Wadham students returning to college after the vacation have come back to a parlous economic situation, as according to the SU treasurer their Student Union has only £1200 left.
These financial troubles appear to have arisen because the SU’s expenditure has greatly outstripped its credit. Jahnavi Emmanuel, Wadham’s current SU President, commented that the college’s economic micro-crisis was due largely to “all of our Freshers’ Week expenses, plus down-payments and deposits for Queerfest, which come out of our 2012/13 budget.”
She went on to explain that the college have been helpful in giving the SU a loan over the summer holidays, which covered part of the expenses for Freshers’ Week, yet the main problem lies in the fact that the block grant for the term will not come through until the end of first week, leaving the SU temporarily bankrupt.
A host of other issues have also emerged, as Emmanuel explained that the SU was “still owed money from a newspaper company which overcharged us massively”. Furthermore, the SU has found itself in still greater debt due to JCR refurbishments which took place last academic year. Emmanuel continued that, “We’ve been looking at ways to cut down over-spending in future, and are also working to secure funding for any future plans we have”.
Max McGenity, the SU’s Treasurer said, “Essentially, our predecessors were under the impression that we would receive funding for a coffee machine and all its maintenance etc from the Wadham Society (an alumni donation organisation) to the tune of 5000 quid and as soon as I took over I got an email saying the bid had failed.”
He continued, “We’re in a bad place (about £1200 in our account) until our grant comes in at the end of this week. College just won’t give an advance, which is really not on. Essentially everything is rectifiable, but it’s just a complete pain to start our year off like this!”
Wadham students have expressed their support for their student governing body, with a second year PPE student commenting, “This is all very distressing, but I’m sure our highly competent SU Treasurer will sort things out”.
Students from other colleges have been less magnanimous. An English student at New College commented, “I find Wadham’s predicament a surprise, considering their long-standing tradition of straight-laced iron-fisted conservatism”, whilst a Classicist commented that “you would have thought that a college which has produced two Lord Chancellors would be able to manage its money a little better. This seems to me yet another sign of the slipping standards of education.”
