Jacqueline Wilson An exclusive interview with the nation’s favourite children’s author
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BUCS away!
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page 42
Team Newcastle’s campaign gets off to an anticlimactic start
C OURIER THE
thecourieronline.co.uk · Issue 1235 Monday October 24 2011
The Independent Voice Of Newcastle Students
Est 1948
Occupation movement comes to Newcastle
Jack Lofgren The global Occupy movement reached Newcastle last week as a small group of protesters set up camp beneath Grey’s Monument. The protesters pitched tents on the concrete and draped banners over the landmark, stating “We Are The 99%” and warning “This Is Just The Beginning.” The movement, dubbed ‘Occupy Newcastle’, is an extension of the larg-‐ er protests started on September 17 in New York City. The protesters, or ‘occupiers,’ de-‐ scribe their actions as a response to the purported growing economic ine-‐ “An occupation is not simply a protest;; it is a demonstration of how our society could be” Comment, p9 quality in the UK and across the West. The demands of the occupiers vary from person to person, and neither the Newcastle protest nor the larger protests in Wall Street have any clear leadership. ϐ anti-‐consumerist Canadian magazine Adbuster and was propagated through Facebook and other internet media by the “hacktivist” group Anonymous, who attend protests with their signa-‐ ture Guy Fawkes mask popularised by ϐ V for Ven-‐ detta. By October 9, protests had spread to over 900 cities worldwide, and an estimated 100,000 people had par-‐ ticipated, according to the New York Times. The aims of the protesters vary from
country to country. The Wall Street protesters focus on a recent court ruling in America allowing corpora-‐ tions to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. European protests, meanwhile, have tended to be Eurosceptic, focusing on the problems with the European Un-‐ ion and the European economic crisis surrounding the Greek bailout. One theme that is universal among the protesters is the wealth gap between rich and poor and economic inequal-‐ ity. “We don’t claim to represent the 99%,” Jack Richardson, a carpenter and occupier, explained, referring to the demographic not part of the wealthiest 1%. “We are putting forward a point of view that we believe the 99% of peo-‐ ple can get with. We don’t care about your political perspective... The ma-‐ jority of people in the world seem to be... getting to the point where they can or must acknowledge that the ϐ way it’s run... that wealth is extracted and shipped upwards to create huge wealth disparities.” On banners spread across the ϐ ǡ a spray-‐painted white sheet exclaim-‐ ing “My Fight Your Fight Our Fight!”, a makeshift sign of cardboard read-‐ ing “Slave To The Banks Capitalism Is Dead!” and a leaf of notebook paper ǡ Dz ǡ ϐ ǡ ǡ Cameron.” The occupied landmark, Grey’s Monument, is named after Charles Grey, the Second Earl Grey, who was an important member of the Whig party and instrumental in parliamen-‐ tary reform and the abolition of slav-‐ ery in 1832. The Newcastle protests have re-‐ Continued on page 4
Uni gives aid to poorest
Low-‐income students to recieve £180,000 worth of scholarships David Hiscocks
Activists gather at Monument to protest under the banner “Occupy Newcastle” last week
Newcastle University has announced a new ‘Promise Scholarship Scheme’ to provide 20 fully paid scholarships of £9,000 each to local students with ϐ ϐ Ǯ Ǧ demic potential.’
ǡ ϐ the University has pledged to spend at least £55 million on ‘’bursaries, fee waivers and activities that will help us to widen participation’’ accord-‐ ing to Pro-‐Vice Chancellor for teach-‐ ing and learning, Professor Suzanne Cholerton. By investing this money, it is hoped that more students from a wider range of backgrounds will en-‐ rol at the University. This comes after the increase of tui-‐ tion fees to £9,000 at Newcastle Uni-‐ versity, which some fear may put off potential students from less advan-‐ taged backgrounds. David Pearman, Chair of Schools North East and Head teacher of Ken-‐ ton School, applauded the move and said that it would be tragic if bright but less privileged students were put off attending university by the in-‐ crease in fees. Unveiling the new plans, Professor Cholerton said “We recognise that the introduction of tuition fees will have a ϐ people and their families make about their futures. We hope that by provid-‐ ϐ packages we can help them to see that studying at Newcastle is an aspiration that is within their reach.” Through these various support packages, Newcastle University hopes ϐ ǡͲͲͲ ϐ Ǥ ǡ University ranks 5th in the UK for em-‐ ployability of its graduates and 10th in the UK for student satisfaction. In addition, it is in the UK’s top 12 for research power in Science and Engi-‐ neering. ϐ plans to offer is designed to further Continued on page 2