Term 1, Issue 11

Do you believe the Students’ Union should become an accredited Living Wage employer?

This referendum was called as the Students’ Union received a petition of more than 150 students requesting it. Note that if the majority of voters vote yes this issue will be referred to the Students’ Union’s Trustees for their consideration due to the financial implications for the Students’ Union.

Background The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK. The current National Living Wage is £7.85 an hour and is updated annually.

The Students’ Union employs around 200 student staff and a number of permanent staff. Student staff are principally employed within the Union’s commercial services. Staff at supervisor level and above are currently paid above the Living Wage. Other staff are currently paid £7.28 per hour (including 78p holiday pay).

The Students’ Union’s student staff were consulted on their views and almost half responded. Of these, 81% thought the Students’ Union should become a Living Wage employer, 14% disagreed and 5% abstained. These results varied depending on where the respondents worked with 52% of bar staff (25 respondents) agreeing the Union should become a Living Wage employer rising to 88% of retail staff (73 respondents) and 100% for non-commercial staff (6 respondents).

The Students’ Union have estimated that introducing the Living Wage for all staff would cost an additional £42,000-£64,000 per year. Last year the Students’ Union commercial services made a surplus of £122,000 that was transferred to the Student’s Union to be spent on supporting the running costs of its non-commercial services. This additional cost will mean more of the money that the Union’s commercial services make being put towards wages rather than transferred to the Students’ Union (meaning the Union’s income and budget for its non-commercial services will be reduced).

This information was produced by the Students’ Union.

vote online at: www.sussexstudent.com/vote

YES The Student Union must be a living wage employer. We believe the Students’ Union urgently needs to become an accredited living wage employer. Our union is founded on being an ethical employer and organisation, and paying staff a living wage is a key part of this. The minimum wage has been slipping behind inflation for years now. Workers deserve a pay-packet they can live on in return for their labour.

- This argument was provided by a student Information from the Living Wage website: The concept of a Living Wage has roots in various cultural, religious and philosophical traditions... The Living Wage is an example of communities, business, campaigners and faith groups coming together to find practical, nonstatutory means to address working poverty and strengthen families.

Since 2001 the campaign has impacted tens of thousands of employees and put over £210 million into the pockets of some of the lowest paid workers in the UK... Paying the Living Wage is a recognised sign of good practice in employment.

The Living Wage website lists the following benefits: FOR BUSINESS - An independent study examining the business benefits of implementing a Living Wage policy in London found that more than 80% of employers believe that the Living Wage had enhanced the quality of the work of their staff, while absenteeism had fallen by approximately 25%.

- Two thirds of employers reported a significant impact on recruitment and retention within their organisation.

70% of employers felt that the Living Wage had increased consumer awareness of their organisation’s commitment to be an ethical employer.

- Following the adoption of the Living Wage PwC found turnover of contractors fell from 4% to 1%.

FOR FAMILIES - The Living Wage affords people the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.

- 75% of employees reported increases in work quality as a result of receiving the Living Wage.

- 50% of employees felt that the Living Wage had made them more willing to implement changes in their working practices; enabled them to require fewer concessions to effect change; and made them more likely to adopt changes more quickly.

FOR SOCIETY - The Living Wage campaign was launched in 2001 by parents in East London, who were frustrated that working two minimum wage jobs left no time for family life.

- The causes of poverty are complex and in order to improve lives there should be a package of solutions across policy areas. The Living Wage can be part of the solution.

- This additional information was provided by the Students’ Union as a fuller argument opposing the proposal was not submitted by students

NO The Union’s commercial services such as its shops and bars do not make profits for shareholders, all the money they make for the Union is reinvested in services for students such as advice, sport and societies.

Paying all Students’ Union staff at or above the Living Wage will mean the Union’s non-commercial services such as activities, campaigning and support will receive less money from the commercial services. This will result in cuts to non-commercial Union services. £42,000-£64,000 per year is between 4% and 6% of the Union’s income. Increasing wages for around 200 students would have a negative impact on thousands of students as potential users of services that may be affected. The Students’ Union currently pays all its staff at or above the 21 and over minimum wage rate (though many of the staff are under 21).

In future, the Union’s commercial services may not be able to cover this additional cost. In some years the Union’s commercial services do not make as much money as they did last year and they might struggle to make enough money to cover the additional salary costs. This could result in tighter management of staffing levels in our outlets and/or increase in prices.

Another option to reduce the impact of the increased cost including moving staff onto fixed hours contracts which potentially reduces the flexibility the Students’ Union can offer them.

Students’ Union part-time staff reported in the Union’s last staff survey that they work for the Union because of the location, flexibility, atmosphere and friendly environment as well as the money they earn. None felt the Union was not known as a good employer and almost 9 out of 10 were satisfied with their job overall.

Students’ Union staff typically have more training and development opportunities than with other employers. They gain great experience and shifts are allocated around student commitments where possible. The Students’ Union aims to be a good employer and provides lots of benefits for its staff as well as their wages.

Paying the Living Wage will lead to cuts and reductions in the opportunities the Students’ Union is able to offer its staff and to students in general.

- This argument was provided by the Students’ Union as a no argument opposing the proposal that was submitted by students

Should the Students’ Union replace the role of President with another role with a different title, e.g. Union Affairs or Union Chair?

This referendum was called by the Students’ Union to change the Union’s articles of association (more commonly known as the constitution).

Background The National Union of Students (NUS) were asked by Sussex Students’ Union officers to carry out a review of the structure of the Full-time and Part-time Officer roles to ensure they most effectively represent Sussex and BSMS students.

One of the recommendations of the report was to allow students to decide whether or not there should be a President who leads the elected officer team or whether there should be a role with a different title and of equal importance to the other Full-time Officers.

The focus of the question is primarily around the role and status of this position rather than specifically the name.

Students are being asked to vote on the role and name of this position. You can read the full report from NUS and more about these roles at www.sussexstudent.com/referenda This information was produced by the Students’ Union.

vote online at: www.sussexstudent.com/vote

the badger

8 DECEMBER 2014

in pictures • 2

IN PICTURES Protests and Peace on and around campus

Daniel Green

Sophie Jones Editor-in-Chief Deborah Batchelor badger@sussexstudent.com

Sports Editor Joe Cummins josephcummins.sportseditor@ gmail.com

News Editor Jack Williams Comment Editor Victoria Farley Tech/Science/Features Editor Jordan Ellis Arts Editor Tom Powell Head of Publicity Lili Pammer-Zagroczky

News Sub Editors Daniel Green, Zoe Halse, Alex Ferguson, Rosie Dodds,Jess Pitocchi badger-news@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Comment Sub Editors Miriam Steiner, Alice Nettleship badger-opinion@ussu.sussex. ac.uk

Sophie Jones

Daniel Green

Daniel Green

Sophie Jones

Letters Sub Editor

Arts Sub Editors

Publicity Coordinator

Louis Patel badger-letters@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Victoria O’Donnell, Ioana Matei, Raymond Jennings, Lily Cooper, Jessica-Lily Harvey-Cox badger-arts@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Lenart Celar badger-publicity@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Tech Sub Editor

Online Editors Steve Barker, Pete Humphreys

Connor Cochrane badger-tech@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Sports Sub Editor

Features Sub Editor

Vladislav Hristov Grozev

Ryan Bourne

badger-sports@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

badger-features@ussu.sussex. ac.uk

Photo Editors

Science Sub Editor

Aditi Sreevathsa, Sophie Jones

Jade Groves badger-science@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

thebadgerphotography@gmail.com

badger-online@ussu.sussex.ac.uk Media Development Officer Paul Millar mediadevelopment@sussexstudent. com Communications Officer Michael Segalov communications@sussexstudent.com

the badger

8 December 2014

Five sexual assaults in five years

NEWS • 3

NEWS IN BRIEF

Rosie Dodds News Sub-Editor Trigger warning: sexual violence The result of a recent Freedom of Information request has revealed that there have been a total of five alleged sexual assaults reported on the University of Sussex’s campus in the last five years, from September 2009 to September 2014.

The University of Sussex responded to the FOI with the statement: “The University of Sussex takes alleged offences of any kind extremely seriously.

“The University provides an extensive range of services that offer students ongoing support and advice for any difficulties that may result from such incidences, including sexual assault.”

The FOI was sent in response to a sexual assault that alledgedly took place earlier in the year where a student was assaulted in her halls of residence on the University of Sussex’s Falmer campus.

Ella Gordon, a second year American Studies student, has commented: “Although five sexual assaults in the last five years won’t seem too many to some people, for me, I think that it is five too many.

“The figure shows that on average,

Sophie Jones there is one alleged sexual assault a year, and that’s not good enough.

“It is the University’s job to protect the students that are living on campus, and if I had known that figure last year when I was living at a Falmer halls of residence, I would not have felt comfortable or safe.

“When you look around campus, es-

pecially where the housing areas are, there often isn’t enough lighting, sufficient security cameras, or patrols.

“Perhaps if the University addressed these problems, the number of sexual assaults reported will decrease.”

NUS and the Welfare Officer, Rianna Gargiulo at the university’s Students’ Union have recently launched the ‘I

Heart Consent’ campaign.

The campaign aims to tackle and educate students on the myths, misunderstandings, and problematic perspectives about rape, consent and sexual harassment.

More information about campaign can be found on the website: www.sussexstudent.com/campaigns.

Student vote could swing 2015 election Study shows student vote could determine winners of a dozen key seats

George Leith Students could play a pivotal role is determining the result of the 2015 general election, according to research conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).

In their report, entitled ‘Do students swing elections? Registration, turnout and voting behaviour among full-time students’, the HEPI analysed how the votes of students populations in around a dozen key marginal constituencies could swing the result of next year’s election on 7 May. The study comes as a reminder that although students only make up 3 percent of the electorate, those registered to vote and attending full-time university could define the winner of at least 12 constituencies, including the two constituencies in Brighton.

On the report’s predictions,

Brighton Kemptown, which the Conservatives won from Labour with a majority of 3.1 percent in 2010, would be regained by Labour next year if a majority of it’s 15 percent student population voted on polling day.

The report also stated that given the large green vote amongst students nationally at the European elections, Brighton Pavilion’s “student population seems likely to play a pivotal role in determining whether the seat stays Green”.

The HEPI summary of the report explains how the analysis, “confirms that the student vote responds to political parties’ policies on tuition fees”.

This has resulted in the Liberal Democrats winning the majority of the student vote in the last three general elections.

However, support for Nick Clegg and his party has “collapsed” among

the majority of the whole electorate and especially students since rescinding on their pre-election promises to vote against a raise in tuition fees.

The British Election Study recent found that support for the Lib Dems has fallen from 44 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2014. Labour and the Green Party are believed to benefit from student votes in the next election.

Brighton Pavilion along with nine other constituencies are seen to be key areas of the country where the student vote could swing the results.

The report explains how student turnout at the polls could help Caroline Lucas retain her seat here.

Zoe Parkes a second year politics student is unsurprised by the findings of study: “as the younger generation is becoming more concerned with environmental issues and feel betrayed by the policies of the Liberal Democrats, especially tuition fees,

students must have an increasingly important role in general elections.”

The Professor of Political Sociology at Oxford Stephen Fisher, who carried out much of the analysis for the study, described the connection between patterns in student voting and the government’s policies on student finance as “remarkable”.

However Nick Hillman, who coauthored the report and is Director of the HEPI said that the effect students could have on the election is not a certainty.

He said: “For students to make a difference, they must register to vote, turn out to vote and live in marginal constituencies”.

The study also reports that students are only half as likely to vote for UKIP than the rest of the population, with only 7 percent of students expected to vote for the anti-EU/immigration party.

tering companies Chartwells in 2013 and back in September, removed halal meat from their menus.

Despite, as Operations Officer Daniel Greenberg put it, “a huge number of students at Sussex” have been eating the particularly prepared meat, halal has been dropped unless pre-ordered for a function.

“Since Sussex Food became privatised, I’d heard many Muslim students complaining about how the chicken wasn’t halal anymore and how many problems that has created

for them, since they have had to go to Falmer Bar or shop to have halal meat as the SU offers a few meals there and also a few at east Slope”, Kaleem told The Badger.

Kaleem, along with Michael Segalov and Daniel Greenberg, met with Sussex Food representatives on 21st November, began to hash out a way of getting it back on the menu.

“I believe we’re almost there’” Kaleem noted. “We’ve agreed to the preparation process and the issue now is that the halal chicken is HMC

[Halal Monitoring Committee] certified”.

Following the original meeting, the USSU Facebook page stated that Dan was “lobbying Sussex Food’” and pointed out the reduction in price of Student Union halal options in line with the rest of their menu.

Committee Member of IslamicSOC Osama Ashraf added: “it is really important for the authorities to work on [fully introducing halal]”, as “this is not something which can’t be done or is impossible to do.

Union fights to bring back halal meat Matthew McGregor-Morales

International Student Representative Kaleem Ullah Khan Toru has, with the backing of Students’ Union Operations Officer Daniel Greenberg and Communications Officer Michael Segalov, been pushing to have halal options reintroduced on the menus at outsourced cafeterias across campus.

Sussex Food was outsourced to ca-

West Midlands Police have been accused of using “disproportionate” violence against student demonstrators at the University of Warwick.

Police were called to a free education demo outside the University’s Senate House on Wednesday 3 December, where students claim that officers punched them, sprayed them with CS gas and threatened them with a taser.

West Midlands Police said that a taser was drawn during the disorder but it was not fired. They also confirmed that three people has been arrested.

Helena Dunnett-Orridge, who took part in the protest, said: “They [the police] pushed people to the ground and grabbed a girl by the throat using her scarf. They also used CS spray in my friend’s face and had Tasers. They started physically pushing and carrying people out. They dragged me out with them.”

The Sussex Students’ Union Council unanimously voted to condemn human rights violations in Mexico.

The human rights crisis in Mexico resulted from the attack of 80 students in the Guerrero region of Mexico by the municipal police.

The whereabouts of 43 of these students remain unknown.

The Students Loans Company gave away £5.4 million in loans to overseas students who were not entitled to it, an investigation by the National Audit Office revealed.

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills suspended payments launched an emergency review into the alleged abuse of the system.

A review of 11,000 applications found the half could not provide proof of residency in the UK, and that 992 applicants had been given the money before they were subjected to stricter checks.

World renowned theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking has said that he would love to play a James Bond villain in the popular spy thriller films.

He told Wired magazine: ““My ideal role would be a baddie in a James Bond film. I think the wheelchair and the computer voice would fit the part.”

“It is just something really important for us Muslims”. Kaleem told me he was hoping to get reduced pricing due to the lower costs, though numbers are yet to be decided on.

Dan told The Badger of the attention Sussex Food has paid to student wishes since taking over: “whilst their motivations are mainly profitdriven, this is still beneficial to students”.

Sussex Food, however, were unavailable to comment at the time of going to print.

the badger

8 December 2014

NEWS • 4

Former student wins Access Sussex becomes Union campaign Guardian Media Award Nicole De La Mare

Nick Grindle On 27 November, The Guardian held their 36th annual Student Media Awards, where a former Sussex graduate came runner-up in the reputable Student Reporter of the Year category.

Gabriel Webber, a former Comment Editor for The Badger, was given the award at The Guardian headquarters in London, at a ceremony hosted by T4 alumni Rick Edwards. Gabriel closely followed Patrick Greenfield of the University of York, who was announced as the winner.

The event was judged by leading industry figures such as The Guardian News and Media editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, Financial Times Deputy Editor John Thornhill and Buzzfeed UK Managing Editor Cate Sevilla. Gabriel was recognised ahead of 700 other aspirants to receive the runner-up prize.

Other winners included the University of York’s student newspaper York Vision for Student Publication of the Year, the University of Nottingham’s The Impact for Student Website of the

Words: Jessica Pitocchi & Daniel Green

Year, and Lucy Webster of University of Warwick, who won Student Columnist of the Year.

When asked about his prize, Gabriel told The Badger: “I’m very proud to have won but - I guess as with any journalism award – I feel that others unintentionally helped me along the way by giving me something interesting to write about.

In my case, that would be Michael Farthing and his decision to have security guards wear secret lapel cameras.”

Gabriel went on to say, “Apparently the judges were particularly impressed by my inspection of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, specifically the university’s contracts with Chartwells and Interserve.”

Gabriel also spoke to The Badger on the use of Freedom of Information (FOI) in journalism, “The Guardian is a particular fan of FOI and it’s such a great tool that I think student journalists should make much more creative use of.”

Gabriel’s reward for his accomplishment is a week’s work experience in The Guardian’s newsroom.

The Access Sussex campaign has been accepted as an official Students’ Union campaign.

The campaign was set up earlier this term by Miriam Steiner, who explained the struggles of disabled students through the Twitter account @ AccessSussex, ‘to make the problems more visible and help make a change for future students.’

Miriam said: “By becoming an official union campaign, we can mobilise the entire student body to stand up for students who have been ignored.

I hope that with the expertise of the union we can pressure the university, who I’m sure don’t want to be seen as regressive in their attitude to people with disabilities. Progress has been too slow, and hopefully now we can pick up the pace.”

This issue was presented to the Students’ Union who jumped at the opportunity to help further raise awareness and is now led by Welfare Officer Rianna Gargiulo. In a statement, she explained that “the problems of accessibility are horrendously overlooked.

“Within the three months or so

Sophie Jones that students have been on campus, the sheer number of and severity of complaints that I have received from students was impossible for me to ignore as welfare officer”.

Gargiulo and Steiner hope to be able to pinpoint specific problems from focus groups of disabled stu-

dents and offer simple solutions that could change how students get around on a daily basis. These problems can be easily fixed by better awareness by staff of disabled entrances and installation of clear signposting to effective disabled access points.

What happened in 2014?

The Badger looks back at some of the biggest news stories from the year January

Recreational marijuana shops were opened across Colorado following the legalisation of the drug in the state.

July

MH17 crashes in Ukraine after allegedly being shot down by a Russian missile.

All 298 people were killed.

February

The Ebola virus outbreak began in Western Africa, and has killed at least 6,000 people to date.

August

18-year-old black teenager, Michael Brown, was fatally shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson.

March

The first same-sex marriage took place in Brighton, followed by thousands of other couples across the country.

April

The South Korean passenger ferry MV Sewol capsized and sank. More than 290 people were killed.

September October

Scotland rejects independence, with 55 percent voting ‘NO’. Alex Salmond reacted by resigning as First Minister.

Hundreds of students were tear gassed as they protested in Hong Kong for democratic elections in 2017.

May

UKIP won in European Parliament elections, taking 24 out of 73 seats available to the UK in the European Parliament.

June

ISIS began capturing towns and cities in Iraq, and later produced videos of the beheadings of hostages.

November December

There were celebrations as Rosetta’s probe Philae landed on Comet 67P, the first time this has happened in history.

Researchers said the number of people receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS was greater than the number of new cases.

the badger

8 DECEMBER 2014

NEWS • 5

The Badger interviews Caroline Lucas Jack Williams News Editor The Badger interviews Caroline Lucas, The Green Party MP for Brighton and Pavilion, who is standing for reelection in next years general election.

How will the Green Party be appealing to students before the next election?

I think we’ve always had a very strong support from students but I think in the wake of the tuition fee scandal, I think it has energised more young people to feel that the greens are the right hope for them. I think a lot of students may have voted Lib Dem last time thinking that was a safe way of ensuring the tuition fees don’t go up. I think they felt very betrayed because the Lib Dems actually pledged in their manifesto to scrape them and they ended up tripling them.

I think the Green Party is the only partying saying that higher education is a public good and therefore you shouldn’t put the burden of paying for it on individual students. We believe that businesses should be playing more of a role as they benefit from an educated workforce and that’s why we support the UCU proposals for a business education tax. This is just a very small tax on the 4 percent largest companies. It would entail a slight rise in corporation tax for the 4 percent largest companies.

That would mean that corporation tax wouldn’t be massive, it would still make it an average level for countries within the OCED. But with that extra finance, you could ensure that higher education institutions are properly funded themselves and that you could get rid of tuition fees completely. No other party is even putting that on the table, so tuition fees are part of the reason why we attract so many students.

What steps do you think parties across the political spectrum could take to win back trust in politicians amongst dissolutioned young voters who are becoming alienated from the political system?

I think this feeds into a much bigger problem that we have that most politicians today are held in contempt, partly because they have proved that they cannot be trusted, not only because of the Liberal Democrats on tution fees, but also with the Tories when they promised no top-down reorganisation of the NHS and undertook the most damaging reorganisation you could imagine. And if you go further back you have Tony Blair taking Britain into the Iraq war, so people are very right to be sceptical of politicians. This means that we have to work even harder to regain trust and I think we shouldn’t underestimate how big a job this is.

One way I believe would have been the recall of MPs so that if an MP gets kicked out if they abuse the trust of their constituents by, for example, fiddling their expenses. Stuff like this would have been a good reason recall an MP and if there’s enough of you and of course there were lots of checks and balances in the amendment that we put forward, that if there is enough people

who believe that there should be a recall vote then it should be able to happen and then the MP can stand on their record and let the people decide.

But by the way it turned out that the Conservative and Labour front benches sewed up a deal between themselves, which effectively shuts people out from that recall procedure. No politician from those three main parties can wonder why their voters hold them in contempt when that’s the way their treating voters. We should be able to trust voters and if we can’t, then it should be no surprise to us that voters don’t trust us.

Having seen the plight of the Liberal Democrats after entering the coalition with the Conservatives, do you think the Green Party can enter into a coalition after the next election without losing their loyal voter base?

Even before seeing what happened to the Liberal Democrats, the Greens have been quite reluctant to enter into formal coalitions because we’ve seen what has happened in other EU countries when a smaller junior partners become part of a formal coalition where their power to act on their own policies in massively reduced and they in the end, lose their identity and lose the reason that people probably voted for them in the first place.

The Green Party much prefer an arrangement know as confidence and supply, which is where you don’t enter into a formal coalition with a common manifesto, but where you would support the budget and from then on in, you would support things on a case by case basis.

It will most likely be the case after the next general election that no one single party will have a majority. Our response to this scenario would be, first of all, that we would never prop up a Conservative government. But it terms of what of the other constellation might look like, it might look like we have a big contingent from the SNP, there might be some Labour, there might be some Liberal Democrats; I think we would have to agree on things on a case by case basis after agreeing to the budget.

Do you see a renegotiation or repatriation of powers from the EU as necessary or essential?

I think the EU has become very remote, it’s not transparent, its unwieldy, and it undoubtedly does more than it needs to do. However, and it’s a big however, I passionately believe in the importance of the EU and I don’t think we should be leaving the EU. But I do think it’s right that the people have the choice so the Green Party is in favour of a referendum. We would have had it sooner than the Conservatives are promising because it creates a lot of doubt in security and uncertainty for businesses.

We believe in a referendum not because of UKIP and little-englander ideas but because it’s the right of the people to decide. So, we’re promising it for democratic reasons and not for little-Englander reasons. Within that referendum, we will be arguing to stay in the EU but we would certainly want a reformed EU. We would certainly support repatriat-

Brighton and Hove Green Party ing some powers to the UK. I remember sitting in on a certain debate when I was an MEP about the loudness of lawnmowers, which could be debated and decided on a bit closer to home instead of Brussels.

But at the same time, it’s frustrating that those that support staying in the EU and trying to reform it need to be making the case a lot more loudly and clearly because we have left the field to Nigel Farage and his xenophobic rhetoric, and it is dangerous because the EU could perform some incredible things and fulfil important roles.

For instance, It’s mainly because of the EU that environmental standards have risen in the UK, human rights and labour standards are enshrined at EU level. We’ve got to make sure we fight for the EU to use its powers for good but simply getting rid of it is the wrong way forward.

When interviewing Labour candidate Purna Sen, she said, regarding the Green Party’s pledge to raise the minimum wage to £10 by 2020, that “They can promise any thing they like because they don’t have to deliver. They know they are not going to be in a position to make that happen”. Will this perturb people from voting Green in Brighton and across the UK? I don’t think I or anyone else in the Green Party is seriously suggesting that we’re going to become the next government. In other EU countries, green parties have been part of governments because their electorally systems are more fair and because we don’t have that in this country, our representation at Westminster is more repressed.

What we’re hearing from Labour really is an excuse for the compromises that their making. People should be coming to the Greens because we are proposing a genuine opposition to this government. If you look at the whole austerity agenda, Labour have never challenged the austerity agenda and have proposed for it to go a bit more slowly and gently.

They’ve never said that it was not the solution to the problem; it wasn’t overspending on benefits that caused the financial crash, it was the irresponsibility of international finance and banking.

Labour have said that if they formed

the next government, they would keep to the spending limits of the current government at least for the first year.

So essentially what they’re offering is Tory-lite.

On railway issues, such as the East Coast mainline which has been in public ownership since the previous franchise collapsed, that service is now being put into the private sector. Labour’s response has been to say that they would keep that line in private hands and would allow another public body to compete against it and at other lines across the country. But what they are not saying is bring rail back into public ownership. They don’t have the courage of their convictions; it’s a popular policy, it would save money not cost money.

So if you want a party that say what we believe in, then vote Green. It’s really no excuse for Labour to say you shouldn’t vote for the green’s because they won’t be in government; If we were in government, these are things that we would do.

Do you think the Green Party will be negatively affected by not being able to take part in next years leaders’ debates?

We are furious about this and we are currently taking comfort by the fact that a lot of other people seem to be as furious about it as we are. I think we now have over 200,000 people signed up to a petition to protest about this. I think a lot of people who don’t agree with many of the Green Party’s policies think that there is a fundamental injustice of moving the goalposts to keep the greens out.

If they were using a measurement of having representation of Westminster as a determining factor of whether you are invited to take part, we clearly do and have had representation longer than UKIP. If they take into account the measure of national polls, we are regularly outpolling the Liberal Democrats.

In Rochester and Strood, we received five times the vote of the Lib Dems, and even the one before that we outpolling them. Even in the European elections, we increased our representation to get us up to a third MEP and the Lib Dems went down to one.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s unfair to leave us out. But it also does the British people are disservice because

the choices are not far more restricted than they actually are.

On so many issues, neither Labour nor the Lib Dems are offering a serious opposition to the Tory government, so whether you’re talking about Trident, which all three of the main parties support, the issue of nuclear power, or fracking, none of the other parties oppose these things.

Is it viable to take services that have been sold into private hands, such as water and energy companies, back into public control?

In Germany, terribly exciting things are happening at the moment. They are bringing the grid back into public hands and once you have got the grid back into public hands then it is much easier to make decisions like giving renewables the option of getting onto the grid.

In this country there is no automatic presumption in favour of green energy taking priority on the grid. Therefore, that depresses demand and the amount of green energy that is produced. In this country we have the big six energy companies in Germany, they have about 60,000 energy companies and there is a big emphasis on communities creating their own energy and being able to sell it to their neighbour and it ensures their energy bills are lower.

At the moment, if you go down the route of installing solar panels on your house, then what you generate in surplus, you sell back to the energy companies at a certain amount, and that’s good, but it would be even better if you were able to sell it to your neighbour and get far more of this sense of community ownership of energy, and that is perfectly possible.

When you talk about huge wind farms, some off the coast of Sussex and Kent, that would be much harder to bring back into public hands, there would need to be a process to do so.

But again I come back to the point of in whose names are this services being run. Everything from energy, water and rail are a right and not something that should be run for a private profit.

For our full interview with Caroline Lucas, visit our website: www.badgeronline.co.uk

Christmas Menu at Falmer Bar

One course £6.95 / Two courses £9.95 / Three courses £12.95

Starters Salmon & Prawn Terrine Served with crusty seeded bread

Warm Brie & Caramelised Onion Tartlette (v) On a bed of peppery rocket with cranberry drizzle

Spiced Butternut Soup (v/ve) Served with crusty bread

Main Courses

(All come with a Christmas cracker)

Butter Basted Turkey Breast

Served with roast potatoes, garlic carrots, Brussels sprouts, stuffing ball, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce and a rich gravy

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the badger

8 December 2014

FEATURE • 8

FEATURE Is higher education a right or a privilege?

Should university be open for everyone? Paul Millar proposes a new model of higher education that would benefit British society Paul Millar “We see education as a right.” This is the mantra of Occupy Sussex, who have launched a new spin-off from ‘Stop Privatization of Sussex University Services’.

This time, they have a new message: higher education should be free at the point of use, for everyone. Germany, as recently as October, announced the axing of its tuition fees for both national and international students.

In England, meanwhile, tuition fees are set at £9,000 per year and universities have recently taken their third batch of students under this model.

North of the border, Scottish students don’t pay for higher education either.

This will remain free for the next general election, which is funded in-part by the British taxpayer.

To add insult to injury, Scottish MPs voted to triple tuition fees down in Albion. We’ve been beaten black and blue, at least it appears. No wonder politicallyengaged students across universities, it seems, are raging.

In The Badger office on Friday afternoon, while about to pitch the idea to the newspaper’s classy Features Editor Ryan, I ponder why so few students have any will to be engaged with questioning, let alone protesting against, the coalition’s new student loan system.

I come up with some answers. In a YouTube video promoting the new campaign, a key organiser of the movement, Max O’Donnell-Savage, says: “We see it that it doesn’t matter where you come from, or what you want to do [with it] afterwards, you should have the right to spend three years of your life or more doing what you wanna do, learning what you wanna learn”.

Here, O’Donnell-Savage is directly referring to higher education, and this pitch of unlimited and free higher education – I believe – implies higher education has no intellectual barriers. Like supermarkets, anyone can go.

Downstairs in Falmer House Common Room, where Free Education is preparing some pretty banners for their upcoming campus demonstrations, I seek to see what the demonstrators have to say.

Firstly, I question O’Donnell-Savage on his double-barrelled surname. I tell him that when I first came to Sussex, I

was intrigued that those loudest in favour of free education for all tended to be rich and privately educated.

I then tell him about my perhaps flawed perception that it’s students from more fortunate backgrounds that tend to engage in this particular political movement.

I consider the fact they have more free time and they’re far more likely to receive more generous help from parents in terms of living costs in one of the most expensive areas of the country.

Students like myself who emanate from much more modest backgrounds and provincial parts of the country have to work to make ends meet.

Our parents are more likely to simultaneously encourage part-time work and question the intrinsic value of higher education than promote knowledge for the sake of knowledge.

O’Donnell-Savage nods but he then takes me aback by pointing out, “We could be getting richer”. O’Donnell-Savage tells me a lot of privileged members of the group see changing the system as a “duty”. I salute him.

I next suggest that the often reckless behaviour of the more politically-engaged Sussex student might root from their experience of private education: rebelling against their class and expounding their energy after a materiallyprivileged, much-structured and highly supervised upbringing lacking the thrilling ecstasy of raw human experience.

I’m being purposely facetious here, but I’m glad of it because now O’DonnellSavage really gets into his stride, telling me that violent protesting isn’t at all wrong.

To be honest, he might have a point.

The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t all too peaceful, but there again, I’d argue it was the peaceful elements that had the most glittering impact on shifting societal attitudes.

When my Nan was a child, she used to scrump apples from the trees of houses of next-door neighbours. In the London riots, windows were broken and trainers were stolen. I’d rather have an apple.

But it’s worth remembering the mob of London rioters also burned down buildings which had innocent people, potentially sympathetic to the movement, inside its walls.

This is like when this same Free Education group, under its former title of Occupy Sussex, broke down the windows of Sussex House, terrifying the workers inside those buildings. They lost support.

Which brings us onto my next question: what is there to support? In fact, two representatives of the Free Education movement were laughed out of Arts A1 only last month when they attempted to sabotage a lecture on drugs policy delivered by Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes who controversially voted for the tripling of tuition fees back in 2011.

This was quite the right response from the audience in my opinion: the two girls with the megaphone told us, “Norman Baker is making you pay nine-grand a year!”. The fact is, we’re not.

Contrary to the scare-mongering, the system in place represents more a graduate tax, and is much more progressive than the last system under Labour where students on lower incomes pay more back to the government coffers.

Indeed, it beggars belief how out of touch the Labour Party are to simply suggest a reduction of fees from ‘£9,000’ to ‘£6,000’, without acknowledging how unfair the ‘£3,000’ system actually was.

When Tony Blair decided to introduce tuition fees of £1,000 back in 1999, he did it under the proviso that it would increase numbers and therefore the ‘equality of opportunity’.

Like many of Blair’s policies, the purpose of meritocracy became befuddled and disorientated alongside the Thatcherite neo-liberal agenda he also pursued.

Increasing the numbers has effectively undermined, perhaps even defeated, the whole idea of the university campus as an intimate hub of intellectual enquiry funded by the state.

Education has become a private interest for the few, with the managers and the protesters jostling for control of the campus, while the rest (the vast majority) simply wander around a bit bewildered.

There were other means by which the swaggering Blair could have increased the equality of opportunity without transforming universities into corporate farms.

Indeed, Blair could’ve lifted the mask

off higher education in a different way, increasing awareness by connecting universities to schools and Sixth Form colleges (a move being belatedly carried out by today’s politicians) and encouraging the broadcasting of undergraduate seminars and presentations on BBC television and radio so parents and the wider public were also given a glimpse of the brilliance of these quasi-mysterious institutions.

Then we’d have increased the equality of access to universities while maintaining higher education as a deeply valuable cultural asset: in other words, this could’ve been egalitarianism with a purpose.

But, alas, it wasn’t. Currently, higher education bows to the fickle demands of the consumer, and does little to enrich society.

I believe, and the vast majority of students I’ve bumped into who are apathetic to the Free Education movement believe, that education is indeed a right but also a privilege. I’ve simply met too many students who shouldn’t be anywhere near a campus.

Many of the international students belong to the richest families in the developed world. They’re not only able to afford to pay tuition fees up front, but they contribute massively to the local economy: as students and tourists.

The Brighton economy would be a lot worse off without the levels of international students. The University of Sussex has a proud history of allowing access to large numbers of students from overseas, but while the government appears to view higher education as a profitable export which boosts the tourism industry, the shine has come off.

With public funding dropping, Sussex are bound to prioritise internationals over home students, creating a chasm in an experience which should be shared amongst all on campus, whether from Britain, Bulgaria or Bangladesh.

Like in Germany, intelligent and curious students from at home and abroad should come to universities free of charge. But, unlike Germany, retaining graduate tax for home students would have positively redistributive effects upon a society.

We should accept that while higher-education policy has become too

wrapped inside neo-liberalism, going back to the 1960s – though an appealing thought – would hardly suit the current economic climate. Our manufacturing base is weak and, even if measures are carried out to balance our economy, is unlikely to return to the heyday of the past.

In my system, international students who leave England shouldn’t have to pay a graduate tax. For starters, it would be extremely difficult for universities to track them down if they don’t stay in the UK. But more importantly, the success of our country should be measured on the value, not the price, of higher education.

We could judge the success of universities on the rate of international students that stay here and want to pay a graduate tax: that they felt, through a university education, they integrated into our society and want to live here forever.

For Free Education’s O’Donnell-Savage, the world should, as soon as possible, be stripped of its national borders. I believe such a vision to be premature, a distant fantasy.

For me, nation states don’t necessarily bring about wars and the problems of the EU in-part reflects the naivety of the political elite in thinking this. England should, quite rightly, put difficult intellectual goalposts in front of a university education, because the prize of an undergraduate degree is a precious and sacred reward for your endeavour, a platform for your intellectual curiosity.

At the moment, it’s neither a right nor a privilege – it’s an ever-cheapening commodity offering too many Business Management degrees to people who will end up suited devotees to vested interests rather than critics of the status quo.

When I last checked, education wasn’t about that. In the eloquent words of dashing Philosophy student, Joe Walker, a jewel in the rather mucky crown of the Free Education movement: “We as students are very new to the realm of politics, we haven’t yet had to sacrifice our ideals to what is deemed reality, and therefore as far as I see it what we have to say should be considered perhaps more important than those in positions of power.”

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the badger

8 december 2014 ARTS • 14

ARTS

Two weeks packed with treats to quench your cinematic thirst have passed and the Arts team has got the scoop on what’s what at this year’s CineCity festival

Well, everybody knows that the Birdman is the word Charel Muller

“It’s essentially (postmodern) Sirkian melodrama meets the meta-humour of 22 Jump Street meets the ambitious artist narrative from Black Swan.”

Fox Searchlight

The Colour of Pomegranates Lottie Brazier Last week was Cine City, a Brighton film festival that spanned the course of several days.

During this, I went to see the Soviet Russian avant-garde film, ‘The Colour of Pomegranates’.

Originally screened in 1968 as highly censored, the Cine City screening is a reconstructed version of Sergei Parajanov’s masterpiece in its entirety.

The film is pivoted around the life of an 18th century Armenian poet and musician, Sayat-Nova.

As an almost wordless film, this screening was fit to be accompanied by a live underscore.

Juno Reactor in part did this effectively, but did not show subtlety nor restraint in their playing during crucial moments of the film.

Instead, these moments were swamped by their overbearingly

loud drone.

However, this was the first time that the film had been screened in the UK, and so in the excitement of this, the underscore could be easily overlooked.

As an avant-garde piece, ‘The Colour of Pomegranates’ shares little in common with the Socialist Realist aesthetic cultivated by the Soviet Union.

In fact, the film itself is almost repellant of Soviet ideals.

This brought with it a criminalisation of faith, individualism, artistic and social chaos.

To be an avant-garde film director during this time, then, was not only to be a retaliation against the norm, but a dangerous act politically.

Drawing from a traditional Armenian palette of blue, white and gold hues, ‘The Colour of Pomegranates’ looks pointedly away from its Russian origins.

Set in a time and place removed from Soviet Russia’s shadow, the film has a distinctly ancient and otherworldliness to it.

This film is beautifully framed throughout, drawing on the striking costumes and intricacy of tradition-

Alejandro G. (formerly González) Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful) had the honour of opening this year’s edition of the Venice film festival with his highly anticipated fifth feature Birdman.

Since I am what Michael Keaton’s character would call a “lazy critic,” I will start my review by putting a label on it: it’s essentially (postmodern) Sirkian melodrama meets the meta-humour of 22 Jump Street meets the ambitious artist narrative from Black Swan.

The film is a convoluted but enjoyable stew of ideas, subplots and one-liners.

In the middle of all this is the former Batman Keaton as Riggan Thomson, essentially a fictionalized version of himself.

Twenty years after making his name with a successful superhero franchise, Thomson’s career on the way down.

As he admits himself, he is not much more than “the answer to a f*cking trivial pursuit question.”

When we meet him, he is about to direct and star in the Raymond Carver adaptation “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” al Armenian illustration.

Each stage of the poet’s life is captured through heavy reliance on symbolism.

This becomes a form of anchorage for the coherence of the narrative, crucial in an almost wordless film.

It is because of this though, in part that the director thought that an Armenian audience would perhaps not understand the film.

Even despite capturing the struggle of the South Caucasian people in oppression, the film was most likely intended for Russian audiences.

After all, Parajanov was arrested for the making of this film, and so clearly expressed a distinctly anti-Soviet sentiment which the authorities understood in its images of violence and oppression.

An excellent choice of screening by Cine City, this film shows its medium to be one of political subversity. Art is not something which can be chained to the state’s whims, as the Soviet would find with Parajanov.

Chaotic and symbolic, ‘The Colour of Pomegranates’ is a triumphant rejection of aesthetic as a safe, functional and useful tool of the state.

on Broadway, but preparations are anything but smooth.

First of all, Birdman is very funny and all the performances are excellent.

It’s great to see Michael Keaton, one of Hollywood’s most underused actors, back in the mainframe and able to make fun of his own image.

Zach Galifianakis is also very good playing against type as Thomson’s squeamish manager and Edward Norton is having a lot of fun antagonising everyone in the role of a pompous method actor looking for truth.

The humour is quick, witty and often rings true, especially when targeting show business, celebrity and the modern media with satirical bite.

Norton declares that “popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige” and Keaton complains about budding actors whose “only ambition is to go viral.”

It’s an enjoyable, weird romp, but I’m not sure it adds up to much more than that.

The visual style is simultaneously incredibly ambitious, technically brilliant, fascinating and a bit tedious.

Shot by Gravity cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, there are

no obvious cuts in the entire film.

The individual scenes play out in a single take and are joined together seamlessly.

Antonio Sanchez’s drum-heavy score similarly walks a fine line between brilliance and obnoxiousness.

The story meanwhile is overburdened with half-baked ideas and subplots that don’t really go anywhere.

Iñárritu can’t really decide between a character study and an ensemble piece, so he tried to do both.

The film is consequently nowhere near as deep or profound as it thinks it is, which leaves certain emptiness in the middle.

Every character is given their own set of issues, but Iñárritu doesn’t have the time to explore any of them thoroughly enough.

Emma Stone for instance plays Keaton’s damaged daughter (fresh out of rehab), who develops some sort of relationship with the Ed Norton character and that’s pretty much all she gets to do.

In the end, Birdman is an original, fun ride, but not the seminal masterpiece some people make it out to be.

I am however looking forward to the inevitable Wingman starring Val Kilmer in a couple of years’ time.

“Art is not something which can be chained to the state’s whims, as the Soviets would find with Parajanov.”

Armenfilm Studios

the badger

8 DECember 2014 ARTS • 16

LIFESTYLE

Peaking early: does the UK’s Christmas come too soon ?

Lucy Johnson November 7th: the date this year’s legendary John Lewis Christmas advert first aired on Channel Four.

13th November: Sainsbury’s’ £1 million WW1 Christmas advert appeared on twitter as a rival.

16th November: a third (really, again?) Band Aid single was promo’d on XFactor.

Can we say, for some, that Christmas comes too early?

According to BT, 63% of the public think Christmas in November is too early.

According to my flatmates, Christmas never comes early enough.

For many of us, “peaking-tooearly” Christmas syndrome is all too familiar.

I don’t know about you, but my advent calendar waits patiently in my drawer from September and it’s never the wrong time for a mince pie or a mug of hot mulled wine.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no harm in having a big build-up to the big day.

However, it’s clear by ‘The WayToo-Early Christmas Song’ that not everyone shares this view.

If the seven ways to put-down people that celebrate Christmas too early (each way involving the phrase ‘f**k off) don’t convince you, articles such as ’thirteen signs that Christmas has come too soon’ articles have been circulating since Halloween.

Memecenter Admittedly, sometimes shops can be a little eager; a poignant point made by a newspaper described Clinton Cards displaying a Christmas tree in early August this year.

Christmas starting early certainly isn’t a new thing.

In October 1912, The Daily Telegraph reached out to readers to “watch the ads in the Telegraph and act accordingly” as “you do not have

many days left in which to do your Christmas buying”.

In the 1980s, critics of this topic coined the phrase “Christmas Creep” to describe retailers sneaking in Christmas themed stock earlier and earlier “like Santa squeezing himself down the chimney”.

But does celebrating Christmas as early as October ruin the day itself?

Does the advent calendar trump

the 25th?

Truthfully, I think many of us think of Christmas day as a flawless twenty-four hours in which nothing goes wrong.

But on Christmas day, there still are family scraps over Trivial Pursuit and a LOT of stress involving no one remembering to make the mulled wine cabbage.

Note to dog owners: Labradors also eat turkeys regardless as to whether it’s the magical Christmas day.

On the other hand, there are positives to come out of the big build-up.

Firstly, it’s acceptable to watch Love Actually and Elf in late November (whilst eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine – that’s the rule, isn’t it?)

There is also a sense of social solidarity that comes with the Christmas Light Switch-on, or shopping at Debenhams in December.

Most importantly, the United Kingdom becomes a little more glittery; always a positive.

All points considered, any excuse to spend lots of money on mulled wine and present shopping (essentials, of course) seems like an ample excuse to experience Christmas early.

However, we must be cautious, for to peak-too-early is to put at risk the joy of Christmas day.

Jacob West Women could relate to the women on the show, proudly declaring “I’m a Samantha!” and “I am such a Miranda!” but for gay men like me there was a lack of identification.

The most represented queer group within Sex and the City is homosexual men, but I was still left with no character to relate to.

Sex and the City has two gay characters, Stanford Blatch and Anthony Marantino, who exist only within the context of their female friendships.

Stanford and Anthony serve as Carrie and Charlotte’s respective sassy sidekicks, offering relationship advice and bitchy quips but with no real relationships nor complexities of their own.

Stanford’s relationships are almost always non-serious, and on the rare occasion that they are central to the episodes storyline, they are used only to parallel and contrast on the heterosexual ones.

Anthony has no romantic relationships throughout the series, only sexual endeavours with strange beefy men at the gym

because, of course, gay men are all forever horny and sex-obsessed.

Also, we never see these men or endeavours as we do the girls, and only hear about them through Anthony telling a visibly grossed out Charlotte.

One of the more annoying episodes entitled “The Real Me” sees Carrie and Charlotte attempt to set up Stanford and Anthony; a condescending yet very real attitude that the only qualities and attributes needed to attract a couple is their sexuality and I’m upset that the show fell prey to this.

Sex and the City also frequently enforces heteronormativity by presenting queer characters as “freaks” in contrast to the “normal” heterosexual leading ladies.

In one episode Carrie begins to date Sean, whose defining feature is his bisexuality.

Several times it is implied that bisexuals are either greedy or indecisive (as Miranda remarks, “It’s greedy. He’s double dipping.”), or predatory and promiscuous.

But the most offensive presumption

“Stanford and Anthony serve as Carrie and Charlotte’s sassy sidekicks but with no real complexities of their own.”

Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy

Lily Cooper Ah, Poison Ivy. My favorite place to go out in Brighton.

Some of the best nights of my university life haven take place in this karaoke/gay bar situated on St James Street.

It just has all the elements of a good night out.

The interior is a fabulous shrine to kitsch: where else could piece together a disco ball, a fake Greek statue, a pole, a giant stiletto, leopard-print wallpaper and more strobes and fairy lights in a space not much bigger than an average living room ?

Exactly.

Let yourself get sucked into a world beyond good taste, and head straight for the bar, because the drinks are cheap.

And yes, that is Benidorm on the TV in the background…

Atmosphere: *****

Heterosexuality in the City: queer prejudice in SATC 1998 was, without a doubt, a golden year for everything.

It saw Monica and Brandy release the iconic track “The Boy is Mine”, Rose McGowan wear that dress to the MTV Video Music Awards and Steve Jobs introduce the first Apple iMac. 1998 also saw the pilot and subsequent first season of HBO’s Sex and the City, televisions answer to the agony aunt.

That is, an agony aunt who tells you which shoes go with this seasons Miu Miu halter tap and how to deal with a guy who can’t give good head.

Unashamedly, Carrie Bradshaw and her posse – Samantha Jones, Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbs – shared their experiences from money to men with every dirty detail and it was this rawness that made the show (almost) perfect.

Sex and the City’s imperfections however lie in its representation of queer characters; queer used in this sense as an umbrella term to refer to those characters who are neither cisgendered or heterosexual.

Where Sex and the City did so much for female characters, its representation of queer characters was often brutally offensive.

Bar of the Week

is the one voiced by Carrie who explicitly claims: “I’m not even sure bisexuality exists.”

Another loss for both queer characters and viewers in Sex and the City.

Yet for every regressive word spoken in Sex and the City, there comes a radical and progressive one.

I will always be angry at the shows representation of queer characters, and have not even began to address some of the shows most offensive moments, but I must admit that Sex and the City will always hold a place in my heart.

To its credit, the show becomes increasingly more tolerant through later seasons.

Stanford enters a committed relationship, arguably one of the most stable relationships throughout the series.

Samantha also begins a relationship with a woman, thus challenging binary definitions of sexuality.

But at the end of the day, Sex and the City was made by gays and largely for gays, and I will always be disappointed it didn’t do us more justice.

No matter how wrapped up in hot pink satin they are, prejudices will always be prejudices.

In terms of atmosphere, I’d say, bring a group of friends.

Bring some sort of recording device.

Send a friend on stage, and make sure they pick an 80s song to sing.

Enjoy the wittiness of Gloria Hole the DJ. Record said friend, and sing along.

And then head to the bar for some more chocolate-chilli shots.

Come on.

Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound like fun…

Price: £ Beyond the usual suspects found on the drinks menu, Poison Ivy boasts one of the most impressive lists of fluorescent shots I have ever seen, and they all come at £1, which is a bargain

by Brighton standards.

Choose from a weird and wonderful range, from chocolate-chilli, to violet, to toffee-apple.

Women in short glittery dresses might even offer you some directly from the bottle.

It’s that kind of place.

For the less excitable, spirits and mixers also come around the £3 mark.

In short, it will be surreal and wonderful.

And you should try it while you’re in Brighton.

the badger

8 December 2014 ARTS • 17

MERRY LIST-MAS

Say what you like, but there’s a definite buzz for lists these days and we’ve decided to feed it. Here’s the Badger Arts List-mas 2014, it’s been emosh ;-)

RAY & TOM PITCH THEIR FORKS INTO THE UNFERTILISED SOIL OF POTENTIALLY UNDERRATED LONG FORM MUSICALS

Sleaford Mods – Divide and Exit At the risk of looking like I’m going to send this list in as a job application for the Quietus, I just had to include Sleaford Mods on my end of year round up.

Sleaford Mods are pretty easy to sum up: one bloke with a couple of bass loops on his laptop and another who is very angry about the current state of politics in the UK. The latter is a bit like John Cooper Clarke on ketamine, the former like a Fall fan with a cheap sampler.

What’s not to love?

Perc – The Power and the Glory In the age of the internet, in which musical history has been condensed to a series of Spotify playlists, originality seems almost impossible. And yet music journalists, myself included, are utterly obsessed with it.

We hunt it down to a fairly ridiculous extent, hoping to hear any combination of sounds that seem strange and unfamiliar.

Alistair Wells, better known as Perc, has figured out that chasing down originality is a fool’s game.

As such, his music isn’t particularly original: he makes archetypal industrial techno.

It sounds like industrial techno, it has the correct rhythms, it’s certainly abrasive enough, and a lot of the sounds, while unpleasant, are certainly familiar.

And yet, somehow, Perc sounds like no other techno producer working today.

His music is distinctly ‘Perc-like’ – it is immediately recognisable as the work of Alistair Wells despite the fact that it snugly fits the well-established mould of the genre within which he works. His work may not be original, but he has managed to make it very clearly distinct.

Besides that impressive feat, he’s also made it very good.

Actress – Ghettoville A lot of the critical perspectives on Actress’s latest (and perhaps final) album

LOTTIE’S TOP 5 FULL SENSORY VISIONQUESTS OF 2014

kane west - western beats

point to the fact that it is a ‘difficult listen’.

Funny phrase that, isn’t it? I’m never entirely sure what it means. The length of an album could make it a hard listen – setting aside two hours for listening to music isn’t always a possibility.

The sounds themselves can often be difficult; I love abrasive noise as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just want some calming strings, y’know?

Ghettoville could be considered a difficult listen for both of those reasons.

It is quite long, and it sounds like it was ripped from a warped vinyl via a £30 USB turntable.

But it isn’t a difficult listen at all. It moves from genre to genre, from dancebut-not-dance music to Dilla inspired hiphop to warm, fuzzy soul, all seamlessly tied together by superb track sequencing and that grainy, hazy aesthetic that has become a trademark of the producer.

If Ghettoville is Darren Cunningham’s final statement as Actress, then it is also his defining one. of venue).

2. Now this gig was rather impromptu decision - Iceage had been rescheduled to play a Apiary Studios after the London-based Jabberwocky festival fell through.

Despite almost passing out from lack of air (the venue was tiny), the night had a real secretive, DIY atmosphere which made it special.

Seeing Iceage at Apiary was probably as close as one could get to experiencing punk in its first incarnation.

The Quietus 1. For me, Factory Floor were easily the live music highlight of my year.

For those unfamiliar, the band are a London-based group who focus on creating electronic sounds which hark back to the likes of 80s Mancunian ‘Factory’ label bands like New Order.

The hour performance slot felt like it was too short - I would have happily spent the entire night there (which is not something I could usually say about Coalition, their choice

3. Like Iceage, Cloud Nothings are another band with punk rock stylings.

Also excellent live, Cloud Nothings provide music that would make even the most hesitant of souls throw themselves head first into a mosh pit.

Seeing them at Sticky Mike’s was the perfect venue - not too cramped and large enough for people to pogo about a bit.

4. Seeing ESG was an insight into New York’s 80s ‘no wave’ scene - mu-

In the treasure trove of 90s pop kitsch that is PC Music, the lower case Comic Sans of kane west is the true standout.

If ‘So bad it must be good’ is PC Music’s nom de guerre, then West must be their general. Every last sound on this EP is unbearably MIDI: you’d be disgusted with yourself if you’d written it, but that’s not gonna stop the fact it’s danceable Memorials of Distinction How to Organise Your Life & Get Rid of Clutter Initially imagined as a cheaper way to record to tape, Sussex’s Josh Cohen’s micro-label has created a compilation that, through good luck and better judgement, mixes shimmering musical offerings from local artists perfectly counterbalanced with reverb-soaked advice from a 1996 self-help tape of the same name. The satanic ritual of modernity on casette.

RJ & TP sic so basic that it only relied on bass and drums (sometimes sax) for its infrastructure.

ESG’s sound in particular is influenced by the likes of James Brown and disco.

With all of their members somewhat now old in age, seeing them go from strength to strength through the course of the night was impressive.

5. Some might laugh at this particular choice.

But Franz Ferdinand are definitely a cut above their peers in that they can continue to put on a great show, despite being several years ‘out of date’ so to speak.

Adhering to their art-school origins, the set design undoubtedly was the first thing to win me over, with a monolithic Bauhaus-style clock as the centrepiece.

Nothing should be embarrassing about liking Franz - more than a nostalgia trip, these guys continue to be a good live band.

LB

HBO

5 THINGS WOT JO LIKED ON THE GOGGLEBOX The Grand Budapest Hotel This entry might be highly biased as I’m the biggest sucker for Wes Anderson’s films and style, but I genuinely think this is his most complex work yet.

Although it’s been criticised by many for being all bark and no bite, if you peel off the saccharine layers of candylike décor and the deeply embellished acting, you will find its core to be visceral and bitter and perhaps even tear-inducing.

Bojack Horseman In the realm of television, 2014’s highlight for me was the underrated gem that is Netflix’s animated series featuring washed-up sitcom horse-actor Bojack trying to dig his way out of an endless hole of booze-ridden futility.

This show really takes you by surprise as it starts out light and mildly amusing but by the second half of the season you realize you’re actually watching a full-on disheartening drama that you can’t help but relate to.

The Double The success of his film debut Sub-

marine raised the bar for Richard Ayoade’s second feature, a loose adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s psychological novella, which is perhaps why it was received with mixed reviews by critics.

Despite the stunning shots and bleak setting, I think the film requires multiple viewings in order to grasp the influences and intricacies at work, but it’s nevertheless a cinematic achievement.

Under The Skin With its compelling imagery and Scarlett Johansson’s disarming performance as a mysterious temptress, Under The Skin provides a haunting viewing experience for every sci-fi fan out there.

True Detective Boasting stellar acting from lead actors Matthew McCounaughey and Woody Harrelson, jaw-dropping intro/ visuals and a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat up until the final episode, I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed that the second season will explore another story altogether.

IM

VIKKI’S TOP 5 THINGS WOT WE ACTUALLY CALL “ARTS” With scissors in hand, he revolutionised art right up until the very end.

Daydreams and Diaries: The Story of Jacqueline Wilson Barbican The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk Famously labelled as the fashion world’s ultimate L’enfant terrible, this exhibition was a lot more than just corsets and conical bras. Divided into themes and showing a selection of his works alongside films, sketches and memorabilia, you were lucky to leave without buying something from the gift shop.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs Yes, everyone went to see this; young, old and even the ignorant. Matisse was old and bed-ridden by this point (as most of us were too, by the end).

If you happened to have passed through Bethnal Green, you might have popped into The Museum of Childhood to learn a lot more about Jacqueline Wilson than thinking she’d only written Tracy Beaker (obviously not true for most of our generation, but y’know what I mean).

Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision An exhibition which gave wonderful insight into a life often overshadowed by a tragic ending.

Horst: Photographer of Style Again and again, we get exhibitions on photographers who ‘transcend fashion and time’. This one was a rarity in that it was true VROD

the badger

8 December 2014 Arts •18

Arts

Editor’s Picks

Arts Editor Thomas Powell shares his tips on the week ahead in culture ART

Larry

One Eyed Jacks Until December 23rd Free After a sensual and emotive summer exhibition of Lynchian noir, this small gallery on York Place continues to showcase unseen Americana with the work of French American Larry Niehues, whose photographs of cowboys, vacant lots, Chevys and Elvis impersonators reek of lost glory.

F*ck Buttons

Larry Niehues

Music Godflesh The Haunt Tuesday 9th December, 7pm £15 I am not an enthusiast of metal music. I have seen Metallica in concert. I have heard of Iron Maiden, Opeth and Trivium. I am aware that Kerrang is a rock magazine, while Metal Hammer, well, speaks for itself. I do, however appreciate the genre’s offshoots, mutations and synthesises. Sunn O))) and Ulver have educated me in drone metal, and I thank them for it. On the other hand, there is Godflesh, whose amalgamation of metal and electronic body music has created and cultivated an appetising mixture of Throbbing Gristle’s industrial stylings, Enoesque experimentation and Black Sabbath’s, for want of a better word, heaviness. In truth, Godflesh’s experimentation and legacy (see Jesu and Dälek for more) to me has refreshed an angry,

hackneyed and sometimes tired genre, giving life and breath, however dark it sounds. For me, Godflesh sound like metal grown up. They are anger channelled into something productive and mature, and that’s why I think you should check them out at The Haunt this Tuesday.

The Centre for Creative and Critical Thought present a guest talk from Ali Smith, author of The Accidental, Artful and How to be Both, as well as 2015’s Brighton Festival curator. This is well worth a listen for anyone with an interest in contemporary fiction or creative writing.

Brighton Digital Festival

Ali Smith

Literature Hi Zero #30 Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar Monday 15th December £3 Hi Zero celebrates thirty readings with its biggest event to date.

There will new poetry read by sixteen Brighton poets, including Sussex’s own Keston Sutherland and Hi Zero’s curator Joe Luna.

Hi Zero Warner Bros.

FILM Blade Runner: The Final Cut Duke of York’s Sunday 14th December, 5pm

Godflesh

MUSIC Sarah Nicolls: Moments of Weightlessness Corn Exchange Wednesday 10th December, 8pm £5 As much a visual spectacle as a performance music piece, Earsthetic’s artist in residence, Sarah Nicolls, will bring her monolithic inside-out piano to the Corn Exchange on Wednesday, exploring the weightless feeling of motherhood through her poignant, but nonetheless revisionist and experimental piano playing.

Literature Ali Smith on Artful and How to be Both Pevensey Creativity Zone Tuesday 9th December, 11-1 Free

Earsthetic

We’re less than five years away from seeing if Blade Runner’s prophecy is going to be true. With this full length, unedited edition of the movie due for general release next spring, it’s worth reminding yourself that it’s all just fiction. See it as director Ridley Scott intended you to for one night only at Duke of York’s.

CLUB Warehouse x AAR! x RJ: Marquis Hawkes, Max Graef, Lorca & Mehtola Audio Saturday 13th December, 11pm £6 Expect house, techno, disco and all things on the soulful side on this night coordinated by Brighton stalwarts Warehouse, AkaAkaroar! and Rhythm Junction. Dual headliners Hawkes and Graef are some seriously fiery upstarts, and Lorca and Mehtola will provide great support.

watch, write, review

CLUB Hot Wuk Concorde 2 Friday 12th December £8

Get involved in the Arts team by joining us at our writers meetings or searching on Facebook for

No beginning, middle or (in this case) end of term is quite right without Concorde 2 and The Heatwave’s Hot Wuk. They’ll bring the bashment and dancehall. All you need to do is sort out yourself with the drinks, we recommend liberal amounts of rum and Red Stripe.

Badger Writers

Max Graef

THE

BADGER

the badger

8 DECEMBER 2014

Careers and Employability• 23

CAREERS & EMPLOYABILITY CENTRE

Christmas Holidays – T’is the season to start thinking about Jobs, Internships and Careers!

Beatriz Lacerda Ratton Student Writer With the first term of the year coming to an end, chances are that you’re looking forward to a well-deserved break and time to relax with your family.

Whilst it is essential to engage in merry making activities, the Christmas break also provides an opportune time to build up your CV in preparation for the upcoming new year. By starting to plan ahead, you can organise work experience or a summer job so that next year you don’t find yourself without money or ideas…. and with a very short CV!.

Luckily for you the Careers and Employability Centre is here to help students looking to do just that with these helpful tips: Apply for Summer Internships First and second years can start thinking about building up their CVs and skills by applying for summer internships or vacation jobs - many of which have deadlines coming up. As well as being a great way to gain experience in an industry, success in internships may result in a future graduate job.

Employers from every sector have summer programmes which can last from a week to several months. There are opportunities for students from all degree programmes. For example, the CEC recently held an event about the opportunities to work in the National Citizen Programme during the summer, a three week scheme to engage in activities with young people. For those who missed the event, visit: www. thencschallenge.org for more information. Other opportunities currently advertised, include internships with Transport for London, L’Oreal UK, National Grid and Dyson. Also, bear in mind that many smaller employers will advertise opportunities nearer to the summer, or some will never advertise, so it could be a case of applying speculatively with your CV! Check out the 80 jobs currently on offer at CEC’s website.

Tick The Boxes Students in their final year hoping to secure graduate employment should start thinking about applying soon in order to get the job they want. If you don’t have a clear idea of the career

path you’d like to take, a good way to make those initial steps is to complete one of the self-assessment checklists and questionnaires on the CEC website. These questionnaires are designed to define what’s important to you in work by looking through your values, interests and skills developed at Sussex.

Apply for Graduate Schemes Third-year students can start applying for graduate schemes from September 2014. It is important to familiarise yourself with the what’s on offer because some employers, like Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Whitbread and Allen & Overy, are looking to recruit now with impending deadlines.

Others have on-going deadlines, so students are advised to start preparing those applications now just in case you are busy with University work when you return after Christmas. The CEC has a useful calendar with all the deadlines of the different firms, as well as links to each application. There are also over 271 graduate jobs on the database of the CEC website, so why not take a look today!

Christmas holidays are the best time of the year to relax, so make sure you do.

However, if you want to think about your career, why not take a few hours off to apply to something that may make you stand out to your future employer..

Need some advice with applying or ideas?

You can call into the Careers & Employability Centre in the Library to see a Careers Adviser daily for a drop in from 11 – 1 pm, or call them on 01273 678429 for an appointment. During term-time there are lots of useful group events on CV writing/application forms etc.

Check out the events listing at www. sussex.ac.uk/careers/events

A few events to finish the term: Working in the UK after your Studies – Visa and Immigration Talk, Wednesday 10 December, 1 pm, Arts A1 Teach First Drop in – recruiting 2,060 for their graduate scheme! All discipines!, Wednesday 10 December, 11 – 2 pm, drop in Library Cafe Essay-writing and references Q&A drop in, Wednesday 10 December, 3 – 4 pm, CEC, Library

For more information, please visit: www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/gettingexperience/summerinternships www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/careerchoices/interests www.sussex.ac.uk/careers/jobs/graduateschemes

Library, University of Sussex T: 01273 679429 E: careers@sussex.ac.uk W: www.sussex.ac.uk/careers

Chri at the

Uni

SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER 8.30PM

WEDNESDAY 10TH DECEMBER

EAST SLOPE BAR

FALMER BAR

CRIMBO COMBO

‘THE BIG FAT QUIZ OF THE YEAR’

FRIDAY 12TH DECEMBER 6PM-2AM

Christmas food and drink deals all night long!

2014’s contribution to music, news and everything! £1 entry pp. Teams of 6 or more get a free plate of nachos, with great Christmas prizes and giveaways!

Christmas

EAST SLOPE BAR

FESTIVE FRIDAY!

With bands and societies filling the bar with festive cheer. Christmas themed food and drink deals

at the Students’ Union Bars WARM YOUR COCKLES WITH A CHEEKY SHOT OF SOMETHING YOU FANCY IN YOUR COFFEE OR HOT CHOCOLATE (for an extra £1.50) FESTIVE NIPS ARE : BAILEYS, DISARONNO, TUACA, CAPTAIN MORGAN, TRIPLE SEC & BELLS

the badger

8 deCember 2014 Arts •24

LISTINGS

Tuesday 9th

Monday 8th B.U.R.F.

B.U.R.F.

10am-11am

10am-11am

Hosted by Nick Werren & Paul Millar

Hosted by Hannah & Alex

Scumbag College

The Burrito Show

11am-12pm

11am-12pm

Hosted by Lottie Brazier

Hosted by Nick Stewart

An Afternoon with Charles and James - 12-1pm Hosted by Charlie Wall

SUDS Soapbox 12-2pm

Hosted by Paige Smith

Live It Live

Hosted by Ellie Holland

The Lie-In Show

Magazine & Wine Party

Hosted by Holly Hagan Walker

Hosted by Em Chittock

12am-1pm

The Tom Jenkinson Hour 3-4pm

The Nick Werren Show

Sam and Harry’s Existential Crisis - 4-5pm

12-1pm

Everyday Desert Island Discs

Hosted by Paddy Osmond

Hosted by Alex Mason

Sian’s Pic N Mix

The Magical Music Tour 4-5pm

5-6pm

4-5pm

Hosted by Thomas Houlton

Hosted by Jack Jewers

The Electric Hour

Anorak Ashtray 6-7pm

Hosted by Joseph Oliver

The Everything Hour 7-8pm

Hosted by Lewis Cockle

Cult of the Black Pudding 8-9pm

1-2pm

2-4pm

Hosted by Sian Williams

Holly CA-60 Show 4-5pm

2-3pm

The Musings of Gareth Mangan 3-4pm

Hosted by Sebastian Tiley

The World Show

Retrofit

2-3pm 5-6pm

The Green Frog Show

Hosted by Callum Sellins

Hosted by Matthew Locke-Cooper

Decadent Groove

7-8pm

Hosted by Adam Whitmore

6-7pm

Tangled Roots

Hosted by Harry Reddick

The Mo-mentous Show 6-7pm

8-9pm

Hosted by Elana Crowley

Paul’s Politics

Hosted by Chloe Mo

7-8pm

Tropical Hot Dog Night 7-8pm

Hosted by Paul Millar

Munch FM

Stone’s Throw

Hosted by Rory Hughes

9-10pm

Hosted by Benji Kusi

Hosted by Beau O’Shea

Gardeners’ Hour

Californication

Night Falls

The Sports Show

Hosted by Tiago Franco

Hosted by Morrow and Jackson

9-10pm

9-10pm

Hosted by Priyanka Vigneswaran

Mole

Time out with Jay

Hosted by Holly Cassidy

5-6pm

Hosted by Sam Berkay

6-7pm

Hosted by Thomas Powell and Raymond Jennings

Hosted by Sam Hislop and Bruno Riddy

2-3pm

1-2pm

Broken Old 45’s

7-8pm

1-2pm

Hosted by John McKenna-Hughes

Hosted by Akintunde Akinsowon

Alphabet Soup

The B/C Sandwich

Earlier With Ellie Holland

The Paddy Hour

Hosted by Anna Sudnitcyna

6-7pm

11am-12pm

Hosted by Alice Finney

Hosted by James Blay

Hosted by Anna Sudnitcyna

Hosted by Jake Wade Davis

The URF Review Show

Hosted by Nick Werren & Sian Williams

Jeremiah’s Urban Central

2-3pm

3-4pm

Girl’s Talk

12-1pm

Hosted by John McKenna-Hughes

Hosted by Francesca Powell

Hosted by Jonny Meah

Hosted by Benjy Kusi

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hour

10am-11am

Little Al’s Big Show

3-4pm

5-6pm

Hosted by Nick Werren & Paul Millar

B.U.R.F.

B.U.R.F. 10am-11am

Hosted by Holly Hagan-Walker

2-3pm

The URF News Show

B.U.R.F. 10am-11am

Friday 12th

Thursday 11th

Afternoon Alternative

Paige with Guests 1-2pm

Wednesday 10th

8-9pm

Hosted by Sam Siva

9-10pm

9-10pm

This Week on UniTV: Monday Music Sessions Wednesday NewsHit Thursday Science Uncovered Friday Getting Crafty Society Spotlight Also check the site on Thursday for Throwback; where we repost an old show for you to watch every week!

Read, Write and Get Involved:

Make sure you have a look at our website at www.unitvlive.com (or search for us on Facebook!) for more details about how to meet, watch, write, pitch, produce, film, act and get involved with all things UniTV!

www.badgeronline.co.uk @thebadgernews facebook.com/thebadger.ussu

THE

BADGER

YES

NO

The report produced by the National Union of Students (NUS) states:

The NUS report mentions comments from their research about aspects of the current President role that are beneficial (p8-10):

“Across the interviews, stakeholders were keen that the full time officer roles should operate under a flat structure. As already mentioned, there is a perceived hierarchy and at the top of the pyramid is the position of President.

Although perceived by some stakeholders as something that the university appreciates, it was not regarded requisite by all union contributors.” (p10)

• Having a clear organisational spokesperson

“Some stakeholders believed that the term actually contributed to the hierarchy and this may be something that the students’ union wishes to address in any changes to current systems. (p10)

“The link that a students’ union has with its parent institution is crucial in being able to achieve positive change for its members. It is important to consider these relationships in any changes, but also to arrive at a point that works in the interests of the beneficiaries of the students’ union as well as providing structures that are understood and recognised by all stakeholder groups.” (p9)

“Given that in the last ten years, the position of President at the University of Sussex Students’ Union has been held only three times by a woman, it may also be understood that there is a gender bias attached to the position. It should also be noted that of the last nine candidates standing for President in the last two years at University of Sussex Students’ Union only two have been women; this is in contrast to the Welfare Officer position all six of whom have been women. This may be due to the title but also the hierarchy of the structure and wider perception of the role.” (p10) “If the desire is to maintain the roles and functions of the current President position, then an alternative title used across the student movement is Union Affairs Officer.

Given that there is a University Chair it may be that the students’ union chooses to mirror this in the guise of ‘Union Chair’ as it may be argued that this is far less gendered term and fosters more inclusive values, particularly of a non-hierarchical system.” (p11) - This argument was provided by the Students’ Union as a no argument supporting the proposal was submitted

• Sitting on University committees to represent students’ views • Developing relationships with key University contacts The idea of the President being the main link with the University is expanded on in the report:

The report points out that 8 out of 10 Students’ Union’s in the former 1994 Group (a group of universities similar to Sussex) have a President (p14) “Stakeholder feedback has clearly articulated that the idea of removing the President position, although deeply felt by some, is not currently widely felt.” (p18) - This argument was provided by the Students’ Union as a no argument opposing the proposal that was submitted by students

Should the Students’ Union adopt the proposed structure for the Full-time Officer and Part-time Officer roles?

This referendum was called by the Students’ Union to change the Union’s articles of association (more commonly known as the constitution).

Background The National Union of Students (NUS) were asked by Sussex Students’ Union officers to carry out a review of the structure of the Full-time and Part-time Officer roles to ensure they most effectively represent Sussex and BSMS students.

Their report was based on research carried out with students via a survey and focus groups as well as focus groups of Union officers, former officers, Union staff and University staff.

The report recommended a revised structure for the Full-time and Part-time Officer roles the principal features of which are: • the removal of the Operations Officer and Communications Officer role as these are largely administrative. The work of these roles can be largely carried out by staff and their representative duties carried out by other officers.

• the division of the current Education Officer role in two - Postgraduate Education Officer and Undergraduate Education Officer • the division of the current Welfare Officer role in two - Welfare Officer and Society & Citizenship Officer • the removal of the existing Part-time Officer roles - Community Engagement Officer, Media Development Officer, Equality & Diversity Officer and Ethical & Environmental Officer - with their responsibilities distributed amongst the Full-time Officer roles • the creation of four new Part-time Officer roles - Black Students’ Officer, Disabled Students’ Officer, LGBTQ Students’ Officer and Women Students’ Officer. The current Representative Officer roles for these groups would be removed but the other Representative Officer roles would remain the same You can read the full report from NUS and more about these roles at www.sussexstudent.com/referenda This information was produced by the Students’ Union.

vote online at: www.sussexstudent.com/vote

YES From the NUS report: “ There is clear support for the roles of the Education and Welfare Officers. There is also a strong feeling amongst respondents that Equality and Social Justice are important responsibilities of FTOs [Full-time Officers]. The support for liberation campaigns is overwhelming. Again the role of the Operations officer is challenged by the extent to which respondents felt that the FTOs roles should include responsibility for Bars, Shops and Venues.” (p3-4) “Based on responsibilities and stakeholder feedback, the roles of Operations Officer and Communications Officer should be removed as they do not consistently demonstrate enough of a representative function and could largely be administered by students’ union staff members.” (p18) “It was widely considered that the Activities Officer role should remain, but it should consider protecting the representative functions in the description to prevent elected officers performing administrative tasks.” (p18) “Given the huge remit outlined within the report, it should be considered that the Education Officer be split into two representative areas: Postgraduate Education Officer and Undergraduate Education Officer. This would allow Postgraduates greater representation while also reducing the pressure on the current Education Officer position to effectively represent students and develop areas of work with the university.” (p18) “It was identified that Welfare representation was key to the purpose of the students’ union. It was also suggested that in its current format, the responsibility field is vast and endangers the effectiveness of the role. As such, it would be sensible for the students’ union to look at redressing this imbalance. Given that welfare/wellbeing, community, transport and housing/accommodation were highly featured in the importance of responsibilities for full time officers it would be advisable that the officer remit was split to reflect this. The two new roles could be known as Society & Citizenship Officer or Communities Officer and Welfare/ Wellbeing Officer. A community/citizenship officer could also take responsibility for the environmental and social justice agenda.” (p18) “All stakeholder groups recognised that representation of liberation and minority groups was not currently prioritised by the current structures. Particularly, it was highly notable that BME students were incredibly marginalised.” (p13)

NO The proposed changes to the Full-time and Part-time Officers would be detrimental to the accountability, transparency and democratic nature of Students’ Union if enforced.

The abolition of both Operations Officer and Communications Officer will have serious negative implications for the future of the Students’ Union. Under the proposed reform, important decisions and responsibilities, including overseeing Union finances, will be handed over to people who are unelected, unaccountable and unrepresentative of students. Union staff, who will take on the responsibilities, would suffer from a greater workload but without greater pay in return. The Union would, as a result, become less democratic and accountable.

As well as this, scrapping all Part-time Officers will only serve to reduce the Union’s voice on important issues, including the environment and community engagement. If these roles are axed, there is no guarantee that important subjects will get the attention they deserve. In the NUS report, where the planned reforms originated, current Full-Time officers admitted they were ‘overworked’, yet they would inherit the roles of Part-time Officers. Can full-time officers assure students that they can manage these added responsibilities effectively if they struggle with their current commitments?

Student media will also face adversity, as scrapping both the Communications Officer and Media Development Officer will result in a lack of support for the various branches of student media. Having no clear role representing student media will result in its neglect, especially when it comes to assigning money for the different platforms and encouraging cooperation between all three mediums.

Although the introduction of ‘Liberation Officers’ is welcomed, it should not neglect groups such as international students.

International students in particular also face hardship, whether it be from xenophobia or from issues arising from increased tuition fees.

What is particularly unfair about this referendum is how the question has been put to students. Putting all the radical changes in one vote pressurises students to either support all the drastic changes or reject them in full. This goes against promises made by one Full-time Officer, who pledged that ‘there should be at least two different new options’ for students to vote on.

The current structure is not perfect. However, it is clear that it cannot be fixed by implementing flawed reform in its place.

Voting no is not necessarily a vote for the status quo, but a vote for a reasonable, considered change carried out in a democratic manner.

“63% of Black respondents and 43% of LGB respondents agreed that in order to feel represented their representative needs to appear to share similar characteristics such as race or gender.” (p3)

- This argument was provided by the Students’ Union as a no argument supporting the proposal was submitted

- This argument was submitted by students