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As the year draws to a close, Vision sums up the year in news. It’s been a journey and a half, starring horses, aliens and angry feminists (and many more!) Have a read to recap what thrills and spills we’ve had on campus this year- there have been many.
January
The infamous ‘Spotted: University of York Library’ Facebook page caused uproar amongst students at the University when posts which were said to be inappropriate, explicit and in some cases sexist went up on the site. In response, and to the dismay of many other students, the page was shut down. One particularly ardent supporter of the page, Tom A-C, commented: “Well what a surprise. At a time where you can get arrested for having an opinion and voicing it via social media. Fuck my dog. Lets all just sit in our rooms alone and never think or have opinions and let the state rule what we can and cannot think.”
The issue polarised the student body, but a compromise was found and the site has been up to help students to procrastinate for months since.
Feburary
Students were polarized yet again when a lecturer at the University, John Hey, used the n-word in a lecture in a figure of speech commonly used in the USA. Some students felt that it was racist, but the comments on the article point to a different attitude from our colleagues at the University, calling John Hey a “genuinely nice man” who “meant no offence”, calling our society a “highly over-reactive PC” one.
March
This was a big month for news, with the notorious hamster fryer and the freshers who caught scurvy but we think that this story wins out. In perhaps the most heart-rending story of the year, students were worried and dismayed when our beloved unofficial York mascot, Campus Horse, disappeared. We suspected Tesco after that month’s horsemeat scandal (and contacted them to find out if they had stolen our beloved pony for their burgers) but seemingly as usual, the York Council were responsible for our woes. The horse was moved due to their tethering regulations and can now be found happily grazing near the University roundabout. Don’t try to stroke him though, he bites.
April
April was a bit of a dry one for news. We did find out that campus’ favourite limo-loving polo-playing geezer was leaving the University: Brian Cantor announced his plan to leave York in favour of Bradford. He said he was “proud and deeply honoured” with his new role. Some students expressed fears that this was a conspiracy, with one commenter saying “I smell a rat, why is he running away? All seems to have happened rather quickly.” Sadly, no such scandals were found. To replace him, we are getting Koen Lamberts at the start of 2014. Students seemed apathetic about this with then-student Bertie Baker Smith commenting: “He seems like a good man for the job, but to be honest I’m indifferent as they don’t seem to do anything that benefits students.”
May
Feminist woes
May was the month where two feminist causes were quashed. The motion to remove the Sun from YourShop failed spectacularly and Feminist Society didn’t get ratified . Now, however, 22 Universities around the country have removed the Sun from their campus shops and Feminist Society is still not ratified but it has lively, well-attended weekly meetings.
June
Vision is proud to always cover the most important and hard-hitting news, keeping you all informed on the dastardly deeds of our University, the Union and the students in it. This story is no exception; a freedom of information request revealed that the University has no plans at all for an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse. This was a bit of a failure on the University’s part as zombies have been spotted around campus since and Central Hall looks more and more suspiciously like a spaceship every passing day…
July
This was a big month for sports teams – with the re-introduction of grotty club Salvation as Wednesday’s official YUSU club night. Whilst there was a little controversy at first with the apparent rivalry between Salvo and Mansion, it seemed Salvation was fairly packed throughout the first few weeks on Term 1.
To brighten up the news, it seemed the University of York is in the running to be attended by the future king, with odds of 20:1.
August
This was the month everybody found out, with baited breath, the name of the College 9. ‘Constantine’ has since upset a number of academics, but the name was originally chosen to represent the Roman victories that York most cared about. Apparently.
In other, more relevant, news – McDonalds was allowed to keep its 24 hour lease, despite threats from the council of making sure the chain restaurant shuts at 1am every morning. This caused outrage amongst many students, but sense thankfully prevailed. A night can’t end in Willow, can it?
September
September was naturally a slow month for University news, as most of us hacks were actually getting on with our summer. However, one story that came through the summer rain was the news that the Number 4 was to re-continue services to the Hes East campus – which caused a bit of a stir with comfortable bus number 44!
Of interest to a number of sporty students would be the news that the university was to invest in a standard athletics track, which would be located next to the sports tent on Hes West. Hes West hasn’t been forgotten!
October
This was the cataclysmic month where it was revealed that Browns, beloved sandwich shop of Heslington, had a 0/5 food hygiene rating. Ironically, this hasn’t tarnished Brown’s illustrious reputation at all, and has only boosted sales with the number of customers going through the roof.
Another story that seemed to cause a bit of a stir was the announcement from YUSU that they were not willing to bail out Big-D, due to massive losses from the last two years. Despite interesting acts, the college’s flagship event couldn’t bring in enough revenue to cover the key costs – with alleged losses of £25k in 2013.
November
Eton Mess split the campus into warring factions after Vision splashed the story of some students who blacked up and damaged their accommodation. What eventually became to be known as #etongate eventually caught the sights of several national newspapers and ITV news, with the story creating a massive debate around the nature of class and race across the entire university.
The story eventually had a huge impact, with a number of Visioners receiving death threats, widespread dissent and even ex-YUSU International Officer being forced to resign because of previous blackface incidents.
Without that being enough, incumbent YUSU BME reps have made it their priority to pursue a review of racism at the university, with relevant actions to be made into next term.
In short the story, whilst a simple costume at face value, caused a massive shift in debate at the university and is arguably one of the more influential stories of the year.
December
December has been an excellent month for news and was a fairly difficult one to pick the best stories. Eventually, we decided upon the massive #PlugTheGap victory as one our top stories. In just 3 days, students bombarded the uni with letters, emails, visits, etc with demands of filling up the £700,000 gap the government were going to leave in the uni’s finance for student bursarys and grants.
The University responded with an impressive £354,500 of financial support for students despite massive cuts to their funding. An excellent student-led success.
Another of our favourites would have to be the announcement of one our alumna named as one of Africa’s most “powerful young women”, according to Forbes.
25-year-old Orekunrin was previously named one of Africa’s “Best Young Entrepreneurs” by Forbes after she founded West Africa’s first air ambulance service.