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.
Bushby was suspended from campaigning between 12pm and 5pm yesterday after a Facebook message was sent out through the group 'York students against the disarmament protests taking place on campus' endorsing his campaign.
Though the message was not sent by Bushby or a member of his campaign team, it is still classed as a breach of election rules.
In a message on the YUSU website, Returning Officer Tom Scott said: "This penalty is not considered punitive; it is to redress the balance after a breach of election rules.
"It would have been significantly harsher had Charles, or one of his official registered campaigners, sent the message, or if it contained a direct call-to-action to vote."
Scott added: "I appreciate this is an unfortunate situation."
The Yorker contacted Bushby for a comment, and received the following response:
"I personally think the suspension is unfair. Once again I have been cited as in the wrong. From the start my campaign has shaken YUSU and once again as they keep a close watch on their radar the cannon has been fired towards myself again.
"I hold no grudges against anyone. Actually the opposite. I am happy to see members of the campus body stepping up and making their views known and heard. This behaviour should be encouraged.
"As a group I have no ties with, this shouldn't be seen as a problem if group members want to discuss their views. Of course if this were to take place within societies of which I was a member, I would be disappointed with this behaviour.
"With an unclear set of rules and regulations from the start, this has made the campaign process a bumpy ride and as such, other candidates are bending the rules in their own way they see fit. Punishment is focused in one direction at the moment.
"On every journey there are bumps along the way, I plan on taking the weekend to regroup with the team and looking forward to hitting the campaign trail again next week and getting back out there talking and meeting with fellow students to understand their concerns and needs."
The other Presidential candidates were also contacted for a comment. Grant Bradley said: "I think that the restrictions placed on campaigners are too tough. If an individual or their campaigners weren't the ones to spread the message then it's unfair that they are penalised.
"However I do understand the reasoning behind it obviously being that candidates aren't given an unfair advantage, but in this instance, the expression of an opinion shouldn't (in my opinion) impact on Bushby.
"As someone outside of the YUSU loop, I believe it's action like this that takes the fun out of the race for office and puts off potential candidates."
Tom Langrish replied: "I am trying not to concern myself with my opponents' campaigns as I want to stay focused on telling students about my experience, my policies and my passion for the role."
At press time, Tim Ngwena had yet to respond.
Except the group wasn't about investment, it was about how annoying the protesters are. If it was about his views on people walking round campus with megaphones, than I may have been interested to hear it.
"This particular email was of interest to the people receivng it because it contained Bushby's policy on arms investment that they clearly thought might interest their menbers."
Which is exactly why it is inappropriate, as it gives an unfair advantage to a candidate, on the grounds of access to mailing lists.
I think that having a 5 hour suspension from campaigning for one candidate is worth not having a message every day from the 80 or so University of York facebook groups that I'm a member of! Otherwise each college chair could send a message to sports teams, film nights, events groups, facebook events attendees, etc. I'm sure that some people have admin powers on a lot of York groups so it really wouldn't be fair, ignoring how irritating the whole thing would be. It's unfortunate but it's better than the alternative.
On the whole arms investment thing; UGMs override Presidential policies so Bushby couldn't do anything about it if he was elected anyway. And the University has accepted the whole thing anyway.
Let us leave the details of that newsflash for Nouse's next frontcover on Tuesday.
You must log in to submit a comment.
Report