An anonymous Loughborough student's letter to the General Manager of the Students' Union, copied to the Label Editor.
If you have any views on the matters discussed in the letter, feel free to leave your comments below or write a letter for publication to labeleditor@lufbra.net
Dear General Manager,
(cc’d to the Label Editor)
I saddens me greatly that this letter even needs to be written but as a student at the university and an regular customer to your venue I feel my points need to be heard.
I have noticed a number of rather worrying things within the venue in terms of how the students union is spending the money that myself and so many others leave in your bars and shops. Firstly I would like to draw your attention to an apparently pointless exercise in which an office door was created and another one not 10 feet from it was sealed. I am curious to know under what possible circumstances this could be seen as a good use of money? While I appreciate that there may be a reason I cannot work out under what why this made sense from a fiscal standpoint. Further more I have been informed, mostly it should be said by other baffled members of the student body, that your executive have been bought iPads. Surely this is a pointless waste of money in order to indulge the childlike begging’s of a group of students who have been elected to have the best interests of the student body at heart but who simply seem to be spending money to facilitate the playing of Angry Birds and other procrastinating apps developed by Apple.
If the venue that I frequent was in perfect working order and that everyone was talking about the perfect financial situation of bars and clubs around the UK this would perhaps seem like a suitable reward for the people who have helped to make the venue what it is. However what I see when I walk around your students union is the following: Corridors with carpets held down with tape, walls in color schemes from the late 80’s and damage or unfinished parts in almost every room in the building, a daytime bar which has been in need of a regeneration for all two and a half years that I have been here to mention only a few. Assuming that all members of your executive were bought iPads that would work out to be a total cost of £5187 (assuming you did not take advantage of the student discount AND you bought the cheapest models {which at this particular point in time I highly Doubt}). While I am sure in the grand scheme of union finances this may not be a large sum of money I have no doubt at all that it would be enough to buy some paint and to have a carpet replaced. Alternatively you may want to consider adding that £5187 onto the pay packets of some members of your venue staff as they are forced to work in a venue that seems to be out date and falling apart while the executive work on iPads in an office with a brand new floor.
I have sent copies of this letter to both Label and to the Venue department as I feel they should both know how a worryingly large portion of your student body feels about a venue that seems to play such a huge part in Loughborough life. Your website details a “Better Student Life” as the tag line for your organization. I would encourage you to refocus your attention on the “Student” part of that phrase. With over 5000 students arriving at Loughborough every year I feel that it is your duty as well as your job, for which I have no doubt you get paid handsomely, to put the required finances back into the building and not into the pockets of managers and the exec who seem to be doing preciously little to safe guard the future enjoyment of students. I was encouraged to come here by parents and friends of parents who came to Loughborough and who raved about the Union as an institution that was the backbone to student life. It saddens me that when I leave at the end of this year I will be able to say great things about the university but not about the students union. For this I can only blame you and your ridiculous inability to assign money to projects that actually NEED completing.
I have elected to keep this letter anonymous as I know your venue operates a banning policy and do not wish to suffer any back lash.
I hope that this letter helps you to refocus your attention
Yours in somber realization that LSU is not what it could be
