Issue 193

THE SAINT

ISSUE 193 • FREE 23 April 2015 thesaint-online.com

The independent voice of St Andrews students since 1997

Viewpoint James Leech writes home upon his discovery of alcohol Page 16

Photo: Yelim Lee

Arts & Culture Local playwright Zinnie Harris sits down with The Saint to discuss her past successes and future plans

General Election Hustings 2015 took place at the Byre Theatre on 20 April. Be sure to read pages 8-11 for special election coverage and check online for video interviews with the candidates

Members of the University Court are “appalled” by student housing

Page 35

Features

Living conditions of private accommodation and landlord attitudes alarm officials Rachael Miller News editor A mice infestation and a collapsed roof were among the terrible conditions witness by members of the University Court during a tour of sub-standard private student housing last week.

Pat Mathewson, president of the Students’ Association, led the tour in conjunction with the Students’ Association accommodation team, as part of their efforts to stir the Court into action on building more University owned accommodation.

10 Court members were escorted around student flats in various states of dilapidation.

Other issues seen on the tour included sloping floors, animal droppings, damp, inadequate lighting in alleyways and “plenty of mould” ac-

cording to Mr Mathewson.

10 students volunteered their flats, though the tour only encompassed four due to time constraints.

However, many students who would like to have taken part were put off by the fear of their landlords finding out, perhaps resulting in the relatively small amount of participation.

One student told The Saint: “We considered getting involved with it, since our house looks and feels like a recreation of the blitz right now, but we decided that we didn’t want to risk annoying our letting agents and end up stonewalled.”

Another commented, “I was too afraid of any repercussions that may have resulted from it from my landlord since I can’t afford to live anywhere else.”

As a result of the small number of

flats included in the tour, Alex Ciric from the accommodation team told The Saint that they are compiling a portfolio of photos, exhibiting the damage in a number of other student flats. This will be released to Court members soon.

Catherine Stihler, rector of the University, took part in the tour. She said: “The tour illustrated the dreadful neglect afflicted on many students by private landlords. No one should live in a mice infested, damp flat where the landlord takes no responsibility. What was striking about the visit was the shockingly poor service letting agencies provide their tenants. St Andrews students deserve better.

“More action is required to put their poor practices in order before they will be forced to act when the Scottish Parliament will legislate on

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the private rented sector in Scotland.”

The tour was advertised by the accommodation team on Facebook and Mr Mathewson told The Saint that “students from across the University rose to support the project, volunteering their time and support or encouraging their friends to do so. And for many this was quite a bold move, risking retribution from their landlords in order to help improve the experience for fellow and future students.”

Niall Scott, senior communications officer for the University, spoke to The Saint on behalf of the Court members.

He said: “The tour was very constructive and instructive - our Court members were grateful for the opportunity to visit a number of private flats in town and talk to students about the difficulties they can face holding landContinued on page 5

For all student enquiries call: 0115 855 9670 Find us online at: www.derwentstudents.com/eastshore Email us: eastshore@derwentstudents.com

The story of how St Andrews blazed trails in international and American recruitment Pages 21-22

Sport The Saint reports on the Typhoon’s annual Jonny Wookey memorial match in Dundee Page 40

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Inside the paper

Analysed: what the results of the student experience survey tell us

The 2015 Frank Muir prize-winners for comic writing Features, Page 22 Money

Viewpoint

Find out the best places to go for coffee during revision weeks

One hardy student’s report on the ultra dedicated side of May Ball ticket sales

Page 18

Page 12

Photography

Arts & Culture

Daniil Lapko captures St Andrews’ beautiful architecture in a photo story Page 25

The arts prove successful as a way to support those with mental illnesses Page 30

Catriona Penny The University has fallen two places in the annual Times Higher Education (THE) Student Experience Survey, released on 9 April.

With a total score of 79.6 out of a possible 100, St Andrews came 18th overall in the UK. The survey looks at 21 aspects of university life and asks students to rate each of them on a scale of 0 to 7. Regarding the methodology, THE explain that “each attribute was assigned a weighting reflecting its importance within the overall student experience” and the data was condensed into a “scale of 1 to 100.”

This final score out of 100 produced the ranking for the universities.

St Andrews did consistently well across many of the categories, only receiving a score under five in one, namely the availability of cheap shops, bars and other amenities.

With a score of 4.7 this result seems to reflect the higher prices of amenities in St Andrews.

The categories which the University excelled at were predominantly those that were based in academia. These included a score of 6.1 for both the quality of staff and lectures and whether staff were helpful or interested. This placed the University fifth overall in this category. Similarly, the category for well-structured courses achieved a six, as did high-quality facilities.

23 April 2015 • The Saint

The library also scored well achieving a 5.9 for its facilities and opening hours, as did the category for centralised and convenient facilities.

Asked whether they found the workload fair, the response from students was not so positive with a score of only 5.6.

Additionally, St Andrews performed well in the societal aspects of university life. It attained its highest score of 6.2 in three categories including good extracurricular activities and societies, good environment on campus and good community atmosphere in which it came fourth across the United Kingdom.

One of the more disappointing results, particularly given the large amount spent on its recent renovation, was the students’ experience of the Union, which was given just a 5.1.

Reflecting the annual plight of students searching for somewhere to live, the University received a 5.5 in the category of good accommodation.

The category of good sports facilities similarly achieved a low result, with a score of 5.4. Undoubtedly the University will be hoping for a better result next year given the extensive construction that the sports centre is currently undergoing. Students also felt that the University lacked good industry connections, which only rated as a five, the University’s second lowest score.

However, St Andrews scored well

in the category which is seen as most indicative of the students’ experience of a University; whether or not they would recommend it to their friends, where they were awarded a 6.2.

18th

Ranking in UK for student experience

79.6

Score out of a possible 100

5.1

Out of 7 for Union experience

6.2

Out of 7 for community spirit

Editorial board Editor Jonathan Bucks editor@thesaint-online.com Deputy editor (print) Mina Omar print@thesaint-online.com Deputy editor (online) Jacob Williams web@thesaint-online.com Video editor Alex Miller video@thesaint-online.com Illustration chief Milan Cater illustration@thesaint-online.com Business manager Ben Hook business@thesaint-online.com Business team Kim Kay, Thomas Quarton advertising@thesaint-online.com

Editorial

Court sees accommodation A political master stroke

T

he number of column inches this newspaper has devoted to St Andrews’ accommodation woes, you would be forgiven for thinking there was nothing else to report.

Indeed, most other news pales in comparison next to visions of panic-stricken students queuing along Bell Street to visit a flat, or tenants falling prey to fraudsters masquerading as landlords and being cheated out of thousands of pounds The latest tale comes courtesy of the University Court, whose tour of sub-standard private accommodation uncovered mice infestations, a collapsed roof and sloping floors.

The conditions in which many students are forced to live are deplorable.

The contempt shown by a long litany of landlords for their tenants is despicable, but dismally familiar. What really sticks in the craw, however, as The Saint reports today, is the repercussions students fear if their landlords discover they have complained.

In fact, only 10 students volunteered their flats for the tour and “time constraints” whittled that number down to four, certainly not presenting a picture of the town’s accommodation problems.

One student compared his house to the blitz but was wary of being “stonewalled” while another, unable to pay for anywhere more expensive, quite literally couldn’t afford to anger his landlord.

Association president, Pat Mathewson, lavished praise on the “bold” students who were speaking out and risking “retribution.”

However, blowing the whistle on your landlord’s malpractice should neither have to be bold, nor result in retribution.

The University’s senior governor, Ewan Brown, has since asked that the Students’ Association to bring proposals to the next Court meeting on how to tackle the private accommodation issues. The Saint looks forward to seeing what they plan to do.

P

ity Chris MacRae, the director of events and services elect who two months ago was the toast of the Students’ Association and is now barred from working in the very Union he will soon be filling with the likes of Pink Floyd, if his interview with The Saint is anything to go by.

Mr MacRae’s DJing outfit, NELFUN, has fallen foul of the Union’s drinkand-DJ policy and he and his partner in crime, Cameron Bell, have been shown the door. “Here lies the end of the road for NELFUN as we’ve been fired from the Union for the same drunken antics that got us where we are today,” the pair announced on Facebook last week.

Aside from the irony of Mr MacRae’s defrocking as resident DJ just months before he takes over from Leon O’Rourke, the debacle has highlighted the shortcomings of the Union’s rules on DJs who like their tipple.

“Apparently there has always been a no drinking rule for DJs,” Mr Cameron said, who has been flouting the rules

with impunity since NELFUN’s inception in 2012. Indeed, it turns out that another act, ‘Tallent and Droscher’, had their drinks subsidised when they performed.

But the clarity of the rules is just the start of it. Mr Cameron attests to being called on a night out and told to come and DJ with half an hour’s notice. On one occasion NELFUN were at work behind the bar and were forced to take to the decks because of an absent DJ. However, Mr MacRae has performed a political master stroke, turning the fall from grace into a PR coup. He has vowed to enact a policy to clear up the confusion and ensure DJs sign contracts before they play.

It is likely that DJs will now have to put down the bottle before their performance starts, but Mr MacRae was pointed out to that he and Mr Cameron performed better with a drink in hand.

The Saint couldn’t possibility speculate on whether the same could be said of his audience’s listening pleasure.

The Saint is an entirely independent newspaper, run by students of the University of St Andrews. It is published fortnightly during term time and is free of charge. The Saint is not affiliated with the University or the Students’ Association. The text, graphics and photographs are under copyright of The Saint and its individual contributors. No parts of this newspaper may be reproduced without prior permission of the editor.

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Chris MacRae suspended from working in Union after NELFUN breach of drink policy Rachael Miller News editor Chris MacRae, director of events and services elect, has been suspended from working in the Union either as a DJ or behind the bar.

This action was taken at a disciplinary meeting following an incident which involved breaking Union rules on drinking alcohol whilst DJing.

Mr MacRae, who is part of DJ duo NELFUN with friend Cameron Bell, explained what happened to The Saint. He said that the pair did not have a contract for DJing with the Union, although he does have a Union contract as a member of the bar staff.

Mr Bell told The Saint: “We were not technically fired from DJing since we did not have a contract, we were politely asked not to come back.”

Mr MacRae said that on every previous occasion, they had been allowed to drink whilst DJing as long as it was not near the equipment and was not to excess. However, on Wednesday 8 April, a message was passed down from senior management that they were not to drink at all. Each had one beer, he said, but stopped after this following warnings.

Mr MacRae stated that he did not drink after this, but that Mr Bell went

to the bar with a friend. He was then banned from returning to the decks and Mr MacRae continued alone.

Having had quite a lot to drink, however, Mr Bell came back to attempt to DJ. His intoxication led to mistakes

Working for the Union for the last 18 months I have come expect this lack of organisation and consistency being made and the music cutting out, bringing the pair to the attention of management. Having ignored their warnings, they were called in for disciplinary actions.

Although he himself did not continue to drink, Mr MacRae said that it was “a stupid mistake” to let Mr Bell

come back to the decks. Mr Bell admitted that he had deliberately drunk more because he had been told not to.

Mr Bell said: “I think the rules should have been clearer. Apparently there has always been a no drinking rule for DJs but a previous DJ duo ‘Tallent and Droscher’ had their drinks subsidised by the bar. A DJ contract would definitely clear up any confusion.

“Additionally, on several occasions we were asked to come in and DJ with less than 30 minutes of notice (due to miscommunications), sometimes when we were already on nights out. Once, when [Mr MacRae] and I were working behind the bar the arranged DJ never showed up and we had to step in and cover. When he finally showed up two hours late (drunk and smelling of weed) we were asked to step down.

“We never got paid for the DJing or the bar work that night. So if our bosses aren’t professional with us, how can they expect us to be? But from working for the Union for the last 18 months I have come to expect this lack of organisation and consistency.”

Mr MaCrae is confident that this will not

impact upon him taking up the role of DoES. He stated that when in the job, he would make sure DJ contracts are introduced.

Mr Bell thinks that DJs should be allowed to drink, stating that this is the norm in most other establishments and that, “I don’t know why the Union should be any different.”

“I must emphasise that it has to be in moderation,” he continued, “as you are working with expensive equipment and like any job must be professional.”

Mr MacRae also noted that the fact they had been allowed to drink had improved their DJing in the past, making them more involved in the atmosphere.

The pair were the resident DJs for Sinners and were then asked to DJ every

Wednesday night. This incident occurred at their first non-Sinners event and Mr MacRae speculated that perhaps they were under Athletic Union rules whilst DJing Sinners and this is what caused the sudden change in policy.

Though they had to cancel their gig at the Union the following Wednesday, they were still allowed to DJ at Big Top Ball which is a Union run event.

A final decision on their suspension will be made when the Union’s general manager David Whitton returns from holiday.

The Union’s human resources staff member who deals with disciplinary action, Iain Cupples, declined to comment.

Photo credit: Yelim Lee

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Students on leave of absence granted votes in Union elections

Clinton fund gives new student charity a head start

Joseph Cassidy Deputy news editor The Students’ Association has approved a proposal to affirm the voting rights of students who are on a leave of absence.

Currently, the Association’s rules do not stipulate whether or not students on a leave of absence have the right to vote and stand in elections for student officers and the issue is handled year-on-year by the elections committee.

The proposal, which was passed unanimously by both the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and Student Services Council (SSC) resolves to allow all students on a leave of absence to campaign in Students’ Association elections and allow all those students who are expected to return at the start of the next semester to vote and stand in those elections.

The motion passed with no objections, though some student officers questioned how the policy would be fully implemented. For example, some asked how it would affect students who do not confirm with the University that they are returning for the next semester until elections have already begun.

Speaking at a meeting of the SSC on 14 April Pat Mathewson, president of the Students Association, said that the Association should take the proposal as an opportunity to discuss how best to support those students returning from a leave of absence who wish to campaign and take up a role.

He raised the issue of whether “enabling them to run poses any personal risk” to those who may suffer from health problems relating to stress and workload.

The motion also aims to “encourage Sabbatical Officers and staff in the Students’ Association to provide appropriate support to all candidates in the Students’ Association Elections.”

How the University handles and supports students who take a leave of absence was one of the most prominent issues during the recent Students’ Association Elections.

Many candidates proposed measures to make the University more effective at dealing with the problems of students who take a leave of absence, including establishing peer groups to make students feel more included and provide extra mental health training for students who have contact with a large proportion of the student population.

Kim Kay Deputy news editor Two determined St Andrews students have formed a charity to help the people of Sierra Leone. They aim to help combat the often overlooked consequences of the economic backlash caused by the ebola crisis.

In November 2014, Emma Middleton and Marlene Paradee applied to the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU). The initiative, which is run by the Clintons, allows students from any member university – including St Andrews - to apply for funding through them. Ms Middleton and Ms Paradee were successful in their funding bid and they received $10,000.

The University has already pledged £5,000 to the charity.

The students were accepted with a proposal to help communities in Sierra Leone affected by ebola to implement sustainable, community-driven agricultural practices.

Agriculture is worth 60 per cent of the Sierra Leone economy and Ms Middleton told

23 April 2015 • The Saint

The Saint: “Sierra Leone had one of the most prospering economies in Africa, especially in West Africa.” However, it has been severely damaged as a result of the ebola crisis.

In March 2015 the pair attended the CGIU Conference in Miami. There they were able to hear from experts in their project’s field to gain a better understanding of what work needs doing and the best way to carry it out.

Working alongside local non-governmental organizations and village care initiatives, they hope to travel to the district of Bo this summer from July until August.

They hope to train village leaders in sustainable agricultural practices and to help them develop and implement their own projects dependent on their resources and current needs.

At the moment they are not an affiliated society.

Photo credit: Wikimedia

Electric car share scheme launched An all-electric, community car club has been launched this week in St Andrews. The project is being run by the University in partnership with Transport Scotland and operators E-Car. Students, businesses and residents will all have the opportunity to rent one of the 10 electric cars that will be available in St Andrews. There are three charging locations for the cars which are located at Agnes Blackadder Hall, David Russell Apartments and the Gateway.

Members of the club, which costs £50 to join, will be able to rent the cars

at a cost of £4.50 per hour, or £35 for a day.

Members will be supplied with a membership card and pin number which they can use to book the use of a car; either online or by phone. When the vehicle is booked, the card can be used to unlock the car. The member then enters their pin number into the on-board computer and the keys will be released.

The cars can travel for around 6590 miles on a single charge and there are more charging locations in places such as Dundee and Edinburgh.

A spokesperson for the University explained that the scheme is intended to “improve local mobility, whilst reducing parking and congestion issues

Derek Watson cuts the ribbon at the launch ceremony in Church Square.

Photo: University of St Andrews

Joseph Cassidy Deputy news editor

in an environmentally-friendly and affordable way.”

Patrick Cresswell, marketing manager for E-Car, the company running the scheme, emphasised the improvements to local mobility and congestion the cars could bring to St Andrews. “We’re really keen for people to use the cars to explore Fife and beyond,” he told The Saint.

“What we’re trying to achieve is a reduction in private car ownership because, for the individual, owning a car is a great expense,” he added. “For the local community, private car ownership causes parking issues and congestion issues, so if we can take more cars off the road we’re improving the slickness of everywhere in which we operate.”

“Car-sharing in general is really good as it can reduce costs for people,” said Tracy Mckenna, a representative of Transport Scotland speaking to The Saint. “Another important thing about the cars is that they don’t have any tailpipe emissions, so hopefully it should help the air quality in St Andrews.”

Matthew Eastwood, a car club development manager with Carplus who are helping to fund the scheme, also spoke about the environmental and financial benefits of the cars.

He said: “The Scottish Government has set some very ambitious targets for de-carbonising road transport by 2050, and car clubs like this give people convenient and affordable access to a car without the need to own one.

“Each car club car takes 15 cars off the road, as a proportion of car club members, once they join, they sell

their own car or defer the purchase of a car.”

Mr Eastwood also spoke about how the car club will benefit the local St Andrews environment. “It frees up road space and parking space by making sure there are less cars on the road,” he said.

Members of the town community also expressed excitement about the new scheme, with St Andrews resident Anna Kucharska saying that it “would be a good idea for the future” and she would definitely consider using the service.

Transition St Andrews, a group working to promote efforts to tackle climate change and protect the environment in St Andrews, also gave their support to the project.

Paul White, a project officer with the group, is one of those helping to coordinate the car club.

“Transition is all about getting people to reduce their carbon footprint,” he told The Saint. “Transport contributes quite a lot to your average person’s carbon footprint, so being able to access a car club, where you don’t have to own your own car, you can share with others, reduces your carbon footprint,” he added.

“And also the fact these are electric vehicles and they have no emissions means that we’re preventing more CO2 emissions which is really key to what Transition does.”

Transition initiatives already underway include a “grow your own” food co-op, a home energy advice scheme targeting rural households and a town wide bike maintenance and rental programme.

University launches record label Kim Kay Deputy news editor The University of St Andrews has launched a new record label, Sanctiandree.

Sanctiandree label will profile St Salvator’s Chapel Choir, who have just returned from a very successful tour of the USA. The label will be under the direction of University Organist Tom Wilkinson.

Mr Wilkinson said: “I am absolutely delighted to be launching the label with a fantastic CD entitled Salvator Mundi – The Purcell Legacy recorded last year by St Salvator’s Chapel Choir and the Fitzwilliam String Quartet.

“The quartet is superb and the chapel choir and I are greatly looking forward to performing with them again at the launch concert.”

The label was officially launched with a free concert at St Salvator’s

Arts & Culture > Tom Coombes gives his views on the new record label p. 32 Chapel as part of the On the Rocks student arts festival.

The first CD under the new label is due for release on 20 April.

“The CD begins with a wonderful work by Pelham Humfrey, a teacher of Henry Purcell,” said Mr Wilkinson, “and charts a history of 17th and 18th century composers associated with the Chapel Royal. It finishes with the world premiere recording of a work

by William Jackson of Exeter, which I discovered in the University Special Collections last year.”

Recognition for outreach Rachael Miller News editor A St Andrews professor has been awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh’s senior prize and medal for his work in increasing public engagement with academic research.

Professor Andrew Whiten is a Wardlaw Professor of Psychology and Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology.

His work in increasing engagement includes founding the Living Links to Human Evolution research centre at Edinburgh Zoo. This centre encourages zoo visitors to participate in activities and to watch live science experiments. Over 25,000 people have visited the centre since it opened in 2008.

He has also taken part in the TalkScience outreach programme in Irvine Bay, speaking to pupils at St Matthews Academy to inspire them to pursue a career in science.

Professor Whiten said: “I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful team working with me who have done wonders sharing their enthusiasm and expertise with the public.”

The Saint • 23 April 2015 2014

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First Alumni Weekend a success

Faster broadband with fibre

The re-opening of St Salvator’s Quadrangle was one of the most prominent events which took place as part of last weekend’s Alumni Festival.

The first event of its kind, the festival weekend saw alumni return to St Andrews to take part in 30 separate events. Though six of these were held

by MUSA, the rector, University departments or the Development Office, the majority were hosted by student societies and sports clubs.

As part of preparations for the event, the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) recently passed a motion to allow all alumni free entry to the Union’s bars. A database of all alumni’s names will be collated, to verify past students’ identities and save them from paying the entry fee.

More alumni attended the weekend than have ever previously attended class reunions held in the summer, likely because it was held during the semester and alumni could engage with current students.

Charlotte Andrew, the Students’ Association’s newly elected alumni officer, said: “Many alumni were able to meet old University friends for the first time in many years and see the benefit their donations and their legacy have made to students already.

Students were able to ask for advice from alumni in terms of career path, as well as receive reassurance that their time spent with various sports clubs, in choirs, economics society, debating or LGBT society, to name a few, would prove useful and be remembered with nostalgia in the future.”

All 44,000 alumni of the University were emailed by the development officer about the event.

However, many current students were unaware of the specific events taking place. This is partly due to the fact that it was left to individual societies and sports clubs to advertise

Photo: Anthony Wong

Rachael Miller News editor

St Salvator’s Quadrangle was reopened after its redevelopment as part of last weekend’s Alumni Festival Weekend. their events to their members. The social media metrics for the event, seen by The Saint, show that though the Facebook event advertising the weekend was seen by 59,000 people, only 2,700 people actually clicked to look at the page and even fewer – 731 – clicked attending. Ms Andrew said: “There’s always more that can be done and marketing to current students is an area to be improved upon.”

It is hoped that the creation of a dedicated alumni officer and subcommittee will lead to more general publicity and awareness for next year’s event. Ms Andrew will take over the organisation of the event from Pat Mathewson, who came up with the idea this year, and Athletic Union president, Sarah Thompson, who both faced time restrictions due to their other responsibilities.

Asked which event she felt was most successful, Ms Andrew said: “The Athletic Union has a very effi-

cient system of Alumni engagement, so many of their events were exceptionally well attended.

“The Quad re-opening had a very different atmosphere to events such as rugby and football matches, but its success was equivalent. Principal Louise Richardson’s speech and the novelty of the newly engraved flagstones (my personal favourite being the “Fierce Women” stone sponsored by the Feminist Society) created an atmosphere that provided reassurance that this Festival will become the newest of many St Andrews traditions.”

In the future Ms Andrew hopes to increase alumni engagement with the University in various other ways.

She told The Saint: “I intend to run several careers based events next year with talks and advice from alumni for students. I’m also looking into the viability of a rent-a-robe scheme, involving collecting donated gowns from alumni and allowing students to rent them for a day or an evening at

a time from their halls or the Union.

“I’ve also had meetings with the development office concerning the potential of a crowd-funding platform similar to Just Giving to fund projects by student societies and subcommittees.”

Mr Mathewson said that the event was a great first attempt. He said: “The Festival Weekend was a very promising start to a new era of student-alumni engagement. Our ultimate goal is to extend the sense of community we share beyond our time here at St Andrews. We hope that being an alumnus will come to mean much more than simply being a donor, but rather an active participant in University life.

“As the festival grows over the coming years, meeting these challenges will not be solely the work of the development office, but rather an endeavour that engages and empowers a much wider group and at its core is driven by students.”

Mice infestation amongst poor conditions on Court’s private student accommodation tour lords and their agents to account.

“The group was particularly concerned to learn that some private agents and landlords appeared slow

to respond to tenant complaints and requests, and that in some instances approaches had been ignored.”

Mr Mathewson expanded on this.

“The members of court care very

Photo: Catherine Stihler

Continued from page 1

deeply about our University and our students,” he said. “I think appalled would be a fair characterisation of their feelings following the tour. It was a testament to our close knit community how personally they seemed to take that students were forced to deal with these practices from landlords.”

The Court were also informed that of the 13 letting agencies who handle student lettings in town, only eight have signed up to the Landlord’s Charter produced by the Students’ Association. This Charter aims to enforce good and fair practice from letting agents and landlords.

Niall Scott continued: “The University, Court members and the Students’ Association will be working together to find possible ways of making private sector landlords and agents more accountable and to empower and support students to assert

their rights as private tenants.”

Annie Newman – who sits on the University Court in her role as rector’s assessor – commented: “I think it was incredibly helpful for Court members who are not students and are not living in student flats to truly understand the depths of the private letting problem in St Andrews.”

“I was disappointed but not surprised to see the state of the flats that were on the tour,” she continued.

However, she thought that it was a good step in “making sure Court members are on the same page” as students on the issues surrounding private accommodation.

At the conclusion of the tour, the University’s senior governor, Ewan Brown, asked that the Students’ Association bring a plan to the next Court meeting, proposing a strategy for tackling these accommodation issues.

A further 6,100 homes and businesses in St Andrews are now able to receive fibre broadband.

With speeds of up to 80Mbps per hour, this means that houses full of students will be able to download articles or watch Netflix at the same time and at faster speed than ever.

This is part of the £410 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband scheme, which aims to provide the infrastructure for fibre broadband across parts of Scotland not included in commercial provider’s investment plans.

Its aim is to provide fibre broadband to 85 per cent of premises in Scotland by the end of 2016 and to 95 per cent by the end of 2018.

£500 theft from botanic gardens Nearly £500 was stolen from the St Andrews Botanic Garden after it was robbed twice in one week.

The garden on Cannongate, which was saved from closure only last year, is owned by the University and run by a charitable trust that took over from Fife Council last year.

Garden education officer Nikki Macdonald told The Courier that the incidents shocked staff and volunteers.

In addition to the lost cash, some of which was a collection for the Learning Den project, she said repairs and lock changes were costly matters.

She said: “We are operating on a shoestring and things like this can tip the balance. We have had to tighten up security.”

The police are currently investigating the matter.

A police spokeswoman told The Saint: “Police in Fife were called to St Andrews Botanic Gardens on Monday 6 April following reports of an attempted housebreaking.

“Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to contact Police Scotland on 101.”

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InFocus: Penny Uprichard, community council member and campaigner

The Saint speaks to local council stalwart about her campaign to overhaul the local planning system Settling down in her chair, veteran planning campaigner Penny Uprichard almost heaves as she opens her copy of FifePlan, a planning document similar in size to the Christmas edition of the Argos catalogue. To Miss Uprichard, this mammoth document has come to symbolise the issues surrounding the planning system in St Andrews.

Replacing smaller locally-focused planning strategies, the newly established FifePlan aims to create one overarching plan for the whole area.

“Nobody understands all that it says, because if nothing else they simply would not have time to read the whole thing,” Ms Uprichard says. A consultation period on the plan was followed by a consultation on the original consultation period, rendering the whole process farcical in her eyes.

The Saint asks whether she considers this faulty planning system a local problem, or whether it applies nationally. “This is a problem that affects the whole of Scotland,” replies Ms Uprichard.

She is currently campaigning for an overhaul of the planning system which would allow input from all sections of society, as opposed to the centralised systems which are currently in place. “All that is said when we voice our opinion on proposed developments is that our views will be taken into account,” says Ms Uprichard, who is a vocal member of St Andrews Community Council. “In reality, local residents have very little power over the whole process.”

Ms Uprichard is concerned that there is a particular problem in St Andrews with bias from the councillors who make these decisions. The University has entered a “strategic partnership” with Fife Council, she says, which to her infers that planning applications by the University will be treated particularly sympathetically by councillors. A key example, quotes

Ms Uprichard, is the University’s most recent major construction - the Medical and Biological Sciences building. On a personal level, she considers the modernist architecture unappealing, but what is of more concern is that it blocks the historic view previously enjoyed from Kennedy Gardens over to the golf course and the North Sea beyond, with the dark

All that is said when we voice our opinion on proposed developments is that our views will be taken into account blocks on top of the building creating something of an eyesore.

A significant part of the planning debate in St Andrews is driven by the constant pressures on the housing market caused by the demand for student accommodation. Ms Uprichard says that she does not blame students for the tensions that can arise between the local community and those at the University.

She highlights what she sees as a lack of engagement from the University with local residents over its expansion plans in recent years, saying that back in the mid 1990s, the student population was half of what it is now. In her view, failure on the University’s part to adequately mitigate the pressure of admitting thousands of extra property seekers has led to severe problems now.

This is the latest battle for seasoned campaigner Ms Uprichard, who made

national headlines back in 2013 when her battle against a proposed new development of 1,000 homes on the edge of St Andrews ended up in defeat at the Supreme Court, along with incurred legal bills of £179,000.

When asked what motivated her to pursue this case to the limits of the legal system, Miss Uprichard comments that she did not expect the case to rise to such levels at the outset, adding that she does not regret her actions. In terms of motivation she said: “I think when you see something that is wrong, you want to change it, and from there you work as hard as you can to see that change happen. This is especially important here in St Andrews, which I believe to be the most significant historical town in Scotland.”

The Saint raises the ongoing debate about Madras College and where to build any new school. Ms Uprichard opposes the current plans to build near the Community Hospital, arguing that the area is prime green belt land which is rich for agriculture.

She says that Fife Council actually published over a dozen options as to where a new Madras could be built, before very latterly committing itself to the proposed Pipeland site.

Acknowledging that current conditions in the Madras campuses are widely considered to be far below-par, Ms Uprichard says that the blame for this situation should not be laid at the feet of those whose legal campaigns are delaying the Pipeland construction. Instead, she says, it should be apportioned to Fife Council whose neglect of the sites over the years

From Sancti Andreae to ice cream sundae A thousand years after religious devotees first travelled to St Andrews to worship before the relics of a saint, the town can now claim a new pilgrimage - for photos with a giant golden ice cream.

According to The Daily Record, Jannettas’ success at the 2014 Golden Cone Awards - where it was named the best ice cream parlour in Scotland - has made its owner, Owen Hazel, something of a minor celebrity on Asian social media.

Tourists from China in particular have reportedly been queueing up to have their photo taken with Mr Hazel and the trophy, which is shaped like an oversized golden ice cream cone.

Mr Hazel told The Record: “They

always want me in the picture too.

It’s not usually my cup of tea to be the centre of attention and it’s a bit strange to feel that I might be a minor celebrity in Shanghai, but I do love it.”

Jannettas has recently re-opened after a three-month refurbishment

of its South Street store, where it has been based since it opened in 1908.

Its founder, Bennett Jannetta, was the great-grandfather of Mr Hazel’s wife Nicola.

The cafe was also named retail business of the year at The Courier’s local business awards in November.

Photo: The Saint

Elliot Davies

has resulted in these conditions.

The Saint finishes by discussing the role that students can play in local democracy. Pat Mathewson, Association president, and Clare Armstrong, SRC member for community relations, are both granted “exofficio” roles on the council. However, with 20 roles available on the elected council and (according to the council’s website) currently only 14 elected members, there is room for willing participants to step up via co-option.

Could students volunteer to fill those gaps, p r o viding further opportunities for dia-

Photo: Terry Lee

Matthew Litherland Deputy news editor

logue between ‘town’ and ‘gown’ and - perhaps more importantly - creating a larger student bloc for any policy discussions or votes put before the council?

In reality, local residents have very little power over the whole process Speaking in a personal capacity, Ms Uprichard is lukewarm about the idea. She suggests that “community councillors dedicate significant amounts of time to their roles,” and that this could be incompatible with students who have existing commitments. The Saint points out that SRC and SSC members have meetings at least as frequently as the Community Council and Miss Uprichard responds by adding that students are by nature “transient residents,” whereas most members of the Community Council have been active on the council for many years.

Though Ms Uprichard’s views and actions may seem somewhat absurd to many students, it cannot be denied that she is whole-heartedly dedicated to St Andrews and its future.

Whether her hopes for more local involvement in the planning procedure and a different site for a new Madras College will come to fruition, however, remains to be seen.

St Andreans most likely to vote Tory while Lib Dems lose out Kim Kay Deputy news editor Students at the University of St Andrews are most likely to vote Conservative in the upcoming general election, according to figures which also show that support for the Liberal Democrats amongst undergraduates has most disappeared.

An independent survey, which asked more than 13,000 students across the UK about their voting intentions, found those at St Andrews are most likely to vote Conservative in Scotland, while the SNP is most popular among students at Glasgow and Strathclyde.

The University of Edinburgh on the other hand showed strong support for Labour and the Green party, who

gained 54 per cent of the vote between them.

Additionally, support for the SNP is weakest in St Andrews at only 12 per cent of the vote. This is in comparison to the University’s of Glasgow and Strathclyde, where the SNP stood at 30 per cent and 43 per cent of votes respectively.

According to the survey, the increase in support for smaller parties has come at the expense of the Liberal Democrat Party, which has fallen out of favour with students after reneging on tuition fee promises.

Across the UK as a whole, Labour and the Conservatives were the most popular parties, with 31 per cent of the vote each.

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Elections Supplement 2015

General Elections 2015 Candidates Interviews

As the general election approaches and the Lord Ashcroft poll predicts an SNP win in North East Fife on 43 per cent, The Saint interviews all of the candidates.

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Interview with outgoing MP Sir Menzies Campbell

Sir Menzies Campbell, University chancellor and former leader of the Lib Dems, is retiring after 28 years as MP for North East Fife. In 2013, The Saint spoke to Sir Menzies about his life in parliament and the demands of the job. He described his first victory i n the Fife area as the defining moment of his career. “It

took me three attempts over 11 years.

I reckon I drove 50,000 miles for those 11 years,” he said.

He pointed out that the last Liberal Democrat leader, Herbert Asquith, also represented his own home constituency of East Fife, so it was “very exciting” to be elected into a similar position.

Other highlights included holding on to that hard-won seat – “the first defence is always the most difficult” – and then his time in Westminster as a “prominent part of the public face of the Liberal Democrat opposition to the Iraq War; ours was the only party that was opposed”, before being elected deputy leader and subsequently, leader.

He described how the demands of life at the top began to take their toll. “It gets more and more demanding. It’s very difficult to do now unless you actually physically live in London: I lived partly in Edinburgh, partly in Fife, while I was leader of the Lib Dems, which can be very difficult.

The weekends were no longer quiet times: there are about five different political programmes on a Sunday in Britain, and it was a very odd occasion for the leader of

a political party to not be on one of them.”

Described as the “mediator of party disputes” in The Telegraph’s list of the 50 most influential Liberal Democrats of all time, he had much experience dealing with skirmishes both within his own party, and between it and others.

When asked about the coalition government, he said: “The coalition has done what it set out to do, and its policies are now beginning to bear fruit. I’ve always said that it is a coalition of necessity, not choice, because of the dire straits that the country and the economy were in at the time [it was formed].

“We’ve had the lowest interest rates, we’ve had very low mortgages that have helped people, the pound is stable and the stock market has improved. Now we have to convert those achievements into a real increase of the standard of living for the population of England.”

When asked why he has chosen to retire, he replied: “Because it is better to leave when they are staying ‘why are you leaving?’ than when they are saying ‘why are you still here?’”

to independence. That’s what people are concerned about, and they want someone to stand up for them and those who voted no.

cussed in that. There’s a lot of countries who actually agree with us in some of those. So despite what a lot of people say, there’s a greater opportunity to change t h e w a y the EU works a n d make it work better and then for people to decide.

It might actually be pretty reasonable and we’ll vote to stay in.

Conservatives What is your background and experience, especially in North East Fife?

First and foremost, I’m getting into politics as someone who hasn’t been a career politician. I have real life experience, I got to know this constituency when I was serving in the RAF at Leuchars. I was an RAF intelligence officer. So I’ve never been a councillor, I’ve never been elected to anything, this is the first ever election I’m fighting. Most of my experience is in business. I helped the “Start Up St Andrews Event” last November.

What are your three policies most relevant to St Andrews students?

I want us to be in a position where it’s affordable to go to university. The current funding model in Scotland is failing the children in Scotland from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and if you look at the proportion of English students from those backgrounds going to university, compared to those in Scotland, Scotland is falling back.

I noticed that the University is not fulfilling its potential in terms of commercial spin out companies. So I want to work with them and students and the wider population to have more companies start to move here. I want to have more jobs and more sustainable jobs. I actually really want to keep more of you here… I want to get things established so that you’ve got reason to stay. So I want to focus on the local economy, jobs and businesses, and your future prospects to stay

in this area.

Why do you think the current model in Scotland is failing?

The Scottish government gives an allocation of funds per Scottish student to universities in Scotland. That funding is falling, which means that universities have got to make up that shortfall and that’s why St Andrews needs to expand and take in more foreign students. That’s where the impact comes on the Scots from less well off backgrounds.

What do you think of the HMO ban?

Would you consider lobbying for its repeal?

I think actually the first port of call is the University, making sure it’s got accommodation for the number of students that are coming here and they’re giving you the option which is affordable, whatever that means.

Then you need to look at the issue of the HMO ban. Now I know there are people in town that have got very strong views on it and they don’t want to feel that their town is being “taken over by students” but they’ve obviously got to appreciate that the University is a vital part of the community, a vital part of the economy.

But there is a balance to be struck.

What do you think of the Westminster changes to immigration controls that have led to NHS charges being introduced for international students?

Part of the problem at the moment is

that people are able to come into the country and start using services without actually having to put into it. Our policy is quite firm at the moment, we are going to introduce those measures and I think that’s fair.

The University of St Andrews is one of the greatest institutions we have here and I would be fighting that corner to make sure there’s no unnecessary restrictions on student visas, or the system for international students.

Your campaign literature emphasises that a vote for you is a vote against the SNP, do you think that’s a fair strategy?

Well, yes. The vast majority of people I meet who voted no in the referendum say that their biggest fear is the rise of the SNP and their potential influence in a UK government and trying to force another referendum on us. I understand that concern. We know that Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants to prop up a minority Labour government, we know that with each and every vote that took place, there would be bargaining and everything they would be doing would be focused on getting closer

HUW BELL

Do you think it’s right that RUK students pay fees in Scotland but EU students don’t?

It is wrong. Should the Scottish government consider paying tuition fees for English students since we’re part of the same country? That’s a question for them.

What do you think of the Conservatives’ plans for an EU referendum?

Firstly we need to have this re-negotiation, and there’s a lot of things to be d i s -

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23 April 2015

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Student political societies

Labour

St Andrews Labour Society engage in various campaigns. For example, two years ago its members were active in a living wage campaign which got just under 1000 signatures. Now, they are in the middle of a campaign to end zero hour contracts on campus, to guarantee students a minimum numbers of hours in part time jobs.

As part of the general elections, they have been out campaigning in Dunfermline and Kirkaldy as well as loaclly. Their president Dan told The Saint that labour is a “progressive party for students and for everyone.”

They hold pints and policies socials to chat about current political issues and use their Facebook page to point out the “disgusting” actions and policies of the current government.

“As with most political parties we’re not a monolithic institutions, there’s a huge spectrum o f thought a n d we’re a b i g umberella in ourselves,” said their president.

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Conservative

SNP

Lib Dems

Green Party

The University of St Andrews Conservatives society has a large, active membership of about 60 or 70 people. For the general elections, they are taking part in traditional campaigning such as leafleting and canvassing, as well as setting up street stalls in St Andrews and Cupar to promote their message.

Ian Donnell, president of the St Andrews Conservatives, said: “It’s about spreading the message that if you want a unionist party in Scotland, the Conservative party are the only party that pledges not to work with the SNP. Under our leadership there would be no nationalist agenda at Westminster.”

They hold various events, such as ‘Tory Tuesdays’ and dinners with guests. For example, the have entertained Lord Forsyth and Baroness Goldie as well as the Scottish Conservative’s current leader Ruth Davidson.

St Andrews University Students for Independence (STAUSFI) was formed in 2014 during the run up to the independence referendum, to encourage students from all political beliefs to join in yes campaigning.

Though it was formed out of the existing Scottish Nationalist Party society – of which Alex Salmond was a previous president – it now encompasses students from the SNP, Greens, Lib Dems, civic groups and those with no affiliation at all.

Scott Taylor, president of STAUFSI, said: “If you share a vision of a greener, fairer and more prosperous Scotland you’re welcome in our society. “Over the past year we have hosted a variety of debates and guest lectures; have taken students to the Scottish Parliament; have taken students to hear speeches and attend conferences across and outside Scotland; and have even set up the town & gown St Andrews TTIP Action Group which aims to raise awareness of the proposed transatlantic free trade treaty. ” The society is affiliated with SNP Student but is autonomous in its decisions. Mr Taylor boasted that they are the most active student political society at the University.

They hold socials every Tuesday in Drouthy’s.

The University of St Andrews Liberal Democrats are currently not an affiliated society, after having lost many members after the last general elections.

However, they hope to gain the 25 members needed for affiliation in the near future.

They are active in campaigning in the local area, leafleting, knocking on doors and spreading the Liberal Democrat’s message.

They host pub socials, including quizzed and guest speakers such as Sir Malcolm Bruce MP and Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, gave a talk on international development.

They continued: “Over the party’s history, the Liberal Democrats have popularised fringe beliefs and brought them into the mainstream. Civil Liberties, Pro-Europeanism, Environmentalism and Constitutional Reform are the most notable examples of this.

“We want to champion the Liberal Democrats’ progressive successes and continue them into the next government.”

The St Andrews Young Greens society was only established this year and has about 15 active campaigning members.

Lewis Campbell, the vice-president of the society is also running for MP in his home constituency of Dunfermline and West Fife, said: “We want to see an economy and a society that works for people and recognise that this is incompatible with environmental degradation.”

On a personal level, Mr Campbell told The Saint: “The neoliberal agenda of the three pro-establishment parties is causing environmental, social and economic damage in Britain and this is being replicated all over the world.

Young people are often maltreated by politicians and being one of the youngest Westminster candidates puts me in a unique position to fight for young people and deliver the best deal for my generation and the future.

“The main points of my campaign is to fight for a £10 minimum wage by 2020, to bring public services like the railways into public hands and to secure devolution for Scotland and for local communities.”

they kept their promises and got rid of the top up fees from the previous administration and enshrined the principle of free education. One thing that’s quite important to remember about the SNP is that people judge you on your record, and “have you done what you said you’d do?” Now Liberals and Tories can’t really say that. Whether you agree with the SNP or not, if you look at the 2007 and 2011 manifestos for government, the SNP fulfilled their promises.

deficits are actually a very common thing. Scotland has contributed more tax per head of population than the rest of the UK for every one of the last 34 years. Westminster takes quite a while to get round to these things and by 2020 the IFS says Scotland will have increased its onshore economy by £15 billion.

rules, they are obviously signed up to by the London government.

Scottish National Party What is your experience and how will this will help you as MP? My background is working in international development and affairs. I worked for a number of years overseas in the former Soviet U n i o n and in the We s t e r n Balkans.

I also worked as a special advisor to the First Minister A l e x Salmond.

What are your three policies most relevant to students?

I think more powers for the Scottish Parliament is very important. For instance, we can help with tuition fees for students that are from Scotland.

Also saying no to a new generation of nuclear weapons. George Osbourne is proposing £30 billion more austerity over the next four years and Trident will cost £100 billion. I think progressive policies around welfare are important as well, such as getting rid of the Bedroom Tax. You speak about the SNP scrapping tuition fees as yout proudest achievement, but wasn’t it enacted by the Lib Dems when they were in government with Labour?

Well you had an effective tuition fee there previously, so what the SNP did when they came to power w a s

The SNP advocate for the introduction of Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland. Other parties have said this would lead to a £7 billion deficit for Scotland. What would you say to this?

The UK has a £93 billion deficit right now. That’s not even getting into the UK’s £1.5 trillion debt. So they are saying this, but what Full Fiscal Autonomy does is give John Swinney the same economic powers as any finance minister in Europe, as right now those powers are in Westminster and their efforts tend to be focused on the South East of England. I don’t think the opposition powers are being very fair. It’s important to remember that in Western democracies, budget

STEPHEN GETHINS

Should RUK students pay fees for Scottish universities?

It’s not for me to tell the people of England how they should vote, but if they vote for a government that wants tuition then they voted for that government. If we have a hung parliament then the SNP could bring a lot more pressure to bear and I think one thing that’s been interesting about the leaders’ debates is the positive reaction to Nicola Sturgeon. She’s clearly gathered a large amount of support across England. Some of the other parties might want to start looking at some of the progressive policies of the SNP if they want to start gaining support.

But if voters in EU countries vote for a party that supports tuition fees, those students would still get free tuition in Scotland.

Well that’s just the European rules.

A lot of the polls are saying that SNP could hold the balance of power, so if students up here think that the progressive policies of the SNP could be a good influence, especially with regard to tuition fees they should consider voting SNP. With regards to European

Do you think it’s right to charge international students for the NHS? I think if they’re studying here and making a contribution, I’d like to see them having many of the same rights.

Unlike the Westminster parties, we’re really keen to see people come to Scotland and settle in Scotland. A good way of making sure that happens is making sure they feel as welcome as possible.

Huw Bell has said the SNP want independence “through the back door.” North East Fife voted no. How do you think this affects your chances of winning the seat?

I’ve spoken to a lot of no voters, and almost every night I find those that are voting SNP because even though they haven’t been convinced about independence, yet, they still recognise the importance of having a strong voice at Westminster. A lot of no voters also want to see the Westminster parties being kept to their promises.

A lot of candidates say that essentially, a vote for any other party is a vote for you, what do you think of this?

I’m campaigning on what the SNP stand for, if you vote for the SNP it’s a vote for the SNP. All the other parties seem to want to do is talk about the SNP. I think it would be better if the other parties engaged more in the policy debate.

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Elections Supplement 2015

Liberal Democrats What is your background and experience, especially in North East Fife?

I’ve lived in North East Fife for nearly 30 years. I am not and have not been a career politician all my life. Most of my professional life was in the health service. I have been a councillor for 12 years on Fife Council. I’m currently the leader of the Liberal Democrat group and because of that, I’ve worked very closely with Sir Menzies Campbell, the previous MP. What are your three most student friendly policies?

The Lib Dems are the only party making a commitment to keep spending on education up to the rate of inflation, so there’s a commitment from us for education from age 2 to 19.

More locally, I am aware of issues particularly around accommodation.

What is your position on tuition fees for RUK students going forward?

Let’s just say to get it out of the way, it was a big mistake. Nick has apologised for it. I think what we’ve ended up with, however, is a system down south which is in some respects better.

Look at the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, there’s actually more going to universities down south than there are here. I’m worried about the amount of student debt as well. I find that really worrying, plus the fact that in Scotland you start paying back at a lower rate. You start paying back here once I think you earn about £17,000. I think in

Green Party What experience do you have, especially in North East Fife?

I’ve only been here four and a half years, I moved from Oxfordshire to Scotland because I knew that Scotland were having a referendum and I’d assumed t h e y ’d vote yes.

I wasn’t h a p p y with my children growing up in England, because t h e

England it is £21,000-£22,000. I think that Ed Miliband’s proposal to reduce it to £6000 is actually just playing to the gallery because the only people who are going to benefit from that are the lawyers and medics and the graduates who are earning the really high salaries. Is that really what the Labour Party want?

What is your opinion on the HMO moritorium in St Andrews and should it be renewed next year?

I’m going to be a true Lib Dem and sit on the fence because I think until we see what the information is, I can’t give you an answer. A key part of that is having more purpose built student accommodation. The bit that I can’t control is the University continuing to take in more students. It’s absolutely critical that we hold the University administration’s feet to the fire on this, because I think that hasn’t happened sufficiently in the past. The University has expanded, and they’ve just hoped or expected that the accommodation problems would sort themselves out.

Should non-EU international students be charged to use the NHS? I think that they should, my assumption is that just as when I go on holiday I have health insurance, I would expect them to do the same here.

The only exception to it, obviously, being emergency treatment where people get treated, no questions.

When you were selected back in March 2014 for what is on paper a relatively safe Lib Dem seat, did you ever imagine you’d be the underdog against the SNP at this point?

Yes, I did. Of course, I didn’t know what was going to happen in the referendum, but I knew that it was going to be hard. It’s always the case when you have a well-established, well-liked, well respected MP like Sir Menzies Campbell when they step down it’s going to be really tough.

The bit that I didn’t predict, or didn’t know, was the surge in support for the SNP that we’ve seen since the referendum.

Both yourself and Huw Bell say in your election leaflets that you are the only candidate who can stop the SNP winning in NE Fife. Who should we believe?

Huw is doing his best to portray the fact that he is the challenger. A number of things I would say: Sir Menzies Campbell had a majority of 9000. This is not a Tory target seat. If it was, they would be making much, much more effort than they are. There was actually a leak on the Conservative website that

didn’t list NE Fife as a target seat. The bookmakers have the Conservatives here at 30-1 to 50-1. They have us at 5-2. Bookmakers don’t normally get it wrong. I’ve knocked on over 20,000 doors in the last year. We are finding with Conservative voters, not all of them but a significant number of them are willing to consider supporting us if they don’t want an SNP MP. If you are elected as MP and the Lib Dems hold the balance of power, which main party would you prefer to support?

That’s a matter for the electorate. What I would say is that we’ve now demonstrated that we can be a responsible party of government, yet we’re different now.

It’s been

hard, yes we’ve made mistakes, we’ve learnt from them. We’ve got our own distinctive policies, we’re going to cut less than the Conservatives, absolutely against this £12 billion of extra welfare cuts. We’re not going to borrow as much as Labour, an extra £70 billion. The SNP want to borrow an extra £180 billion.

Is it really fair that we ask you and your kids to continue to pay off the debts of our generation?

We ’r e offering s o m e thing that is distinctly different from the other main parties.

TIM BRETT

Westminster politics are broken.

When it comes to politics, I got stuck into the referendum on the Yes side.

I did stand once for the local council as a Lib Dem in Oxfordshire a long time ago.

What are your three policies most relevant to students?

Student fees are obviously an issue and the Scottish Greens are in favour of free education and that’s crucial. The second thing is that it’s one thing having free education, but you also need to have somewhere you can afford to stay and that’s a serious issue I imagine for you. I’m not a small picture person, I’m a big picture person, for me it’s just about democracy it’s as simple as that. The UK is not a democratic country i n

any normal sense of the word, an independent Scotland would be. The First Past The Post System is not democracy, we’re the only country in Europe that uses it, almost any other form of voting is better. The UK is a two-party system because of the voting system, I think people are starting to realise that’s the root of the problem, these two parties are so similar, there is no one who can steer a different path.

Why aren’t you running as an SNP candidate if you campaigned for an independent Scotland?

People have a choice at this election, they can either vote for a Westminster party, Tories, Labour or Lib Dem, and there’s no difference between them, or they can vote for a Scottish party, and if the Greens weren’t standing there would only be one Scottish party, the Scottish Nationalist Party.

So I’m here to give people a choice.

There are differences with the SNP, one key Green policy is that power should be at the lowest level possible where the decision can be made. The SNP have been centralising some of the services like the Police, the Fire Service. We need to devolve power back down to communities, in

Community Councils, to people.

International students now have to pay in order to use the NHS, what are the Green Party’s opinion on this?

I think it’s disgraceful. It’s all just pandering to the UKIP agenda. If someone’s coming here to study they’re part of our society and they should get NHS treatment.

Is it fair that RUK student pay fees in Scotland by EU students don’t?

We believe in free tuition frees, but you can’t just make that free for everyone, because then Scotland’s universities would be flooded by people from south of the border. This will need working through when Scotland gets independence. Free tuition is a key policy of the Scottish Green Party but we have to charge the English because we wouldn’t be able to sustain our universities without that.

You still seem confident about independence, do you envision another referendum soon?

No I don’t, not soon, but people are waking up to the fact that they were duped into voting no, they were lied to by the We s t m i n s t e r politicians and that’s upset them.

We had love bombs from We s t m i n s t e r but as soon as

ANDY COLLINS

the referendum was over we were being insulted, ignored, being told that if we elect so many SNP MP’s they shouldn’t be allowed to vote on English matters. They don’t want us in the union, they just want our money and they don’t really love the Scots at all. I’m talking to the Westminster establishment which is rotten to the core. It’s not just the politicians, it’s the judiciary, it’s the police, it’s media obviously, and the whole lot are just there to keep themselves.

How can you say there’s no difference between the main parties when there are very big, clear differences?

No, because they’re all part of this neo-liberal capitalist model, that businesses are better at running things than governments are, and they want to privatise everything. There are certain things that need to be run by the government, profit has no place in the NHS, or in the railways which we want to re-nationalise.

The Green party want to raise the minimum wage, but would you keep the separate minimums for under 21s and 18s?

I don’t know the answer to that question. I’d be very surprised if we didn’t want a minimum wage across the board. The Green Party does have a policy to deal with this issue altogether which is the citizens income, the minimum wage is just temporary while we’re in the UK. I think if we got out of the UK we probably would move towards a citizens income.

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23 April 2015

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Elections Supplement 2015

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Labour What experience do you have which would prepare you for the role?

three policies most relevant to St Andrews students?

Firstly, I was born and brought up in St Andrews, I’ve spent the bulk of my life in North East Fife. I work in the affordable housing sector.

I was electe d councillor i n 2012.

Scottish Labour introduced free tuition 15 years ago in Scotland and we’re looking to maintain that for Scottish students. Secondly in England, Labour’s policy is to reduce tuition fees from £9000 to £6000. Linked to that is the proposal to increase bursaries in Scotland. A big issue at the moment is that only about 220 students from the most deprived areas of Scotland actually make it to university so that’s hopefully going to be of assistance. There’s also the proposal to increase grants for students in England. Thirdly, a policy that will help students is Labour’s proposal to both raise the minimum wage and stop zero-hour contracts. One thing that’s cropped up recently in North East Fife is that over a third of employees actually earn less than the living wage.

It’s the

W h a t are your

highest proportion in the whole of Scotland which is actually quite a shocking figure.

Do you think that Labour’s £6000 fees policy will help deprived students?

I think that the key issue for deprived students is increasing student grants that affect the cost of living, as opposed to the cost of fees. There’s the issue that the children are not necessarily getting the correct grades to get them into university. So we’ve obviously got to look at what we’re doing in the schools to make sure that students get the correct qualifications.

Other parties say Labour’s plans would lead to more cuts and deprivation, what would you say to that?

I think it’s easy for the SNP to make some of these claims as they’re not going to end up being in power or having to run the country. I recognise there does have to be a degree of cuts made but it’s about making sure that those are who are most able to pay take the brunt of the pain. Labour would reintroduce the top rate of 50p tax for those who earn over £150,000.

In terms of the SNP, they would wish for Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland,

which has completely unraveled over the last few weeks. If they think we’ve got austerity now, it would be nothing like what we would have under full-fiscal autonomy. The IFS calculated that it would result in about a £7 billion deficit.

Stephen Gethins said that the £7 billion deficit figure, when compared to the £93 billion deficit of the UK Government, wasn’t that bad.

Well, £7 billion for a small country like Scotland with only 5 million people I think they’re living in dream land if they don’t think that’s going to have an impact. I know they’re trying to back pedal back saying they’ll introduce it over a period of time. Last September they were making it absolutely clear that we could be an independent country within 18 months so it just doesn’t stack up.

What do you think of charging international students to use the NHS? I don’t think it’s fair. These students pay extremely high fees. But not only that, they come here and then spend a lot of money and put an awful lot into the economy. They put in more than they take out, my views would be that those fees would be unfair.

BRIAN THOMSON

What’s your opinion on Labour’s pledge to introduce the right to vote for 16 and 17 year olds?

Independent cadidate What is your background and experience, especially in North East Fife?

I first came here in 1968, my wife was born in St Andrews. We got married in South Africa and I was coming to Britain to join the army. One of the reasons I left the army was to go into politics. I was elected to the local council in 1999 in East Neuk.

So you used to be a Conservative, but then you changed to UKIP. Why? I moved out of the Conservatives when David Cameron came up in the leadership race. I asked if he’d give us a referendum on the European Union and he said “yes,” and then he went on to break that promise. He won’t stand up for defense, he won’t come out of the fishing policy, so I cannot stand on the Tory platform. I then started acting as an independent on the council. UKIP then approached me.

You were the Chairman of Scottish UKIP, but are now standing as an independent. What happened?

In Scotland, all the members of UKIP voted for the regional chairman so I was elected. It then became obvious to us that we were going to win a European Parliamentary seat, with me in the chair we’d gone from three per cent in the polls to 11 per cent.

So obviously, suddenly Scotland was a juicy prospect wasn’t it? So we began to have interest from people who wanted to get on to the gravy train.

Though I would be the obvious choice

for the top of the list, there was a guy in Edinburgh who resented that and who disliked me and the general secretary as we were both ex-army.

So he started a campaign to oust us.

Then the deputy chairman began to get involved as he saw it as an opportunity, as did David Coburn. They then began lobbying certain branches in violation of party rules, I told the party to rein them in or I would take my name off the list for the European elections. Then David Coburn said he’d been sent up by Nigel [Farage] to take over in Scotland and lead the party, so David Coburn stayed on the list with several others. They dissolved the Scottish committee, so I resigned as chairman.

What are your 3 main policies that are most relevant to students?

I think that’s an odd question as you’re all going to grow up anyway.

I believe we need to have a sovereign independent democratic Britain, which is to everyone’s advantage including students. The issue of tuition fees, which are paid up here in

Scotland by the SNP Government, raises the question could we afford to pay them if we were independent? Another thing is that a student from India or Pakistan, in the British Commonwealth, doesn’t get the free tuition as they’re not an EU student.

So I think it’s actually racist as you’re saying ‘No Indians, No Pakistanis,’ no one with the English association of the British Commonwealth. Scotland can’t afford to fund tuition fees for the whole of Europe and we shouldn’t be bound by European rules on that. EU students shouldn’t get their tuition paid by the government, and neither should Scottish students. The principle should be that you need to make a contribution towards your university education. Some disciplines that might not be attractive could be promoted by companies with bursaries, and some bursaries for the arts could be supported by the government. I don’t think everyone should aspire to university, we need people to aspire to apprenticeships and technical jobs as well.

Do you think it’s right that international students now have to pay charges to use the NHS?

MIKE SCOTTHAYWARD

That’s not just a student issue, it’s a wider immigration control issue. The fact is, we cannot afford to just

It goes back to the argument that if you’re

have anyone turning up and using the NHS. Most of those coming from abroad are paying their fees, they should also be paying for health insurance, just as they need to pay their own accommodation. If you’re going abroad and you don’t take out health insurance, you’re a fool, so that’s what they should do, simple.

Would you advocate for getting rid of the HMO ban?

Yes I did and I would. I was totally against it. I do think there needs to be a discretionary balance though.

The HMO thing is a total nonsense, it was introduced after one or two tragedies which

16 and you can join the army, and do many other things, it seems a crazy that you’re not allowed to vote. I think as we’ve seen in Scotland in particular over the past 18 months there’s been a huge level of engagement by younger people, I think anything we can do to increase participation in politics is a good thing.

Should RUK students pay fees here?

I know it’s not party policy at the moment, but personally I think it’s unfair. I can’t get it round my head why there hasn’t been a bigger fuss about it. I would say it comes across as a form of discrimination. I don’t like it, I would like to explore and see what could be done about it.

The polls put you in 4th place.

Should your supporters vote for another unionist party to stop the SNP? No, I think people should vote for who they support and who they believe in. We’re not advocating voting for us to stop the SNP at all, we’re saying you should vote for us because we think our policies are the strongest. The Lib Dems position on this is really questionable, they’ve been playing this card for the past 30 years in North East Fife. In 2010, we got a leaflet saying “vote for Menzies, the only way to stop the Tories”, and we all know what happened two weeks later. I think a lot of people in North East Fife have had enough of those tactics. I mean why can’t they just put forward their own policies for once. I don’t think that’s the right way to go.

should have been dealt with under normal regulations. It’s unnecessary.

What you want on the one hand, is safe housing, but some of the regulations are just ridiculous.

What would you say to anyone who says a vote for you is basically a vote for UKIP? UKIP came back to being strong on defense having previously not been so strong. I haven’t changed. I can’t believe the Conservatives have decimated the army, it’s one reasons I can’t support them. I am, however, at one with Cameron on Trident, I know what it’s for and why it’s there, I know why it’s important.

V IEWPOINT

How to survive the night before May Dip The potent powers of alcohol

Editor: Ellen Ridsdale Deputy editors: Bernie Munro, Rebecca Thomas, Oscar Westerblad

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May Ball ticket sales: an intrepid buyer’s diary One hardy nighthawk gives us an insight into the ultra-dedicated side of queuing for tickets - 3:00 am -

Pete Hoggan

O

ne of the most anticipated events of the year, May Ball, starts way before the night in question. It starts with the queuing for May Ball tickets, an event in itself, which, even then, starts before the morning it advertises. It begins with friends gathered in a flat, or more likely in a Facebook chat, practising the subtle art of chicanery through a bidding war: each advertising their claim to how they are much too busy with 9 and 10 am tutorials or pulling all-nighters to be wasting their precious time in pursuit of tickets.

This year represents will be my third time attending the Ball and I was hoping to avoid the responsibility of queuing for all three occasions, but alas it was not to be, as apparently my bid was the least credible. To add insult to injury, my endeavour for tickets was to be a solo pursuit: it is nice to have friends. So without further ado, here follows my experience of the St Andrews student rite of passage that is queuing for May Ball tickets.

I am in my own flat contemplating feckless arguments inside my own head as to why it was my duty to face this burden. After packing a few books and fully charged electronic devices into my bag to keep me somewhat vaguely amused throughout the night, along with a cushion and blanket for the mirage of warmth and comfort, I left for the bandstand alone in the dark, silent street.

The town is deathly quiet, with only faint silhouettes at the far ends of passing streets showing any true sign of life as people go about their business getting take-aways and falling out of the Lizard and the Vic. I arrive from the side of Ma Bells and as I pass the Martyr Stone, I see a line of perhaps 50 students all hunched in small groups or packed into tents.

The groups can be categorised into two classifications: they sit tightly, trying to get through the night with hollow conversation, or they take the optimistic approach of getting absolutely plastered and desensitising themselves to the grim situation.

I set up camp between two groups of girls minding their own business with the next group down being a group of boys going with the seemingly preferable rout of blatant intoxication.

- 4:00 am -

- 5:00 am -

I lie on my back staring at the sky, catching faint glimpses of stars in between the wispy clouds moving past.

The temperature is mild but there is an unpleasant breeze, reminiscent of the winter that this town can never seem to shake. It is apparent that I am not the only one star gazing as the aforementioned group of boys begin a drunken charade.

One claims to the others, “I swear the stars are moving - just look; they don’t usually move that fast”.

“I am not sure, but you could be right”, another replies.

“They are, even he agrees and he is completely sober.”

This continues for about ten minutes before they all agree that the stars are moving at a considerable speed.

I lie back, looking up, fully aware that it is the fast moving clouds that are giving the illusion of movement of the over active stars to the inebriated. I look over to see their antics just in time to miss an actual shooting star that excites them greatly as I turn quickly back to the sky for some reason, perhaps wanting to see a replay of the event. “Everybody make a wish”, one shouts to the others and there is brief silence.

“Was that rain I just felt?” One asks and I can clarify, yes - yes it was.

The rain and wind gradually pick up and increase on level terms with my misery over the next hour. I have not packed an umbrella, rather stupidly, as it has been unseasonally, for St Andrews, nice weather over the past few days, and God is, hopefully, not that cruel.

I seek shelter in my blanket, pulling it over my head and curling into a ball. I close my eyes and listen to each steadily quieter and quieter group around me as they begin to settle down and conserve energy, or begin to sleep. My stomach is trying to chat to me, asking questions of food.

My head answers that there are some snacks in my bag, but my body rejects this proposal as it is trying to save the dry patch of grass from the rain that moving to get food would most definitely sabotage. The feeling for food passes and I continue my slow and painful wait.

- 6:00 am I am still under my blanket and the rain has relented to a drizzle despite the wind continuing to carry its unwelcome chill. The birds are chattering loquaciously above our heads, probing for any scraps of food they can find among the students. Further overhead, the sky is gradually changing into its daytime attire as faint strands of dark blue can be seen on occasion through breaks in the clouds.

I peak my head outside my makeshift shelter and my eyes are assaulted by the change in brightness between the outside and my sanctuary.

Everyone else is partaking in light chatter or slumber as the half-way point of the waiting game passes.

Illustration: Milan Cater

- 7:00 am The birds are beginning to get more adventurous and talkative as dawn brightens into daylight, and I can only imagine the judgement they pass on us. They study the empty chip boxes scattered on the grass claimed only by the wind and devour any resources they find and scavenge.

Crows and seagulls seem to be fighting a futile war amongst themselves, staking claim on anything remotely valuable to them whilst showing no allegiance to their respective kin and I can’t help but think we may face the same fate.

Whispers vibrate through the queue at the prospect of coffee shops being open. Small packs of explorers fade into the distance with the faint, but sure hopes of attaining the student staple solution. I once again re-

treat under my soaked blanket.

- 8:00 am It was bound to happen sooner or later with the vast flock of birds patrolling the skies, as one kind creature delivers a present to my cocoon of decreasing warmth. Just like one of those rogue droplets of water that wait for you as you pass under a lamppost after a long rain, it fell and soiled the wet side of my blanket.

Feeling gauche and rubbing my tired eyes, I see success from the coffee exploits as many are holding their pick-me-up elixir. I tell myself there are only two hours left to wait and allow myself some phone time to browse meaningless social media and play mind-numbing games.

- 9:00 am The queue is getting larger and it is making me nervous. It is not getting longer, but broader as people join where their friends have been keeping space all night. I do some quick maths in my head to evaluate my chances of success and my sleep-starved brain assures me it should be fine; close but fine.

Out of nowhere a group, seemingly Scandinavian from their accents, appear on the path to act out what I assume is the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

The leader asks occasionally that the sleepy spectators applaud something or nothing in particular as his friend wanders about the queue uninterestingly acting as the protagonist of the makeshift play. He lazily checks for wolves and the crowd lazily look at him with idiot indifference.

Luckily the play is short and the Kate Kennedy Club is beginning to assemble, life awakes from the bored crowd.

- 10:00 am The tickets go on sale and the queue yields an uninterested applause to the person who gets the first and free ticket. Moving slowly towards the bandstand one cannot help but attempt to catch glimpses of the tickets freshly received from those who were further forward. Success is so close I almost abjure the idea of failure as the people in front become so scarce they are countable. I arrive at the Kate Kennedy member’s station and we exchange our treasures, he receives many banknotes and I score the pieces of paper promised for my ordeal. I walk away not wanting to look back at the still lengthy queue heading towards a well-earned breakfast and bitterly, a long day of class.

The The views views expressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do do not not represent represent the the views views of of The The Saint Saint but but are are individual individual opinions. opinions.

The Saint • 23 April 2015

Viewpoint 13

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Devil’s Advocate

Should the University of St Andrews join the NUS?

YES J

Oscar Westerblad

oining the National Union of Students (NUS) is a matter of practicality and of principle. By joining a nationwide student association we are strengthening our voices as students. It’s not only St Andrews students demanding something from the University, but students from all over the UK. A nationwide interest in aims like reducing tuition fees and access to student accommodation is bound to have a bigger impact than when it is just one local association or group of students demanding them. Let us not forget that issues concerning tuition fees and accommodation are becoming more pressing by the year.

Of course, even with a nationwide organisation behind us, such demands might not be listened to. However, if students across the nation are not listened to, it will cause a bigger controversy and uproar than if it’s only one local students’ association being denied. Being added to a national organisation representing students can be the straw that broke the governmental camel’s back in such matters.

There are other practical arguments to be made for joining, such as the fact that there are discounts for students that are members of the NUS in shops and online. Although the previous argument above is more forceful, we cannot deny that students will individually benefit from discounts in stores. These discounts will be helpful for any student living on a budget and seeking discounts and offers from both practical and fun outlets. Who says you can be a student and not indulge yourself once in a while with the 10 per cent off permanent student discount at TopShop?

Moreover, St Andrews student simply cannot isolate themselves from the events and problems related to students all over the UK. It enforces our image of a bubble university, and certainly enforces our somewhat elitist image. It makes us look like we have no interest in organising nationally if organising isn’t in our direct interest.

This image cannot be viewed in a positive light, and we should do what we can to organise with other students in solidarity.

By joining the NUS, St Andrews students will have their ideas and voices heard by students in other parts of the UK, and students from different

NO

Rebecca Thomas

parts of the UK will be able to contribute to the pool of ideas in St Andrews.

This increases diversity of ideas for improving the conditions of students in St Andrews and for solving problems related to the University that students in St Andrews might have.

A point to be made is that of the possibility of reducing tuition fees for students, or at least keeping them from increasing if we join the NUS. With the projected fees for international students in St Andrews, there will, without a doubt, be a problem of attracting international students. With the backing of the NUS, there could be the possibility of reducing or keeping the fees at a lower level than what has been projected for the next couple of years.

The same could be said for home students who still face £9,000 tuition fees despite government promises and new election policies. The ever growing importance of student welfare is something we should be involved in, for the good of every student, regardless of nationality.

Besides, students and students’ associations being stronger and more influential when they are united than when they are separated. After all, if the Bubble is as isolated as some might think, there doesn’t seem to be much to keep the University from doing what is in its own interest. With the help of the NUS, students might balance the power of the University since students’ issues in St Andrews will not only be issues in St Andrews, but potentially, issues relevant to a national organisation.

Not only does St Andrews benefit from being members of the NUS, students 75 votes in other parts of the UK will also benefit from our solidarity. In joining the NUS we reduce the image of the town and University as isolated from the rest of the nation by engaging directly with a nationwide students’ association.

Students and students’ associations being stronger and more influential when they are united than when they are separated

“

If anything, a more distanced organisation controlling aspects of our university life would limit the agency of the student body

34

F

or years St Andrews has been a bit of an anomaly in its rejection of NUS membership. We’ve been independent since 1975 and in 2012 the vote against affiliation was decisive, with 75 per cent of the 26 per cent turnout voting No – we’re not a university simply apathetic to the idea of becoming part of a national body, but one fundamentally opposed to one.

We’re one of a growing number of universities, including Glasgow, Southampton and Imperial, who have rejected the offer to join such a large bureaucracy, instead, sensibly adopting our own methods of democratic representation.

Membership of the NUS is prohibitively expensive, even the yes campaign in 2012 conceded that membership would initially cost the Union £19,000. We don’t have these funds after the redevelopment of the Union.

At the moment Union budgeting poses no controversies or problems; our Students’ Association is relatively cheap and spends its money on societies and facilities that clearly benefit us.

Within the NUS we would see very little return on our investment.

Getting an extra 10 per cent off at ASOS seems a marginal outcome at best, especially considered the emergence of alternative student discount schemes like UNiDAYS that we can take advantage of anyway. What exactly does this £19,000 membership pay for?

Yes campaigners would argue that membership of a national organisation like the NUS provides students with a louder voice 145 votes and more political purchasing power, but this simply doesn’t feel true.

The NUS are almost entirely disregarded by key areas of influence, dismissed as over-militant and uncooperative and it’s entirely falla-

66

What YOU thought

cious to pretend that the fairly prestigious University of St Andrews, it’s students and it’s notable alumni are not a force to be reckoned with.

As one of the largest universities in Scotland, our opinions have significant scope to affect policy and public discourse alone. We’re distanced from policies that are often portrayed as ridiculous in the media (like the decision to use jazz hands instead of applause to avoid triggering anxiety at the NUS Women’s Conference in March, accused of both damaging feminism and being dangerously out of touch with the majority of its members) or the ones that actively harm discussion and debate like the NUS’ ‘no platform’ policy.

Time and time again the NUS has been criticised for being non-inclusive, bureaucratic and oppressively self-righteous to an almost laughable extent. By ostracizing students who do not subscribe to an overwhelmingly left wing and liberal agenda, the NUS actively deters democracy and representation.

Mechanisms like the ‘No Platform’ policy would serve only to censor and silence extreme and unpleasant views rather than openly countering and exposing them.

Perhaps if we were a university that actually struggled with engagement, calls to give St Andrews’ students a voice might be more convincing, but to all intents and purposes we achieve far greater voter turnouts without NUS intervention.

If anything a more distanced organisation controlling aspects of our university life would limit the agency of the student body. At the moment we adopt progressive policies to solve our problems instead of being dictated to about what we should care about. This ability to be able to rule ourselves is something that I believe the student body genuinely values for good reason.

Despite often feeling like we’re in a bubble, St Andrews is an international university with international influence.

We have an outward, progressive perspective that would simply be hampered by the NUS, an organisation that shows every sign of collapsing in on itself imminently.

There is a national trend towards disaffiliation; St Andrews is just ahead of the curve.

The The views views expressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do do not not represent represent the the views views of of The The Saint Saint but but are are individual individual opinions. opinions.

14 Viewpoint

23 April 2015 • The Saint

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The great British perseverance in summer

The British summertime is sometimes the butt of jokes, but there is, in fact, light at the end of the tunnel

Bernie Munro

T

Photo: A Journey Towards Education

here is nothing comparable to the “great British summer”.

Think about this: The sun splits the curtains on a Sunday morning when you are lucky enough not to be hungover. You float out of bed,

the world beneath your feet and a glance out of the window fills you with joy as there isn’t a cloud in the sky. You send messages in the group chat and rally the troops. A quick 30 minute shower with Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae on loop and you are ready to go.

Brisk walk to Tesco. Beers. Ham. Cheese. Bread. Pack it in a bag with the blankets and rendezvous at the end of Market Street for a jaunt to East Sands. The wind is a bit chilly, but spirits are as high as the wind and you are giving it a run for it’s money.

You are ready for what is definitely set to be an amazing day. You reach the pier and the North Sea is sparkling, the sun is shining and the world, for five minutes, is a beautiful place where nothing bad has or ever will happen.

The problems start when the blanket rolls out.

Everyone has to sit on one corner each

as the wind picks up. Someone is sick in their mouth as a kind elderly gentleman saunters by with his “tap ‘aff”, his massive breasts swaying in the gusts of North Sea air. A jar of olives rolls down the sand scattering into your already watering eyes and the executive decision was made to take shelter behind a hill because your group of international friends have never had the need to buy a windbreaker.

Optimism overcomes you when you find adequate cover, and that is when the clouds roll in. It is getting colder, but it has been decided that the picnic is happening, so it is happening. Come hell or high water. It is happening.

The drizzle begins and someone sighs. Tensions rise as everyone starts to passive aggressively tweet about how your idea for a picnic on the beach was dumb and that a three day overdue deadline would have been much more preferable to a mediocre spell of sunshine. Oh, and there’s sand in the sandwiches.

The cracks are beginning to show and it goes volcanic as God Himself decides to flush the toilet on the whole sordid occasion. Rain batters off the bread, now more of an impromptu lumpy gravy slowly dissolving into the tartan blanket.

Tesco bags are emptied and held for cover as everyone shouts and swears at you for completely ruining the weekend. Market St is ablaze with

It is getting colder but it has been decided that the picnic is happening so it is happening - come hell or high water - It is happening fires and riots as the rest of the British public panic to buy umbrellas and run for cover because despite knowing the pattern of arbitrary island weather we all had the same dumb idea.

Your breaths are ragged and erratic as you finally stumble into halls, hair plastered to your face and everyone smugly reminding you that you left the beers on the beach.

Into the fray again you run back as fast as you can, sobbing down the phone to Williamsons to have a taxi waiting for you. You commandeer the beers. You cry softly into them in the taxi back as you finally break.

You are done.

Once back in the hall, all hope seems lost. Everyone is soaked to the bone and raging because the

day is tarnished. But then someone laughs. And then another. And another. Everyone laughs at the pathetic futility that is the “great British summer”. Someone puts on A Place in the Sun on BBC 2 and cracks open a beer.

Five hours later you are all stumbling about the common room dancing to Beyoncé.

Then you have the ‘eureka’ moment. The rain has been off for three hours, the ground is dry and it may not be Tenerife but it’s still kind of warm. Kind of. Back to Tesco. More beer. Wood. Disposable barbecue.

Steak and marshmallows.

Texts are sent again and the troops rally beneath you once more.

A drunken stumble to East Sands and everyone else in St Andrews seems to have had the same brilliantly simple idea to salvage the day.

The bonfire is built. Someone brought a speaker, another a guitar.

You dance the night away with your friends and talk about the world.

The sky is clear, the stars are out and you all lay by the bonfire as you finally become at peace with the day.

Through failure, friendship and frantic weather it has been accomplished. Memories made, photos taken. Everyone laughs about the hilarity of how pathetic the daytime picnic attempt was and everyone smiles. That, my readers, is the whole meaning behind the great British summer.

To nap or not to nap: how to get to May Dip As May Dip rolls around once more, the long debated question needs to be answered

I

t is that time of the year again.

When the traditional meets the insane, the irrational meets the logical, and when students meet the sea.

Yes, it’s May Dip. For some ridiculous reason, we throw ourselves into the North Sea. A sea that is still recovering from a cold winter, waiting to embrace all the warm bodies that will soon enter it. Of course, it’s supposed to be symbolic – washing away our academic sins before embarking on exams – but even then, man, the things we do for this university.

And yet, a generational discussion always occurs at this time of the year throughout all the years of this university. To take a chilled approach, or go for it. To be sensible about outerwear and your swimsuit or to not give a fuck and just turn up and strip off. And, possibly the most heated of questions, to nap, or not to nap?

It is a hotly debated question that cannot really be answered properly.

to peak around at 3 or 4 am. Enjoy a movie night with friends until midnight and then let the games begin!

Looking back, I don’t know how I got through my May Dip last year.

It was a night of wandering around Market Street, attending parties that then got shut down an hour later, wandering on to find another. On retreating back to my halls, we started our own party, which promptly, minute after minute, hour after hour, descended into “what we can do to keep everyone else awake.” One vivid memory that will always remain is dancing along to Fancy by Iggy Azalea whilst coming down from a cider drunkenness that never seems to last that long. Damn bubbles.

I made it, barely, I remember nearly succumbing to the waves of sleep around 4:30 am, and I was thankful that my friends and I managed to make it down to the beach.

This year I plan to take a different approach. I plan to nap. But again, this should be a tactful nap, and used with care. Those well-rehearsed in the art of napping will know that there is a certain skill in making sure that you wake up feeling refreshed rather than sleepier than before you went to sleep.

For those who may want to just sleep the night away and wake up ready

to go at 5, I’m jealous. But I may just nap so as to still enjoy the hallucination-esque events that always occur in the early morning hours of the 1 May. It is said that you should limit your naps to less than 45 minutes in order to not fall into a REM cycle. However, for the long nappers, it is advisable that you sleep for more than 90 minutes so as to complete a full REM cycle and wake up raring to go unlike those crazed sleep-deprived students hanging by a thread.

What must be stressed is the fact

that you absolutely cannot miss this event. May Dip and Raisin hold hands in being the most celebrated traditional and unique events at this university, and falling asleep or not making it is simply not an excuse.

For freshers embarking on your first May Dip, embrace the sand in awkward places, the myriad of naked fourth years running into the North Sea and remember that you may have to queue for showers when you get into halls. But you’ll have a fabulous time, so don’t miss it.

The The views views expressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do do not not represent represent the the views views of of The The Saint Saint but but are are individual individual opinions. opinions.

Photo: Henry Legg

Ellen Ridsdale

Instead, it must be asked what type of May Dip you’d like to have?

As was true in a series of articles last semester written about sobriety during Raisin Sunday, both sides of the question have their pros and cons and are entirely dependent on the sort of May Dip experience you’d like to have.

It is universally acknowledged that freshers usually go the route of no nap, staying up by all means possible to greet the rising sun with eternal gratitude after a treacherous night of avoiding comfortable sofas and beds at house parties. All you crazy kids won’t nap. You’ve never done May Dip before so why would you be sensible and look ahead? You should have a nice relaxing late evening and mentally prepare yourself over a pizza. Then, begin the pre-ing and this is where strategy really comes into it.

It is imperative, and if this is the only piece of advice that you get out of this article today, is to pace yourself. Too many valiantly enthusiastic freshers have fallen around the most difficult of hours in the morning (the dreaded 3 am) succumbing to too much alcohol and too much movement. Unless you’re a horse and can withstand a full five hours of sustained drinking, start late and aim

The Saint • 23 April 2015

Viewpoint 15

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Why not all-past-the-post?

This much I know

A multi-party government yields many unseen benefits

T

rue, a multi-party democracy has a number of highly attractive features. I, myself, generally favour the European-style mosaic parliaments to the Westminster system where two groups share a century-long monopoly on political power, ever-confident that it’s a matter of several years before they re-take the government, and thus barely motivated to please the electorate with creativity or courage in policy-making.

However, there’s little in common between the multi-party elections in Continental Europe and the fragmented mess that British politics may very well become in the near future.

To begin with an obvious point: the leading exemplars of the

One of the key advantages of multi-party system is that its greater variety of political platforms results in a more precise expression of citizens’ will

Should first-past-the-post elections be a thing of the past?

ronment – a left-wing English voter simply does not get to pick between Labour and the SNP, for instance. As a result, neither diversity of options nor the better political climate are achieved.

Transformed into something between the two-party system it used to be and a multi-party system some want it to become, Britain is not only missing the advantages of the latter, but also risks losing the one true advantage of the former: a single-party majority government, capable of undertaking quick reforms without a need to discuss their terms or trade them for concessions, in practice not bound even with weird whims of some naughty upper house, unlike those in certain other English-speaking countries (whom could I possibly mean here..?).

In the present coalition, the Liberal Democrats, in my opinion, have hardly distinguished themselves as uncompromising negotiators, so this quality still applied to the current cabinet; joint management of, say, the SNP and Labour may not be as smooth.

In order to not become both sluggish and unrepresentative at the same time, Britain will have to eventually pick one system. But the regional parties are on very good terms with their electorate ( no wonder - why wouldn’t some average Ruaridh or Patrick vote for a group which explicitly claims to lobby for their country?); the public has made its decision, so there is nothing a government could do directly to return the UK into the comfort of a not-so-fair, but effective leadership (unless it’s taking lessons from my homeland, Russia).

The remaining option is to complete the shift: in an ideal world, I’d want to see a change of the electoral model in the next decade, but after the failure of the Alternative Vote referendum in 2011, I am doubtful that people would be eager to abandon the first-past-thepost voting any time soon.

Illustration: Milan Cater

Gleb Dobrovolskiy

European ways, be it Scandinavians, Dutch or Swiss (all are heavy hitters of the glossy Democracy Index) use a Proportional representation system.

The UK has never been particularly excited with the idea of adopting it, despite 130 years of activism by the Electoral Reform Society. This means that for all the fresh faces and personalities in TV debates the issue of lost votes – when parties with wide support yet with few “strongholds” are under-represented in the national legislature - is still alive and well.

As current prognosis suggests, relatively popular parties like Greens (5 per cent) and UKIP (14 per cent) are going to struggle to secure several (if any) seats in the House of Commons, whereas the SNP (3.5 per cent) and Northern Irish DUP (<2 per cent) could receive many seats and a disproportional say in state affairs, trading their support of a major party’s minority government for some appealing boons to their respective regions. Their expected triumph, meanwhile, is also central to another significant problem...

In European democracies, one of the key advantages of multi-party system is that the greater variety of political platforms results in a more precise expression of citizens’ will: some nations even indulge in such excessive luxury as having, for example, two major centre-right liberal (Netherlands) or six left-wing (Denmark) parties.

That, in turn, creates an intense competition and thus, in most cases, a healthy and lively political culture. In the UK, however, most successful minor parties are local; they don’t field candidates outside their regions, so the majority of the electorate (in other words, England) are denied the joys of political smorgasbord.

For the same reason, the existence of these minor parties does not promote competitive political envi-

W

Ellen Ridsdale

ell, that’s all folks! After five issues, ten section meetings and review meetings, five awkward distribution Thursdays, countless articles and then one heart-wrenching AGM, I am no longer Viewpoint editor. It is lying in my back garden post-Rugby 7s that I write this, amongst the lovely company of my friends pleasantly tipsy from ‘Jeeves’ (which will never be a full replacement for Pimm’s but I’m willing to overlook it…).

Call me anti-social, but it’s not my fault that my laptop is also blasting Spotify with chilled summer tunes.

It’s finally hitting me that it’s almost summer, and with that the end of the semester, and with that, the end of another year of university.It’s weird to think about, isn’t it? That time is really going as quickly as we disbelievingly exclaim it to be. “Where does the time go?!” God only knows, all that we should concentrate on it to seize it.

I still remember vividly moving into my house, spending those last few summer days before school started with my housemate in this same garden, drinking and chilling with the same music. And now it won’t be too long before we begin to pack and move out, packing up the year of our lives that just went by in the blink of an eye.

Yes we’re moving out of our house. Now that it’s the end of the year I’m excited about moving out and starting afresh. I realise now that sounds a bit cruel – it’s not through our own action that we’re moving out. I’m going on my year abroad and thus breaking up my house – it’s my fault! But at the same time, my cave of a house, the cubbyhole planted into the side of a hill; where the rooms are always dark and taps are always dripping, is being left behind.

But don’t get me wrong, there have been some amazing times there with my housemates, my drunken nights with pre’s or having dinner parties. Celebrating or commiserating with friends, and listening to, what my housemates and I have reached a conclusion on, the upstairs’ neighbours’ jazzercise class through the horrifically thin ceiling and walls.

As my housemate so eloquently and naively put it, “It’s a hole, but it’s our hole”.

The end of things always calls for a reflection, a conclusion and I can conclude that it’s been a good year.

I’ve accomplished things I never thought I would have, met new people, and made new friends. Go

on, laugh, sceptics and cynics. I know this all sounds cliché and ridiculous, but I bet in the quiet of your bedroom, staring at your ceiling at 3 am, you remind yourself of coming to the end of things and your mind flashes with the highlights of your year.

First years: revel in the fact that you’ve had one of the best years of your life. You’ve had new experiences, made friends you’ll live with and have had even more fun with, and experienced your first Raisin! Fourth years: well, you have much to look back on. Maybe too much if you’ve spent your years here right. Just look back and be proud that you’ve made it to the other side unscathed. I don’t mean emotionally from your dissertations, I mean from the countless nights from the Vic and the Lizard scrubbing that stamp from your skin until you’re red raw.

But it’s not quite over yet… We still have about a month. So fill it. Fill it with the things that you haven’t done yet, the things that you’ve been too scared to do.

Do that pier jump with your friends, go naked at May Dip and, yes, even you 3rd/4th years, don’t spend all of your revision time in the library – go outside and soak up the sun on the beach on either a picnic or a walk while the sun permits it.

I know I’ll definitely be doing a lot of soaking up: the energy of my friends, the environment and as many memories I can. For, come September, I will be in sunnier climates of Toulouse, France studying for my 3rd year. For me, this makes both a beginning and an ending; ending my time at St Andrews briefly, but getting anxious and excited for my trip abroad. Whilst friends plan for adopting children and pre-advising for honours modules, I photocopy passport photos like they’re going out of style and look up roommate adverts in a foreign city.

Each to his own I guess.

A slice of home will be visiting me though, for I will be asking my friends to spend me a copy of my dear The Saint every issue it comes out, and when I flip to Viewpoint I’ll see the beaming face of Tom Coombes above his new column as Viewpoint editor, a protective and reassuring face as the new caretaker of the section. I’ll miss it, of course, but I’m completely reassured by Tom. He’ll take the section to new, and funnier, heights.

It’s been a good run Viewpoint, I’ll see you when I get back.

The The views views expressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do do not not represent represent the the views views of of The The Saint Saint but but are are individual individual opinions. opinions.

16 Viewpoint

23 April 2015 • The Saint

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Alcohol: James’ marvellous new medicine

A liquid so effective you’ll be spending the entire next day in bed; give in to my new-found temptation

D

ear Mum and Dad, I’m sorry it’s been a while since my last letter. I miss you very much. My course is going well and I’ve been spending lots of time at the library. I’m also becoming something of a big-shot in the world of disk-golf. In this letter I wanted to write to you about something new I’ve discovered in St Andrews, a thing called ‘alcohol’.

“Al-co-hol” is described in

I’ve unlocked the secret to eternal happiness; Tutorials seemed to last hours before I discovered Tennant’s.

realise with the right soft drink added to it.

My class test went okay, I think, even though I turned up a bit late and came over all dizzy during it - which made it difficult to concentrate. That night, I felt a little bit ill and I was too sick to go to my morning lectures the next day. I’m okay now, though.

I’m not so involved with the Capoeira Historic Organ Donation & Eastern Religion Society, ‘CHODESoc’, anymore. It’s gotten a little boring. Besides, my schedule is packed between spending time with my friends and writing puerile, wholly fictitious articles for the student newspaper.

We ‘went out’ to a disco yesterday.

I had cider with coca cola and thought it was okay; my academic dad said he was very proud of me for trying it. I even went dancing (me, dancing!) and the girls started rubbing against me like I was a handkerchief and they were trying to wipe their bum noses on me, it’s called ‘grinding’, like angle-grinder. My experience of being ‘ground on’ by the girls warrants a letter of its own (already in the post, dad).

I feel like I’ve unlocked the secret to happiness. Tutorials felt like they lasted hours before I discovered Tennant’s. Now they go by so fast I barely even remember them.

I’ve been experimenting the last few

mornings at mixing this brown spicy type of alcohol with my porridge at breakfast, it’s quite tasty if you add a little sugar. I imagine it’s what Mexican food must taste like. That’s another thing I should try, though I worry you may disapprove.

I’m really enjoying myself and trying to make the most of my time at St Andrews.

Ye s t e r d a y I was a bit u p s e t because I missed out on getting tickets for the Clown Shoes and Wetwipes society’s annual ‘Yeast Infection Ball’.

I didn’t have time to go to the shops for alcohol to calm myself d o w n , but I found m o u t h wa s h did the job too, so I got over it.

So now onto exams!

How’s the cat? Hope you’re well, I’m feeling great, better than ever, top of the world, out-bloody-standing.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Lots of Love, James xxx

Photo: Pixabay.com

James Leech

Webster’s dictionary as, “a class of organic compounds, including ethyl or methyl (wood) alcohol, that contain one or more hydroxyl groups (OH) and form esters in reactions with acids”. It’s basically a type of drink.

It’s pronounced like you’re trying to cough up blood or swallow a metal hexagon.

The last few weeks have been really busy. I had three class tests to revise for and a 2,000 word essay due. I was working through it one Friday night and was getting a little stressed out, as you can well expect in that situation.

My friend, who was having a party, suggested I come over, chill-out and try some rum. It was incredible.

Suddenly, everyone thought I was really funny and they all became really nice and excited about hugging each other. There was lots of shouting and ‘whooping’ - which is a yelp similar to that a dog makes when you pierce a dessert fork up its urethra.

I’ve never had so much fun my whole life. I was the life and soul of the party.

There are lots of different kinds of ‘alcohol’. It’s like a Kellogg’s variety pack or one of mum’s flapjack tombolas. Every night has been an exciting adventure into a new flavour or mixture. A lot of the types aren’t very nice, but all my friends seem to like it and I remember you told me to make sure I try lots of new things at university and anything is drinkable I now

Lecture attendance is not something to worry about Lectures or labs, take your pick: arts and sciences students still have plenty of work to do for their courses

Tom Coombes

L

Photo: healthecells.com

ast week The Saint published a list of lecture attendance. A furore erupted amongst students while lecturers stared out bleakly at the twelve people in their ‘oversubscribed’ module lecture and sobbed into their tweed. Carrying themselves off in their sensible footwear, they pulled off their ties like high rollers at the end of a bad night in Vegas, sat down with their books and reflected on the futility of academia.

The shame of the statistics is that they coincided directly with a week of the most startlingly wonderful sunshine and upon reading them,

most people laughed gaily at the frivolousness of study and returned to their beach cricket/ coffee in the sun/ heroin in St Mary’s quad. While a slight shudder of guilt passed through me, I can’t help but admit that I am somewhat surprised at how high some of the numbers actually were.

Take, for example, mediaeval history, which I myself study due to a moment of high spirits and optimism during matriculation week, which holds a lecture attendance rate of 92.8 per cent across sub-honours and honours. Naturally, the fact that this is across the board fudges the numbers around a bit. However, the point remains that mediaeval history is an astonishingly well attended module across the board. Personally I am amazed though I am

Contrary to popular belief, it is the Art students who are suffering the most

probably not the one to ask. The last time I went to a mediaeval history lecture I’m fairly sure James III was still king. Nevertheless I refastened the belt on my arm and returned to my vice with as much jolly impulsiveness as I’d felt that day in matriculation week when I had first signed up.

Of course all this data is also affected somewhat by the fact that was taken in week three of semester two last year. So, it does not account for either the hedonism of this year’s freshers, or the mental breakdowns of this year’s honours students, so for myself the next set of statistics will be more informative of my own shortcomings as a human being.

However one would assume it is unlikely to change all too much.

From a personal perspective, I had a great laugh at the fact that attendance figures stand 79.9 per cent to 74.7 per cent between the arts and science faculties in favour of the former. All those stereotypes of us arts students sashaying around town with scarves flung over our shoulders to protect our bespectacled faces from the wind as we stride through the graveyard at the cathedral in pairs like modern Byrons and Shelleys melted away instantly as you realised that truly it is us, the beleaguered arts students who put in the hard shifts in

the library, ploughing through books and essays at a rate you could only dream of…

In fact, I was slightly surprised myself. A couple of my friends take modules in the science faculty (they slipped through the vetting process) and they are never about. Instead they spend their days in labs, or doing their twelfth class tests since the start of the week whilst the rest of us stumble around trying desperately to remember which day it is.

Be that as it may though, apparently we are the grafters in this town and nobody is more surprised than us. Meanwhile, the medicine lecture statistics caused a veritable sh**storm as the people entrusted with caring for our children and ourselves in our old age, attend 68.4 per cent of their lectures, conjuring images of carrying out vaccinations in twenty years time with blind lunges with a needle towards your arm and surgery being performed by a person so unaccustomed to the human body that there is a likelihood they will crack, grasp your lungs in one hand, blow down your throat and play you like the bagpipes.

The headlines of tomorrow’s doomsday for medicine are averted when we consider that medicine students can catch up on lectures by

watching recordings of them online.

Reports suggest that aromatherapists, homeopathists and other bullsh** pedlars around the country were distraught at this flip-flop, however the rest of us breathed a sigh of relief.

Truth be told though is that, as my mother would say in the quaint German vernacular: ‘es wird nicht so heiß gegessen wie gekocht’, which roughly translates as ‘things are never as bad as they seem’. Our lecture attendances on the whole do not appear too bad at all when considered closely, and frankly if you’re willing to just chuck away the tuition you are paying then that’s your deal.

Some lecture attendances may be low, but there are a mountain of reasons as to why, and frankly we cannot know these reasons unless the University brings in registration for lectures, which would be infinitely depressing. In the meantime then, enjoy the fact that lectures are so very nearly over, leaving two weeks for sunbathing (read revision). Won’t that be just lovely.

Disclaimer: If you have any issues with my use of statistics, please feel free to keep them to yourselves. I am an arts student and therefore wouldn’t normally touch numbers with a bargepole. Now excuse me, I have poetry to compose.

The The views views expressed expressed in in Viewpoint Viewpoint do do not not represent represent the the views views of of The The Saint Saint but but are are individual individual opinions. opinions.

MONEY thesaint-online.com/money

Where to get your take-away coffee during revision Q4U: the new way to buy event tickets

Editor: Danielle Golds Deputy Editor: Jessica Richards @saint_money

money@thesaint-online.com

How would each political party affect you?

Isaac Leaver

With the election coming up next month and everyone asking who they should vote for, The Saint has put together a guide that explains how each party will affect your finances as a student.

SNP

Despite its obvious allure, the SNP’s pledge to maintain the abolition of fees for Scottish students is largely meaningless, as the other left-leaning parties are not likely to threaten the policy either. More significant is its promise to match university funding to that found in other European countries, which is essentially a simple anti-cuts stance for the further education department. The abolition of the zerohours contract will need to coincide with new commitments to grants or loans for less wealthy students in order to keep their university careers viable at a fundamental level.

Non-Scottish UK students should consider what could happen to their tuition fees if the SNP instigates another independence referendum that falls in their favour this time around, although such a referendum is unlikely during the next Parliament.

UKIP

UKIP has put forth a manifesto for students that is on equal-footing with the Green Party in terms of radicalism. The overarching goal of the party to secure the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union will have obvious ramifications for those coming to study for free from the European Economic Area, as

they will be charged the same fees as other international students. As part of this, all non-UK students will be unable to access NHS healthcare, making it necessary for them to provide private insurance during their course of study, dramatically curtailing the financial viability of study in the UK. The abolition of tuition fees for those studying STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering,

Mathematics and Medicine) subjects may seem like a commonsense way of propelling the UK’s research sector, but the hit that Arts and Humanities departments will most likely take as a result will be significant.

Also, students intending to study abroad should be aware of how withdrawal from the EU could affect the availability of the popular Erasmus programme.

Green Party

The Green Party has experienced one of the most dramatic increases in interest from the student population over the last Parliament. This may be because of the disenchantment voters feel towards the Liberal Democrats following their term in government.

The radicalism of their programmes-

In regards to universities, the Liberal Democrats have spent a lot of energy over the past weeks spent defending its discredited record concerning tuition fees as opposed to devising new policies for students.

Instead, a number of reviews have been proposed, most notably into the financial support available for disadvantaged students and the currently endemic practice of unpaid internships. If these reviews come to fruition, then there may be significant gains for students originating from more modest backgrounds, but any tangible change seems currently distant. The planned reduction in bus travel for those of university age is a gimmick at best. It may well transpire that a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for business-as-usual.

Summary

Illustration: Milan Cater

Labour Probably in an attempt to attract those students who traditionally would have voted Liberal Democrat, Labour has placed great emphasis on its tuition fee cut, although it will not reduce fees to the level they were before the 2010 election and some progressives have questioned the policy’s real effectiveness in enhancing social mobility. However, fewer of these critics will doubt the value in restricting unpaid internships to four weeks, after which companies will have to pay interns the minimum wage. A flagship policy to be wary of is Labour’s much-vaunted guarantee to abolish “exploitative” zero-hours contract.

No indication of what criteria will deem such a contract “exploitative” has hitherto been provided, and so it is possible some of the jobs that many students rely on to support themselves could be lost.

Liberal Democrats

most notably including the abolition of both tuition fees and accrued student debt- suggests a struggle with Labour to capture the support of university votes, most of which elect parties with progressive inclinations.

Their proposal of a universal “citizen income” is expected to replace the student loan system. Furthermore, with the reintroduction of block grants which universities will be able to allocate as they wish, the potential for greater financial support for Arts and Humanities students in postgraduate study is tangible. All of this, coupled with the limitation of unpaid internships, makes for happy reading for

progressives. However, the question of the fiscal viability of all of these projects looms ominously in the background of what could prove an undeliverable set of commitments.

Conservatives

The Conservative Party has never been noted for its following amongst students. It appears the feeling as mutual as little attention is paid to students, especially undergraduates, in their manifesto. However, the proposition of a loan system for postgraduate research will give students, princi-

pally those studying the sciences, an opportunity to pursue their education further that may not have previously been financially viable.

The introduction and promotion of shorter two-year courses will saddle some students of tomorrow with less debt, but there is no indication of whether there will be any disparity in job opportunities for those who opt for these briefer degrees. With other further education left exposed as other departments are ringfenced from the next round of proposed austerity measures, a Conservative government is likely to hit university departments disproportionately heavily.

The student vote has never been regarded as a particularly dominant factor in UK general elections, and so it is no surprise that, in the midst of concerns about the fragility of the economic recovery and immigration, the three major parties have not paid major attention to developing policies for those at university. Perhaps memories of the volatile demonstrations in London following the increase in tuition fees in 2010 linger in the minds of many of the political class, dissuading them from making grand or concrete promises.

Instead, the parties that are most likely to install a prime minister in Number 10 and ministers in the cabinet have resorted to guarded and modest reforms for students.

Not one is daring to revert tuition fees to its previous figure or oppose all unpaid internships on the grounds of principal. Within the manifestos of the smaller parties, who have all styled themselves as challengers to the traditional establishment parties and who may be attempting to capitalise on the perceived radicalism of students, universities feature much more heavily.

However, these are parties that, if in government, will almost certainly be junior partners of a coalition may only be able to roll out a highly diluted form of their proposed reforms. Bear in mind what could happen to the students of today and tomorrow when you approach the ballot box in May, but don’t bet on a revolution in student finance or tuition fees any time soon.

The Saint interviews the candidates Turn to pages 8-11

18 Money

23 April 2015 • The Saint

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Where to get your take away coffee during revision The Saint ranks take away black coffee based on price, distance from library, wait time, atmosphere, and, of course, taste

£1.55 – Most people head to Mitchell for a late weekend brunch or a midweek sandwich, but they also have take away coffee for a good price.

The coffee itself is good quality and is the same size as a large at Taste. However, the service can be slow especially because their main business is not take away coffee. But, if you want a few extra minutes to procrastinate and stare at their wide variety of teapigs, this may be the place for you during revision.

£1.70 - Just down the street from the library, Taste is the perfect distance to grab a quick cup while also taking a nice walk down North Street for a little break from revising. Its other big positive is the cool, relaxed atmosphere established both by the baristas and the student artwork that coats the walls. The coffee is also made quickly, although during exams wait time is expected to lengthen. The coffee is more expensive than Starbucks or the library café, but the atmosphere and the short walk may make it worth it after being stuck in the dirty air of the library for hours on end.

4. Rector’s - Best Atmosphere

£1.10 – The closest possible place from the library to get coffee, Eros also offers the cheapest cup The Saint could find. However, there are two important downsides to Eros. One, it is not open nearly as late as Taste, which usually closes at 10 pm. And two, it is packed even during regular term time, meaning we can expect queues extending into the lobby during revision. Additionally, the coffee itself is not excellent and finally Eros also takes away the small luxury of not having to make coffee yourself, which, during exams, can sometimes send you overboard.

5. Eros at the library cafe - Cheapest

Q4U: the new way to buy event tickets Sergei Klebnikov

Photo: Elissa Cotter

The rush to get a May Ball ticket is notorious every year, as people queue overnight in order to ensure they get their tickets.

This year, one student, Gabriel Ross, started a queuing service called Q4U, in which he and his friends took orders for May Ball tickets that they would in turn collect for others.

“People don’t like to queue, so I saw an opportunity,” Ross said.

He came up with the idea on the

Friday before Tuesday’s ticket sales.

With the help of a few friends, he moved quickly to plan it out by setting up a website and Facebook page.

By Saturday, people started finding out about the new ticketing service, and there was a lot of demand.

One person can buy five tickets, Ross explained, so with four other friends, he was able to take up to 25 orders. Even after they closed their orders on Sunday, another 80 orders for tickets came in on Money and Tuesday. Unfortunately, demand was too high for the team to deliver.

Gabriel Ross, founder of Q4U

On the night before ticket sales, Ross queued up with four other friends and spent the night outside in a tent. Come morning, the five of them picked up 25 tickets and completed their booked orders.

Ross said that they need to have more people on the team to get more orders. He is paying friends to help out with the service and hopes to take more orders in the future.

The profit margin was small because of the large ticket prices, but there was around a 5% profit, Ross explained. He said that “eventually it was worthwhile,” although for next time, he wants to “improve the planning process.” The online service was effective, but ticket exchanges were a bit of a hassle. “The whole process could be made simpler,” he said.

The deadline before the event was too tight, so logistically planning a high number of orders was difficult. He hopes to improve planning for events next year, such as Christmas Ball - because of its skyrocketing ticket prices, and other big events.

A lot of people would be interested in this kind of service for other events also, he pointed out.

Looking ahead, Ross wants to make partnerships with event planners – in order to gain a specific amount of ticket sales soley for his service.

£1.80 – Coming in as the most expensive, Rector’s charges £1.80 for a cup of coffee, 10p more than Taste and 25p more than Mitchell’s and Starbucks. Service can also be a little slow, especially during revision when Rectors will be more packed than usual with busy students. It is also the farthest from the library, almost so far that it might make you feel guilty for taking such a long break. However, if you are looking to socialize while you wait, you are likely to find someone you know to chat with. Also the coffee itself is good, and they don’t charge extra for soymilk if you take it!

£1.55 – For the same price as Mitchell’s, and a similar distance, Starbucks offers extremely quick service and the predictability that comes with chain coffee shops.

However, it is lacking the personality that comes with both Taste and Mitchell, especially the friendly baristas you find at Taste. The coffee itself is also not as tasty as what can be found at Mitchell’s or Taste, but if time is what you need on your side, then Starbucks might be your go to spot.

Tesco expands Asian food section to cater to international students Photo: Danielle Golds

1. Taste - Best Taste

3. Starbucks - Fastest

Photos: Danielle Golds

2. Mitchell’s- Best Distance

Danielle Golds Money editor

George Brocklehurst In response to increased demand for local supermarkets to meet the needs of St Andrews’ growing international community, Tesco has expanded its East Asian food section to provide students with speciality groceries and a selection of thirty-five to forty branded items. This comes following the introduction last September of a Polish food section and, more recently, an aisle for American drinks and confectionary to service the town’s swelling number of North American students.

Before Tesco’s World food sections were introduced last year, Asian students at the University eager for some home comforts had to go out of their way to visit speciality stores beyond St Andrews- such as the hugely popular Wing Fung supermarket in Dundee, which attracts Chinese students from Aberdeen and beyond with their ex-

pansive selection of branded imports and specially-sourced Asian groceries like Lotus and Beancurd sticks.

The aisle, now relocated towards the back of the store by the frozen section offers everything from instant ramen dishes, sauces and tofu to more specialised items like boil-in-the-bag Pad Thai and kimchi. The move has been accompanied by a rise in the number of branded products, including the Yutaku range of Japanese noodles, miso soups and sushi rice.

Duty Manager Claire Frew reminds customers that if there’s a product from home not offerred anywhere else in town, to approach a staff member and request it:. “we always strive our best to bring in any popular brands that people want to see,” she said. The increase in size of Tesco’s range of Asian products coincides with an introduction of a small South American food section by the bakery, near the American section.

F EATURES

A Q&A with academic Jasmine Gani

Editor: Emma Freer Deputy editors: Lara Güneri, Chloé Koura, Isaree Thatchaichawalit, Claire Shirey

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The Frank Muir Prize winners

features@thesaint-online.com

Academic alert:

@saint_features

Higher education’s gender gap Emma Freer, Features editor Lara Guneri, Deputy features editor

H

igher education has its own Bermuda triangle, and it needs to be investigated.

Professor Frances Andrews from the School of History says: “That horrible triangle that goes from more women at undergraduate to fewer at postgraduate to still fewer at staff – while it’s the opposite for men – is something that needs to be unpicked.”

According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, 80 per cent of professors at UK universities are men. This is despite the facts that the majority of university students are women and that women make up 45 per cent of the UK academic workforce. Where are all the women in academia?

FAIR REPRESENTATION As it turns out, women tend to be selected for academic jobs (as well as for grants and fellowships) proportionally to the rate at which they apply to them. But, they do not apply at rates equal to their male peers. Furthermore, when it comes to achieving gender balance at the highest ranks of higher education – where the imbalance is most acute – it is not always possible to enforce gender equality. For example, the St Andrews student body elects the rector. “If the students are voting for their rector, you can’t say, ‘Oh, it’s got to be a woman because the balance is out,’” Professor Andrews says.

This is not to say that the problem cannot be addressed. It can. And it should be. “57 per cent of students at the University are women, and that is not reflected in the faculty,” says Charlotte Potter, a fourth-year student who organized last week’s panel discussion, Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: A conversation with women in academia. Professor Andrews, who participated on the panel, is currently the only woman who has ever been a professor in the School of History. (A second female professor will join the department this September.)

Rector Catherine Stihler also participated on the panel. Rector’s assessor Annie Newman says: “Catherine is a feminist. I’m a feminist. Most people are feminists whether they know it or not, and I think it’s equally important to Catherine as it [was] for every other woman on that panel for women to be equally represented.”

While St Andrews is not perfectly balanced in terms of gender, it is doing some things well. “We’re very lucky in that, at the highest level of the University, women are, I think, the majority [e.g. the principal, the proctor, and the rector],” says Annie.

“We’re particularly lucky that we have that example to look to.”

The University is also making strides at the departmental level. St Andrews has been recognized by the Athena SWAN Charter, which awards universities that have committed to combating the under-representation and advancement of women in STEM fields, which have traditionally been dominated by men.

The University has received an institutional award of bronze, while the Schools of Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics and Psychology and Neuroscience have been recognized individually.

OFF BALANCE However, gender imbalance is still a problem here and everywhere.

Part of the problem is unconscious bias. In the late 1990s, the National Union of Students (NUS) campaigned for anonymous marking at UK universities. The then education officer, Richard Darlington, told the Times Higher Education: “We would like all marking to be anonymous… This is not saying that academics are racist or sexist. It is simply acknowledging that subconscious bias is an inevitability unless safeguards are put in place.” After anonymous marking was implemented, the NUS reported that most demographic disparities disappeared in student assessment.

Other insidious cultural issues besides unconscious bias contribute to academia’s gender imbalance.

Professor Andrews says: “I like to think that progress could have been faster in my career in terms of just having the sense that, across the board, men and women would be treated in the same way.” But they often are not.

“I’ve been told that I shouldn’t speak so much at meetings,” she says. And while she admits that she is a naturally talkative person, research shows that women actually speak less when they are in a mostly-male environment even when they are perceived to speak too much.

THE GENDER GAP While gender bias can manifest in subtle, intangible ways, the pay gap is not one of them. Unequal pay is not a problem specific to higher education, but it is certainly an important consideration. On average, women on full-time academic contracts in the UK are paid 11.3 per cent less than men, according to an article from the Times Higher Education published earlier this month. The same article also notes that this gap tends to widen at older universities.

The pay gap is not only an issue of a man being paid more than a woman

in the same position, but is also one of distribution. According to the University’s 2013 Gender Pay Gap Information Report (the most recent study that is publicly available), 80 per cent of staff at the lowest pay grade were women. 81 per cent of staff at the highest pay grade were men. Additionally, among academics at the highest pay grade, there was a gendered pay gap of nearly 6 per cent.

REACHING HIGH Without equal representation or equal pay, women in academia are at a significant disadvantage. However, last week’s Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling event focused on how women are still able to succeed – and even thrive – despite these challenges.

On the day, Charlotte explained her vision for the event: “I hope that it’s encouraging and aspirational. I hope people come away from it thinking, ‘Oh that’s something I can do,’ rather than [think], ‘Oh that’s going to be too hard’ or ‘I’ll never be able to do it.’”

Indeed, the speakers were nothing short of inspiring. They came from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. Many spoke about how they manage to balance a career with children. Each was very candid.

Professor Ottoline Leyser, a visiting speaker from the University of Cambridge where she directs the Sainsbury Laboratory, spoke about all the rejections she suffered throughout her career – from postgraduate programs, fellowships, and academic journals. She was quick to note that these were not specific to her or her gender, but were instead a reality of academia and something to expect – and even embace.

FINDING YOUR PLACE Many of the speakers mentioned self-doubt, which does affect men and women differently. According to a 2011 survey of British managers conducted by the Institute of Leadership and Management, half of female respondents reported self-doubt about their job performance and careers.

Less than a third of men did. In the same way that society socializes women to be less vocal, it also tampers

Illustration: Gabrielle Wolf with their self-confidence.

Professor Andrews says: “You have to learn to live with your self-doubt, not to listen to it all the time, because I have a huge amount of self-doubt all the time. It kind of churns me up. Keep going.”

Like many professionals, female academics often find support in the form of a mentor.

Charlotte says: “A lot of women need a lot more encouragement. And that doesn’t need to be from another woman.” Professor Andrews has mentored younger colleagues of both genders.

“I’ve found that just as useful [as being mentored]. Because in talking to other people about their career and their work, it makes you think about your own. So it’s beneficial to both parties,” she says.

A GLIMPSE INSIDE One thing noticeably missing from the event was a male audience. While there were a handful of men in attendance (including Association president Pat Matthewson and Director of Representation Ondrej Hajda), the room was almost all women.

However, the issue of women in academia affects us all. Charlotte says: “It’s their issue as well, and they need to work hard at it too.”

While women tend to be acutely aware of gender bias and imbalance, men may not be. “It’s hard in a way when you don’t experience it because your eyes are automatically shut to the issue, so they need to be opened,” Charlotte says. Last week’s event was certainly an eye-opening experience.

In addition to addressing the topic

of women in academia, the panel discuss i o n a l s o covered a c a demia as a career option “As someone who has always known that I want to go into academia, I’ve also been a bit frustrated that all of the career events focus on specifically non-academic careers,” Charlotte says. She may not be the only student who feels this way.

The student response to the event was fast and furious, with the first round of online tickets selling out the same day they were released. This popularity was unanticipated, but encouraging. Professor Andrews says: “We’re taking students seriously and saying, ‘You could be like us. There’s no need to see yourselves as somehow different to your teachers. This is just a particular kind of career and, in fact, a really attractive one. And students know it. They’ve seen it. They’ve spent a few years in it. They’ve watched it from the outside, and I think it would be interesting for them to see it from the inside.”

Both Charlotte and Professor Andrews hope that last week’s discussion is only the first of many.

When it comes to the issues facing women in academia – and the progress being made - there is a lot more to be said.

To read about one female academic, Jasmine Gani at St Andrews and the work she is doing, please turn to page 23.

20 Features

23 April 2015• The Saint

thesaint-online.com

Conquering the world

In 1982, around 3 per cent of the University’s student body was international. The number now sits closer to 30 per cent. Editor Jonathan Bucks reports on how St Andrews became a melting pot and leading international recruiter

T

he first people to promote St Andrews to American students didn’t even have a guide book when they arrived in Washington DC. In fact they weren’t at all familiar with the US capital’s geography.

As they ate lunch and soaked up the autumnal sunshine they pondered whether Congress sat on Capitol Hill or the White House. “I don’t think we really had any idea what we were doing there. It was ridiculous,” Celia Boddington recalled recently. “I mean, there we were, about to give a presentation at Georgetown University on why American students should come to St Andrews, on the strong bonds that existed between St Andrews and the States and we didn’t know where the country’s legislature sat.” Irked and embarrassed

The trip had not been endorsed by the University, but that had not stopped Anthony. He was, by the consensus of those who knew him, “a larger than life sort of character,” unbridled and undaunted by the occupants of College Gate. He had joined the University in 1971 and quickly became celebrated as much for his towering intellect as his “legendarily bibulous” parties after chapel on Sunday.

“The word ‘no’ didn’t really apply to him. The notion that he was from a seaside university on the north east Levi to Host Dinner for Exclusive Potential Recruiters’ - Aien reports on Anthony Levi’s “gold plated dinner”

1982 by their ignorance, they resorted to consulting banknotes to solve the mystery. “When we told Anthony [Levi] later, he just rolled his eyes,” Celia said.

It was October 1982 and the St Andrews student population bore little resemblance to today’s melting pot. 51 per cent of first years were English while 38.7 per cent came from Scotland. Around 3 per cent of incoming students that year were from overseas and the majority spent only a semester or two at the University.

The idea of active international recruitment had not crossed anyone’s mind.

But the previous year Professor Anthony Levi had spent four months teaching at Georgetown where he became convinced that as many as 1,000 American students could be persuaded to trade in the East Coast for East Fife, adding not only to the University’s lustre, but also its cash vaults too.

12 months later, armed with a hastily thrown together collection of slides and a rough-hewn prospectus, with his wife Honor and Celia in tow, Anthony was back at Georgetown to realise his long-held ambition.

Francisco, she left her home town of Birmingham for America. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was pursuing the American dream but the US was extraordinarily exciting. There was a sense of possibility and opportunity,” she said.

When Anthony discovered she was moving to the States, he got in touch, asked her to stop off in Washington and told her to bring her red gown. “And I sort of never left,” Celia laughed, her English accent tinctured with a discernible twang common to all naturalised Americans. An internship on Capitol Hill swiftly led to full time employment in communications in Senator Tom Lantos’ office.

“I think it was the stirring of the communications professional in me that made me stop off in DC and help,” Celia said. “When I first sat down with Anthony, well let’s just say that the sales pitch wasn’t exactly there.”

The operation was bedevilled by gaffes and amateurism. Presentation slides went missing, prospectuses were sent to the wrong airport, on the wrong day and at wince-making cost.

The prospectus itself was risible, the copy platitudinous and drowned in exactly the kind of mawkishness and parochialism which Anthony was trying to avoid. The student newspaper Aien made mincemeat of it: “Some imagination appears to have gone into the booklet,” the editorial remarked.

“The description of our seaside town is beautifully poetic as the following excerpt shows: ‘They wrap themselves closely in warm red gowns against the keen north or east wind for although St Andrews sees sun for much of the time the temperature seldom rises to any great height. The air The recruitment drive steps up with the appointment of Frank Quinault and Stephen Magee as recruitment trips are systematised and professionalised

coast of Fife didn’t cross his mind. He thought St Andrews was highly prestigious and had an enormous amount to offer American students and that was that,” Celia recalled.

That October evening, in St Andrews’ honour, Georgetown played host to a score of school heads from surrounding states and correspondents from newspapers such as The New York Times filled the room. The British ambassador to the States, Sir Nicholas Henderson, crowned proceedings with a toast to St Andrews while “Celia brought her red gown and The Washington Post remarked how impressively she spoke,” Anthony later wrote.

Her presence that October evening in 1982 was more by chance than design. She had just completed four glittering years at St Andrews, two of which were spent as president of the Union Debating Society, and was at a loose end. On a whim, and with the help of a Green Card thanks to her father who was a chocolatier in San

1986 is clear, horizons distant and local residents live to great ages’”.

Two months later, in a remarkable two page cri de coeur in Aien, Anthony revealed he had shredded thousands of copies of the drivel. “We need to improve our publicity which is frankly dreadful,” he stated baldly. Hugh Crooke, then cultural attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, described British university recruitment as “delicate, confused, complicated and often mistaken.” Anthony called for the establishment of a promotional office in DC and full backing from the University.

But the University’s support was unforthcoming and invectives in the

student press did little to win Anthony friends at the top. An Aien editorial from the time lamented the conspicuous absence of principal Steven Watson that evening in October 1982: “Recruitment dinner lacking substance,” its headline scorned. “An invitation was sent to Dr Watson but he declined, to the amazement of the Ambassador, and sent no-one in his place.” Frank Quinault, who became assistant principal for external affairs in 1987, gazed back on that evening through a more financial prism.

“He spent a vast amount of money on some gold-plated dinner which didn’t necessarily do any good,” he said. “It was a sideshow.”

However, five high school students from Georgetown were persuaded to come to St Andrews and the University committed £65,000 as a result of their success. The trip may have been unsanctioned by the powers-that-be and its marketing tactics unrefined, but Anthony Levi, his wife Honor and Celia Boddington had taken the first unsteady steps on the path to international recruitment.

A

***

s the Anthony Levi “sideshow” was playing out in the well-thumbed pages of Aien and the dining halls of Georgetown, a small group of University executives had their own plans and were quietly manoeuvring to radically transform the University’s student demographic, expand the institution and cashin on a potential international gold mine that had just been opened up by Margaret Thatcher.

When Thatcher came to power in 1979, she set about shaking up higher education in an effort to reduce public expenditure, introducing fees for international students and setting limits on the number of home-grown students institutions could

recruit. “This posed a dilemma for the University,” Frank Quinault recalled.

“St Andrews was pretty small back then and the principal at the time, Steven Watson, had speculated that the University might rise to something over 4,000 students. The problem was that the number was capped by the government even though the University had the resources.” The solution lay in actively recruiting international students.

A development office was quickly established: a pale substitute of the one that now sits next to the library, it was manned by Colonel John Smith and his two dogs. Frank, who had taken an interest, was told to explore

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: Mi

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the possibility of staging recruitment drives in high schools and colleges in the States. Eventually three teams of academics were sent to the New England and Mid-Atlantic States to test the water.

“After the positive experience we had on our first trips, it very quickly became obvious that someone needed to take this thing forward,” Frank remembered. “I was still a full-time teacher in Psychology at the time but was asked, as a spare-time activity, to look into the mechanics.” Frank established the non-graduating scheme, the American Enrolment Programme.

Students came for a year and if they performed well, could extend their stay for another three.

Armed with videos, prospectuses and other paraphernalia, Frank and his team of academics blazed a trail across the Eastern Seaboard, along a path now familiar to the admissions team but which was then a foreign land to the forerunners of the 80s. “I have this clear memory from quite early on. I was at JFK airport with two enormous boxes: one full of mugs, one full of prospectuses. I had to push the boxes along with my feet in the airport because I had my own Principal Struther Arnott declares that St Andrews has shrugged off its “local university” image and is a “globally influential institution.” St Andrews boasted 1,000 students from 77 countries with alumni hailing from St Helena to Western Samoa.

1998

The Saint • 23 April 2015 luggage.”

Frank had never been to the States before and admitted that he often got lost in New York’s labyrinthine streets. St Andrews may have still been finding its feet but Frank was u n -

thesaint-online.com Frank said. “If you consider how much money the University has made now over the years from American recruitment, that wouldn’t have happened without him. No-one will convince me Bill was anything other than indispensable.”

As the curtain fell on 1985, students seemed more concerned with where to purchase their corsages for May Ball than the changing face of St Andrews.

The recruitment drive was starting to attract attention however. An Aien editorial warned: “Cosmopolitan university, college for rich privately educated Americans, Liberal arts institution – there are so many possibilities for St Andrews in the not too distant future.

What is certain is that we will have no say.”

“E equivocal that the University was pioneering.

“We were the first and we were the best,” he said.

“People in the States were very surprised to see us. America had a long history of sending students overseas and it was strange for them seeing it the other way round.”

One “indispensable” character who preached the St Andrews word in the States was Bill Thompson. A self-employed architect in Maine, when recession bit in America in the early 80s, Bill mothballed his business and came to St Andrews on sabbatical in the Psychology department. “I was talking to him about what we were doing and with typical American initiative, he went straight off to see the principal and said: ‘Look I can help you with this,’” Frank remembered.

Bill’s peripatetic work took him all over the States and he would drop into high schools with a few prospectuses wherever he was. The University paid him £20,000 - £75,00 in today’s money - and 7.5 per cent commission of the fees paid by each student he persuaded to come, an “expensive way of going about things,” Anthony Levi concluded in Aien.

“Bill did attract criticism from some of the staff because he could be a bit flamboyant,” Frank remembered.

He became famous for his appearance at American high schools decked in red gown, kilt and tam o’shanter.

“It was obviously completely over the top but it went down quite well,” Sir Sean Connery and principal Louise Richardson ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The University is granted the honour in recognition of the 600th Anniversary celebrations. The principal and Sir Sean are in New York for the US premiere of the St Andrews film Ever to Excel.

*** verything shifted gear when Struther took over,” recalled Stephen Magee, then vice principal for external relations. Struther Arnott had taught at Purdue University in Indiana for 15 years. When he took over as principal in 1986, he set about modernising the University and erasing the image of St Andrews as a backwater where academics stayed for years gathering dust. A well-known joke at the time was that St Andrews’ curriculum, heavily biased towards the humanities, had remained untouched since its foundation in 1411.

Arnott also sought to drag the University into an era where its funding came from commercial activities.

For Arnott, the solution lay in internationalising the institution. “The first thing Struther said to me was: ‘We have to internationalise, we have to grow. And we can’t do this just by staying the size that we are so get out there and grow it,’” Stephen remembered. He started professionalising the University’s previously bungled efforts while Frank, who had carefully crafted the American Enrolment Programme, was promoted to assistant principal for external affairs.

“Before Struther took over it was amateur. But they showed that there was something to be done and I was given the job of evolving it, professionalising it and turning it into something the University would want to have,” Stephen said. He was told to grow the international body from 3.5 per cent to over 30 per cent.

“We didn’t leave it to random academic visits. I decided that this would be systematised and made the message and everything else consistent,” Stephen said. “Everyone else was doing it, shall we say, less consist-

ently and a lot more randomly.”

The evidence of his labour lies scattered across the pages of student media from the time. Aien began to devote an increasing number of column inches to the recruitment drive and the growing presence of international students. In 1990, the overseas orientation weekend was forced to relocate from McIntosh Hall to Andrew Melville because they needed more space. Students were invited to seminars and workshops on finance, travel and Scottish customs, followed by whisky, haggis and oatcake tasting.

In the same year, a two-page feature in Aien ruminated on the fabled Americans’ true nature. It began: “They buy up the Woollen Mill, take over the golf course and have the nerve to ask where they can find a McDonald’s. Loud, brash, and confident, Americans constantly remind us where they come from by flashing loaded bill-folds and uttering American accents. From their baseball caps down to their boat shoes, they bring America with them to Britain – confirming our worst suspicions from the cinema, television and tabloids.”

Readers were informed that students from the States probably own more pairs of blue jeans and Bruce Springsteen tapes than the average Brit. “They even look similar,” it remarked before, more earnestly, beseeching the reader still suspicious of the American and his baseball cap: “We need to meet the individual beneath the polo neck and jeans. We can learn a lot about ourselves by getting to know Americans.”

By the late 90s, no such plea was necessary. In his 1998 annual report, Struther Arnott declared that St Andrews had shrugged off its “local university” image and was a fully-fledged “globally influential institution”. He said: “To succeed in our aim of continuing to be Scotland’s first and foremost university, we must ensure that the student population is consistently invigorated both by dis-

tinguished scholars recruited from far and wide, and by interaction with undergraduates and postgraduates from many countries.” At the time the University boasted 1,000 students from 77 countries with alumni hailing from St Helena to Western Samoa. Most importantly, it was still expanding.

“I

***

’m sorry if I sound jetlagged,” Beth Shotton says.

“I’ve spent the last few weeks in New York, Boston and Washington DC and my body doesn’t really know what time it is.” The director of international admissions is now in London for a 24 hour stopover before flying to Singapore and then on to Hong Kong. “We’re well known for burning shoe leather,” Ivar Moller, director of North American admissions, chuckles the next day, speaking via Skype from Toronto ahead of a trip to Vancouver, California and finally Australia.

In 2015, prospective and incoming students can meet a St Andrews representative in 31 American States

2012

Features 21 and 40 countries internationally. Had you been at the Azeri Student Centre in Azerbaijan on 10 April, for example, Jonathan Harvey would have been there to greet you, prospectus in hand. Or, should ever you find yourself in Kuwait with a nagging question, both Deborah Brazendale and Gill Gardner are available to supply the answer.

“St Andrews has been leading internationally for the last 25 years,” reckons John Reilly, a college counsellor at the American School of London who used to work at a high school in the States. “Those recruitment efforts have been consistent, and as a result, high school counsellors in the US know St Andrews. Consistent recruitment effort breeds familiarity.”

“We’re not talking about paying lip service a couple of times a year,” Beth notes. “We’re talking about letters, keeping in touch, really managing relationships and building up trust.”

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend a black tie fundraiser for St Andrews at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on their whistle-stop tour of New York and Washington

2014 In September 2014, Beth visited a college fayre at an Illinois high school. On a long list of universities that included Georgetown, Emory and Indiana, St Andrews stood out as the only British university with a representative. In fact, it was the only non-American university there.

“Every man and his dog is trying to recruit international students and get up to St Andrews’ standard but at the moment we have the market covered,” says Ivar Moller.

The team of 10 that cover international admissions go abroad five or 10 times a year, paying visits to three or four schools a day. “We publish all our trips so everywhere we go, even in within the UK, students and parents can opt in to make an appointment.”

Gone are the days getting lost in New York or donning tam o’ shanters and red gowns. “We’re not going out with bagpipes and looking like William Wallace,” Beth says. “Are we pushing boxes of mugs across the floor of JFK like Frank Quinault did? Sometimes.

What’s important though is that we go into every school and present the University in the best light. For me it comes down to the quality of information we provide.”

The University Court announces plans to increase international student numbers to offset the Scottish higher education budget cuts. Minutes from the meeting state that the reduction in funds will be addressed with a “moderate, controlled growth in student numbers (largely from overseas domiciles). Student leaders pour scorn on the plans and raise feats the growth will damage the student experience.

2015 I

*** n 1982, around 3 per cent of the student body was international and a fraction were from the United States. Today the number sits closer to 30 per cent, around half originating from North America. 30 years ago, the news that 434 students were from south of the border prompted the Aien headline “English overrun St Andrews”.

Today, some 1,500 undergraduates represent more than 120 different nationalities. In 1982, a French café on Market Street was as cosmopolitan as it got. Tesco now devotes a whole aisle to American and Asian products.

Beth says she and her colleagues owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneers of 30 years ago. “All of those who were recruiting back in the early 80s, they were really just planting the seeds that are starting to bear fruit,” she says. But as much as the pioneers of the 80s and their successors enjoy reflecting on the past, all of them want to talk about the future. At a University Court meeting in January, the deputy principal and master announced that St Andrews was planning to increase its overseas student numbers to meet growing costs, adding to the feverish debate over whether St Andrews has become too internationalised and Americanised. “In 20 or 30 years you don’t want to be overrun with one nationality,” Ivar says.

Beth does not think they have gone too far but the international, particularly American, presence is now all too apparent. “There are more kids from England, for example, but we Americans just happen to be the loudest,” she says.

Frank Quinault, who retired in 2007, still lives in St Andrews and is able to witness the fruits of his labour whenever he steps out of his Hope Street house. “When we started all of this 30 years ago I never imagined it would expand to the extent that it has done,” he says. “Occasionally, walking down Hope Street, you wonder, have we lost something? Should it be more Scottish? The credit or blame lies with a long line of people.”

22 Features

23 April 2015 • The Saint

thesaint-online.com

The 2015 Frank Muir Prize winners Each year, the University awards the Frank Muir Prize to the best student humour-writers. This year there were two winning submissions: a comic book-inspired script and a collection of poems about life in the Bubble.

F

rank Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality and professional raconteur. Alongside Denis Norden, he was a member of one of comedy’s most enduring writing partnerships.

The two men collaborated for nearly fifty years and produced many comedic masterpieces, including the weekly BBC radio series Take It From Here.

During the 1960s, Muir was involved in a number of television shows. Perhaps his most well-known gig was as a team captain on the BBC2 TV series Call My Bluff.

In 1976, Muir was elected Rector of the University. At the end of his term, he made a gift of £1000, to be endowed as an award for the best student humour-writing.

The contest is open to any matriculated student of the University.

Entries must be original and no longer than 1500 words. While submissions that address University life are encouraged, any topic is viable.

Winning submissions are then rewarded with a £350 prize, courtesy of Muir himself.

The deadline for this year’s contest was on the first of this month.

Herewith are the two winning entries: Timmy Visits Enid Blyton, submitted by Christy White-Spunner and St Andrews (Three Hachú), submitted

by Tristram Fane Saunders.

TIMMY VISITS ENID BLYTON

BY CHRISTY WHITE-SPUNNER Enid Blyton is sitting at her desk.

Voice on intercom: Timmy here to see you, Miss Blyton.

Enid: Tell him I’m not here.

Pause.

Voice on intercom: He says he doesn’t believe you, Miss Blyton. He says you have been saying that for the past two hours, and that he can hear you through the intercom as clearly as I can.

Enid: Well could you just ask him to come back tomorrow? I’m going through a new contract.

Voice on intercom: I’ll try, Miss Blyton, but I am not sure he is going to leave. I think he has a tent with him.

Enid (exasperated): Jesus Christ. Fine, send him in!

Enter Timmy Enid: Timmy what have I told you about visiting the office – Timmy: You can save your rules, Enid.

This won’t take long.

T i m m y s l a m s a book down on her desk.

Enid: What’s this?

Timmy: You tell me.

You wrote it.

Photo: Milan Cater

Enid: Five go to Thorpe Park. It’s a best seller.

Timmy: Oh well if you’re so proud of it you won’t mind if I read some of it to you.

Enid: Timmy – Timmy: Ahhh no no no, are you sitting

comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Chapter 6, ‘Nemesis Inferno.’ George and Julian tingled with excitement as they clicked their safety belts into place. “Not long now,” said Dick, “Papa said this is the wildest ride of them all!” “I’m so scared,” said Anne, “I wish Timmy were here to comfort me but he wasn’t tall enough to come on the ride because he’s a f****** dog!”

Enid: Timmy, please!

Timmy: Five go to Poundland. The five rounded the corner but then stopped suddenly in wonder at the sight of the looming building. “I hear they call it Bargain Paradise,” murmured Julian in amazement, and the children squealed with delight. ‘What does that sign say, there?” questioned Anne. “It says no dogs allowed except for guide dogs,” replied George. Timmy hung his head like the dirty little canine he was.

Enid: I didn’t write that line!

I’m 48, Enid! If anything’s perverted it’s a gang of twelve-year-old children being followed around on every adventure by a 48 year old dog. I see the way the other dogs look at me. And I won’t put up with it anymore. I’m no yes-man. I’m no sycophant. I’m no Noddy.

Enid: Timmy, you’re being irrational.

Timmy: Here are my terms, Enid. My ultimatum. It’s either the children –

Enid: Is it you?

Timmy: Yes. Enid: The children.

Timmy: What?!

Timmy: Well I’ve come with some title suggestions for the rest of your canon. Four Go to the Cinema Whilst Timmy Waits in the Car, Four Ride Business Class Whilst Timmy Goes in the Hold, Four go to a Vietnamese Restaurant –

Enid: No no you’ve made yourself very clear. You or the children.

Enid: Timmy, they’re inaccessible!

Timmy: Five Go On a Walk isn’t inaccessible!

Enid: They’re bad ideas!

Timmy: Five Go to Sleep for a Bit, Five Bark, Five Go Dogging!

Enid: Timmy! I can’t market that. As well as that ridiculous soft-core storyline you sent me.

Timmy: I’d really banked on you saying me there.

Enid: Well, I didn’t, Timmy. So if that’s all – Timmy: No, Enid, please! I need the money! I can’t go back out on the streets, I’m a high flyer. I need to go back to the old days, hanging round with Lassie and the Homeward Bound gang.

Enid (suddenly angry): That’s not the only Jack you’ve been hanging round with!

Timmy: What’s that supposed to mean?

Enid: You think that I don’t notice but I do. I can smell it on your breath, Timmy. Maybe I should re-think some of my titles. Timmy Leaves Four Unattended in the Playground Whilst He Sits in the Pub.’ immy Forces Four to Walk the 10 Miles to School after he gets a Driving Ban. Timmy: It’s not like that!

Enid: It was perverted! They’re only children!

Enid: And I gather arses aren’t the only thing you’ve been sniffing. What else should I write, Timmy? ‘Four Accompany Timmy to Pick up a Gram!?’

‘Four Help Timmy Find a Fresh Vein!?’

You’re a liability. It’s a good job I’ve been making preparations for your replacement.

Timmy: And that’s the very worst part.

Timmy: Replacement?

Timmy: Fifty Shades of Greyhound is anything but soft.

Timmy: Snowy. I hope to God Tin Tin doesn’t know you’re here.

Timmy: Good. Because it will break his little Belgian heart.

Timmy: I’d like to reconsider my terms.

Timmy: And why shouldn’t I? There’s a dog who isn’t pushed around. He’s his own dog. He comes up with his own ideas. What ideas of mine have you ever taken on board?

Snowy: Timmy

Timmy: Well, hang on cause how do you know what the alternative is?

Enid: You’re drunk!

Enid: You’ve been watching Beethoven Octalogy again haven’t you?

Enter Snowy.

Snowy: He doesn’t.

Timmy: Shut up!

Timmy: Well at least I would have been the centre of attention for once.

Timmy looks at her in horror.

Enid: The children.

Enid: The children. Since those are your terms, there’s my answer. I choose the children.

Enid: They would have eaten you, Timmy!

Voice on intercom: Snowy here to see you, Miss Blyton.

ST ANDREWS (THREE HACHÚ)

BY TRISTRAM FANE SAUNDERS The hachú (pl. hachú) is an ancient Scots verse form. Originally written to be shouted over musical accompaniment, the hachú shares certain elements of the Gaelic Sor-Nós and Inuktitut throat-singing. Many anthropologists believe the form’s origins can be found in Fife’s local climate. As the old saying goes, a good hachú is one part improvisation, two parts expectoration.

Rhyme is irregular, and there is no fixed metre or syllable-count. Until the 16th century, the poem’s length varied according to the wishes of its audience. A popular form of public entertainment, the hachú would continue until the crowd, in a spirit of good-natured high jinks, joined together in bludgeoning the poet to death.

Hachú are traditionally short. i. Spring in Fife The soft season lags, then pounces.

Nocht blooms but a fold-oot sign on four fat legs announces: New! Deep Fried Creme Eggs ii. And who can blame them?

A field of static mobile homes, on a cliff’s tip, ready to jump. iii. With many unique features, including Europe’s second-longest siege tunnel When all’s set doon, ‘s no much of a castle.

Twelve hunnert tuns o’ stoon;

The Saint • 23 April 2015

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Features 23

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In conversation with Dr Jasmine Gani

The Citadel of Aleppo is a large medieval fortress in Aleppo, Syria - The site has since received significant damage in the ongoing Syrian Civil War Mary Shireaf Dr Jasmine Gani joined the School of International Relations (IR) at St Andrews in September 2014. Her current work focuses on IR in the Middle East (particularly Syria) and the impact of colonial legacies on regional politics, society and ideas.

The Saint: What made you want to be an academic?

Dr Jasmine Gani: Well, it wasn’t an obvious choice at first. I got an inkling toward the end of my undergrad, as one perhaps should, that this is what I wanted to do. During my Masters at LSE, I migrated from history to the theory and history of IR. This was just after the Iraq war and post-9/11, so it was a time in world politics when everything was in flux, and the norms of IR were being scrutinized. I found myself coming out of my seminars and finishing my essays and wanting to say so much more.

Academia was the perfect route to study these ideas and continue pursuing this love for knowledge, while at the same time being able to write about it, push the boundaries, ask questions that weren’t being imposed on me by others necessarily. While doing my PhD I recognized how much I love teaching and engaging with students, who I always find I can learn a huge amount from.

TS: Just on the cusp of the uprisings in Syria breaking out in 2011, you finished you PhD thesis and book, The Role of Ideology in Syrian-US Relations: Conflict and Cooperation.

Can you talk a bit on what inspired this?

JG: During my legal research, I came across this case in which the US had been complicit in the sending of a Canadian national to a “black site,” which is a detention camp often in dubious parts of the world where there are no legal recourse of human rights that these people could turn to. In this particular case, the site was in Syria.

It was a part of the world I’d always been interested in, but it triggered in me an awareness.

Here are two countries that don’t have diplomatic relations. The US had

imposed sanctions on Syria and has considered them state sponsors for terrorism since 1979 when Syria was the only country that recognized the new Islamist republic in Iran. In that political context, this collaboration of intelligence and something considered illegal in terms of human rights law was fascinating.

The PhD came out of that, but I broadened it to understanding the framework of US-Syrian relations, which had been largely neglected in scholarship prior to the current conflict except by a few dedicated researchers.

TS: On your Twitter page, you’ve tweeted recently several victims’ personal narratives of the conflict in Syria. You’ve also mentioned in recent talks the importance of listening to individuals’ narratives in a conflict rather than losing them in the statistics. What role does narrative play in your research, and what role do you think it should play in IR? JG: I remember setting out as a research student being aware of the perception that narrative was of lesser academic and scholarly importance compared to analysis and philosophical discourse. Narrative is “just description,” so it was described in a pejorative way. I found that a lot of researchers around me undermined the role of history and historical narrative because “you’re just telling a story.”

But sometimes narrative is the practice that challenges existing frameworks and discourses. Narrative becomes emancipatory in itself.

Narratives are constructed. So, who’s doing the constructing, and why? What function does it serve?

With every narrative there is analysis and evaluation that takes place in what you select, what you leave out, what you choose to emphasize.

With my talks and my Twitter feed, I’m requesting a shift from focusing on a narrative that places primary emphasis on states and the elites to trying to understand the voices and the stories at the grassroots level, the voices that are marginalized. I think sometimes rather than jumping to philosophical debates and trying to unpack things with sophisticated academic tools, we just need to listen.

TS: Do you think media attention can have a tangible effect on terrorist movements, e.g. the #bringbackourgirls campaign?

JG: I think the media does have an impact on terrorist movements, and terrorist movements have an impact on the media. There’s a symbiosis that exists between the two. Stories on terrorism help the media tick the boxes of sensationalism, accumulating readership, demonstrating the necessity of the media in the first place, keeping people aware and protecting themselves. But the terrorist organizations also depend on the media to actually get their message out there. Terrorists rely on creating a visual impact. If they don’t have the media as a vehicle to carry the message to their target audience, then they fail. So there’s a mutual relationship between the two, even though it might not be an intended one on the part of the media.

Sometimes rather than jumping to philosophical debates and trying to unpack things with sophisticated academic tools, we just need to listen TS: The Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris garnered much more media attention than the Baga massacre in Nigeria, in which the terrorist group Boko Haram killed perhaps more than 2,000 people, just a few days earlier.

This is a clear example of Western media bias. What do you say to those who believe that massacres that occur in Africa are irrelevant or unin-

teresting to Western audiences?

JG: On one level, I think it’s absolutely valid to recognize that humans will relate to those that they are in greater proximity to. The reason why I think we can’t apply that rationale to the lack of coverage of issues in Africa is because there is a long-standing philosophical, moral, ideological architecture in the West that places Africa at the bottom of a civilisational hierarchy.

TS: The dark continent.

JG: Yes. And the Middle East, the Subcontinent and Latin America sit somewhere on that spectrum as inferior to the civilisational ideal of the West. But at the very bottom is Africa.

It’s an ideology that has been used to justify colonialism at an extreme level. And at the more subtle level – but still very much part of the same perspective – the perception that African lives matter less and that the entire continent is homogeneous. It ties in with the rhetoric that you cannot teach them [Africans] to resolve their problems because there’s an intellectual incapacity. And so a massacre of potentially 2,000 people is a part of a norm. This doesn’t just reflect an inability to empathize with those that are far away from us, which may seem very natural, but also demonstrates a continuation of deeply embedded historical perceptions of Africa, as those whose lives are less valuable compared to the lives of the civilized ideal.

TS: You hold an uncommonly expressed position on the Charlie Hebdo attacks: you condemn the attacks, but you also do not support the cartoons published in the magazine. Can you speak a little bit about this?

JG: The shootings of the journalists were utterly horrific and truly shocking. I can understand and sympathize with the widespread outrage that occurred. Expressing solidarity with the individuals who were killed and their families is not anything I have issue with. But Charlie Hebdo as a magazine – these attacks do not justify their insensitive and often racist approach to its publication. And it’s not just Muslims who have been a target of its

magazine, but it’s black people and Jewish people as well, historically.

I think we need to be a bit more nuanced in the way that we respond to such events. We have the capacity and responsibility to separate condemnation of an action, as horrific as it was, without also having to conflate that with immediate, knee-jerk support for a magazine whose principles we don’t agree with.

TS: If I may, I would like to end on a more personal note. You choose to wear a hijab, and, coming from the so-called Bible Belt in Tennessee, this is something I would rarely see at home. Even in the UK, where it is more common, wearing a hijab provides a visual difference between you and the majority. I think a lot of people respect this but don’t fully understand it. If you don’t mind, can you explain what the hijab means to you?

JG: I’m happy to talk about it. The hijab has become so politicized, and it carries so much symbolic meaning for different groups of people. For some non-Muslims, it symbolizes oppression, and it may be the experience of some who have worn it. For me, the hijab is just an act of spiritual agency and a fulfilment of something that enables the individual wearing it to be able to focus on the internal rather than the external.

It is about resisting the type of oppression that can come from feeling pressured to look a certain way that is dictated to you by society and others. Again, it must be 100 per cent agency and freedom on the part of the individual choosing to wear it.

To fulfil that conceptual idea, it simply cannot be something imposed by another individual or the state or whoever. I do not think that a hijab is the only route towards that emancipatory experience. There are pluralist ways in which somebody could reach that sense of emancipation and focus on the internal rather than simply the external.

TS: That’s meaningful to me as it’s very different from how I perceived the hijab, as a sort of external expression of religious and symbolic belief.

24 Photography

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23 April 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ The Saint

Week in pictures

Photo: Daniil Lapko Photo: Freya Coursey

Photo: Daniil Lapko

Photo: Yelim Lee

Photo: Daniil Lapko

Photos from Photosoc photo exhibition, Rugby 7s, Re:fashion and Bute Ball

Photography editor: Yelim Lee Deputy editor: Rachael Galilee thesaint-online.com/pictures

Photo story

photography@thesaint-online.com

Staff photographer Daniil Lapko captures the architecture of St Andrews

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Events thesaint-online.com/events

Re:fashion review Under Canvas preview

Editor: Samantha Marcus Deputy Editors: Lorna Keegan, Antonia Ward, Nora Stai

events@thesaint-online.com

@saint_events

On Monday 13 April, Re:fashion took over Parliament Hall. By selling used student clothing, Re:fashion aims to promote sustainable shopping, as well as raise money for the University’s Charities Campaign. Commencing at 7 pm, the venue was instantly crowded.

Students eagerly sorted through designer and high street wares, and the atmosphere maintained a fast pace.

Despite the initial chaos, the room was organized and upbeat, peppy house music heightening the mood.

Having doubled inventory since its inaugural event, Re:fashion featured more designer garments this time around. In particular, the two main designer deals were a £50 Burberry jacket and an Alexander Wang Rocco bag. In addition to designer pieces, high street staples from Urban Outfitters and H&M were also featured. Contrary to the thrift store stereotype, the inventory was clean and most items appeared lightly worn or brand new.

After the first hour, most of the inventory had been taken, a sign of a successful event. However, although the inventory was of high quality, those who arrived later in the evening were disappointment as most of the clothing has been sold already.

Like most up-and-coming events, however, there is always room for im-

provement. Within Parliament Hall, coordinating changing rooms posed a big challenge, and created chaos for the eager shoppers. Although the washrooms were suitable, there were often too many girls changing in one space at a time.

Additionally, the student attendees were predominantly female: with skirts and dresses dominating the venue, menswear only accounted for two small clothing racks. In spite of the female majority, however, the menswear selection was well selected, though small. Hopefully in the future Re:fashion will cater to the town’s fashionable male students as well, and not just to the female fashionistas.

On the whole, Re:fashion exceeded expectations. With St Andrews being such a small town, and therefore unable to provide a broad selection of shopping opportunities, Re:fashion exploited the student community’s love for fashion. The stock was season appropriate, fashionable and affordable. As it provided this reviewer with a new jumper, it was far more successful than most trips to the local H&M.

On the whole, it exceeded expectations

Photo: Daniil Lapko

Stephanie Irwin

Photo: Daniil Lapko

Re:fashion’s second event outshines its first

If there’s one thing that’s been noticeably missing from my five years at St Andrews, it has been live music.

When I pictured myself at university, all those many, many, many years ago when I was in sixth form, I saw myself dancing to live music at sweaty venues. Not so in the Bubble, unfortunately. Thankfully for St Andreans, Under Canvas has been working to fill that void, and has been doing so quite successfully. Billed as a one-day music festival, the event promises to provide an evening of eclectic music, colour, and a different atmosphere to the typical St Andrews’ night out we’ve come to expect.

Throughout the night the “festivalgoers” will be able to #getunder to the sounds of Wovoka Gentle, Soul Patch, and New Carnival before the two headline acts, Horse Meath Disco and Mike Mago, take to the stage to ensure a dancing crowd into the wee hours of the morning. What makes the line-up so fantastic is that, as with every year in the past, the committee has gone to great lengths to mix up the vibe throughout the night, with the music played ranging from folk all the way to house. The emphasis has really been placed on having a good time no mat-

ter which circles you mix in or what music you listen to. Under Canvas is a call to action for St Andrews’ students to drop any pretensions for an evening. One thing that is similar to the typical St Andrews-tradition, however, is the event’s commitment to charity. This year, Under Canvas will be raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, a charity it has been supporting since the event’s inception in 2009. So, whoever you are, Under Canvas might just be the perfect way to end your semester. Deadlines are over, summer’s (hopefully) almost here, and with an eclectic line-up and the promise of something for everyone, you really don’t need more of an excuse to #getunder than that, do you? (Tickets for the event are available online at www.staundercanvas. com).

Photo: Under Canvas

Lorna Keegan Deputy events editor

Photo: Kate Kennedy Club Photo: Under Canvas

#getunder: the Bubble’s one-night music festival

Airashi Dutta

Hamlet Prince of Denmark

Charity Polo Tournament

Antonia Ward Deputy events editor

Thursday 23 April sees the return of The Canadian Club’s ‘Annual Flip Cup Tourney’ at the Rule. Kicking off at 7 pm, you can see twenty-four teams battle it out for the famous Flip Cup Champion title. Although all team spaces have been filled, Caitlin Craig, one of the organisers and a native from Toronto, tells me that there will be plenty of activities throughout the night that everyone can get involved in. Tickets to watch the tournament are just £5 each. The night also promises some ‘special snacks’ and booze, perfect for everyone who wants to escape dreaded coursework and exam-related stress.

Those interested in going along (which you should be) should keep an eye on the Facebook page, where Caitlin reveals there will be some exciting new additions to the night revealed as we get closer and closer to the event. Given that this is the fifth

flip cup tournament hosted by the club, this competition is well and truly establishing itself as one of the most popular and eagerly anticipated events of the spring semester.

The fact that the team spaces fill up weeks in advance and that the event currently has a waiting list is proof in itself of its popularity. With a strong concentration of students from all over Canada attending St Andrews, it is no surprise that the thirst for a good game of flip cup is strong.

The night is guaranteed to be exciting whether you are a competitor or not, with some great team names, including ‘Flipadelphia’ and ‘Havin’ Nun a Vut’ and the organisers encouraging team costumes and beaters. The current half time entertainment has recently been revealed to be ‘The First Annual Booty Flip Contest’, and yes, that is exactly what it sounds like. So, grab £5 and go cheer on the teams to victory, whilst sipping on some Molson Canadian of course!

Beers and Brats Fest

Dance Soc Gala

Photo: TEDx Group

Beginning in 2012, but expanding into a much larger event with buzz following the University’s 600th Anniversary, TEDx St Andrews is now back for its fourth edition.

Interestingly, this year, the committee has opted “to go without a theme so as to encompass every kind of speaker and every kind of genre of talk.”

As many committee members have grown up watching TED talks in school, the fact that St Andrews is hosting its very own series of talks and bringing in speakers to talk about a variety of topics is definitely an exciting prospect. The sentiment seems to be shared amongst St Andreans, as both the tickets for the talk and the live streaming have been sold out for this year’s event.

As an organization, TEDx strives to “spread ideas and encourage innovative, intellectual discourse.”

The 2015 speakers’ list certainly encompasses this goal. The speakers’ list includes New York Times journalist, Roger Cohen. In the span of his career, Cohen, has won multiple awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Furthermore, he has adopted an in-

ternational outlook to his approach to journalism, having worked as a foreign correspondent in 15 different countries.

Another speaker who will be attending the event is Co-founder of Blu-Dot, Darshita Gillies, who went from the proverbial rags to riches.

She is now a leadership coach and focuses on instigating social change.

TEDx will also be show casing Erling Kagge, the first person to have summited the ‘three poles’ (North, South and the summit of Mount Everest).

In addition to his outdoor pursuits, Kagge worked as a lawyer for Norsk Hydro and read philosophy at Cambridge.

Although the speakers come from a variety of backgrounds and have interests that lie across a broad range of topics and fields, they are drawn together by what seems to be their tenacity and desire to push themselves beyond their comfort zones – an apt representation of the very essence of TED talks, as well as spirit of the town of St Andrews.

This year’s Tedx has a diverse range of sponsors: Forgans, Accenture, Rocca Bar and Grill and finally, the University. All in all, this event will be much anticipated by the St Andrews community.

Do you even flip bro?

Photo: Caitlin Craig

Explorers, entrepreneurs, writers: TEDx is back

23 April 2015 • The Saint

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Photo: Jemma Finnegan

27 Events

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n Friday 24 April, the Mermaids Performing Arts Fund, in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, will be presenting Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. Beginning at 7:30 pm, the event will showcase the very best of student-talent. The Byre Theatre is providing tickets for students at a discounted price (£6), so there is no reason to miss this performance.

T

he time has finally come for some sophisticated polo! The Annual Charity Polo Tournament of 2015 takes place all day from 11 am, until 5 pm, on Saturday 25 April. If you are not yet in possession of a VIP or standard ticket, you can still buy tickets for £15 at the door.

A

s lectures finish and we slide into revision week, many will be pleased to hear that on Friday 24 April, the Fine Food and Dining Society is hosting the Beer and Brats Spring Fest from 1 to 5 pm in the Union’s new Beer Garden. There will be everything you’ll want, from food to art to music, and - hopefully - sunshine.

O

n Tuesday 28 April and on Wednesday 29 April, the Dance Society will be presenting their annual gala, Once Upon a Time. The event is held in the Byre on three occasions, with tickets costing £6. Starting at both 7 pm and 2:30 pm, Once Upon a Time is said to showcase an “eclectic and exhilarating” array of dance.

eight

May Dip Beach Party

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ood news! On the eve of academic cleansing, Plan St Andrews is hosting a massive beach party on East Sands. There will be marshmallows, candles and live music to help you stay up until sunrise.

The event starts at midnight May 1 and keeps going until the dipping begins.

T

FemSoc Conference

his year, St Andrews Feminist Society will be hosting a oneday conference on “the future of feminism”. With speakers from both Dundee, as well as from Melbourne, the conference will showcase a wide array of topics and ideas. So join the Feminist Society on Sunday May 3 from 10 am to 6 pm! Tickets will be sold outside the library on 27 and 28 April.

O

‘Itchy Feet’ Night

n Tuesday May 19, the Itchy Feet Society will be transporting you back to the fifties with a night of swing, soul, funk, rhythm and blues.

Beginning at 10:30 pm, the event will take place at the Vic. So join the Itchy Feet Society for “toe tappin’, finger snappin’ good times”!

Presenting: Pitch Please

C

ome along to Sandy’s Bar to see the Accidentals’ (also referred to as the 2015 Scottish A Capella champions) launch concert for their first album, Pitch Please. As the event takes place at 7 pm on Thursday 30 April, it will definitely be time well-spent before into the ice-cold water at dawn the following morning.

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Our appexpressed lets people see on and do access events with a few taps of The views in what’s Sabb diary notgreat represent the views of The Saint. The Saint is not affiliated with the Students’ Association. a phone. Use our free Entry Manager App to scan tickets and stay on top of who’s coming.

Want to list an event or become a FIXR Rep? Get in touch at fixr-app.com

ARTS & CULTURE thesaint-online.com/reviews

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Creative relief Mental health and the arts Editor: Ruairidh Bowen Deputy editors: Sophie Cadden, Marina Carnwath, Tom Coombes, Holly Fathi, Stephanie Irwin, Joe Ives, Caitlin Lewis , Eilidh Tyler Reid, Tristram Fane Saunders Photo: Conner Somerville

30 Arts & Culture

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23 April 2015 • The Saint

The strengthening relationship between the arts and mental health ARTS & CULTURE

A wide range of artistic activities are encouraged to benefit mental health. interesting and informative events being evidence of the shift in perception, and through art stigma is being broken down. However, art plays an even more interactive role in mental illness, through what is known as ‘art therapy’. For a long time now, means of creative expression such as art, dance, music and drama have all been considered positive and effective strategies when coping with mental illness. Art is created through thoughts and feelings. Using one’s

heightened and magnified emotions in order to create something positive amidst mental distress has proven to be a popular method of therapy.

Art is being used everywhere as a means of escapism and relaxation - I recently walked through Waterstones on Market Street, where adult art therapy colouring in books are so popular that they have taken over an entire display table. These are high quality, detailed books that feature beautiful images such as mandalas

and stained glass windows. They give people the opportunity to take a break away from stress, and use their frustration to create something beautiful.

Creative expression is becoming rapidly accepted as an extremely useful resource for those living with mental illness, both through increasing awareness and knowledge, and in providing people with an opportunity to use art as a coping mechanism. This recognition can only prove to be beneficial for a

town such as St Andrews, where opportunities of creative expression are readily available at our fingertips.

With a wide range of artistic, literary, theatrical and performance societies thriving, one can only hope that the increasingly positive links between mental health and the arts will encourage students to get involved with the arts they enjoy, and that this will result in their minds and bodies benefitting from this involvement.

Creative expression is becoming rapidly accepted as an extremely useful resource for those living with mental illness, both through increasing awareness and knowledge, and in providing people with an opportunity to use art as a coping mechanism

Photo: Student Minds

Mental illness is prominent in any stressful environment, and university life is no different. Our university provides a number of resources to help students understand and cope with mental illness through Student Services, online resources, and several organisations connected to the University such as Student Minds, Wellbeing and Nightline.

Support is offered by these sources in a variety of ways, and the manner in which this support is delivered is creatively evolving. St Andrews Mental Health Awareness Week, which took place 13-19 April, hosted several events in order to live up to its namesake, and two creative ventures stood out in particular: INTROSPECT: Experiences with Mental Illness and Mermaids does Mental Health. INTROSPECT was an art exhibition organised by Student Minds St Andrews alongside student photographer Conner Somerville, a fourth year Computer Science student. The event took place just after the official end of the Mental Health Awareness Week on the 20 April in the St Andrews Brewing Company.

The exhibition’s purpose was to raise awareness of mental illness through creative expression, with submissions being a variety of art forms such as photography, painting, and poetry.

Submissions dealt mainly with direct and indirect experiences with mental illness, and the exhibition proved to be a reflective and thought-provoking space, successfully achieving what was set out to do.

Mermaids’ event on 15 April was more interactive, offering people the opportunity to take part in a workshop devoted to mental health and its connection to the arts. The workshop covered a lot in a short time, commencing with de-stressing techniques: writing or drawing one’s feelings and then tearing them up.

Afterwards, everyone was split up into pairs to get to know each other, and then once pairs felt comfortable, muscle relaxation techniques were taught and performed within the pairs. Theatre as a whole was then examined in terms of the way in which mental health is presented in theatre. The workshop finished with a group debate, where concerns such as the most useful form of representation of mental health in performance art were brought up and discussed.

Kara Gooding, a third year Psychology and Philosophy student who attended the workshop said, “it was really worthwhile to think about how film and theatre do and can deal with mental health, to see how people differed in what they thought was acceptable or not acceptable (without any one side being explicitly right) and the impact society as a whole has on how art about mental health can be presented. It showed that both society as well as film and theatre are responsible for understanding mental health and representing it responsibly.”

The representation and consideration of mental illness is evolving through creative means, these two

Photo: The Aura Crossing

Eilidh Tyler Reid Art & design editor

INTROSPECT was brought to St Andrews by Student Mind

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The Saint • 23 April 2015

Saints on the street: end of year style T

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Stephanie Irwin Style editor If St Andrews students are reliable for one thing, it’s being well dressed.

Despite impending deadlines, these students took on the stress with pol-

ish and style. For this instalment of Saints on the Street, The Saint searched for students at two campus style hubs: Taste and the library. After scouring these hot spots, The Saint has summarised what our stylish peers have been wearing this month.

At the library, white trainers, black, and layers were popular among

students. For a fresh take on this classic combination, students sported bright backpacks and classic white trainers. Loose fit pieces were also a constant, students opting for trendy joggers and denim jackets. In particular, Mellody’s acid wash denim jacket stood out. The patches are not only on trend, but the hood and loose fit

give the acid wash a youthful twist.

Outside Taste, texture was paramount. To make a casual look standout, these students opted for bold, textured accents. In particular, Eujenia’s fur coat is a foolproof, glamorous addition to her black ensemble.

Staying within the category of dayto-night, Caroline’s look is incredibly

versatile. Through adding tights and a blazer, Caroline can head straight from the library to a social without needing to change. For the boys, Derby shoes, a textured jumper and a polished jacket were widely worn.

Daniel’s powder blue shoes are not only a unique colour, but their distinct texture illustrates an eye for detail.

Ben

Mark

Mellody Daniel

Eujenia

Caroline

Photos: Stephanie Irwin

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ART

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DESIGN

Hope Gaffney St Andrews is home to a bustling art and design scene, yet the work of local artists is somewhat overlooked by students in favour of student artists. Fife is home to a number of artists, and St Andrews presents an opportunity for their work to be advertised universally through the international status of our little town.

Their work can be found by simply walking into one of the local independent gift shops. A little gem nestled on South Street, is a shop called Top Drawer, which is a short distance from Jannetta’s. The shop is small, yet packed with beautiful hand-crafted gifts and homemade cards, all produced by local artists. After chatting to the lovely owner, Jenny Morrison, it is clear she is passionate about sharing all the beautiful work that local talented artists have to offer.

An exceptional example of craftsmanship within the shop is the range ‘Glass by Kathryn’, produced in Leslie, Fife, by Edinburgh School of Art graduate Kathryn Neale. Neale fuses and melts glass using her own techniques and the outcome is stunning. All of the glass work is cut,

drilled, polished, etched and finished by hand. There are many products available, from beautiful colourfully painted glass clocks to coasters and glass hangings, many with a Scottish twist featuring Highland cows and thistles. Her studio can be found in Leslie, but Top Drawer conveniently has a wide range of her products available to buy in St Andrews.

Pottery is another popular artistic offering from Fife, and Top Drawer is home to a fun range in store called ‘Methil Moggies’, a range of crafted cats, dogs and Highland cattle handmade in Methil, Fife by Earthern Images. They are made by using stoneware clay, fired in their own pottery workshop. The products are unglazed and resemble sandstone, both in looks and texture, which is a greatly effective technique, different from the usual pottery method which results in a smooth clay. They have even made a Hamish McHamish cat exclusively for Top Drawer. The range of cute cats is certainly something different, and the skill used by the potters is second-to-none.

Another type of craftsmanship that is prevalent in Fife is candle-making. McKelvie Candles are known as Scotland’s favourite candles, and they have a range of beautiful products,

Photo: Top Drawer

Don’t overlook local artists when it comes to arts and crafts

Highland cow inspired craft including hand poured, long lasting candles and premium reed diffusers, made in Glenrothes. There are lovely Scottish scents like the traditional ‘Clootie dumpling’, ‘Raspberry Cranachan’ and ‘Coo Toffee’, along with many other floral and unusual scents and the handmade and crafted candles are artwork in their own right. They are attractive in appearance as well as in scent, as each has a distinctive colour and wax crystals sprinkled inside, housed in a tartan jar to complete the Scottish look.

In St Andrews, there are many gift shops selling beautiful handmade jewellery, and Top Drawer is no different. In the South Street store, you can find a beautiful range of silver jewellery by jewellery designer Clara Smith. She has individually hand crafted each piece of silver, adding hints of gold and copper.

Each piece is made in Perthshire.

St Andrews, and Fife’s local artists may be overshadowed by our own talented student body, yet you can catch a glimpse of something different and

unique by simply walking into one of the many independent gift shops in our town, which we walk by every day without noticing. So, why not have a stroll down our three streets and go a little deeper; ask questions and find out more about local art and design produce. A gift shop may be an unlikely place to discover hidden talent, but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. You may be surprised to find out about the great wealth of talented artists and designers that this small town has to offer.

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Tom Coombes Music editor On 20 April, St Andrews dropped what can only be described as the ‘phattest mixtape of 2015’ in the form of Salvator Mundi – The Purcell Legacy.

Kanye is worried, Beyonce is frantically scribbling away and Alex Turner reportedly dropped the microphone he was holding at the time he was told.

‘How can we release a mixtape?’ you cry. Well it’s because we now have a record label. This tiny little Scottish seaside university town has a record label. How in the name of Hendrix did we manage to get a record label? Announced during On the Rocks last week, the idea appears to have come up in a fit of hubris and spirituality leading to a recording of our very own St Salvator’s Chapel Choir performing the songs of Henry Purcell, John Blow, Jeremiah Clark, and, apparently, the very first recording of an anthem called Hear me O God by William Jackson. Apparently this is exciting. In its own way I suppose it is.

The label, which is predicted by almost all market research to rival Parlophone, Atlantic and EMI by the second quarter of 2016, It is going to be called Sanctiandree, a name which Will.I.Am. went on record describing as ‘dank’ last week. It reportedly plans to release a CD every six months, an idea which I cannot help but find something of a pipe dream at this stage, especially considering all the trials and tribulations of recording music. The St Salvator’s

Chapel Choir may have made their first album with ease, but what of the inevitable difficult second album?

That third album which is a concept album performed using Mongolian throat singers? Not to mention the crisis when one of the tenors leaves to find himself in Peru and write a solo album? It could be difficult to keep up that kind of rate of release.

The release date for the first album was of course set, hilariously, for 20 April. Reports of any praising of Jah in the record have been vehemently denied by all involved, but rumours persist that if you play the record backwards the words ‘Rise, Jah and give us your glory’ can be heard throughout the William Jackson number, something which again has been denied.

On top of this release the choir are due to embark on an epic US tour this year, where they hope that rumours of the hedonism of previous tours to Spain, Germany and Cyprus will not ruin what I’m sure promises to be an unparalleled success.

It is at this point though, that I will stop to apologise. Those reading closely may have realised a slight sarcastic tone in the previous part of the article and for that I am truly sorry. It’s just that my ears pricked up when hearing of a ‘new St Andrews record label’. Hell, it was never going to be rock ’n’ roll, but I thought at least Music is Love could perhaps have tried to get involved, and put out a couple of singles. It would have provided an ideal outlet for new local music. St Andrews might even have become ‘cool’. And then reading the preamble of the concept my hopes were dashed. It appears, certainly considering the name

Photo: University of St Andrews

University launches its own record label

The label was created primarily for the recordings of St Salvator’s Chapel Choir

and first release, that the Sanctiandree label will exist solely to perform the self-important circlejerk this university seems uniquely predisposed to performing at all possible moments.

St Andrews, seemingly stuck in the past, yet also trying desperately to scramble some semblance of modern relevance together, has succeeded in creating a label, an ostensibly exciting thing, and then chosen to release their own be-gowned choir on it. This is, of course, entirely my own opinion on it, but I personally find that type of music intensely depressing, and makes me want to stab my hands with pointed sticks.

I may very well have misjudged the situation too. Perhaps it is primarily a vehicle towards allowing directly university affiliated groups such as the St Salvators Chapel Choir have an outlet in order to spread their music around more easily.

This I can respect in theory. But to be the first university in Scotland to create a record label considering we have not only Edinburgh but also Glasgow University to compete with is amazing, especially considering their positions as ‘Places Where Interesting Things Actually Happen’.

And it would have been a unique opportunity to perhaps put ourselves slightly closer to their camp, yet we don’t appear to have taken it.

Perhaps the label will, eventually strike a deal with Music is Love and suddenly we become a vibrant place for musicians, however in its present state it seems unlikely. Until then, we will simply have to lay on our beds, pondering what could have been while Hear me O God warbles blindly onwards in the background.

The Saint • 23 April 2015

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Lou Reeves ‘I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds.

Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’

Arguably, the above quote is one of the most famous in the literary canon: if you’ve ever read the book, I would happily wager that you could - most likely – recite Atticus’ words. Along with Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is heralded as defining coming-of-age fiction which is poignantly concerned with race. One only has to search the internet to find a vast array of paeans to Lee’s work.

Indeed, the sheer volume of people who can comment on this book in an epoch of digital enthusiasm indicated the humongous impact this novel has had on our culture.

As Lee herself remarked in 1964, she “never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird.” Lee said “I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement.

I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways

this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I’d expected.”

Certainly, numerous interviews recount Harper Lee stating that she would never write another novel. And now, fifty-five years after the publication of Nelle Harper Lee’s first book, the stoic and notoriously silent author has announced her intention for the release of a sequel entitled Go Set a Watchman. As the title suggests in its allusion to Isaiah 21:6, the new novel is reported to show Scout as an adult looking back on her father as the guardian of Maycomb as well as examining her own moral compass. Yet, there has been much speculation circling the reasons as to why Harper Lee has, ostensibly, so suddenly changed her mind: was she forced? Was this urge to write fomented by financial necessity? Having suffered a stroke in 2007, was she in a strong enough sense of mind for this distributing of new material. Harper Lee has defended herself against these pernicious allegations and her lawyer, Ms Carter, stated that ‘she is a very strong, independent and wise woman who should be enjoying the discovery of her long-lost novel’ but instead ‘she is having to defend her own credibility and decision making.’

Personally, I fail to understand how the publication of such a book has come under criticism: yes, I understand the temptation to see To Kill a Mockingbird as a stand-alone classic, but it was ini-

Photo: Forbes Life

To kill a literary classic? Harper Lee’s upcoming sequel

It’s been over fifty years since To Kill a Mockingbird was published

tially intended as part of a trilogy. What is more, I find it hard to believe that a woman such as Harper Lee – who has determinedly resisted pressure to release another book for over fifty years – would unwilling consent to the publication of another book now. And, think about the potential impact of this book.

Since To Kill a Mockingbird has been taken off the all school syllabuses in schools in England to fulfil the desire to ‘broaden’ the syllabus (thank you, Michael Grove), perhaps this new book will encourage the next generation to read more books like To Kill a Mockingbird; widen their perceptions of the outside world; and illustrate to them that issues such as racism did not die in the 1950s, but are an on-going struggle.

I’m sure, just like her previous fiction, Lee’s novel will encourage one to think and to demand more: of writers, of teachers, and of themselves. Harper Lee inspires because she forces us to demand that what one reads reflects the world around us rather than merely a mirror of the writer. Whilst To Kill a Mockingbird certainly achieved this, it did satiate this yearning fully: I feel that there is no book which, on its own, can do this. The publication of her new novel suggests that Harper Lee concurs with this. Go Set a Watchmen is set to be released on 14th July 2015. I’ve already pre-ordered my copy; I encourage you to do the same.

Nigerian history: a gaping wound in our consciousness?

A History of Nigeria by Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton was a wholly enlightening and interesting reading experience, but it created a lot of issues for me. With every page turn and every paragraph break I found myself burning with queries and indignation that I, at 20 years old, should know so little about my own history.

I confronted others with the gory details and they all answered my questions and nodded along with a seemingly unconcerned air, but were more resigned to the facts of Nigerian history. I felt like a newborn, seeing things clearly for the first time. I was in the midst of a ground-breaking awakening and everyone else seemed to know already the good facts; had accepted the terrible facts; and had moved on.

I, on the other hand, am a true African Millennial: I went to school at a time when education was not the country’s strong point, and my parents struggled to find an institution with a suitable balance of experience and broadness of curriculum.

The school they settled on had its merits, but was notably devoid of certain aspects that are crucial to a child, such as appropriate history lessons. I did learn history, but The Tudors, the great fire of London, and Shakespeare hardly pertained to me as a Nigerian. My education had been white-washed.

I went to a talk the other day, run by the African Caribbean Society and the International Politics Society, about terrorism and the media, where Dr Louise Richardson, Dr Jeffrey Murer and Dr Jasmine

Photo: The New Yorker

Danielle Agbor

“The colonial past is still a gaping hole in our consciousness” Gani spoke about the bombings that took place in Baga, Nigeria, mere days before the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. In a show of soli-

darity with the rest of the world, the then Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, made a statement condemning the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

However, it seems staggeringly ridiculous that he made no statement about the events in his own country.

Gani recognised the ridiculousness

of Jonathan’s actions, but also shed light on one important facet. I questioned whether Nigerian consciousness has recovered from the scars of our colonial past putting the White man on not only a higher social level, but also on a higher level of humanity. Does the White man garner more sympathy than the Black man, even for the Black man himself? She suggests that this message is being reiterated by everyone from the media who do not report our stories, to our President who failed to recognise a travesty. We do not matter.

Ikoyi, one of the more affluent areas in Lagos is a relic of the colonial past. The network of streets sported names like ‘Alexander Avenue’ and ‘Gerrard Road’ until relatively recently, when the government, in a presumably nationalist gesture, officially changed them to Nigerian names. Our past does not define us as a nation, and whilst our leadership up until now has left much to be desired, we do value ourselves. As the biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria is truly a force to be reckoned with, and an ineffable entrepreneurial spirit prevails.

Reading this book was certainly an emotional experience more than anything else for me. At face value it provided me with a wealth of information about a country that has so much potential, but has also squandered a lot of it. It made me wonder what the collections of tribes, once dubbed the ‘Niger-area’, would be today were it not for the interference of the British, and most importantly it gave me a starting point to think about whether the Colonial past is still a gaping wound in our consciousness.

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23 April 2015• The Saint

Summer 2015: must-watch television The greatest journey G

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Photo: HBO

Luke Hatfield

Hit US series True Detective returns for a second season this summer

Orphan Black Orphan Black returns for its third season this summer after its shaky, but still engaging sophomore effort.

Definitely, worth watching from the start, Orphan Black tells the story of a young mother who discovers that she is one of an unknown number of clones, leading her on an adventure to discover her true origin and purpose.

The last series ended in a moment of relative stability for the clone sisters, so the premier is likely to start systematically tearing that consistency apart. Anchored by an amazing ventral performance by Tatiana Maslany as all six (or so) clones, this is creative, original summer programming, well worth your time over the break.

Hannibal Hannibal, the origin tale of Hannibal Lecter, the notorious cannibal of Silence of the Lambs fame, is another programme entering its third season.

True Detective The big success story of last year, True Detective returns for its second season this summer. The anthological nature of the series means that the old guard of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are being replaced by Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams. Not too much is known about the plot of the second run, but the standard of the first leads one to expect great things from the writing team.

Aquarius

NBC’s most significant new offering this summer is a drama about the early days of renowned American

Hannibal is certainly not a show for the faint-hearted

serial killer, Charles Manson. The programme will look at Manson’s journey to becoming a murderer from the perspective of the LA police sergeant dedicated to watching and tracking Manson. David Duchovny, of The X Files fame, is attached to star as the detective opposite that guy who played Renley Baratheon on Game of Thrones, as Manson. The fact that it’s already been ordered for a full thirteen episode season before broadcast shows faith on the part of the network, means it’s potentially something to get excited about.

Sense8

Fresh from the lukewarm reception that greeted Jupiter Ascending, the Wachowski siblings are finally releasing their new venture into television, Sense8. The series will finally be broadcast on Netflix this June, after months of scheduling delays. The whole thing is shrouded in mystery, but what we know for sure is that it’s a “global story of minds linked and souls hunted”, meaning that it’s about eight people who suddenly find themselves linked in their thoughts and emotional states. Definitely sounds like it’s worth a look at the very least.

Photo: Sony

Marina Carnwath Television editor

Having left its sublime second season on a pretty dire cliff-hanger, the status quo looks to be shaken up in this forthcoming instalment. Starring Mads Mikkleson (Casino Royale) and Hugh Dancey (Ella Enchanted and probably other cooler stuff), this show is not for the faint of heart if the gore of previous series sets any precedent.

Though, if you can stomach it, then this is one of the most beautifully filmed and acted shows on TV today.

Photo: NBC

TELEVISION

I’ve seen the future of video games, and it is Journey - an artistic masterpiece that not only transcends the medium, but completely reinvents it.

Several years ago, video games overtook film as the most lucrative media format in the world, but noone seemed to notice.

To the majority of people, the concept of a video game delivering an emotional narrative is distinctly odd, even laughable. The enjoyment they see others having from a story-driven game seems primitive. We look at it how we would look at a child playing with a toy.

We seasoned gamers know the truth - that the video game is the current revolution in storytelling, and the culmination of all kinds of artistic expression. An emotional moment in a game always feels somehow stronger than a similar moment would in a film or a novel because the audience is part of it, rather than a passive spectator.

Admittedly, I feel that the video game has never truly competed with the more established narrative forms, until now. Journey at last throws the limitations of other formats into sharp relief, and shows the glorious future of storytelling awaiting us.

It is difficult to describe the game to someone who has not played it, simply because there has never been anything quite like it. Journey is not a game. It is an experience.Journey is visually and acoustically stunning, but sights and sounds do not make a work of art. A work of art must inspire a special kind of emotional

response from its audience. What is it that makes Journey extraordinary?

The story it tells and how it tells it.

You play Journey as a nameless robed figure. The story is told completely without dialogue or even text.

Instead, the story is told entirely metaphorically through the gameplay itself, by the actions you must take and the trials you must face. The story opens, and you see a shining star at the top of a faraway mountain.

You are given no instruction, yet you are compelled to move towards it because it’s the only visible landmark.

The quest is simple: to make your way towards the star at the mountain’s summit. However, every moment of the story is highly symbolic and open to interpretation, such that no two players will experience the game in the same way.

Journey evokes feelings in the player quite unlike those of any game I’ve ever played, its themes exploring the most fundamental aspects of life and the human condition. The player does not take part in the story, rather, it is the player’s story.

I will say nothing of my own opinion on the meaning and message Journey conveys, as to do so would be to influence your own thoughts, completely undermining the power of this game. No matter your interpretation, it will be your own, and it will speak straight to your heart. It is likely that the closing sequence will leave you speechless, maybe even in tears, and this is nothing to be ashamed of.

Journey is a transformative experience that utterly transcends the medium of video games and shows us something more; something a film or a novel could not hope to accomplish.

As the credits quote from Joan of Arc: “I was born for this”.

Is Journey the future of video games?

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The Saint • 23 April 2015

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Alex Gillespie One of the greatest features of theatre in St Andrews is the amount of new writing we see come out of the student body. Yet, while most student writers in St Andrews hope to see their show performed at the Barron – Zinnie Harris, a playwright in residence here at the University, is very much living the dream. Author of Further than the Furthest Thing, The Wheel, and most recently How To Hold Your Breath – 2015 appears to have been a year of successes for Harris, having won the Berwin Lee Playwrights Award, as well as being appointed the associate director of the traverse theatre.

What’s perhaps most interesting about Harris is the way in which she moves through mediums. Outside of the theatre, she has also worked on television, working on the BBC series Spooks. When talking about the differences between writing for television or theatre (she has also “just recently…finished a novel” ) she notes that

“It all depends which I feel would be best suited to the tale I am trying to tell. In general writing for the theatre is a much more single authored process, in that you get left alone until you send your first draft whereas for tv the process is collaborative from the very start. Sometimes that is frustrating, sometimes it’s rewarding.

What I love most is being the in the rehearsal room in the theatre, working with actors and a director. I think that is the most exciting part of the process - seeing it all coming to life.”

Her comments on the process of writing for television are particularly interesting. Having recently “written a new TV series based on a set of Agatha Christie novels, called Partners in Crime” (which will air on BBC 1 in the autumn), I wondered how she felt the process has changed since she started working in TV. Recently, many have suggested that we have entered a golden age of television, and I was curious to see if this was true from a writer’s perspective. She seemed to indicate this was true, mentioning that “there is much

Photo: Arts Professional

Playwright in residence: interview with Zinnie Harris

Zinnie Harris has written for both the stage and television

more demand for story, television has become quicker as the audience has become more savvy. Audiences now can see a twist a mile off so writers have to work harder to surprise them.”

For fan’s of Harris’ work, she is currently “adapting the three plays of the ancient Greek tragedy, The Oresteia, for the National Theatre of Scotland.” One might expect that she might have experienced a degree of fatigue with theatre, having written for it so extensively. However, she refutes this: “I love watching theatre no matter what, but of course I can see the seams. I actually like it though - if I am watching a well crafted piece, understanding and appreciating the craft and skill in the writing adds to the enjoyment. I am always on the lookout for a new play to teach from”.

Studying here for four years, its easy to acclimatise to the brilliance of the individuals working at the University. However. speaking with people like Zinnie Harris reminds us of how lucky we are to be surrounded by them.

Top 5 films of the summer I

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Caitlin Lewis Film editor Summer cinema seems trapped in the paradoxical state in which the excitement about the multitude of big blockbusters is contrasted with the depression felt at being inside at the cinema on a summer’s day. Yet, despite this eternal struggle, upcoming summer cinema does look note worthy.

Pitch Perfect 2

The Avengers: Age of Ultron It is no surprise everyone’s favourite superhero movie is back again this summer, When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans. I’m sure film goers will revel in seeing Robert Downey Jr flaunt his riches with the semi-autobiographically arrogant character (minus super powers obviously). The sheer spectacle of The Avengers series will make this a film not to miss.

Ant Man Paul Rudd stars in a film about superhero technology that is used to

decrease their size but increase their strength. Scott Lang (Rudd) must use his new found powers to pull off the perfect heist. Do we really need another superhero movie with a poor premise and predictable plot? I think not.

Magic Mike XXL It still seems incredulous that this franchise that centres entirely on lusting after Channing Tatum’s abs has not yet run its course, but it seems that director Steven Soderbergh has managed to squeeze out a second weak storyline to accompany the films outrageously gaudy sex appeal. This will probably not be worth seeing, but Channing will probably reel in quite an audience anyway.

Jurassic World The sell-out 1993 franchise makes a return in this sequel 12 years since the original blockbuster. In this sequel to Steven Spielberg’s classic,

Photo: Universal

Everyone’s favourite acapella girls return for a second musical excursion. Anna Kendrick and the ultimate Australian diva Rebel Wilson are taking the Barden Bellas global, with songs that will undoubtedly be stuck in your head for duration of the break.

Although this will undoubtedly be a big a huge blockbuster hit, especially among the pre-teen audiences, it is

highly doubtful that Pitch Perfect 2 will bring anything that hadn’t been done better in the previous aca-instalment.

Australian comedienne Rebel Wilson has been the breakout star of the Pitch Perfect franchise

Photo: Disney

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Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a new addition to the Avengers cast Isla Nublar has been made into a full blown Dinosaur theme-park slash island. Chris Pratt stars as Owen Grady, a member of staff at the park who conducts research on some of the resident velociraptors in order to create a genetically modified super-dinosaur. Madness presumably ensues. Apart from thinking surely they must realise that dinosaurs cannot be used for human entertainment by now, this looks like a spectacular feat of animation if nothing else, and certainly will be worth the 12 year wait.

Overall this summer’s films seem to have opted for safe money makers rather than anything overly creative or ground-breaking. The multitude of sequels will most likely fall short and end up forgotten. This said, there are some films that are exciting in prospect and should be perfect for something to do on one of the many pointless days during the holidays.

Online this week Cowshed Showcase The Saint reviews the recent experimental student production.

Kim Kardashian’s Marriage Tristram Fane Saunders reviews Sam Rivere’s new book, which recently won the Forward Prize.

Patience The Saint reviews the latest production by the St Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan society.

S PORT

The Shinty Club: just what makes it so unique?

thesaint-online.com/sport

Write fromcolumn the off Andrew’s First paragraphs are like this. They have a 4mm indent in the first line.

Everything else in the article is like this, without the 4mm indent.

Ore dolor il irit ullaorem del diam ipit dolor sectet ipismod tin vulpute veliquis augue dolobore doluptat nulputem quiscilisit wismolore veliquisis nonsequat, sustin euguerosto enit loborem diam, veliquate feuis nos non henim vel ilismolor augue nd so another year of sport dipisi. comes to an end. Or does it?

Sequat iliquis nibh et eugait do The summer: at once associated euis eum nulla am dui eugue te ent with both activity and with idleness. illam zzrilit aliquisit dit dolum ilit With adventure and with indolence. dolor in henis er ipit lum irit, consed With abseiling and with ice-cream. For tet auguera esectem dunt volesto every surfer happy to ride the crest of a elent landre faccum quis elessequam wave there is a snoozer happy to wave dolut adigna facipis cillamet vullaor and rest by the tide. The status of sport eriliqu iscing er sis ex ercipit augait in summer, it seems, lies at an impasse – nim incipis dolore dolore mincidunt an impasse located somewhere between essi. the dizzy heights of the abseiler’s Lorper alisciduisi. In esto del esrock face and the serene depths of the sequisl ilit, conse min estrud do elis sun-lover’s beach towel. Just what, then, essisl utem ip ea acilit, volore do does the sun’s summer glare – if ‘glare’ odolumsan ut lum zzriure et veratin is ever the right word to describe the velisi te conullum dolorerosto delsun when in Scotland – signal for sport? iquisit, quis estrud tatie tie ming ea The first thing to be said is that facipsumsan henismo dolore delisisi some sports are meant to be played in tie velenissis aut dolorpero consenis summer. That the Men’s Cricket Club adi embarked on a Sri Lankan sojourn back in January suggests as much (ignoring the appeal that Sri Lankan sojourns tend to possess in-and-of-themselves). Faced with icy winter weather and yet lacking any Norwegians in their ranks, the Club chose to return cricket to its natural habitat: the sun’s glare – ‘glare’ being very much the right word to describe the sun when in Sri Lanka.

It would be wrong, similarly, to ignore the sport of golf’s summer loving (and – when the hordes of golf fans descend on St Andrews for the Open this July – summer love-in). For a sport originating in the Auld Grey Toon, this writer doesn’t need to remind anyone that golf’s being synonymous with sunshine is somewhat surprising. But certainly, in a sport where chinos and polo shirts prevail, golf’s relationship with warm weather is no mere summertime fling.

Yet, although sports such as cricket and golf come into their own during summer, other sports find it much harder to take the heat. It is much less surprising, for example, that the sport of shinty, featured in this issue, originates in Scotland. Its sheer physicality just doesn’t seem viable in anything approaching hot weather. Indeed, it is easy to suspect that the very reason it is so physical is partly to do with Scottish weather conditions; the raw activity generating much-needed body heat amid the chill. Perhaps the Shinty Club’s famous tendency towards a pint or three is even motivated by the desire to provide warmth against the cold. Maybe, though – students being students, just maybe – there are other motives behind that particular predisposition.

The answer to the riddle of sport’s summer status, then, seems to be

@saint_sport

sport@thesaint-online.com

The allure of the accumulator

Charlie Wood simply: it depends which sport you’re talking about. Some sports seem readymade for the sun’s summer glare; others seem as ready for it as vampires are.

Which, although both unsurprising and somewhat disheartening, is not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, it can encourage people to take up sports outside their usual sporting comfort-zone. Shinty sticks, for example – mud-encrusted from many a winter away-day – can, for a few weeks at least, be replaced with tennis trainers.

Where one sport tends to test agility and stamina, the other tends to test flexibility and hand-eye co-ordination. Where one sport is a test of teamwork, the other is a test of individual aptitude. Where one requires several people to play, the other requires two. All obvious, but none of which isn’t to say you may end up permanently preferring the other to the one (as inconceivable and/or blasphemous as that may well sound to any shinty players reading this).

Importantly, there is also a sense in which absence makes the heart grow fonder. If it was possible to play your favourite sport all year round, would it really retain its appeal year-on-year?

Granted, there is nothing physically preventing many people from playing every day of the year on a casual basis.

But at a more serious level, the carnal appeal of competitive fixtures would surely fade were they played incessantly. Fires, as many a St Andrews physicist will attest, tend to need refuelling.

Further, the unique joys of pre-season training, all Powerade and freshly-mown grass, would be lost. There would be no more returning rustiness; every shot a pass and pass a shot. No more reuniting with teammates; a time when fitness flounders and anecdotes abound. No more sadomasochistic shuttle-runs in the summertime swelter; every sinew struggling; every pore protesting.

But most importantly of all, without the summer break, sporting seasons themselves would not exist. Without seasons existing, there would be nothing to aim to win. With nothing to aim to win, there would be no reason to exert yourself. And with no reason to exert yourself, there would really be no such thing as sport at all. Quite simply, without the summer, sport would not exist. And neither, in all likelihood, would ice-cream.

I hope this summer’s a great one, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the Sport section this semester. Just don’t forget to enjoy this last issue. Ice-cream notwithstanding.

Photo: Flickr

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Editor: Charlie Wood Deputy editors: Alison Hendry, Andrew Morris, Andrew Williams

Riding Club’s success belies the stereotypes

Dom Gibbons Ladbrokes has recently introduced a series of adverts, following the lives of five lads and their relationship with betting. The advert has a surprisingly realistic characterisation of guys that frequent betting shops, with Generous John (the one with the disposable income), Mr. Brightside (the optimist), Gut Truster (the clueless one), and the Believer (the other clueless one). The only one of the lads with anything close to resembling a betting system is the Analyst, although he does seem incapable of functioning socially, preferring instead to construct charts and stats in his head.

According to Ladbrokes these lads are ‘the dreamers’, ‘the glory seekers’, and ‘the have-a-go heroes of Saturday afternoon’. They are in fact the personification of the football accumulator culture that has taken hold of Britain, where the easy accessibility and anonymity of online gambling, the general acceptance of casual betting as a lifestyle choice, and the huge odds of the accumulators themselves are an enticing addition to the weekend pub lunch of Premiership games.

But what is the psychological makeup of these accumulator gamblers,

Any accuracy and you become a self-proclaimed pundit; possessing clairvoyant faculties

and what renders the accumulator itself so appealing?

An accumulator is a bet that contains four or more selections, each of which needs to be correct for you to get a return. The betting return is effectively multiplied by each new selection, as the sheer unlikelihood of all your predictions coming in is increased. As a result, there can be huge payouts. Money is therefore the primary temptation; but also, urban legends of people winning thousands of pounds, or a friend of a friend’s dubious recollection of that one time he was one goal away from a million are enough to intrigue an innocent, but curious newcomer. Indeed, only a couple of months ago, a certain lucky pundit from Cambridgeshire won £170,000 off a £1 bet, his first ever accumulator gamble. Such stories are instantiations of the unthinkable, and are the catalysts to dreaming of that ever elusive three figure sum.

Having glimpsed a momentary perception of this economic bliss, the intrepid explorer of accumulator gambling becomes possessed with this ideal. The newbie to accumulator betting may put on a five-fold accumulator to begin their journey into the unknown land of gambling. Now, all that needs to be done is to sit back, watch and enjoy one of the games you’ve placed a bet on, with the AccaTracker app loaded and keeping watch of the teams you’ve predicted.

Yet, you can no longer enjoy the game as an appreciation of football played at a professional level. Now the excitement is entirely founded in any goal opportunities for the team you’ve backed, with goal opportunities for the other team causing a great deal of nervousness and anxiety. As a result, the drama of the game is heightened and intensified. You may suddenly find yourself manically imploring the Gods to provide some goal-scoring inspiration for Grimsby Town’s striker who seems more intent

on kicking the ball out of the ground then finding the back of the net. These moments of panic often occur when five of your six selections are coming in, but as the final whistle looms, one team is failing to find a winn. Indeed, once the final whistle has gone, you will almost certainly find yourself possessed with an irrational hatred of a team like Accrington Stanley, for not upping their game solely to save your accumulator.

Often the most addictive aspect of accumulator betting is when you fortuitously get all selections correct and suddenly £60 appears in your bet365 account. Such an accurate prediction of several games is clearly indicative of your prophetic abilities, and as a result, you become a self-proclaimed pundit extraordinaire, with clairvoyant faculties. It is now your duty to announce to your circle of friends prior to the next five Premiership weekends the definitive scores, backed up by stats, analysis and your own vague assessment of form. That you’re wrong for the 96% of the games you view is overshadowed by your unbelievable prediction that Stoke would beat Arsenal, a feat that requires constant reminding. And whilst your bet365 account dwindles ever closer to £0, your conviction becomes ever more resounding.

The temptation is the cash, but what keeps accumulator betting so dangerously attractive is the steadfast belief that you actually possess some inside knowledge, a background resolve that there is a predetermined formula to each game. This is what the Ladbrokes advert appeals to, glorifying betting as a lifestyle choice that will make you cool and popular.

What the advert fails to mention is that you’re almost always wrong, that there is no underlying formula, and you’re being mugged off by betting companies. But who really cares, because I know that Bayern Munich are going to beat Porto tonight.

The Saint 2015 2014 The Saint •2318April September

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Standards ascend as Boat Club finds tranquil waters If the Athletic Union is putting serious effort into developing and improving the Sports Centre, then their example is certainly being followed by what is fast-becoming a hugely impressive, serious and competitive Boat Club.

What has in the past been dubbed as both “A drinking club with a rowing problem” and “a rowing club with a drinking problem” is now reaping the rewards of a “change in mindset” as it is now established, both officially and unofficially, as “a rowing club”.

After speaking to the Men’s and Women’s team captains Isaac Amick and Laura Conboy, it soon became clear how the club has managed to transform itself. The benefits of having a full-time coach, Ian Rice from Glasgow, are “invaluable”. As well as overseeing a majority of the Club’s rigorous training sessions, which amounts to almost 20 hours a week, Mr. Rice is “quite involved with the development of the Club” and “been invaluable in the relations with the AU”. Acting as both a liaison between the club and the AU and as a representative, Mr. Rice provides a legitimacy that is helping the club get everything it needs to compete seriously. This has been vital during the attempts to secure the Club’s own boat house.

Photo: Saints Boat Club

Andrew Williams Deputy sport editor

St Andrean rowers glide across the awe-inspiring expanses of Lake Kastoria, in Greece, on the Club’s most recent European excursions In Laura’s first year (she is now a fourth year), the club was told that a boat house would be in place within the year. However, “owing to endless problems” with Perth Sailing Club who “haven’t been very accommodating” the club is still waiting for a place to store boats. Although it doesn’t seem overly significant, the lack of a boat house can negatively influence results. The Club ends up leaving their boats outside on tyres which means they cannot pay for new, quicker ones as their longevity does not suffice.

Therefore, a vicious circle is created where the club does not do as well

as it could in races, and therefore AU funding isn’t quite as high as is possible. This renders the level of the clubs’ rowing fairly static.

That said, the Club still manage to put in a good showing when they compete in BUCS or against their Scottish rivals such as, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Herriot Watt, Strathclyde and Aberdeen. The Club also competes in the “biggest head race in the UK” and this year took an unprecedented three boats down to Tideway. The one senior and two novice boats were “more than we (the Club) have ever had” and it was the first time since 2006 that the

women’s team also raced. In spite of the difficulties an 144th and 177th (out of over 350) place finish for the top women’s and men’s teams respectively certainly constitute a solid showing.

The performance of the women was especially pleasing for the club as it is indicative of the change in mindset in their half of the club. Over the past four years much has been done “to build the women’s team” and make it just as serious as the men’s team. This change in mindset is representative of the whole club’s mentality as they have worked to turn into a more competitive club.

Despite the 20 hours and six days of training a week, the Club still manages to be maintain a social aspect to its being. With weekly socials and over 40 social members, the Club certainly doesn’t lack for members wanting to have a good time and with events such as House Golf and House Circuits proving to be the pinnacle of the social calendar.

Currently, the teams are also working on their alumni relations but this progress is slow as it will take a few years for there to be sufficient numbers of alumni who will buy into the mindset. Additionally, this year, the annual Ergathon in Freshers’ Week raised over £1,000 for Maggies Cancer Trust and the same 24 hour ‘erg’ is planned for next year. Having been described as “the best fundraiser of any sports club in the AU” it is something the Club wants to keep up, and indeed strengthen, for the next few years.

Despite the time commitment required, Laura, Isaac and the rest of the team maintain that they are “continuing to build the performance mindset” that the Club is looking to instil.

The group realizes that it needs to do more to emphasise to first years what constitutes a committed club member as the drop-out rate is fairly high.

However, the Club is happy with its numbers and the future looks to be in safe hands.

Alex Hayes Three weeks ago, the United States’ Major League soccer kicked off its 19th season. The league has grown significantly since its inception in 1996, as is indicated by growing attendances, the nearly universal building of “soccer-specific” stadiums, and Mr David Beckham’s interest in starting a team in the sunny, fashionable city of Miami. Underneath the league of retiring legends like David Villa and Frank Lampard lies a little-known, yet budding, league known as the North American Soccer League (NASL).

It is imperative that the World Cup interest helps football in the US domestically The NASL was formed in 2010, because the founding six teams grew disenfranchised with running second division United Soccer League. Since then, attendances have grown, teams have built their own stadiums and the play on the pitch has improved.

The enhanced quality of play was demonstrated last October when the first NASL player, Miguel Ibarra, was called up to the US national football team. Nevertheless, the level of play varies drastically. The New York Cosmos (formed two years ago with

the same badge and name as the team in the 1970s that boasted the likes of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer) play a passing game, as demonstrated by the surprise signing of European Championship winner Marcos Senna. Unlike the Cosmos, most teams play in a style that resembles a Dundee FC game, with a lot of running around without much composure and plenty of defensive lapses. This does make for entertaining matches, as 2-2 and 5-3 score lines are not out of the ordinary.

How does this play translate off the pitch? Average attendances have gone from 3,770 in 2011 to 5,409 in 2014. This may be because of the addition of successful teams into the league, such as Indy Eleven, who sell out most games with attendances of more than 10,000. Similar to Indy Eleven, most teams have rambunctious supporting groups who chant throughout the match while waving flags and banners.

One of these groups is Ralph’s Mob (who also happen to support my local team, the famous Tampa Bay Rowdies). “The Mob”, as they are affectionately known, help convert an old baseball stadium into a sea of green and gold through massive displays and the odd cheeky pyro.

These groups create an atmosphere that betters many other professional sports in America. In terms of broadcasting, most teams have secured television partnerships to show home matches on free-to-view television, while ESPN recently announced that they will broadcast eight home games each week via their online service, ESPN 3, to viewers in North America, Europe and Africa. While they do not rival the MLS’s multi-million dollar television deal, these TV partnerships allow for the local

Photo: Flickr

NASL closes ground on MLS as football in the USA booms

Supporters of the Tampa Bay Rowdies - affectionately known as “Ralph’s Mob” - cheer their players from inside an old baseball ground

populaces and foreign football fans to watch the NASL easily.

Building on the success of the growth in popularity in the NASL, many owners hope to see their teams follow the success of Montreal and Minnesota in being granted admission into the MLS. Unlike everywhere else in the world, the MLS does not have the system of promotion and relegation. A team requires $100 million and must meet other criteria to be awarded a place in the US’s highest football tier. David Beckham’s Miami bid to join the MLS is at a standstill due to the fact that he can’t get approval for a downtown stadium. The advantage in granting MLS membership to NASL teams is that they have the infrastructure and support to guarantee a successful franchise. However, this places the NASL at a crossroads. If its most

successful teams leave, what is its future? The commissioner of the MLS, Don Garber, has guaranteed that the MLS will expand to at least 24 teams in the near future, and the league will probably grow even more in the succeeding years. This desire to be in the lucrative MLS can only make NASL teams continue to compete for entry into America’s top “soccer” division.

As the massive viewing parties across American cities during the 2014 World Cup demonstrated, interest in football in the United States is growing. It is imperative this interest contributes to the improvement of the domestic leagues in the United States. Many people still refer to the MLS, and even the NASL, as retirement leagues. Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg, Kaka, and even Italy’s legendary Alessandro Nesta have all ended

their careers in the United States. To develop the sport, it is important that the NASL stabilises and becomes its own entity. It can become a league in which Americans and foreigners alike can develop in a competitive environment. In a country where second tiers of professional sports are referred to as “minor league teams” and generally treated with little respect, the NASL has the potential to break this mould and become a popular league. The improved quality of play, as demonstrated by the first national recognition of an NASL player and the sustained growth of attendances and supporter groups, shows that America’s other “soccer” league is on the right path. Let’s just hope it can be recognized by more of the country; whose genuine interest in football is flourishing, and keep up with the growth of the MLS.

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Sport 348 34 Sport

23 6 April November 2015• The The Saint 18 September 2014 Saint

Riding Club leaps new hurdles in showcase year

Firstly, something needs to be asked.

How much do you really know about this sport? In order to gauge a general idea of the stereotypes associated with equestrianism, the sport only needs to be googled. The resultant headline, dominating the screen, was unsurprising: “Queen heads out for horse ride in Windsor Park”. Either the internet is inadequate or our perceptions are drastically misinformed.

This interview is proof of the hard work and dedication required to truly succeed in this sport. In fact, the information uncovered whilst perusing the GB equestrian website - from dressage to eventing and show-jumping – was fascinating. The diversity of competition categories was astounding, pointing to the range of rider’s skills and the strict standards upheld when training the horses. Emma Harckham, social rep and next year’s president and Kirsty Winkle, Club captain, represent this diversity. Both come from different riding backgrounds, one fostering a love of dressage and the other, for jumping and cross-country.

Adding more fuel to the fire are the existence of several polls which list equestrianism amongst the world’s top 10 hardest sports. Even in this short time, admiration for these sportsmen and women can only deepen.

Public perception of riding as a sport is drastically misinformed

Photo: Saints Riding

Alison Hendry Deputy sport editor

Soaring over hurdles at the Riding Club’s Drumcarrow training centre: for such a demanding sport, negative stereotypes still persist On the international stage, competitions like the Olympics and the World Equestrian Games unfold, with riders participating on horses with whom they are accustomed and who have been groomed to withstand the pressure of competing at a high standard.

However, the BUCS league presents a challenge in this respect. With only two minutes to warm up on a horse which they have never competed on before, the members of the St Andrews team are faced with unpredictable riding conditions that demand physical skill (a strong core), alongside a mental strength to maintain concentration and focus. Renowned British rider, Zara Phillips, acknowledges these difficulties- “You cannot make horses safe”. Thus, the successes of the Riding Club are all the more notable in the face of such demanding

conditions.

It was around a year ago that The Saint interviewed the Riding Club about their achievements in the 2014 season, which were impressive. Kirsty says that the A team placed 8th out of 80 teams participating at nationals, which is a testament to the hard-working ethos that has become engrained within the club. The smooth transition to the 2014-15 season, is marked by the continued success of two A-team individuals, Antoine Porte and Haley Meyers, who have qualified for this year’s Nationals competition. The Club had also set a target for this season - the desire for the B team to reach the Nationals competition - which they are ever closer to recognising.

The team has enjoyed an undefeated season and with regionals around the corner (which determine qualification

for Nationals). Both Emma and Kirsty remain optimistic about their chances of proceeding. The Club’s progression shows no sign of faltering and this success represents a sport team which is achieving all goals that they set themselves.

Admittedly, a jewel in the Riding Club’s crown would be the facilities that they have at their disposal.

Travelling time to Drumcarrow is minimal, and access to this firstclass facility and coaching is bound to be a major factor in their success.

However, Drumcarrow is not exclusive to the eight competitive riders, In fact, Kirsty indicated that she was proud of the opportunities that the Club offers to beginners. She recognises them as a vital factor to club spirit, their light-heartedness and eagerness to learn more about the sport, revi-

talises the club and commits them to developing a new contingent of riders. Although both Kirsty and Emma have been riding since young, the club remains committed to extending the passion for horses and love of riding beyond their current membership. The Saints Riding Club prides themselves on being the most accessible club at the University. They welcome a large group of beginners each semester and improve their skills through lessons.

This forward-thinking approach is bound to serve them well in the future.

Finally, Emma wishes to rid the stereotypes associated with the Riding Club, saying that “often people would describe us as a ‘small’ and ‘nerdy’ club”, yet this definitely does not seem the case. The numerous social events from sinners to a party bus, suggest a vibrant club filled with opportunities to establish new friendships. When asked about their idols within the sport, some friendly banter ensued.

Kirsty says that globally Britain is faring well, with three riders occupying the top ranks in their individual events. However, this statement prompted light competition, something which Emma notes is frequent between the American and UK students at the club, when they challenge each other over who is the star of the equestrian world. Such lively debate offers a flavour of the dynamism within the club.

When asked about the Club’s future, Emma called for “a more integrated club through socials and events” and Kirsty “spoke of continuing to work on succeeding in regional and national competitions”.

This sums up the club perfectly, a marriage between success in competitions and building an unrivalled team spirit. This club continues to buck stereotypes and trek its way to sporting success with hard work and of course, a lot of fun.

Champagne rugby, banter, and a fair few tinnies. If one was to sum up St Andrews Rugby 7s, these words would be the first to spring to mind. Whether you’re a player or spectator, the Rugby

7s tournament guarantees a good day out. This year saw the Steven Sims Cavaliers and Melrose Ladies triumph in the men’s and women’s competitions.

As a fresher, I didn’t really know what to expect from the weekend but its fair to say that it didn’t disappoint.

Photo: Daniil Lapko

George Plevan

It begins early on the Saturday with teams from all over the country arriving in appropriately rash and colourful strips, with most players nursing a potent hangover. Once registered, teams usually get together to see what fixtures the day has to offer and the first games see most shaking off the cobwebs and working out the kinks as teams prepare for a full-on day of 7s.

Every team plays a minimum of four games before they enter into either the Plate or the Cup competitions, where the tournament becomes a knock-out affair. The Plate games are very entertaining to both play in and watch as players throw caution to the wind, opting for a more ‘loose’ style of play; its considered a disappointing game if the least coordinated player on the field doesn’t try some outrageous offload or kick. As for the Cup, the games are equally entertaining but for a different reason, as teams fight tooth and nail for the win. But, as the day goes on, it becomes apparent that the Rugby isn’t really the point of Rugby 7s – strange, I know.

What St Andrews Rugby 7s is really about is having a good time in the sun with your friends whether you’re a

Photo: Daniil Lapko

Rugby 7s throws up thrills - and a fair few spills

It’s fair to say that the unrestrained enthusiasm of the spectators is a spectacle in itself first team flyer, a boozer first and rugby player second, or a spectator. Indeed, without the spectators the weekend wouldn’t be the same. They provide a good buzz across the whole event, someone to hang out with in between games, and of course the more than occasional drink.

The tournament starts to wind

down at around 6 pm, but the Rugby 7s experience is far from over with the notorious after party still to come.

This year saw the latter’s long awaited return to Kinkell Byre, where a great night is had by all.

So, save the date in your diary for next year. With absolute certainty: you won’t regret it.

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Sport Sport 39 35

The current senior side, including new Club ‘Chieftain’ Isaac Mayne (second from right)

Charlie Wood Sport editor For a team so shrouded in mystery, it seems somehow apt to discuss the Shinty Club in the sealed-off back-room of a flat with a jet-black front-door. Of all sports clubs in St Andrews, Shinty is perhaps the only one more famous for its off-pitch culture than its on-pitch antics. Which is also to say – as soon becomes clear – that no-one bar the shinty players themselves really understands this culture in the first place. It is precisely because the Club operates quite so mysteriously, after all, that its fame extends quite so far.

Talking to new Chieftain (i.e.

Club president), Llcress (aka Isaac Mayne), vice captain, Chelios (aka Rory Hughes), and goalkeeper, BeeFee (aka Clay Roberts), the overriding sense is one of being granted privileged access to restricted information. A sense which, as far as the trio are concerned, is very much correct. During the conversation, several enigmatic-sounding items and conventions are mentioned - such as

the ‘Goat and the Flagpole’ and the refusal to ever say the numbers 20 or one - only for discussion of their precise nature to be swiftly barred. Of course, such quasi-religious secrecy is really just a bit of fun. But for secrets to be kept, they must be guarded with vigilance.

Several topics that emphatically can be expounded, however, relate to the nature of the sport itself. Above all, Llcress lays to rest the prevalent myth that hitting other players with the stick is legal. Or, to be more precise, the myth that hitting other players with intent is legal. Accidental hits, on the other hand, are part and parcel of the sport; injuries sustained with absolute foreknowledge of the risks involved. Llcress recounts how he “nearly blinded a guy” in his first match; all swinging sticks and debut exuberance. Swinging the stick is, he emphasizes, perfectly legal, if undirected at opponents. “It’s always ‘nearly blinded’… always nearly...”

For virtually all players at the Club, in fact, playing shinty is a novel experience. With the eclectic exceptions of Cornwall, Russia, California and

Oxford, it is an exclusively Scottish sport. Even more specifically, it is an almost exclusively Highland sport.

Yet, sadly for St Andrews, prospective students from the Highlands almost always tend to gravitate towards the big-city universities; perhaps after novel experiences of their own. As such, the Club’s intake of players with prior experience is limited to a very select few each year; if any at all. Currently, only two players at the Club played shinty to any extent before coming to St Andrews.

Yet where swinging sticks is legal, the sport is in effect as tough as any given player wants to make it. If a player want to swing the stick high in the air, they are perfectly entitled to. Along these lines, it is somewhat surprising to hear that shinty tends to favour physically smaller players. Yet the reality is that the shinty stereotype of the hulking, unrestrained madman is no more than just that. Granted, Chelios adds, there is a grain of truth to every stereotype; such players do exist. But their prevalence is no less of

a myth than the unrestraint they serve to embody. Unrestrained madmen exist to some degree in every sport; no more in shinty than in any other.

Off the pitch, however, it’s fair to say the proportion of unrestrained madmen in shinty is slightly higher. Merely mentioning the words ‘Aikman’s’, ‘Wednesdays’ and ‘Socials’ will be enough for most people in St Andrews to know what you’re talking about. For all the Club’s air of ritualistic mystery, there is – unequivocally – nothing mysterious about the Shinty Club on a Wednesday night.

Frankly, there is nothing obviously sane about the Shinty Club on a Wednesday night.

In all seriousness, Shinty Club socials are a fantastic time for all involved, with a sense of camaraderie arguably unmatched by any other sports clubs in the Auld Grey Toon.

Where the captain’s domain is the pitch, the domain of the Club ‘chieftain’ – a sort of uber-influential social rep – is, the unanimous words of Llcress, Chelios and Bee-Fee, “the

rest of Fife”. Naturally, the incumbent chieftain rises to the fore at socials, overseeing levels of alcohol consumption that, let’s say, generate a decibel or two. Two hundred, that is.

Further afield, the Club has recently toured Lewes in the Highlands, and even toured the Hungarian capital Budapest last summer. Mayne recalls that on the way to Budapest in London, the travelling party were approached by a seemingly serious businessman who asked if they were the St Andrews Shinty Club. Identify confirmed, the businessman began chanting in broad daylight in the middle of London, and ended up sharing Club secrets from years earlier over a (pretty steep) London pint.

As the discussion concludes, therefore, the sense remains that the only tip of the iceberg has been revealed as to the Club’s mysterious sub-culture.

When this is put to Llcress, he replies instantly: “explaining is cheating.”

All that can be said for sure, then, is that next year, more coverage of the Shinty Club is very much to follow.

Photo: Saints Shinty

Photo: Saints Shinty

The Shinty Club: convention, culture and camaraderie

Opponents from a recent tour to the Lewes, Hebrides, train on the beach - exemplifying shinty’s unique and left-field sporting attitude

The Jonny Wookey match: a game that could hardly have paid greater tribute Online this week Men’s Cricket Club Super Eights The annual send-off for St Andrews cricketers before the summer season gets into swing Photo: Craig Doyle

Continued from back page to have a great team to play against every year in the Edinburgh Eagles, and some great friends and fans who come out to watch and make it such a great event. The Eagles are one of the top teams in Britain year in and year out so we are really pleased that we managed to win the Wookey Game again this year. The energy of the crowd and having all our friends watching us play definitely gives us an extra boost for the game. There’s nothing else quite like it.”

All in all, the Jonny Wookey experience looks to be here to stay. The logistical issues seemed to have been resolved this year, especially in the form of the drinks queues. A strong Typhoons performance was complemented by the MVP performance of goaltender Isaac Hollingsworth, and an honorary mention should go to all three goalscorers and the defensive performance of Geography lecturer Jed Long, whose lack of youth was undoubtedly compensated for by his wealth of experience.

One name has not yet been mentioned here, but certainly deserves

The 2015 incarnation of the Jonny Wookey game attracted unprecedented levels of outside interest; more an event than a sports match recognition. This year’s Wookey game was the final one for captain Ollie Cutting, the founder of the Typhoons and without whom this match would not have even been a possibility. Although not amongst the goals this time around, the exponential increase in interest in the Wookey game, corresponding to the success of the Typhoons in national competition,

is surely a testament to his spell as captain. It will be no mean feat if his successor does as sterling a job.

A few weeks ago, the opportunity was provided to interview Ollie for a separate article. In it, he told a story that, at the very first practice, when nothing was by any means certain about the future or sustainability, when half the squad did not even

have kit, Jonny stood before everyone and told them that, one day, hundreds of students would be coming to watch their matches.

Jonny could not have been more vindicated. The Wookey memorial could not have been a more fitting tribute; and as for the Typhoons win?

It was merely the icing on the hockey-playing cake.

Saints Sport Colour Run All the best photos and coverage from the annual powder-laden fund-raiser; on course to far exceed last year’s event in participation terms NBA season finale Deputy sport editor Alison Hendry attempts to pre-empt the outcome of US basketball’s premier league event

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Commitments clash as clubs face UK-wide fixtures It is somewhat ironic that those St Andrews sports teams who are required to fulfil fixtures throughout the UK – often hundreds of miles away – are invariably the most successful. The deeply regionalized structure of BUCS leagues means that only the crème de la crème of sports teams in the St Andrews are ever required to play teams from outside Scotland. The vast majority of BUCS teams are placed in leagues whereby they only ever have to play teams within a certain limited geographical area; say, the ‘North of England’, or in St Andrews teams’ cases, ‘Scotland’.

Yet for teams who are good enough within their given sport, the opportunity arises to play in ‘Premier’ BUCS leagues, which supersede the regional leagues, allowing the very best from across the UK to compete directly. In many ways, this opportunity is nothing less than fantastic.

After all, it hardly sounds like a bad thing to travel round the UK – to London, to Cardiff, to Manchester to compete against nothing less than the very best. The sense of adventure; the away-day antics; the chance to visit places perhaps never visited before. Conceived as ends-in-themselves, such experiences can hardly be begrudged.

But in other ways, such experiences come at a cost. There is a heavy trade-off between UK-wide travel and several other factors. Such a heavy trade-off, in fact, that some clubs in St Andrews have actually faced internal dispute as to whether to move up to the Premier league at all – even if promotion is mathematically secured.

For the past few weeks, the Rugby Club’s men’s first team have heatedly debated whether or not it is viable to play in the Premier league, were pro-

motion secured from the Scotland 1A league they currently occupy. And as it happens – given their ultra-dramatic 35-34 victory (near-enough a promotion play-off) against Sheffield University’s first team a week ago – promotion will indeed, very likely, be secured.

Talking to the Rugby Club president and first team player, Danny Clink, it becomes clear that many of the team will face a serious conflict of interests next season. Clink says that playing in the league above would mean the team face seven away fixtures per year, with the nearest of these being in Durham, located some

194 miles away and requiring an eight-hour round trip. Allied to this is the fact that, as Clink notes, “a large amount of our first team players have tended to be History students and Medics, subjects which both have compulsory classes on Wednesday morning.” Given the scale of the distances involved, therefore, attending both the classes and the away games is logistically impossible for much of the team.

In the end, the first team’s internal dispute was decided on a vote; the team ultimately opting to play in the Premier league next year despite the difficulties. But this isn’t to say that

external discussions with the AU, aimed at finding a logistical solution, are anything less than ongoing. Clink says that, so far, these discussions have been “pretty constructive”. The AU has been made especially aware of the difficulties for second years in the first team; second year being the so-called ‘dummy year’, and hence a time when academic-sporting clashes could prove particularly stressful. As of yet, no solution has been reached.

Other sports clubs in St Andrews bear similar logistical burdens.

Hector Loughton, the men’s Cricket Club’s first team captain, cites the example of a fixture in Leeds next year

that will span Tuesday to Thursday; a two-night stay away from St Andrews required to fulfil it. Loughton says he “expects there will be problems”, adding that two senior players have already stated their unavailability for the fixture. Women’s Volleyball Club first team player, Armelle Duvieusart, mentions that “travelling for so long before a game means that our fitness and energy isn’t the best when we arrive”, with the team having had to travel as far away as Poole on the south coast of England to play fixtures.

With such extensive stays away from St Andrews, it isn’t inconceivable that clubs’ first teams may become disintegrated from teams lower down club hierarchies, at least on a social level. Wednesday night, after all, is the night when Sinners events and in-house club socials standardly take place – if half of these socials are missed every year, will the same sense of club unity necessarily persist? Granted, some clubs’ first teams’ fixtures have been moved from Wednesdays to Sundays, but for many other clubs this is not yet logistically possible.

On the flipside, there is no burden to bear financially, at least not for Rugby, Volleyball or Cricket. Clink, Duvieusart and Loughton all speak of their appreciation for the AU’s monetary support, emphasizing that transport costs have always been covered.

But above all, the trio emphasize how much they value the chance to play matches throughout the UK, in spite of the challenges such commitment throws up. Yes, there are very real problems heading into next year; problems yet to be fully resolved.

But, as already mentioned, the sense of adventure fostered by such farflung fixtures is simply invaluable.

And after all, if it wasn’t invaluable, there wouldn’t be disputes in the first place.

However, this year took on an extra layer of poignancy, with the passing of goaltender Kieran McCann in January. In light of this, the Kieran McCann Bursary is currently being set up to fund registration fees for the first-year player who, as the match programme described, “best embodies the spirit of the Typhoons on and off the ice.” This is in addition to the Jonny Wookey Memorial Fund .

Before the match, a statement thanking all those who had helped search for Kieran was read out, and after this the national anthems of the USA, Scotland and Canada were played. And so started the match.

St Andrews could not have started better, with two goals in the early minutes of the game coming from first year Nick Hauger and Baylor University JSA Caleb Simmons.

Towards the end of the first period Edinburgh pulled a goal back, but the Typhoons preserved their lead into

the break.

The second period was like the first – two St Andrews goals (both from Hauger to complete his hattrick) putting the Typhoons into a 4-1 lead before a response from the Eagles made the score 4-2. The third period saw one more goal just before the end, this time from final-year student Patrick Thompson for the Typhoons to end the game at 5-2.

Yet although the hockey itself obviously constitutes a massive part of the experience, it is just one part – after all, it would be safe to assume a sizeable proportion of the crowd do not follow ice hockey to any great level. The Jonny Wookey memorial is much more than just any old ice hockey match. It is the chance to see a team representing the University in a sport not many people in this town play, or even have the opportunity to. But most importantly, it is the sentiment associated with the occasion that

makes it unique and special. The respect shown by both fans and players alike was carried on this year just as it was last, and one should hope it will be for as long as the fixture continues.

When asked for comments on the match and its outcome, Typhoons

President Mack Irwin had the following to say: “We are thrilled with how the Jonny Wookey Memorial Game went once again this year. We’re lucky enough Continued on page 39

Photo: Saints Rugby

Charlie Wood Sport editor

After a last-gasp 35-34 victory on the 15th, the Men’s Rugby Club first team will very likely face thousands of miles of travel next year

Andrew Morris Deputy sport editor Invasion of personal space is never a nice experience, and this was no exception to those piling onto buses outside the Union at around 6 pm on the evening of Tuesday 7 April.

But it was for all a worthy cause, as these buses were travelling to the Dundee Ice Arena for the now-established Jonny Wookey Memorial Game between the St Andrews Typhoons and the Edinburgh Eagles.

For those who are not yet aware, Jonny Wookey was one of the founders of the Typhoons way back in 2011.

In 2012 he sadly passed away, and in 2013 the inaugural Memorial Game was played in his honour. Two years later, it is now an event firmly engrained onto the St Andrews character, as displayed by the crowd of just under 1,000 who turned up to watch.

Photo: Craig Doyle

Typhoons triumphant in the Jonny Wookey memorial match