Like all colleges, Cartmel College is established under the Statutes of the University. Internally, the key committees that run the college are: College Management, College Council and College Syndicate.

• College Management is an informal committee of officers who meet on alternate weeks during term-time to keep abreast of day-to-day matters to do with the running of the college.
• College Council is the body that governs Cartmel College and consists of officers plus the JCR. It also meets on alternate weeks, alternating with College Management.
• College Syndicate meets much less often and consists of all senior members of the college and JCR representatives. Its main responsibility is to decide matters of major policy.

The college is represented by the Principal, on Senate, as is the JCR through various student representative bodies.

College affairs come under a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Colleges, who oversees the general conduct of the colleges, including the appointment of officers, the setting of budgets and so on, and who reports directly to the senior management of the University.

Lancaster University has over 12,000 students and most undergraduate colleges have about 1,300 student members, who live on and off-campus. Being a student at Lancaster means you won’t get lost amongst our students as the collegiate system makes you a part of a smaller close-knit community.

• All students are members of a college.
• All university staff are also members of a college.
• Every college has its own bar and social facilities.
• You can play sport for your college.
• You graduate with your college friends, not your department.
• Colleges run their own social events such as the Winter Ball and end-of-year Extravs.
• You can develop your CV by getting involved in the running of your college.
• All students have a Personal Advisor for support.
• College affiliation is for life, not just while you study!

Membership fees

STANDARD MEMBERSHIP £40

The standard college membership fee for all undergraduate students is £40. This fee covers the full period of your degree and helps fund the various events and activities the college puts on throughout each year.

EXCHANGE MEMBERSHIP £15

A fee of £15 will apply for visiting students staying with Cartmel for a single academic year or any part of an academic year.

Find out how your college membership fee is spent.

The college is a community of people many of whom live in close proximity to each other. In order for it to work as a community, all members and other users of the college's facilities need to have regard to the interests and rights of others.

All members agree to obey rules set out by the college and the University. There are a couple of points from the rules about residences that are worth emphasising:

• Residents may invite guests from outside the University, or non-resident students, to stay for a short time in their rooms. Fire regulations, which we have a duty to enforce, require that the porter is informed beforehand of the name of the guest and the duration of the stay – which in any case cannot exceed more than three nights in any one week.
• It is permissible to hold block parties or private room parties, but clearly the interests of other residents have to be taken into account. Before holding such an event you must obtain the agreement of nearby residents and the permission of the Dean. This can be done through the College Manager, Jo Kendall but you do need to give several days’ notice to ensure that the Dean can be contacted.
• While we try to be reasonable and understanding, certain rules breaches are treated more seriously than others. Deliberate breaches of Fire Safety are treated most severely. Fire alarms and extinguishers are there for your safety and the Fire Service does not look kindly on false alarms, not least because they know only too well what the fatal consequences can be of not being able to respond to a genuine call because of a false alarm.

On the occasions when it is necessary to enforce the rules, it is the Dean's duty to do this and, where appropriate, take action. The Dean is supported by Assistant Deans, who are resident in the college.

Breaches of the rules are dealt with by summary procedure by which the offender may be subject to a fine of up to £250 (£300 for breaches of fire safety rules); an order for payment of compensation for damage or loss; exclusion from University residences or any other University facility; a warning about future conduct; a requirement to write a letter of apology; any combination of the above, or other penalty deemed appropriate and commensurate with the breach.

In more serious cases, the case will be referred to the University Dean.

Complaints procedure

The college is here to do its best to make sure that you enjoy your time at University. We want you to come to feel that it is your College and that it will remain so long after you have graduated and got on with the rest of your life. However, with the best will in the world, things will go wrong from time to time. Should they do so, we hope that you will be able to call on the facilities of the college to help put them right. We may not always be able to do so, but we will try.

Comments about any aspect of the college's provision, including comments about College Officers, should be addressed in the first instance to the Principal. Comments about the Principal should be addressed to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student and College Affairs.

The Principal will normally investigate a complaint and, within a reasonable time, respond as positively as possible. Again, if you are not satisfied, you can ask that the matter be referred to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student and College affairs.

If your comment takes the form of a formal complaint, you should put it in writing and the response will be in writing. If you wish the complaint to be anonymous, it should be routed through an Officer of the JCR.

Don't forget, the JCR is there to represent your views as a Cartmel student so it is important that you keep abreast of what is going on – and maybe even stand for election – so that the college can be responsive to the people it is there to serve.