Issue 51 - University of Surrey's Student Union

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4 NEWSThe Stag | Wednesday 14 th November 2012 news@thestagsurrey.co.ukFireworks go off with a bangMicrosoft Cube on CampusBy Shunayna Vaghela, News Teammassive white tent appearedA on campus this week, as theTeam at Microsoft arrived fortheir ‘Cube Event’. The giant tent,which was situated outside theAustin Pearce building, housedthe latest Microsoft gadgetry,available for students to playwith.Microsoft has recentlybeen named as one of the bestcompanies for Graduate jobs, andso it was an exciting opportunityfor students to network withprospective employers, as wellas with the current intake ofMicrosoft Interns and graduates.It wasn’t all business relatedhowever, with chances to explorethe features of many products,such as Windows 8, the SurfaceTablet and Window’s Phones,as well as playing on the X-BoxKinect, and even a possibilityto win a Kinect. It seems safe tosay that Microsoft may have wonover quite a few students duringthis event.Change one thing in UniSThe union has launched itsnew ‘Change One Thing’campaign.The poll is on the homepageof the Union website whenSurrey students log in and allowsstudents to vote on what theythink most needs to be changedwithin the university.From wi-fi in universityaccommodation, to reducedprices in Chancellors, studentshave already taken to the websiteto add things they would like tochange at Surrey.Students can also add theirown suggestions to the poll forothers to give a five-star rating ofimportance.To see what was changed lastyear as a result of this poll, seePresident Dave Hall’s recent blogpost.To get voting, check out:http://ussu.co/changeonething© Jim RudoniBy Hannah Craig, News TeamDespite the chilly eveningFriday 2nd November 2012 sawPATS field crowded with people forthe University’s annual fireworkdisplay.Staff, students, friends andfamily all gathered along withthe local community of Guildfordfor the free event. Steve the Stagalso couldn’t resist making anappearance on the night.The sky was lit up with coloursfrom the display which lastedaround twenty minutes.Among the fireworks,refreshments were available andproceedings went well apart fromthe slight mishap when there wasalmost a fire incident inside theburger van.The university’s fireworkdisplay was a chance to enjoycelebrating Guy Fawkes Nightsafely. For information on fireworksafety please visit the NHS Livewellwebsite.Early plansfor Christmasin GuildfordChristmas lights to beturned on in Guildfordon 22/11/12, at 7pm.By Shunayna Vaghela, News TeamThis year’s Christmas lightswill be switched on at 7pm onThursday 22 nd November.Susie Blake, star of Aladdin atthe Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, willbe switching them on. She will bejoined by the Mayor of Guildford,Councillor Jennifer Jordan, and96.4 Eagle radio's Peter Gordon onthe Guildhall balcony.The event will precede theday’s activities, which include atraditional Christmas craft marketon the Town Bridge and festivestalls in the High Street, visitsby Father Christmas, a mascot’sparade from 4pm, a balcony showfrom 6pm, and an impressivefirework finale.The celebrations will also markthe start of late night shoppingin the town centre, which willrun every Thursday until the 20 thDecember.There will also be a specialpromotion, the Guildford Starpromotion, which will giveshoppers an additional 10%discount to mark the Christmaslights switch-on and start of latenight shopping.Jonnie Peacockcoming to SSPBy Chris Sibthorpe, News TeamSurrey Sports Park has beenchosen to host the first everParalympicsGB Sports Fest.The event will run overMonday 3 rd December and Tuesday4 th December. The festival aimsto provide an opportunity fordisabled people to try out andexplore different disability sportsand find out how they can getinvolved.Both summer and winterParalympic sports will be onshow, whilst the event will alsoshowcase para-triathlon andpara-canoeing which will featurefor the first time in the RioParalympics.Stars of ParalympicsGB fromLondon 2012 will also be present,including T44 100m gold medalistJonnie Peacock, who is keen tosupport the festival. Peacock wasidentified by the BPA (BritishParalympic Association) andreceived support through theBPA.Tim Hollingsworth, BPAChief Executive, explained: “Thefestival is about building on themomentum of the London 2012Paralympic Games. We know thatthe performances of our athleteswill have inspired many disabledpeople to take up sport."The festival is free to attendand includes come-and-trysessions and information standsfor the vast majority of the 22summer and three winter sportsin the Paralympic Games.RAG Safer Sex Ball CancelledRAG’s Safer Sex Ball on 5 thNovember was cencelledearlier this month as part of RAGWeek.This year’s theme would havebeen Seven Deadly Sins. Poledancers, a nighttime bake saleand other entertainment had alsobeen planned.The night in Rubix wascancelled due to “unforeseencircumstances”, as announced onRAG’s Facebook page.It is set to be rescheduledfor next term. RAG promised:“We’ll make sure it’s even biggerand better when it comes backaround!”© Farrukh
News Editor: Rachel Thomason | Copy Editor: Tina MormanThe Stag | Wednesday 14 th November 2012NEWS 5NUS Welfare Zone Conference ReportJack White visits Manchester and finds that an expanding crisis in housing and worries about the police, top the agenda.Well! Now we knowwhere the £135 feegoes when NUS puts onits zone conferences. ThisJack Whiteyear's Welfare conferencewas accommodated at thePalace Hotel in Manchester, abuilding so thoroughly imperial in its opulence that at times adelegate would be forgiven for imagining themself a Victorianmerchant.Thankfully the discussion was considerably more downto-earthand in fact centred on student welfare. Nominallythe conference was focused on the Localism Act 2011, but infact other topics dominated, ranging from interfaith relationsto the elections of the Police and Crime Commissioners whichtake place this week.The conference was a great success, with the mostapplauded speakers describing how they are delegatingunion authority to ordinary students and using the powerof numbers to win campaigns for better accommodation andvoter registration, and to build up support for this month'sNUS demonstration.Housing Crisis and Article 4 DirectivesWhat on Earth are Article 4 directives? This strangeterminology refers to an aspect of the Conservative localismagenda. Councils have been given the power to set a cap onthe number of houses in an area that are able to be rented bya group of unrelated people – houses in multiple occupancy(HMO). The targets of this policy are students. Reactionarycampaigns by long-standing residents all around Britainhave lobbied the Government for many years for the rightto cap student numbers in their area, due to students' nonengagementin the community and a perception that studentsare all loud and perpetually drunk. Furthermore landlords areable to charge students vastly increased rents, while studentsgenerally are less demanding when retrieving deposits atthe end of a tenancy. This makes students a very attractivebusiness proposition and budding families much less so.The folly of the Article 4 directive is plain. Firstly students“Landlords are able to charge studentsvastly increased rents.”are increasingly unable to find a place to live in the privaterented sector. Where the directives have been implementedmost stringently, students are finding themselves homeless.Secondly the directives do not only affect students, but allHMOs. With house purchase prices so high, the average agefor a first purchase is now 37. Non-students are also findingit almost impossible to find an affordable place to live. TheHead of Campaigns of the housing charity Shelter cited theshocking example of Leeds Council's policies: at current levels,around 150 new HMOs will be licensed by 2020, but 33,000 newhouseholds will be in need of an HMO by that time.Outside the debate over student housing caps, Shelter wasthe star of the show. Head of Campaigns Antonia Bance led ahighly informative discussion of the problems facing studentsin the private rented sector. The complaints came thick andfast: high prices; poor maintenance; agents unfairly takingdeposits; the need for guarantors; nosy landlords and so on.Many unions have been taking a lead in tackling badlandlords by conducting their own surveys of studenthousing and running rate-your-landlord web sites. The needfor discretion was a big worry though, with some shamedlandlords threatening to sue unions unless all charges couldbe proven. Other conference delegates countered that bycompiling a list of all rated landlords, the bad ones can beexposed by simply praising the good ones.Known mostly for its work with homeless people, ShelterDid you know... the official definition of“affordable housing” is 80% of local marketrent rate, with no accounting for income?was in fact founded to help people in trouble with theirprivately rented homes. Of particular interest is its onlinesystem for tenants to discover whether or not their depositsare protected. This deposit protection is a legal requirementfor landlords yet many do not put their tenants' depositsinto the scheme. Students are especially at risk from badlandlords, since they often only stay in a house for a year,have little renting experience and do not have the know-howor the courage to pursue landlords when they make unfairdeductions from deposits at the end of a tenancy.With 70% of people saying that there is a crisis in housingsupply, housing is set to start making the headlines. Watchthis space for Surrey's contribution toward tackling theproblem.The Pound in Your PocketOver the last 10 months, NUS has conducted an enormouspiece of research on all the aspects of students' personalfinances that do not relate to tuition fees. The Pound in YourPocket campaign is due to report in early December.Pound in Your Pocket has found that many students aresuffering great financial hardship because of huge oversightsin the allocation of government. The policy focus thereforewill be on rearrangement of student funding strategieswithin the current funding limits. Rewriting of the processesby which students access that cash is set to be a recurringdemand of Government in forthcoming NUS policy.The possibility of overall increased funding for studentsthemselves was a moot point, however following the Decemberlaunch of Pound in Your Pocket, students' unions will be partyto a consultation process and will be able to table amendmentsto the Welfare Zone Committee's policy recommendationsbefore NUS National Conference 2013.#demo2012“Many students are suffering greatfinancial hardship.”For those living under a rock, the NUS has planned a largedemonstration against unemployment, inadequate studentfunding and the disempowerment of students, in centralLondon for Wednesday 21st November. The Zone conferencewas buzzing with enthusiasm during a session devoted tosharing best practice among attendant unions.Lee MacNeal, Campaigns Officer at the Universityof Central Lancashire Student Union was a particularlyimpressive character, talking about how he and his team hadshown leadership of the student body by knocking on doorsround the student residences to raise awareness of the demo.Police and Crime CommissionersEngland's first political police commissioners will beelected this week and the conference devoted a specialpanel debate to this topic amid concerns over how the entryof politics into the administrative arm of government willimpact upon the public.The entire panel expressed worry at how different groupsof the public will be affected. Around eight in 10 candidates inthe election are white men and the far-right is fielding manycandidates.Despite castigating the Government for making thepolice more political, the panel all supported engagementwith the election process, saying that despite the turnoutprojections indicating a historicly low vote, the Governmentwould consider the successful candidates to have a popularmandate and would not abolish the new commissioners. Someprojections have said that turnout could be as low as 8.7%.Check if your deposit is protected:http://tinyurl.com/bta2tcg© Red Morris
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Issue 51 - University of Surrey's Student Union

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