Lady Margaret Hall College has arranged coffee mornings for students and their scouts in order to improve student relationships with college staff and to thank them for their hard work.
Cherwell’s C+ investigation into the treatment of college staff at the beginning of this term showed that only 45 per cent of students feel scouts are treated with respect, 68 per cent feel they have a good relationship with them and around half of students speak to their scouts on a regular basis.
LMH JCR President Aadit Shankar decided to take action in order to improve relations between students and staff.
He commented, “The scouts at LMH work incredibly hard for us, and we rarely, if ever, get to thank them for it. Students are either out at lectures or labs or in bed half-asleep when scouts come round to clean rooms. I listed this as one of my manifesto pledges and it turned out to be an extremely popular idea within the JCR. The Lodge Manager and the Domestic Bursar informed me that the scouts would appreciate this kind of thing.”
Meetings are arranged for each accommodation building at 9.30 Monday to Wednesday throughout this term and last around 45 minutes, giving scouts and students the chance to share an informal chat over coffee, tea, and biscuits. They discuss each other’s experiences including what the students study, how both enjoy living, and working in Oxford and who the messiest students are.
Roughly 15 students have turned up to each meeting so far, joined by two of their scouts, although Aadit told Cherwell that organising the meetings can be difficult, due to the scouts’ working hours and students’ timetables.
Harry Krais, a student at LMH, told Cherwell, “I definitely think [the meetings have] brought our corridor closer to the scouts – I have certainly been interacting with my scouts much more often than before.
“Students spend half the year in close proximity to staff within college and it is often the norm that they hardly say a word to each other, which is such a shame. I would encourage anything that helps to bring the college community closer together.”
Second year Theology student Verity Hub- bard said, “I already have a very good relationship with my scout, but those who are perhaps more shy got a lot out of the meet up. We even joked about going on a night out to ‘Lava & Ignite’ with our scouts.”
The Housekeeping Team Leader at LMH discussed the matter with the scouts who felt that it was a “nice” and “thoughtful idea”.
They commented, “Some meetings only a couple of students turned up but they were still nice. It’s nice to feel appreciated for the work we do. I like that they wanted to thank me for the work I do for them.”
They unanimously agreed that it was something “fun” that every college should do, and they thought it would be a good idea if meetings took place every Michaelmas term.
