Comment:
Hi gang, I'm a prospective student starting in September, and I'm really into my writing. Is there a magazine, editorial or anything that lets students submit short stories and whatnot?
Response:
Yes there is the Leeds Student newspaper which you can submit your stories to. Please visit www.luuonline.com/studentactivities/mediaactivities/leedsstudent for further information.
Suggestion:
I am writing to pass on a suggestion of the School of Music. I inquired if there are any possibilities to use one of the School pianos for my personal training without being a Music student. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be possible as the demand of their own students is too high already. However, they told me about the possibility for the Union to buy some pianos very cheap from the school and offer rehearsal rooms to book for students from all schools. Apparently, the demand is quite high. I would be happy to try to help organise this if you see any possibility to make it happen?
Response:
Thanks for your email. I'm sorry but we have no plans currently to provide such a service as we do not have the space to create rehearsal rooms. All the available space in the Union building is currently taken up - to the point that we cannot relocate other services such as our TV station and photography dark rooms, let alone add new ones. I'm sorry that the School of Music has suggested this to you as it is not going to be happening.
Thanks again for your email and good luck with finding rehearsal facilities.
Suggestion:
I think that late at night, bouncers should answer the reception phone. There was an instance in which I needed to know if a friend had used the Nightbus, to see if she was getting home safe. A contact number for the Nightbus should be available too?
Response:
Thank you for your comments. We are looking into the night bus drivers having a mobile phone on their person and informing students of this number. We hope to have this in action from September 07. We appreciate your comments, if there are any further suggestions you have that could improve the service, please let us know.
Regards,
LUU security team
Complaint:
I've been to many poxy music venues over the world. A corrugated iron shanty house in Buenaventura, Columbia; a jungle straw hut in Vietnam. However, in all my experience I can say that in every venue, every single one, the crowd has enhanced my appreciation of the live music played there. Not so at your venue. The crowd were selfish and inconsiderate, yapping constantly over the music, despite requests to be quiet by the band and booing for heaven's sake. After discussing my experience with several people, who have all unanimously said the crowd are ALWAYS like this, I will never go back to Stylus again and I would actively discourage bands from playing there had I the power. Just to think, I could have stayed home and gone to see Cinematic Orchestra in Manchester at a venue where people respect the musicians. Absolutely shameful!
Response:
Thank you for your feedback. Stylus plays host to a huge variety of acts, club nights and artists. I was genuinely excited about the booking of Cinematic Orchestra into our venue and was really impressed by their performance of old and new material from the forthcoming album. I agree that there were people talking during the performance on the back balcony at the concert and I too was disappointed by some members of the audience. It is not a problem that we have experienced in the venue at live shows before - performances by the likes of Courtney Pine, Horace Andy, Public Enemy, De La Soul and whole host of other artists have been respectfully enjoyed without a small number of the audience talking over the performance on the back balcony. I don't know why the small number of people would pay for tickets and then not pay full attention to the performance, as I said its not a problem that we have ever experienced in the venue before. Stylus attracts a whole variety of different crowds (we do everything from drum and bass to jazz and emo to hip hop in Stylus) so I can assure you that we don't have 'A Crowd' who always behave in the same way no matter what the event is.
As to actively discouraging bands to perform in the venue (if you had the power), Stylus is one of the best venues hosting live music in the city. The professionalism of the venue, facilities for bands and profile that we give performers to new audiences means that artists consistently play AND return to the venue. I am saddened by the fact that your enjoyment of the concert was spoilt by some members of the crowd, it is the first instance of a complaint like this that we have ever received at Stylus.
Suggestion:
The Nightbus should run until the library closes so that people can make use of time that it is open for. Also, it would be good if it did pick-ups at the library and computer cluster entrances. Would be good if there was an email/text/internet sign up thing and someone you could contact to let them know that you are no longer getting the bus.
Response:
Thanks for your suggestions on the Nightbus. At the moment we are looking into improving the running of the bus and value all comments. We are looking into making it easier to use for people using the library late at night.
In September 2007, a phone number will be available for use on booking and pick ups.
We hope this will make it easy for yourself and other students.
Thanks, The Nightbus team.
Suggestion:
The ARC cash office: There should be a drop box for finance forms out of hours. This would allow societies to work at their own pace and not be constricted by the limited opening times of the cash office.
Response:
Thanks for the feedback. We have already looked into this and unfortunately at the present time this is not possible. This is because we would need to do some major building work in order to create an area that would meet to the security requirements we would have put in place.
We are working with our Bars department to see if there is a system that we could implement where clubs and societies could hand cash to them and then they can keep it in their night safes before transferring to the cash office the next day.
Whilst I understand your concerns about the opening hours, we try to get people to handle their transactions in person as often there will be problems with the forms or additional documentation that is required. We like to try and sort issues in person rather than have to chase people afterwards. Also, we have increased the opening hours of the Cash Office this year to 9.30am to 4.00pm. Unfortunately, we cannot open later than 4.00pm because we need to consolidate all our banking transactions for the day and process this with our main finance office, which closes at 5.00pm.
I hope you can understand our position. We are continually making improvements to the services we provide and if such a service becomes possible, we will be contacting activity groups to let them know.
Comment:
Hi there, I am currently studying at Leeds College Of Music and will be starting a BA in Music Production next year. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to join some of the activities that are at LUU such as poker, pool(we don't have these), or even the football team (ours isn't very good and I take football very seriously, I won't improve in a team like that!) next year? I am aware that a friend of mine was able to join the rowing team or something?
Response:
Thanks for the enquiry. As long as you are a member of NUS, you can join our groups as what is known as an associate member. This means that you are not a full member, and cannot vote in elections or take up a committee position but you can still take part in activities.
The main exception to this is with regards to BUSA sport. If you were to join the football team, you could play in Northern League competition but not in BUSA Wednesday afternoon games. This is due to BUSA's regulations not ours and they're really strict about it. If you get caught playing illegal players you can face fines, point deductions, etc.
Hope this makes sense. Everything has wound up here for the year, but things will kick-off again in the week beginning Monday 17th September. We'll be having our annual activities festival from the Monday to the Thursday of this week so pop up to have a chat with our groups. Or simply check out our website for slightly more details.
