The Cheese Grater THE OTHER MAGAZINE OF UCL UNION Issue 36 — Winter 2012
CHUCKLE VISIONARIES Paul and Barry’s books reviewed
IT’S ALL IN THE GAME Jeremy Bowen interviews Neil Strauss
CLOISTER CHEF Getting a taste for on-campus catering
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www.cheesegratermagazine.org
EGGED ON Students plan radical break from NUS
KEEPING ONESELF OCCUPIED Teenager seizes sitting room from family
RUGBY BALLS-UP This and more in our UCLU round-up
KNOW YOUR UNIONS Twitter feed of neutral observer Will Rowland Last week Pi Media Society held an EGM during which a motion was successfully passed to merge Pi Newspaper with Pi Magazine. News and sport will move online, whereas Pi Magazine will gain additional sections previously covered by the paper, including science, and a new investigative section. This was only a merger in as much as a fox eating a dying pigeon can be said to be a merger. Pi Magazine has improved greatly over the last two years, from glossy nothingness to a much higher quality publication than Pi Newspaper and now Pi Magazine has
Pi Newspaper folds after six difficult years gobbled up its weaker sister publication. The death of the paper has been on the cards for a while. Killian Redden, Pi Magazine editor-in-chief, and others were overheard discussing it at the UCLU Arts Ball in May. The merger emanated from a ‘clique’ made up of the two magazine editors, Malika Giles and Killian Redden, and two magazine section editors, Louis Robertson and Ghada Habib, who all live together. Ex-editor of the newspaper Ava Lloyd said “as soon as Killian and Malika were elected they made it clear to me that they were planning a merger.” Killian and Malika persuaded Pi Media society
President Hayley Cameron to get on board, finally leading to the merger being accepted with only one vote against it. Pi Newspaper has been in a sorry state this year. A redesign spearheaded by co-editor Kit Weaver left the front page looking horrible. A huge amount of space was devoted to advertising “classic games and puzzles on the back page”. There was one puzzle, a crossword, which was easily discovered by turning the paper over. The headlines read like bizarre snatches of overheard conversations “Arts societies take performances on tour” and (Cont’d on page four)