Motions For The Sexcentenary Club (Peterhouse JCR) Open Meeting 13/03/06 – 7:00pm – Upper Sex

Prospective Second Year Rooms Ballot

Proposed by: Charlotte ‘Lady’ Sayers (First Year Representative)

Seconded by: Amy Lindley

The Sexcentenary Club notes that:

1. The current prospective 2nd year rooms ballot system is too stressful and pressurised as it resembles a cattle-market.
2. The deadline for room balloting papers is too early in the term for a considered decision to be made as to groupings.
3. The actual ballot itself is not for some time after the deadline.

The Sexcentenary Club believes that:

1. More time could be given to individual first years in choosing their second year rooms.
2. The deadline for prospective 2nd year forms could be later in term to allow more time for groupings to assemble without adversely affecting the rooms ballot timetable, as no points decisions need to be made and the ballot is random.

The Sexcentenary Club resolves:

1. To hold future prospective second year ballots over a full day or afternoon rather than in 30 minutes one evening, with each group/individual having a 5 or 10 minute appointment with the Rooms Committee in which to make a considered choice.
2. To retain the same system of random ballot and non-attendance penalties, with people who miss their appointments being placed at the bottom of the ballot.
3. To move the prospective second year ballot form deadline to a point later in term, as the forms are not involved in the points system and can be simply put into a random order closer to the ballot date.
4. To append these and other notes on how the rooms ballot should be run to Appendix B of the JCR constitution, to be approved at the next open meeting (Easter Term 2006)

Information about Room Rents

Proposed by: Peter Whalley

Seconded by: Moira Johnson

The Sexcentenary Club notes that:

1. At the moment, the only source of information about rooms available to undergraduates is the Rooms Database on the JCR website.
2. There were errors in the aforementioned database this year, in which the published room rents (for e.g. G staircase and Noah’s Ark) were lower than the actual rents. The errors were not noticed by most students until the actual night of the ballot, which meant that they had been working with the wrong rents while trying to choose their room.
3. Last year, some available rooms were not listed on the database.
4. The online Rooms Database, though useful, is not a definitive guarantee made by College, and this should be recognised by its users.

The Sexcentenary Club believes that:

1. The JCR Rooms Database should not be the only means of communicating room-related information to undergraduates.
2. College should publish an authorised list of available rooms and their rents to all undergraduates.

The Sexcentenary Club resolves to:

1. Request College to provide a definitive list of available rooms and their rents to all undergraduates each Michaelmas term.
2. Introduce necessary wording on the online Rooms Database to warn users that it should not be used as the definitive guide for room prices and other information, and that the first point of reference should always be the list from college mentioned in (1) above.