'I Didn't Want to Do This Loudly'
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FREE Take a copy Letters to freshers Good morning King’s Hitting refresh Photo story Arts What would you say to your How Cambridge fresher self? chipped away at my sense of Features identity Opinion No. 849 Friday 28th September 2018 Arts varsity.co.uk Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947 College transfers slow and complex Stephanie Stacey Senior News Editor ‘I didn’t want to e University’s college transfer guid- ance may seem decisive, but anecdotal evidence from students suggests that the reality of the process is not so clear- cut. Unlike course change or intermission, do this loudly’ college transfers are markedly rare. In the past ten academic years, just 37 students formally changed college, an average of less than four students per year. Lapses found in college disciplinary Last year, four students successfully changed college, three of whom let procedures: Two students speak out Homerton. Speaking to Varsity, several students highlighted their struggle with a lengthy, drawn-out transfer process, which sometimes intensi ed the stresses and discomfort that had made the col- lege transfer necessary. e University’s o cial guidance states that transferring colleges “is not ROSIE BRADBURY ‘We won’t Campaign campaigned for a change in As part of one student’s course last A University spokesperson comment- Noella Chye the University’s disciplinary procedure year she was placed into contact with ed: the Breaking the Silence campaign is Editor standard of proof from proof ‘beyond someone she later found out was a con- “part of our continued drive to ensure cave in’ reasonable doubt’ to a ‘balance of prob- victed pedophile. members of the University community Over the past year in Cambridge, existing abilities’. e professor was found in 2008 to can make disclosures without fear of Residents procedures for handling cases of sexual Amid the attention the University and possess images of child pornography. reprisal, so we all can thrive as part of a misconduct have come under a process campaigners have placed on the issue of He was arrested that year and given a safe, welcoming, inclusive and diverse ght home of questioning. sexual misconduct, two students spoke twelve-month suspended sentence for community that nurtures a culture of In October, Breaking the Silence – a out on the bureaucratic push back they rehabilitation, during which he was mutual respect and consideration.” centralised campaign by the Univer- faced when they complained to college given full pay by the University, and told He returned to Cambridge under re- demolition sity to tackle sexual harassment – was administration about experiences re- he could return to work the following launched. Last term, CUSU Women’s lated to the issue. April. Continued on page 9 ▶ News page 2 ▶ Inside ● Inside the decolonisation movement Pg.18 ● Inside the psychology of climate change Pg.35 2 F 28 S 2018 News INTERVIEW e student looking to make ‘ ey’ll have Cambridge a little less to force lonely Page 12 ▶ us out’ NEWS Residents Analysis: What does the pension strike outcome mean for Cambridge? campaign Page 10 ▶ FEATURES to halt Perspectives from a working class, mixed race woman demolition Page 16 ▶ Vulture Magazine Montreal Square residents LIFESTYLE are trying to prevent a new Damn, I wish development from replacing I’d known that: their homes A freshers’ guide over 70 people came. Isobel Gri ths Support has come from Unite, a Brit- Page 28 ▶ Deputy News Editor ish and Irish trade union that campaigns on many social issues, whom the women Cambridge Housing Society (CHS), a local call a “lovely bunch”, and FeCRA ( e housing association, announced earlier Federation of Cambridge Residents’ this year that 18 residences just o of Mill Associations), as well as many local Noella Chye [email protected] Road were to be demolished, replaced businesses.“We’ve made a lot of friends” Merlyn omas & Catherine Lally [email protected] by over 30 new houses and blocks of says King. Vivienne Hopley-Jones [email protected] Joe Cook [email protected] ats. Varsity spoke to three women who If the plans go through, residents Mark Curtis [email protected] are campaigning to preserve the square will be rehomed and be given a £6,100 Rosie Bradbury & Stephanie Stacey (Senior); Isobel Gri ths & many have lived in for decades. home loss payment from the govern- Millie Kiel (Deputy) [email protected] Jess Ma, Alexandra Giannidi, Sarah Cheryl Smith, 60, Marti King, 73, and ment. When the new homes have been one at the same rent as they were pay- Orsborne, Kiran Khanom, Elizabeth Haigh, Amy Batley, Maria Stragapede Ann Byerley, 67, have lived on Montreal rebuilt, they will be able to move into ing previously. Jack Conway [email protected] Square, a cul-de-sac of 18 homes just o Smith, however, points out that the Maia Wyn Davies (Senior); Dan Wright, Nick Harris, Priya Bryant, Tom Nixon (Deputy) [email protected] Mill Road owned by CHS, for 17, 40, and new homes will be much smaller than Joseph Krol & Gesa Sophia Borgeest [email protected] 43 years respectively. those that are currently there. King Isobel Bickersteth & Jess Tan [email protected] Nick Collin [email protected] It was in January that they rst heard e campaign in claims that “they’re ruining the place by & James Dickinson [email protected] of CHS plans to demolish the current stats overdevelopment. What they’re building Miles Ricketts & Alice French [email protected] square. Residents were presented with is rubbish”, citing recent new builds that Julia Davies [email protected] Iris Pearson & Niamh Curran [email protected] little speci c information about what the have required many repairs less than a Ella Jones [email protected] development would entail, as the hous- decade ater construction. Marcus McCabe (Senior) & William Ross (Deputy) ing society did not yet have any clear e number of CHS told Varsity that they plan “to [email protected] Devarshi Lodhia [email protected] plans at that time. 18 homes being replace the current 18 houses with new Belle George & Oliver Rhodes [email protected] A board meeting was due to be held in demolished homes of the right size for current resi- Jamie Hancock & Nick Chevis [email protected] March to make the nal decision about dents to rent; plus as many low cost Cordelia Lam [email protected] - Vivi Way (Chief); Aimee Wragg, Gabby Handberg, Helen Grant, the future of the square. “We kicked up homes as possible and possibly some Helena Mackie, Emily Kilner, Imogen Childs, Jasmine Phull, Naomi Hayes, a stink”, says King, “so they cancelled it.” market sale homes”. Poppy Kemp, Ruth Moss, Allison O’Malley-Graham, Phoebe Harris, Shannon ey now expect a decision on whether Residents have also argued that the Phillips [email protected] Abdullah Shah the existing houses will be demolished e number of development would be harmful to the Raphael Korber Ho man to come through in October. residences being local environment. e square is home Edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] Caitlin Smith [email protected] A campaign led by residents, ‘Save 30 built to 40 trees, all of which would likely be Reuben Andrews, Felix Peckham, Anna Hollingsworth Montreal Square’, began shortly ater destroyed in the demolition. CHS, how- [email protected] residents were made aware of the plans, ever, have said that a “generous amount Dr Michael Franklin (Chairman), Prof Peter Robinson, Dr Tim Harris, Michael Derringer, Caitlin Smith, Noella Chye and an online petition protesting the of green space” will be created in the planned development has received over new square. 1,400 signatures. e campaign received CHS has also claimed that the rede- backing last week from Cambridge De- e number of velopment is necessary, since “Montreal fend Education (CDE), a Cambridge 1,474 signatories the Square is the only CHS site in Cambridge © VARSITY PUBLICATIONS LTD, . All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be University student activist group, who petition has suitable to build more new homes than reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. shared the petition on Facebook. gathered exist there already.” Varsity, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RX. Telephone 01223 337575. ey have held multiple demonstra- However, Smith points out that it Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes e Mays. tions in the square, and pointedout that is “black and white” that many of the Printed at Ili e Print Cambridge – Winship Road, Milton, Cambridge CB24 6PP on 42.5gsm newsprint. Registered as a newspaper at the Post O ce. ISSN 1758-4442. even on the “wettest day of the year”, homes will be sold for private owner- Friday 28th September 2018 3 News ship by CHS, and highlights that pri- ▲ Several signs in a conversation about a new design vate homes nearby have sold for over protesting the it means we’re listening to what they £600,000. development are have to say”. “You know and I know they’re not scattered around Byerley agrees with King:“they’ll have going to put homeless people on this site, Montreal Square to force us out.” King adds, “I would chain because there’s no money in it.” (ROSIE BRADBURY/ myself to the trees outside if I had to.” CHS have said that the development ISOBEL GRIFFITHS) “People say to me ‘you mustn’t get will “possibly” include some market sale emotional’, but how can you not get homes, “to help pay the costs of the re- emotional when you’re facing losing development”.