Since the beginning of this term, you may have noticed that Eliot reception, instead of being occupied 24hours a day has been reduced by the university to 7.30 - 8.00pm on weekdays and 8.00 - 4.00pm on weekends. This is ridiculous, not least for the safety of all residents of Eliot and the staff who are in their offices out of hours, especially considering the fact that anybody can come on to campus at anytime on any given day! For the drama and music students however, this has even further implications in regards to accessing rehearsal rooms on top of the risk to their safety. At the moment, students, who have enough of a job sharing the limited rehearsal space anyway, now have to hand in their student cards to reception, which if closed after their rehearsal means that they do not have student card until the next morning, rendering them unable to use the library, get out any books, or go out to any venues in the evening that require proof of student ID to enter. It has also resulted, on some occasions, with some students being unable o access the rooms at all! With the demands of our course and the all the important outside projects going on, it is paramount that we have access these spaces if the university wants to get the best out of us, and with the recent addition to tuition fees, i think these kind of cut backs are unacceptable. Please sign this petition, to remind the university that student/staff safety and access to spaces which are vital in the successful completion of our course, should be placed higher on the agenda than cutting corners and staff hours in order to save money, when the potential dangers to everyone living in the colleges and using the facilities out of hours could result in a far more serious cost if action isn't taken immediately! Thank you so much, Clare Beresford - 4th year student rep chb3@kent.ac.uk