In response to your story of 13 February, I would like to reiterate my regret that one of the 246 pictures of York Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s public activities posted to the Facebook group has caused offence.

When I found out from the University that this image was causing offence I immediately removed this picture and made it clear that I do not support any anti-Semitic displays and would not have posted the picture if it had occurred to me that it would cause offence. To be clear, this image was not on a University website or uploaded through the University network. The image was clearly found by an individual searching for a reason to label me an anti-Semite. I regard this as the latest move in a campaign to harass me at work because of my connection to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

When I saw the Nouse headline on Friday evening I was deeply offended and upset by the accusation that I was a racist. I am a member of the York Palestine Solidarity Campaign as a private individual. The York Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a non-racist organisation which in no way espouses anti-semitism.

I have spent many years campaigning against racism and anti-semitism in York, and helped launch the York Unity group in 2004 to campaign against racism and the BNP in York. Anyone who knows me will vouch for my commitment to tackling racism and vouch for my belief in tackling harassment, in whatever form it takes.

To be clear, Harassment advisors are individuals at the University who have volunteered to provide confidential assistance to anybody concerned about harassment. I am not carrying out the role for personal gain but to assist anyone who feels they are harassed, which is a cause I am passionate about. I am quite capable of offering this advice to anyone who comes to me, as I am there to provide advice and not make a judgement on the accusation.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Collingwood

As a long-standing member of University staff, I related to a lot of what Toby Green said and am one of Heike Singleton and Willie Hoedeman’s campus Energy Champions. That does not just mean turning light and equipment switches off. We compost and recycle everything possible.

Jo Birch

“Crusading student journalists on a valiant expository mission”.

I’ll be honest, I?don’t even understand half of these words.

Here’s one for the Nouse dictionary:?PRETENTIOUS.

“The Stig” (via website)

No, that was not a mistake. There was a time, back in the halcyon days of free love and flower power, when the campus we may soon be calling ‘old campus’ was brand-new and exciting. The first students here, known to those who followed them as the ‘stalwart 200’, were housed in King’s Manor. The first colleges on the sparkling new Heslington campus were Derwent and Langwith—even Vanbrugh was just a glint in the Chancellor’s eye. In the December 9, 1965, edition of Nouse, Nigel Fountain writes in his editorial column on a subject that may be familiar to us today: the question of new colleges and of a central student venue. Of course, such amazing luxuries were far beyond the grasp of a student body rightly more concerned with enjoying the swinging ’60s, but Fountain, in his prophetic wisdom, muses that “it will be interesting to see if, by the turn of the decade, a Union venue joins the amenities planned to surround the largest plastic lake in the world”. Heslington campus was then home to just 1000 students and a few hundred slightly deranged wildfowl.

The largest plastic lake in the world is now surrounded. The student number has increased tenfold, a development that even Fountain’s speculation does not encompass. Our Heslington campus is bursting at the seams with students, ducks, geese and colleges.

Times have changed since those golden days—in some ways for better (kitchens, iPods and dare I say Facebook?) and in some ways for worse (Hendrix played in Langwith in ’67—The Venga Boys and The Automatic don’t quite compare, do they?). But York has retained a sense of togetherness that many other Universities lack.

We stand on the brink of the biggest upheaval this University has seen since it’s founding, and somehow, I’m not worried. There is something about this place, something in the water. Something about what Fountain describes as “The York experiment” has been a great success, and I think it will continue to be even as it grows. The one thing that the new expansion was always going to have was a central Union venue. I think that Nigel Fountain, wherever he is now, would approve.

I used to have a lot of respect for your newspaper, but your last issue left me exasperated. Your editorial attacked the ‘sensationalism’ of a certain rival publication regarding their story about disappearing, potentially fraudulent international students who had used enrollment at the University as an excuse to be allowed into our country. Yet you proclaimed on your own front page that a poll—which stated simply that half of international students felt excluded from the home student community, and that a minority had experienced some form of discrimination—implied that our institution is a racist establishment!

However, you went on to concede that nine out of 10 foreign students enjoy their time here. The reason for this apparent contradiction is that international students, particularly where English is not their first language, often gather in their own separate communities and live happily as a consequence.

Is there any wonder that divisions – if indeed there are any – exist when your newspaper so crudely implies that the presence of several separate, perfectly happy communities is a negative thing?

You also bemoaned the ‘disenfranchisement’ of a massive group of 50 students in the recent local council elections. Leaving aside the issue of the admittedly convincing emails which led those students to believe they had been registered, if these elections were of such high importance that such an error was the scandal you reported it to be, why were the results only printed on pages 12 and 13 of the 16-page newspaper, separated from the back by only the sports pages?

Surely it is issues exactly like elections, as well as the University’s latest slip down the rankings that deserve top billing, and not your unfounded “racist university” crusade.

Joe
Politics Student

I was saddened to hear that there are international students who have experienced uncomfortable and negative behaviour from York residents.

I am also an international student (Canadian, from a Caribbean background) and I have not experienced any behaviour (to my knowledge) that I would interpret as racist. This is not to deny the reality of other international students who are clearly suffering; this is only to make clear that these experiences are not commonplace for all overseas students.

As a Canadian who has lived in Toronto for many years and also travelled (China, Japan, Indonesia, France, Germany, Italy, the United States as well as here in the United Kingdom), I am used to living, working and just meeting up with other cultures. I understand that every culture has its ‘norms’ and its ‘boundaries’ and different ways of expressing these values.
English culture is a very ‘socialised’ culture, so, if you come from a culture that differs from that, then there may be problems of expectation (on both sides).

I am a very independent person and I choose my friends very carefully. This may or may not cause discomfort to the native populations in the host country, but it doesn’t matter because even though it may take me longer to find friends that I relate to, when I do, they are friends for life.

I have travelled enough to realize that the UK is one of the few countries in the world in which it is relatively comfortable to be a foreigner (especially being a black female).
Needless to say, that doesn’t deny that there are perceived deep cultural rifts between various populations in the UK (see the rise of the BNP throughout England).

Perhaps, instead of pointing fingers and blaming students/staff in general as ‘racists’, a meeting can be arranged between various student bodies/individuals/staff members and faculty so we could talk about these issues face-to-face?

I would be more than willing to help facilitate this.

Penelope Walcott
Final-Year Ph.D. Student in Music Composition

I was very interested in the article about single parents at the University of York. I am a third year mathematics and education student and I have a five year old son. I have been at the University for the last five years and although I have received a lot of support from my supervisor, it has not been the case from the University itself.

When I first started my course there was a waiting list for family accommodation and for the on-campus nursery. I had just moved to York from Bedfordshire where my parents live and was forced to find a house in York as well as a suitable nursery which could cater for my timetable.
I agree completely that being a single parent at the University is a very isolating experience and this is something which I find a great shame.

I would love to do my utmost in order to establish some sort of network for single parents at York. Maybe through booking a room and putting posters up around campus and inviting single parents to come along and take it from there?

Sabine
A First Year Mathematics and Education Student

Oh I’m an old (little bit older) resident of C Block too, and I’m devastated to read this and discover that my old home has bitten the dust!

But I agree, and much more importantly than this, it saddens me greatly to see that the University still doesn’t understand that in addressing the issue of the college structure as a mere afterthought, rather than placing its protection and development at the very centre of plans for the future, it’s chipping away, piece by piece, at its absolutely most valuable asset. Because it’s the sense of community, derived from what originally was an almost scientifically calculated mixture of academic, residential, and social space, that makes York what it is (or at least was), not just socially, but academically and culturally too.

Take away the college system, and you’ll take away the tingle that made me, and I imagine hundred and thousands like me, first want to go to York, and then that made it such a special place when we got there. And in a language that administration might be better able to understand, if people stop going, that’s really bad for business.

Stephen

I am sick to the back-teeth of my flatmates. They are inconsiderate and unhygienic with regards to washing pots, pans and themselves. I have a sneaking suspicion that one of them stole a cape from Medieval Re-enactment Society, and he currently wears it shamelessly round campus. Another housemate persists on letting off firecrackers in the middle of the night, with complete disregard for the poor young man on the floor below with an eardrum problem and far less for the sanity of our block as a whole.

I am writing to demand that the University adopt a more strident filtering process when considering applicants, in order to weed out the kind of sociopathic freaks I have ended up with. Why does York seem to attract people like the quasi-alcoholic chemistry student on my floor who persists in urinating in our shower and shrieking endlessly when in a state of intoxication. I want to open up a forum for those with similar problems.

Disgruntled of James

I would just like to say how much I enjoyed your last edition of Muse. Nicky Wooolf’s night behind the scenes in Ziggys was a great read and the photos were fantastic. Perhaps though he could return on a Saturday and offer us an extended tour.

Many thanks

Eager of Alcuin

All the posters on campus definitely brighten the place up but how much notice is being paid to them by those who make the decisions? I’m not sure, but I would imagine very little.

I think if the students are to win this one then we will need to hit them where it hurts. I propose cutting their budget like they so often cut ours by refusing to pay accommodation fees, tuition fees, boycotting the bars, the canteens, the snack machines, the little facilities we have and the shops that ply their traide in Market Square. If only 30% of the students were to take these actions I’m sure it would force Brian Cantor to take us students seriously.

Maybe it’s too late to make a difference and who am I to try? A mere first year undergraduate at this once respected university, but a student who does not feel his £3000 a year is getting him all it should and one who is not prepared to take this lying down. Do not allow Cantor to once again take from the students at the University of York; it’s your university, fight for it!

It sounds quite extreme when you compare it to the efforts of Croker but this is how students are supposed to campaign. I remember the images of the 60s at the University of York and they embarrass us by comparison.

Why have we become so apathetic?

Shaun
First Year

Re: Muse, p. 13, under ‘Meet the Bands’. You refer to Vudu Guru’s “manic jungle trumpeting… sounding like a strangled maccaw.”
Correction: It’s manic jungle tromboning. Also, I think ‘maccaw’ is spelt with one ‘c’.

Matt Fuller
“Parrot”, Vudu Guru

Why am I recieving unsolicited political emails from a University society (Nouse) to which I do not belong? As a member of a political society on campus I am aware of dire consequences should we so misuse the university email system, apart from the fact that I find it a gross intrusion into my personal realm. I find this particually annoying considering that I and a number of people I have spoken to support the portering cuts, as our experiances with the porter system has been less than satisfactory.
I assume in the interests of fairness, a similar email supporting our Vice-Chancellor’s changes will be circulated?

Thomas Crockett

Honorary Vice-President of The University of York Conservative and Unionist Association
Captain of University of York Polo Club
Council Candidate for Hull Road Ward in the City of York UA, May 2007

Does Heidi Blake have any idea what a bone marrow transplant is? Obviously not or she would not publish such rubbish as this:
“He told me he was contacted by a mother who asked him to find a healer for her young son who needed a bone-marrow transplant.
‘I saw with my own eyes the spirit working through healing, and his whole leg, which needed bone marrow or whatever, was healed without any operation. It was complete wonderment to my eyes – it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen.’”
YOU DO NOT HAVE A BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT FOR A BAD LEG!!!!
This is offensive for those of us who go through this with our children. Derek Acorah is made to look (even more of) an idiot for saying it.

Derek Richards, by email

The criticism of the “Chav D” event in the recent article “Stop chavving a laugh” (January 23rd 2007, p. 12) is underpinned by one fundamental, and unfortunately incorrect, assumption. It supposes an equivalence between a relatively new creation, the “chav”, and a much older concept, the “working class”.

The term “working class”, present since at least 1850, refers variously to those without means of production, working in manual jobs for a wage, or to those within families of this description. The term “chav”, according to the OED present since around 1998, refers to a subculture defined by brash or loutish behaviour, a typical mode of dress, and respect for lack of an education or job.

A working class person, then, is by no means necessarily a chav. The undersigned would consider themselves, upon economic status, as working class, but would not at all consider identifying as chavs. Nor is a chav necessarily working class. The term “unworking class” has been coined as a synonym, and one only has to flick through “Heat” or “Hello” for examples of people revelling in chav culture as a decidedly profitable career.

The article has the right sentiments in “[looking] at solutions [...] rather than laughing at the dress sense of the working classes.” Yet in this confusion of terms, it itself unfairly and ignorantly insults this entire subset of the population. At the same time, it flatters chavs– a culture glorying ignorance and petty criminality– as deserving of sympathy, where perhaps in its place a good dosage of mockery and contempt– Chav D– is in order.

Yours faithfully,

James Harrison Fisher, Langwith College
Edward Evans, Derwent College

I am surprised that York Vision has not yet properly addressed our concerns on the closure of many portering lodges. Their latest edition merely contained a short article entitled “Croker: 24 hour portering must stay”.

From the very start of this term, the University’s admin, in the name of lack of staff, has closed several colleges’ receptions with a promise of reopening them after Easter. But recent developments clearly show that they are testing our reaction by ’slicing the sausage’. If we remain silent on this matter, the reopening in April may merely be a lip service; the shut-downs might become permanent and a further reduction of facilities will follow.

Porters are important to our security and welfare and a facility promised in the prospectus before we chose to apply to this so-call ‘collegiate university’.

Please can both student newspapers have a proper response to this matter?

Jack Chen
PhD student

I want to compliment Toby Green on a very well written piece on the issue of homosexuality and Christian faith: “Praying for recognition” (January 23 2007. M10). I thought it was balanced and fair, and certainly wasn’t attempting to grab a headline or provoke in any way.
I hope it was clear, during your research, that we are open and willing to engage these and any issues affecting students lives. As you know, this is not an easy subject. Where we can make substantial comment together, we will. As I’ve already said, we do not always agree, but choose to work together.

Articles on issues like this make a contribution to the debate, by polarising the parties involved, or helping them understand each other better. I believe your article offers the possibility of the latter. I see elsewhere that you were nominated for a journalism award, and I now see why.

Rev. Rory Dalgliesh
Methodist Chaplain to the University of York

Read ‘Praying for recognition’ >>