Term 3: Tommo tells it like it is

Every year there is always a moment when campus changes. Suddenly the library becomes the place to be; Red Bull becomes harder to come by than an on-time building project; people start calling the Learning Grid home; midday becomes midnight, and we all start dreaming of barbeques and post exam parties on the Rootes field.

It appears that moment is just around the corner, and so I hope that you have had a relaxing Easter and are ready for a busy term ahead. Over at the Union it has been an extremely busy Easter. We had hoped that we could open our doors to phase one of the rebuild this week; as you will no doubt have heard, unfortunately parts of the build have been delayed. Whilst The Dirty Duck has opened its doors, The Copper Rooms will not be open until the beginning of week five.

The most important thing to say is sorry. I can honestly say that I am as disappointed as many of you, and can completely understand many of the frustrations which people have felt. This year has been a huge challenge, it has been a year filled with disruption and a year unlike any other. Despite the disruption, you have all stood by us through thick and thin and for that we owe a great debt – thanks for sticking by us. On a more positive note, the venue will (provided we avoid an earthquake or avalanche) be open in time for some pre- and post-exam partying.

Our priority over Easter has been to work as hard as possible to make sure that the events we had planned still go ahead. To this end we look forward to taking the ‘SU on Tour’ to Leamington Spa and also to Birmingham for the Skool Dayz school trip! Having more of a presence off campus is certainly something which we have considered in the past and so hopefully the ‘SU on Tour’ proves a success and we can continue to look into holding more events off campus in the future.

Thankfully we also received some good news over Easter. Over the past twelve months we have worked extremely hard to improve our environmental performance, both within the Union and also on campus. To this end we were delighted to be named amongst the best performing Students’ Unions in the country by gaining a Silver Standard in this year’s Sound Environmental awards. This is the first time we have ever won such an award and clearly is something we must continue to aspire to as we go ahead.

Finally, during the holidays many of our clubs and societies enjoyed a whole host of successes. Our drama societies did incredibly well at the National Student Drama Festival, even receiving a fantastic review in the Sunday Times. The Great Warwick Jump also proved a sensation, raising over £50,000 for charity and setting a new UK record.

Good luck with revision, essays and exams and have a great final term.

Tommo and Pidge will be holding some drop-in sessions to answer any questions you may have on the rebuild in SU HQ on Thursday 23rd April at 1pm and 5pm.