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.
On Tuesday YUSU held a meeting dominated by discussion of the issue. The majority of people present came for nothing else, leaving once the issue had been discussed. YUSU had prepared a rather long document, which was then discussed, asking for a mandate to talk to the university to attempt to have the ban overturned. It was said during this meeting that YUSU would do nothing to help the university enforce the ban, however this achieves little in practice as the university could in theory fine any students or societies responsible directly. The meeting included details of the nature of the ban, owing to the ambiguous nature of its wording it was suggested somebody giving someone else a business card could fall foul of the rules. The meeting was by and large hostile to the ban.
There was considerable discussion of alternative strategies, such as large freestanding display points for posters or a vast increase in the number of boards fixed to the walls on campus, although the motion as voted on held the best option would be a repeal of the ban with rapid or indeed immediate effect.
The meeting included considerable discussion of the reasons for the sudden implication of the ban. The many varied reasons that various parties had been given ranged from the “fire-risk” of the posters, the messy appearance they make and a suggestion that the adhesives used to put them up could potentially poison the ducks.
YUSU’s hope was to go to the university and discuss the ban, though they had known of it since before the term started, they have waited this long at least to seek a “mandate” to act. However YUSU does offer two options alternative options for societies to poster, either societies give them six posters to go on their boards or they can provide YUSU with 400 posters to be put into every campus kitchen. The resolution presented to the meeting included a competition to suggest "sustainable alternatives to postering".
On the following Thursday the York University Freedom Society held a discussion on the postering ban, which resulted in an open letter to the university (webpage address at the bottom of the page) and an invitation for societies which oppose the ban to add their signature. The meeting was also hostile to the ban, the emphasis being on the effect of the ban upon the career and social aspects of societies. It was argued that the ban would hit especially hard performing arts and political societies, the former as they are dependant on advertising to make a success of their events and the latter as if they were to take advantage of the kitchen poster system people who disagreed with a society’s political stance would just remove the posters at once making the process futile.
With the increasing unhappiness amongst students at the ban the question is how long can the university continue with it?
Disclaimer: The Yorker Cannot be held responsible for the content of external websites: http://petespence.co.uk/Open%20Letter.pdf
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