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.
Senior representatives received hundreds of complaints about the merchandise provided for free by a London based supplier.
The Union’s executive committee decided to go ahead with the distribution at a meeting on Wednesday. The ruling was passed by two votes.
In response, ex-women’s officer Amy Burge set up a Facebook group encouraging students to forward a prepared statement to YUSU president Anne-Marie Canning and Services officers Sam Bayley.
The letter concludes: “I feel that this entirely commercial venture could seriously damage both YUSU and the University of York’s reputation, coming as it is in the first week of term.”
“Therefore I urge you, as primary representative of the Student’s Union, to reconsider the proposal made during the Executive Committee meeting and request that the sexist commercial materials are not distributed at Freshers Fair this year.”
The bags, half of which are blue and half of which are pink, contain product samples and read "Welcome from your student's union".
The blue bags include a full-size tin of beans, a chocolate bar and a copy of FHM magazine. The pink bags contain a half size tin of beans, anti-cellulite cream, women’s deodorant and moisturiser.
Critics argued that the “offensive” contents fly in the face of the Union’s equal opportunities policy. YUSU is understood to have received hundreds of protest e-mails from students, staff and other NUS groups.
Last year’s women’s officer Amy Burge said: “I was quite impressed by the level of support we got from students and I was impressed with how many people have forwarded e-mails.”
“I think it would be better for them to show that they’re thinking about the equal opportunities strategy.”
“It’s nice to think you live in a society where you’re value isn’t based on your gender but the person you are. It’s just perpetuating stereotypes which I think is a really unhealthy way to look at people.”
YUSU replied to each complaint with an e-mail including an excerpt of the minutes from the Executive Committee meeting.
The minutes state: “The Women’s Committee thought that the focus on body image was a negative thing, and believed that many of the Union’s members would find FHM an offensive and sexist publication.”
But other members argued that to remove items from the bags was “overly politically correct” and that the union “should not dictate to its members what they should and shouldn’t receive.”
Services Officer Matt Burton also pointed out that last year a union motion on “sexist publications” was blocked as it failed to achieve the minimum voter turnout. The Committee voted by 7 to 5 to hand out the bags unchanged.
Societies & Communications Officer Sam Bayley said: “It’s a decision that’s been made by the Union Exec who are the trustees of the Union. Obviously one of their key concerns is always going to be the image of the Union. The fact that they passed the motion shows that they don’t think it’s big enough an issue for them to take any other action on.
“The reason that us and other unions follow up on their offer is because there’s free samples there that students will appreciate. What is important to remember is that the bags aren’t labelled male or female specifically.
“The fact that people recognise that blue is male and pink is female just gives you the idea that out in the wider world this kind of gender targeting does happen and it’s a far wider issue than just the union here. We’re not going to stop one or another gender taking one of these bags. Both bags will be available to all students."
Asked if she had undermined the authority of the committee, Burge added: “The group isn’t there to overturn the decision and it shouldn’t undermine that but there are clearly a lot of people who wanted to express their opinion.
“This shouldn’t detract from the Fresher’s Fair and other union events. As a body the student’s union does really good work.”
I can't believe they're giving women anti-cellulite cream. Does anyone else find that offensive?
It's unbelievable really, that coupled with the blokes getting FHM is just helping (on a small scale admittedly) to perpetuate the ridiculous notion that women should have to look a certain way. Also - i know men generally eat more than women but the whole full-size/half-size can of beans thing is pretty patronising. Seems a very strange decision not to vet what is being handed out.
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Why would I only get half a can because I'm a girl? Do I need to eat less because i need to be thin?? surely the cellulite cream should solve that issue anyway. also - how does this kind of thing with a woman at the head of the union?
stop moaning women and men aren't exactly equal no matter how much you try and make it happen. face it we're different. i'm quite happy with a pink bag and cellulite cream - it's only a bit of marketing and there's nothing to say you have to pick one up. and there's probably some men who would prefer the moisturiser to fhm. you can't please everyone. get over it!!
I find the anti-cellulite thing increadibly irritating. It's so shameless. Cellulite cream doesn't even bloody work, so not only are we being submitted to the whole "let's make women feel shit about their bodies and make money from it" joy, we're also being encouraged to buy into an area of industry where billions of pounds is spent on researching (useless) products which pander to the rich world's vanity and insecurities while the rest of the world dies of Ebola, Sleeping Sickness, AIDS, cancer, Malaria and Avian Flu. Fuckin A.
As for the FHM thing, quite apart from the shocking awfulness of the magazine itself, I think it's disturbing that the sexual content of the bags is so restricted. Some women- and LGBT-friendly titillation please! Straight guys aren't the only ones with a sex drive.
It would have been fine if it was tongue-in-cheek, kinda like the whole "It's not for girls" campaign by Yorkie, but this just goes too far.
Unfortunately Rose, I think if they tried to include some titillating material for women it might just come in the form of a copy of Cosmopolitan
comment deleted by a moderator Let people decide what they want and bin the rest. It's just P.C. gone mad.
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