The University of Lincoln has spent £1,050 on three ScentWave units located in seminar rooms in the Main Admin Building.
In addition to the cost of installing the devices, scent cartridges cost £255 each and last on average 300 hours, which equates to approximately one month’s use. Therefore the cartridges are intended to be replaced on a monthly basis at a cost of £1,020 per annum.
Student James Urmston feels that the money has been wasted: “With the big building and massive doors allowing for circulation, maybe they could spend money on paying for extra contractors to build the new art building, which is still not ready.”
The ScentAir units will diffuse a fresh apple fragrance in the areas where the units have been placed.
The University of Lincoln state that the units “potential value” is threefold:
- To enhance mood and alertness.
- As an associative stimulus to promote recall from one seminar to the next.
- As a hygiene factor, masking any potentially distracting unpleasant odours.
Daniel Sparrow, also a student at the university, said: “The air flowing through the Atrium is freezing cold and provides enough circulation of air without altering it. Adding air conditioning is a pointless expenditure as no odours linger there anyway due to the open-planning of the space.”
Whilst second year student Rory Keegan feels that the air conditioning is a good idea, but is less certain about the scented addictions: “Nice smelling air-con is unnecessary and there are surely better things to spend money on.”
Second year journalism student Alex Johnson believes that the money spent has been wasted: “£1,000 on scented air conditioning when students are using outdated software is simply mad.”
Third year advertising and journalism student Laurie Caumette said: “Those rooms are the main rooms that are used for external visits. Good impressions count.”
She continued: “Also, the smell of Artium food goes up and into those rooms. A scented air con will resolve that issue.”
Can’t wait til they decide to provide the radio studios in the MHT with any kind of air conditioning at all. On Wednesday we were tackling 28 degrees celcius all evening. Not nice.
I have never smelt apple in the uni. No point spending money on something we don’t even notice.
It seems like a good idea to make the place smell good. When you have that many people in and out of the building, plus the smell of food, the place could get pretty unpleasant quickly.
It also might make people more likely to spend more time in the seminar rooms if they smell fresh and clean, which could have a positive impact on the learning experience.
Will Hawkins, Online Editor, ACR Today