Elliott board Hopes for Common House to Open this Semester

By Amandeus van Rossum 
Staff Writer

On Thursday, November 7^th, the board of the Common House Elliott Foundation (CHEF) board held a Q&A info-session about the developmental process of the Common House, which included a presentation covering current affairs, finances and plans, and a Question & Answer part afterwards.

A frequently asked question is of course: “When does it open?”. According to CHEF, the hope is that the Common House will still open this semester, however, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare the building for opening, not least of which is the building of the study lounge (computers, Internet, and printers), bars (sponsored by Bavaria), and kitchen. All of these aspects of interior design will be completed in the upcoming weeks.

For the beverage supply of the Common House, contracts have been signed with Bavaria for beer, Coca-Cola for non-alcoholic beverages, Mocca D’or for coffee (Earth Coffee), and World of Drinks for liquor, spirits, and other cocktail beverages. For food, the Elliott board is in negotiation with Crostini who would be assisted by Arduin, a company that helps physically and behaviourally challenged people to get a job and contribute to society.

Up to date, there have been a few court cases concerning the permits issued by the municipality. All the court cases have been decided in the CHEF’s favor thus far, with one still pending. In the event that this case is not decided in Elliott’s favor, it would put a significant financial strain on the Common House, one that would make it difficult to sustain themselves. In the meantime, the judge has allowed the Common House to open for now, as long as students meet the terms of the Nuisance Reduction Agreement (NRA).

This NRA is an agreement between the CHEF and the neighbors in which both parties have listed measures to reduce nuisance. The main focus is ensuring that students keep quiet when outside around the Common House. Elliot will, during the nighttime, have a gate system opening every 5 minutes to let students in or out, switching between entrances. There will be no smoking outside of Elliot; smoking facilities will be provided inside. To make sure that students will not make excessive noise while entering or leaving the building, surveillance teams will be created to check upon this. Other measures in the NRA are that Elliot will have Trained Head Bartenders, who will have training in nuisance reduction, and a neighborhood phone that will allow neighbors to call if they experience too much noise; it gives them the opportunity to resolve any nuisance without police involvement.

Some of the neighbors were not pleased with certain aspects of the Common House. The main point of conflict is the disagreement about the bar downstairs, which would be opened until 2 am. According to the neighbors, this would create an environment that would cause too much nuisance. The neighbors have been putting up window signs showing with what they agree and disagree. Mediation between the two parties was unsuccessful and, as a consequence, several court cases started, which the CHEF all won.

The idea of a Common House has existed for some years now, but it has become a reality since 2012. Within that same year, on the 8th of May to be precise, a renting contract with Hartman B.V. was signed for the old Post Office building to be converted into a common house.

The financial aspect of the Common House has become clear. The board has introduced their estimate of the finances, which is an overview of investments, of the money they have received so far and how much is still needed. For the missing amount, the CHEF is still looking for a solution, and with help from UCR they are close to finding one. There are several ways that CHEF has raised funds for the Common House. As displayed, they receive money from RASA, which consists of a student contribution of 25 euros, and UCR through payment for the classrooms they will use. Sponsor events are organized to raise additional funds with the options for people to get a room named after them for €500, have their names ingraved in a plaque for €250, in a chair for €100, in a pitcher for €50 and in a glass for 25 euros. So far the donations, sponsor events, and the rockethub campaign have collectively rasied €10,859.03.

After the presentation, the Q&A round started. A few important issues were mentioned during the session. If the NRA agreement is broken, the police will decide what will happen. The Common House could be closed for an amount of time to be determined by the municipality. If the munipality takes the permits away, the Common House can never open again. The contractual partners are aware of this; in fact, this is the same for every bar.

Some practical aspects of the Common House were mentioned as well. Students will have the opportunity to study in Elliott seven days a week until midnight, which is one more day than is currently possible in Eleanor. The Elliott board made clear that one of their goals is to replace Eleanor with the Common House, which they believe is possible.

Amandeus van Rossum, class of 2016, is a Law and Politics major from Witmarsum, The Netherlands.

Martijn Breken, UCR 2016, contributed reporting to this article.