The good, the bad, and the shitty slogan

Catchy, witty slogans have always been an apparently crucial part of any budding sabbatical officer’s election campaign. However, concerted efforts to scale new heights of wit from some of Exeter’s finest would-be politicos have often fallen disastrously short. In the name of rigorous investigative journalism, I trawled the archives for the most misplaced slogans in recent years, in an attempt to provide this year’s candidates with some entirely serious advice about how not to make me cringe.

As they near the end of their terms in office, last year’s Sabbs can rest easy in the knowledge that, on the whole, the slogans they thrust upon an unwitting student population were not that bad. VP Participation and Campuses Jak Curtis-Rendall kept things simple, urging students to vote “Jak 4 Pac”, while Chris Rootkin implored us all to “Root for Rootkin”, while dressed up as a potato, a foodstuff infamous for not actually being a root vegetable.

Despite these minor potato-based inaccuracies, 2013’s cohort faded in comparison to the montage-worthy brilliance of the cringeworthiness offered by the election hopefuls from the 2012/13 academic year. Ben Jones, who eventually lost the Guild President race to Nicholas ‘Welshy’ Davies (who dressed as a sheep all week to win, obvs), harrowingly implored voters to “Give the Guild a BJ”. Quite how this slogan would have played out during the post-SSB fallout remains thankfully unknown. Meanwhile, Jenny Mayhew invoked the might of the “J Team” in her election campaign, with the less said about this method of campaigning the better.

However, the best (and by best I obviously mean worst) of that year’s horrible, horrible slogans came in the race for VP Welfare. Ian “Flash” Gordon enticed voters with “Fancy a flash?”, but voting statistics from that year indicate that while many voters were irrevocably scarred by Ian’s insinuation, few actually listed him as their preferred candidate.

While the flaws in Gordon’s mildly unsettling strategy were laid bare (sorry) for all to see, the other Welfare candidates were obviously unwilling to give creepy Ian centre stage in the inevitable denouement of this paragraph. Sam Hollis-Pack ran with HP Sauce, evoking the well-known Welfare device of brown savoury syrup, while Samuel Longden went all Michael Bay montage scene with “Together we can, we will”. Unfortunately for Samuel, we couldn’t, and we didn’t.

Eventual election winner Imogen Sanders won with “Imagine Imogen”, as well as, one would imagine, some insightful and intelligent policies. Not that your policies would matter when you’re running against a flasher, a sauce obsessive, and a wannabe Jed Bartlet tragically mired in the backwaters of the West Country.

These diabolical attempts were topped only by Josh Cleall, who contrived to not become 2012 Guild President with the slogan “Cleall or No Cleall”. Despite invoking the laboured stereotype that students just watch daytime TV, as well as unnecessarily reminding everyone of Noel Edmonds (who has always personally made me think of a really sad lion), Cleall was unable to open the red box marked “President”. Devastation.

Good slogans are simple, right?

Another personal favourite came in the 2011 race for Guild President, where seemingly atemporal leaflet-freak Damien Jeffries (he also ran in 2012) ran on a policy of “Compensation, Crackdown, and No Nonsense”. To contextualise this, Jeffries’ manifesto included a ban on suggesting that he looked like England footballer James Milner, and plans for a ski-lift up Stocker Road. Weird.

To end this article on the bleak note it’s all been building to, I’d like to quote the manifesto of Giovanni Sforza, an unsuccessful candidate for VP Participation and Campuses in 2011. Sforza told students to “make the best of it”, and this, readers, is my advice to you, too. If you’re running, then please, please, PLEASE think about how cynical, jaded, and potentially hungover students like me are going to receive your slogan. If you’re not running, then move beyond this article’s questionable sass (after sharing it with all your friends, obviously), and engage with the manifestos offered by your candidates. They will shape your university experience in any number of ways, and they deserve your attention, despite the terrible slogans. Make the best of a chaotic week, and make your mark on student democracy.

Owen Keating, News Editor

Do you have a favourite so-bad-it’s-good election slogan? Do the awful puns actually brighten your day? Or are they just a nuisance and a distraction from the real issues at stake? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.

Student bikes stolen in series of bicycle thefts

Ned Aufenast’s bike was stolen from Stocker Road on Thursday
Image credit: Ned Aufenast

Three Exeter University students have been victimised in a recent series of bike thefts in Exeter.

The students all had their bikes, valued at between £250 and £550, stolen on and around Streatham Campus in the last three days, including from student accommodation.

Engineering student Ned Aufenast’s Hardrock mountain bike was stolen from the main undercover rack on Stocker Road near the library at between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m., Thursday 16 January.

Despite the bike being secured, the thief was able to cut through the heavy duty cable lock. Aufenast, who runs a business importing bikes from Holland, had another previous bike stolen while in Exeter.

“I never would have expected bike thefts to happen during the day in such a busy place.” Aufenast told Exeposé, “I use my bike all the time for getting to uni and for cross country trekking. I will be sure to take more care with where I leave any bike I bring here in the future and get a decent D Lock!”

Third year Biosciences student, Emma Renshaw also had her Grey Carerra Subway hybrid taken from campus on Thursday evening. The bike was lifted from the bicycle racks outside Streatham Court at between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Like Aufenast’s, the bike was chained securely with a cable lock and key.

Emma Renshaw’s bike (pictured without bag and lights attached) was stolen from campus yesterday evening
Image credit: Emma Renshaw

Renshaw told Exeposé: “It’s sad that a bike lock and CCTV isn’t enough to put off bike theft on campus. It’s very disheartening and frustrating because I used the bike a lot to explore Devon and they’ve taken that away from me, especially as I can’t afford to replace it.”

An additional third bike was stolen this week, at some point between the morning of 14 January and 16 January from a locked bike shed in St. David’s student village near Streatham Campus.

The police told Exeposé that they have not yet linked the thefts but may do so in due course. They are currently being investigated as thefts and the police appealed for anyone who had seen anybody suspicious or any information about the bikes in question to get in contact.

Olivia Luder, Online Editor

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Grape Expectations

Image credits: vitalsine

Flora Carr’s parents are the Jedi Masters of alcohol. But her housemates are little more than  rookies (or possibly Wookies). The dilemma presented to her: the bolt or the bouquet? Disarrono or decanter? The chunder or the Chardonnay?

In Freshers’ Week, you find yourself answering the same questions over and over. After a while, you find the answers come almost as an automatic reflex. “So what’s your name?” Flora. “What’re you studying?” English. “You in catered?” Yeah, I love the puddings. “What do your parents do?” They’re both wine tasters.

It’s around this point that people do a double-take.  “You’re serious? That is so… cool. That is such a cool job. It’s like being a chocolate taster, only for grownups.”

For a while I attempt to explain that wine tasting isn’t just getting drunk all day, before launching into a brief account of my parents’ separate careers. Usually, however, the talk then shifts towards whether or not I’m supplied with alcohol regularly, and it’s at this point that I remember that in the mind of the average student, the concept of ‘alcohol’ is quickly replaced with the word ‘DRUNK’. Usually in big, multi-coloured letters. I would know. Because I’m a student too. And apart from the usual challenges of getting lost on campus and spending a month’s worth of student loan on a single Cheesey Tuesday, a further challenge I’m currently facing is how to reconcile the ‘Student-Flora’ idea of alcohol with the way I have been taught to treat alcohol all my life.

As a teenager I found myself in the midst of the ‘down-it’ culture. The familiar chant of ‘We like to drink with —’ became the background music of my years at secondary school. At house parties, whatever was tucked at the back of the cupboards – be it whiskey, beer, rum –  was emptied into single containers and downed as quickly as possible. No-one wanted to be left sober and joyless in the corner – it became a competition to see who could drink the fastest, get drunk the soonest, stay drunk the longest. I loved it. Like any young teenager I was swept away by the heady, seductive appeal of losing myself in a haze of almost hysterical happiness, a world where you could do anything you wanted, say whatever you wanted, dance however you wanted, and blame it the next day on the tequila. It’s a culture that unsurprisingly is still going strong a few years later; between 2012-2013 an estimated 6,500 people under the age of 18 were admitted to A&E. Drinking is part of the young teenage culture, a means of experimentation whilst also standing as a yardstick for popularity and ‘coolness’.

Looking back at my 15-year-old self, remembering how a house party wasn’t a party until someone was locked in the bathroom throwing up WKD, I can’t be judgemental. How can I be? My entire social group held the exact same views at the time. However, there’s a difference between a 15-year-old whose only worries included the faint threat of GCSEs and where to hide empty beer cans and a 19-year-old thinking about finding a house – a REAL house – with bills and rent and cleaning rotas. And yet I feel nothing has changed. I still drink to excess. My new friends drink to excess. There are even charts on certain floors in my accommodation that award points for each person’s number of ‘chunders’. A survey conducted by MoneySupermarket.com in 2012 showed that, during Fresher’s Weeks across the country, an average of 14 shots would be consumed per student, 1,258,881 pints would be drunk by male freshers and 7,133,659 single spirit measures would be drunk by female freshers. I have friends who staggered home after sports initiations, hair threaded with beads of sweat, traces of vomit around their mouths, mumbling to themselves. Ironically their nappies were usually the only part of their appearance still intact. Even after Freshers’ Week this culture of excess remains; friends who decide last-minute to go out down half a bottle of vodka to ‘catch-up’, whilst I’m regularly sent Snapchats of the inside of A&Es across the country, the tag line being ‘Not where I expected to be on a Monday night’.

I can forgive 15-year-old Flora for neglecting her upbringing. After all, isn’t that what those early teenage years are all about? Rejecting everything your parents ever tried to tell you? Going through (with relish) the checklist of exactly what they told you not to do? But Student-Flora should-theoretically- know better. She has come to realise that yes, she should have listened more closely when her mother told her how to warm milk for hot chocolate (in a microwave, not a kettle). She has accepted that there are things her parents know more about. Like budgeting. And the correct footwear for the ever-rainy Exeter. And, again, budgeting. So why can’t she – I – also remember what my parents taught me about how to treat alcohol?

My parents are both Masters of Wine. This makes them Jedis of the wine-tasting world. There are only 303 in the world, whilst my parents are – last time I checked – one of only three sets of married Masters of Wine. The ‘MW’, as my parents refer to it, is a qualification, requiring the entrant to take a bunch of written exams as well as the expected wine-tasting and food and wine matching. In all honesty, there’s probably even more to it, but at home wine is so often a topic of conversation that you learn to tune it out very quickly. In fact, the only interesting thing that ever came out of their jobs was the time my mother came to my school to give a talk during one of those ‘Parent Career’ days. She gave volunteers Jelly Babies whilst they were blindfolded and asked them to identify the flavour. This, she said, is the basics of wine-tasting. But once the sweets were gone I soon lost interest again.

However, I do remember the repetition of a single word: savour. “Savour that, Flora. Savour the flavour –  what does it remind you of?” At first I would usually respond to this question with a made-up response, the more ridiculous and pretentious the better.

“Tarmac. It tastes like tarmac on a spring day. With a solid grounding of- wait for it- mahogany. Yes, mahogany. It’s that autumnal smell that gives it away.”

But as I grew older, I began to appreciate the easy access to quality wines. I would be given a glass of Chardonnay in exchange for a pause, a slowly taken sip, a comment or two on how sharp it was, whether or not I liked it. Liking an alcoholic drink or not doesn’t even matter for most students. If it’s alcoholic, who cares? You drink. You get drunk.

So how can I even begin to reconcile these two contradictory outlooks, my two contradictory selves? How can I pause to appreciate a drink whilst trying to bolt it in ten seconds? Slowly however, I am trying to find a middle ground. As the honeymoon period of Term One wears off, friends are less intent on getting me and themselves paralytic. After a weekend trip home, I arrived at Exeter St David’s armed with a bottle bag filled with Prosecco my mother had got from work for free. At first during pre-drinks I would pour some into a mug to mask the contents, nervous of being branded an alcohol snob. However, after giving a friend a sip, the word has spread about the beauty of my mother’s wine, and I now feel able to wander into the common room with a bottle of white wine tucked neatly under my arm. Although I’m sure there will still be nights to come where Student-Flora will take over and leave me with the hangover to prove it, I’m giving her – and me – a rest. Just give me a moment to savour it.

Flora Carr

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Ratemash: Have They Got Exactly What They Wanted?

Emily Vine discusses the recent backlash from the controversial website, Ratemash, which takes your Facebook profile picture and asks others to rate it.

I imagine the ‘brains’ behind Ratemash.com have got exactly what they wanted: numerous hits as people succumb to the overwhelming curiosity of whether they or their friends / acquaintances / archenemies have ‘made the top 50’. The wave of bad publicity for the site which claims to help students identify ‘the most good looking guys and girls on campus’ has undeniably played right into the maniacally clapping hands of those who created it. It’s been the main topic of conversation, both on campus and online for a good few days as students (quite rightly) discuss how awful a concept it is and also, more worryingly, dispute how highly placed their fellow students are.

The whole idea behind the site has not gone down well with Exeter students.
Photo Credit: B Rosen via Compfight cc

Much has already been said about the intrinsically disturbing nature of the site. An unsettling and unwanted invasion of privacy, a green light for the strange folk of the internet to crawl out of their lairs and actively peruse photos of ‘hot’ young people, and an acknowledgement that it’s considered acceptable to publically judge and compare people based solely on their appearance; this project is immoral for so many reasons, and I don’t doubt it will be shut down in the not so distant future.

Put aside the inherent creepiness of the whole enterprise for a moment and it’s apparent that the site itself is just plain odd. It appears to be a randomly generated selection of profiles (whether human or otherwise) which have some connection with the university; a quick look on the Exeter Leaderboard will show you that ‘Bronze Angelz Exeter’ and ‘Wildsoc’ are currently doing pretty well considering neither of them have faces.

The scoring system seems equally dubious, as many entries all seem to have the same number of ‘points’, and male students appear on the girls’ ‘leaderboard’ and vice versa. You could say I’m a little skeptical about how democratic this site is in its allocation of the label ‘attractive’.

I don’t actually know how the ‘rating’ system works; when I attempted to access the ‘rate guys/girls’ section of the site it promptly tried to sync with my Facebook account and I equally hastily aborted that particular mission, already sick with guilt that I was adding to the site’s hits through my attempts to dismantle it. So regardless of how it works and whether the photos which appear on the ‘leaderboard’ are ranked by a computer or actually represent the views of those lovely charitable people who have taken the time to ‘vote’, the main issue here is that people are actually responding to the results. If you’ve been part of or merely overheard a conversation about Ratemash.com in the last few days it will in all probability have included variations of “Why is he ranked above him?!” or “How did she even get into the top 50?!”

Like many others, I was only aware that my picture had appeared on the site because a Facebook friend contacted me and thought I should know about it. When I’ve mentioned this to friends, comments have ranged from “Nice one” to “I think someone put you on there as a joke.” For me, people’s reactions to the site are the main problem here: rather than an acknowledgement that it is either a load of artificial crap or a worrying reflection of how we categorize others based on their appearance, many seem to be taking these leaderboards at literal ‘face value’ as a measurable guide of relative attractiveness. Finding yourself on this site is not a compliment, neither is being omitted a damning indictment.

There are several articles currently floating round the internet which are propagating how unpleasant Ratemash.com is, and many of them include quotes from those students affected alongside the name of their respective university and ‘rank’, and, almost without fail, a helpful picture of the student in question so that people can indeed judge for themselves whether he or she is attractive enough to deserve the rank that they have ‘achieved.’ This is what I find most disquieting about the whole situation – Ratemash.com has succeeded in getting the publicity it wanted, but more sadly, has succeeded in encouraging us to question whether we agree with the findings of the leaderboard, and consequently to actively judge and compare others purely on the basis of publically sanctioned notions of ‘attractiveness.’

Emily Vine

 Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose. In other news, Exeposé Comment are looking to find Exeter’s favourite alumnus. Vote here!

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Student Living: Overdrawn or Underfunded?

With students beginning to dip into their overdraft, Kayley Gilbert believes that we should only consider this option as a last resort.

If the statistic that the third week of November is the mostly likely time of the year for students to start dipping into their overdraft is to be believed, many students have just crossed over into the red. With countless students having maintenance loans that only just cover their year’s worth of rent, and other students that have loans which don’t even cover that, finance is clearly a struggle for many.

Photo Credit: @Doug88888 via Compfight cc

Even though in theory, maintenance loans are worked out with parents’ income taken into account, many students are stuck in the middle, with a loan that only just covers their rent and parents that don’t earn quite enough to be able to fully support a student through University.In this way, many students are forced to live on or below the line between the black and the red, relying on their overdraft.

Although living in Exeter is much cheaper than somewhere like London, if your maintenance loan only covers your rent, students will have to live on money coming either from their parents (if they can afford it) or on their overdraft.

Personally, much like other every other student I’m sure, I would like to avoid going into the red altogether. However I know that some students have little option but to do so. So I wouldn’t say that it was irresponsible for students to rely on an overdraft during their studies if they don’t have any other choice, but it should definitely be a last resort.

I certainly don’t think that students should have to go without heating or food in order to avoid going into the red, especially this time of year. However, I believe that students should do everything they can to stay in the black for as long as possible. In order to do this, students need to take responsibility for their spending, taking full opportunity of student discounts, offers and shopping around for cheaper deals, even if it means changing their phone network or walking further to the shops.

Students with the need to use their overdraft, especially this early in the academic year, should think about getting a job to bring in extra money. There are ups and downs to having a job whilst at University. Working will leave less time for studying, revising for those all important exams and taking time off to socialise. However, a job will bring in that extra bit of cash that will help out so many students. This in itself will relieve stress and pressure on students that is created by living on a small and limited amount of money each month and trying to avoid crossing over into the red. In this way, it may have a beneficial rather than detrimental effect on student’s studies.

This time of the year first and second year students are thinking about houses for the beginning of their next year. Having had experience of living on their maintenance loan for either six or eighteen months, students should be aware of their outgoings and therefore how much they can afford to spend on rent for next year.

One way to save money thinking forward to next year would be to move into a flat cheaper than current accommodation taking into account the possibility of additional utility costs. Booking a flat with bills included in the rent, much like on campus accommodation for first years will mean avoiding additional costs if someone accidently uses too much water. So going for a cheaper flat with all bills included would leave more of your maintenance loan to spend on food and other expenses throughout the year, which would be invaluable to students struggling with finances.

So even though I don’t think it’s irresponsible for a student to dip into their overdraft if it’s necessary, students should only consider doing this as a last resort. An overdraft is there for emergencies, not for luxuries. Keeping a financial diary to keep on top of your back balance is a brilliant way to be aware of how much you’re spending, a fact which every student should be conscious of. In this way, students should do everything they can to stay in the black without having to live uncomfortably.

Kayley Gilbert

Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.

The Lemmy: You Can't Always Get What You Want

Having recently read the Comment piece about the Lemon Grove, Sam House argues that security staff not allowing a group of students in at 10:29 is not the end of the world and we need to respect the job that they do.

What is it with students this year and their sense of entitlement? If you’re arriving somewhere with less than 60 seconds until the cut-off point, then you clearly aren’t all that bothered about getting in. 10:30pm is a cut –off, not a target and clearly some people at this University have no idea about the real world.

“Do [the Lemmy bouncers] complain when students call them, “f*****g c**ts” for getting us out of the building at the end of the night? No!”
Photo credit: Niklas Rahmel

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’s very upsetting not to get into the Lemmy on a particular evening, but let us suppose for a second, that this was an academic department.

If someone got to the hand-in office at 11:59 and for whatever reason their work didn’t get scanned until after the deadline, it would be silly to write to Exeposé, talking about having, “come head-to-head with one of those, sadly, increasingly more common, administrators on a power-trip”.

 

Would it not be more sensible to  just write the whole thing off as bad luck and remember to get there earlier next time? I don’t see any letters about, “self-ordained omnipotent college staff” so I guess we know the answer. A disappointing evening does not require security to be publicly shunned, it’s just straight up bad luck.

The security team who work at the University are incredibly dedicated and protect us all when we are at our most vulnerable. We put them in some extremely pressured situations which they normally diffuse very well and, frankly, I think they should be getting praise for the job they do and not being scrutinised for every little slip-up. Do I need to clarify here that sometimes life is hard and we don’t get what we want? It isn’t always a social injustice or a plot against “the hard working well meaning students of the future”, sometimes we’re just unlucky and clearly we as a body of students need to learn how to suck it up and take it when that happens.

If this had happened to a member of the public out in the “real world” no one would bat a single eyelid. I can personally vouch that all of the security team at the Lemmy are a lot more lenient and friendly than the proper bulldogs you get elsewhere, and it is a pleasure to have such a nice team at the University to look after us. We are not entitled to everything we want and if we were then it would be awful to live and study here.

These people are paid to protect us and they do a really good job for the vast majority of the time.

Do they complain when students call them “f*****g c**ts” for getting us out of the building at the end of the night? No!

Do they demand that students are suspended when they sing derisory chants at them? No!

They write it off as just drunk students acting up and carry on doing their jobs. Yes, some people are meaner than others. Just deal with it.

This isn’t just their Saturday night out like it is yours. It is their 9-5 and these guys spend their whole lives trying to keep order amongst the chaos that we inflict on them. They are due a lot more respect than we give them. They are only human and they deserve the same amount of respect which we wouldn’t think twice about expecting for ourselves.

There are bigger and more important problems facing us at the moment and the last thing we need is people getting fired for doing their job. So please, give the world a chance and accept that, in the words of the eternal Rolling Stones, sometimes, “You can’t always get what you want.”

Sam House

 How flexible on admission times do we want the bouncers at the Lemmy to be? Do they need to be abrupt, borderline rude, to effectively do their job? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter@CommentExepose.

Freshers' Week… What Not To Do!

Freshers’ Week is finally here! A week where all your social boundaries are pushed out of the window, and the word ‘awkward’ is stretched to its limits. But, do not fear, Sophie Lloyd has created her list of ‘WHAT NOT TO DO’S’, a sure-fire way to avoid the inevitable moments of embarrassment, and embrace the many hilarious memories that are yet to come!

Image Credit – The Telegraph

1) Do  NOT be a hermit

This one is right at the top of the list! Under no circumstances should you not socialise with the rest of the students of Exeter. Yes, freshers’ week is arguably packed full of social discomfort, but honestly the only way to overcome these nerves is by going out there and saying hello. Everyone is in exactly the same boat; offering to make your new housemate a cup of tea or getting ready together before a night out really can start a fantastic friendship! At the end of the day, this is one of the most important reasons for coming to university – to make unforgettable friends!

 

2) Do not ONLY achieve a degree

Show the world what you are passionate about! Exeter has a society for absolutely every interest, and if you somehow can’t quite find what you’re looking for – make it yourself! One fabulous way to make close friends is by attending every messy Timepiece Wednesday social possible, or even bizarrely sharing a drink from a shoe. Not only are societies great for the social life, they are extremely helpful additions to enhance your CV. Being an Editor of a campus magazine, or Captain of the Tennis Club not only demonstrates your abilities, it shows that you have dreams and ambition outside of your studies!

 

3) Do not judge

Yes, we’ve all heard the term ‘Exeterah’ but please do not take this to heart. Exeter University still definitely has a diverse range of students from all different backgrounds, and it would be absurd to categorize it! We all worry about first impressions, but judgements can sometimes get a bit clouded by a little competitive spirit. Exeter’s ‘battle of the halls’ is just a bit of fun rivalry! Whether you’re catered or self catered, humanities or science, not one is better than the other, and we’re all here to have a good time. There are some who may get a little carried away but freshers’ week isn’t about encouraging a social divide, its an exciting opportunity to meet completely new people.

 

4) Don’t forget why you’re here

What can I say? We are at university to achieve some sort of degree. Sure, have a week of madness but do not forget the real reason we are actually here! There is nothing worse than strolling into a seminar in your most fashionable items, and then not knowing what on earth is coming out of your lecturer’s mouth… During your recovery days in bed, instead of watching a whole season of Gossip Girl, use an hour or so to instead do some reading – that way you’ll be looking great and sounding super intelligent. Trust me – there is nothing sexier than that!

 

5) Do not get to clubs late

Okay, so enough of that. Lets get down to business. Fresher’s week is when every club in Exeter reaches its full capacity by about 11:30. Buying tickets guarantees you entry usually before 11 but unfortunately you can still expect those dreaded queues. Every single night will be packed so the best way to survive this is by getting stamped early. (This is especially true for the Lemmy!) If you’re in halls, use your ‘on-campus’ location to its full potential; walk down early to get a stamp so the rest of the night is yours!

 

6) Don’t worry!

But. Most important of all- do not worry! You have dreamt about this week for so long now, and the best advice that I can give you, is expect the unexpected. My own freshers’ week was a complete roller-coaster of emotions, teamed with blurred memories of messy nights. I may now regret a few fashion faux pas, and a few other choices to say the least, but in the end, as I uncomfortably rush through my humiliating tagged photos from two years ago, I find an overwhelming comfort in the fact that I made the best decision of my life by coming to university. Freshers’ Week was only a small part of it.

 

Sophie Lloyd

University Community Impact Challenge returns to Exeter

Applications are currently open for University of Exeter students to apply for the University Community Impact Challenge, 18th October-mid-December.

The Students’ Guild is working in partnership with Morgan Stanley for the second-year running to provide first and second-year students with this exciting opportunity.

During the Challenge, successful students will work with local Exeter charities to help address particular needs and provide genuine results for the local community. They will receive guidance from senior Morgan Stanley managers and develop their ability to project manage and deliver results.

They will also be supported by the Guild’s Activities and Volunteering Hub in using their experience to become key figures in connecting students to the local community and bringing awareness to social issues.

Image credit: Eat That Frog CIC

This year’s charity partner is Eat That Frog CIC an organisation which works to help people move forward in their lives through individualised courses, activities and events.

Managing director, Ian Powell said of the project: “To work with Exeter Students’ Guild and Morgan Stanley is a wonderful opportunity for us to help a wider range of people in the city to identify barriers in their life and explore ways to overcome these.  We look forward to introducing our student collaborators to the different approach of a community interest company in meeting social objectives identified by local needs analysis.”

The project is facilitated by Three Hands, a company that works in corporate responsibility, bringing together businesses with local communities.

Project Manager Mary Kunnenkeril says: “We are pleased to be working with the University of Exeter Students’ Guild for the second time and have lined up a really engaging project, which will give the students a real experience of the social needs in the community, whilst also bringing tangible benefit to the partner organisation.”

To find out more and to apply for the programme, please visit the project website.

Olivia Luder, Online Editor

Universities competing for the best students with incentives

Image credit: vFrosteryd

In an attempt to fill university places this term, institutions across the country are offering cash incentives, laptops and iPads to attract prospective students.

University admission rules across the country have been affected by government reforms, which scrap the limit on how many students with AAB grades and above that each university can accept. As a result, it is possible for institutions to recruit unrestricted numbers of students.

The reform particularly effects lower-ranking institutions, due to leading universities obtaining higher quantities of students. Reportedly, at least sixty middle and lower ranking universities in England (according to The Sunday Times league table) have started to work on attracting students through more innovative initiatives.

Goldsmiths College has one of the more generous incentives, offering course fee waivers to the ten highest-scoring students from Lewisham, saving each student £27,000 in tuition fees. Incentives are also being offered to students with lower grades; the Newman University of Birmingham is offering a £10,000 grant to students with a minimum of BBB on some courses.

Many of the offered packages include additional non-cash incentives. Surrey University will give a free membership to Surrey Sports Park health centre alongside £3,000 to successful applicants with A level grades of A*AA or higher. Newcastle offer to all AAB students £2,000 per year and a laptop.

But despite The University of Exeter recruiting 600 extra students this year, a University spokesperson revealed that no such offers were made to prospective students. “Applications are at a record level and no incentives were needed for 2013 entrees,” they said.

Dannee McGuire, News Team

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How are universities portrayed in fiction?

Sophie Beckett, Online Books Editor, looks at what freshers can learn about the modern university experience from novels…

Photo Credit: francisco_osorio

If you’re heading off to university for the first time this September, there’s every chance that this will be one of the biggest changes in your life so far. It can be difficult to know what to expect, or how to prepare. In any challenging situation, many a reader of the Books section will reach immediately for a trusty paperback for guidance. But what do books have to say about universities?

There is, of course, a burgeoning market in self-help books related to choosing, applying for and even attending university. These are full of factual information, guidance on writing personal statements and enough league tables to satisfy even the most statistics-addicted 17 year olds. They undoubtedly have their uses. However, in order to read about the nature of the experience itself, it is necessary to look past the practical guidance and see what fiction has to offer.

One of the first books that comes to mind is Starter for Ten, by David Nicholls. Published in 2003 but set in 1985, this tells the story of Brian Jackson, a student arriving at an unnamed university fresh from his working-class home in the seaside town of Southend, Essex. Brian has long been a fan of the television quiz show University Challenge, and soon finds himself competing on the show as a member of his own university’s team. Beneath the story of the ups and down of the team’s performance and the relationships between the teammates lies a deeper struggle; Brian’s attempts to reconcile his new life with his working-class background. The myriad opportunities that campus life offers for comedy are not lost on Nicholls. Brian’s story is in many ways autobiographical, and Nicholls has confessed to being whilst at university, in his own words, ‘a bit of a prat’.

Starter for Ten stands out not just because it’s an enjoyable read and, I am reliably informed, an accurate depiction of university life in the 80s, but also because novels about students at British universities are seemingly very rare. There are plenty of books which follow the experiences of students at US colleges, including an entire sub-genre of ‘campus murder mystery’ novels, of which Donna Tartt’s The Secret History is a particularly fine example. But the US system is different in many ways, and representations of British student experiences in fiction are few and far between, as Nicholls himself points out in an article written for the Guardian. ‘It always seemed strange to me,’ Nicholls writes, ‘that such a poignant and widely shared experience should be written about so rarely’.

There have been British novels with a campus setting, but this tradition of the ‘campus novel’ tends to focus on faculty politics with only a reluctant reference to students occasionally thrown in. Well-known examples of the tradition include Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and the novels of David Lodge. These have a sharply comic edge, poking fun at the pretensions of academic staff, and also engage with the politics surrounding universities at the time they were written. However, even this form of writing set in universities is now less common; Howard Jacobson argues that this is due to a fear on behalf of authors of appearing elitist, saying ‘although half the country goes to campuses.. everybody is embarrassed to talk about it’.

Whatever the reasons behind this lack of novels about students, it seems surprising. A good proportion of writers active today have attended university; a good proportion of people who have attended university would say it has influenced who they have later become. So why, when there are more than enough good novels written about love, break-ups, job stresses, family troubles, growing up and so on, are there so few that deal with such an important life event as being a student?

Starter for Ten is an excellent portrayal of university life 30 years ago, with its unique politics and fashions and set of circumstances. However the student experience has changed almost beyond recognition in the years since then, not least with the introduction of cripplingly large tuition fees. The conflicts and pressures and joys of modern university life are perfect material for exploration in fiction. This is clearly a book that at some point in the future needs to be written, and who’s to say that 30 years down the line, it won’t be someone who started university this September writing it?

Sophie Beckett, Online Books Editor