Give back the ASS library to the ASS students

This is a repost from former Deputy Online Editor Lucy's article from last exam season.

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Deputy Online Editor Lucy Thompson argues that the ASS library should be reserved solely for ASS students.

A palpable air of dissatisfaction resides in the ASS library, provoked by bitter Source café coffee, the criminal under-funding of our degrees and a severe seating drought. This poorly ventilated, over-lit hollow where arts students teach themselves their degrees is under threat. Yes, you are more likely to secure a smile from the sassy Source barista than a seat past 9am.

This seat shortage is not caused solely by arts students, but the hordes of science students who have decided that the clearly named ‘Arts and Social Sciences’ library is their place of work. Last time I checked it was our books [ the only thing our fees are seemingly going towards] lining the shelves, not science text books and test tubes. Time and time again I glance at my neighbours’ work and it’s not Judith Butler but squiggles of unfathomable calculations.

Bristruths/ Facebook

‘We pay for this too! This is our campus!’, I can hear the Science students cry. Despite us paying the same fees as you, science departments receive nearly four times the funding than arts do. The Faculty of Health Sciences receives an average of £26.4m per year from the government and wait for it… the Faculty of Arts receives £3.9m. We are contributing handsomely to your expensive equipment and labs, so the least you could do would be to let us have a place in the smelly crevice that contains all our resources.

You have a myriad of perfectly acceptable places to work: the medical library, veterinary sciences library, biological sciences and the Queen’s building to name a few. So why do you choose to populate a refuge for bitter arts students who have no contact hours?

At the apex of exam and dissertation stress, searching unsuccessfully for a seat and eating your lunch on the café floor is the ultimate morale killer. Hence, I suggest a full-scale expulsion of science students from the building and in the spirit of fairness and equality, arts students from science buildings.

Yours sincerely,
A disgruntled arts student

Featured Image: Flickr/ GloomyCorp