Where to spend?
True, we have some of the best teaching departments in the country in subjects as diverse as History and Computer Science while York’s research is at the cutting edge, however the impressive statistics mask a drastic under-funding of facilities.
Both campus papers have almost given up on the campaigns for a central bar and venue in our lifetime, while anyone who lives in Goodricke can testify to the dire state of accomodation. We have no campus-wide computer network in college rooms unlike most universities, and now a record low intake of third year students back into university accommodation. Campus 3 is set for construction and includes provision for more housing, but until it is completed another generation of York students will have to face the peeling paint and paper thin walls of 60s accommodation designed with a lifespan of 40 years.
Can York cope without the Barbican?
Closure of the Barbican Centre is looming large on the horizon, as York City Council presses ahead with its extensive redevelopment project. Welcome as the prospects of an improved leisure complex and new low-cost housing are, the short-term outlook is disturbing to say the least. According to the latest plans, students and local residents will have to endure a minimum of two years without vital community facilities presently located at the Barbican when it closes in May.
The town’s cultural scene will undoubtedly suffer from the disruption at what is York’s only major venue. Given that Next Generation’s membership costs are beyond most people’s budgets, an increasing number of sports enthusiasts will become ever more dependent on stretched campus facilities. Of course, this wouldn’t pose nearly as much of a problem if the university authorities had spent the cash from that infamous donation on a swimming pool, rather than that monumental monstrosity of a clock tower.
Past mistakes aren’t recoverable. But University Admin and the City Council can both do more to publicly address the current issues, which will affect us all for the foreseeable future.
Does life begin at forty?
During the creation of this edition we gained a new perspective on nouse, trawling through archives under the steely gaze of librarians in search of the stories that have made front pages since 1964. And most of them seem to reccur pretty frequently – accommodation worries, petty political squabbles and The Roses.
However, some things have changed, as 34 years ago precisely nouse heralded the coming of the global socialist revolution in the 1970s. The political idealism and engagement that characterised students of the past seems long gone now, with a healthy cynicism left in its place. In the same year the firebrands of nouse placed their faith into a radical Jack Straw as the only hope for the NUS, we can only ask if their leftism has gone the way of our Foreign Secretary’s.
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