Academic Affairs

Q: Can we have the bar opened during the day to revise in? And open on the weekends as well? 

A: The bar should be open to revise in during the day and over the weekend. Catering said that there were a few occasions where the cleaning staff locked the bar after cleaning it in the morning, as they weren’t aware that it should be open. They have now been made aware and if you find that the bar is shut when it should be open, please let a member of the Catering Team or the Porters know.

Q: Is it possible for college to provide better desk lighting in South Court? Seeing that there is no main light in the room, it’s just too dark to work. 

A: If you would like a lamp in your South Court room, please email the VPI and they will sort it for you. 

Q: Is it possible to get curtains or black out blinds in West House? 

A: If you would like a curtain in your West House room, either email Housekeeping or speak to the Head of Housekeeping whose office is by the entrance to West House. 

 Q: Why can we only have guests for three nights in a row?  

A: The HUS has consulted with the Accommodation Officer and Assistant Bursar regarding this question, and we have received the following information in response: In the Student Handbook (available on Nexus), it states that “All overnight guests are to be signed in at the Lodge and in the relevant section of the Signing Out book. This is for fire regulations.  […] The length of stay of occasional guests must not exceed three successive nights. Lengths of stay beyond this time will be considered exceptional, and must be paid for. Students are wholly responsible for the behaviour of their guests at all times.” This is the agreed Homerton College Policy for students staying in College accommodation. Virtually all rooms are are designed for single occupancy use and specifically for students, which is why they are exempt from Council Tax. Fees for accommodation are calculated for one person occupying the room for the year (water, electricity, heating, lighting). Also, additional residents put wear and tear on other facilities such as kitchens. So while students may only have guests for up to three nights in a row, this is not limited to just three nights per term. There are various legal and practical reasons why three successive nights is the limit for having overnight guests. However, students can very often book a temporary additional room for a guest by contacting the Accommodation Officer directly by emailing accommodation@homerton.cam.ac.uk. 

Q: Is there anyway we could please have a sign, similar to the one asking whether we want our towels changed, that indicates whether we want our room cleaned?  

A: Housekeeping confirmed the reason why students are not given a sign is that it should not be a regular occurrence for a bedroom to not be cleaned. The College has cleanliness and hygiene levels to maintain throughout the year, which is why your room must be cleaned at least once a fortnight. This means that if one week you ask for your room to not be cleaned, the next week the housekeeping staff will have to clean your room. If you would prefer for one week that your room is not cleaned, you can write a note to your cleaner and put it on your door. 

Q: Is there any way we could get an anonymous system for informing porters of noisy corridors? 

A: The porters don’t have a text system, but they can be reached via email at porters@homerton.cam.ac.uk or you can phone them. 

Q: Am I allowed to have a fan in my room in exam term? 

A: Yes, that’s absolutely fine, there’s a full list of permitted electronic items available on the Homerton website under accommodation.

Q: Can we get Guinness on tap in the bar? 

A: Catering have written the following response: ‘Guinness is a challenging product to have on draught and the volume that we would sell would mean that we would end up serving an inferior product as we would not sell sufficient and would result in large amounts of waste . Selling draught Guinness is not something that we intend to sell in either bar’.

 Q: Can you please explain the formal price increase? 

A: Catering have responded that the formal prices have gone up with the standard increase that we use for food inflation. 

Q: Where are the hall/formal hall menus? 

A: The hall and formal hall menus can be found here.

Q: Is there anyway the principal’s gate (near Harrison Drive) can have carded access, being locked after 8pm is super inconvenient? 

A: The HUS brought this up in breakfast meetings last year, as student made the last request. Estates said that this would not be possible due to the weight of the gate being incompatible with a SALTO lock. However, if you would like to see this happen, please send an email to hus-internal@homerton.cam.ac.uk with the reasons you would like to see this change, and they will bring it up with Senior staff again. 

Q: Would it be at all possible to get fire alarm testing moved later in the day?  

A: The HUS address this with Heads of Department every year and have received the following answer. The fire alarm tests are programmed to occur on Thursday mornings, as this is the most convenient time for the college for them to occur. They can’t take place any later in the day, as the alarms would interrupt the general working of the college, including supervisions, college held exams and meetings. Alarms can’t occur in the evening as this would be outside of hours. An extra Porter is timetabled to work every Thursday morning, as it takes two Porters to conduct the fire drills.

Q: Would it be possible to convert some of the current fire escape doors into proper access points with card readers? This would make access to certain parts of college simpler and smoother. For example the end of the South Court long corridor or the Door at the back of the West House laundry room. 

A: Unfortunately, this is not possible as it would violate the fire codes that each accommodation block adheres to. 

Q: Why doesn’t South Court have a launderette? And would it be possible to install a washing machine or two in the building? Or at least put more in West House? 4 machines really isn’t enough for the 150+ people living in south court PLUS all those in West House! 

A: The bursar at the time gave this response: “The issue with South Court is that there isn’t the space to put in a launderette. With regard to West House, when the issue of the amount of machines has been investigated further, it has been found that students seem to want to do their washing at the same time on the same day, which is often on a Saturday, rather than on a weekday (evening) when the machines are often unused. The issue is not a lack of machines but a lack of machine use during the week.”  If you find this is a particular issue, please contact the HUS to give feedback and we shall bring it up in a Breakfast Meeting that term.  

Q: Can we have a water dispenser in the foyer of West House? 

A: There are many places to get filtered water in college: porters lodge, MAB ground floor, JCR, Buttery, West House Laundrette. 

Q: Where are the recycling bins in College? 

A: There are recycling bins in offices, every kitchen across the college, there are large recycling bins located in West House Car park, at the back of the buttery and down at Morley house. There are additional recycling bins outside of West House, in MAB, in the buttery, in the library, in the HUS Office, and a number of other places around College. The recycling bins are the green bins in the kitchen!

Q: Why is storage only open before travel day? I am an international student interning at the start the holidays and I don’t know what to do about my stuff.

A: Storage is a service provided by the HUS and is therefore student lead.  Thus, storage cannot be opened outside term time as the students go home and it can only be opened when the officers are free to open it up. If you get in touch with the HUS President, or Emma (the HUS Office Manager ), we can direct you to some external storage companies or provide an alternative time for you to drop your stuff! 

Q: How does the camp bed system work? Do i need to ask far in advance and what is the cost? 

A: To book a HUS air bed, please come into the HUS Office during Office hours (Monday – Friday, 10am-12pm, 1pm-5pm). Please do not message a member of the HUS or the HUS JCR page to book a camp bed. We will then see if the beds are available, and if so we will book you in. The cost is £1 a night, £2 over the weekend. You can then come and collect your bed during the office hours of the night(s) that you need it. You must return the bed in the office hours the day that you have finished using the bed. If you do not do so, you will be charged for the extra nights, and this will also mean that another student won’t have access to the bed that they have booked.

Q: How do I book the JCR?

Please send an email to hus-president@homerton.cam.ac.uk with the following details:

  • Your name
  • Your CRSID
  • What the booking is for
  • The date and times you would like to book for
  • How many people?
  • Will they be majority Homerton students?

Note: Only the side of the JCR with the table tennis/HUS office can be booked, but the shutters can be pulled down to make it an enclosed space.

You will have to pay a deposit of £50, but this will be refunded if the JCR is cleared up and left as you found it by 8am the following morning. You will not get that money back if you leave the JCR in a state. We have CCTV so we will find who is responsible if anything is damaged/broken.

Q: When is the women and non-binary only hour in the gym? 

A: Each Thursday, 6-7pm and Sunday, 5-6pm. 

Q: Is it possible for the Sports Officer to publish the upcoming sports matches each week and foster an encouragement for people to go and support their friends playing? 

A: The HUS Sports Officer has liaised with the college Captains, and from now on they will be responsible for creating Instagram posts for their matches on the Homerton sports accounts. A lot of matches are arranged/ cancelled last minute, and there are lots of teams in college, so the responsibility needs to somewhat lie with the Captains. 

Q: Can the college gym be supplied with antibacterial gym wipes that students can use to wipe down the equipment before/after they use it?

 A: Antibacterial wipes can now be found on the window ledge of the gym with the cardio equipment in it!

Q: Is there any chance the free sanitary products could be made available in the public toilets around college?

A: The HUS Welfare Team have started this service again, and there should be sanitary trays stocked in the women’s, men’s, disabled and gender neutral toilets in Plodge, Cav (outside hall), next to the entrance to D&E and Buttery. If you notice that any of these trays are empty, please email the Welfare Team at hus-welfare@homerton.cam.ac.uk and let them know. Alternatively, pop into the HUS Office to collect some. 

Q: The single most beneficial thing this college could do for my experience here is to get a college cat. John’s, Girton, Pembroke all have cats. Where’s our cat? 

A: The HUS have tried in the past to persuade the college to introduce a college pet. Senior Staff have listed the following reasons as to why this cannot happen:

  1. It would require a member of staff to be available all year round to look after the pet. The HUS cannot be responsible for its welfare, as students return home during vacations. Similarly, members of staff take leave.
  2. College would be concerned that the pet might get into a room in college, and then be locked in there over the holidays, without any food or water.
  3. Not all of Homerton’s accommodation requires card access, and therefore the pet would be able to enter students’ rooms. This would be a problem for anyone with allergies.
  4. Some pets, particularly a cat, would pose a danger to the College ducks
  5. Foxes roam Homerton’s grounds, which might threaten the safety of the college pet.

Q: Why are vomit charges at least £50? Why are these charges not included on the bulletins for the bop? I am also wondering how the college is able to differentiate between being sick because of alcohol or genuine illness? 

A: The charge referred to here is the clean-up charge imposed on students who vomit somewhere in College other than in a toilet/sick bag as a direct result of alcohol consumption. The charge is £80, which is in line with Cambridge taxi companies’ clean-up fees. This charge is imposed because a Housekeeper, Porter or (at BOPs) HUS team member has to clean up bodily fluids, which is not a pleasant job for anybody, and so they are compensated for doing this unpleasant job which falls outside of their role description. A list of the Dean’s Standard Student Welfare Charges can be found in the Porters’ Lodge. For reference, you can also see them here. With regard to differentiating between vomiting because of alcohol or genuine illness, this is assessed on a case-by-case basis. A student who vomits due to illness would not be charged a clean-up fee. If your friend has vomited somewhere due to excessive alcohol consumption and you want to prevent them from being charged, we suggest you try to clean it up as quickly and hygienically as possible.

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