News: Sabbatical Officer candidates announced A record number of candidates have been announced in this year’s University of Portsmouth Sabbatical Officer elections. Thirty candidates have nominated themselves in the election to battle it out for the five Sabbatical Officer positions. The five paid positions are: President, VP Education & Democracy, VP Sport, VP Welfare & Community and VP Activities. The shock announcement came from the nominations for Vice-President for Welfare and Community which has 11 candidates running, compared to just five last year. This is the most nominations for a single position there has ever been within the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union outshining last year’s record of 6 full candidates running for Vice-President for Activities. Meanwhile, there are four candidates running for the Presidency. Newcomer Bryan Buxton-Barnor has nominated himself against three current Sabbatical Officers Grant Clark, Cat Redding and Perry Taylor. Candidates will have the chance to answer questions from each other and the student body during set Question Time debates. First to put forward their case will be candidates for VP Welfare and Community on Monday 4th, followed by VP Education and Democracy candidates on Tuesday 5th March. Wednesday 6th March will see candidates for VP Activities battle it out, while Thursday 7th will let the two VP Sports candidates, Peter Bashford and current AU Exec Chair Richard Glover take their questions. The final debate will be Friday 8th from 5pm in the Student Activity Centre between Presidential candidates. Campaign week will kick off on Monday March 11th with polling stations opening to take your vote from 10am and closing at 6:30pm on Thursday 14th. All students are eligible to vote at polling stations around campus or at www.upsu.net. The results will be announced at the live election night event on Friday March 15th hosted in the Waterhole Bar in the Students’ Union. Pure FM will be streaming the event live at www.purefm.com from 8pm. The five Sabbatical Officers are elected at the end of each academic year to represent students across the university, earning a minimum £18,000 for their year. For the latest updates on the UPSU elections 2013 and to listen live to election night and question time debates visit purefm.com.
Opinion: Varsity Cup 2013 By Charlie Price When it was announced in December that Portsmouth would be hosting Varsity for the first time since its inception five years ago, there was shock among almost all students and committee members at the University. But why was there such surprise? I think that the most important question that has to be asked is why it has never been here before? Cat Redding, the VP of sports this year, when asked how she persuaded Southampton to allow us the host the event said, ‘Why not Portsmouth?’ And this is a query that has been on my lips throughout my time here. Southampton have monopolised the Cup, which takes place every year, in both hosting and winning it. But no-one has ever really challenged why it is always held in Southampton. It is thought that the facilities our neighbouring University has are greater than ours, but I beg to differ. Most other university Varsity venues are alternated yearly between the two locations, and it’s not as if Portsmouth has never hosted a Varsity competition before, we have – when our match-up was with Chichester. When you look at the facilities we have in Portsmouth, it is fairly peculiar that we have never hosted an event with Southampton before. Let’s just take a look at the facilities we do have; there are four football pitches, and with only two or three matches actually taking part in the Varsity Cup, surely that’s enough, there is a full size astro pitch which is used every week for hockey. The tennis center on Burnaby Road is one of the best in the South and the Spinnaker sports hall is more than adequate for indoor sports such as dodge ball and volleyball. However, the fact that the HMS Temeraire facilities are being upgraded and a partnership has been made between the University and the Navy means that state of the art facilities will be used on the day. The location of these pitches and courts is perfect for an event like Varsity. They are all right in the middle of the city, close to one another and have an outstanding view of Portsmouth’s two biggest buildings. My hope is that the University will be able to continue using these facilities in the future and that the partnership between us and the Navy will be a fruitful one. Let’s face it trekking down to Langstone each week is a tad tedious. I believe that now we finally have a chance to show Southampton how a Varsity Cup should be hosted, it will not take another five years to get it back to Portsmouth. And who knows, maybe home advantage, with the crowd behind our boys and girls, will lead to us keeping the trophy in the city this time.
Sports: AU Update Charlie Price brings you the latest updates from your Athletic Union: Sports Update 1.02.13
News: New Vice Chancellor Announced Students of the University of Portsmouth will be welcoming a new face from September as it was announced yesterday that Professor Galbraith will assume the position of Vice Chancellor. Professor Galbraith, who currently works as the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Herefordshire, has said that, “I feel privileged to be offered the opportunity to lead the University through its next stage of development.” He went onto say, “It is underpinned by sound financial performance and has a strong commitment to providing a first class student experience with excellent student outcomes.” The news comes as the Universities current Vice Chancellor, John Craven, announced his retirement at the end of this academic year. In a long interview process, the Vice Chancellor was elected into the position byte votes of a team of representatives from the University and Union, including elected Sabbatical Officers Godfrey, Union President, Enzo, VP (Ed and Dem.) and Grant VP (Activities). The Vice Chancellor will be responsible for such duties as; making educational proposals to the Board of Governors, presenting the university’s financial information and maintaining high levels of student discipline. The Chairman of the Board of Governors, Stuart Iles, said that, “He brings with him a wealth of management experience and a strong entrepreneurial look which makes him an ideal person to lead the university forward.” Professor Galbraith is all set to join the University of Portsmouth from September and has remarked how he is very much looking forward to settling into the city. Written by Sam Meredith
News: Varsity Comes to Portsmouth For the first time in the history of the University the Varsity Cup will be hosted in Portsmouth. The annual Portsmouth vs Southampton sports tournament will be coming to the University of Portsmouth on Sunday 17th March for the first time. Hosted at HMS Temeraire and Burnaby Road Sports facilities, Varsity will see the Portsmouth and Southampton teams compete in 50 different sports to take home the cup. In a waterlogged tournament last year, Portsmouth suffered a sad defeat 102-66. However, VP (Sports), Cat Redding has expressed her excitement at the news and hopes Portsmouth can take the win this year. The announcement of Varsity being hosted in Portsmouth this year was first announced by Cat Redding on December 12th in a blog post on upsu.net. Redding hopes this year will be the biggest yet, with new sports such as Tchoukball joining the competition for the first time. Newly installed Chancellor Sandi Toksvig and Vice-Chancellor John Craven have been invited to the event which is set to be a major event in the Unions’ calendar. With a five year history, the theme is set to be Portsmouth Pride. A dedicated Varsity website is due to be launched in the run up to the event. HMS Temeraire will host many of the games on the day. The currently being renovated grounds is set to see the new 4G pitch fully installed two weeks before the event, however the Athletic Union are having to get plans ready in case the site renovation is not complete in time. Written by Vicki Parker
Features: Christmas Can Wait The second the clock strikes midnight turning November into December is the first time it is tolerable to hear ‘The Fairytale of New York’. Not the 23rd October. That is so early in the year that I can almost remember the lyrics leading up to the ‘you scumbag you maggot’ line from the previous Christmas. There’s no question that this song is one of the great Christmas classics which will be heard repeatedly in the build-up to the inevitable seasonal celebrations. However, the shameless advertisements, shopping centres, radio broadcasters, market stalls and ipods (on shuffle) that throw this kind of music at you too soon should be made to say sorry. Sorry that I have ruined your day and reminded you that you need to start planning for Christmas and you’re not going to be ready, again. It is when winter is well and truly in the air that families may start to blow the dust off the Christmas CD’s and dare to put them on loop for four weeks. In fact the moment in your life when you first listen to a Christmas song is something you should treasure. I certainly don’t remember hearing Jona Lewie’s ‘Stop the Cavalry’ for the first time, it has always been there. It’s as if you were born knowing the words from the outset and when you hear it again, you may as well be listening to it for the 100th time. Nonetheless tradition is tradition and putting up with Christmas songs is a less arduous task than tolerating itchy paper hats throughout the best meal of the year. The seasonal advertisements appear on our screens every year and this year has already shown that it will be no different. I know that many people will inevitably get excited to see the coca cola advert to let everyone know that Christmas is on its way. In fact this advert alone is almost certainly responsible for children adding another 3 items to their Christmas list under the hysteria of Santa Claus being on his way. The most talked about advert this year though, much like last year, is the John Lewis attempt to get noticed. One snowman goes to the ends of the earth and back to give his girlfriend gloves, scarf and a hat. I have three issues with this advert which on the face of it does a pretty good job at reaching out to people and it must be doing something different for everyone to want to talk about it. Firstly, do snowmen get cold? No. Therefore they do not need a hat and scarf unless it’s just an accessory to support the latest fashion craze. Secondly, snowmen do not have hands which mean it’s definitely not advisable to buy snowmen gloves. Lastly, the snow-woman doesn’t get the snowman a gift at all which is pretty selfish and a little thoughtless on her behalf. Christmas is a time of giving after all. The early days of December are a magical time. For reasons that cannot be explained it becomes acceptable to sing along to Wham, acceptable to have a tree hanging out the back of the car and perfectly acceptable to discuss the excitement of your calendar. This simply just does not happen in any other month and ideally it should be kept that way so as not to ruin the Christmas month, again. Written by Sam Meredith
Sports: AU Update Finally, after two weeks of the fixture list being battered by the November weather, the first week of December brought with it sun, although not a lot of warmth. Some matches were still called off, however a much larger amount of fixtures were completed, much to the joy of the clubs and players. Four away matches were postponed on Wednesday, which included the women’s hockey 3rd, netball 4ths, men’s rugby 2nds and the men’s tennis firsts. Thankfully though, there was a full quota of home matches and a large number of away matches that still took place. There were two wins in the football club, with the women’s firsts beating Chichester 3-0 at home and the men’s 3rd team also beat Chichester, but this time just 1-0. Unfortunately the 1st team lost ground at the top of the table falling to a 2-1 loss away at their close rivals, again from Chichester. The rugby club had a successful day too, with two of their three teams winning. The fourth team recorded an emphatic 70-0 win over Royal Holloway and the 3rd team claimed an impressive 54-12 win away at Kings College. The men’s 1st team just missed out on victory by one point against Sussex. Both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams continued their fine form this season, with both making light work of their opponents. The men claimed a 3-0 whitewash against Chichester at home, while the women had to travel to London to play Royal Holloway, but came away happy after a 3-1 victory. It was a disappointing day for the Netball club though, with all of their teams that were in action losing. It was particularly frustrating for the 2nd team, as they went down 51-44 to Royal Holloway, missing out on the opportunity to get to the top of the table. Other win for Pompey this week came in the form of badminton golf and squash. This weeks results leave Portsmouth in 31st place in the BUCS league table on 626 points just 1 point ahead of 32nd place and neighbours Brighton. For more information and a full list of results along with the updated fixture lists and tables, just visit www.bucs.org.uk and you will find everything you need to know regarding the world of university sport. By Charlie Price
Students Debate Zero Tolerance Policy Zero Tolerance Forum was held on 6th December in order to discuss the new motion proposed by Gemma Kilby, Clare Dussek (LGBT Student Officer), Kym Morgan, Stef Wrobel, Bryony Noble, Jay Rosa Murphy (Ethics and Environment Student Officer), Becky Manson (Women’s Student Officer). A similar motion was passed by UPSU last year with ‘three strikes’ rule. However, the ‘three strikes’ is ineffective because too much time is spent on the treatment of reported crimes and therefore nothing actually happens. New motion declares that any person who insults or disturbs someone sexually should be removed from union’s property and events immediately. Also, when Zero Tolerance was originally a women’s movement against sexual harassment, then the new motion aims to expand it to any crimes related to race, religion, ability, nationality, age and sexual orientation. The new motion also wants to raise students’ awareness of Zero Tolerance. In order to do that, all union’s staff will be trained and new work groups will be put to work. There were some misunderstandings on where exactly is the line between a joke, and a crime that is actually worth reporting. Nevertheless, majority of the participants of the forum agreed that the motion should be implemented. The further actions on the new motion will be discussed next Thursday at “Better Union” forum, and are going to be presented at the next Student council. The New Motion is up on the union’s website. http://www.upsu.net/files/file/1212-zero-tolerance-modified-motion-for-better-union-forum/ By Eret Talviste
Students’ Union delivers Annual Members Meeting Annual Members Meeting Question, Kofi Agyemang The Students’ Union hosted its Annual Members Meeting at Nuffield Center on Thursday evening to discuss what had been achieved over the past year. It was also to give a brief summary to students of what can be expected for the University of Portsmouth over the next year too. First up to present what he had been up to was the President of the Students’ Union, Godfrey Atuahene Jnr. He said that he had 3 main objectives to target for the upcoming academic year which included, “developing positive relationships with local politicians and the newly elected police crime commissioners to fight them on local issues such as Anglesea Bridge.” Godfrey went onto to say that he wanted to start an initiative whereby he actively tries to change something for students each month. “Contact the union and let them know what you want to change.” A great piece of news to come out of the annual members meeting this year was that the AU have been working incredibly hard to ensure that the target of £30000 can be raised. In fact £5000 has been raised already from the rugby game at the start of the year. Next up of course is the naked calendar and they are very hopeful it will be a huge success. Vicki Parker, the Media Executive Chair, was also able to give some good news about how well the university’s media outlets have performed so far; “All of the media are doing amazingly well this year and are looking to be progressing really well on last year’s efforts.” Disabled Students Officer, Thomas Dryland, speaking at the Annual Members Meeting said; “We are looking to raise awareness for disabled students. A key issue is making sure there is appropriate accessibility into the union.” Next week is the student council meeting to tie up any loose ends that may still need addressing but if any students still want to have their say on matters regarding the university or the Students’ Union itself then the student representatives are always on hand to help. Annual Members Meeting voting, Kofi Agyemang By Sam Meredith
Review: Scrooge at New Theatre Royal The Centre for Studies in Literature, in association with the Portsmouth Film Society, screened Scrooge (1951), the classic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the New Theatre Royal on Friday 30th November. It was a charity event with a free entrance for all University of Portsmouth students. However, it was possible to donate money for the Crisis Christmas appeal to help to make Christmas a little better for everyone. A great introductory speech, which explained the reasons behind the writing of A Christmas Carol, was held by Dr Christopher Pittard. Dickens wrote this novel on the same basis as he wrote all his other books – he commented on the social concerns of the time. Scrooge is a bitter old man who hates Christmas and everything else in the world except money. He never stops working, never gives his employees Christmas bonuses and never helps the poor. All he does and knows is his business – a typical capitalist. However, with the aid of three Christmas spirits, he changes his attitude and does much good with his wealth. What this story tells is that the problem does not lie in the social order or in the money, but the problem is in the way how people act and what they do with the money. In other words, there is a need to change human nature, which is extremely hard. However, Christmas is supposed to be the time when people think about such things. So Dickens was using it in his novel to remind people, especially to the upper and middle classes, how wrong it was to live in greed and luxury while others were suffering in poverty. And these issues do not occur only in nineteenth century England but are very much here today. So the plot of A Christmas Carol is closely linked to the aim of that event, which was to remind people what Christmas is really about. It is the simple things like helping each other, being together and taking the time off in our busy lives. And it is so easy to forget about it in today’s society where Christmas seems to be all about shopping, and everybody gets rather stressed than relaxed. The screening of Scrooge tried to tell people that there are better ways how to spend money, than buying pointless Christmas presents which people do not actually need. There is just the pressure to buy something because people feel that it is compulsory to exchange gifts over Christmas. At the same time, people could use their money in a useful way by helping those who actually need aid. Luckily, the evening was a success as The Centre for Studies in Literature and the Portsmouth Film Society collected £96.32 after the screening of Scrooge. This money was donated to the Crisis Christmas appeal in order to make Christmas better for those who are in need. By Eret Talviste
