Lucy Cavendish

Elizabeth

One of my favourite things about Lucy is its aim to be a diverse college that represents society, which creates a unique sense of community across the college. For me this was helped by bridging week which allowed me to feel better settled in and more prepared for the start of term by letting us move in a week earlier, which made it easier for me to meet new people and make friends without the pressure of the first few days of term.

Elizabeth

Lucy has a range of different rooms and buildings for first year accommodation. I was in one of the houses on site that had ten rooms, shared bathrooms, a shared kitchen and a living room/common room area. Each room has its own sink/wash basin and there was plenty of storage with a wardrobe, chest of drawers, book shelf and a desk. Everyone had one large or two small cupboards in the kitchen, a shelf in the fridge and a drawer in the freezer. It also had two cooking units with hobs and an oven, as well as there being a microwave too. The rent differed across the rooms as some were slightly smaller than others but they were all in the mid-low rent bands.

Elizabeth

The dining hall is open Monday-Friday for lunch and Monday-Wednesday in the evening, with formal halls taking place on Thursday and Friday. They offer a couple of different choices for mains along with sides or there is the option of the salad bar. You can get brunch on a Saturday and the roast on a Sunday, and it is all subsidised.   The cafe also offers tasty food at a good value. As well as cakes and pastries, there are sandwiches and bagels, which can be heated up, soup and other hot meals like noodles and curry.

Elizabeth

On top of the Cambridge Bursary, Lucy offers a wide range of funding. Our Making the Most of Cambridge Fund is open to all first-year undergraduates in the first instance and can be spent on co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. This includes sports kit, joining fees for societies and other equipment so you can make the most of your time here.  There is Student Finance Support for students who encounter unexpected or unplanned expenditures, or who need extra support to get through their time at Cambridge. While this includes our hardship support, it is not limited to hardship criteria.  We have a range of studentships and bursaries for students who are either from certain backgrounds or who study specific subjects.  The Traub Sports Fund is for students who are competing at university level sport.  The Optimising Students Future Fund is there to help cover some of the costs that may be barriers to work experience, internships or other opportunities.  There is also the Travel, Research & Conference Fund.

Elizabeth

There are lots of different points of contact within college, depending on who you feel most comfortable talking to.  The first point of call for most people is their tutor. Tutors are assigned to see to your pastoral care and you can meet them as often as you like. They are also able to point you in the right direction for any other help and support you might need.  We have a welfare and wellbeing advisor whose main aim is to help each student enjoy making the most of their time at Lucy and to develop life skills that they continue to use and evolve after college. She offers guidance to student with welfare concerns and is also there to develop a well-being program for the student community.  Our welfare officers on the JCR run events throughout the term. Previous events have included a mindfulness pottery session, meditation sessions and free cake and drinks events.  Our college nurse holds drop-in sessions everyday during Full Term and she can also be contacted to make appointments with.

Elizabeth

We have a wide selection of accessible bedrooms at Lucy. Our New Building has 72 fully accessible bedrooms, including four rooms with adjoining carers rooms and rooms with accessible washing facilities. The kitchens in this building also have lower worktops for students in wheelchairs. The majority of our first year undergraduate accommodation is ensuite. Most of our bedrooms are accessible via lifts. The way that the room ballot works is that students wit accommodation related adjustments in their Student Support Documents (SSDs) are exempt from the room ballot. They are able to choose a room before the rest of the students, and can choose one friend to live with them. The gym has a treadmill, cross trainer, rowing machines, squat rack, barbell, weights, yoga mats/exercise balls/weighted hoops, leg press machine, arm curl machine, back machine.

Elizabeth

As the college only expanded and opened up a couple of years ago, there are still some issues that need sorting out. For example, it can be quite difficult to communicate with the right members of staff about hosting events and getting things signed off, so I hope that this can be made easier in the future.  I would also like to see some more library space or some more rooms dedicated to quiet study. As we accept more students, I would like to see that accommodated for in the library space.