Hot water issue

Jeyathanushan Jeyavickneswararajah submitted on

Friday 8th December 2017

Complete

Having bought a tea from the library cafe earlier in the day, I wanted to get hot water later on and knew that if we bring our own cups we can get it for free. So I took my the cup from before. But I was told to pay for the hot water even though I was using the cup that I previously paid for, which was technically my own cup now. How can the university be so stingy with hot water? It's frustrating that we pay £9k a year and are having to pay for such a small thing. 

Answers

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Samuel Dedman submitted on

Thursday 11th January 2018

Complete

Hi Jeyathanushan,

I've just had a reply from the Library, which reads as follows:

Library staff passed on this  question to  the University Catering Services Manager who confirm that staff in University Catering Outlets, including in the Library have been instructed to provide hot water free of charge if a student brings their own cup.

This change has been in place since 01 December 2017 as a follow up action from October’s Students’ Forum.  

In this case a paper cup from a previously purchased drink was presented and we think this is where the confusion arose. The paper cups used in the café to serve hot drinks are not designed for re-use as they are disposable and re-use presents a Health and Safety risk. In this case more hot water should not have been added to a previously used paper cup. We do not know how a charge came to be made for the water, one possibility is that a new paper cup was used.  Catering are happy to provide free hot water if a suitable re-usable cup or flask is provided. We encourage use of a personal re-useable cup or flask to extend sustainability. We are installing  a hot water tap in the Hartley Library Café. This will be installed this term.

Hopefully that makes things a bit clearer, and rest assured hot water should be free of charge from all Union and University outlets. 

I'm going to close this You Make Change submission for now, but please don't hesitate to get in touch with me (vpeducation@susu.org) if you have any more questions. 

All the best,

Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017/18)