Goodricke College (University of York)

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Goodricke College is one of the colleges of the University of York. It was the fifth college to be built and was named after John Goodricke. The College was opened in 1968 by Michael Swann and the event is commemorated by a plaque on the outside of the Old Dining Hall. Since 2002 the college has been home to the Department of Mathematics. Goodricke has approximately 1100 undergraduate members, of which some 330 live in college accommodation, and about 140 postgraduate members, of which 19 live in college accommodation.

Goodricke has a strong rivalry with James College.

Contents 1 The Blocks 2 Junior Common Room 3 Facilities 4 The Future 5 External links

[edit] The Blocks

Goodricke has four accommodation blocks, named A, B, C and D. Blocks A and B are standard university accommodation, built to the CLASP system invented by Andrew Derbyshire, and are situated near the main college Nucleus. C-block and D-block are whitewashed brick buildings, considered to provide a lower quality of accommodation to A- and B-blocks. C-block is located next to the college Nucleus, while D-block is situated on the other side of the university lake from the main college buildings. The reason for the detached nature of D-block is that it was once part of Wentworth College. The internal walls of Blocks C and D are noted for their lack of plaster. The reason for this lack of plaster is that EU fire regulations state that the wall proximity cannot be any narrower, as this would cause a fire hazard.

During a 2002 York University Students' Union (YUSU) campaign about accommodation rent Goodricke College C Block was deemed to be the worst accommodation at York University, inspiring the unflattering moniker Cell Block C. The Campaigns Officers created a mockup of a Monopoly board with different accommodation blocks taking the places of the traditional streets. Goodricke C-block took the place of Old Kent Road.

In 2002-2003, the Goodricke Student Junior Common Room Committee, ran a campaign to Grade C list C- and D-blocks to raise awareness amongst students and administration regarding the university's lack of maintenance of the accommodation. Over 10 years after the previous makeover, the blocks were finally given new carpetting, kitchen units, furniture and internet access. However, the rooms were upgraded to 'Standard' instead of 'Economy' by administration, thus forcing the inhabitants to pay the same amount as more spacious accommodation. C- and D-blocks, meant to be demolished for a number of years, have exceeded their stated lifetime, but due to shortages in accommodation campus-wide, they have had to serve longer.

[edit] Junior Common Room

The Junior Common Room is the undergraduate membership of the college which are governed by the Junior Common Room Committee (JCRC). This committee is responsible for all the college activities such as college sport (Goodricke College is the current holder of the Inter-College Sports Trophy), Christmas and Summer Balls, bar quizzes and college events. In the past two years Goodricke has had a reputation for pushing the boundaries with advertising campaigns, particularly in its marketing of its club nights as 'the Playboy Mansion', which received negative attention from the national press, and the JCRC is well known for its efforts to maintain the college spirit that Goodricke enjoys.

Chairs of the Junior Common Room Committee

• 2008 Joe Clarke
• 2007 Ben Wardle
• 2006 Matt Burton
• 2005 Colin Hindson
• 2004 Raz Ahasan
• 2003 Tom Jones
• 2002 Jake Brazier
• 2001 Tom Connor

[edit] Facilities

Goodricke Nucleus is the name of the main administrative and facility building in Goodricke College. In addition to the Department of Mathematics, Goodricke houses two computer rooms for general student use, several lecture and seminar rooms, the Junior Common Room, the Senior Common Room, Goodricke Bar (known as McQ's) and the old dining room.

In 2003 the college saw the closure of its old dining facilities and the opening of The Roger Kirk Centre. The centre is a new purpose built amenities building and consists of a large dining room, and smaller coffee and snack bar. It is named after Roger Kirk, a former member of the University's administration department.

Goodricke College also houses the university's Nightline service in D Block.

Each of the blocks has a resident member of college staff. B Block houses the college Dean and A, C and D Block each have a tutor and welfare officer from the JCRC committee.

[edit] The Future

In a special "College Life" supplement accompanying the September 2007 issue of the York Alumni magazine "Grapevine" it was stated that Goodricke College would be relocated to the Heslington East development in order that the new area of campus would begin with an established college at its heart. It was not stated what would be done with the current Goodricke site.

[edit] External links

• Goodricke College: the college's website.
• University Of York, Goodricke College: York Universties Goodricke College webpages.
• The Goodricke JCRC Chairs Blog

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