Well got up early today and tried to sort out some of the hassles regarding an old couch which were the catalyst for my dark mood yesterday. Managed to come up with a solution for that problem which left me free to head into uni for the meeting regarding the space which we had been given as a design space. I didn’t say much in the meeting really because from experiences before coming to the academy I tend to open my mouth, look like a dick, and everything goes ahead regardless. I have had a bit of time to reflect on the idea this afternoon, as the design space around me was being dissembled and I have two main strands of thought on what is happening. Firstly I can see the need for the production students to have space to work in and to a certain extent can see the value in having the different departments of one production together. Although I’m not sure that is best design wise really. However I do get it. If everything works out perfectly I think the plan could get by, in chaos certainly but still get by. However that idea to me would be best put into practice in the new build where there is adequate resources for the students. I think if this was the best plans for the students the idea for putting the designers on level should never have been allowed to come to fruition in the first place just to take it back off us. From a second year design student point of view I’m gutted. I’ll still get by but I think this is going to be detrimental to our studies and lead to second year being denied the opportunity to build on the improvements we made at the end of last year. I think we should be entitled to our own desk as a minimum. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have expected that, especially as we were always assured we would have adequate space even if that meant bringing in porta-kabins. However that is the way it’s going to be unless the students can find a way to bring about some kind of improvement. Can’t see it happening although it’s never good to give up or in. At the end of the day things have improved for the production students which is good but things have gotten worse for designers and now there is no space dedicated to design. In an institution where “the quality of the student experience is paramount” something has went wrong.