{"id":460,"date":"2022-01-28T12:20:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T12:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/?p=460"},"modified":"2022-01-28T12:20:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T12:20:25","slug":"460","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/2022\/01\/28\/460\/","title":{"rendered":"Saviour Student Social Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Students at the Medway campus are undergoing some obvious changes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kent students, they have seen many of their courses including sports science return to the Canterbury campus with more plans to follow suit.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Greenwich students have seen a boost in population, with an increase in engineering and forensic science students arriving this term.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some changes have happened more surreptitiously.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being the satellite campus of three universities, facilities and social spaces are at a premium, with its transformed army barracks and training yard simply not having the venues their respective main campuses could offer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For students on this campus, there is only one student union run social space.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hub, formerly named The Deep End, although it has kept vestiges of this title for ease, has changed hands from being run by Kent Universities student union to Greenwich.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources from within the Greenwich union revealed that the previous system was being bankrolled by Greenwich University. With the understanding that it is the lone student hub for the Greenwich students. Because of this it was kept open last year, as Covid regulations allowed, despite not making a profit.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, although these changes were made behind the scenes, staff and students alike have noticed the possible teething problems the change has brought, and not just the uninspiring rebrand.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students are at least seeing attempts in creating different events and socials for them to enjoy, but an obvious switch in outlook, with profits being held above student interaction, has seen the menu reduced to pizza baguettes and fried food, many of the drinks listed, including cocktails not being stocked and early closing times when staff deem it \u201cunprofitable\u201d to stay open any longer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The staff have not had an easy run of it either.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a new till system that has been difficult to comprehend, to timetabling that has seen 5 staff members turn up to a shift meant for 2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenwich student, Nathan Arnold, 32, has worked at The Hub, for 3 years and has enjoyed a role as a Bar supervisor for the past two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was to his horror that on his return he was not contacted about future shifts, and had to personally enquire to get more information. At which point he was offered a shift only to find an hour later that the supervisor role has been removed, and with it an over a pound an hour reduction in pay.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is safe to say he was not happy about how the situation had been handled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u00a0am a mature student, with all the responsibilities that comes with that. I had planned my bills around the money that I was earning last year. A pound an hour difference\u00a0does not\u00a0seem like much but it all adds up. I think I will have to request a copy of my contract from HR, and then I hope there is something I can do\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is starting look as if the Greenwich student’s unions execution does not quite match its ambition.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources on this matter have been even harder to come by now that there has been rumors of an investigation being held into the action of staff, with stock takes not matching returns. Staff now fear retaliation if it is found that they have said anything that may not be looked at in the best light by the union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenwich union chose not to elaborate on the situation but did confirm that an investigation was underway, and would be happier to comment once the investigation is over.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it stands, new students to the Medway campus have not received the experience they may have been expecting or that of previous years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for returning students, only compounded after a long covid period, has seen their social hub barely keep up appearances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could this see the end of the Medway campuses only student social space? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will profit trump experience?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Medway students have even less to keep them amused during term time?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only time will tell, but if things do not happen quickly and profits start to come in, the future of The Hub looks bleak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Gibbons <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students at the Medway campus are undergoing some obvious changes.   For Kent students, they have seen many of their courses including sports science return to the Canterbury campus with more plans to follow suit.   While Greenwich students have seen a boost in population, with an increase in engineering and forensic science students arriving this term.   However, some changes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-local-stories-around-the-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentconnect\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}