Uni News: Top 4 Stories of the Month

Her Campus Nottingham has rounded up all the important university-related news that students need to know this month!

Officer Breaks Leg after Altercation with Student

In a rather chilling story which defies all moral logic: a police officer had his knee smashed by a 20 year old student during the early hours of Wednesday 9th October. The incident occurred after police had been called to a pub on Goosegate at 1am to respond to trouble which was ‘kicking-off’ inside.

For those of you who are worried by this, I would like to say something: this is of course a rare occurrence and in a time when, let’s be honest, students are going mental and exploring their new found freedom (with alcohol usually), things like this are bound to happen. If anything, simply use this as a stern warning to enjoy yourself but keep yourself away from the bad goings-on on a night out.

Striking Could Cause Disruption

It’s Wednesday 30th October, you’re contemplating going out with your friends but you’ve got a 9 o’clock lecture the following day; the difficult decision life presents us with. Then you realise, tomorrow is the 31st of October; tomorrow lecturers across the country will be striking. Then you realise: it’s party time.

61.5% of UCU members have voted in support of the protests with lecturers demanding – you guessed it – a pay rise. When are educational protests ever about anything else?

This will of course unfortunately or fortunately (take your pick) mean that some courses will be disrupted, with lecturers lecturing the public on Thursday 31st October instead of their beloved students.

Now don’t all rush at once to check your timetable for that day…

Westwood Causes a Stir

DJ Tim Westwood (former Pimp My Ride UK Host) has caused outrage for making what can only be termed as vile, sexist comments during an event at Leicester’s Student Union on Saturday 5th October.

Frankly the comments are far too vulgar to even post here, but let’s just say they run along the lines of objectifying and being derogatory towards women. I will never understand why there are still people out there who maintain that voicing their sexist opinions publicly is acceptable, especially to 2000 students who are all around 38 years younger than you. There’s a difference between ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘being an idiot’.

Fortunately it seems that a large majority of the watching public were equally as appalled by Westwood’s performance, denouncing what he said and posting their disgust across popular social networking sites.

It seems that Westwood won’t be making an appearance at Nottingham’s SU any time soon.

The SU’s in the Money

Probably the most important news this month comes from our very own Student Union. Nottingham’s SU has for a long time had a well-recognised reputation for funding and supporting enthusiastically a diverse range of societies and other services.

Now it looks like things are going to get even better as the University has upped the Student Union’s budget by a massive 40%. Such an increase is hugely significant for an already thriving social hub; services such as the student bar Mooch can be improved (although it’s brilliant already!), and it gives further opportunity for even more diverse, weird, wacky, wonderful and intriguing societies to spring up.

This 40% increase equates to a new total budget of £2.7 million per year which is significantly higher than many rival universities (Manchester = £1.7 million per year, Sheffield Hallam = £2 million per year). 

What would you do with this money? What societies would you like to experiment with and create if you were in power? Tweet us your ideas @HCNottingham!

Image Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/03_march/05/volunteer.shtml

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teachers-strike-shouts-nearly-3500-2464204

Edited by Luisa Parnell

• education
• nottingham news