Freshers Week 2010 announced

The Students’ Union has announced a fun packed week for 2010 Freshers including Seafront Festivals, Welcome Weekend Parties, Live Music, Parties on the Pier, Club Nights, Headline Acts, Barn Dances and much much more… making sure there is something for everyone to get involved in this Freshers.

The Students’ Union has also launched the Freshers Week gold ticket – a wristband that will get you into all the main Freshers events for only Read more

Mandelson: Leeds’ white knight

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Mandelson, has been asked to intervene at Leeds University after recently announcing the most savage set of funding cuts to higher education in years.

It is alleged that in its actions to implement restructure plans for the Faculty of Biological Sciences, the university had bypassed the body responsible for its academic prerogative, the Senate.
Read more

Student reps meet management

On Monday 15 February, student representatives met with university management to discuss the “restructuring proposals” that management has planned for the university’s future, made last November.

The USSU stated on the agenda: “Students do not feel adequately consulted and engaged in this process.”
Read more

Brighton is named UK’s ‘ghost capital’

Brighton and Hove has been named the UK’s ‘ghost capital’, according to a recent report published by the Argus.

Ghostly spirits are said to be roaming the narrow, cobbled streets of Brighton, including murder victims and drowned sailors from years gone by.

Organisers of the first ever World Horror Convention said Brighton will be the only UK venue due to its “high number of restless living dead.”

Leaders of the conference claim that sailors from the ship ‘The Nicholas’, which sunk off the city’s coastline in the 12th Century, can be seen out at sea in the dead of night, while the old brewer from the Black Lion in Black Lion Street, who was burnt at the stake in 1555, is still hanging around in the pub’s cellar.

More than 300 horror enthusiasts will be meeting at the Albion Hotel in Old Steine from Thursday 25 March until Sunday 28. Guests attending the convention will participate in a number of ‘ghost walks’ and will also hear readings from star authors.

The sold out convention has attracted aficionados from across the globe. The event is themed ‘Brighton Shock! – A Celebration of the European Horror Tradition from Victorian Times to the Present Day.’

Stop the cuts, start the music!

Last Thursday, 25 February, protestors braved the wind and rain to make a stand on student cuts in Library Square. At 1.15pm, representing the 115 threatened jobs at the University of Sussex, a band of protestors took to the square to promote ‘Stop the Cuts, Start the Music!’ to get their voices across in a positive way.

‘Wet and Fun,’ were the two words Scott Sheridan, Activities Officer and mastermind of the organisation, used to describe the scenes. Re-worded versions of such classics as ‘Old Macdonald’ (with a cut-cut here…) and ‘Tequila’ resounded around campus, contrasting the gloomy weather.
Read more

Britain’s “rudest place names”

When locals in West Yorkshire won their battle to reinstate the place name ‘Tickle Cock Bridge’ last week, The Times readily welcomed the news by compiling a list of Britain’s top 30 rudest place names.

‘Cocks’ in Cornwall won the coveted title, closely followed by Worcestershire’s ‘Minge Lane’ and ‘Bell End’, which came second and third respectively.

Read more

Mystery Oxbridge sex blogger

An Oxbridge student, who describes herself as “a closet nympho currently shagging my way through the half-term hump”, has set up an anonymous risqué online sex blog.

The student has recorded five blog entries within the space of five days under the title ‘Sex At Oxbridge’, detailing her sexual exploits while at university.

Her real identity, and whether she is an Oxford or Cambridge graduate or undergraduate, remains a closely guarded secret. But in her candid blog she discusses a one-night stand with a Blues rugby player, losing her virginity at 18, and the penis sizes of different nationalities.

“British men and German men are the best, and typically have the biggest penises,” she reveals.

Comparisons have inevitably been drawn with Belle de Jour, the author of the autobiographical “Diary of a London Call Girl”, which has attracted millions of readers worldwide and was adapted into a television series in 2007 starring Billie Piper.

However, while Belle eventually revealed herself – as Dr Brooke Magnanti, a specialist in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science at Sheffield University – last November, the Oxbridge blogger insists: “I have absolutely no intention of revealing my identity, mostly because in some cases that would involve revealing other people’s identity.

“I want to protect their privacy as much as I want to protect my own. Besides, my mum would kill me!”

Oxford University student denies racial slur

A student at Oxford University has denied claims that he shouted at an Israeli minister speaking at the Union, using the Arabic words, ‘Slaughter all Jews’.

A statement released on Wednesday from the deputy foreign minister of Israel, Danny Ayalon, said that the phrase was directed at him during protests at his appearance at the Oxford Union on Monday night of last week.
Conflicting articles from both Oxford Student newspapers continue to cause confusion, with ‘Cherwell’ describing the abuse as meaning, ‘Slaughter all Jews’. The ‘Oxford Student’, however, published an article on Thursday quoting student Noor Rashid, saying he was using a specific dialect of the Arabic tongue that few people there would have understood even if they had a grasp of the language. The phrase he claims to have used, ‘Khaybar ya Yahod’, commemorates a victory by Mohammed over a Jewish community in Khaybar, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
Mr Rashid insists the remark carried “absolutely no derogatory or secondary meanings. My version went: ‘Khaybar, O Jews, we will win’. As you can see, I made no reference to killing Jews.”
The statement from Mr Ayalon’s office, however, maintained that “Itbah Al Yahud” had been called out, which translates as a call to slaughter Jews.
Mr Rashid claims to recognize he may have been misunderstood: “There was a great deal of confusion… I do acknowledge that people may have misheard me and assume that I uttered something else – namely to ’slaughter the Jews’… something that I do not believe.
“I express the deepest regret if my remarks were misunderstood or misheard to mean anything that even comes close to encouraging the slaughter of innocents.”
The Oxford Union has launched an investigation condemning the protests and said: “One individual in particular appears to have made a directly anti-Semitic remark.”

Discover Islam comes to Sussex

Sussex Islamic society is hosting Discover Islam week on campus, starting Monday 22nd to Friday 26th February. The society hopes the line-up of different events will allow students the opportunity to learn more about the religion that the media love to discuss. The Islamic society at Sussex (ISOC) will be presenting a wide variety of talks and fairs as well as a variety of food throughout the week.
Read more

Students set to film documentary about university cuts

Two Sussex students are filming a documentary about the proposed cuts at the university. Carl Salton-Cox, a first-year history and film student, and Kit Bradshaw, a politics student, want to examine the cuts from a human angle, looking at specific individuals and the feelings evoked by the management’s proposals, which would see the elimination of courses, services, and over 100 jobs.

The students intend to present a reasoned perspective on both sides of the cuts, for and against, rather than engaging in the sort of visual polemic that filmmakers like Michael Moore use in their films.

“We’re not trying to be particularly partisan or Marxist about it,” Salton-Cox said. “I’m a Marxist, but Kit is a Conservative, so we’re coming from different perspectives.”

The pair, both from Sidcup in Bexley, are childhood friends. They have made films before as teenagers, including a drama about sexuality and self-harm called “The Only Release.” Their second film, “Shoots Her,” won an award at the Rob Knox Film Festival, renamed in memoriam of the young actor who was stabbed to death in Bexley in 2008.

“We’ve never made a documentary before – our experience is with drama, so we’re going for more emotive because that’s how we construct a film,” Salton-Cox said. “But we know that costs have to be cut, and we want to be fair to both sides. If the management are right, the film should show that.”

Their plan for the film is to ask questions of students and staff and then present these questions to the senior management, juxtaposing the arguments in context with each other. However, the two students have had some difficulty speaking with the management, and say they have only recently received replies to their emails requesting interviews.

Many members of staff are hesitant to speak to them too, which Salton-Cox attributes to an “atmosphere of fear” on the campus.

“It’s weird—people in the history department used to be in the hallways chatting to each other. Now it’s just silence.”

The students are aware of the reluctance staff have about speaking out and have considered conducting private interviews, which would then be transcripted and voiced by actors in order to preserve the anonymity of staff concerned for their jobs.

The two undergraduates hope to present a well-rounded perspective on the cuts and the Stop the Cuts campaign, but worry that this will prove difficult with the management and staff unable or unwilling to be interviewed.

“We can’t be objective if the management won’t talk to us.”