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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 26, No. 9. 1963.

Exec. Deals With Weir Complaints

Exec. Deals With Weir Complaints

At the first meeting of the new Executive an accommodation sub-committee was formed. Initially this subcommittee will investigate conditions at Weir House—then general University hostel accommodation.

The President of the Weir Association, Mr. Ferguson, was called upon by Peter Blizard to give some perspective to the vociferous complaints of Weirmen at the AGM.

He advocated the formation of a Weir House sub-committee to give moral support and advice to the Weir association.

"This," he said, "will put the facts in their true perspective as some of the grievances may stem from an attitude of ingrown cynicism amongst the residents."

Last year Weir House showed a deficit of £700 and Ferguson fears an imminent rise in board, "anything up to £5/15/-." The cost of living in Weir will also be raised by the installation of electricity meters, for which the initial cost is £1100, with a planned saving of £600 a year.

Ferguson felt that it was illustrative of the conditions in Weir that this saving was not passed on to students in the form of fee deductions, despite the fact that they would now be paying for their own electricity. He expanded these remarks by saying that the installation of meters could almost be classed as breach of contract, for it had not been indicated in the prospectus, which was supposed to outline the full terms of board.

Blizard approved the subcommittee, as, he said, "The Students' Association has some obligation to Weir House." But he asked for some concrete suggestions from Weir as to the function of its sub-committee. Ferguson cited the specific case of moral support on the installation of meters—Blizard, unsatisfied, reiterated his plea for concrete proposals.

The discussion on Weir House ended with the election of Margaret Kemp as Chairman of the Weir sub-committee. After a suggestion, which was later overruled, that a woman would be unable to get the real heart of problems at the hostel, the meeting passed to another item on the agenda.