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.
Nouse editor Henry James Foy questioned the four presidential candidates about their policies. Questions came both from Foy himself and also from students watching the debate live in The Courtyard. Coverage was also available through live internet streaming.
The current front-runners in the opinion polls are Tom Langrish and Timothy Ngwena. Nouse published that Ngwena is more likely to win, with 57% of those voting choosing him, whilst on The Yorker's poll Langrish has received the majority of votes with 54% stating that they would vote for him.
Candidates answered questions about Heslington East and Heslington West, the title and role of 'President', the issue of student apathy and engagement with YUSU and why they should be President.
The debate began with a discussion of what each candidate will do to help bridge the geographical and psychological distance between the two campus sites of Heslington East and West.
Tom Langrish was keen to emphasise the importance of pedestrian routes between campuses and was keen to lobby for the FTR to provide a connecting service. He stated that decisions regarding Heslington East should reflect the opinions of students, emphasising that since the Goodricke JCRC has requested an FTR link, it ought to be the president's role to work toward this.
Timothy Ngwena highlighted that the provision of services in student areas, such as shops and cash-points, was as important as that of adequate transport between the two campus locations.
Grant Bradley commented that it was vital that "students have the facilities that they need and that they don't feel segregated".
Langrish continued by suggesting that the campuses should not be not treated separately "because it's one campus and one student body".
When asked what they would bring to the role of President, Ngwena stated that his role as chair of Fusion as well as his involvement in activities outside of university have provided good preparation for the role; however, he added: "it's not just work experience; it's a passion."
Langrish noted his experience as Policy and Campaigns Officer as well as his JCRC involvement, which will prepare him for the difficult job as President: "You're in for one hell of a shock if you think that this job won't be hard."
Bradley commented that he didn't have experience in student politics, but that instead he is connected closely to the student body: "I'm coming at this as an outsider."
Charles Bushby mentioned his experience within a variety of campus societies and the understanding that this gave him of what students want from YUSU at a society level. He stated that he would be able to provide flexibility by tailoring his behaviour to whatever YUSU needed. He mentioned the need for a team of sabbatical officers who by working together would provide a "stronger YUSU for a stronger university".
When asked about YUSU's finances, Bushby felt that re-distribution to societies was necessary, to ensure that those that needed the money most, received it. Ngwena countered this view commenting that investment in societies should also be based upon their use of their budget. He went on to note that YUSU should aim to become more entrepreneuring and self-reliant in the future.
Langrish was keen that the block grant the university provides to YUSU should not be cut, as the university needs to support student groups on campus.
Bradley commented that profit should not be the deciding factor when making financial decisions, but rather ensuring that facilities are provided to guarantee that the student experience is maintained.
To increase student involvement with YUSU, Bradley suggested an online system to gauge student response regularly. Bushby was keen to increase levels of face to face contact with the student body. Ngwena would re-design the YUSU webpage to be more accessible to students, whilst Langrish felt that YUSU needed to advertise its successes more, which would then lead to an increase in student engagement.
The debate lasted an hour and candidates engaged actively in questioning one another's policies. The candidates were able to inject some light-heartedness into the debate with Bushby arriving in shorts and ugg boots.
The Yorker poll currently stands at:
Footage of the debate is available online.
Voting is open until Friday on the YUSU website.
am surprised bushby should get more votes than Bradley.
Besides these polls are ineffectual since they don't take into account the fact the transferrable vote issue. Perhaps Ngwena will win if he is put as number by those who dislike Langrish.
I think this is mor einteresting to speculate about.
you should take into account that the Yorker poll requires you to register, hence why it has not had that many participants and why certain candidates are doing better than others
Polling is a poor indication of exact electoral results at general elections, let alone student ones - let Nouse, Vision, URY, YSTV and the yorker play at grown up politics as much as they want, its still all to play for...
i dislike the fact that t he y orker comes up highlighted on this
i have to disagree with #3 polling is actually quite accurate in general elections once one knows its natural bias to slightly amplify the Labour vote. Apart from 1992, polls are remarkably accurate when developed in a general trend.
And we can blame the 1992 problems on Thatcher 
I heard that the Nouse poll was done in the queue to Fusion...if that's true it would definitely explain the pro Ngwena result compared to The Yorker.
When I lined up on Thursday for Fusion there was only a campaigner going around with 'Tim for President' stickers.
In any case, polling people in the queue for Fusion, a society whose President is Ngwena is surely going to produce biased results!
#7, the Nouse poll was done on Friday and Saturday. Fusion wasn't running on Saturday. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
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