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.
We will be speaking to the students running to be their college’s chair or president, and finding out more about their campaign.
We kick off by interviewing Roberto Powell, the only person running for Halifax College President.
Powell is a second year PPE student who has worked on the Halifax College Students’ Association (HCSA) since January, as one of the bar officers.
Why are you running?
Participating in the HCSA the past year has led me to be heavily involved in the running of the college. Through working with Sharpy [current HCSA President David Sharp], I've gained a knowledge and understanding of all the work the Chair/President of a college does.
Though it is arduous and a lot of the time thankless work, I see it as a great challenge that I would relish; taking Halifax College forward and improving it for the students that are a part of it.
What do you think is the biggest issue for your college this year?
Currently I believe it is adapting to the loss of our bar and ensuring that our students are compensated adequately with the renovation of JJs into a common room that no member of Halifax would hesitate to use.
This is being done through (hopefully) the installation of Sky and games consoles which would go quite a way to improving it. In the future, when major buildings work is planned I will strive to ensure that our students are consulted throughout the process.
Along with this, I am also concerned with the quality of events provided by Halifax now we have lost the bar. I will be focusing on improving events by exploring all possibilities and not being limited to merely campus venues.
What do you think is the biggest issue for the university this year?
I don't think there is only one prominent issue that needs focus this year but a number of issues that the whole university needs to take a close interest in.
Firstly, the transformation of the Sports Centre, how that has been achieved along with the AU turning into York Sport and charging substantially increased fees to be a member.
Secondly, I am concerned with the recent events concerning more bar closures and Commercial Services' lack of acknowledgment of the importance of student welfare of which a bar is a central tenant.
And thirdly and finally, I am probably most concerned about student safety on and around campus and feel that more needs to be done to protect and reassure students in the face of assaults and attacks around campus.
Halifax students can cast their vote now at http://www.yusu.org/elections/vote
I agree, Roberto's contribution over the last year has been excellent, and I think he will make a very good president. The HCSA elections have some very fine candidates, and hopefully the remaining places will be filled in Janurary.
Am I right in thinking that Halifax has over 1,000 students and not all of it's HCSA positions are contested? I think that's a disgrace and one Halifax should be ashamed of.
If the yorker are going to run what basically amounts to adverts for individuals running for office, they really should expect personal comments to appear! I can't believe someone at a supposedly unbiased media outlet even came up with this idea to allow people to plug themselves! Are you really going to squeeze in the other 10+ candidates for other colleges before voting closes on friday?
Roger,
Thanks for your concern. I can assure you that the logic behind "Know your Chair" was to give all chair/presidential candidates from all the colleges a chance to talk about their campaign. I believe I mentioned this in the article, in the first two paragraphs. It was something that was done last year and proved to be highly successful.
However, this year we've been having some trouble getting it off the ground. To the best of my knowledge, Roberto is the only candidate that we've contacted who has replied, and this is why this article is the only "Know your Chair" article on the site. Rest assured other articles will be added as and when hear back from candidates.
Ben McCluskey,
Deputy News Editor
It should be noted Dan that the HCSA has 33 seperate positions which can be elected, partly a response to the size of the college. This tends to lead to uncontested elections. What's more out of the positions which remain vacant only a quarter of those can be run for by any memeber of the college. The rest have restrictions relating to thing such as gender, age, or graduate status.
In response to Roger I'd say that the section is titled 'Know your chair' not 'Abuse and make libelous statements about your chair' It should be noted that Roberto is uncontested and I'm sure that The Yorker would have given similar coverage to other candidates has there been any, as they have done in the past. Plus had such comments appearing on posters in Halifax the returning officer would have been obliged to remove those in the same way The Yorker has.
I also believe that Halifax's elections process runs a week ahead of the other colleges, so the lack of other articles may be due to a delay before the close of JCRC nominations.
Halifax is the biggest college and has a similar number of positions to every other JCRC... I would go so far as to say that having uncontested Chair elections (and even total gaps) would imply that people from Halifax either don't know about the HCSA, care about it or have no college pride. The latter isn't necessarily a bad thing since they may prefer to have an impact on the university but it's still an issue that this year's HCSA will need to address!
Re: 26.
It boils down to the lack of College pride really. Halifax doesn't really have its own spirit. St Lawrence Court is always a lively and spirited set, but it doesn't really transfer beyond the first year. Almost nobody seems to care about Halifax matters. Indeed, neither do I and I generally like to get as involved as possible in University affairs.
I think one potential factor is its location. Once you move away, be it towards Fulford, Tang Hall, wherever, you have no cause to go back to Halifax, as opposed to the other on campus universities which you can still go to and consider your own.
Most Goodricke, Derwenters etc still call themselves as being from their colleges right to the end, whereas the majority of Halifaxers I know say they "used to be in Halifax" etc
Spot on #27.
Pride in Halifax is like having pride in a flat you used to live in. Because that's essentially what the college is.
I don't understand why it's called a college. It's not autonomous, it's not got its own departments and it can't award degrees or diplomas. Basically, York Uni colleges are halls with a fancy name.
I think pride has to be something earned over time. I'm proud of england because i've grown up there and think it's quite a nice place to live. I was proud to represent my old school because it had traditions etc... but i've been associated with these things for years. Its hard to feel the same about a room i lived in a couple of years ago.
To those who say it's disgraceful that positions are uncontested in such a big college, this isn't an apathy problem. There are plenty of halifaxers who get involved in RAG, in productions, in student action, in societies etc... but just really have no need to give a damn about a building they used to live in. Same probably goes for other colleges too.
> I don't understand why it's called a college. It .. can't award degrees or diplomas.
Neither can any other colleges. Hence why all degrees from York St John used to be from the University of Leeds until it became a full University a couple of years ago.
>> Basically, York Uni colleges are halls with a fancy name.
Maybe true of Halifax (for the reasons you gave), but what of other colleges which *do* have departments in them, etc, etc?
York SJ could award PGCEs independently, and, like York College, could offer degrees as an associate college. University centre doncaster is another example, and plenty of regional colleges.
College status suggests some form of autonomy. London Uni's colleges are an example of a great deal of independence, Durhams significantly less so, but not having a campus and being spread across a city makes colleges more necessary.
York Colleges with depts in them is totally different. I'm 'in' goodricke but taught in alcuin. If anything, one should surely be taught in one's own college to give the term any meaning?
Goodricke nucleus is the maths block. Vanbrugh Nucleus is a history block with catering facilities. Alcuin doesn't even have a nucleus, its depts and accomodation are totally seperate. And psychology isnt even considered part of james.
If you look at other universities their halls are identical to halifax and james. Halls can still have welfare reps and presidents etc... but it just seems nonsensical to call our halls 'colleges' when most people aren't taught in their college and some have no teaching in altogether!
My understanding of Oxbridge colleges is that you aren't "taught" in them either, just that you have tutorials in them. Lectures, seminars, etc, are all done centrally whereever the department is located.
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