ANNEX 2
Academic Staff Common Room
Committee Report 2010-11
Since the last AGM the most important and time-consuming business occupying the committee has
related to the UCL Estates Masterplan and its implications for the Housman Room and UCL common
room space. Once the Masterplan team had been alerted to the existence of the ASCR, it was first
proposed that we relocate to 25/26 Gordon Square. The committee prepared an appraisal of those
buildings which showed a number of significant reasons why they were not a suitable location for the
ASCR. These arguments were presented to the Masterplan team on 18th February and again to the Vice
Provost (Rex Knight) on 30th March, and a document explaining our case was presented to the Estates
Management Committee. A Working Party to look at the overall provision of Social Space in UCL was
set up and chaired by Rex Knight: the ASCR has two representatives, but, so far, this group has met only
once, on 3rd June. With help and advice from David Colquhoun we set up an electronic petition: this
produced 1174 signatures and many wonderful testimonials to the importance of the Housman Room to
academic life at UCL. The petition was presented to the Provost on 17th June, prior to the Council
meeting in early July. Since then there has been no dialogue with the Masterplan team. However, the
latest draft of the Masterplan, publicized this week, has no mention of the Housman Room or the
provision of common rooms.
It is five years since the ASCR introduced the “Grade 7 and above”criterion for membership. The
committee agreed it appropriate to set up a working group to review how that criterion was working. As
a consequence it is now proposed that a number of changes are made to the Constitution at this AGM
that will have the effect of opening membership to all categories of UCL staff.
Chartwell continue to manage catering and bar facilities in the Housman Room. The ASCR committee is
represented on the UCL Catering Users Group and the ASCR Manager has regular meetings with the
Refectory Manager. During the year, David Smith (Estates and Facilities) joined the ASCR committee;
he has taken note of various problems and prepared an Action Plan to improve the standard of food and
its service.
Following an approach from the UCL Development Office, the committee has agreed to offer the World
Olympic Association exclusive use of the Housman Room for 17 days of the 2012 London Olympics. It
has been agreed for that period that ASCR should relocate to the Garden Room.
The 14th Haldane Event was a talk by Negley Harte and John North on the history of Senior Common
Rooms at UCL. This was highly entertaining and successful: thanks to Jane Spender for organising the
event behind the scenes and for producing such a professional booklet.
The committee has met six times since the last AGM. Matters discussed (not mentioned above) include:
beer-tasting notes, need for a new barrel stillion, purchase of new sofas and repair of damaged chairs.
The committee and friends have carried out membership checks during at least one week each term.
Committee volunteers also provide holiday cover for Jane, watering plants and laying out newspapers
and journals. We are immensely lucky to have Jane as our Manager, running ASCR on a day-to-day
basis with her quiet efficiency – once again, thank you, Jane.