Original demands and responses from Jane Rapley, Head of CSM

1. A reinstatement of the budgets and a return to the tutorial hours as they were for the academic year 2006‐2007, when the current Stage 3 students on the BA first enrolled on their course.
Not agreed - Not appropriate in relation to the College positions on funding all students.
NB Most other areas have seen some reduction in teaching hours budgets (payrise impact) unless off set by over recruitment to international targets - not the case at BS.



2. A reinstatement of the budget for teaching and materials that was cut on the FdA course.
Not agreed - as above



3. A reinstatement of the budget for materials in the different workshops.
Not agreed - as above. Alister may have some flexibility in BS budget to mitigate 1, 2 or 3 but not to replace.



4. For all workshops to be open from Monday to Friday for a minimum of 6 hours per day.
Workshop access has been compromised by staff sickness 1 day per week since January and the lack of suitable temporary cover. Undertaken to make every effort to find staff to revert to 5 day access. Subsequent meeting between students and Alister have established that the Digital Workshop will be opened 5 days a week and cover will be found to cover the Printmaking workshop to allow access on Mondays in addition to its current opening. Alister reports students are satisfied with this arrangement and don't need Saturdays.



5. For studio opening times in 2 Elthorne Road to be brought in line with those of the BA Studios which are open from 7am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.
Studio opening times should be reviewed to provide appropriate equitable access - agreed by me.
In practice this means 9am - 8pm (not 7am) on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs and 9am - 6pm Friday. On occasions when events take place on Thursdays at the main building and all students attend them Elthorne Studios would close by 6pm



6. A return to the more economical, direct employment of the students by the Byam Shaw School of Art and a cessation of the outsourcing of school staff in regards of maintenance and cleaning duties.
Not agreed: Outside College remit.



7. Adequate communication with the student body regarding matters like the allocation of funding and any proposed changes to it.
Agreed at College and local level that more communication required. Definition of "adequate" not agreed. Students requested representation and veto vote on all budget setting groups - not agreed. I have undertaken to hold an all student meeting at a later date to talk about the "vision" for the future and explain the overall budget and the budget setting process.



8. That students be represented by an elected officer for the Byam Shaw site in any forthcoming meetings about the future of their course and be given the right to veto any major changes to the way their course is run, ie. The merging of the BA Fine Art course with the other BA Fine Art course offered at CSM.
Not agreed. Explained course development was discursive and iterative not a "voting" scenario but there was and should be consultation and discussion with students as the revalidation developed and that recent graduates had representation at the validation events. Also confirmed that at the introduction of a new course they would be asked if they agreed to move to the revalidated course or remain on their current one.



9. According monetary compensation of all the already lost hours of tutorials in proportion to the tuition fees with regard to the number of tutorial hours specified in the course handbook given to each of the students when we originally joined the course.
Not agreed. specific 1x1 tutorial entitlement in both the 06/07 and 08/09 handbooks is the same and has been delivered. Explained that the taught contract could be delivered in a variety of ways not just 1x1. Final years expressed their frustration that they were getting less support in year 3 than year 1 (though I did refer to the relationsahip of student achievement and quality versus quantity of teaching and did not enter into the pedagogic strategy of progressively developing independent learning - not the time, place or temperature!