Issue 1247 - The Courier

Th eCourier Tuesday 6 March 2012
news.7
Union Pres interrogated
over poor election turnout
Visit of NUS President Liam Burns overshadowed
REACH FOR
THE STARS
Newcastle’s Dance Society
were highly successful in
Newcastle, with third year
Lauren Anderson securing
second place in the prestigious
solo category.
Photography: Newcastle
Dance Society
continued from front page
However, this decision was overturned
the next day by the Returning
Officer.
He deemed it unfair on the candidates
that had already put their nominations
forward, and ruled that only
ballots without candidates were to
remain open.
Colin Henrys, running for Editor of
The Courier, said “It felt unfair as I’d
worked to meet the deadline; however,
in order to make the Student Union
run effectively it needs the right
candidates for the role, and so a two
day extension shouldn’t really have
been a problem to anyone.”
However, during ‘President Question
Time’ at Union Council last week
there was the predominant feeling
that Perry’s decision to rerun may
have affected the smooth running of
Elections Committee, as well as having
potentially hampered the number
of candidates that came forward.
Until handing in her nominations
form on the Monday morning of the
nominations deadline Perry stood as
Chair of Elections Committee.
Students commented that this could
be seen as unfair on other candidates,
as she would have received manifestos
prior to the nominations deadline,
giving her an advantage as well as
During the ‘President Question Time’ at Union Council last week
there was the predominant feeling that Perry’s decision to rerun
may have affected the smooth running of Elections Committee
LIAM BURNS
The NUS President’s
address to students
was overshadowed by
the intense scrutiny
NUSU President Perry
was subjected to
awareness of who was running.
Criticism also fell on the marketing
of the positions available. However,
Perry was adamant that all publicity
was adequate.
Burn’s speech to those in attendance
centred on the current Coalition
Government’s policies surrounding
Higher Education in the UK.
He spoke about the fight against
such reforms “goes on” and condemned
the Conservative-led Government’s
reforms as pricing students
out of a university education.
The former leader of NUS Scotland
also revealed a national campaign
to be launched by the NUS entitled
“Come Clean” which seeks to tackle
the perceived lack of bursaries available
to students and the manner in
which they are awarded.
He asserted that 30% of students will
never actually pay back their tuition
fees and that, therefore, the policy of
fee waivers was pointless and instead
greater access to bursaries should be
prioritized.
A motion was also passed at council
to support the main aims of the National
Week of Action but not to actively
build for a walkout.
Photography: NUS Scotland (Flickr)
PhD student to join
UN leaders in Brazil
Competition winner to petition conference on global environment
By Jennifer Evans
The winner of a competition to attend
the Rio +20 conference on sustainable
development has been announced.
Civil Engineering PhD student and
focus geared towards making each
area more environmentally sound.
According to the Guardian newspaper’s
website, attendants at the conference
will also be asked to “negotiate
a new agreement to protect oceans,
approve an annual state of the planet
Henrietta Smylie (BSc Marketing)
took fourth place with Luke Barnwell
(MEng Civil Engineering and
Geosciences) taking fifth and Martin
Findlay (MEng Civil Engineering and
Geosciences) taking sixth respecitvely.
The conference aims to examine seven critical international development
issues; jobs, energy, cities, food, water, oceans and disasters
Culture Lab employee Ed Byers will
attend the Earth Summit, which runs
from June 20 to 22.
The prize, sponsored by Northumbrian
Water and in association with
the Newcastle Institute for Research
on Sustainability (NIRS), will see Ed
travel to Rio de Janeiro to rub shoulders
with the UN’s leading experts
on sustainable development and UN
leaders.
Throughout the conference Ed will
also produce a blog reporting on the
debates and discussions he will be attending.
The conference aims to examine
seven critical international development
issuest; jobs, energy, cities, food,
water, oceans and disasters, with the
report, set up a major world agency
for the environment and appoint a
global ombudsperson, or high commissioner,
for future generations.”
Ed won the competition by submitting
a discussion piece focussing on
one of these key areas.
This followed a huge publicity campaign,
which saw the number of applicants
rise from single figures to
around the 200 mark.
There were five runners up selected
by the judging panel, supported by
the Port of Tyne and Planet Earth Institute.
Second place went to James Robinson
(MEng Civil Engineering and
Geosciences), third place was Claire
Chisholm (BA Combined Honours).
In addition a further three enteries
were also seleted to be featured on
their blog site, as the standard of entries
was so high.
An announcement on February 28
by NIRS also confirmed that thanks
to Northumbrian Water, the Planet
Earth Institute and NIRS, two runners
up in the competition, James
Robinson and Claire Chisholm would
also be attending the conference.
Furthermore it was also announced
on March 1 that fourth place winner,
Henriette Smylie, will be travelling to
Sao Paulo over the summer to spend
time with one of Brazil’s leading PR
firms and will be visiting some of
their clients, including the Planet
Earth Institute.
ED’S THE
RIO DEAL
The PhD student will rub
shoulders with some of the
world’s top leaders as he
reports on the development
conference Photography:
Ed Byers