20 gairrhydd
NEWS REVIEW 2006/2007
JUNE.11.2007 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM
The year that wa
Student matters Student matters have been at the heart of gair rhydd throughout the year. Last year, amidst the confusion about top-up fees, gair rhydd clarified that students in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland would have to pay £3,000 a year in fees. This year we questioned if it was fair that European students and Welsh students had their fees paid. Student loans play a vital role in our lives, and each year many students are left loan-less. In October, over 60 second year Medics were left ‘Out of Pocket’ because of a communications breakdown between the school of medicine and the Student Loans Company. Students who thought their loans had come through faced nasty charges as they wrote cheques which then bounced. Exam slip-ups have been a recurrent theme of this year’s news. In March, some medical students received scripts which contained the answers. There were fears among students about the university’s reputation being tarnished by such blunders. As ever, housing has been an issue for students. Cardiff student Greg Clark staged a protest against a local letting agency who witheld his bond unecessarily for five months. Shortly after the revelation in November that the University has investments in arms manufacturers, the Student Council mandated the Union Executive to take action and encourage the University to change its investment policy. The motion was based on the premise that the University should listen to students’ opinions concerning how their tuition fees should be invested. Such actions shun the stereotypical image of apathy.
Crime Targets Crimes against students have been a recurring feature of this year’s headlines. The response of the police to student crimes was also criticised. Throughout October a wave of crime spread across Cathays with reports of assaults in taxis, peeping-toms, muggings, burglaries and conmen selling bags of sand off as laptops. Through liasons with the police, gair rhydd urged students to take more care of themselves and their property. But when it came to a disabled student’s car being stolen the response of the police was called into question. Students themselves were reported to have taken on the work of detectives in May through the use of Facebook. After a student was attacked following a night out, his friend identified the assailant from photos on Facebook. ‘Face-booked’ sparked hot debate on gairrhydd.com, where questions were raised over the accuracy of using such a fickle medium as a basis for identification. One post on the forum commented: “What scares me most is that someone, anyone, can get drunk, beaten up and proceed to take legal action upon whoever they choose on Facebook.”
Raising Awareness Images of Muslim students praying in stairwells called into question inadequate prayer room facilities across campus. In this special news report, the provisions at other UK institutions were compared with the facilities at Cardiff. The report also considered the issue of naming a potential new room. gairrhydd.com had a record 93 posts relating to the report. While some comments criticised the push for better prayer facil-
ities saying: “There is no need for prayer facilites at any university. A university is a place of study, not a place of worship”, others commented on the equality issue among students: “Most students will go to their pub crawls, and utilise university facilities to get drunk. Muslim students would like to use university facilities/rooms to pray.”