected freshers may struggle to integrate with their peers as a result, on the grounds that “a divide between years and cohorts within the Fitz community simply does not exist.”
Cicale claims the planned move will minimise the disturbance to both freshers and returning students, ensuring that relocated second-, third- and fourth-year students will remain close to their friends, while displaced freshers will be within walking distance of the rest of their year group.
The redevelopment of the accommodation blocks – originally designed by Sir Denys Lasdun whose works include the National Theatre, which was famously compared to a nuclear power station by Prince Charles – is the latest in a series of significant changes.

Work began last summer, and some of the college’s squash courts have already been converted into new gym facilities. Major internal remodelling of the accommodation has taken place since June, with only the shell of the Lasdun design remaining in the new layout for the first of several freshers’ blocks.

Architects RH Partnership, who recently finished an extension of the Møller Centre at Churchill College and are behind the ongoing construction of postgraduate accommodation on the North West Cambridge Site, are behind the project, and aim to bring the quality of the accommodation into line with the college’s newer blocks. The building work will create new common rooms and kitchen areas, as well as more spacious wheelchair accessible ensuite rooms, integrating disabled freshers with the rest of their cohort for the first time.

The same firm is also involved in a proposal to extend The Grove, the Grade II-listed former home of Charles Darwin’s widow, which is within the college grounds. The plans, which have not yet been approved by the local authorities, include a ‘garden pavilion’ which will contain a lounge, meeting room and reception room for the college’s postgraduate students.

The heritage report submitted to planning officials describes how the proposed extension’s contemporary design will “distinguish this new element from the main building of The Grove”, although Cicale insists that the design put forward for planning permission is a set of “extremely early-stage proposals.”

According to the report, the expansion of the postgraduate community has made the extension a necessity, and Cicale adds that it is “important that both the JCR and MCR have their own spaces.”

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