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 motion has been proposed by Matt Burton, and is titled 'Move the University of York Summer Ball back to Campus'.
At last night's University Council meeting, Matt Burton proposed moving this year's Summer Ball to campus. Attendees approved the proposal, voting 13 to seven with four abstentions.
YUSU Societies and Communications Officer Rory Shanks said that since then, "It has become increasingly apparent that the views of the student population have been divided in their opinions of this move, and whether they would indeed prefer this event to remain at York Racecourse."
Since the proposal was approved, a Facebook group and a petition opposing the move have been set up. At press time, the Facebook group titled 'Motion to Move Grad Ball Back to the Racecourse' had 633 members, and the petition had been signed by 405 people.
Dan Taylor, an administrator of the group who attended last night's Council meeting, said: "This is clearly an issue students feel strongly about. They feel strongly that they should have been consulted before such a decision was taken.
"Matt has attempted to get this in through the back door when he could have had a UGM on it, and it's not worked. I argued it out in Council yesterday and a lack of concern for what students actually wanted was evident, to say the least. The idea in itself, for anyone who has seen it, is a complete no-brainer and that's what the students have seen."
Claire Hazelgrove, a third-year who is the Labour prospective Parliamentary candidate for Skipton and Ripon, added: "We need to make sure that everyone that’s signed the petition votes down the motion so we can have our Summer Ball back, because we deserve better."
Campaigns Officer-elect Jason Rose, who was also at last night's Council meeting, said: "I think that there are advantages and disadvantages to having the Summer Ball on campus and student opinion is very much divided on the issue.
"My concern is that the majority of the voting populace will not be fully informed on the issue and vote to resist change; but I welcome the EGM as greater democracy and think that it's a great way of informing the average student of the issues at hand. I am expecting the EGM to fall but students to welcome an on-campus Fresher's Ball."
Regarding tomorrow's EGM, Shanks said: "It goes without saying that the idea of a democratic decision making is one of the core-tenets of this Union, and is something that we vehemently uphold at York.
"It is for this reason that the President is prepared to uphold the request of going to EGM, in order to allow the whole of the student population a voice as to where they would prefer their Summer Ball to be held."
The EGM will be held at 2.15pm on Friday in L/N/028. Students will then have 24 hours to vote on the motion, from 6pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday.
Dan if you'd read my post you'd see that I addressed exactly this point and apologised for this. Look back at the first post on this thread, who really made it about you first? Someone called Mark Machado, do you endorse him doing this? If not, why didn't you reply to him condemning him for being irrelevant, as well as for being such a sycophant. Are you only against threads becoming about you when they're not glowing and positive?
comment deleted by a moderator No, but he is a friend (perhaps a little over-enthusiastic) and I have iterated that this comment-thread should be about the debate, so love me, hate me or think I'm "plain vile", please, for the sake of debate and everyone's sanity (including my own), let's keep this on the matter in hand.
I think Matt Burton did a great job with the Courtyard. However, now it has been established please stop f***ing up everyone's graduation for your own little business project.
YUSU has become far too profit minded and has forgotten that they are supposed to be representing the students.
The majority of the council may lick your ass Matt, but it doesn't mean you know best.
I apologise for my comments, but moving the Summer Ball back to Campus has really pissed me off.
Go Dan. I appreciate what you are doing!
#39 I really do feel sorry for you if you have nothing better to do with your time than insult someone for raising the profile of a very important charity and acting upon an assault by a welfare officer of all people!
This is getting predictable now. Whenever the names Burton or Taylor are mentioned in an article, a barrage of abuse follows in the comments. The fact still stands that these people have actually bothered to do something to change the things they don't like.
Whining on student media or thinking people are 'plain vile' will get you absolutely nowhere in life. Nobody even cares about your opinion once they close down this page.
Campus is a small place with probably less than 1000 regular 'active' students when it comes to decision making and getting stuck in.
Why would anyone want to stick their neck out and raise a point at UGM or in the media if they're going to get abused by the likes of you, #39 and #42?
If anyone is 'plain vile' it is those sneering people who try and belittle those who get involved in issues that are actually relevant to York Uni.
Whatever people think of Taylor or Burton, both are individuals who stand up for things they care about and think the rest of campus as well.
As a secoond-year, I see them both as highly intelligent individuals and hope when they leave next year, someone follows them, one holding a national body to account and the other attmepting to work for the real benefit of students. I echo the words of #45. You show your complete lack of intelligence by mindlessly slagging Dan off. He's too astutue to buy into that, so maybe argue against his ideas...? Based on what I see from the class of your post, I think you'll struggle to be honest.
comment deleted by a moderator http://www.yusu.org/union/vote/
Go and vote. And please, don't vote because of the stupid comments that some people have been making.
A) The UGM expressly states that it is subject to welfare concerns so the potential welfare problems are a non-issue.
B) Neither the Racecourse nor campus are particularly appealing. YUSU and the university will do as good a job on-campus as off-campus.
The two venues will be similar - so do you want a special off-campus treat or a memory-lane on-campus treat? Take your time to vote - voting ends at 6pm tomorrow.
I'm very sure #44's concerns are answered by Matt Burton's piece on the Nouse website: http://www.nouse.co.uk/2009/03/19/before-you-vote-make-sure-you-think-about-whether-you%E2%80%99re-really-fully-informed-about-the-possibilities-campus-offers/
I can't fathom people's obsession with the ball being at the Racecourse, a place that means nothing to the majority of us and has a reputation for hosting mixed-at-best uni events. It seems a bit boring to resist a move and try something new. Campus has shaped a whole load of the past three years of our lives, and I can't think of anywhere more fitting to celebrate them coming to an end.
I'm sure YUSU will do us proud if we let them face the challenge of organising the grand event on campus, but it seems like the opinion is blowing the opposite direction.
I think campus could work really well, although RKC isn't designed for this kind of event, it'd be great for music to return to central hall. And believe me, central hall can be tarted up to suit plenty of occasions.
Unfortunately I can't remove the suspicion at the back of my mind that this is more about making money for the courtyard than anything else. The possibility for a great event is there, but there's also the possibility of having a CO2 night with special guests.
...but campus doesn't look that bad at night. With some decent architectural lighting on vanbrugh and central hall (Like AAA) and the paradise / vanbrugh bar used as an area as well, we really could have something special.
As long as it's not entirely focused on langwith, I'm all in favour of the campus idea.
http://music.york.ac.uk/images/facilities/centralhall.jpg
http://www.rock-tech.co.uk/graphics/gigs/gradball_libertyx.jpg
Which is better?
http://www.rock-tech.co.uk/graphics/gigs/minsterball2004.jpg
Though people have expressed concerns with the Minster as an idea.
It is a shame that we can't use central hall as a venue. I don't think that this decision will affect that, though. The information is out now and I'm sure we'll persuade the university to let us utilise it in Fresher's Week!
I think both venues are good.
Central hall would be a very cost effective venue, given that all the necessary bars, sockets, 32A supplies and safety features are already in place for a pretty big lighting rig, plus a range of other effects, smoke, strobes, lasers etc... There's also the biggest data projector on campus in central hall which would be pretty amazing for a graphic backdrop.
RKC and L028 would probably be harder to light quite as amazingly though, no bars and i suspect a power shortage.
There's some great things we could do with vanbrugh paradise as well with the right lighting and a bit of a clean-up.
I hope this debate opens up the possibility for more big campus events next year. The future of York Uni events should revolve around live music as well as your cheesy college club nights. Even if this fails, i hope people will be more aware of what we could actually do on campus if we helped clean the place up and used some imagination!
Campus is only dirty because we've all let it get that way...
Just in response to those who have questioned my reasons for supporting this. Please do have the courtesy to read before making any passing comments:
Here are the problems as far as I see it:
> Welfare: The Summer Ball will be the night before Big-D. On the Thursday and Friday morning, 1st years have exams. Unlike Big-D which is located just around Derwent, this idea will encompass the whole of campus and go on until the early hours of the next morning, with people roaming round campus and distracting those with exams on the Thursday. Numerically, the numbers this affects are many more than Big-D.
> Central Hall/RK: I’m sorry, but ‘fairy lights’ and the like are not going to transform what are for me, two buildings that are part of my everyday campus experience. This is where we spend our time eating and taking our exams. There is no way that Central Hall will be turned into a venue capable of rivalling the Racecourse, nor the RK centre which is where I eat lunch/dinner on a daily basis. Campus is campus is campus. I want a different (and yes, perhaps more expensive) experience for a final send-off.
> Logistics: The RK centre only seats 550 people for dinner, meaning people will potentially be excluded, not at their own choice, from attending their own graduate supper. I think as a matter of principle, that this should be more of an ‘opt-out’ idea rather than an ‘opt-in’ idea and anyone excluded would have been given a raw deal by the uni. In contrast, the Racecourse allows for everyone to opt in, even if it may sell not sell-out and get the 780 people that came last year. Based on those figures, 230 graduates are going to miss out on their last dinner. That is simply wrong, and not ‘hysterical’, James.
In conducting our survey, people also raised concerns about ’spending £150 on a dress to wear it to an event similar to Club-D’, ‘walking around in duck s**t’ as well as highlighting that the whole event of a bus ride off campus to an area away helped mould what should be most importantly a DIFFERENT and original experience. Many also were concerned about how YUSU/Matt entirely by-passed them with these plans and was not allowing a debate/vote on it in the first place.
These final concerns are not all mine, but they are some of those held by people who Alex and I spoke to on conducting our (what now seems like) relatively accurate survey. I’m glad it’s boiled down to this, and we can vote on it. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t be on campus or the Racecourse; we would have a nice ‘Oxford Hall’ or even a marquee on the 22 acres, £75, all you can eat/drink, live music, black-tie; these are not options though.
Please vote AGAINST the motion at: http://www.yusu.org/ugm/
Voting opens 18.00pm TODAY and closes at 18.00 TOMORROW (Saturday 21st).
Well put, Dan.
For those who have criticised Dan, whatever you may think of his opinions, he is one of the most astute and intelligent people at this University, and aside from the fact I’m his friend, I think the way he articulated these points, suggests exactly that. Please don’t attack him personally. I think people who do, do it because they feel threatened by his arguments and the way he puts them. It’s pretty cowardice.
I don't feel threatened by his arguments or the way he puts them. This last post of his isn't bad... though I think it's the third or fourth repost of it.
Even still, the concerns have already been addressed. Big D will affect Derwent, Langwith and anywhere that people go home to. The Summer Ball will affect Goodricke, Langwith and anywhere that people go home to. It's not numerically that different and whereas Summer Ball is followed by 2 afternoon exams, Big D is followed by 4 morning exams. There have been plenty of other welfare things covered but on the differences between Big D and the Summer Ball, I'm not really buying it that much. Especially since Summer Ball will have bouncers at Langwith for 2 hours after the event finishes and 24 hour porters, whereas Big D will not have these Langwith precautions, even though it affects the college as much.
There will be about 550 people wanting to go for dinner. RKC hosts more than that, including the side room, so it's not a bad venue. Campus as a whole, however, hosts many more than the Racecourse so the main event can be bigger. Numerically, it's similar.
"There is no way that Central Hall will be turned into a venue capable of rivalling the Racecourse" - as has been said before, even the highly acidic and toxic lake rivals the Racecourse. It's not a good venue and that's a poor argument. RKC is, indeed, where people have lunch - and that IS an argument.
Maybe people will think it's not special as a result of being where they spend a lot of time or maybe people will think it has more memories as a result of being where they spend a lot of time. THAT is where the decision should be focussed as the rest of the arguments aren't really dependent on location but rather the competence of the staff organising!
comment deleted by the author at jason rose:
i hope i get to eat my graduate meal in a side-room of the RKC
Jason,
Surely you are making a case for neither Big D nor the grad ball to be held on campus?
Saying 'Big D disrupts people so it doesn't matter if the Summerball does' isn't an argument.
There is no need for the Summerball to be on campus....I like the kirk but don't want to graduate there.
#57, I know and I tried to edit but it wouldn't let me :(
#58, it's not much worse than the board of directors conference centre at the racecoures. Both could be better but you'll end up remembering the people and not the place, really, and lots of money will be spent on either.
#59; my point was rather that these welfare concerns are ones that need to be addressed either way and that Summer Ball doesn't really add any additional dangers. I for one am completely able to trust in Charlie's welfare skillz since she hasn't put a foot wrong on welfare issues in 9 months; so I don't think that the welfare issue is really the most important issue here.
But your last point is still the one that should be the deciding factor - do you want something that is special because it's not at uni or special because it *is* at uni?
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