ISSUE 04 FREE
8TH OCT 2012/
WWW.MANCUNION.COM
MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Julius Caesar review
P25
Tom Watson interview
P8
Students secretly ‘rated’ on campus for attractiveness - Social Junkies filtered potential reps by ‘looks’ and ‘banter’ - Packs sold by halls of residence Richard Crook & Michael Williams Social Junkies have been criticised for their “objectifying” and “shallow” recruitment practices. Reps have been accused of using sliding scales to secretly rate students in three areas relating to attractiveness, dress sense and ‘banter.’ Several halls of residence, including Owens Park and Oak House, sold Social Junkies packs as part of their official Welcome Week entertainment. Students were stopped walking around campus and were briefly spoken to while secretly judged by Social Junkies reps. Only those that scored highly were invited for a second interview. Four current students, all of whom work for Social Junkies, spoke separately to The Mancunion expressing their disgust with the recruitment process. One Social Junkies rep, who asked not to be named, said they “felt wrong rating people out of 10.” “Students have just come to University, they’re nervous, and then you’re having to rate them out of 10 even if they don’t know about it,” they continued. “I was surprised to see potential reps being filtered out in such a shallow way,” stated another rep. “Students come to university because they think they’re going to be judged on their intellectual ability and qualities.” This recruitment process made reps feel uncomfortable in what they were asked to do. “I found it weird,” confessed a third Social Junkies rep. “I thought, ‘who am I to be rating fellow students?’ It’s not very nice for students to think they are coming to university to be ‘rated’ like that in their first week.” Tabz O’Brien-Butcher, Women’s
P27
50 Shades of Fallowfield
Officer for the University of Manchester, condemned the practice. “Through these alleged recruitment practices, Social Junkies expose what they value most in prospective employees – looks.” She continued: “Reducing students to their appearance is objectification, and is absolutely unacceptable.” Matt Bonner, director of Social Junkies, told to The Mancunion: “I think the only [criteria] was banter, to be perfectly honest, and whether they had enough to represent Social Junkies”, before adding that he “didn’t remember” appearance or dress sense being criteria. Lawrence Tilli, Treasurer for Owens Park committee, said they knew nothing about rep recruitment practice, adding that they were “infuriated” at how Social junkies kept them in the dark over their Welcome Week plans. “Freshers’ Week wasn’t what [the committee] asked for, and we were cut out.” “What we planned and what was produced was two completely separate things.” This is not the first time Social Junkies has been embroiled in controversy. In 2010, the company was accused by the University of Manchester Students’ Union of “abusing the trust of the University and the students” by employing “coercive sales techniques” during Welcome Week – including hosting an event entitled ‘Fuck a Fresher’. The company also made The Mancunion headlines earlier this semester when it emerged that lavish perks were offered to halls’ committee members in an attempt to sell their Welcome Week packs.
THIS WEEK Manchester English Language bottom of Russell Group for satisfaction
English Language at the University of Manchester sits at the bottom of the Russell Group for student satisfaction, after results were published by the National Student Survey last week....
Page 4 George Galloway sues NUS over “rape denier” claims
Photo Caption: Blah blah blah The aftermath of Welcome Week. Photo: Nick Bodjo
Respect MP George Galloway is suing the National Union of Students after they banned him for being a “rape denier”. The NUS action last week comes after Mr Galloway, a public Julian Assange supporter, rubbished the claims of rape against the Wikileaks founder...
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