Garnett Hall

“I’m getting way too many emails that don’t have anything to do with me.”

“It’s not something that’s easily sorted, but Garnett Hall is right off a busy main road, just about two minutes from a hospital. Because of that, there were loads of sirens, especially through the night. I do think accommodation services should consider giving residents ear buds to help drown out the noise when they’re trying to sleep. It might also be useful to figure out which students tend to struggle in noisy surroundings. Accommodation services could ask this in the survey they send out to students before they move into the halls. I think that would make a difference, since the outside of Garnett Hall is noticeably louder than the inside. Overall, it would help students settle into living in Strathclyde halls a lot more easily.”

“There should be more oversight with the flatmates, since some of them are pretty antisocial and don’t clean up.”

“The people you end up living with can be quite a challenge. I know it is a difficult job, but from what I have seen with everyone I know at university, it is rarely a smooth match with their flatmates, not just personality-wise, but also because of different day to day habits. For instance, quieter people can get paired with others who want to have lots of flat parties and keep things noisy. When you apply for accommodation, you complete a survey meant to match you with people who are like minded, but honestly, for me, that system just did not work. The communal toilets are also a complete hit or miss. Ideally, every room would have an en suite, because the way some people leave the communal toilets and showers is genuinely worrying.”

“Being up off the ground floor makes it feel really unsafe and kind of suffocating. The windows can’t stay open for long, because it gets too noisy, or because people can lean outside and look straight into the room. That creates a really uncomfortable atmosphere, whether it’s for religious reasons or just personal ones, since you don’t really have any privacy unless you turn the room into a little box with the blinds kept closed all the time.”

“A shared space that anyone staying at the village can use, like a lounge or common room.”