… You’re a new comer to a mass of concrete with a lake in the middle of it known as York University. Things are going well — you’ve got to know the people on your corridor and are discovering the delights of Campus Fare, and more recently, with immense gratitude, Banoffee Pie at a place they call the Charles.

The course is going well too and you’ve just discovered that lectures are a good remedy for sleepless nights. So you’ve got good food, good friends and a reasonable sleeping pattern (3am until 9:05am and then 9:15am until 11:15am). You don’t miss much apart from clean washing and something you vaguely remember called a balanced diet. So what do you miss? Not having to queue for an hour for the phone? Well, apart from that …

… if you’re a first year similar to the wet-behind-the-ears-seven-cuddly-toys one I was, the one thing you miss is time out.

I didn’t realise until the middle of my first term that I hadn’t spent more than about two waking hours on my own for about five weeks. This all added to the amazing not-homesick feel of the whole thing and the open door sharing type stuff which made the term as excellent as it was and brought me some of my closest friends. But every now and then I felt a bit overwhelmed and needed space to reflect.

The good news for me was that I was a Christian and owner of a Chaplaincy Handbook allowing me to discern the existence of Night Prayer and other places to be still, reflect and pray.

But back to your fresher. Imagine that you’re not all that religious (Friday nights in a church?!) and you don’t really want to find yourself a space in the library but you’d like to sit and think for a bit, take it all in. Where do you go? A walk round the lake would be alright but it’s raining and blowing a good northern gale. What about the University’s Quiet Place?

OK, so what about the University’s Quiet Place? The good news for your fresher, if he or she is here in a few years is that the Gazebo (small building with a porchy-bit, at the end of Hes. Hall gardens) will be fully converted into one with landscaped gardens surrounding it. (Not much good bearing in mind it’s raining.)

But once out of the Yorkshire weather, the Gazebo itself will have a small room downstairs for individuals to think, read, meditate and pray, and a room upstairs, with a separate entrance, which small groups can use for quiet prayer, communal study and guided meditation.

The smaller downstairs room will be fitted with an emergency alarm which will sound in Derwent Porter’s Lodge. Derwent will also be the place to get the door code, needed for both the garden gate and the door itself. So students can use the Quiet Place, which will initially only be open during daylight hours, in safety.

A quiet place within a university seems as likely a concept as the chocolate kettle but that’s precisely why it is so important, not just for first years. The University Quiet Place project deserves our support.

Cathy Walters