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.
As a member of the Pool and Snooker Club, Bradley has no access to any relevant facilities on campus and has to practice in an off-campus facility.
Nevertheless, he is currently required to pay the £40 membership to the Sports Centre in order to represent the University of York in BUCS fixtures.
He called the fee “immoral” and “nothing less than a stealth tax” and questioned the reasoning behind a £25 increase.
Bradley said: "I do not want to join the sports centre as there are no facilities for pool or snooker. Therefore to make joining it compulsory in order to represent the university is indeed a rip-off."
Bradley also claimed the hiked fee was subsidising other clubs that could use the facilities provided by the sports centre.
This accusation was strongly denied by York Sport Secretary Harry Collins in email correspondence with Bradley.
Collins said: “York Sport, and YUSU, supports all of its clubs equally and fairly and we do not appreciate accusations of bias towards or against any clubs”.
In October, Collins claimed Bradley’s opposition was the “only official complaint to be received from the entire two and a half thousand strong sporting body”. He also called the combined membership “the most practical and fair solution we believe exists”.
Steve Bradley was told by a BUCS representative that the organisation could consider appealing against York Sport’s refusal to let Bradley compete on the grounds of refusing to pay the fee.
'immoral' 'nothing less than a stealth tax'
Never let it be said that people don't massively exaggerate. I'm surprised that the comments didn't also invoke 'political correctness gone mad' or 'reverse racism' or some other knee-jerk nonsense.
It's almost like a Politics student fighting with 90 people over one tatty copy of a textbook while being charged as much as a louche Chemist or Biologist. But that would just be ridicu
'random student annoyed by a single union policy that was implemented several months ago'
wouldn't it be rather better to get the opinions of all the sports clubs who disagreed with this, rather than just one random guy's opinion?
It's an unusual article, indeed, but it is definitely a point. Spending £40 for a snooker player, when there isn't a single table in the entire university, is ridiculous. Stealth tax is a strange phrase - it wasn't done secretly and isn't a charge for everyone - but it is definitely something that many people will be hit with more than others: as well as something that will help some people more than others.
This is not an issue that just one person has a problem with, I have received several complaints about the increse in membership from members of the pool and snooker club. As a result of this I then went and discussed the matter with Alex Lacy a few weeks ago.
I think the point is that if players of all clubs have to pay the vastly increased membership money, they have to receive something back in return. The concern that our club have and I'm sure others who also do not have any facilities provided for them is that we currently do not gain anything in return for the extra £25.
Alex seemed to appreciate this and we are currently trying to improve the facilities available to the club. Also the increased membership cost has unsuprisingly led to more money being taken into York Sport. This money then needs to be redistributed fairly between the clubs so that all sports club members are getting their monies worth.
Also this year we have had several previous club members not returning to the club. These are the kind of people that may not be regular competitive team players but still contributed to the club both financially and socially. I'm sure that this is not unrelated from the increased York Sport membership.
Mike Walsh
President
Pool and Snooker Club
The boat club don't use any university facilities, and get less than the yoga society...
Hmmmmmm, maybe the lake may have a use after all....
I think it's pretty unfortunate for those involved, particularly the snooker example and I'm sure many people have sympathy including myself. I think there could be a bit more common sense and discretion from York Sport in terms of who they charge £40 membership. Clubs like the snooker club that clearly do not benefit from the 'extra facilities' whould maybe rebated in some way. I don't for one moment think this is idea; to be honest, it's a pretty tricky situation.
I suppose its like what Richman says in his comment. History, Politics and English students subsidising scientists for their 25+ contact hours a week. Unfair, but not ideal. I suppose the counter-argument would be that by signing up for these courses, you know what you're signing up for, just as you do with sports-clubs. It's pretty rubbish, but one of those things I guess. Anyone with an alternative and completely fair solution that could be proposed without opening up a complete Pandora's box of problems would no doubt be listeted to. I'd certainly like to hear one!
I suppose you mean Pandora's box. Medusa was just a mythical beast, slain by Perseus, that would supposedly turn all those gazing upon her into stone.
Anyway, I agree that this just looks like a shameless rip-off. And I am still trying to figure out what exactly it is that we are all paying double the money for; the new reception?
"a complete Medusa's box of problems": my quote of the week.
My GCSE Classics teacher would kill me for such a mistake. Thank you George. I am well aware of the Medusa character.
Mitch, I guess it's a shame such a simple question didn't come up in University Challenge else we wouldn't have been *quite so badly* publicly humiliated.
Meow
Dan -
Re: University Challenge. Did you see the first round? York actually won in similar fashion to how they lost in round two.
They came up against Manchester, who by all accounts, have made the final. It was just bad luck :-( !
George... I think they have pictures of people on some of the walls now?
Oh and the astroturf had some new sand or something... took them all summer (in which we weren't allowed to play) and in the end all that happened was the goals changed size for some reason. All very strange :-\
Also "who by all accounts have made the final" - how many accounts do you need for that kind of thing?! 
Well considering no one actually knows for certain, 'by all accounts' refers to the unspecified number of people who, having little bits of different information, have made that claim.
Right, let's see if I can produce a succinct response to what I see as a rather "non-article".
The £40 York Sport membership wasn't the York Sport committee (YSC)/AU Exec deciding to bump up prices from £15 - the Sports Centre put the joint membership proposal to the YSC (£25 to them, £15 to York Sport), and said if it wasn't accepted, they would put their prices up to £35p/a. This was then taken to a AUGM, and clubs voted in favour of the combined £40 fee rather than seperate memberships totalling £50.
I haven't heard anybody complaining about having to pay £15 to be a member of the AU / York Sport, so I won't go about justifying that here.
The issue seems to be with the Sports Centre and facilities. The author of comment #6 seems to be completely ill-informed / clueless - I think you'll find the vast majority of the Boat Club use the gym facilites as well as participating in the Circuits classes. I do have sympathy for clubs like Snooker, but this is where YSC will look to balance the system - not by hand-picking which clubs pay a joint £40 and which don't (it's not the YSC's decision to make) but by looking to improve facilities available. Snooker on campus, watch this space.
Oh and less of the University Challenge chat, it's not very good.
Just as a final UC comment, Dan (#11), the "Mitchell" representing York, was not me.
I don't like paying the £15 AU fee, I used to just pay £25 a year to get slightly cheaper Squash courts etc and that suited me fine. Any of you who have any idea who I am will know that I do not have the Physique to play Uni sport (well except maybe snooker) and am not sure why mebership of the sport centre is linked to membership of the Athletic Union. Didn't dear old Maggie ban that kind of practice?
As the original complainant about this rip-off, I would like to add a few further points. Firstly, Harry Collins accused me of attempting to blackmail York Sport when I threatened to go to the media if he failed to answer any of my original questions about what I would get for my £40. He completely failed to answer any of my points. Secondly, he failed to reply to my subsequent email where I questioned him further about the policy. This speaks volumes as it is clear that he cannot justify this swindle.
Thirdly, Collins states I am the only person who has complained. Officially I may well be, but I wonder how many have stayed silent, and how many freshers just paid up, unaware that they were being fleeced?
Finally, if I decided not to pay to join the sports centre I'd be very interested to see what York Sport try and do to stop me playing at BUCS events. I will happily pay my £15 - as I have done in the last two academic years - but I am not going to be forced into paying for something I neither want or need. If that means making a bigger issue of this than many may think necessary then I will do just that.
Dan Horsfall (#18) is quite correct when he questions the connection between membership of the sports centre and the AU. There is - or should be - no connection. It's like being told you must be a member of a political party in order to take part in an election.
It is a rip-off, plain and simple, and I refuse to be ripped off.
Just as an aside, it's not like this subject is fresh ground within the campus media either - both Vision and Nouse have had articles suggesting that it's a bit of a swindle...
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