College At The Heart Of The Community - East Anglian Daily Times Education Page, 23 March 2004 & Ipswich Angle, April 2004

Margaret Thatcher once famously remarked that there’s no such thing as society. Whether or not you agree with that, it is certainly true that in Ipswich there is such a thing as community. And Suffolk College is right at the heart of it.

The College’s central location makes it a very convenient venue for all kinds of events. Professional bodies such as the Ipswich Engineering Society and the Chartered Institute of Builders hold their meetings there. As does the Ipswich Borough Council Conservation Advisory Panel, the body that lets the Council know how ordinary people feel about planning applications in the town’s conservation area.

The main hall is the scene of the annual Landseer Players pantomime production, and is one of the venues for the Eastern Angles drama tour. It provides a great space for all sorts of celebrations. Among the more colourful of those held recently was a Bangladeshi wedding reception that took place there last month.

Lecture theatres are able to offer facilities that are particularly suitable for specific events. For example, the Ipswich Society finds the audio visual equipment available and the seating layout ideal for both their awards evening in the Autumn and their Annual General Meeting in the Spring.

It’s not just the inside of the building that is used by groups outside normal teaching hours. Round 5 of the British Cyclocross Championships takes place across Alexander Park and on the College campus. After all that exercise the cyclists are no doubt grateful for the showers in the sports block, and possibly also for the cooling refreshment available in Digby’s bar.

Suffolk College staff and students enjoy giving their time and energy to community activities. Dr Peter Funnell, Assistant Principal Learning Development, acts as a non-executive director of the Ipswich Primary Care Trust. Suffolk College staff contribute to each of the five Community Forum Planning Groups and to the Culture & Learning Thematic Panel of the one-ipswich initiative. The student rag week raises money for local charities, and the Millenium Volunteers scheme produced thousands of hours of voluntary community service.

Suffolk College is a very important resource for Ipswich, and the significance of its wider role will be one of the major considerations as plans are made for future developments.