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.
Students met requests from BAE employees to move with silence. Once threatened with police involvement, they went outside and began handing out flyers. They also produced signs reading “BAE: Careers in corruption and destruction”.
The students sent out a Facebook message claiming that the University has £1 million worth of shares in the company “in a seperate coporate body called the 'University of York Pension Scheme'.” Due to the supposed support of the company in the arms trade, DISARM campaigners want the University to disassociate itself with the company.
The BAE Systems website describes itself as “a leading global defence, security and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions and customer support services.”
Protesters claim that BAE Systems supplies arms to governments with extensive human rights abuses such as Zimbabwe and Israel. Indeed, the company is currently being investigated for fraud.
As a result of student led pressure last year, the University of York withdrew investment from the company. Last year's agreement, however, doesn't prevent the University of York Pension Fund investing in arms suppliers.
Alex Green, one of the campaigners said that “a fun time was had by all”.
"The supposed support of the company in the arms trade" being the fact that they are the second largest weapons manufacturer on planet earth. Some objectivity please.
The petty protests of five or six students idly lying on the ground in opposition to BAE doesn't quite negate the long queues of students that waited to talk to its recruitment team about future careers in defence. Furthermore, considering the fact that as York students, we are statistically less likely than any other top 10 uni to be offered a job once we graduate, the 'protests' held on Tuesday cannot be considered anything but completely unhelpful to the student population - particularly during a time of recession.
The recession does not excuse immorality and murder. I imagine the protests could be regarded as a little more than 'completely unhelpful' to the innocent people on the receiving end of their weapons. Are you a BNP supporter by any chance?
#3: although I agree with what you were saying, calling someone a racist because you disagree with them is irrelevant and self-defeating.
I'm with #4. #2 put forward a constructive argument... linking him or her to the BNP only serves to undermine your response.
Duly noted. It just gets me hot under the collar to have people fighting (and yes, I do believe people 'idly lying around' constitutes the best kind of fighting) for a genuinely good cause called 'petty'. My point was that during difficult times people may take a morally unacceptable path which seems to solve all their problems but creates many more of a much greater magnitude for others.
#3 Free debate is one of the cornerstones of our democracy - insinuating that your opponent is racist merely because they hold a different opinion is not. Indeed, ironically it is you #3 that appears to hold a closer opinion to that of the British National Party. They want to reduce overseas commitments, leave NATO and maintain a force only to directly protect British Sovereign Territory - requiring no new large aircraft carriers or many other defence procurement contracts that BAE currently hold.
I, however, believe Britain does need to be at the forefront of global politics and that requires a strong armed force. The fact that BAE employs directly and indirectly 100,000 people in Britain gives further testament to the importance of that company. Of course there is a convincing argument that BAE has got too big and have created a monopoly position in regards to defence. In that respect, I would agree that BAE is damaging our national interest by being able to charge outrageous prices for everything. The government is partly responsible for allowing them to do that though.
I think that it's a long shot indeed to equate the desire for the university to stop funding the arms trade with the BNP's proposed foreign policy.
That's not something I attempted to do. I was merely suggesting, in response to an insinuation that I support the BNP (because I do not oppose BAE's presence on campus), that my views were actually further away from the BNP's stated foreign policy than the person who accused me of being a supporter.
Fair enough. I apologise again for the accusation. I merely wished to point out that the recession should not drastically alter an individual's moral compass when choosing career paths (hence the BNP analogy which, I admit, is an entirely different matter).
As far as I'm aware, the main point of the protest was not merely to draw attention to the fact that BAE works in the arms trade, but that it supplies arms to corrupt and unstable regimes and has a thoroughly despicable ethical record.
Tom Barnes seems to have chosen to ignore this, perhaps because it is harder to condemn protesting against this part of BAE's activity. Or perhaps because he genuinely cares more about getting a job for himself.
I regard the protests as very helpful to the student population, as they made people aware of the full picture regarding BAE, thus putting students in a better position to make decisions about their career. I'm sure BAE won't've mentioned to prospective student employees the fact that they're under investigation for fraud and supply that lovely lovely man Robert Mugabe with the weapons he's used to oppress, starve and murder his population.
And you never know Tom, some people might not want to work for such a horrible company.
I've admitted that BAE does indeed have certain irregular and aggressive business tactics but before those investigations reach a conclusion, I think it unfair to state so confidently that BAE have supplied arms to Mugabe. Obviously if that is the case then it would be a reprehensible crime. The important element in this however, is the need to bring those individuals involved in any instance of fraud or bribery etc to justice rather than condemn, as the campus protestors have, the entire group. Furthermore, the process of defence exportation is incredibly heavily regulated by the British Government and any sales will always have to be authorised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
#11's final comment is exactly the point - some people may not want to work for BAE or any other defence company or service for it is their free choice not to apply. Equally though, every other student has the right to apply without others attempting to bully them into not doing so.
For your information #11, I'm not looking at applying to BAE or any other defence contractor.
Incidently, the BAE man at the careers fair did talk to me extensively about the fraud investigations and didn't at all shy away from the fact that they make weapons and are the primary contact for the MOD. He was all for freedom of speech and was even chatting to some of the protesters about their concerns.
#13: First of all, nobody ever said that the people working for BAE are evil incarnate, so what you're saying doesn't surprise me. I have a friend who has worked for BAE and, despite my strong objections to this company's practices, I certainly do not believe that this makes him a bad person. This protest only intended to inform people about these practices and that's about it.
13 - No, no one did say that. Including me. But 11 did post this:
'I'm sure BAE won't've mentioned to prospective student employees the fact that they're under investigation for fraud and supply that lovely lovely man Robert Mugabe with the weapons he's used to oppress, starve and murder his population.'
Hence my post.
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