Get the uni to give sensible names to buildings
Constantinos Regas submitted on
Monday 29th October 2018
Complete
The university building numbering system is completely illogical.
Why not give every building a name and then use this name and its number consistently in campus maps, timetables, Google maps pins, etc?
Responses
Here, you can view the complete set of official responses from the sabbatical officers regarding this submission.
Students' Union replied on
Monday 3rd Dec 2018 9:54am
Hello Constantinos,
Following my update last week there has been no further updates regarding your You Make Change submission. The project looking at campus navigation is still ongoing but is likely to take a decent amount of time before any results are seen, and as such I'm going to close this You Make Change with the intention of re-opening it should any news come to light.
Thank you for making the submission, and thank you to everyone who commented and voted!
All the best,
Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017-19, vpeducation@susu.org)
Students' Union replied on
Friday 23rd Nov 2018 1:30pm
Hello Constantinos,
I sat down with a member of University staff yesterday to discuss wayfinding and navigation around campus, and it uncovered a couple of interesting points:
- There is a plan at the moment to improve physical and digital signage around the University's campuses. This includes things like actual maps, signs and linking those to online resources like maps.soton.ac.uk.
- They have done some review work into names and numbers, and have found that in the vast majority of cases numbers are preferred over names.
- The current numerical system is a bit of a mess, but it would cause significant upheval if it were all to be revised. This is why they are keen to improve signage around campus, as per point 1.
Hopefully that is useful to you as an update. I'll leave this You Make Change live for a little bit longer for commenting and voting!
All the best,
Samuel Dedman (VP Educaiton 2017-19, vpeducation@susu.org)
Students' Union replied on
Monday 5th Nov 2018 12:19pm
Hello Constantinos,
Thanks for getting in touch! The University's numbering system is something which has confused me in the past, and as such I'm more than happy to start looking into this for you.
I'm going to put out some feelers with Estates & Facilities to see if there is a reason for the current numbering system, and will get back to you once I have an answer.
For now, don't forget that your You Make Change is live on the SUSU website and can be voted upon. If you have any other questions, please let me know.
All the best,
Samuel Dedman (VP Education 2017-19, vpeducation@susu.org)
Actions
Forwarded to Education
Friday 2nd Nov 2018 1:03pm
Comments
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I am personally struggling to see a problem here.
Is the person saying the numbering is a problem because similar numbers are not necessarily next to each other, or that buildings don't have names?
As far as I am aware, ssentially all buildings with a single subject have the subject name for the building name, buildings with multiple subjects/disciplines have conventional names.
As for notices, as far as I am aware, all buildings have both their name and number on them.
i.e. B46 - Physics and B44 - Shackleton
Regarding the consistency of maps, I think the person needs to specify where there is an inconsistency.
I've yet to find an issue with https://maps.southampton.ac.uk/ which allows you to find buildings by name or number. Furthermore, most university maps including the ones around campus are based off https://maps.southampton.ac.uk/.
Building numbering makes no sense at all but using names might be an overkill. There's a lot of buildings.