| Description | Minutes of the committee appointed by the Senate 'principally to consider and report on the academic management of new halls of residence' in 1962 which was dissolved in 1966 when its responsibilities were transferred to a Joint Senate and Council Committee on Halls of Residence (UB/COM/26), and then reconstituted in 1973. There is a complete set of minutes of this committee for the 1962 to 1966 period, and from 1973 to 1982 when the committee was again dissolved. There is a single numerical numbering sequence for minutes of the 1962-1966 committee, and another single numerical numbering sequence for minutes of the 1973-1982 committee. The Halls of Residence committee reporting to Council continued to manage the financial and administrative functions of the halls of residence.
Membership of the 1962-1966 committee consisted of the Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Principal, and a number of members of professorial staff. The Bursar also attended. The committee had the power to co-opt additional members. The Deputy Principal and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor were also members, and meetings were also chaired by the Deputy Principal, Dr T. Alty. At the first meeting of the committee, held on 28 March 1962, members discussed the development plan for the 'Wyddrington Residental site', later referred to as the Vale site. A copy of this plan is included. The minutes record discussion about access to the site, the proposed provision of houses for staff and staff flats to be included within the halls of residence. They also refer to previous discussion by the Senate about policy regarding halls of residence, and mention the report of the Planning and Priorities committee entitled 'Planning a Hall of Residence' which set out general principles on which the Planning committee for High Hall and Ridge Hall had worked. There are also references to discussion about the composition of the Senior Common Room and its relationship to non-resident members of academic staff, and to recommendations based on this report. Minutes of this first meeting also contain a copy of an extract from the interim report of the committee of the Birmingham Association of University Teachers on the expansion of the University which covers issues including academic influence, student discipline, general admissions policy, and broader questions about the university as a community and the extent to which halls of residence should provide a non-academic focus for activities and a collegiate system.
The committee did not meet again until December 1962, when the minutes record discussion about the staffing of the Senior Common Room of Ridge Hall, the new hall of residence for women students being constructed on the Vale site. The names of staff selected are included, and the minutes go on to consider the selection of students for places in the hall, issues relating to student discipline, and names for the new halls of residence. Minutes of the next meeting, held on 21 February 1963, continue to discuss staffing, and student recruitment and selection for places, and also include a draft statement of Senior Common Room duties at Ridge Hall. The committee then established a pattern of holding monthly meetings during term time. This pattern was also followed by the reconstituted committee established in 1973
The main business of the committee in 1963 and 1964 centred on the management and operation of Ridge Hall and High Hall, the first pair of buildings offering student accommodation on the Vale site. Minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 1963 include a copy of a request from the Vice-Chancellor to members of University staff, asking whether anyone could offer accommodation as 'paying guests' to new students who had applied for places at Ridge Hall which would not be completed until January 1964, due to construction delays experienced during the severe winter of 1962-1963. Minutes of the meeting held on 9 October 1963 contain details of discussions about the future of Ridge Hall and High Hall, and record concerns expressed by committee members about the High Hall tower block building which some academic staff thought 'presented great problems of control and community integration' due to practical difficulties in creating a feeling of community, as all common rooms were on the ground floor. It was suggested that staff flats within the building 'might have to be the main integrating influence'. There are also references to potential barriers to recruiting women academic staff for High Hall Senior Common Room because of the height of the building and the difficulty of access by lift which would tend to isolate those living on upper storeys. Committee minutes typically give the names of academic staff accepted as members of the Senior Common Room in each hall of residence, and those leaving their positions, as well as including information about the terms of appointment and residence, and the expectations of Senior Common Room members.
As well as discussing issues relating to the creation of a functioning community of students and staff at the new halls, the committee also discussed the need for consistency in the rules and regulations for each of the new halls. Minutes of the meeting held on 3 July 1964 state that, though the committee was reluctant to interfere with the autonomy of each Hall of Residence Council, it would have to retain the right to arbitrate between them, and to reconcile any conflicts in their proposed rules. Minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 1964 include copies of the rules for Ridge Hall and High Hall, subject to confirmation by the committee, with an additional set of rules for students in High Hall, and an additional set of rules for students in Chancellor's Hall, which had come under the administrative control of the Senate Committee on Halls of Residence in October 1964, though University House, Manor House, and Chad Hill continued to report to the Council Halls of Residence committee.
Minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 1964 also contain a copy of the Diamond Jubilee Appeal brochure for the new halls of residence, published in 1960, which includes photographs of the Vale site before building work began, site plans of the proposed halls, and estimated costs. The minutes discuss the draft rules of the halls of residence, and minutes of the next meeting, held on 24 November 1964, recommend that the rules should be renamed a 'handbook' and should be set out in more positive terms. Once the first halls of residence on the Vale site were open, the committee received annual reports of each of the halls, and the minutes also contain copies of the hall handbooks. Minutes of the meeting held on 29 November 1965 include the first annual reports of Ridge Hall and High Hall, as well as the annual report of Chancellor's Hall. The committee agreed at this meeting that statistical information showing the numbers of students in residence should be provided by halls of residence in future reports, as Chancellor's Hall already did. Minutes of this meeting also consider the duties of academic staff serving as Senior Common Room members of halls of residence, and refer to the difficulty of combining the duties of hall president with the demands of an academic career. There are references to concerns about security at Wyddrington Hall, for women students, due to the design of the building and the difficulty in controlling the entrance and exit of students' guests at night. The committee also discussed issues relating to discipline in the halls of residence, including the imposition of a system of fines and the option to publish disobedience by asking the offender to withdraw from the hall, with serious misconduct to be dealt with by the Discipline committee. Copies of the Ridge Hall handbook 1965-1966, the Lake Hall handbook 1965-1966, and Wyddrington Hall draft information sheets for 1965-1966 residents are included. These contain information about fees, terms of residence, governance, amenities, rules and regulations, guests, and visitors.
Issues relating to student discipline and the extent to which members of academic staff as Senior Common Room members should go to enforce moral codes, continue to be raised at meetings. Minutes of the meeting held on 15 February 1966 discuss the supervision of students' guests at Lake Hall and Wyddrington Hall, and refer to the risk of scandal caused by unauthorised visitors, presumably staying overnight. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 1966 discuss the opening the last pair of halls to be built on the Vale site, then known as Hall V and Hall VI, but which became Mason Hall, as a mixed hall, or imposing complete segregation between the two wings accommodating men and women students, or to continue the model of associated pairs of halls for men and women students with single gender living accommodation but some level of shared communal facilities, as at Ridge Hall and High Hall, and Wyddrington Hall and Lake Hall. The minutes record that the committee was persuaded by the misgivings of the hall presidents about mixed halls but thought that complete segregation was a regressive step, and agreed to proceed with Hall V and Hall VI as an associated pair. Minutes of this meeting include a statement by the Warden of University House making recommendations for mixed halls, and statements by the Presidents of Ridge Hall, High Hall, and Wyddrington Hall setting out their objections, citing problems relating to visiting hours and the level of association between men and women students. There is a suggestion from the minutes that there was some student pressure for fully mixed halls, and some element of politically motivated unrest generated by Junior Common Room committees in the new halls of residence, as well as hints that some hall presidents were acting to impose their own moral judgements on students through restrictions on visiting. Minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 1966 contain further discussion of visiting hours, and include a statement of Senior Common Room and Hall Council constitution and responsibilities
Minutes of the meeting held on 16 May 1966 state that the chairman had asked the committee to consider his proposal for the establishment of a joint committee of Council and Senate to be responsible for all areas of the academic and financial administration of the halls of residence. Members agreed that the existing division of responsibility and the limited terms of reference of the Senate committee caused difficulty and inconvenience, and the committee unanimously agreed to the proposal. It was resolved that Senate be requested to recommend to Council the establishment of a joint committee on halls of residence to be responsible for all aspects of the work of the Senate Committee on Halls of Residence. Minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 1966 report the approval of the establishment of this joint committee (see UB/COM/26 for minutes). The new committee included seven members appointed by Senate, and most of these had served on the Senate Committee on Halls of Residence.
Towards the end of 1972 this joint Halls of Residence committee was reconstituted following a recommendation submitted to Council, and reverted to being a Senate committee. It was to be responsible to Senate for the academic and social well-being of students in halls of residence. It was also acknowledge that the committee would be concerned with admissions policy and procedures, with the encouragement and maintenance of conditions concerning the academic and social requirements of students in halls of residence, and with the approval of appointments to membership of the Senior Common Rooms in the halls. Hall Councils were to report to the committee on matters within its terms of reference. The financial and domestic management of the halls were now to be dealt with separately through a sub-committee of the Finance and General Purposes committee. Records of this committee are described at UB/COM/31. University House and Griffin Close committees continued to report to Council.
Membership of the reconstituted Senate committee consisted of the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Principal, chairman of the Lodgings committee, chairman of the Guild of Students Acommodation committee, five members appointed by Senate, the Presidents of each of the Senior Common Rooms and the Warden of University House, and the Presidents of the Junior Common Rooms including the President of University House Junior Common Room. The University Medical Officer was also invited to attend. The first meeting of the newly constituted Senate committee on Halls of Residence was held on 8 March 1973.
The main functions and activities of this committee were largely the same as those of the previous Senate committee. It discussed the system and procedures for appointment of members to the Senior Common Room and the system for admission to student places in hall, and included papers relating to these issues. The minute books include annual reports of each of the Vale halls of residence which typically include figures for student residents and distribution across subject areas and years of study; the names of members of the Junior Common Room committee and brief details of social activities organised. Other business included the management of the Vale site including parking, paths, and lighting; licensing in the halls of residence; disciplinary procedures and the revision of University Ordinances on discipline; the need to increase places in halls for first year students; questions relating to greater student control over finance and priorities for minor repair works, and issues relating to hall security and fire safety. The annual reports include those of University House from the 1980-1981 academic session onwards, after changes in the administrative structure which brought the management of the hall into line with that of the Vale halls of residence and Manor House.
The minutes reveal some of the ways in which student expectations of university-owned residential accommodation were changing during the 1970s, through recurrent discussion about the need to provide self-catering accommodation rather than traditional catered halls, and through regular debates about the roles and functions of the Senior Common Rooms in the halls of residence, particularly when the University was facing financial restraints, and the extent to which academic staff should have a pastoral care or disciplinary duty to the student residents. Minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 1975 include summaries of the views expressed by individual halls of residence and statements which summarise the importance of the presence of Senior Common Room tutors in maintaining a sense of community and in promoting integration between students and staff. Minutes of the meeting held on 15 February 1979 discuss whether to allocate self-catering flats to first year students without any tutorial supervision, and refer to planning for self-catering flats on the site of the former Edgbaston Tennis Club, which eventually became the Tennis Courts self-catering complex.
Wider debates about the future direction of University policy on the facilities and amenities provided for students on campus and in halls of residence during the late 1970s and early 1980s are reflected in the business discussed by the committee. Minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 1980 include a copy of the report of the Working Party on the University Centre to Senate and Council which was established to investigate present use and make recommendations as to future use of the building in the light of academic, catering, commercial, social and other University needs. The report gives an overview of the history of the Centre, the results of a previous survey, reasons for is under-use, and options for the future use of catering outlets on campus. Minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 1980 include the results of the Guild of Students questionnaire to hall residents which asked what sort of life students would like in halls, and which addressed alternatives to increasing hall fees.
By the late 1970s it was acknowledged that it was difficult to make arrangements for the implementation of University decisions to offer University-owned accommodation to all first year students, because of conflicting views of those halls not responsible to the Senate committee, including University House which was semi-autonomous but reported directly to Council, Griffin Close and Maple Bank self-catering accommodation, and the 'Triangle site, Lucas House, and Pritchatts Road post-graduate accommodation which were completed unrepresented on University committees. Minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 1980 suggest the establishment of a Student Accommodation committee which would report to both Senate and Council and which would appoint sub-committees as necessary. Minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 1982 include a copy of a joint report from the Halls of Residence committee and the Lodgings committee to Senate recommending the establishment of a Student Accommodation committee to replace both the Halls of Residence committee and the Lodgings committee. Financial and business matters would continue to be the responsibility of the Council and the Finance and General Purposes committee, through the newly re-organised Financial sub-committee for Student Residences. It was proposed that the new Student Accommodation committee would be concerned with academic and social aspects of student accommodation and have general oversight of all university-owned residential accommodation. It was also suggested that there should be an assembly of Hall Presidents and Junior Common Room committees to discuss matters of common concern and to brief their representatives on the Student Accommodation committee. Minutes of the meeting held on 20 May 1982 record that Senate had approved the report and had set up a new Student Accommodation committee. Membership of this committee was to consist of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (chair); Vice-Chancellor; four members of Senate appointed by the Academic Executive and to include at least one woman; the Adviser to Overseas Students; the Registrar; two Senior Common Room Presidents elected by and from their own number for a fixed term of years; two Junior Common Room Presidents elected in the same way for one year; one of the non-resident Wardens of the self-catering units; three students nominated by the Guild of Students, one of whom must be resident in a self-catering unit. The University Medical Officer, the Lodgings Warden, and the Halls Administrator would also be in attendance. The sub-structure was intended to take the form of assemblies of Senior Common Room and Junior Common Room Presidents, but was not to be too rigidly defined. No minutes of the Student Accommodation committee survive in the University Archives |