The University of Cambridge’s Senior Tutors have backed a move to provide better private spaces for Welfare Officers to meet students, after CUSU raised concerns about current practices.

The Welfare and Finance committee ruled that the current situation, in which some officers use their bedrooms to meet with students, “blurred the boundaries” of their remit.

Officers must often conduct confidential talks with other students, and many are also responsible for distributing sexual health supplies.

Former CUSU/GU Welfare and Rights Officer Poppy Ellis Logan raised concerns about the current situation in February, and the Committee followed up with its recommendations at a meeting following the end of Easter term.

Sidney Sussex’s Senior Tutor, Max Beber, raised the potential hazards presented by the practice of allocating confidential rooms in terms of safety, as well as broader concerns about the dangers of “non-professional peer-to-peer pastoral input.”

The Committee agreed to treat the two issues separately, and concluded that the risks presented by confidential rooms were “considerably lower” than those of meetings conducted in bedrooms.

Non-heterosexual students more likely to suffer mental health problems

Sophie Buck, CUSU’s new Welfare and Rights Officer, welcomed the news, telling Varsity that the Committee’s recommendations were a “positive outcome,” especially for those officers who “are currently having to see students in their own bedrooms.”

“Welfare Officers occupy a sometimes-difficult position of being members of their college’s student body,” she said, “whilst simultaneously providing services for their fellow students. This bookable space would be a great way of developing boundaries between the student as a student, and the student as a Welfare Officer.”

Several JCR Welfare Officers spoke to Varsity about the committee’s recommendations.

Keir Murison, Emmanuel’s Male Welfare Officer, welcomed the move, saying: “I often have to book out rooms in college, which are sometimes not ideal or booked in time, when I meet other Welfare Officers or students.”

“I stay away from bedroom meetings because they cross a boundary,” he added.

Georgia Lowe, Newnham’s Welfare Officer, also voiced frustrations, saying: “we keep getting training in what sorts of room to use, only to find out that college policy is to do exactly the opposite”.

She added that Newnham does not require officers to conduct meetings in student rooms, but that it also does not provide a specific room to use. While she acknowledged that some colleges do stipulate specific spaces for meetings, Lowe said that these tend to be “weird corporate rooms”, which can be “a bit threatening”.

Selwyn’s LGBT+ Welfare Officer, Ted Mackey, added: “from an LGBT+ perspective, the ability to easily book a private space for welfare is crucial”, as many students “won't feel comfortable, especially those who aren't out, using a shared or communal space”. He said that using a personal room can be “offputting for those who want discretion.”

“On the other hand”, Mackey continued, “I don't want welfare activities to be completely clandestine and secret – I want as many people to participate as possible.”

“It just needs to be a space that is both private and confidential but also relaxed,” he said.