Your outreach Officer 2013-2014 Lauren Finch
Keep in touch with College online
College can seem quite far away sometimes, but there’s plenty of ways to stay up to date with what’s going on without even leaving the house!
- The website: Updated frequently – Check for important dates and college events.
- The weekly email! – Your regular update on what’s going on, full of useful information!
- The liver’s out Newsletter – there will be a couple of newsletters a term that will be sent out.
Get involved!
If you’ve got anything to include, for example auditions for plays, sports results, or just news in general, then let the Secretary know on laura.prime@durham.ac.uk and it will be included on the website/weekly email/ Livers out Newsletter. 
Some previous Newsletters:
Livers Out Newsletter December
Livers Out Newsletter November
How you can stay involved in College
JCR Meetings:
Discussing the important matters that affect you. They are held on Sunday evenings at 6:30.
Check your emails to see if there’s one coming up soon!
There’s also the very popular pub quiz straight after – worth staying for!
Need to talk to someone?
The Welfare Officers, Tash and Alex are there to talk. Check out the Welfare pages
Ill? Missing lectures?
Call the college secretary (Fiona Pentland) on 0191 334 7045 before 8.30 a.m. on the day, and she will inform your department.
Collecting Post:
If you are coming up to college, don’t forget to collect your mail for you and your housemates. It can often be easier to keep getting letters sent to Trevs, given that you will only be living in your house for a year.
Livers Out Formals and Events Pass
From Michaelmas term the Events Pass (similar to the Platinum Pass, but without the Freshers’ Bop) is available, and gets you money off the Informal Ball and Summer Ball.
Livers Out formals are held once a term, and are usually one of the biggest nights of term. There is no high table and you don’t need to wear gowns at Livers Out formals. It’s a great chance to catch up with friends from college you haven’t seen in a while.
It also takes away the hassle of paying for them nearer to the time, helping you plan your college social calendar!
Living out – Top Tips
The VP showing off his culinary expertise
Living with your housemates
Organisation:
- Keep a house folder containing all the important house documents, like your contract and bills.
- Organise a cleaning rota, and a cooking rota if you decide to cook together, so that everyone pulls their weight in the house. Some people cook independently, but it can be a good idea to buy some items communally – see next point!
- Petty cash: everyone puts in a little bit of money at the beginning of the year to pay for communal things like milk and cleaning products
- Discuss problems as soon as possible – don’t let the little things build up!
Bills
If you’re paying your rent with bills included, then this section won’t apply.
If they’re not included, this is really important:
To check gas, electricity, phone and broadband prices, try uSwitch or Money Supermarket. It’s probably easiest to pay bills by direct debit – you could either have one person who pays all bills, and collects money off the other housemates, or you could try setting up a joint account which you all pay into in order for the payments to be taken out each month.
A TV license costs £145.50 a year, and you can either pay yearly, quarterly, monthly, or weekly. The fine for not having a TV license is £1000.
You can keep the cost of bills down by doing simple things like turning lights off or turning the heating down. Extra clothes in winter could save you quite a bit, and don’t leave things on standby over the holidays!
Safety
Smoke detectors should be fitted in your property – if not, you can get them for about £5 each.
We recommend you ask your landlord for a carbon monoxide detector too.
In terms of fire safety, it’s just common sense: don’t leave naked flames, for example candles, unattended. The DSU encourages landlords to fit a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in each kitchen, although there is no legal requirement.
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless gas which can lead to fatalities. The symptoms are:
Unexplained headaches
Sudden dizziness when you stand up
General lethargy
Sickness, diarrhoea or stomach pains
Chest pains or muscular weakness
IMPORTANT: If you’re worried a gas appliance is faulty, turn it off, open the windows and inform the landlord. You can also call the British Gas 24 hour emergency number on 0800 111 999 if your landlord doesn’t act swiftly.
Your landlord should arrange for an engineer to attend to the problem. Report any incidences to the Accommodation Office. Do not start using the appliance again until it has been passed as safe by a CORGI registered engineer.
Lastly, do not overload electrical sockets, and turn them off when not in use.
Security
Having had our keys posted through the letterbox by the postman, and having left the front door open all night, our house was hardly the most secure! However, it is important to follow these tips to keep your house secure:
- Lock all doors and windows when you are out
- Close the curtains at night
- Avoid displaying expensive stuff in the windows
- Try not to make the house look blatantly studenty
- Take valuables home over the holidays
You should be able to lock all doors and windows. You could also ask your landlord for a burglar alarm.
Moving Out and Holidays
Over the holidays, make sure you leave the heating on a low setting (not off) so that the pipes don’t freeze.
When moving out, the number one priority is to get your deposit back. Make sure the house is as clean as possible, and if there was an inventory of items when you moved in, make sure everything is still there.
Arrange for your gas and electricity meters to be read by contacting the relevant suppliers a few weeks in advance. Make a note for yourself to avoid any discrepancies.
If you have had the phone connected, arrange for this to be disconnected too, and get the bill forwarded to your home address. As everyone has mobiles these days, it may be easier not to set up your phone for outgoing calls, so it just receives calls, which saves on the phone bill.
Don’t leave one person to clean up everyone else’s mess too!
Rubbish and Recycling
Your rubbish will be collected fortnightly, and should be placed either in your own wheelie bin or a communal one, if your street has one.
If
In the green box, you can put food tins, drink cans and aerosol cans, but no other metal; along with mixed glass bottles and jars, but not broken glass, pyrex, light bulbs, mirrors and flat glass. Make sure anything that has contained food is washed out.
In the green bag, you can put plastics, mixed paper and card, but not polystyrene, used kitchen towels or wipes, hard plastic containers and childrens’ toys.
If you have any furniture or appliances which could be reused, then call 0191 383 5674 and you can arrange for an organisation to collect your items for reuse.
The local household waste recycling centre is on Potterhouse Lane, Pity Me (DH1 5RL). They will accept most things apart from chemicals and other hazardous waste. More details here.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/greenspace/policies/students/liversout/
Click here for a guide on being environmentally friendly when living out, for choosing a house, links to information on waste and recycling, tips to reduce energy usage, and a link to the Green Move Out page.
Discount Cards
There are a few discount card schemes in place across the city, offering money off for shopping locally.
Tag! Pass it on Card
A card costing £5, of which £2.50 goes to DUCK if bought online. Gives offers such as:
- 10% off at Flat White, Café Continental, Robinson’s Greengrocers and Spice Lounge
- 2 for £5 cocktails and 2 for 1 on main meals at Head of Steam
- Free shot with your first drink (before midnight) and 2 for £4 cocktails at Jimmy Allen’s
- 25% off at Oldfields
Durham Cuckoo Card
A card costing £10 which you can collect in college or buy online. Gives offers such as:
- 50% off food Monday-Thursday at Bella Italia
- Buy one, get one free at Domino’s
- 20% off at Popolo
- 25% off at Pizza Romeo
You can also get a card for the Indoor Market
Escaping it All…
If the pressures of work and living with people just get too much, why not escape to these idyllic locations in Durham?
Wharton Park
Situated above the train station with the entrance through an arch and up some steps opposite the hospital off the North Road roundabout. Surprisingly big and offers some nice views of the city. Map here.
Botanic Gardens
The botanic gardens are a 10 hectare garden containing plant collections from all over the world, set amongst beautiful mature woodlands on the southern outskirts of the city, just over the road from Trevs. Map here.
The Riverbank
The river through Durham always makes a nice walk, with peaceful woods just off South Street and Quarryheads Lane. Why not walk down past Maiden Castle to Shincliffe Bridge and come back along the river?
Any Questions?
My e-mail address is l.m.finch@durham.ac.uk - please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!
DSU living out advice can be found here.