Hetherington Post Grad club closes

The Hetherington Research Club, part of the University of Glasgow, has closed amid a cash crisis. The club offered drinks, food and study facilities to the University’s post graduate students.

Staff at the club were called to an emergency meeting on Friday 18 February with managers, representatives from the University and lawyers acting as liquidators. They were told to close the club immediately and ask all patrons to leave. Drinks were taken from people and refunds issued.

The closure has resulted in the loss of 4 full time and 24 part time jobs. Eileen Boyle has worked at the club for the past six years and represents staff interests to the management. Eileen said: ‘This is down to systemic mis-management, both by the University and the club itself. Accounts were not filed when they should have been. The University is supposed to have representation on the management committee, but this never happened. A new management committee was elected in November 2009. They took one look at the books and refused to take on responsibility for them. They went to the University court and asked them to investigate. The University appointed Deloitte to do a systems audit, and they found that there were important accounting documents missing. They declared that the club was operating illegally and would have to close.’

Former staff are said to be very unhappy about the way they have been treated. They are meeting on a daily basis to discuss the situation and to support each other. Eileen said: ‘We have submitted a proposal to run the business as a co-operative. We have submitted a business plan to David Newall, (the University’s Secretary of Court and Director of Administration) and we are holding a public meeting to announce our plans. We are certain we can run it as a viable business. The university has 5000 post graduate students and having the club is a great resource for them. We have set up a Facebook site and have around 1500 members already with messages of support from around the world. People have such fond memories of the club.’

The open meeting will be held on Monday 1 March at 5.30pm in the Boyd Orr building at the University of Glasgow.