www.thegryphon.co.uk @_TheGr yphon Issue 4 21/10/16
The official newspaper of Leeds University
Thousands of pounds worth of damage at this year’s Varsity Seats broken and toilets trashed Page 3
Androgyny in Fashion Is fashion leading the way in gender fluidity? In The Middle page 10-11
Image: Viola Luo
Library Resources Under Threat
Frank Ocean: the noble outsider The Gryphon’s feature sheds light on the genius of Hip Hop’s supreme misfit Page 14
Some departments could lose access to up to 86% of journals Jessica Murray Editor-in-Chief A university bid to cut £120,000 from the library budget has led many online periodical subscriptions to come under threat. Subscriptions to periodicals are one of the library’s biggest expenditures, and many subscriptions are due to be scrapped under the new spending review, with many more requiring Schools to justify their usage to be
saved. The library are basing their decisions on the amount of usage each subscription receives per year, and thus the cost per head this amounts to. However, academics and school reps are concerned that many of these decisions are based on insufficient or non-existent data, and that while certain periodicals may go through periods of being dormant, having access to them attracts many
PhD students and academics to the University, and thus increases funding. One example that has been cited by the School of History is the journals of Byzantine studies, which although inactive in 2012, have since attracted one the largest concentrations of Byzantine historians in the UK. In the School of History, 78% of journals are under threat; with 22 marked to be axed and 102 under review, with academics being asked to
justify their use. In the School of Languages, 79% of journals are under threat, in the School of Design 86% and in the School of English 68%. A large number of these under threat journals have no recorded data usage for the past three years. Many are angry at the proposed cuts, especially in light of the University of Leeds being named University of the Year 2017 by The Times, large spending Read more on page 3