www.thecourieronline.co.uk Monday 20 April 2015 Issue 1309 Free
BUCS SMARTS
The Independent Voice of Newcastle Students
ANDY JORDAN
Uni footballers edge toward promotion glory The MIC hunk takes Sport, back page on Big Chat p. 26
SOBuckle SANDALOUS up for summer
Union survey lifts lid on lad culture on campus Shocking stories of misogyny lay bare scale of problems at Newcastle Other responses dismiss laddism as “top bants” and accuse NUSU of “siding with feminists”
By Antonia Velikova News Editor Over half of students have provided accounts of having experienced the phenomenon of “lad culture” on campus, a recent poll conducted by the Welfare and Equality team of NUSU has shown. 53% of over 200 students polled have anonymously shared their experiences and opinion of what they understand to be lad culture on the Newcastle University campus. By contrast, 47% stated that they had no experience of lad culture on campus, or did not know what lad culture actually was. Some of the harrowing accounts involved mentions of sexism, homophobia, misogyny, and harassment as elements of lad culture. “I was sexually assaulted as a result of how I dressed,” one of the respondents shared. A lot of the answers to the poll regard lad culture as demeaning to men as well as women: “‘LADs’ [are] sexually assaulting female students and calling it banter,” another one of the respondents said. “As one of the few males in my group of friends I felt it was my responsibility to watch over my female friends at all times to stop them falling victim to this behaviour.” Welfare and Equality officer with NUSU Olivia Jeffrey confirms that lad culture does not only affect people of either gender. In her speech on the Tackling Lad Culture summit at Northumbria University last Wednesday, Jeffrey said: “I agree that using the term lad culture can often be very confusing as to what it actually means, and it is actually the harmful elements that need to be tackled. Also
the term ‘lad’ is usually associated with males, when as the reporter said, both females and males can be involved in lad culture. This is not to say that it is only sports teams that are involved in this kind of behaviour. But we are hoping from this planning meeting together, we can create a plan on how to tackle lad culture with sports team members and then it can be used as part of a wider strategy for the New Year starting in September.” Other respondents claimed that there were much more important issues that need tackling among the student population, such as urging students on campus to vote in the upcoming general election. “I don’t agree with this ‘lad’ culture but people acting like eejits during university is something that is supposed to happen,” they claimed. Another said that the poll itself was targeting men on campus and instilling prejudice among students. “Stop siding with feminists on everything. NUSU doesn’t seem like it’s trying to promote equality if every second post is about girls being ‘oppressed’. Men don’t have it better in every situation and neither to [sic] women,” one of the respondents stated. Lucy Morgan, President of Newcastle Feminist Society, said that lad culture is much more than a feminist issue: it affects all marginalised groups of students. “Lad culture becomes harmful when the ‘banter’ relies on misogyny and homophobia,” Morgan said. “Normalising these prejudices makes it okay for people to behave in a prejudiced way, i.e sexually harassing or verbally abusing someone. This has the effect of alienating large bodies of Continues page 4
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Fashion, p.16
Voters back Labour and Miliband, Courier poll reveals By Tom Nicholson Editor An exclusive Courier poll has found that Labour have opened up a sizable gap on their rivals among Newcastle’s student electorate, and that Ed Miliband holds a slim lead on David Cameron with regards to which man would make the better Prime Minister. Of 292 students asked, 95 (32.5%) said that they intended to vote for Labour on May 7. Their closest challengers were the Green Party, who were favoured by 58 respondents (19.9%). Further to the left of the spectrum, the Greens have wooed younger voters with student-friendly pledges to fight for the abolition of tuition fees, end austerity, bring the minimum wage up to the level of the living wage, and to introduce rent controls. Close behind were the Conservatives on 54 (18.5%), just one vote ahead of those respondents who had yet to make up their minds as to where their vote would eventually go (18.2%). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Lib Dems gained only 13 votes of support (4.5%), marginally ahead of the responses indicating an unwillingness to vote at all (4.1%). Three respondents said that they intended to vote for Ukip (1.03%), and the SNP and the option of spoiling one’s ballot tied on one vote each. Two respondents said they intended to vote for other parties than the six biggest. The second poll, which asked whether Miliband or Cameron would make the better Prime Minister, found that 39.86% of 296 respondents favoured Miliband. Just six votes separated him from Cameron, who received support from 37.84% of respondents. 50 respondents (16.89%) said that neither Cameron nor Miliband would be their choice for Prime Minister, while 16 (5.4%) had yet to decide.
More inside Virtual insanity: classicists design hi-tech VR specs p.2
Full analysis of our unique poll, p. 5