As part of the School’s strategy to enhance staff-student communication, a pilot event entitled ‘Meet the Management’ was held last week.
Adrian Hall, Andy Farrell, Jean Sykes and Simeon Underwood were part of an informal Question and Answer event that was attended by undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students. Hall, Farrell and Sykes each hold appointments as the heads of the LSE’s three service branches, while Underwood serves as the LSE’s Academic Registrar.
An email was sent to all students advertising the potentially termly event as “an opportunity directly to interact with the people responsible for the day-to-day operation of everything from residences to human resources, the library to the admissions process”. It was also a follow-up to LSE Director Howard Davies’ appearance at the Union General Meeting (UGM) last Thursday.
Questions were raised by several students regarding the availability of information regarding services provided, such as computers, laptop plug-ins and printers. These issues were noted by Adrian Hall, the Secretary of the School and Director of Administration. Jean Sykes, the Chief Information Officer, maintained that the statistics show that computer usage has gone down on campus, and that 15 per cent of computers were usually available for use at any one point of time..
A postgraduate student pointed out the ratio of students to a printer on campus was approximately 250 to 1.
Concern was also expressed about staff-student liaison committees and whether students’ suggestions are being taken on board. The postgraduate student also expressed his frustration at how his department was not very receptive to the students’ suggestions during these meetings.
PhD students brought up the issue of office relocation, from two offices into one big office, which they felt to be inadequate. Farrell, the Director of Finance and Facilities, replied that there should perhaps be consultations between the Estates Division and students.
As the staircase in Clement House has not been in operation since the beginning of this term, this was also raised, as well as whether the East Building was structurally unsound. Farrell denied the latter, but explained that the closure of the staircase was due to “a member of security [noticing] more vibration than usual” which prompted the investigation into whether the staircase was safe for use. As it was found that they were in fact “structurally unsound”, work could only be carried out during nighttime and on weekends. The staircase is due to be in operation again next term.
Hall concluded the session by stating that the concerns raised will be addressed, and that reports will hopefully be made at the next meeting.
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