Anger, laughs and gasps at Vice Chancellor allocation interrogation

Yesterday evening, the Vice Chancellor, Christopher Higgins, and Head of Admissions, Professor Christopher Hutchison, held a fiery open meeting with the Durham student body in the debating chambers of the Pemberton Building on Palace Green.

Just under 200 students turned up, including DSU President Archie Dallas, various DSU representatives and a strong contingent of Castle students to take advantage of this rare opportunity to air their views and ask some burning questions of the University’s top dogs.

The two Chrises opened the proceedings with an outlining of the new proposal for college admissions that will see college allocation power taken away from Senior Tutors and given to a random and automated selection ‘tool’.

The big shot Vice Chancellor shifted blame onto college heads

Higgins was eager to point out that the 2005 Discrimination Act was forcing this change and that “gender, class and ethnicity…[were] at the heart of concerns”, going on to say that “inadvertent acts of discrimination would still be considered as discrimination”.

In practice, this means that if Senior Tutors could not legally defend all of their selections then the University would potentially be liable for thousands of discrimination claims.

Over subscribed University College is set to be one of the most affected by the changes

The opening question of what turned out to be a fierce and long Q&A session probed the double act on what the long-term benefits for students would be, if any. Lil’ Chris (Christopher Hutchison) responded succinctly saying on average ‘using the tool 4% more applicants get their first choice [college]’ but in an extreme scenario, concerning a single college that emerged from trials ‘10% more students were accepted into their first choice by the tool than by the tutor.’

Coming from a less statistical angle, Higgins observed that it would ‘free up tutor time’ and ‘create a more diverse community’ in colleges, a point that he referred to repeatedly throughout the meeting.

In reply to concerns the colleges were becoming homogenous, and would continue to become so, Lil Chris (Hutchison) argued that currently ‘most college websites looked the same’ and that the University was working to make ‘each College better branded’ and therefore enhance its character.

Lil Chris (Hutchinson) was the numbers man (featured above in the world’s worst shirt)

Anger over a perceived lack of student consultation was at the centre of the evening’s debate. In one of a few embarrassing moments for the much lambasted Vice Chancellor, he was told by a member of the DSU PresComm that ‘just to be clear…[we] rejected [the proposal] as a body’, after he claimed that the proposal did ‘not displease so many people, it displeases just a few small colleges’.

Lil’ Chris insisted that ‘students had been consulted at all stages of the process’ through various DSU committees and through College heads.

Following a question by a Tab reporter, it was the latter of the two that were blamed by both of the duo for the lack of student consultation. Hutchinson specifically said that ‘college heads were given a presentation to disperse among students’ and the Vice Chancellor concurred with the Tab saying ‘I agree, college heads should have talked to students more’ including ‘one college head who was told very clearly that he needed to talk to his students more’.

Lil Chris loyally came to the rescue of his paymaster, reminiscing that ‘all college heads were called into a seminar 18 months ago and the importance of dissemination of all issues to their constituencies was emphasised to them’ and squarely placed blame upon the shoulders of college heads who will face some tough questions from politically active students over the next few days.

Afro Jim asked some pressing questions about the effectiveness of DSU consultation

The Vice Chancellor pointed out that the DSU was the students official representative but after concerns were raised about its wider effectiveness by Societies and Student Development Officer Jim Elliott he conceded that it was ‘ineffective…and discussions had begun to resolve [the] issue of student consultation’.

As the meeting progressed, the Vice Chancellor categorically rejected the idea that this was in any way a cost cutting venture, crying ‘No,no,no – we are not doing this to save money.’ Although when Lil Chris (Hutchison) was asked if any jobs would be lost as a result of the changes, he was met with raucous laughter when he answered that staff would be ‘redistributed’.

Higgins pleaded with the unrelenting and eager audience that some alternative proposals be put forward and the idea of a second choice system was raised by one student whilst an Aidan’s student stood in defence of the proposal and said that for the big colleges, that don’t suffer from over subscription, it doesn’t change anything.

Whilst accepting his view would be unpopular with Castle peers, the anonymous Aidan’s advocate said Hill colleges maintain a vibrant and diverse extra-curricular environment and that the current proposal would not homogenise the smaller colleges in the way they feared.

There was a moment of hilarity when Higgins revealed that Hild and Bede had suggested an alternative: giving sons and daughters of alumni priority, an idea which St. Chad’s had dubbed ‘outrageous’ and was met with disbelief in the chamber.

The closing moments of the meeting proved dramatic with a PalatinateTV reporter angrily questioning why the Vice Chancellor had not allowed the meeting to be filmed, the now solo Higgins replied that he wanted to speak informally with students.

Higgins has taken his career into his own hands, standing accountable for a potentially damaging proposal

The final question was fielded by a Tab reporter who asked whether the Vice Chancellor would personally take accountability for any potentially adverse effects of the new allocation system, such as the destruction of college characters and the number of university applications.

He answered indirectly at first by saying he was responsible for everything, but upon it being pointed out that this political hot potato was being tossed around and that he was presenting himself as a champion of the proposal, after some pushing, he answered, ‘yes, yes, I will take full accountability’.