NUS no-platform policy is hypocritical

A few hours before the deadline for this comment piece, I was going to write a piece slating the NUS’s no-platform for the BNP policy. I started writing it, but then realised that this hot potato was too complex to give justice to here, so I’m going to write a piece slating the NUS instead.

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Apply now be a Union Editor at The Badger!

Applications are now available for Union Editor at The Badger. No previous experience is necessary – just commitment and enthusiasm!

For this position (unpaid, voluntary role):

We are looking for enthusiastic people who have an interest in the Union and getting important and interesting information to students – be it about USSU societies, events, fundraising, campaigns, democaracy, welfare, advice, shops and bars. You will be working in a closely with other Badger editors and the USSU Communications Officer.

Working together with the USSU Communications Officer, duties would include:
- Sourcing information and being in regular contact with USSU staff, officers and societies.
- commissioning and writing weekly articles to fill a page with a total word count of around 1400-1800 words.
- editing and sub-editing articles.
- putting the work into the page and sourcing accompanying graphics and images.
- Submitting the content of the news pages online for review by the Badger web editors.

The successful applicants will gain excellent experience working to deadlines in print and online media.

To apply, download an application for The Badger here.

Please send applications to communications@ussu.sussex.ac.uk, or hand in to Falmer House reception. The deadline is Wednesday 10th March 2010 at 5pm. Best of luck!

The Badger

The Badger is the weekly newspaper of the University of Sussex Students’ Union. It covers campus, local, national and international news, comment and opinion, features, film, music, performance, listings and sport. It is written by students for students and is open to everyone.

Societies Festival builds community links

Last week saw the arrival of the first-ever University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU) Societies Festival, a community engagement project spreading across the city, welcoming the local community to come and join in with the activities of some the societies.

The event, supported by Brighton and Hove Council’s Adult Learning Festival, saw a programme of 13 events entertaining Brightonians of all ages.
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A word from the wise: a testament to the daily good work done at the Student Advice Centre

“This is not an FAQ service – it’s a matter of choosing life” - Sussex Alumnus, 2002 – 2005

“I received a First Class honours degree from Sussex in 2005, propelling me to my career aim, of working as an HE tutor after I complete my doctoral work.

The student advice centre was a central part of my experience at Sussex, not least for the times when I felt I could not find the strength to keep motivated or give the course what I needed to do well. I spoke with advisers about loneliness, frustrations associated with money worries, invaluable help in the latter stages to do with finding MA funding and realistic advice about my proposed career path. I supported my degree with an LEA fees grant, a student loan, and in times of extreme difficulty, I received Hardship funding to get me through the term. The student support was utterly central – I can remember strongly walking into the offices feeling distraught, and leaving with the immense feeling of relief that comes from being properly supported.

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Lies, spin and the fight against cut-backs

For those of you who have seen the University’s recent ‘response to financial challenges’ you could be forgiven for finding it laughable. Not that any of what it contains is funny, only that the language they have used to justify what amounts to massive staff and services cuts across campus, is duplicitous and quite frankly illogical.
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PRESS RELEASE: DEMONSTRATION AGAINST CUTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

University management calls Police on its own students following announcement of over 100 redundancies

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Over one-hundred jobs cut

The University of Sussex is slashing 115 staff jobs and making severe cuts to both academic and support services in a desperate attempt to save cash.

In a message to all students at Sussex on Wednesday 25 November, the Vice-Chancellor, Michael Farthing, wrote that “by taking this action we will be able to reduce costs by around £5m in 2010-11 out of a total budget of £160m.” Job losses will affect both academic staff and support staff.

University cut backs will see redundancies in the Schools of Engineering and Design; Informatics; Life Sciences; the Centre for Continuing Education, and English and History. Some of these will be compulsory.

Decisions about redundancies will be made in March 2010 and will begin to take effect in July of the same year.

Life Sciences will be one of the hardest hit areas, with the University planning to “reduce the number of staff across Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biology and Environmental Science.” This will total 24 job cuts.

In their press release to the Argus last week the University pledged: “We need to continue investing in our strengths and developing our research in new areas, such as climate change…” It is unclear how reductions in Environmental Sciences will contribute to this research.

Potential research areas in Life Sciences; Engineering and Design, and Informatics will be severely reduced. The University are aiming to focus research “around areas with clear potential for growth.” Engineering and Design will see the loss of five jobs.
Further cost reductions will be made in Life Sciences’ technical services, although detailed proposals will not be developed until later in the year.

Informatics will be another area experiencing severe cuts. However, the redundancies of 13 members of staff will at least “create a more sustainable staff-student ratio”, the University commented. The University is also seeking to reduce the number of IT support staff within the School.
Despite these redundancies, the University will reinvest money into boosting Informatics’ “senior leadership”, which was, reportedly, “an issue identified in the recent external review.”

Meanwhile, research in Informatics will “align itself with the major research priorities of funding bodies” in what is an example of the wider trend at Sussex of attempting to profit from commercial endorsement.

The Centre for Community engagement, which operates part time courses for people returning to education, will see a further seven redundancies due to the accelerated implementation of its “recovery plan.”

The University vows that there will be no immediate cost reductions in the main Social Science Schools. These include Business; Management and Economics; Education and Social Work; Global Studies; and Law, Politics and Sociology. However, the warning signs for future cuts are there. The University have stated: “The cost-base in… Life Sciences is not sustainable at current levels of income.”

There will be “a major investment plan designed to significantly increase full fee international student income” both in Business; Management and Economics, and Global Studies.

The University’s restructuring and reduction plans within the Arts and Humanities Schools are somewhat unclear, and sometimes completely contradictory. History is one example of this. In its ‘General Proposals for Change’ report, the University states that “the overall change proposed [for History, Art History and Philosophy] in Part 2 is designed to make the History taught offering [sic] more attractive to students and improve the quality and number of applications to its programmes.”

However, in the Part 2 document, which has been obtained by The Badger, plans for History seem somewhat more dire. It explains that within the History department the University is proposing to withdraw from all research and research led teaching in English Social History pre-1700, leading to the possibility of one at least one redundancy, and to withdraw from all research and research led teaching in the social, economic and political history of Continental Europe pre-1900, creating two likely redundancies.

The University aims to establish full integration between History and the American History component of American studies and is considering creating an ‘academic leadership post’ in Digital Humanities.

Within English the University proposes “withdrawal from parts of the curriculum to give a sharper focus to the premium nature of the Sussex English undergraduate programme.” At the same time as removing programmes the University is explicit in its intention to increase fees, stating that it will be “seeking higher level fees [in English] if and when the government lifts the variable fee cap.” There will be a total of five redundancies in English.

Various areas of Student and Academic Services (SAS) will be either restructured or removed. The University is proposing a central ‘Student Life Team’, into which the majority of the university’s support services will be merged.

This restructuring will see the loss of 11 of 15 student advisers and, most likely, a drastic decrease in the one-to-one support available for students. In his email to all Sussex students last Wednesday, Michael Farthing announced this as “rethinking the way that we deliver information and advice to students.”

Other services will be cut completely. These include UNISEX, which has for years been a pioneering project involving Brighton and Sussex Universities and the NHS, providing sexual and drug related support and advice for students. This will result in three redundancies.

InQbate, the University’s state of the art digital gallery space, will also be closed to all users outside the immediate academic department, ceasing to facilitate student events. The University makes clear that “the current layer of higher methodological and facilitation skills [for InQbate] will no longer be required and the staff in question will be redundant.” This will see the loss of four members of staff.

Cut backs for the library include shortening the working hours of front-line staff; reducing porters’ working hours and reducing the two current service points into one new Information Hub. However, despite these compromises, the University has admitted that there will be at least one redundancy, adding: “It is not proposed to make further redundancies at this time, providing that the proposed changes to working patterns are successfully implemented.”

IT Services is another area that will be hit hard by the University’s proposals. Approximately nine members of staff will lose their jobs in this area, including one managerial position.

The Badger has also learned that seven members of staff will be cut from catering. This is part of the University’s wider restructuring plan in catering, which aims to increase food quality and service hours, as well as providing “a greater sense of community and cross school/division working.” Seemingly, this will be done with a smaller catering team than at present.

Lastly, the University are also planning six redundancies in Security. Further details about these positions are currently unavailable.

The University are also looking to save money by increasing various costs for students and staff. The university crèche will be increasing its prices to cover its full economic cost and attempting to find alternative childcare off-campus. However, the message is stark: “If these options cannot meet the overall financial objective, the University will have no alternative but to close the childcare facilities.”

Car parking costs are also set to rise in order to cover the full cost of parking provisions. The University provides the justification that “the current level of subsidy is an unfair indirect burden on the large number of staff and students who do not park on campus.” This is likely to be an unpopular cost increase since, as previously reported in The Badger, many students and staff are already parking off campus in areas such as Stanmer Park, in order to avoid the costs and congestion of parking on campus.

Just four academic Schools within the University are showing signs of growth. These are Business, Management and Economics; Global Studies; Law, Politics and Sociology, and Media, Film and Music. These areas will see an injection of money in order to fund their requirements for more staffing.

The University are aiming for an increase of 1170 students in these subjects by 2012/13, with an injection of cash to cover the increased staffing costs.  The University’s general emphasis with all academic cuts has been that individual Schools, and even departments, need to be self-supporting. It seems unlikely, therefore, that any profit made from these courses will be re-distributed to help less ‘financially viable’ courses, irrespective of their academic worth.

Over 200 students gathered outside Bramber House on Thursday 26 November to protest against the University’s proposed cuts. Of this support, President of the University College Union at Sussex, Paul Cecil, commented: “On behalf of all the staff at Sussex I want to thank all our students who attended the rally against the cuts outside Council today.

“This is only the first stage of an intense period of negotiation between the campus trade unions and management. It is heartening to know just how much Sussex students share our dismay at the ill-conceived cuts and the threat that they pose to the quality of education provided by staff across the University. We are facing a difficult time, but knowing we have your support really does help.”

The USSU have passionately condemned the University’s plans, stating: “These short-sighted proposals will hit students hard, taking away services students rely on in times of need, closing many important courses and undermining the quality of those that remain.

“Access to money, welfare and academic advice will be severely restricted, and students and staff will no longer have subsidised access to childcare. It is hard to imagine cuts that would have a more devastating impact on students’ welfare and on standards of teaching and research at Sussex.”

Sussex boycotts Israeli goods

Last Thursday 29th October, Sussex students voted in favour of a Student Union boycott of Israeli goods. Turn out at the referendum totalled 1038 students; 526 votes were cast for a boycott, 450 against. 26 votes were deemed invalid.

Simon Englert, a member of Friends of Palestine (PalSoc), beamed: “This is a historical victory for Sussex. Today we have become the first British university to boycott Israel.”

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Apply now to work on The Badger and The Pulse

Applications are now open to be on the editorial teams for The Badger and The Pulse this year. No experience is necessary – just bundles of enthusiasm!

The Badger

The Badger is the weekly newspaper of the University of Sussex Students’ Union. It covers campus, local, national and international news, comment and opinion, features, film, music, performance, listings and sport. It is written by students for students and is open to everyone.

The Badger is currently looking for News Editors to report on campus, local and national student news and events. In this role you’ll be working each week as part of the Badger team and gain great experience in print media.

The Pulse

The Pulse is Sussex’s glossy magazine with a new look and a new direction. It is written in designed entirely by students, and from 09/10 is also going to be online! With big interviews, student culture and feature investigations, The Pulse is a must-read.

The following positions are available:
Designer

To apply, download an application for The Badger here.

To apply for The Pulse, download an application here.

Please send applications to communications@ussu.sussex.ac.uk, or hand in to Falmer House reception. the deadline is Friday 6th November 2009 at 5pm. Best of luck!

USSU Referendum notice – call for submissions:

“Should the University of Sussex Students’ Union boycott Israeli goods?”

A referendum - “Should the University of Sussex Students’ Union boycott Israeli goods?” – is due to take place across campus on Wed 28th-Thurs 29th October. Read more