Student life
Rootes Social BuildingUndergraduate student life at Warwick is divided into two phases. In the first year, student life revolves around campus and, in particular, the Students' Union (with its sports clubs, societies and entertainment facilities). In the second and third years, as students move off-campus, the focus shifts to either Leamington Spa or Earlsdon in Coventry. There has been criticism of the perceived focus of the entertainment events toward first year undergraduates resident on campus.[citation needed]
Campus Facilities
Staff, students and visitors benefit from the many non-academic facilities on campus. As well as Warwick Arts Centre (see below), the University hosts a large leisure centre, comprising 25 m swimming pool, two sports halls, gymnasium, squash courts and rock-climbing facility. Elsewhere on campus are a number of other sports halls, outside tennis courts, 400 m athletics track, multi-purpose outdoor surfaces and cricket grounds. Sports facilities are being constantly expanded, following the commencement of Warwick Sport, a joint venture between the University and the Students' Union in 2005. Indoor tennis courts are expected to be built in the next couple of years and an Olympic-size swimming pool has been rumoured in the long-term, depending on Coventry City Council's priorities. Most of the University's sports facilities are open to the general public.
There is a Costcutter supermarket, a pharmacy, a number of banks, a hairdressers and a travel shop all in the middle of the campus.
All food and drink outlets are operated by Warwick Hospitality or the Student Union.
Students' Union
The students' union building - SU North and South
The students' union building - SU SouthSee also: University of Warwick Students' Union
The University of Warwick Students' Union is one of the biggest Students' Unions in the UK, currently having over 200 societies and around 70 sports clubs, including everything from Squash to Skydiving. It has an annual turnover of approximately £6 million, the profit from which is used to provide services to students and to employ its staff and Sabbatical officers. The Union is divided into two buildings: Union North (mainly societies and administration) and Union South (entertainment facilities). Union South contains four club venues, seven bars and a cafe over four floors, with some events such as Top Banana and Skool Dayz encompassing the entire building. Drinks prices are not considered to be particularly cheap[15] but have recently been reduced for some events.
The Union has also recently hosted such bands as Ash, Sugababes, Amerie, The Kooks, Reel Big Fish, The Departure, The Subways, Idlewild, Hell is for Heroes, The Automatic, Boy Kill Boy, Amy Winehouse, The Killers and Scouting for Girls.
The Union is a member of the National Union of Students (NUS), West Midlands Area NUS (WMANUS) and National Postgraduate Committee (NPC).
Food and Drink
The Campus contains various Union run food outlets including Battered (a fish and chip shop), Fat Tony's (Pizza Take-away), South Central (Baguettes and other snacks), Cholo (bar food) and Xanana's (a more upmarket restaurant). Other food outlets on campus are owned by the University, and include Cafe Library, Cafe Humanities, Rootes Social (recently refurbished restaurant), Viva (Sandwich shop) and The Learning Grid (general snacks and hot food).
The Campus also has many drink outlets, of which those owned by the union include Cholo, The Graduate, The Marketplace, The Cooler and Bottles and Shots (1&2). Those owned by the university include Rootes Social and Warwick Arts Centre.
The student run site foodatwarwick.co.uk provides reviews of food and drink outlets on and around campus.
Student events
Each year in January, the University of Warwick plays host to the "world's largest student-run international event", One World Week. This incorporates the very successful One World Forum. Other student run events include People & Planet's Go Green Week, Warwick International Development Summit, Warwick Economics Summit, RAG Week and Warwick Student Arts Festival. The University is also home to the largest student-run Real Ale Festival in Great Britain[citation needed], which takes place annually, always in the eighth week of second academic term. The festival is organised and staffed solely by the Warwick University Real Ale Society. A charity skydiving weekend called Great Warwick Jump, was setup by the Skydiving Club in 2008 and is now the biggest charity event at the University[17], raising £20,274.00 for charities world-wide in it's first year..
Campus media
Radio Warwick, also known as RaW, one of the most successful student radio stations in the UK
Warwick Boar, an award-winning, weekly newspaper distributed free across campus each Tuesday
Warwick Television, a fast-growing student television station
Warwick Forums, a new forum portal for students
Warwick Bore, an independent student newspaper project aimed at making subtle snipes at University policy.
hreatened with legal action by the SU over breaches of copyright in its articles. These articles can be viewed on the popular social-networking site facebook.
Warwick Student Cinema, the university's student cinema housed in a large lecture theatre on campuse, showing films on two 35mm projectors most nights of the week
Sports activities
Warwick has extensive sports facilities, including a number of indoor and outdoor playing fields, including two astroturf pitches and one artificial grass pitch. Depending on the time of year, these are used for a variety of sports. The University also has a state of the art indoor tennis centre opening in spring 2008.