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.
Mass student apathy has been displayed towards the new YUSU committees as less than half of positions see any nominations at all.
YUSU is continuing to struggle to fill the number committee positions created by last year's democratic review. The LGBT Committee received no nominations for any of its positions, and the Disabled Students' Committee, in a twist of irony, only received nominations for the LGBT position. Other positions with no candidates include ordinary member for Environment & Ethics Committee and some ISA and Women’s Committee positions.
The future of these committees is unclear, as although YUSU must hold by-elections to fill these positions, it is unknown whether these second round of elections will fuel interest amongst the student body.
Most notably, there are no candidates for the LGBT committee and twinned with the recent resignation of YUSU's LGBT officer, this means that after this election, all LGBT positions in the union will be vacant.
However, the Disabled Students' Committee has only received nominations for LGBT reps, who must self-define as both LGBT and disabled, to help other students. No other position in the committee has attracted any student interest.
In total, only 22 out of 56 committee positions are being contested. The lack of interest in these committee positions seems widespread, as last year the Societies' Committee was left vacant as no-one stood for any of the positions.
It is unclear whether YUSU will be rearranging the structure of these elections following these problems. Some students have also complained that as these elections coincide with college elections, they are being asked to vote on a very large number of positions. For example, a self defining LGBT female student could have had more than 75 positions to vote on, even those with no candidates.
One Vanbrugh student told The Yorker: "I logged in to vote in the Chair elections, and was greeted by a huge list of things to vote in. How can I be expected to know about all of those positions, and who is best to run in them?"
The Yorker estimates that on average, students will be expected to choose from over 75 candidates for over 30 positions. Questions have been raised as to whether any student could feasibly have time to get to know the policies of that many candidates.
The Yorker has provided a handy guide to each committee, what they do and which positions have candidates.
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