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.
The most divisive issue on the agenda was Burton’s idea to move the Summer Ball onto campus. Burton proposed holding the ball in a ‘triangle’ between and including Central Hall, The Courtyard and the campus car park, where a fairground would be set up.
Burton said his proposal was a “good benefit to campus” and highlighted a number of advantages to holding the ball on campus, including there not being a transport issue and that working with Commercial Services would mean all the profits could be put back into the university.
Burton had the support of President-elect Tim Ngwena and current Halifax President Roberto Powell, both of whom said that after initial reservations they had been sold by the idea. GSA treasurer Tom Flynn also praised the idea, saying that he thought it would get postgraduate students more involved.
However, there were also a number of people who remained opposed to the idea, including Dan Taylor, Ed Durkin and, perhaps most vocally, Derwent Chair Joe Rankin.
Taylor criticised the timing of the proposal, saying, “Students have not been consulted on this.” He also highlighted welfare concerns and said: “The whole of campus will be affected by the idea of the Summer Ball on campus.”
Durkin said that it was a good idea, but was concerned by the fact that Big D is set to take place the night after the Summer Ball. Durkin said: “There is no provision of the competition this will provide to Derwent.”
Rankin said he was more concerned about the effect Big D would have on a Summer Ball on campus, and added that every third-year he’s spoken to about their graduation ball being on campus is against the idea.
Among others, Academic and Welfare Officer Charlie Leyland, Langwith Chair Sam Asfahani, Societies and Communications Officer Rory Shanks and Democracy and Services officer-elect Lewis Bretts also contributed to the debate. At one point, Shanks and Bretts disagreed on a point and chair of Council Tom Langrish had to intervene to stop them talking over one another.
During voting, 13 council members voted for the proposal, with seven people voting against it and four people abstaining.
Burton’s proposal to replace Ents-Tech with outsourcing also caused a high level of debate. Burton started by announcing that he found in his review that “quite a bit of our equipment is out of date and quite a bit of it can no longer be used”.
Burton then said that he has held meetings with JSS Audio and Technical Stage Solutions (TSS), two companies YUSU has worked with before, and has been able to secure a deal which would see the union outsource at the same cost currently charged by Ents-Tech, and that price will be frozen for three years.
Ed Durkin, Alcuin Chair Oliver James Hutchings, and Chair of Union Council-elect David Levene expressed concern that this would leave the union vulnerable to a huge price hike in three years, to which Burton responded: “We don’t know how events are going to change over the next three years.”
Charlie Leyland and Policy and Campaigns Officer Michael Batula asked about a trial period, but Burton said: “We need to act now.” Leyland said she was “uncomfortable” with not having a trial period or break clause. Burton agreed to ensure there was a clause in the union’s contract that would allow them to opt out if their expectations were not met, and the proposal was passed with 21 for and three abstentions.
The GSA also put forward a proposal to ask the union to lobby for greater postgraduate representation at the NUS Annual Conference, and Shanks proposed having both the YUSU and NUS logos on the ‘duck’ card. Both of these proposals were passed.
The final item on the agenda was the review of Halifax’s lighting and security issues. Roberto Powell and Charlie Leyland put forward a list of ten recommendations to improve security in the college, and though it was not put to vote the rest of Council expressed their support for this ongoing campaign.
What was disgraceful was that JCRC chairs who have not consulted their students on the idea, voted for the Grad. Ball motion, based on their own personal views.
Dani from Vanbrugh has not even taken this up with her JCRC (at time of voting). She represents people with her vote, which is not only herself. As for Roberto and the Goodricke guy, well their 'intelligence' shone through when they got sucked in by the adjectives of "amazing, magical" (and probably a "fairy light walkway").
The fact is that this new grad. ball will involve dinner in the RK which only seats 530 people, meaning grads. will no doubt be excluded from their own meal, in a car park in Goodricke with a fairground and in central hall where we take our exams.
You all should take a long hard look at your representatives and see how poorly many of them represented you in this important matter. To Rory, Ed and Rankin, well done for speaking out for the overwhelming student majority.
I think we need to decide what we want our elected officers to be: empty vessels with no mind of their own or people who we trust to listen to both sides of an argument and make a decision on our behalf.
Yes, consultation is key to being a good represntative but sometimes we need to let our Chairs, Officers, etc actually make a decision using their own mind.
The Chairs were able to listen to the full plan for the ball and, like many others, were swayed to vote in favour.
Dan, If the vote had gone the other way, would you be complaining about Chairs failing to consult their committees? I think not...
#2: if the student body is deemed worthy of voting on who is at fault in Gaza, then it should probably be allowed to decide where it gets to spend its own Grad Ball, no?
#2: This isnt a trivial matter, the summer ball is supposed to be the final send off for those graduating. I agree, on some matters the Chairs and Officers can use their initiative but on an emotive matter that greatly affects hundreds of studends consultation is required!
Campus events tend to consistently have the same cheap feel. There is nothing special about celebrating in a canteen, lecture theatre or exam hall.
comment deleted by the author I have not spoken to a single graduating 3rd year who is interested in going to a campus event for their graduation meal. Cant wait for the ridiculous queues and sub standard entertainment....Its hard enough to get served at the courtyard at a normal campus event...this will be a disaster for sure as everyone will want to be in the Courtyard at the same time as it is the best of a bad bunch of event spaces and there just wont be capacity.
Althought the major issue here is how the decision was debated etc I just want to register my annoyance at the possibility of having the grad ball on campus.
Anybody who went to last years AU ball in the Roger Kirk Centre will realise that these things, while ok in some respects, are never that good on campus. We don't have the facilities or the setting to make these things as memorable as they should be.
This is the last big event that most people will experience at York. PLEASE let it be worth the huge price that they will doubtlessly charge on campus and off; and this will only be worth the money if it occurs off campus like most previous years.
And in turn, #6, I've not spoken to a single graduate who thinks that the Racecourse is a good venue. Matt Burton has given personal assurance that the place would be spruced up and, frankly, it looks as good as the racecourse now.
I'm not in favour of having the summer ball on-campus this year but I think that it's disgraceful how Dan Taylor comes on here spouting crap despite sitting in the same meeting as the rest of us.
There was strong evidence, presented by a number of people, that former students and current students alike think that this is a good idea. Langwith and Goodricke Chairs gave evidence that the people talked to thought it was a good idea. There was also evidence that people didn't like the idea and Derwent gave evidence for that.
It's a SPLIT decision and unfortunately there's no UGM to decide it, unless we're expecting Week 4 to be early enough to make full plans. The Council is there to make decisions like this on behalf of us all and since they know the issues much more than the majority of people on campus - having organised events, attended events, talked about the issues with Matt Burton, students etc. and having discussed it for about an hour (I think? Can't quite remember), we should let the matter rest, even if some of us disagree with the decision.
"Campus events tend to consistently have the same cheap feel. There is nothing special about celebrating in a canteen, lecture theatre or exam hall"
Look at what Matt Burton and company did to the Courtyard and remember what it was like before. There is the potential to make campus look less "cheap" if we want it. Indeed the many consultations I have been privy to have suggested that having the event on campus is perfectly fine and the concerns raised by people at Council was not moving it on campus as an event in general but impact on Big D and concerns about exam timing etc.
The other point is that we can't tell how well it will go until after the event. If YUSU do this properly - and Matt Burton quite rightly pointed out that he wouldn't make his last week in office the most hectic week possible if he didn't think he could pull it off - then people afterwards may think differently. I think, personally, that having it on-campus for Fresher's Ball is an awesome idea and that we should long-term plan for that and use this idea as some leverage in lowering prices at the racecourse... but the decision has been made now.
In other news, the university card will be spruced up properly and the trustee board passed the Ents Tech outsourcing plan with a trial period. These are major improvements (the latter helping out with all uni events) and are worth mentioning!
I agree totally... Rory and Ed spoke out against moving the ball.. And they have been ENTS officers for 3 years!!!! I urge everone to join the group...
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505005271&ref=profile#/group.php?gid=55558581383&ref=mf
RKC is a venue that should be used more than it has been. It's the Union venue that we weren't allowed to use for years, until the Union decided to build its own venue, at which point Commercial Services started pushing for events in it.
The AU Ball for the last two years, and dare I say it, Alcuin's 40th Anniversary Ball, were successful events held in the RKC. The food was miles better than the Racecourses, too, and drinks better value.
I don't think the Grad Ball should be held in the RKC though. Commercial Services have a lot of work to do before the RKC feels as exclusive as the Racecourses, because - let's not kid ourselves - that is the crucial issue. Students are afraid their Grad Ball will look something like this:
http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/eto/graduation/july09/lunch.jpg
asks everyone who wants the grad ball at the racecourse to join the group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55558581383#/group.php?gid=55558581383
comment deleted by the author Please sign the petition
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yorksummerball/
As a third year myself, I don't think I will go if it is held on campus, there is nothing special about that at all. I, and the people I have spoken too, would much rather just spend the money we would have spent on a very nice meal in town.
Yet more nonsense from Jason Rose...
As someone who was actually there for the event last year (both the meal and the evening) and someone who has experienced the RK Centre "done up", having been to the AU ball last year, I can catergorically state that the two are in different leagues from one another. The Racecourse was a great venue, not just in decorations but the convenience of the layout, the multiple bars reducing queueing time for a drink and having the fairground overlooking a sunny racetrack. The quality of food was better at the Racecourse than the menus offered by Commercial Services, the dining hall is such a grander setting. This is our send off from our time at University, it needs a fitting venue.
I urge everyone to join the facebook group http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1012298375#/group.php?gid=55558581383&ref=mf and sign the petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yorksummerball/
Jason, please refrain from making ill-informed comments just for the sake of commenting.
'Look at what Matt Burton and company did to the Courtyard and remember what it was like before'
I'm pretty sure it took a little bit more effort (and money) than they are going to do with the RK!
Also- if the racecourse can host six floors worth of entertainment - where is this going to be in campus? Is it going to be spread over every college? With a lovely walk through goose poo to get to our 'magical' night!
Thank you #16, that is exactly what I was about to reply! Maybe it we all pay £1000 a ticket so Burton once again has a £1,000,000 budget, then maybe we can have a suitable location on campus, but until then, I think not. Just because you love campus far too much, Burton, doesn't mean we all do!
Also, surely whether they consulted their JCRCs or not is a bit of a moot point....no final year students are on JCRCs, and it's us who this is aimed at, and so even if the JCRCs voted for it, that isn't representative of those who would mainly be going.
"convenience of the layout"
Have you ever been?! The Racecourse is probably a worse venue than Goodricke Dining Hall for seeing the band. You can fit about 300 people packed like sardines into a room where only 30 people can see the stage and there is security on the other levels to stop you from seeing the gig!
Yes, the layout is good if, like me, you want to go and play on the Nintendo Wii or go to the casino level during the night at some point... but those options would remain on-campus.
Not only that but your assertion that "the food is better at the racecourse" is refuted by the majority of those attending last year, apparently, and that's one of the reasons they want it here.
I would like to state, again, that I don't actually support the event being on-campus because of exams and other reasons... but the amount of mistruth and propaganda surrounding this motion is concerning me!
There are some third years on JCRCs not many, but more than there are on YUSU Council. Indeed I'd be interested to know how many members of YUSU Council are actually leaving this year, I doubt it's many.
I suspect that the rational behind this move to campus is more about boosting the profits of the Courtyard, rather than running the best event possible; and suggesting that it's good for students because it's putting money back into the university is farcical. The University charged an extortionate amount for the RKC when we ran a joint event there in Week 5. What they are doing is taking even more money off the students at this university who are worst off.
The whole point of the Grad. ball is that it's supposed to be a special send off for us final year students, moving it to campus will mean the only special thing about it is the price.
The two things I really don't understand about this motion are;
1 Why couldn't it have gone to a UGM? They can't be seriously trying to persuade us that they only just decided to run Grad Ball on campus, this will have been in the pipeline since at least Christmas. I suspect they know excatly what the result of a UGM would have been and have tried to avoid it.
2. Why make Grad Ball the trial large event on campus? The Freshers' Ball makes so much more sense. Freshers don't expect to go to an outside venue; it can be quite daunting for freshers' to have to find their way to the race-course in the first week of term; and it makes more sense than letting down the expectations of people who've supported the Union for the last 3-5 years.
Over the past two years, the Union has become obsessed with the Courtyard, and profits. Unfortunatly if Tim supports this motion, it looks like that is something which simply isn't going to change.
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