Status: Complete
Will SUSU ever buy the martial arts studio? (If not, why not?)
Are there any plans for SUSU to acquire (buy?) the martial arts studio from Jubilee? In my eyes it make no sense for them to own a single room in the union- an organisation which is supposed to be for all students. This has meant that this single room in the Union building costs students some £150 to use and makes it awkward for martial arts societies to get in when the room is sporadically locked and there isn't a key at SUSU reception. This would possibly be understandable if the martial arts studio was some sort of world class facility which it made sense to protect but it is just a filthy sweatbox with outdated and dangerous equipment which is stuck behind a pay-wall for the large majority of the student community.
I have also found that the sort of students who do martial arts are less likely to be the sort who go to the gym so sports and wellbeing membership isn't really worth it for them as martial arts societies also have additional fees on top of this. I know that Jamie is doing good work to try and get a "tiered" membership for Jubilee but it still makes no sense that a room in the SUSU building belongs to Jubilee at all.
Sadly, SUSU doesn’t ‘own’ Building 42, we rent it from the University so unfortunately we can’t ‘buy’ the room. We are in the midst of a Master Planning activity which will look at spaces in the building, and who controls each space. The martial arts room is one of a few spaces in the SUSU building that belong to Sport and Wellbeing (who are operated by the University, not the Union). Together with the work I’m doing on the master plan (as President) and the work that the Vice President Sports Development is doing on widening participation and tiered membership, hopefully we’ll have both better clarity of space ‘ownership’, less confusion as to who manages each space and fewer students being priced out of taking part in sport societies.
I hope that answers your question, if you have anything more to clarify then please submit another question or email me on pres@susu.org.
Monday 18th Jan 2016 12:12pm
