A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
Candidates in this Thursday’s local council elections set out their stalls in a hustings held at the University last night.
The three contenders for Heslington ward, which covers the University campus and village itself, answered questions from students in an event organised by York’s New Generation Society. All are current or former York students: Green candidate Caleb Wooding is a second-year studying PPE, while Labour’s David Levene and the Lib Dems’ Chris Wiggin are recent graduates.
Topics ranged from council cuts to York nightclubs - and the effects of a long race showed though at times, with a number of tetchy exchanges between candidates. Liberal Democrat Wiggin and Labour’s David Levene became particularly heated during a discussion about the budget deficit.
The coalition government’s budget cuts are “like trying to pay off a 25 per cent mortgage in five years”, Levene told the audience to applause. "[Levene] admitted there’s a problem with the banking sector — "when are [Labour] going to apologise for it?” shot back Wiggin.
After the hustings, however, the candidates insisted that the race had been amicable. “It’s been as congenial as you can expect it to be,” former YUSU Council Chair Levene told The Yorker.
“It was a good-natured debate,” said Wiggin, who stood as Lib Dem candidate for Barnsley Central in last year’s General Election.
All three speakers stressed that voters should make their decision based on local issues, not on national party politics. Wooding told the audience that Green councillors are free to vote as they choose, with no rules set by the national party; Liberal Democrat Wiggin emphasised that he has “no problem with saying where my party is wrong.”
Candidates also promised to fight for student issues if elected. Each pledged to improve bus services around the university, and Wooding outlined a student lodger scheme to build relations between students and local residents.
Wiggin was asked by a student about council cuts: “ideally we don’t want to be cutting anything,” the Lib Dem candidate said, to some scepticism from the audience.
“I expected a hostile reaction [at the hustings]”, Wiggin told The Yorker, acknowledging the risk that students may punish the Lib Dems for their stance on tuition fees. The Lib Dems are braced for heavy losses in Thursday’s election, with polls predicting that up to 500 of their 1,862 seats will be lost.
Levene appeared relaxed as he spoke to The Yorker after the hustings but he acknowledged the closeness of the race, which depends to a large extent on a volatile student vote. The York Press describes the Heslington seat as a “must-win” for Labour, who hope to make big gains nationally on Thursday.
Students living in Heslington ward can vote on Thursday at the polling station on campus, which will be set up in Vanbrugh college. The referendum on the Alternative Vote, under which voters would be able to rank candidates in order of preference, is to be held on the same day.
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