Leicester Uni’s (Not So) Bright Idea

During the £15 million renovation of the Percy Gee building, the University of Leicester Students’ Union decided, in their wisdom, to purchase five gigantic designer lamps.

You know the ones. Hunched figures that stand there stoically every day as we tuck into a baguette from Nourish or wait for our Starbucks order.

Clearly the Square would be plunged into darkness without them…

They may add to the modern aesthetic of the building, but at £2,280 per lamp – yes, you read it correctly – are they really worth it?  This adds up to a whopping £11,400 in total.

What’s perhaps more bizarre is that despite this outrageous cost, the lamps aren’t even plugged in.

Over-sized, over-priced, under-used.

A source in the Union claimed the plugs on the lamps had to be changed as they weren’t compatible with the sockets in the Percy Gee, and that’s why the lamps have been left unplugged.

What’s more, the lamps are unnecessary as the building is naturally well-lit during the day and closed in the evening anyway. Perhaps not the best interior design choice during a time of supposed austerity and hardship?

Brick Tamland: The man behind the madness?

Is the outrageous five figure price tag of the redundant lamps really justified? The Tab believes the University could have spent the money in far better ways than a few oversized desk lights…

Let’s start off with a sensible one. Going through the reading list for an essay only to find that every single book has been taken about by some keen bean book hoarder is infuriating for us all.  Instead of those lamps, the library could have bought 380 new books (using an average of £30 per book). Not something to be scoffed at!

Oh, brilliant.

Anybody who uses the campus gym knows that the free weights section is woefully underequipped, and travelling to Manor Road can be a pain.

Spending £11,400 on weights alone might be a bit excessive, but for the cost of just one of those lamps the University could have vastly improved the campus gym with the addition of squat racks, Olympic bars, a press bench, and all the weights to go with them.

Why not 45 library computers – and that’s including monitors, keyboards, and mice. We’ve all been through the pain of having to scan over every computer room in the library to find a vacant station, only to be humiliatingly forced into standing at one of the express zone computers. Imagine a whole new room full!

We love a good night out here at The Tab, and we believe the Union should have made a goodwill gesture during freshers’ fortnight.

Let’s say the average attendance of the Big Shabang is 1,000 – those lamps could have provided four free jägerbombs for every single person attending, with 500 left over for those who make it to Late Lounge.