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DEATH- IT CAN BE FATAL COLLEGE DOCTOR LASHES OUT IMPERIAL COLLEGE UNION 11 May 1972 No. 311 MIXING BEIT HALL SHEPPARD A questionnaire has been sent round to the residents of Beit to find out their reactions to a pos- sible room-by-room mixing of the sexes both in the Old and New hostels. The mixing would be engineer- ed to have about half men RESIGNS?" and half women on any PRES. ELECT WITHDRAWS floor, mixed randomly. The bath and toilet areas would be open to use for both FROM CIV ENG. EXAMS sexes. After the dizzy heights of the recent elections and sweeping general- This would, we feel, lead isations characteristic of them we are suddenly reminded that even to better mixing of the the president of the Union has to pass exams! sexes and bring the sex- siiii- ual differences into per- In fact, it has become support be given to the al potential, together with the apparent that the college motion at today's Union corresponding and suitably at- spective. People at the authorities had not thought Meeting otherwise the tractive career choice. moment see the opposite On arriving at college and .4k of this either and so we Union is faced with another entering the Department I was sex too much as sexual are (or rather Chris Shep- re-election. still very much subject to the somewhat romantic idea of be- sonally and through my involve- ed to accept the way in which objects, and not enough pard is) faced with an Today's vote is effec- ment in the Union, to correct interesting situation. The coming a civil engineer. My the Department chooses to con- as human beings first and tively a vote of confidence commitment in emotional terms them. This has applied particu- duct its affairs, whether they Union constitution is more in your choice of Presi- was almost complete, and this larly to my course where I first are likeable or not. The Depart- foremost. The only kind of than vague over this point. dent. together with my good A levels attempted to discover some in- ment also hopes that its stud- trinsic interest, and then to relationship with the oppo- This is hardly surprising Mining House, constituted what I suppose was ents, far from regarding the excellent honours degree mater- appoach it purely as an intel- course as a means to an end, site sex that is possible, since there have only been 55 Evelyn Gardens, lectual exercise. I failed in both. London, S.W.7. ial. I was however, conscious of are attempting to grasp a real three sabbatical presidents I have come to realise that they imagine, is a sexual Saturday, 6th May the idealism inherent in my understanding ot the subject up to date, none of these choice and was very concerned the course here is doing nothing and are prepared to subordin- one — the idea of a pla- with finding some justification to further my development in ate themselves to that aim. In being undergraduates at Dear Professor Skempton, for it in the course. Thus I be- any sense of the word. On the short, the staff of the depart- tonic relationship does not their time of office. After a considerable amount gan my time here at I.C. deliber- contrary it is, in many respects, ment expect of the students a of thought regarding my present occur. Thus one would get ately looking for a correlation conflicting directly with some of devotion to the subject of the The problem has been situation in the Civil Engineering between what I was studying, my most deeply felt ideals and sort they themselves feel. That lurking around for quite Department I have decided to a more balanced, mature the way I was studying it, and aspirations, and far from stimu- is an expectation which I re- withdraw from the forthcoming some time and now we what I perceived as the aims, lating any truly creative res- spect. outlook on both sides, and examinations. This has not been have come face to face objects and responsibilities of ponse, is only limiting my realm an easy decision to make but I It remains, however, that I do a generally more relaxed civil engineering as a profes- of experience to the detriment with it. Is it right for the am now sure that it is the only not present such ideal material, sion. In that search I was frus- of my "education". atmosphere. Union to give its officers satisfactory one. In reaching it a fact which both the Depart- trated. I was disillusioned by I have tried to take into ac- I am firmly committed to the ment and I have been aware of immunity from examina- the seemingly abstract course The mixing of the bath count as many of the influenc- concept of a system of educa- for some time. For me to sit the tions? The motion which is content, by the lack of them- and toilet areas is primar- ing factors, both personal and tion that can be variable in con- forthcoming examinations would atic continuity, and by the im- to be put at today's Union otherwise, as I am able. I do, tent and approach, and which do nothing to enhance my prin- personal nature of staff/student ily a matter of convenience Meeting could be inter- however, find it impossible to is not constrained by the inade- ciples nor, I believe, those of relations. I was also disappoint- —any embarrassment felt rationalise some of these factors quacies of selection, by the rigid the Department. I now feel that preted in this way. ed by the Jack ot community life and it is this that has made the division of disciplines, or by the the best way to realise a mutual at first would quickly dis- at the College and by its gen- "I.C.U. believes that final decision so difficult to emphasis on examination results acceptance of my total incompet- eral insularity in both social and appear. the President-elect make. as a criterion of success. I am, ability with the course is tor me academic terms. should be allowed to My original choice of civil en- therefore, the product of a to withdraw from that part which Some structural altera- The result of this dissatisfac- formally epitomises it. take office regardless of gineering was made without any vastly different system of educa- tions would have to be his performance in any difficulty at the age of fifteen. tion was for me to make the tion whose values have been The reason for me publicising By that time I had shown some College as small a part of my predominate in my upbringing my intention to withdraw from be made but these were in examination subsequent life as possible, doing an abso- aptitude for things practical; my and the etlects of which, al- the examinations is because of the pipeline anyway: e.g. to his election." somewhat greater ability at lute minimum of work, and seek- though I may be conscious of, the way in which it relates to my However, I think this science and mathematics had ing elsewhere those things which I am unable to neglect. To being President-elect of the Un- shower doors, not curtains; would be a wrong conclu- been fostered at the expense of I had previously imagined to be weigh my desire for self-deter- ion. While I regard both the cri- an integral part of university mination against an awareness improvement of kitchen sion. There is no reason any literary interest, and my teria and the results of an teachers explained in their re- life but which I was unable to of the aspirations of a family examination in civil engineering facilities in Old Beit, etc. why a Union official should find at I.C. I love is indeed a difficult thing ports that I exhibited a certain as distinctly separate from those The analysis of the ques- be officially registered on quality ot "leadership". The My decision to return into the to do. for the election of President of a course while serving his simple analysis of civil engin- second year was based on the the Union, I do realize that nei- tionnaire will be put before term of office. As long as eering as a blend of techno- condition that I would assume My final decision to withdraw ther the College or the Union is the Beit hall residents' logical and creative ability, to- a quite different approach to the from the examinations results, I clear about this in terms of pol- he has the interest of the gether with its social relevance, College, the Department and the hope, from a certain degree of icy. For that reason I intend committee on May 22nd Union members at heart and, when concerned with con- Course. That I have done. From mutual respect between myself firstly to put the question to a and they will decide whe- then he should be recog- tracting, its reliance on good the start of the session I have and the department. It has never Union meeting and if their sup- nised by the College. human relations, altogether pre- attempted to investigate many been denied that the Department port is forthcoming to proceed ther to implement the sug- sented a too ideally attractive aspects of the student's lot here is happiest with students who to the College for their decision. gested system, which if In the letter which fol- proposition. My decision was not at I.C.

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