Revealed How Cambridge Conspired to Rig the System During Sta Strikes

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Cambridge’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1947

No. 848 Wednesday 20th June 2018 varsity.co.uk Revealed How Cambridge conspired to rig the system during sta strikes

Exclusive: ● Leaked documents reveal senior gures at Cambridge attempted to collude with Oxford on sta ’s pensions ● Finance o cials sought to steer national pensions dispute

Noella Chye, Rosie Bradbury and Catherine Lally

Cambridge attempted to coordinate with Oxford, and considered how to exploit employees’ concerns, in a concerted ef- fort to in uence the higher education sector earlier this year. Last term saw an unprecedented re- volt against what sta saw as a betrayal by their institutions of their interests. 40,000 University employees across 64 institutions took to picket lines for 14 days of strike action, demanding the preservation of their pensions. A Varsity investigation has found

Continued on page 6 ▶ ▲ Sta rallied in central Cambridge against deteriorating pensions structures LOUIS ASHWORTH No easy answers in drinking societies scandal

Caesarian Sunday gathering. His answer, University-wide reckoning about wheth- is to drink.” 15 and eight anonymous reports in May Anna Menin and Daniel Gayne “inclusivity”, sparked a controversy er drinking societies still have any part But this apparently revolutionary cul- and June respectively, compared to 19 about Cambridge drinking societies to play in Cambridge student life, with ture change has so far failed to be re ect- and ten in March and April. “What is the single biggest problem fac- that has reverberated throughout the vice-chancellor Stephen Toope calling ed in the gures of reported incidents of Varsity reached out to the 17 colleges ing the Crescents in the modern age?”, University ever since. for university action on the issue, say- misconduct. e University’s ‘Breaking whose drinking and sports societies had asked a Trinity Hall student in the now- e Crescents switly disbanded, in ing that he is “not sympathetic of any the Silence’ procedure for reporting har- infamous video of the drinking society’s what initially seemed like the start of a organisation where the primary purpose assment and sexual misconduct received Continued on page 10 ▶ 2 Wednesday 20th June 2018 Editorial News Institutional Behind the memory matters

o, another May Week, another Varsity edition has headlines, Sgone to press, another academic year has drawn to a close. Finalists – myself included – prepare to graduate, hopefully taking away many fond memories. rather aptly, many of the major plot lines of the access eforts cohort of 2015 have likewise drawn to a close this term. Class list opt-outs have been introduced for students; CUSU inances seem to have tentatively reached a more stable position. less fortunately, the University has chosen to reject calls for full divestment, marking the still provoke end for now to a chapter of student debate and activism. Collectively, this ties together many of the overarching campaigns and issues which have preoccupied my year group throughout our time at Cambridge – a itting, if undoubtedly bittersweet, send-of. divisions i don’t need to say that Cambridge is an extremely old institution, with a very quick turnover rate of its students. it begs the question of how these kinds of issues, and what has been learned from the endeav- ours to resolve them, are remembered – and indeed, whether that matters. one, ten, a hundred years from now, do the tactics of student occupation employed by Zero Carbon matter? does the University-wide referendum on class lists bear relation to anything? i’m not going to repeat trite clichés about history repeating itself, but as Vivienne Hopley- Jones’ year in review (p.19) so eloquently surmises, we have learnt a lot in the past year – as much from the successes as the failures of initiatives for change. to continue pushing for the many necessary reforms Analysis access for black to our University – from drinking societies (p. 10) to BME representation in college politics (p. 9) – institutional memory on behalf of the student body is of the utmost students has been in the news importance. Varsity as a paper of documentation naturally has a role to play in this keeping of record, as do again – but will things change? the many student-led campaigns and organisations. Before we swan of into the endless abyss of summer and life post-graduation, we must take time to regroup, n February 2003, Varsity splashed he University ired back strongly, leased its own formal response, criti- remember and hand-over properly to our successors. its front page with an investiga- with the president of Hughes Hall, dr cising the press coverage, which they Cambridge isn’t just a place that has left a mark on us tion revealing the “black hole” in anthony Freeling, and Master of St Ed- said “undermines the progress made as students, but also an institution in which we have Cambridge’s undergraduate ad- mund’s, Matthew Bullock, accusing the in access and the value of a Cambridge the capacity to leave a legacy behind. missions. he paper reported that FT of employing “misleading interpreta- education”. i25 black students had been accepted the tions” by ignoring the tiny size of both a week later, the University released year before, and just 12 the two years colleges’ undergraduate cohorts. a photo – organised in conjunction with editor anna Jennings [email protected] before that. he FT piece was amended, but most the african-Caribbean Society (aCS) – magazine editor reuben andrews [email protected] digital editor Felix Peckham [email protected] Beneath the headline ‘Colourblind?’ of its indings were maintained, and the showing the ‘Black women of Cam- business manager Mark Curtis [email protected] it reported that the access situation was igures it reported were widely picked up bridge’: over 50 black, female students news editors rosie Bradbury, Catherine lally & devarshi lodhia (Senior); “so dire” that Cambridge had accepted in other media outlets. For a casual con- stood on the steps in front of Senate isobel Bickersteth & Stephanie Stacey (deputy) [email protected] senior news correspondents Harry Clynch, isobel Griiths, Victor Jack, more students with the surname ‘White’ sumer of news, the message remained House. he photoshoot, held to celebrate Millie Kiel, anna Mochar, Jemma Slingo & Elizabeth Shaw than black undergraduates. clear: black students, at Cambridge, re- 70 years since the admission of the irst investigations editors Jack Conway & oliver Guest investigations@varsity. over a decade and a half later, the main an anomaly. black woman admitted into Cambridge, co.uk opinion editors Vivienne Hopley-Jones (Senior); Maia Wyn davies, Joseph capacity for the University’s access he kickback was strong enough this Gloria Claire Carpenter, echoed aCS’s Evans, Jiayu Qiu & dan Wright (deputy) [email protected] statistics to shock remains as present time, however, that the University re- viral photographs of 15 black, male stu- science editor Sophie Corrodi [email protected] as ever: last year, Varsity reported that dents last year. features editors Niamh Curran & Owen Jack [email protected] arts editors Edwin Boadu & Jamie Hancock [email protected] 2016 had seen more black men accepted taken together, these incidents en- film & tv editors Ella Jay Jones & rachel tsang [email protected] than Etonians for the irst time ever – capsulate the ongoing media narrative music editor Harriet allison [email protected] in this year’s stats, that was narrowly surrounding the admission of black stu- fashion editors Gian Hayer & Olivia Neave [email protected] theatre editors Eimear ryan-Charleton (Senior); Shameera lin (deputy) maintained. dents – caught between damning statis- [email protected] he acceptances rate for black, Bang- tics, and public displays of diversity. lifestyle editors anna Hollingsworth (Senior); lydia Bunt (deputy) [email protected] ladeshi and Pakistani students have re- dr Sam lucy, director of admissions sport editors Vivi Way (Senior) & Marcus McCabe (deputy) mained consistently lower than aver- for the colleges, said that part of the [email protected] age, something which the University has problem was how low cohort numbers violet editors leila Sackur (Senior); anunita Chandrasekar & Shraddha rathi (deputy) [email protected] historically pinned on an intersection are presented. interviews editors Belle George, Lawrence Hopkins & Adam Rachman of issues, including the type of course “one of my greatest desires is for peo- [email protected] applied to. ple actually to get more sensible about long reads editors Noella Chye & Molly Montgomery [email protected] head of video Jonah Surkes [email protected] twice this year alone, the University, their use of statistics,” said, pointing to sub-editors Joseph Krol (Chief); Ciara dossett, Haeram Jalees, Kiran Khanom, along with oxford, has received criti- reports highlighting individual colleges’ tom Nixon, Evie Vennix [email protected] cism for its intake of black students. he low intake of black students. “it’s where engagement editors Josh Kimblin & Sophie Weinmann switchboard presenter raphael Korber Hofman irst was in october, when labour MP a lot of misinformation comes from, be- vulture show presenters Pany Heliotis & Martha o’Neil david lammy blasted oxbridge colleges cause people just aren’t very adept at in- website developer Edwin Bahrami Balani [email protected] as “iefdoms of entrenched privilege”, terpreting small numbers against much, varsoc president Louis Ashworth [email protected] chief of design daniel Gayne [email protected] and revealed that on average a quarter much bigger data sets.” associate editors Peter Chappell, Matt Gutteridge, aoife Hogan, anna Menin, of Cambridge colleges made no ofers Part of the issue with david lammy’s Caitlin Smith & Patrick Wernham [email protected] varsity board dr Michael Franklin (Chairman); Michael derringer, dr tim to black British applicants from 2010 to criticism of individual colleges is that, Harris, Prof Peter robinson; louis ashworth, daniel Gayne, Elizabeth Howcroft, 2015. without signiicantly more data than is anna Jennings, anna Menin & Patrick Wernham he second came just weeks ago, currently released, low application num-

© Varsity Publications ltd, 2017. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be as a Financial Times report highlighted bers mean that for some colleges not 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. low intake numbers based on igures to have accepted any black students is Varsity, 16 Mill lane, cambridge cb2 1rX. telephone 01223 337575. from 2011–2016, focusing particularly on statistically likely – it has only been for Varsity is published by Varsity Publications ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes he Mays. low intake at St Edmund’s College and roughly the past decade that Cambridge Printed at ilife Print cambridge – Winship road, Milton, cambridge cb24 6PP on 42.5gsm newsprint. registered as a newspaper at the Post oice. issn 1758-4442. Hughes Hall. ▲ Hylton-Pennant (loUiS aSHWortH) has accepted more black undergraduate W 20 J 2018 3 News

In a new report, she has called for NEWS Cambridge to introduce a central outreach initiative to boost ethnic minority Senior University access. e report says “the reasons why gures spend students from these ethnic groups are underrepresented are complex,” adding: thousands on “Institutional bias, lack of attainment and lack of knowledge about the institu- luxury hotels tion, leading to fear of not tting in are all valid suppositions.” Page 12 ▶ Hylton-Pennant’s recommendations, based on systems at other universities worldwide, include the introduction of a full-time access employee whose focus would be organising outreach with BME community leaders and organisations, and the establishment of BME student ambassadors, an idea which has found success at Harvard University. e report says: “ e University of Cambridge has a real opportunity to attract more BME students by formally supporting a centralised initiative.” Dr Nicholas Guyatt, a reader in His- tory based at Trinity Hall, re ected on his experience as an academic with issues surrounding representation require tackling at all levels of the University. ▲ Stephen Toope spent over £3500 “[ e] teaching and admin sta at hotels in six months SHANGRILA Cambridge aren’t yet fully representative of the society we’re supposed to serve,” he said. “In my faculty, nearly NEWS two-thirds of the sta are male and there are no black British African/Black British Cambridge lags behind Caribbean lecturers – despite the fact that we have nearly a hundred full-time Oxford in number of BME sta employed by the colleges or by the JCR presidents University”. “It’s great that our student body is be- Page 9 ▶ coming more representative, but the goal of improving access can’t be achieved unless women and people of colour are SCIENCE properly represented in sta and admin positions,” he added. “ is isn’t an easy Museum of Zoology problem to solve, but I’d like to see all of us making a public commitment to tack- reopens ater renovations students than there are colleges, some- groups, though these have not yet ma- ▲▼ Sam Lucy, ling it. At an institution like Cambridge, thing the University has been keen to terialised into anything concrete. director of college which can draw the very best minds Page 14 ▶ suggest means the fault doesn’t lie at a For Hylton-Pennant, who is approach- admissions from the UK and around the world, di- college level. ing the end of her tenure as a sabbatical (above). ACS’s versity and representation ought to be “I think everybody has to be very o cer, increased centralisation is the photoshoot within our reach.” OPINION careful when they speak publicly on answer. (below) Lucy emphasised the use of con- this,” Lucy said, in reference to Lammy. Ater declining to co-sign the Univer- LOUIS ASHWORTH textual data in processing admissions, “Even when it might be your intention, it sity’s response to the FT, she said in a LLOYD MANN but Guyatt called for this to go further. Ian Wang might be the consequence that this looks post on CUSU’s website: “ e University UNIVERSITY OF “[I]nterviewers have no data on racial like an institution that isn’t open.” has no clear plan to increase the number CAMBRIDGE representation when we do interviews,” Uni failing She noted that the MP’s comments of British BME students, nor how it hopes he said, “and I couldn’t tell you whether on BME “have produced some positive conse- to engage a wide range of stakeholders my college or faculty have systematically quences, which isn’t always recognised”, to support them in their e orts, so how underrepresented particular racial/eth- representation including prompting a signi cant in- can I defend its current work?” ❝ nic groups in recent admissions.” crease in interest in the access scheme “Bad PR should not be the driving Echoing Hylton-Pennant’s sugges- Page 15 ▶ Target Oxbridge, which prompted the force behind University commitments to e tions, Guyatt said: “I think the University University to give it a substantial fund- widening participation,” she said, adding University ought to have specialised outreach working boost – “as a direct result, we think, “yet this too oten feels the case” – high- ers for particular racial/ethnic groups,” Rensa Gaunt of the increased media attention around lighting the case of Abdullah Kattineh, a has no clear adding “I would be amazed if we couldn’t this.” Syrian who was o ered a full scholarship plan raise money for these posts from alumni Divestment “I don’t think there is much incen- ater hundreds of people signed an open who are desperate to see us solve these is not the tive for much of the press to present our letter supporting him. ❞ problems”. systems in a necessarily fair way,” Lucy solution said, adding “there’s not much we can do about that”. Page 16 ▶ She said that admissions tutors would be “furious” at Lammy’s suggestion that colleges remained bastions of the “old Connor MacDonald school tie”, and that she felt admissions tutors were all working towards the e refugee same goals. crisis has not She said she was “increasingly con- dent” that college choice is becoming gone away less of a factor in applicants’ chances of success. Page 17 ▶ Criticism of colleges oten results in calls for increased centralisation of the admissions process, which have come SPORT from both Lammy and CUSU, via its current access and funding o cer, Ol- John’s and Jesus retain ivia Hylton-Pennant. ere have been murmurings within the University that bumps headship it might set speci c overall targets for access from underrepresented ethnic Page 40 ▶ 4 W 20 J 2018 News Failings in exam provision for religious students

Students who are a ected by these Oliver Guest & Jack Conway clashes face a di cult choice between Investigations Editors either going into “quarantine” and sitting the exam at a di erent time, or ignoring At the end of Exam Term, a Varsity inves- the religious event and sitting the exam tigation has found that some religious with the rest of their cohort. students feel “stressed” or “guilty” as a Alex Ridley, a Seventh-day Adventist result of the University’s faith-provision who keeps the Sabbath, chose quaran- for examinations. tine last year, and took an exam in her Every year, students can apply college the morning ater most of her co- through a self-declaration form to have hort. At the same time as others started their exams timetabled to avoid clashes the examination, she was escorted to a with religious events, as “the University set of interconnecting rooms in Clare. recognises that the examination timeta- To ensure that she didn’t have contact ble might clash with religious observ- with the outside world, she stayed with ances that restrict work.” an invigilator until ater completing her e Cambridge website states that exam in a living room area of the set the “the University seeks to minimise these following morning. Overnight, she slept clashes”, but such clashes are sometimes in one set while the invigilator stayed unavoidable, however, due to the com- in the other. plexity of the timetable. In the case Ridley praised her college for being where exams cannot be rescheduled, supportive of her religious needs and students are told that “it may therefore for providing her with some privacy, be necessary to make alternative ar- through the provision of interconnecting rangements, which will be discussed sets and not searching her overnight bag with your College.” for a phone. However, she said that the

arrangement “de nitely wasn’t ideal”. ▲ Daniel Charles, undergo quarantine. Daniel Charles, a She was worried that the general a student at student at Selwyn, lled in the form to process of isolation could lead to a Selwyn LOUIS prevent an exam being scheduled on the “big disadvantage” in terms of exam ASHWORTH Sabbath, but this had “no observable ef- performance, and noted that the quar- fect” to the examination timetable. antine conditions “can cause awkward He instead chose to sit his exams un- situations”. der normal circumstances to avoid “add- When friends greeted her in the col- ing to the stress of exams”. Charles said lege buttery as she entered with the in- that this gave him a sense of “guilt and vigilator, she was not allowed to talk to psychological unease” through breaking them. During the quarantine, while Ri- away from his normal lifestyle. dley did not have access to the internet, Charles was critical of the University’s eight people were killed in the London refusal to move exam dates – a sentiment Bridge terror attack. shared by Ridley, who noted that the Before beginning the exam on Sunday, exam rescheduling form oten does not the invigilator told Ridley about the at- ❝ work, because certain exams are held tack, saying that she felt she “needed on the same date every year, regardless to tell her”. Ridley thought this decision Having of religious clashes. was bizarre, questioning how she would Landy told Varsity that it would “be have reacted if she had had family in to make good to complete the move started in London, who could have been a ected. choices 1990 to avoid having examinations on To avoid taking an exam during the Saturdays”. is would dramatically re- Jewish Shavuot festival last year, Samuel between duce the number owf clashes, by avoid- Isaac at Sidney Sussex similarly chose ing con icts with the Sabbath. quarantine, staying overnight with an their faith Both Charles and Ridley criticised Orthodox Jewish family. and their the current system, with Charles say- He said that this was “a bit of a pa- ing it creates “a psychological burden”. laver” to organise and only possible with academic Ridley told Varsity that it puts students the support of the Cambridge University study in a “clear position of having to make Jewish Society (JSoc): his quarantine choices between their faith and their was organised not by his college, but ❞ academic study”. by Barry Landy, a fellow at Fitzwilliam, who is the senior treasurer of JSoc. Isaac added that the quarantine system is “not simple [and] not an easy way to deal with” religious observance. e rules were stricter for him than Ridley: he could not even leave the sight of those supervising him. He told Varsity that “it didn’t really have… a huge e ect” on his exam performance, however, and actually gave him slightly longer to read his notes. Landy similarly told Varsity that, in his experience, quarantine can be a disadvantage for students, but “as with all cases where students take exams under special conditions (e.g. in college) it can work both ways”. Not all religious students choose to ▲ Cambridge sets strict rules for exams LOUIS ASHWORTH W 20 J 2018 5

Access NewsNews STEM students and freshers are most likely to experience exam failure

Stephanie Stacey and analytical” Cambridge Engineering Isobel Bickersteth course “doesn’t suit everyone” and ac- Deputy News Editors knowledged that a “small proportion of Drop-out disparities students do fail: typically below 1%, and most commonly in the rst year”. How- Geography saw the fewest failures of any For many Cambridge students, failure is ever, she explained that “such students subject, even those with smaller cohorts a foreign concept. Fortunately, for most, typically start again at other universities the prospect will remain distant through- and do very well indeed”. out their University career, as between English, the second largest of the the academic years of 2006-07 to 2016-17, arts and humanities according to the just 891 failed examination results were 2017 admissions statistics, claimed a recorded, marking only a tiny fraction of comparatively tiny number of failures, students entered for examination at the with just four across the 11-year period. University during this period. Meanwhile Law, whose student num- Although student numbers are ap- bers are only slightly greater than Eng- Number of exam failures by proximately equal, the sciences saw a lish, claimed the most failures of any arts subject, 2006-07 to 2016-17 signi cantly greater number of failures or humanities subject, with 21 failures, 1 Geography (1) at 753, than the arts, humanities and so- nine of which occurred in the rst year 2 Land Economy (2) cial sciences, which saw just 138. of study. History followed close behind, 3 ASNaC (2) Excluding Medicine, in which most with 20 failures, of which 16 took place 4 HSPS (2) of the 332 failures came about in the - in preliminary examinations. 5 English (4) nal clinical examinations, rather than Disparities are seen too between Uni- 6 PBS (4) University-administered Tripos exams, versity years, with nalists signi cantly 7 Philosophy (6) Engineering was the subject with the less likely to fail than those at the begin- 8 Architecture (6) greatest total number of failures , at 155, ning of their degrees. 9 eology (6) followed closely by Natural Sciences, e exception to this was Medicine 10 Music (7) with 134. and Veterinary Medicine, where the 11 Economics (9) Engineering is a four–year course, number of failing students increased 12 Education (11) with the second greatest in their clinical exams, sat at the end of 13 Classics (12) number of students, with their nal three years. Unlike 14 AMES (14) 334 students accepted in the majority of Tripos exami- 15 History (20) 2017. While Natural Sci- nations, it is possible to resit 16 Computer Science (20) ences student numbers these. 17 Law (21) dwarf all other subjects, Not a single student failed 18 Mathematics (89) with 629 students accept- rst year Land Economy or 19 Natural Sciences (134) ed in the 2017 admissions Geography. In fact, only one 20 Engineering (155) cycle, the failure rates re- student failed any part of the main disproportionately Geography Tripos across large even when account- the entire 11–year period, ing for these factors. the least of any subject Asked about responses to failure, Dr Asked about the rela- o ered at the University, Julia Foster, senior tutor at Murray Ed- tively high number of fail- despite the fact that Ge- wards College, a rmed that incidents ures in her subject, Dr Claire ography, which accepted of exam failure are treated “on a case– Barlow, deputy head of the 90 students in 2017, is far by–case basis”, including discussion of Cambridge Engineering de- from the smallest subject the situation with the student and con- partment, said that the “very in terms of enrolment. sideration of “any medical or tutorial issues”. e number of is response was echoed by Rich- exam failures ard Partington, senior tutor at Churchill 871 in the 11 year College, who explained that the college Departmental divides period of 2006- would make an appeal to the Applica- 07 to 2016-17 tions Committee if it is clear that there Number of exam failures by department, 2006-07 to 2016-17 are “signi cant extenuating circumstances”, adding that this is “usually Professor Ash Amin, Head of the Ge- on the basis of illness but sometimes Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (138) Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (138) ography Department, said that the “very through other, grave cause”. robust teaching administration and pro- Discussing the formal process follow- cedures, including excellent feedback ing exam failure, Newnham College’s Sciences (421) and consultation with students through senior tutor, Professor Liba Taub, said students reps and the Sta Student Com- that they take each case as it comes, ex- mittee” of the Geography department plaining that “a group of senior members “helps us pick up on any problems early of the college would hear from you and Medicine (332) on”. your director of studies, look at your Amin said that by allowing specialisa- supervision reports, hear from your tu- tion in second and third year, students tor and consider extenuating circum- were able “to work in areas suited to stances”. their talents and interests”, while the Appeals usually serve to allow a stu- Number of exam failures by year group, 2006-07 to 2016-17 “relatively small” nature of their depart- dent to continue to the next stage of ment means they are able “to spot any- their degree or, if they are a nalist, to Year 1 (249) one in di culty early on”. be deemed ‘Declared to have Deserved e standard University response to Honours’ (DDH), allowing them to gradu- examination failure is to prevent a stu- ate with an honours degree. dent from continuing with their course, If this is deemed inappropriate by the Year 2 (164) excluding preliminary examinations, in University, a student may be awarded an which failure does not “debar you from Ordinary Degree which also allows them being a candidate for any subsequent to graduate without honours. Tripos Examination”. Breaking news, Senior tutors were keen to emphasise Finalists (113) Circumstances are, however, taken around the that failure, though it is a serious matter, (Year 3 of 4-year courses has been into account, with allowances made for clock is extremely rare, a message which is excluded from this graph) those experiencing hardship. varsity.co.uk indeed supported by the data. 6 W 20 J 2018

News Oxbridge Collusion Cambridge sought to steer sta strikes

Cambridge considered ◀ Continued from front page leaving the national scheme Notes from a meeting in September 2017 senior nance o cials at Cambridge between Oxford and Cambridge bursars attempting to steer the national pen- described Cambridge’s “growing reali- sions dispute to protect their nancial sation and frustration that nancially position. weaker Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) were relying on the balance sheets Cambridge’s collusion with College of stronger HEIs to support the pension Oxford collusion? scheme, and indirectly, allow greater University Finance Committee minutes Colleges borrowing in the sector.” e document, leaked to Varsity reveal that senior o - previously available on an Oxford inter- cials called for Cambridge’s response to with nearly nal server, was later removed. a survey gathering employers’ perspec- identical Should Cambridge leave the national tives on the national pensions scheme responses pension scheme, it would mark a be- to be “coordinated with Oxford as far to the trayal of the higher education sector. as possible”. University’s: Leaks revealed the University has cal- e goal was to demonstrate that culated it would cost £2.5bn to pull out ▲ Paul Mylrea, ated tension within the colleges, in tions, there was a mounting sense that there was a mandate for a position that of the scheme, making it unfeasible for the University’s particular with incoming fellows.” something was amiss in how Cambridge falls in line with their nancial inter- Fitzwilliam the time being. director of com- colleges were able to in uence the pen- ests, that employers take on the lowest To pull out of the scheme was seen as munications, Coordination extended to sions dispute. risk possible in the national pensions a last resort. Despite this, meeting min- waits outside colleges Summers’ email showed him advocat- scheme. utes reveal the option was given serious Old Schools dur- Colleges too, conspired to push for ing that bursars respond to the consulta- e survey, sent out by university rep- consideration. If word got out that they ing the student lower risk. A leaked email from Simon tion, but that they include “a formulation resentative Universities UK (UUK), was Hughes Hall were considering this, Finance Commit- occupation last Summers, chair of the pensions sub- to show that the responses may not have intended to gather a representative view tee members feared, it could paint the term committee – a circle of college bursars been formally approved by colleges.” of employers on its proposed changes to University as indi erent to the fate of LOUIS ASHWORTH – provided a “suggested response” to He added: “You will also wish to con- the Universities Superannuation Scheme the sector. colleges to call for less risk to be placed sider how to achieve a consensus view in (USS), the largest higher education pen- Committee members noted: “ ere e r e on employers. your College about the issues facing the sions scheme in the UK. King’s was already some negative press cover- Questions already exist scheme, during Michaelmas Term.” A spokesperson for the University age of the involvement of the Colleges about college collusion: the When questioned by Varsity, Sum- commented on the discussions with and the Universities of Oxford and only ve colleges which have mers did not address the question of why Oxford: “ e University discussed its Cambridge in the discussions to released the details of their he pushed bursars to achieve a consen- views on both the 2014 and 2017 USS date.” If their discussion of in- responses in full were found sus, instead saying that he wished to valuations with a number of employers Lucy Cavendish dividualising de ned bene ts to have responded virtu- advise bursars to “consider having that in the scheme.” was made public, they feared, it ally identically, with all of consultation [with the Governing Body] “might be seen, wrongly, as part them pushing to take as soon as possible”. Cambridge saw opportunity of a plan to wreck the USS rather less risk in funding Freedom of Information requests re- to exploit sta ’s concerns than a last resort.” sta s’ pensions. veal that the Finance Committee asked As sta striked with a desperate sense St Catharine’s Michael Otsuka, the London School A Varsity inves- one of its sub-committees, Cambridge’s of impending nancial insecurity, senior of Economics (LSE) academic who tigation in March Pensions Working Group, to “formulate a gures saw an opportunity to capitalise rst raised the question of the role of found that seven robust response acting as far as possible on their fears. Oxbridge colleges in the consultation of the eight col- with Cambridge colleges and University Leaked meeting minutes reveal - process, was singled out. His comments leges which have of Oxford to ensure consistency to give nance o cials noted that if the national in e Guardian were said to have “cre- con rmed they weight to the responses.” pensions scheme moved entirely away called for less Leaks also reveal they felt they had from a system of de ned bene ts – in risk, three of “no visibility on the University’s position which employees are guaranteed an Explained Cambridge’s decision-making body, one which have and would welcome the opportunity to income upon retirement – “the Univer- nancial committees by the General Board, two rreleased e l e a s e d be involved in ongoing discussions.” sity would be able to argue much more by Regent House, and two statements A spokesperson for the University strongly in favour of moving away from e University Council Fi- are co-opted by the com- but did not remarked on discussions with colleges: USS in order to establish its own de ned nance Committee meets mittee. provide a “while Colleges are autonomous, self- bene ts scheme for future bene ts.” o cially around ve or six e pensions working transcript governing institutions, it is bene cial ey remarked: “De ned bene ts times a year. Its purpose is group, a sub-committee set of their re- to consider these issues in the broader were highly valued by the University’s to advise the Council on the up by the nance commit- sponses, have context of how they a ect the Collegiate sta .” University’s assets, such as tee, includes an independ- come forward about University.” O cials had also dismissed their its estates, investments, in- ent actuary Jonathan Seed. their decision-making concerns. Midway through the strikes, come, and expenditure. University o cials, head procedure: bursars What was Cambridge trying 501 sta , as members of Cambridge’s e Finance Committee of the intercollegiate pen- had submitted their to achieve? governing body Regent’s House, called consists of 13 members, and sions sub-committee of the responses on behalf Employers’ perspectives, both that of for the retention of a de ned bene t is chaired by Vice-Chancel- Bursar’s Committee Simon of the college with- the University and colleges, indicated a scheme, contrary to the administration’s lor Stephen Toope. ree Summers, and is chaired out consulting their growing disillusionment with the struc- interests. members are elected by by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for governing bodies. ture of the national pensions scheme Minutes reveal senior University sta representatives of the col- Institutional and Interna- In March this year, as a whole. dismissed their calls as “evidence of the leges, four are appointed tional Relations Professor as a handful of colleges In the University’s response to the poor understanding of the matters at by the Council – its chief Eilis Ferran. came out with statements September 2017 survey, it expressed its issue.” criticising their bursars’ ac- “strong preference” to break from the W 20 J 2018 7

Oxbridge collusion NewsNews

of one employer defaulting on other What is the ‘last man standing’ members. scheme, and why does Cam- bridge want to break it? Attempts to push for their nancial interests have been e USS operates under a ‘last man years in the works standing’ pension scheme system. e last time this happened, it went Under the scheme rules, the liabilities unnoticed. Yet a network of pensions of participants which become insol- discussions disconnected from sta s’ vent are passed to the last employer interests has been years in the works. in the scheme. Freedom of Information requests re- Sectionalisation, which came up veal that for the previous USS valuation in nance committee discussions and in 2014, Professor Jeremy Sanders, the Summers’ leaked email, involves the former Chair of the Pensions Working legal separation of each institution’s Group, met with counterparts at Oxford, assets and liabilities. LSE and the University of Edinburgh. is would allow the nances of e o cial at Oxford had also met with pension schemes across the higher administrators at the University of Man- education sector to be separated. chester and Imperial College. In the case of one institution be- Minutes reveal that Sanders “hoped coming insolvent, the funding de - this would result in a number of con- cit would then not be spread across sultation responses along similar lines the other participating institutions, which would hopefully in uence the de- which is what occurs under the cur- cision making process. Oxford and Cam- rent last man standing system. bridge would share drat responses.”

An institution isolating itself last man standing scheme currently in creased risk to employers if the last man ▲ Sta on strike Secretive decisions by a select group of place. standing scheme was maintained. Meet- in March senior Cambridge o cials seem to have In sticking with the de ned bene t ing minutes revealed members’ views: MATTHIAS GJESDAL played a key role in bringing the crisis to scheme, institutions will be forced to “it should be pointed out that there were HAMMER a ashpoint. 2018 marked an awakening make higher contributions to their em- alternative options for scheme design” for many at the marketisation of higher ployees’ pensions. – which they expressed in responding education, bringing University nancial Cambridge expressed concern that to the survey. decision-making to the fore. the current system let it vulnerable to Cambridge had repeatedly expressed Cambridge as an institution is evolv- inheriting liabilities as weaker institu- its desire for a sectionalisation of the ing. In doing so, it calls into question tions fell away. pensions scheme, wherein trustees who its decision-makers stand for, if not Pensions working group members would be able to segregate sections of its sta , and the fate of higher educa- expressed concern at possible future in- the USS in order to mitigate the impact tion itself.

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Evie Aspinall is set to be the latest in a long succession of HSPS graduates to take up the mantle of CUSU president, as Daisy Eyre’s term draws to a close. Varsity sat down with the outgoing and incoming presidents to talk student engagement, college inequality and Grudgebridge. Eyre re ects on the main obstacles that stood in the way of accomplishing some of her manifesto promises, brand- ing the University’s pace of change as oten “sluggish.” She views the role of CUSU president as not being “some kind of magic wand that is waved and Cam- bridge is amazing”, but in choosing key battles – to “push the University to do things you think are really important”. e limited amount of time in a single presidential term became an issue when she tried to address the issue of unmanageable student workloads in Lent Term, one of the key points of her manifesto, because of the “unpredict- able and incredibly important” extended sta strikes. Addressing a lack of student engagement with CUSU was a priority of Aspinall’s throughout her presidential that talking “to all the di erent senior who will be able to feed back to us what ▲ Evie Aspinall tion from Grudgebridge was that it never campaign. Beyond that, she sees the cru- tutors”, and putting together “guidelines students are feeling,” but that the danger (let) and Daisy was”, Aspinall says. cial policy issue of her term as tackling they can adopt”, is a “whole year’s work- lies in how “students see their college Eyre talk about CUSU’s code of conduct, which the college inequality – from disparities in ing project.” making change and they don’t see CUSU the CUSU present and incoming sabbatical team rent, down to intermission policies and In a similar vein, the collegiate nature making change,” as JCR action may be presidency ROSIE have been collaborating on, will seek to tutorial support during exam term. of Cambridge is highlighted as an op- more immediately visible. BRADBURY harness the “mobilised student passion” Aspinall outlines her desire to address portunity for CUSU, as well as something “I’ve never seen an opportunity like that Eyre points to as having emerged the idea that “if you go to John’s, your that makes its operations more di cult. ❝ this in Cambridge,” Eyre says, remarking out of Grudgebridge. e process, how- life is much easier than if you end up Aspinall has found that the separation on the level of student engagement with ever, faces a predictably low level of at Newnham.” College disparities have between college administrations and You can’t be drinking societies. However, both Eyre broad engagement from drinking soci- been a persistent thread at Cambridge the University makes it easy to “pass some kind and Aspinall view Grudgebridge, whose ety members, with 25 members from a this year – on both rollout of Prevent the buck”. platform as a popular Facebook page has concentrated number of societies having policy and on rent costs, Varsity inves- However, Eyre adds that the colle- of magic been mobilised this term to eradicating signed up and fewer than ten expressing tigations have found stark di erences giate nature of Cambridge “could be the drinking societies, as a deeply awed willingness to go to a meeting. across the University. resource to make the strongest union wand that is mechanism. “ ere’s a certain extent to which Eyre points out that college inequality ever because you have so many more waved, and Eyre is particularly critical of Grudge- drinking society members need to “is a really hard thing to tackle” from a capillary links to students” through the bridge’s refusal to attach content notes match words to actual actions and ac- CUSU perspective, as the central Univer- existence of JCR and college-level cam- Cambridge to worrying or potentially triggering tually need to put some e ort in, because sity cannot easily standardise policies paigning. is amazing posts. otherwise I think that it will be quite across all colleges. However, she feels In theory she says, this means CUSU “I think it should really be about the clear that they’re not willing to make Aspinall can still make a di erence, but has access to “students in every college, ❞ people that are a ected – my percep- change”, Eyre tells me.

ANALYSIS

Rosie Bradbury spinall enters the narrative of student politics that “divestment would never concerns in the face of nancial Apresidential role next itself, but the prominence of happen just with occupation of risk to the University. month at a time when CUSU within the broader stage buildings – it would also never One topic of conversation which Aspinall’s policies student politics has taken on a of student activism. In choos- just happen with going to Uni- emerged in the 2018 campaign new relevance: last term’s strike ing her focus, Aspinall decides versity Council”. season was whether CUSU is will shape CUSU’s action and this term’s cam- whether this new mobilisation She tells me that she views the ignoring the ‘average’ Cambridge paign for divestment brought will translate into ful lling divestment debate as seeing student – Aspinall’s campaign relevance structural questions of Univer- one of her key goals: student “a block”, following Council’s very e ectively tapped into this sity democracy forward, while engagement. How e ectively rejection of full divestment ear- concern. Indicative of her desire the current spotlight on drink- CUSU is able to harness this lier this month. Her claim that to address this is her de ning ing society behaviour has mo- newfound political energy will CUSU may indirectly address the crucial policy issue of her bilised a section of the student de ne its prominence in the divestment through other cam- tenure – aside from student en- body previously disengaged. year to come. paigns – Cambridge’s account- gagement – as college inequality. At the start of each new CUSU Aspinall notes that she sees ability to students, for example Aspinall must now grapple with team’s tenure, the team’s selec- change as originating both – may be overly optimistic, how to most e ectively capital- tion of which key issues they within and outside of Cam- given the Council’s apparent ise on the political mobilisation will tackle will not de ne the bridge’s formal institutions, disengagement with students’ seen this term. W 20 J 2018 9 News

ing BME has a ected his experience as president, but that it has impacted the ‘A lot more work to be policies he has pushed for, including a particular emphasis on access. At his college, policies he has worked to introduce done’ to increase number include a reward system for students who go to schools to give Oxbridge admissions talks, and improved admissions of BME JCR presidents resources for each subject. Bhalerao said she has found herself in some “uncomfortable situations” dur- BME, which is below the Russell Group ing her time as president. “Especially Isobel Gri ths average. as a young BME woman, it can feel as Senior News Correspondent Reiss Akhtar, the Gonville & Caius JCR if people have three counts on which to Just three Cambridge college JCRs have President, told Varsity, that “in an ideal try to patronise me, and that thought is BME presidents, pointing to an under- world a BME student will see positions of something I have to confront whenever representation of BME students in col- power as roles to be applied to irrespec- I walk into a room.” lege politics. tive of sexuality, race and background.” However, on the whole Bhalerao Only Gonville & Caius, St Catharine’s Akhtar suggested that the lack of BME would say that being BME has a ected and Murray Edwards JCRs have BME representation was because “the struc- her experience positively. At Murray presidents. Despite the fact BME stu- tures in place do not do enough to make Edwards, she has introduced a Race dents make up, on average, 21.5% of the themselves accessible”, thus prompting and Ethnicity Working Group, and they University’s intake for the past three a low number of BME applicants to posi- are working towards race and ethnicity years, they make up just 10% of JCR tions such as JCR presidents. training at all levels in the college. Presidents. Currently, Cambridge falls below the is comes in stark contrast to Oxford, national average of 24.7% in the propor- e number where it was recently announced that tion of students who are BME. Although of BME JCR 41% of colleges with JCRs will have a Oxford lags behind Cambridge in terms 13 presidents at BME JCR president next term. of BME access, with only 17.9% of its Oxford - 10 more Muhammed Khan, St Catharine’s JCR 2017 intake identifying as BME, it is well than Cambridge president, spoke to Varsity about the dis- ahead in terms of BME representation in parity, explaining that it may arise from college student politics indicating the the di erences in the number of BME University seems to be faring better the white middle class for so long”. “If we want to be a progressive society students at di erent colleges. Cambridge in terms of representation in Bhalerao said she felt BME students ▲ Let to right: then we need to make the most of the He highlighted that he felt BME stu- college-level politics. worry about how they will be treated Reiss Akhtar, vast talent we have in our di erent com- dents were represented well by CUSU e Murray Edwards JCR President, by university sta and fellows, or feel Lylaah Bhalerao, munities, and this should be re ected on and by JCR BME o cers, but that among Lylaah Bhalerao, said “I think that a lot that “they must stick to designated BME and Muhammed the level of student politics. ose of us the University sta , “there’s a lot more of the time, BME students don’t feel that roles or issues” rather than taking up Khan ISOBEL in positions of leadership have to be role work to be done”. At present only 12% of student politics is the place for them, leadership roles. GRIFFITHS models and encourage others to take the sta at the University of Cambridge are because it has been dominated by the Khan said that he does not feel be- baton ater us and get involved.” 10 W 20 J 2018 News Colleges claim they don’t have drinking societies. Students say otherwise

just there for alcoholic consumption”. tackling the issue. Although a number ◀ Continued from front page However, a current Downing student, of JCRs have encouraged students to been mentioned in Grudgebridge posts, who spoke to Varsity on condition of ano- submit o cial complaints, some have asking whether they had received any nymity, questioned the e cacy of this. taken a stronger stance. direct complaints related to the behav- ey said that Downing’s drinking socie- Earlier this month, Downing JCR an- iour of drinking societies since the Cres- ties – the Patricians and the Orchids – nounced the abolition of the roles of cents scandal. None of the respondents “exert a much larger in uence” than the head freshers’ representatives in the reported any complaints. sporting society, the Gri ns. e student wake of allegations about the links be- A number of colleges – Peterhouse, added that, despite not being “o cially tween the positions and college drinking Churchill, St Catharine’s, Fitzwilliam, recognised by the college”, the drinking societies. President, Jed Soleiman, said and Murray Edwards – told Varsity ei- societies “hold an annual garden party in the JCR did not “feel it’s appropriate for a ther that drinking societies were banned the middle of college organised through drinking society to run the introduction from holding events on college premises, college o cials, so I nd it di cult to the freshers get to the College.” or that the college does not have any believe that their existence is unknown Following an emergency meeting in drinking societies. to them.” May, Newnham JCR condemned drink- Yet it is unclear how far these rules Before Varsity received responses from ing societies as an “anachronistic rem- can be policed. Varsity has seen evidence the remaining colleges, the University is- nant of a drinking culture which per- that two St Catharine’s drinking socie- sued a blanket statement on the issue, petuates elitism, classism, compulsory ties, e Kittens and the Alleycatz, held in which Dr Mark Wormald, Secretary heterosexuality, and irreparably dam- a garden party on college property last of the Senior Tutors Committee, said: ages e orts at post admissions access”, week, hosted by the Kittbag, the o - “Sta and students across Cambridge’s and resolved to “implore” the College to cial college sports society, despite St Ca- Colleges are meeting currently to discuss o cially disband its drinking societies. tharine’s Senior Tutor, Paul Hartle, claim- how best to promote a culture of zero In a statement to Varsity, Lola Olufe- ing: “We have no drinking societies.” tolerance to harassment, particularly mi, CUSU women’s o cer and head of Varsity understands that the College in regard to drink-related activities of the Women’s Campaign, condemned the regards the Kittens and Alleycatz to be certain groups.” Wormald went on to “exclusive and elitist nature of drinking sports societies, but a St Catharine’s urge “any student who has experienced societies” and said that they encourage student, who wished to remain anony- misconduct in any form to ask for help “a culture of complicity where sexual vi- mous, said that the groups function as ▲ Students celerate Caesarian Sunday earlier this term CAITLIN SMITH from their College’s pastoral team, or olence and misconduct is encouraged”. “drinking societies”, which students are their student social welfare o cers.” “Colleges refuse to clamp down on “secretly invited to join” on an exclusive CUSU has begun drating a code of said societies despite allegations”, Olufe- basis, “not on the basis of sporting ac- conduct for drinking societies collabo- mi continued, claiming that drinking so- complishment.” ratively with drinking society members, cieties “may even manipulate the system e line between drinking and sports which president Daisy Eyre said she to get funding from their colleges”. She societies oten appears to be blurred. hopes will harness current “mobilised said the outpouring of allegations did not At an open meeting earlier this term, student passion” regarding the issue. surprise her, stressing the need for “spe- pro-vice chancellor for education, Gra- However, of the 25 drinking society cialist atercare support for survivors, ro- Student lmed at a CaesarianFootage Sunday of the Crescents gathering VC Stephen Toope ham Virgo, recounted having banned a leaks to Grudgebridge; Trinity Hall Grudgebridge launches crusadedenounces drinking societiesDowning at anabolishes head members who initially signed up to bust reporting mechanisms and in-house gathering of the Crescents, joking Crescents disband drinking society while he was Downing’s about inclusivity cancels Crescents Garden Party against drinking societies open meeting freshers’ reps be involved, fewer than ten have since services that they can access.” senior tutor before reintroducing it “as a ● ● ● ● ● ● responded to an attempt to arrange a If you have been a ected by any of sporting society, open to all”, a strategy meeting. the issues raised in this article, you can which he said allowed colleges to “make In an interview with Varsity (page 8), contact Breaking the Silence here: www. sure, certainly, that [societies are] not 6th May 7th May 9th May 11th May 15th May 4th June Eyre emphasised JCRs’ central role in breakingthesilence.cam.ac.uk

than general, solution. ❝ college property. Particular problems posed Drinking is presence means that by drinking societies include the colleges and the Uni- Anna Jennings their pack mentality and societies are versity have a responsibil- Cambridge must oten hostile or exclusionary a speci c ity to regulate and monitor attitude toward other mem- issue, and their actions, and a rst step take ownership of its bers of the college commu- therefore towards this would be for nity. Drinking societies are require a colleges to more formally drinking societies long-associated with privi- recognise their own drink- lege in its many forms, and speci c, ing societies. Recognition is ANALYSIS this can give them a position rather than not the same as sanctioning of power within the college general, the existence of drinking egardless of whether Pragmatically, then, we which makes complaints solution societies; it is merely the ac- you’re an avid swap- must work to develop solu- and disciplinary procedures ceptance of a fact. is will ▲ A still from the ❞ Rattendee or adamantly tions to the problems which leaked video of less straightforward than in allow colleges to introduce against the very concept have been exposed. At the the Crescents’ cases which focus on indi- measures to better control of drinking societies, there moment, infrastructure is Caesarian viduals. drinking society behaviour, Sunday gathering are two facts we must all simply not in place to deal ANONYMOUS VIDEO, In most colleges, drink- for example by requiring acknowledge: that there with drinking societies. VIA GRUDGEBRIDGE ing societies do not exist them to adhere to a code of are problems with current While many colleges have as o cial student societies. conduct or constitution. drinking society culture as a rmed in recent weeks However, they take di er- It’s far from a full solution, exposed by Grudgebridge, that they have policies ent guises (the boundary but as the news story quiet- and that as an entrenched against bullying, discrimina- between drinking society ens down, we must ensure part of Cambridge student tion and sexual misconduct, and sport society is at best the pressure continues to life, drinking societies are drinking societies are a blurred), and events such as create a better university for going to continue to exist for speci c issue, and therefore formal dinners and garden both present and prospec- the foreseeable future. require a speci c, rather parties oten take place on tive students. Wednesday 20th June 2018 11 News

versities. “In this brave new world where uni- Breaking down versities are managed like hedge funds by 200k+ annual salary managers, the two main ‘risks’ are us: the staf and Cambridge’s billion students.” Considerations of risk, particularly that posed by funding staf ’s pensions, are relected in discussions between sen- pound bond ior inance oicials behind the scenes. A Varsity investigation today reveals senior inance oicials attempted to coordinate their responses to the employers’ survey with Oxford, and that some ● he bond is intended to hugely develop the University’s real estate, expand afordable accommodation, and fund itself in the long-run University’s ● But critics worry that if developments fail to capital needs £4bn over the next 20 bring in revenue, students and staf will feel the years burden

bond’s implications. Cambridge De- Daniel Gayne and Noella Chye fend Education (CDE), a left-wing stu- Cambridge colleges sought to be part dent campaign group claimed that the of the plan too. he goal was to concert Cambridge’s role in the national pen- University’s debt-based inancial strat- an efort to push harder for a national sions dispute and its refusal to divest, egy would be dependent “on mass fee pensions scheme in which they could has centred attention on the University’s increases both for home and interna- take on less inancial risk. inances. Yet one of the most radical tional students, and EU students as a Already, the University is showing changes that occurred within the Uni- consequence of Brexit, and on increasing signs of buckling under the pressure to versity this year lew mostly under the income in other areas, potentially with keep its capital projects commercially radar. the Mill development or Cambridge As- viable. Phase 1 of the North West Cam- In April, the University received per- sessment.” bridge project came under ire for sys- mission from Regent House to arrange Bond prospectuses outline the most tematic failures leading to signiicant £600m of external borrowing to inance signiicant liabilities on the bond is- overspending. he project accumulated income-generating projects. his new suer’s books. he bond prospectus for additional costs totalling £24.7 million bond will bring the University’s long- the 2018 bond, leaked to Varsity, high- which breached the University’s borrow- term balance sheet debt to £936m (19.5% lights a number of key liabilities, two of ing limit, arising from a number of late of net assets), having issued an initial which will be of particular interest to describing it in its prospectus as “dispro- ▲ Housing under construction on the design changes, increases in scope and £350m bond in 2012. those concerned about the tide of mar- portionate risk”. North West Cambridge Development other factors. While the targeted use of these funds ketisation. he irst concerns the fact that Cambridge’s tuition fees, too, were (DANIEl gAYNE) Moving forward, the pressure on is not speciied, the lion’s share is ex- the university does not have complete identiied as a source of risk, as rates the University to reduce liabilities will pected to be invested in phase two of the control over the tuition fees that it is able of fees for international students are only continue to grow. In a report to the North West Cambridge development, if to charge to UK and EU undergraduates, largely determined by market forces. Council, it was estimated that the likely approved in early 2019. constituting a major constraint on rev- As outlined in the bond’s prospectus, capital needs of the University for the he North West Cambridge Develop- enue. he second is Cambridge’s role in “If [Cambridge] is unable to maintain next 20 years will be around £4bn. As ment is the largest real estate project the current national pensions scheme. the current fee levels charged to these the University grapples with meeting the ever undertaken by the University, and At present, Cambridge employees’ groups of students, its fee income may levels of revenue generation promised upon completion will include 3,000 pensions are under the Universities Su- be reduced and this could impact its to Regent House through their capital homes, divided between social-rented perannuation Scheme (USS). he scheme overall revenue.” projects, questions remain of who will accomodation and market housing. operates under a ‘last man standing’ Clément Mouhot, a mathematician take the fall. Phase 2 is projected to cost in the re- system – if weak institutions become and fellow at King’s, said: “Behind the gion of £300-£400bn, and according to insolvent, the remaining, wealthier em- bonds of almost £400 million in 2012 its project director, Heather Topel, will ployers such as Cambridge will have to and now £600 million in Cambridge, make greater contributions to compen- and even more in Oxford, and behind sate for the loss. the rise of tuition fees, lies one and the In responding to a survey calling for same logic. hat of inancialisation and employers’ views on the national pen- privatisation of universities.” University debt sions scheme and proposed reforms, He added: “In this logic, launching £936m after second Cambridge expressed a “strong prefer- bonds is a natural solution to funding bond issue ence” for breaking away from the last these expansions, and this requires the man standing scheme currently in place, inhuman inancial ‘de-risking’ of uni-

 make the University “one of the major Pension problems amount that those buying bonds earn developers” in the south of England. on their investment).  he imperative behind the Univer- Why low interest While this provides the University sity’s homebuilding is clear. he town’s with a cheap supply of capital for its booming tech industry, nicknamed ‘Sili- rates are good for the development projects, it is detrimen- con Fen’, has seen average house prices Uni and bad for staf tal to staf. he USS pension dispute soar to over £500,000. From October was the direct result of a long-term 2008 to September 2009, the University decline in return on investments by Accommodation Service received 6,780 pension funds (yields on bonds, one requests for accommodation, with only Seeking the authority from Regent of the main investments for pension 360 University units available. House to arrange further external funds, have fallen consistently sicne he University has publicly and pri- inance this April, the University the 1980s, from as high as 16 per cent vately emphasised its commitment to Council emphasised that the market to about 1.5 per cent today). providing afordable housing for key conditions in the sterling debt capital To compensate, funds have to spend workers, also touting the environmen- markets were “attractive on a historic more to get the same annual return, tal credentials of the development. At basis” and “unlikely to persist”. and the consequent increased demand a meeting of the Finance Committee in his is certainly true. We are liv- also helps to push down yield. In the July 2016, the committee noted a high ing through an unprecedentedly long case of the USS, this has led some to level of interest in key worker housing period of low interest. low interest declare the existing deined beneit and suggested that Phase 2 could include rates and quantitative easing, where system not viable and suggest mov- a greater concentration of this, with few- the Bank of England buys bonds, has ing to a more lexible, less generous er student accommodation units. resulted in record low gilt yields (the deined contribution system. Yet many are concerned about the 12 W 20 J 2018 News Five-star hotels and Aromi splurges: e spending of Cambridge vice-chancellors

around £610 throughout this academic Jack Conway and Oliver Guest year. Investigations Editors Pro-vice-chancellor for Institutional and International Relations Eilís Fer- Cambridge’s vice-chancellor and pro- ran had the largest average hotel spend vice chancellors have spent over £25,000 among the pro-vice-chancellors. on ve-star hotels over a 26-month pe- A University spokesperson told Var- riod, analysis by Varsity shows. sity that “It is not surprising that the e o cials also spent slightly over Vice-Chancellor, who regularly repre- £6,000 on less luxurious hotels. A small sents the University abroad, or the Pro- number of the transactions in hotels Vice-Chancellor tasked with managing were for small amounts, and likely in- the University’s international partner- cluded items other than accommoda- ships, should be incurring expenses for tion. overseas accommodation.” Varsity analysed the statements of credit cards provided by the University to its vice-chancellor and ve pro-vice- Toope’s chancellors. ese statements had previ- £3667 spending on ously been released under the Freedom ve-star hotels of Information Act and covered expenses in six months in the period between January 2016 and March 2018. e two most expensive hotel bills The statements also revealed a were both from a visit to Hong Kong number of other details, including Bory- in April 2017, with former Vice-chan- siewicz’ visit to Davos, Switzerland and cellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz spending meal at a Chinese restaurant while the £6,863.28 and pro-vice-chancellor Eilís 2016 World Economic Forum – a meeting Ferran spending £2,866.14 at a ve-star ▲The Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong, where Vice-chancellor Toope spent £1128 ISLAND SHANGRILA of global business and political leaders Hyatt hotel. – was in session. e Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and should book accommodation, which is ship is chosen on the basis of location, and government relations.” In contrast to the luxury hotel stays, Taj Mahal in New Delhi were the most roughly equivalent” to a three-star level. convenience of travel, and ease of access Adjusting for their di erent time in some of the items in the statements re- commonly visited ve-star hotels, with For areas where “there is deprivation to multiple meeting places.” the role, Borysiewicz spent the most on ect a much more mundane lifestyle. both being visited eight times by vice- or a high security risk”, employees can “It is also chosen to provide a meeting luxury hotels, with an average monthly ey show, for example, a £30 bill for chancellors or pro-vice-chancellors. choose four-star venues. venue that is appropriate for the high- spend of around £720. Borysiewicz was Ryanair, an £11 bill on Wizz Air, and a e choice to favour ve-star hotels When asked about the choice to visit level business that the senior leader- succeeded as vice-chancellor in Septem- £5.20 bill at Aromi. appears to contradict the University’s ve-star hotels, a spokesperson for the ship team carries out on behalf of the ber by Professor Stephen Toope. ey also recorded spending at the guidance for employee expenses. Ac- University said that “overseas accommo- University – including fundraising, and Toope’s current average monthly Apple Store, Pret A Manger, and Super- cording to that document, “employees dation for the University’s senior leader- managing of international partnerships luxury spend is the second largest, at drug. Wide variance in salaries of college masters

higher than the next highest, with all ▼ Mapping masters’ salaries Further disparities exist in the value with trips oten costing thousands of Jack Conway and Oliver Guest other colleges except Emmanuel pay- Robinson’s master of mean annual expenses claimed by pounds. Investigations Editors ing their masters below £80,000. ey dearned the most, college masters, a gure that Varsity was Professor Yates, for example, visited are also over £30,000 pounds higher Robinson dwhile the president able to calculate for 15 colleges. Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong A Varsity investigation has found sig- than the mean salary of the 25 colleges 93k dof Hughes Hall e highest value of expense claims once a year and spent between four and ni cant disparities in the salaries and for which Varsity has data, which is didn’t take a salary came from the provost of King’s. Profes- six thousand pounds each time. expenditures of college masters and £50,670. sor Michael Proctor spent an average Masters also tend spend thousands their equivalents. Pembroke’s master was also gener- of £19,181 per year over the course of of pounds on entertainment activities, Based on information from a Free- ously compensated in 2014, when Sir Pembroke the last three years. is is signi cantly which similarly are oten intended to dom of Information Request, Varsity was Richard Dearlove, its master at the time, higher than the mean across all 15 col- raise funds for the college. able to compare the salaries of 25 college was the highest paid of all college heads. 92.6k leges for which Varsity has data, which masters and the expenses claimed by Since then, however, the salary of Pem- is £5,070 per year. e disparity in 18 of them. broke’s master has fallen by over ten Professor Proctor’s expenses were pri- average annual e remaining colleges have not yet thousand pounds from £103,467. marily claimed for development. In 2017, £19,181 expenses of responded, or did not answer in su - On the other end of the scale, the Trinity for instance, he spent £24,095 on de- college masters cient detail to be included. president of Hughes Hall does not take 92.6k velopment, which encompasses alumni e investigation found a gap of a salary at all and chose not to utilise a relations and fundraising activities. £92,951 between the highest and lowest college at. e next lowest paid college e lowest expenses were claimed e disparities in expenses claimed paid masters and a disparity of £19,181 in heads are Professor David Ibbetson, the Emmanuel by Professor Ian White, the master of by the di erent college masters may Newnham 80k their average annual expenses. president of Clare Hall, and Professor 79k Jesus, and Professor Jane Clarke, the in part be due to how colleges classify Details of the expenses claimed by Mary Fowler, the master of Darwin, who president of Wolfson. Neither claimed fundraising activities. ey may be cat- masters showed that they spent most are paid £26,600 and £27,572, respec- Queens’ any expenses. egorised as part of larger development heavily on promoting alumni relations tively. 75k King’s King’s College told Varsity that it ex- funds rather than individual masters’ and fundraising activities – particularly ese three are the only colleges that pects the provost “to be engaged in its expenses. Corpus 72k on trips overseas and entertaining do- pay their masters under £30,000. Christi development e ort. Consequently, he Besides a disparity in salaries and nors.Professor David Yates, the warden ere is a notable disparity in the gen- travels extensively on College business expenses, colleges also di er in the ad- 72k of Robinson, its equivalent of a master, der makeup of college masters: there are Christ’s Lucy and this comprises most of his expenses. ditional bene ts they provide to their was paid more than the head of any 21 male masters but only 10 female ones. Wolfson Cav is is approved by the College in its masters. Common bene ts are accom- St Catz 60k 52k other college: £92,051 per annum. Only at said, the salary data revealed that 41k 44k budget and is much appreciated.” modation and free meals, but Darwin, two other colleges pay their masters over there is not a signi cant gender pay gap Masters oten spend heavily on de- for example, does not provide a master’s Magdalene Selwyn Churchill Clare £90,000, with Pembroke’s Lord Christo- in the remuneration of masters: male St John’s 41k 40k 39k 38k velopment, with many of the highest lodge. pher Smith being paid £92,627 and Trin- masters have a mean salary of £50,173 40k expense claims being for overseas fun- Colleges are split on whether or not St Sidney Clare Fitz Jesus Downing ity’s Sir Gregory Winter £92,598. and female masters have a mean salary Darwin Edmund’s Sussex draising trips. Common destinations they provide pension contributions and Hall 32k 32k 35k ese three salaries are considerably of £51,728. 26k 28k 31k 34k were the United States and East Asia, health insurance. W 20 J 2018 13 News

policy bans the college from investing, either directly or indirectly, in tobacco companies, while St Catharine’s and Colleges weak on Magdalene have ruled out direct holdings in thermal coal or tar sands. Some colleges express scepticism in ethical investments divestment as a way of promoting ethical behaviour. Clare argues that “divestment oten results in companies being owned by private investors who allow leges to directly manage. Peterhouse is companies to continue to do what they Oliver Guest and Jack Conway believed to have been the rst Cambridge wish, without any pressure from public Investigations Editors college to directly divest from fossil fuel shareholders to change strategy”. companies, earlier this year. e deci- Colleges generally favour ‘shareholder e majority of colleges do not intend sion was made on “economic grounds engagement’ for promoting ethical be- to divest their endowments from fos- and because of more general concerns haviour. In theory, this means sharehold- sil fuels, claiming di culties due to the about the fossil fuel industry”, calling ers will use their stake in a company structure of their investments and rules into question suggestions by some that to persuade it to behave in a way that from the Charity Commission, a Varsity divestment is nancially unviable. matches their ideals. investigation has found. Two colleges’ A small number of colleges recognise Seven colleges assert an intention to investment policies also question the that they can a ect the ethics of their use shareholder engagement, either di- usefulness of divestment in bringing indirect investments by deciding which rectly, or from their external managers, about positive change. manager to hire. Caius, Girton and Jesus to have a positive ethical impact. Varsity sent Freedom of Information require their external managers to have Churchill’s investment policy states requests to the University’s 31 colleges, “integrity”. It is unclear what this means that the College “will vote to encour- seeking details about their investment in practice, as Caius and Jesus are both age responsible behaviour” in its direct practices. Of those, 26 responded. known to have large indirect holdings cause the charity to lose supporters. ▲ Peterhouse investments. Where Churchill invests e responses highlighted that almost in fossil fuel companies. Varsity found few policies that de ned was the rst col- indirectly, it requires information from all colleges manage signi cant portions Varsity found six policies that men- what speci c investments are in con ict lege to directly investment managers “about voting of their investments indirectly. In this tioned the duciary duty, imposed by with the college’s aims, however. Accord- divest from practices and how environmental, social model, colleges do not choose companies the Charity Commission, for charities to ing to Downing’s, such companies “may” fossil fuels JACK and governance issues are addressed”, to invest in, but rather delegate this task maximise the return from their invest- include those “whose activities violate CONWAY saying that “new managers will be cho- to external managers. ments. is means colleges are unable human rights, the environment, and sen, in part, on this basis”. Indirect investment poses di culties to divest from fossil fuel investments, best practice in social and stakeholder Several colleges do not appear to have for divestment as the college itself does if they believe that doing so would de- matters”. Selwyn and Lucy Cavendish, a policy explicitly promoting divestment not decide individual investments. Caius crease their income. meanwhile, state that tobacco and arms or shareholder engagement. At least ve and Girton state that the colleges do not e Charities Commission does allow companies should be avoided and ban colleges, including Trinity and King’s, “routinely confront” issues of social re- charities to accept a lower investment re- direct investments in them. two of the colleges with the largest en- sponsibility for this reason. turn, if a particular investment con icts A number of other colleges have di- dowments, do not have any ethical in- Direct investments are easier for col- with the aims of the charity, or would vested from speci c industries. Darwin’s vestment policy.

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www.twitter.com/mrccbu www.facebook.com/mrccbu 14 Wednesday 20th June 2018 Science Breathing new life into the origin of the species at the Museum of Zoology

Beagle voyage and by other renowned and several smaller whale skeletons ▲ he David cations, and they hope that in the near hea Elvin naturalists such as Alfred Russel Wallace hanging above the main gallery. Some Attenborough future volunteer-dependent opportu- Science Correspondent on display. exciting exhibits, however, are not on building nities such as behind-the-scenes tours Many of the exhibits are antiques display yet: a dolphin skull with a piece houses the new will open. After a ive year, £4.1 million redevel- in themselves and some of the money of scrimshaw on the back, an egg with resource (SOPHIE he museum will be opened oicially opment, the University of Cambridge spent was used to painstakingly clean an example of Darwin’s handwriting and CORRODI) by Sir David Attenborough, the name- Museum of Zoology will reopen this and conserve every specimen presented, rare feathers from the extinct Moa bird sake of the Zoology building, on the weekend as a state-of-the-art celebra- a process still ongoing for some of the are among the inds made during the 22nd June, at a public event. his will tion of biodiversity. two million others behind the scenes. refurbishment. be followed by a weekend of events at he museum closed in 2013 for what Entry to the museum is via the im- What can we expect from the renova- the Zoology Live! Festival, where visitors has been the irst total refurbishment pressive whale hall, where the museum’s tion? Professor Paul Brakeield, director will be able to view the inished galler- of all the displays and backstage stores largest skeleton, that of a 21 metre in of the museum, said that they “want ies for the irst time, as well as interact since the 1960s. his was funded in part whale, is suspended from the ceiling. A to tell much more about the research with living birds of prey and insects, and by the university as well as nearly £2 sleek double-height gallery makes up the which is going on in the Department of partake in other natural history-related million donated by National Lottery main area, illed to the brim with speci- Zoology and the David Attenborough activities. he Museum of Zoology is players via the Heritage Lottery Fund. mens and natural history artefacts. he building”. his perspective aims to make full of interesting surprises, and the free Projects undergo a competitive process modernised museum also features a new the museum “much more interesting entry makes it well worth a visit. to be selected for funding by the Herit- shop, discovery room and plastic-free and engaging to students”. Brakeield age Lottery fund. whale café, which provides a pleasant also said “I would hope that the biggest Speaking to Helen Wilson, Chair of ❝ study space for students. change is that everything looks com- the East of England Committee for the One of the driving forces behind the pletely fresh and sparkling and new” fund, on why the Museum of Zoology Highlights refurbishment was to attract visitors of with the complete overhaul of all the was chosen, she said that the aim of diferent backgrounds and expertise to display cases and lighting ixtures ex- the Heritage Lottery Fund is to return include a the museum. Consistent labelling of pertly bringing the museum into the the money spent on lottery tickets to spectacular all the exhibits explains the processes 21st century. the public so that they are able to en- leading to the biodiversity we see today, he future of the museum will be gage with this “treasure trove” of a array of and remain compelling from a scientif- full of opportunities for students and museum. insects, ic perspective. Groupings of mammal members of the University. One of the Originally built in 1865 on the same skeletons according to the branches on biggest changes since the last opening site as it stands today, the Museum some col- the tree of life also make for interest- is the reliance on a team of volunteers, of Zoology is rich in history, a touch ing comparison, and information on the many of whom are associated with the which hasn’t been lost in the refurbish- lected by conservation status of each species is University, recruited to help the museum ment. A particularly engaging exhibit Darwin particularly thought-provoking. run smoothly. is dedicated to books of natural history Other highlights include a spectacular Volunteering for the museum (and illustrations, and even contains a fourth himself array of insects, some of which were other museums across the University) edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Spe- ❞ collected by Darwin himself, a colourful is an opportunity that will be open to ▲ The large fin whale skeleton hangs in the entrance to cies, with specimens collected on the display of birds from around the world, students both in term time and the va- the museum (SOPHIE CORRODI) W 20 J 2018 15 Science

is involved culturing and treating the cells with various chemicals, then quan- tifying changes in gene expression that What summer lab mark the neural and mesodermal fates. Working with these kinds of protocols later came in handy in my Part II project: even though I was working on a di er- work really entails ent organism and used di erent imaging methods, familiarity with the techniques gave me a very useful starting point. e Steventon group was relatively ment of Genetics with the Steventon new and still growing. e character Bethan Clark group in the laboratory of compara- and size of a group can immensely a ect Science Correspondent tive developmental dynamics. For me, one’s work experience, and preference the placement was an opportunity to lies with the individual. I found the small It’s common for NatSci students to un- test whether I wanted to continue in group of ve to be a great environment dertake a research placement during the academia a ter my degree. A ter a sur- for me. summer vacation to experience work- prisingly intense, content-heavy rst From tea breaks to the general en- ing in a lab environment, particularly year of NatSci, I was having doubts about vironment in the lab, I realised the sig- in the summer a ter second year. ere’s my long-held aspirations to work in re- ni cance of the colleagues one studies a whole range of types of placements, search. Still, I didn’t want to abandon with and the environment in which one including carrying out informal research these ambitions without a proper ex- is immersed in a lab. In this regard, this projects with a lab group. ese projects perience of lab-based research. Given research project is probably the most may be supported by grants from col- my indecision, committing to applying important thing I’ve done during my de- leges, departments or societies; struc- to big programmes didn’t seem to be gree, because the experience as a whole tured programmes including research the best choice. Instead, I reached out to was so strongly positive. I’m now de- internships and competitions are o ten labs in Cambridge working in develop- termined to go into scienti c research fully-funded, but come with highly comment – my favourite aspect of the NatSci a ter I graduate. petitive application processes. course so far. It’s probably not surprising that my If you don’t make it on to one of these e laboratory of comparative devel- advice is to do a summer research project big programmes, it can be easy to wor- opmental dynamics investigate a popu- if you get the chance. If you’ve just n- ry about how the experience of a more lation of cells called NMps in the tailbud ished Part 1A, consider factoring it into informal research placement stands in of zebra sh embryos. As the embryo’s your summer plans, particularly if you comparison. My experience last summer axis elongates, these cells are allocated are unsure about research as a career. If in a Cambridge lab showed this worry is to one of two di erent fates: neural or you are undertaking any type of research unfounded, not least because the most mesodermal. Here, I was examining the placement this summer, of course use it valuable lessons are not solely learning control of this process by signalling from to test your research interests, but also new practical techniques. di erent factors that the cells encoun- ▲ High resolution imaging of zebra sh blood vessels take the opportunity to explore what I spent four weeks with the Depart- ter as they move through the embryo. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT type of lab group culture suits you. 16 W 20 J 2018 Opinion e University Council has turned its back on democracy over divestment

◀Students case nancial scenario is a marginal rallied on reduction in pro ts, though even this ‘D-Day’ to is unclear), climate change is the most pressure signi cant threat facing the world to- University day. By choosing to maintain fossil fuel Councillors investments, the University has chosen to support to remain complicit in the systematic divestment destruction of the environment. True, LOUIS ASHWORTH this University cannot hope to change this destruction single-handedly. None- Mathias Gjesdal theless, its level of media exposure gives Hammer is in it a platform to denounce fossil fuel com- his second year panies, inspiring change through exam- studying HSPS at ple. Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope may Christ’s have repeatedly emphasised his ideal of Cambridge University as a “social leader,” but this utopian vision is sullied by the Council’s decision: if the University is leading anything, it is the race towards further destruction. While the University’s decision will come as a harsh blow to the student activists of Cambridge, there are still positives to be found. In the past year, Zero Carbon has built one of the largest student movements in Cambridge and will no doubt continue to push for divestment. Indeed, it is hard to imagine that the Council would even have debated divestment in the rst place had it not been for their e orts. Moreover, the University has committed to establish- ing a Centre for a Carbon Neutral Future and hiring an “Environmental, Social and ast Friday, the University announcement of their nal decision sity quite literally has a BP Institute, it Governance fund o cer”. is is certainly of Cambridge announced came a week later. As Varsity’s photog- seems reasonable to assume that these far less than most students would have its decision to maintain raphy editor, I have spent hours waiting donations are not insubstantial. hoped for, but it is still a small step in investments in funds that outside the Old School’s o ces, waiting Beyond issues of process, the key rea- the right direction. Even so, the Council’s Lhold shares in fossil fuel for councillors to come out, hoping for son given by the University Council to decision has ensured that divestment companies. e decision a statement and a picture. More oten reject outright divestment is that “it is will continue to be a serious point of broadly follows the recommendations than not, though, the Councillors simply inevitable in a diversi ed and indirectly contention between the University and of the divestment working group, but walked o , o ering at best the platitu- managed investment portfolio that some its sta and students for many years to rejects its call to commit 10% of the Uni- dinous remark that they “were unable exposure may appear in some funds and come. versity’s endowment to environmental, to comment on the decision”. Such in- therefore it is not possible to demand e University Council decision is un- social, and governance funds. cidents serve to taint the whole process absolute exclusion.” is line of argu- likely to be the last we hear on the topic e University Council disregarded with questions concerning the manage- ment is insulting at best. e University of divestment. When it has taken years the enormous pressure of student and ment’s lack of transparency. already excludes all investments in coal of student pressure on the University for sta campaigning, as well as the cries Key questions remain about the and tar sands, so it stands to reason that for any kind of decision to be made, the of public gures such as Rowan Wil- University’s investments in fossil fuel this ban could be extended to fossil fuel unfortunate reality is that it is unlikely liams, Noam Chomsky and 16 MPs, for industries. While the University has investments altogether. that the Council will reconsider its posi- full divestment. Divestment increasingly already committed to not holding di- Additionally, more than 60 UK univer- tion anytime soon. One change in tactic seems the way forward, but the Univer- rect investments in fossil fuels, we as sities have already divested from fossil from Zero Carbon activists might be to sity has remained unswayed by public students do not have a clue as to the fuels and the total value of investment ❝ target individual colleges, many of which opinion. scope of fossil fuel investments in the funds committed to divesting is $5.2 tril- have signi cant direct investments in Having followed the divestment cam- University’s funds. e decision by the lion. Given that funds of a similar size If the fossil fuel companies. paign for the past few years, I struggle to Council states that these will be kept and nature to the University’s have suc- Given the smaller size of individual ght the feeling that the University has to a “bare minimum”, yet it is di cult cessfully been divested, the argument University colleges and the clear-cut nature of demonstrated an almost calculated dis- to see how such a commitment can be that fossil fuel investment is simply “in- is leading direct investments, college-level cam- regard for democratic process and public monitored – especially when Council evitable” is hard to believe. Despite what paigns might well prove successful. engagement. is feeling hit campaign- members themselves have been denied the University would have us believe, anything, it But college divestments alone would ers the hardest. Last March, Cambridge information regarding the extent of these it is not a decision that has been taken only be a partial success. With over 60 Zero Carbon Society’s representative investments. based on the feasibility of divestment, is the race UK universities having divested, it seems on the divestment working group, Al- What’s more, as an open letter from but rather with an active motive to pri- towards unlikely that pressure on the University ice Guillaume, resigned from the group Cambridge academics points out, the oritise pro t. will ease o . If the Zero Carbon cam- in response to its “anti-democratic and divestment working group conveniently e fundamental issue at stake here, further de- paign continue to ght for divestment wilfully blind attitude.” abstained from assessing the amount however, is one of morals. Whether or struction and other universities continue divest- e Council’s initial decision was de- of University funding donated by fossil not divestment is a pro table decision ing, it seems inevitable that Cambridge,

Mathias Gjesdal Hammer Gjesdal Mathias layed with little explanation, while the fuel companies. Given that the Univer- (studies seem to suggest that the worst- ❞ too, will eventually divest. W 20 J 2018 17 Cambridge must do more about BME access

Ian Wang is a second year studying English at Corpus Christi

▲Earlier this month, black women of Cambridge posed for a photo LLOYD MANNUNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

arlier this month, Cambridge re- – is explicitly aimed at increasing rep- e University also needs to consider Cambridge is already taking steps in leased an open letter respond- resentation of a BME group. It is worth whether the admissions process itself the right direction. For example, it re- Eing to a Financial Times article noting that even this initiative is out- has a problem. Studies show that BME cently shared a Facebook video about which accused the University sourced: Target Oxbridge is run by Rare applicants to Russell Group universi- the ACS’s Black Women of Cambridge of having a “dearth of black students”. Recruitment, not the universities them- ties are less likely to receive o ers than photoshoot. is kind of visibility is cru- Rather than addressing the article’s selves, and much of the work done to white applicants, even when they have cial. Last term, the BME campaign ran a claims directly, however, the letter di- improve BME access in Cambridge is the same grades and are applying to the series of mingles during the shadowing verted towards the University’s broader undertaken by students rather than the same courses. Cambridge academics are scheme; I spoke to a group of BME sixth ‘diversity’ strategy, a vague, bloated term University itself. From college BME open not immune to unconscious bias and formers at one session who told me they that encompasses not only race but “gen- days initiated by JCR o cers and the other kinds of cultural prejudices which were more likely to apply to Cambridge der, socio-economic background, geog- CUSU Caribbean Students’ Conference, disproportionately bene t white appli- having just met people who looked like raphy, age and disability”. to the African Caribbean Society’s photos cants – these must be addressed. them studying there. Positive images like e letter comes across, quite frank- of black men and women at Cambridge, Another issue that must not be ig- these are perhaps the University’s best ly, as tone-deaf. ‘Diversity’ is not the it is oten BME students themselves who nored is the existence of disparities tool in showing hesitant BME applicants same as black representation, or even are let to x the University’s problem. within the wider ‘BME’ umbrella. e that they do, in fact, have a place here. BME representation more broadly. Ra- ese students should be applauded, experiences of di erent racial groups BME underrepresentation cannot be cial marginalisations are distinct from but the simple fact is that this shouldn’t are not the same and cannot be attened addressed as a homogenised part of a those based on gender or class, and they have to be their burden to bear. e Uni- into a single, uniform ‘BME experience’. general ‘diversity’ problem. It is its own can’t all be lumped into the same nebu- versity needs to demonstrate that it has Consider the fact that, while the overall unique issue which requires its own lous ‘widening participation’ strategy. its own centralised plans to increase Black student intake in Cambridge has unique solutions. As CUSU Access O cer Olivia Hylton- BME representation. It needs to inves- more than doubled from 28 in 2012 to To x it, Cambridge needs a compre- Pennant stated in her response to the tigate, for example, why there is so much 58 in 2017, the Black Caribbean intake hensive plan of action which cuts across letter, the University “has no clear plan variance in BME representation between remains stagnant (7 in 2012, 6 in 2017). colleges and works alongside, without to increase the number of British BME colleges, and how to x those dispari- e University needs to understand the Opinionated? imposing upon, BME student groups. students”. ties. Only a handful of colleges currently reasons for these inequalities, and how Sign up at Concrete action like this could make a Of the various access initiatives raised hold BME open days – why not make it di erent groups might respond to dif- varsity.co.uk/ real di erence; a defensive, platitudi-

Ian Wang Ian in the letter, only one – Target Oxbridge compulsory for all colleges? ferent kinds of outreach. get-involved nous open letter will not.

Grudgebridge has exposed drinking society culture. What next?

women exclusively. Both perceptions have been chal- Daisy Eyre Eliza Henning Anonymous Abdulla Zaman lenged for statistical inaccuracy. CUSU President Cambridge for Grudgebridge Historian at King’s ese perceptions are representa- Consent President admins tive of a wider belief which exempts white men from accusations of sexual harassment. ell before they ❝From Cambridge for Consent’s ❝Drinking societies are speci c ❝Recent commentary on drinking We cannot continue to ig- ❝Whit the head- perspective, it is clear that to Oxbridge because of the societies has pointed out the nore the racial stereotypes and lines, drinking there needs to be some form of produc- historical and structural reality that privileged background of its members. inequalities involved in de- societies had been an issue for me. tive change. ere must be more coop- promotes this culture. ese groups are Yet one of their de ning characteristics bates about sexual misconduct. ey had a powerful presence in my eration between drinking societies and based on inherent principles of exclu- is that most of their members are pre- e claims and accusations made college and I wrote my dissertation colleges, and people must be held ac- sion: members are commonly chosen dominately white. through Grudgebridge should not on drinking societies and masculin- countable for their actions, particularly based on concious (or unconcious) clas- With the disproportionate representa- only make us more vigilant of the ity. Because drinking societies see with regards to violations of consent. sist, racist and misogynistic biases, and tion of white men in drinking societies, white privilege that oten protects themselves as ‘fun’, they dismiss criti- It is encouraging to see an increase in exceptions to this do not break the rule. and the outburst of sexual harassment drinking society members from cisms, describing them as (in Sara awareness for, and a new, positive atti- e amount of submissions we have re- claims in Grudgebridge, one question such accusations in the rst place, Ahmed’s words) a “killjoy”. tude towards the importance of consent. ceived demonstrates how relevant the seems apparent to me: why haven’t but it should also remind us to avoid Grudgebridge has provided an op- CUSU is making important steps in this issue is. Many alumni have contacted drinking societies been labelled a white pathologizing sexual violence in portunity in which critique is taken conversation, and hopefully all drink- the page in solidarty; this goes beyond problem? Addressing this question is part terms of race more generally. seriously. If this moment is going to ing societies will get involved with the our time at this university and we have of what comes next in the debate about Sexual violence is susceptible to all last, feeling needs to be channelled in introduction of a code of conduct, so that a duty to improve the quality of life for drinking societies at our University and forms of masculinity, be they white a productive direction. Starting with a positive change can occur. all students here. e immediate plan in wider society. or BME. Ignoring race in this discus- this year’s freshers, we can work to- for the page is to continue to follow the Only last summer, one Labour MP sion allows sexual abuse, harassment wards a di erent drinking culture in Cambridge for consent is a university- direction the submissions take us. wrote an article titled ‘British Pakistani and assault to continue. our University. I see an important role wide campaign which aims to men ARE raping and exploiting white Consequently, intersectional for next year’s JCR and MCR com- promote sexual consent. ey provide Grudgebridge’s Facebook page provides girls’. Similar accusations have been thinking must be part of the dis- mittees, and crucially, for drinking information and links to further support a platform for anonymous submissions thrown at black men, who have been cussion in what comes next in this society members themselves. at www.cambridgeforconsent.com about drinking society culture historically blamed for raping white debate. 18 W 20 J 2018

Opinion e CUCA walkout is what political correctness should look like

◀ During the cal – and this is key. I did not walk out CUCA Chairman’s because he compared himself to a sex- dinner at ual predator, or because of his views on Trinity Old consent workshops, or because of his Kitchens, seeming unawareness of how AIDS is CUCA members transmitted. I walked out because at no walked out LOUIS point did James Delingpole ever seem to ASHWORTH grasp the seriousness of what he was talking about. ere was not even an attempt to try to say anything insightful or meaningful – it was just a litany of Connor MacDonald inane babble. is a third year It is here though that those, oten on studying HSPS at the let, who argue about political cor- Emmanuel rectness must be exceedingly careful. To dismiss someone as being politically incorrect, it is not enough to nd their views stupid, or absurd, or harmful. For ‘political correctness’ to be intellectu- ally robust, it has to demand a standard separate from the views themselves – a standard of conduct. Delingpole’s callous willingness to disregard one’s political opponent did not meet this standard of was expecting James Delingpole to the party of free speech, so why did we simply to preserve artistic integrity. conduct. be rather bad, but certainly not that walk out? Similarly, the claims made by the ❝ at is why I felt the CUCA walkout Ibad. Not 15 minutes into the speech, e answer strikes at the heart of the small minority who stayed to listen fell had so much power. Given our commit- he had made some jokes about question of ‘political correctness’, and back on the tired trope of ‘challenging’ Conserva- ment to freedom of speech, no reason- AIDS, compared himself (positively, I reveals an area where the let may have the speaker. If we were expected to con- able speaker could have thought that think) to Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris, a point. e let is generally correct in stantly challenge those who make no tives we walked out because the speaker was and had exclaimed in a voice that could claiming that no one should be com- attempt to o er a coherent argument, of- have long too right-wing. only be described as genuine disgust that pelled to listen to speech they detest. fering instead obvious displays of gratui- When certain groups no platform men did “not need to be lectured about When faced with speech that is clearly tous vulgarity, life would be insu erable. prided indiscriminately (as in the case of the how not to rape”. It was the kind of eye- vulgar, there is absolutely no reason that is would only be exacerbated for those let with Jacob Rees-Mogg), ideological brow raising performance one expects one would be under any obligation to of a minority status, made to constantly themselves conformity abounds. What’s more, peo- at a seedy late-night comedy club, not continue listening, not even under the defend their position in the face of those on being ple like James Delingpole believe that at a Cambridge University Conservative auspices of ‘free inquiry’. who, like Delingpole, say things such as they are simply being ‘persecuted’, rather Association (CUCA) Dinner. It is the equivalent of saying that one “make a lot of money so you can send the party of than seeing the standards they are fail- en I walked out. About a third of must stay to watch a production of what your kids to private school.” free speech ing to meet. Surely this only stands as the audience followed. Conservatives you thought was e Crucible, only to However, my reasons for walking a further obstacle on the path towards

Connor Connor MacDonald have long prided themselves on being discover its actually burlesque review, out were not straightforwardly politi- ❞ healthy political dialogue.

Minority students don’t always want your sympathy

ometimes, as a student with a ences. ey did not do so from a posi- ❝ ties. However, it was only through my more challenging than mine. We need to long-term illness, you need to tion of well-meaning sympathy, but with experience of becoming a ‘minority’ at change our attitudes towards identities, Srant at someone – about how real, heartfelt empathy. A year into Cam- I was Cambridge, whereby I came to feel this as communities based on shared experi- your health stops you from do- bridge life, I had nally received my rst identity daily, that this inequality was ences are so important for those on the ing X, or makes it harder to do Y, or how glimpse of genuine understanding. seeing my made clear to me. receiving end of stigma. We need to stop abled people don’t seem to get it. As Having been raised in a very ethni- condition is was reinforced ater I rst fell ill downplaying individual’s troubles, and much as your friends might think they’re cally and socially-homogenous area, I at the end of my second year and came instead encourage them to organise and helping with unsolicited medical advice, had never felt much need for this res- through to experience the stigmas which exist work out their frustrations with people interspersed with pleas to not generalise pite. It’s only because I was plunged into the around disability rst-hand. Comments who can understand their struggles. all abled people, the reality is this is not being a ‘minority’ at Cambridge that I from my closest friends in Cambridge Many of us deviate from a traditional Rensa Gaunt going to make anything better. came to understand the need for such narrative made me doubt what both the doctors ‘norm’ in one way or another, which is is a third year Even before my health made my uni- spaces. I had simply never felt this sepa- and my body were telling me. Questions why it is so important that we improve studying MML at versity experience less ‘normal’, moving rate before. It had never occurred to me that abled such as “Are you sure it’s chronic fatigue? how we deal with the di erent experi- Fitzwilliam to Cambridge as someone from a work- that, in trying to convince my othered people had I mean, we’re all tired,” accompanied ences those of di erent identities have. ing class background – with the requisite friends that I understood their troubles, suggestions of laziness about those who Finding ‘my people’ allowed me to rec- accent – was interesting enough. Other I was likely reinforcing the narrative that painted for su ered my condition. I was seeing my ognise the validity of my frustrations students joking-not-jokingly mocking minority frustrations are exaggerated or me condition through the narrative that and emphasised that I was not in fact a the cleaners (and thereby my family in- that people are overly sensitive. abled people had painted for me. is concession or a burden. directly). Or, ‘friendly’ suggestions that My experiences as a working class ❞ narrative downplayed the exhaustion e same forms of community created I was a quota girl. I had gotten used to student at Cambridge has made crystal not only of illness, but more damagingly through identity are important for all feeling out of place. clear the di erence between theoreti- the legitimacy of my condition. who su er from falling outside of what I found refuge in making friends who cally knowing about unequal treatment, It’s easy to discount our own needs is deemed a ‘normal’ experience. In nd- also were from a similar background and and feeling the impact of it through when they don’t match the needs of ing support from those who knew these shared my experience as a working class every daily interaction. Having been those around us. Finding other students di culties I found the belonging I hadn’t student at Cambridge. For the rst time involved with the deaf community for with unconventional needs was the realised I needed, and the drive to sup- in Cambridge I wasn’t having to explain years I thought I was well aware of how catalyst which encouraged me to seek port others. And sometimes, that means my frustrations gently. Here I was, part condescendingly people treat individu- change not only for myself, but for oth- accepting that I can’t understand every

Rensa Rensa Gaunt of a group of people with shared experi- als with chronic illnesses or disabili- ers, whose situations were oten much issue they face. W 20 J 2018 19

Opinion

Timeline Cambridge 2017-18

REVIEW

● 9th October 2017 Over 60 academics and activists sign a ‘submission’ calling for full divestment

● 25th October & 9th November Divestment working group’s rst two ‘town hall’ consultation meetings

● 24th October e University launches its Breaking the Silence campaign to tackle sexual misconduct

● 11th December University Council meets to decide on class list opt-outs

● 22nd February 2018 Sta strikes over the pension Divestment, drinking societies and dispute begin

● 22-28th February First period of sta strikes by democracy: a year in review University and College Union (UCU) n academic year in Cambridge against long-established institutions, between the sta and students at the ● 1st March is o ten an overwhelming traditions and gures. e divestment University will manifest in the following Campaign period opens for CUSU Aamalgamation of personal debate seems far from over. academic year and beyond. elections and political struggles and e di culty of producing meaning- e way sta and students mobilised successes. is past year University poli- ful change has also been highlighted in support of sta pensions this year may ● 5-8th March tics has been dominated by issues from with drinking societies and their place also o er a lesson in the ways we ought Second period of sta strikes by the building pressure on the University within our University. Here it is not only to continue to work within institutions to UCU to divest, to sta and student strikes. the existence of historically-established defend and de ne the type of higher edu- On a personal level, the year has felt societies and traditions that constitutes cation we want in this country. A central ● 9th March something like a whirlwind, especially a problem in creating change, but that facet of this is representation and access Evie Aspinall is elected as CUSU Vivienne Hopley- as a fresher entering into the world of we also remain riddled with questions at Cambridge. Back in October, Labour president Jones is a rst year hectic essay deadlines and student poli- of the best way to bring such positive MP David Lammy criticised Oxford and studying HSPS at tics. Whether the terms have dragged change about. Cambridge as“ efdoms of entrenched ● 12-16th March Fitzwilliam or own by, I’m sure we can all be in e Facebook page Grudgebridge, privilege” for their underrepresentation ird period of sta strikes by UCU agreement that a year at Cambridge re- previously a space for sharing general of BME students. More recently an open ally is something. complaints about life as a student, has letter from the University emphasised its ● 15th March Responsive change is something Cam- been transformed into a space whereby ongoing commitment to improving the 359 students and sta marched bridge students have continued to ght anonymous complaints about drinking representation of BME students in reac- through Cambridge calling on for this year, and bit by bit we can look society culture, o ten focusing on alle- tion to a piece published in e Financial ‘Corporation Cambridge’ to divest back on the ways we have shaped this gations of bullying, discrimination and Times. e picture of the BME women of historic institution. Substantial progress sexual misconduct, are shared. While the Cambridge on the Senate House steps ● 13th April will be felt by all exam-taking students, page has given a platform for issues that should be recognised as a symbol of how Industrial action over pensions as this year is the rst year in which have been largely swept under the rug much things are changing. However, it dispute for University sta ceases students have been o ered an opt-out in the past in an explosive way, there is should also serve as a reminder of the on class lists. A campaign that has been certainly room to think about how these long way we still have to go. ● 19th April hard-fought on a long-debated topic, issues can be dealt with in the long term. As a new batch of freshers prepare to Zero Carbon Society occupy the class list opt-outs have been presented Yes, this has been a year of change and enter the University space, we should University’s nance o ce. is as a partial solution to the academic en- achievement, but it is also a year which again think about who is populating occupation follows the March vironment that can at times be damaging highlights that, more than ever, we need the University and how we all got here. Cambridge Defend Education to the mental well-being of students. to mobilise to create change to make our For Cambridge to continue to strive to occupation of Old Schools in e power vested in the students who university a safer, more inclusive and be a forward-thinking and world-class support of the UCU pensions make up the University has also been sig- more modern institution. institution it must continue to strive to strike, and precedes the May ni cantly highlighted in another area of E orts to mobilise as students can be more diverse; this is as true when it pro-divestment occupation of activism: through the form of Cambridge perhaps draw inspiration from another comes to the representation of di erent Greenwich House Zero Carbon Society. e student-led Zero ongoing issue: the sta strikes of Lent classes and educational backgrounds Carbon campaign has played a large role Term. e time, labour and energy which as it is to race and gender. e burden ● 1st May in the debates and news of Cambridge was devoted by sta and students alike does not rest solely on the institution, Senate House discussion held on for several years now, culminating in a during the strikes that occurred over the but we need to think more widely about whether the University should rely series of protests and the use of direct pension dispute was remarkable to wit- the way education is treated and valued on balance of probabilities in the action this term as the University’s nal ness. It will perhaps serve as a model of in society. sexual misconduct procedure decision on the matter became immi- mobilisation in light of other changes in While the academic year can be tied nent. From hunger strikes to publicity higher education policy, both within our into a neat ending with a series of parties ● 9th May stunts, some of the tactics of the student University but also outside of it. Despite during May Week, the handover of the Video leaked on Grudgebridge activists have sparked controversy. some dissatisfaction over the eventual CUSU sabbatical team and graduation, Facebook page of a student joking Just this week we have seen the settlement and current outcome of the the debates which have de ned this year about ‘inclusivity’, sparking debate University Council nally commit to strikes, for many they represented a cannot be drawn to a close so easily. An and causing the Crescents to a decision on divestment. e Council sense of unity within our University. institution with such an expansive his- disband has committed to partial divestment, is sta -student unity works against tory must also be an institution open to which has le t the activists who sup- the misleading and troubling portrayal in change and willing to be exible. e de- ● 15th June ported full divestment dissatis ed with the right-wing media earlier in the year bates of today will continue beyond May University Council con rms its the response. Perhaps here we can see of sta and students being pitted against Week and into next term, and we shall position on divestment, a ter the limits to the in uence of student each other in the largely student-led have to wait and see what the events of a week’s delay, rejecting full voices, or at least the continued pres- movement to decolonise the curricula. tomorrow will be, and how the gures

divestment Vivienne Hopley-Jones sures which exist when coming up It will be interesting to see how this bond of the coming year handle them.

▷ FEATURES KIDS CAMBRIDGE∙ ▷ ARTS NEW! CREATIVE WRITING∙ ▷ THEATRE FRINGEBOUND∙ ▷ FASHION PHOTOSHOOT∙ Vulture ▷ LIFESTYLE BEST OF THE BALLS∙

Artwork by Anna Palma Balint 22 Vulture

ONLINE THIS WEEK STREET STYLE, SALES SHORTS

May Week and beyond A cultural calender for summer in Cambridge

Before you depart for the summer, take one last look at all Cambridge has to o er

nless you study art history, the ora, a themed dress-code is exam period might not have strongly encouraged by the On the been the most cultural time of society. Tickets are £15 for stage Uyour Cambridge life. It’s hard to members and £20 for non- nd the time to go to the Fitz or members. listen to live music when you’re pulling your From the 24th June until Footlights hair out over coursework deadlines. the 30th November, a new gal- Tour Show Besides, even at college, appreciating the lery show is on at Murray Ed- Union, until otherwise gorgeous architecture becomes wards’ New Hall art collection. 23rd, 9.00pm impossible if you come to associate it with e exhibition, Reproductives: revision. remaking life, will feature works EDUCATION, Still: that’s behind us all now. All that’s let by Gina Glover and Camilla Lyon EDUCATION, of Cambridge until October is May Week and which explore technologies such as EDUCATION beyond. Now is the time to unwind, relax IVF and gene editing and how they Corpus, until and rejuvenate. in uence the way we view ourselves 23rd, 7.00pm So, before you go home for summer, when- and human life. ever that is, you should take one last chance Finally for June, to book-end our rst Second- this academic year to take in all the culture event, Boyd Tonkin will be giving a talk en- Generation that Cambridge has to o er. titled ‘ e 100 best novels in translation’ on Corpus, until From exhibitions, artistic and historical, the 26th June at He ers Bookshop. 23rd, 9.30pm to talks, literary and not, there is a wealth of Tonkin is a writer and journalist who ways to occupy your time in the following chaired the judging panel of the Man Booker weeks. Below is just a selection of the events International Prize in 2016, and his talk is sure in store: so get your calender out, and take to be of interest for anyone with a passion for your last notes of the academic year! world literature. Late June Early July

To kick things o , He ers Bookshop will be If you nd yourself along King’s Parade on 5th holding a book launch for Janet Todd’s e July, pop into Byard’s art gallery for the open- Radiation Diaries: Cancer, Memory and Frag- ing of their Mixed summer exhibition 2018. ments of a Life in Words on the 20th June. e e exhibition will run until the 2nd of book chronicles the literary scholar’s experi- September and will feature a rotating series ❝ ence undergoing radiographic therapy while of sculptures, pictures, cratwork and other also ful lling her duties as president of Lucy artwork. If you feel like a post-exams treat, Now is the Along your Street Cavendish college. you can even buy some of the artwork. If you fancy something brighter, then the Later the same day, He ers Bookshop are time to is Byard Art Gallery exhibition is a collection of ○ FEATURES Fitzwilliam Museum Society garden party, hosting their ‘What’s your poison?’ crime and contemporary art which centres around personal ○ ARTS this year themed as ‘Flora and Frida’, will be mystery ction party. unwind, relax relationships with the streets of Cambridge. If ○ MUSIC ○ FILM TV held the following day on the 21st of June in is evening features book chats, talks and this is your last time in Cambridge before gradu- ○ FASHION the Fitzwilliam Museum gardens. If you feel signings from a variety of crime and mys- and rejuvenate ating, Along your street could prove one last dose ○ LIFESTYLE ○ THEATRE bold enough to ape Frida Khalo’s individual tery authors, such as Alison Bruce and Louise of nostaliga for the city you’ve spent the last three ○ MAY WEEK style, along with re ecting all the summer Candlish. ❞ years living in. Vulture 23

Matt Smith’s Flux: Parian unpacked Do I have to draw you On until the 1st of July at the Fitzwilliam Museum, ceramic artist and curator a picture? review Matt Smith explores questions of British identity ranging from our consumerist present to our co- lonial roots. e show combines existing sculptures in the unsta- ncompassing postcards, prints and neon lights, DO I ble material of parian from the HAVE TO DRAW YOU A PICTURE? explores art not just Glynn collection, along with Eas a vessel for communication but a communicative new sculptures by Smith act in itself. Borrowed from a 2013 print by Mel Bechner, the himself. e way that the question establishes the exhibition’s premise: an inquiry into old sculptures are arranged how artists’ messages are constructed and conveyed. around the new sculptures ▲ ZHURAKOVSKYI is sense of inquiry creates more of a survey, amalgamating changes their interpretation and forces various points of view, rather than a single point of view in us to question our past. and of itself. e diverse range of pieces exhibited allows for many di erent perspectives into the themes of the show. Dr Elisa Schaar explains that developments in communication technology have been “a challenge for art”. Art, she sug- gests, has responded by bending its communicative capacities SUBJECT, by Antony Gormley back on themselves. As the need for art to “communicate content” became redundant, artists began to “acknowledge Cambridge alumni and sculptor Antony that there is a need for communication but not in a straight Gormley brings his unique style to Ket- forward way.” tle’s Yard in SUBJECT, running until the New, more intricate modes of exchange appear here as 27th of August. e brand new exhibit stories and parodies. In Glenn Ligon’s I do not always feel col- explores, in typical Gormley fashion, oured… (1992), Ligon borrowed the title from a 1928 essay by the body, the self and our relation to Zora Neale Hurston, How it Feels to Be Colored Me. Ligon uses space. His sculptures are accompanied a stencil to apply the words again and again with an oil stick. by regular screenings of the BBC Im- As the phrase is repeated, it moves from legible to unreadable, agine documentary, Antony Gormley: thus blurring the previously-de ned edges between the black Being Human. text and white page, unsettling the parameters of the colours In the words of our reviewer which become allegories for the exible and constructed no- omas Dixon, Gormely’s exhibit is tion of race. e manipulation of text from essay, etching to “sparse but rewarding”, resulting in allegory presents an indirect and complex transmission of an “excellent space for re ection.” If references used to illuminate a complex issue. e reasoning you’re feeling pensive post-exams, of the work occurs between the formal elements on the page SUBJECT might just be the place for which, once understood, then deliver their message. you. is obscured communication is also present in Jasper

A Survival Story: Prehistoric Life at Star Carr

Running in the Li Ka Shing Gallery at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology until the 30th December 2019, this exhibit o ers us a chance to consider the mysterious 11,000 year-old headdress uncovered at Star Carr in Yorkshire. e headdress is comprised mostly from the skull of a deer, begging the question what exactly it was used for. Additional items such as harpoons Johns’ Target with Four Faces (1986). e work draws upon and bodkins prompt ongoers to consider the nature of formal motifs developed by Abstract Expressionists: Johns’ looking back into our past, and the di culties of under- use of black marks pulsate on the colourful target. Johns’ print standing civilisations long passed. presents a “complex interfacing between viewer and faces” and, in the context of the exhibition represents a disturbance in the normal relationship between senders and receivers of artistic messages. Here, both the sending mechanism (the Swish mouth) and the receptacle (the target) are contained on the same plain. E ectively, Johns displaces the viewer. Swish is an exhibit in the Spotlight Gallery of the Museum of e artworks occasionally utilise more pointed methods, Archaeology and Anthropology. Curated by Ena Lilje, it takes addressing a perceived audience. Text is employed to present a look at various aspects of Papua New Guinean culture, from more concise messages in Wolfgang Tilmans’ Pro-EU Anti-Brexit carved belts and bre skirts, to photos and lms of their sing- Poster Campaign (2016) and Kay Rosen’s She-Man (1996-2018). ing, dancing and clothwork. Both artists aim to project a clear and direct political message. ese neat graphics, in the opinion of Dr Schaar, may indicate a new age of art which rejects complicated internal reasoning and presents easy-to-read messages which are no less valid Designed to Impress Floral Fantasies but must operate much faster due to the increasing speed of ▶ Kay Rosen technological communication. She-Man Until the 2nd of September, you are invited And nally, in line with summer vibes, Floral Fantasies is an , DO I HAVE TO DRAW YOU A PICTURE? is a dense and thought- to explore the Fitzwilliam Museum’s vast exhibit dedicated to all things green. e works range from 1996–2018 ful exhibition. For such a small space, Dr Schaar has been (KAY ROSEN, and spectacular collection of prints. Artists botanical watercolours and drawings, to oral miniatures, ambitious in attempting to include such a wide range of ob- COURTESY OF on show range from the 15th to 21st centuries, jewellery, porcelain and childrens books. e artists on show THE ARTIST jects. e result raises a number of interesting questions. To and include old master printmakers such as include such artistic heavyweights as Gerard van Spaendonck AND PHILIPP quote Marshall McLuhan, the medium does appear to be the Rembrandt and Dürer, as well as more modern and Pierre-Joseph Redouté. You needn’t be a budding botanist PFLUG CON message. ● artists including Picasso. to get the most out of this exhibition. ● TEMPORARY Thomas Dixon 24 Vulture FEATURES

TELL YOUR STORY [email protected] Juggling babies and a bachelor’s

Stephanie Stacey nds out about the trials of being a full-time student and full-time parent

eing both a student and a parent here,” Olivia said, adding that her children call is “a culture clash” according to some of her friends auntie and uncle. Unex- Megan Goldman-Roberts, a former pected crises are an occupational hazard of Natural Sciences undergraduate raising children: illness, accidents, trouble at Bat Newnham College currently school. A broken arm, for example, takes prec- undertaking a PGCE quali cation. Stere- edence over a supervision, meaning both stu- otypically, deadlines are the principal cause dent parents and their academic supervisors of stress for most Cambridge students, but must be exible. “I make a terrible analogy for those with children, priorities must be of being a really great juggler and throwing shited, with added obligations and, for some, ve balls, but then someone throws a knife a sense of guilt when forced to sacri ce time at you, and you just have to drop everything with their kids in favour of academic work. to catch the knife.” Speaking of trying to nd a balance between Support from academic advisors and super- studying and caring for her two sons, PhD visors is vital to the welfare of all students, but student Olivia Slater said, “My time is simply particularly for those who, like student par- not my own”. ents, are already stretched. For Olivia, the fact Olivia’s path to studying for a PhD at Cam- that her PhD supervisor o ered “permission bridge is far from typical, not least because to slow down to whatever pace [she] needed she dropped out of school at 15. Beginning her right from the beginning” was “very freeing”. undergraduate degree in Australia as a mar- Olivia credits her husband for his support, ried mature student with a young son, she has and the e orts he has made as principal car- never had the experience of ‘typical student er for their children during her most intense life’, saying that she, for example, didn’t go on academic periods, saying “I can’t imagine the pub crawls in Freshers’ Week. kind of stress and isolation you would feel as Olivia’s PhD is focused on the presence and a single parent”. in uence of indigenous Australian theatre in According to Megan Goldman-Roberts, it assessed for a student loan. is means the ▲ Olivia Slater (top) and Australian high schools, a subject of particu- was “stubbornness” that enabled her to com- income of their family members will not be Megan Goldman-Roberts lar personal interest for her, a self-confessed plete a Natural Sciences degree while caring taken into account, allowing access to a higher are student parents (EMILY “theatre nerd” and the rst Aboriginal Aus- for a young child as a single student parent maintenance loan. Welfare however, is more BRAILSFORD tralian woman to do a PhD at Cambridge. While many of us have stayed awake long di cult to support, with student parents a e collegiate system, as well as signi cant enough to see the sunrise in a ca eine-fuelled “minority group,” all of whom have very vari- division between faculties, particularly at essay or problem-sheet panic, children can able needs. “Early parenthood is an entirely the postgraduate level, can lead parents like oten cause unplanned all-nighters. Speak- di erent beast to raising school age children,” Olivia to become isolated. With student par- ing of her experiences as a student parent, Olivia said. ents scattered across di erent corners of the Megan said “you learn to juggle,” but added For Megan, the most crucial improvement University, it can be di cult to nd others in that tiredness played a large role in her un- required to enhance access and welfare for a similar situation. dergraduate life. She was “fortunate” that her student parents is “greater clarity,” saying that “My children oten say to me, ‘Mum, why dad was able to visit for several days a couple the already present support must be made don’t we know more people with kids?’ and of times each term, o ering “much-needed” “more obvious”. In order to remedy the divi- I say, I don’t know, I’m trying! I don’t know opportunities to rest. Her friends, too, became sions created by the collegiate system, she where everyone is hiding!” Although praising vital lifelines. called for “more centrally run events” and also the University’s e orts to establish supportive While an undergraduate, Megan was CU- emphasised the need to openly acknowledge spaces for student parents to meet and inter- SU’s student parent representative, a position accessibility, saying that simply tagging on act, Olivia said that the majority of these ini- she herself established and which is now un- “children welcome” to an event invitation can tiatives fail to suit her personal situation. e lled. Like Olivia, she spoke of the inaccessi- go a long way in making student parents feel ❝ spontaneity, too, of University life can create bility of some of Cambridge’s student parent accepted. Although acknowledging the added barriers for student parents seeking to form initiatives and groups, adding that many of challenges presented by student parenthood, Unexpected friendships with their childless peers. Fast- the meet-ups and support systems are ar- Megan tells me that her son o ers motivation crises are an paced, last-minute decisions cannot easily ranged by already-overstretched students, for studying, a constant reminder that she is correspond to childcare schedules and xed with few full-time members of sta hired by working to create a better future for them occupational school collection times. the University. Financially, there are many both. Olivia echoed this sentiment, adding, hazard of raising Despite these challenges, student parents sources of support for undergraduate student “I don’t think there’s a perfect way to live are certainly able to nd friends, even if the parents, with several University-administered a life [...] the perfect time to have kids or to children process may take longer. Ater almost two bursaries, government grants and the op- study. I just think you should take opportuni- years in Cambridge, “We’ve built a little family portunity to have independent status when ties where you can.” ● ❞ FEATURES Vulture 25

Young, married, and doing a degree: con icting priorities

long delity are the most glorious things I feel blessed to have known as a student, and are all to some extent lacking from the conventional Cambridge student experience.In these last three years, I have been rst and foremost a wife in a university which requires that one be rst and foremost an enquiring mind. is has felt at times like an almost impossible struggle, but it has also been a statement of faith: that life can be lived di erently, that there is perhaps a more excellent way than the enticing but ultimately empty promises of freedom from the relational commitments and obligations that university o ten seems to o er. I dearly want to encourage anyone reading this who thinks that marriage and Cambridge are incompatible to see beyond the transience and fear, and dive head rst into the adventure of love with loyalty. My time at Cambridge University has been irrevocably di erent, and undeniably enriched, because I did it married. Whatever unconventional path you take, know that though yours may be the steeper learning curve and the path less trod, yours may be the richer experience. ● Harriet Rouse

◀ “I matriculated as a married woman” (HARRIET ROUSE n almost all ways, I am just your regular only sorted in one more way than the rest of undergraduate-soon-to-graduate: I’m 22, you – having a lifelong partner. Subsequently Ifun loving, o ten disorganised, and have it’s been a challenge reconciling my two stere- no mortgage to speak of. Except, I’m married, otyped identities: student and wife. and I have been for the three years that I have Brilliantly, this challenge sped up the al- been a student at Cambridge. I matriculated ready intense process of sharpening my un- as a married woman and (by the grace of God derstanding of who ‘me’ really is. I know my alone!) I will graduate as a married woman. I identity lies in my God, Father, Son and Holy thank the Lord Jesus so much that I have had Spirit, and that within the love of God I am the privilege of undertaking a degree with free to grow and ourish beyond stereotypes, my husband by my side, yet, as my opening labels and expectations; doing Cambridge as a remarks betray, I have found it a continual married student, and all the misunderstand- challenge to reconcile the widely polarised ings that has generated, has been a catalyst caricatures of ‘married woman’, and ‘Cam- for this knowledge. bridge student’. Principally, Cambridge University has a pro- I still remember the reactions it garnered foundly individualistic culture, and the college in Freshers’ Week. I’ve had people respond system doesn’t successfully attenuate that. in disbelief, or, in peculiarly Cambridge fash- From my experience, college life as a married ion, presume that I nabbed myself a ‘college woman is a uniquely Cambridge clash. As a husband’ right out of the starting block. Of- married student I have never lived in halls ten, people forgot all tact in the shock of the (shocker!) Instead I have lived in the same revelation, for, as I have learned, it really is college-owned couples at with my husband so unconventional to do Cambridge as a mar- for all three years of my degree. Integrating ried student. into college life is near impossible in a big At times I have felt like a rare breed, with no college like Trinity when one doesn’t live in other members of my species to socialise with. and amongst one’s fellow students. This is because people are get- It has, perhaps paradoxically, sometimes ting married later been a lonely journey having (in my mar- and later – in riage) a rst priority other than my degree. my generation, Arguably few Cambridge students have split marriage holds priorities, or straddle two worlds. For many, connotations Cambridge University becomes the only thing of nancial se- of meaning. It has certainly been interest- curity, career ing observing the inability of some students and generally to relate to my non-student husband! But I ‘sortedness’. have known not only the di culty, but also I’ve lost the great joy, of being committed to another count of person in this deeply individualistic genera- the times tion and throughout this, normally transient, peers have phase of life. remarked College living (halls with rooms) is not fam- how ‘sort- ily living and I can’t be the only student to ed’ I am. yearn for the rhythms and fellowship of family The truth life at university. e support of a spouse, the is, I am perspective of a family and the stability of life- 26 Vulture ARTS

SUBMIT YOUR CREATIVE WRITING EMAIL [email protected] Endings & beginnings

Creative writing as graduation looms and summer approaches airport manuscripts in the rigid vessel, i watch planes and people disappear in a ash of empty blue. the year is a palimpsest of experience; memories braiding into the margins of the person i had been the last time, when my ngers traced the ink of this golden ticket. amidst the damp rattle of wheels carrying me toward a place that is both home and not-home, i am one of many pilgrim birds, steel-boned and spread-eagled, waiting for winter. the hushed narrow maze of corridors becomes drenched in nervous light. on cue, we fasten ourselves to the mechanical feathers. moments sketch themselves over older moments: the silent tiptoe of English rain across skin that remembers the batter of tropical storms. the rising lilt of my voice as my tongue acclimatised faster than the rest of me, and i imagined my words, too, carried on colossal wings, beating their way along the solitary ocean. later, an explosion of sunburnt leaves draped themselves over the broad, barren scribblings of the penitential months, and i found laughter in odd corners; in a crack of light coloured against the back of my palm, in the murmur of a thousand may ies. as i lurch away from the tarmac the rush of sound - the slice of metal against sky - the unnatural levitation that is somehow motionless - lets my malleable self believe, for an air-borne vacant second, that home and not-home has acquired a stillness, that i have learnt to read the nearly discernible markings, that experience simply awaits de nition. Nicole Seto ARTS Vulture 27

Confessions to a scientist Apoptosis in biology is the death of a cell. A fragmentation of its nucleus.

One week ago today I went home to collect my gym kit and you had gone, vanished. Only ‘que sera sera’ was written in chalk on the board; no other words, no call. en I found your Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings, the felt fox I made you and your basket ball – presents from me.

When cells mutate they become impervious to the control of healthy tissue. ey rapidly divide becoming less receptive to signals of non-malignant cells.

Last year I lost my purpose. I couldn’t hear, see or feel your advice or care. My thoughts became malignant.

1 I found your love suspicious, I deemed it was too soon. 2 I rejected intimacy to punish you. 3 I refused to meet your girls, as I thought it was a move for you to scratch your ex. 4 I spurned your mother’s jam. 5 I believed you were jealous of my a ection for my Dad (I hid behind his illness as an excuse). 6 I used words to manipulate you. 7 I oten resented you. ought my lack of path, money and problems were because of you. 8 I told my friends about the coldness, but not that it was tit for tat. 9 I lambasted you for reading Claude, she was all I had let and I was too scared to share. 10 I thought you were the reason that I lost my ‘me’ and surrepti- tiously made you think it too. 11 I was embarrassed to introduce you to friends in case you judged their esoteric lives. 12 I hoped you would leave (because that’s all I knew). 13 I wanted to be alone (like you).

e mutation was the teacher telling me not to study literature. e ILLUSTRATIONS BY SEMILORE DELANO mutation was bolting from school at 16. I. To have known the beauty of e mutation was using and letting myself be used. e mutation In this instant, ordinary things was holding my foetus and ushing it down the loo. e mutation was Factor V Leiden Homozygous. e mutation was you feel an in nity the world of dew my Mamma’s voluntary death. trapped inside your nerves is the world of dew. e mutation was my arrested reinvention. e mutation wasn’t as everything-you-ever-were and yet, and yet you. (or ever-still-could-come-to-be) starts shivering beneath your platitudes glisten In healthy cells there are three states of each cycle: resting, interphase skin. in the the cracks of cobblestone, and cell division. It has phases of growth or renewal, which are depend- vanishing by noon, ent on the successful completion of the previous turn. It shouts out from within, begging for there are sermons in I like jam again, I also enjoy mincemeat. And I would die to be inti- attention, reaching from behind the rattle and hum of dawn, mate with you. I’m training for that run. I wish I could brush your your ribs trucks along highways, girls’ hair and could eat fruit cake with your parents, share you with to beat ‘I am, I am, I am, I am.’ my friends. I want to get lost in frosted hills and save half of my shuttered storefronts bring tuna and sweetcorn sandwich in case one of us slips. It demands the whole world life to hollowed herloomks when though you’re afraid that, in the dew takes its place, but I ran for twenty years but didn’t clock up any miles. My dad told end, me I’m scared of love. Now I’m resting and in development, anew. I nothing you do will give it what it nude eyes drag their gaze couldn’t have got here without you. wants. acrioss dripping pixels, stirred Anonymous only by moist seats. Apoptosis also means a resolution or relaxation, a loosening of things. Jonathan Chan Annalisa Hoadley 28 Vulture MUSIC

FULL REVIEWS ONLINE VARSITY.CO.UK MUSIC

Escaping the Vulture TUNES female DJ trap Farewell Cam

Time to Say Let it go Goodbye Idina Menzel Andrea Bocelli & Sara Green Light Brightman Lorde

Private Number Mr Brightside 911 e Killers

Circle of Life Come on ( omas Meet the women tearing up Elton John & the Tank Engine Tim Rice remix) Cambridge’s clubbing culture: Notorious Niamh Curran investigates the Despacito (feat. B.I.G Justin Bieber) gender dynamic on nights out Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee s someone who doesn’t club, it ▶Jemima came as a surprise that a number ‘just Intoxicated of my female friends were sud- jemima’ Martin Solveig Adenly DJs. Rather cynically I Higgins & GTA dismissed some of my friends and Keira e orts as ‘just a fad.’ When I look back, I see Dignan the ‘bad feminist’ in me showing. Ater talk- (right) (ALEX ing to a number of female DJs in Cambridge, POWER I started to see this not as a fad or a craze, but as a change in the tides. From my own experience, I have seen similar changes in the Cambridge comedy scene over the three years I have been here. I’m glad to see more oten than not, there is a gender- put on some really slammin’ techno and just ❝ become a highly masculine atmosphere. balanced line-up at nights I perform at, and be like ‘fuck you’ is a really empowering ex- Men tend to dominate the space, and this frequent women and non-binary smokers. perience.” Yet, this ‘forgiveness’ also means Often male DJs don’t can oten lead to the sexualisation of it – al- Female DJs seem to be facing a lot of similiar that unfortunate events, like one DJ’s unfor- have to think as though it would be fair to say that this is not ups and downs to women in comedy. tunate story of spilling water on decks, can just men. is means that for these female DJs ere are oten bene ts for women who be forgiven. much about being the act of DJing, of taking up space, making break into a more traditionally male eld. A However, this obviously comes with a ‘perfect’ in their set noise, where women normally don’t, is im- certain level of forgiveness to their novice downside. Frequently those interviewed ❞ mensely empowering. status, but also an element of novelty. Kaye, pointed out that despite the low expectations, A ip-side of this male dominated space is who DJs under ‘Kitkat’, commented that, “I women were held to a higher standard. is that it gives a sense of solidarity to the few feel like expectations are lowered as you’re is both in their mixing and in what they do female DJs there are at Cambridge. is is seen as less experienced.” Further pointing while at the decks. Naomi, who DJs under seemingly re ective of the wider world, where to the practical point that female DJs do not ‘Mag’, commented that oten male DJs don’t there are disk collectives attempting to con- oten get the chance to be as experienced as have to think as much about being ‘perfect’ nect female DJs. In Cambridge there are some their male counterparts because they just in their set, where women do. smaller collectives for female DJs around. ▼ aren’t booked as much. She claims that this Yet this can be a more problematic issue Debonair at the decks at Jemima commented that she felt a respon- can oten make the moments where you play when you come to be seen as the ‘woman’ Kings Bunker (KINGS BUNKER sibility to try and help foster these spaces for INEZ DALTROP a great set feel even better, because it de es DJ. As Jemima claims, “you have to form your the younger women coming into DJing, as the expectation. identity as a woman DJ, men don’t have to those who were older than her had very little Jemima, who DJs under ‘just jemima’, com- be male DJs.” e aim of a lot of these nights opportunity for this. ere are more obvious mented a similar point, “to be a woman and out which focus on female and non-binary attempts that to provide a space for women DJs in Cambridge seems to be to normalise on nights out, particularly events which pro- their role in these elds. But women are then mote female and non-binary DJs, such as Play- faced with the problems that all these e orts house, King’s Bunker, and Avant Gardening. create. Outside of these nights you tend to Yet despite these e orts, electronic nights be ‘the woman’. To gain an advantage here, outside of this in Cambridge and beyond are ADVERTISE some of the women might capitalise on that still overwhelmingly male. role. As Jemima comments, while it might Overall, the lot of women interested in WITH US. be ‘cool right now’ to have female DJs, the DJing seems to be improving. Like many othering of female DJs will hopefully disap- women trying to get into these elds, those To advertise in any of our print publications or pear over time. who are in there now are paving the way online, please contact our Business Manager: Part of the problem might be seen to come for the those who come ater. We shouldn’t from the atmosphere around dance music stop having women and non-binary only DJ tel : 01223 33 75 75 itself. It was commented by all those who I nights, but there should be more of an e ort email: [email protected] interviewed that there is a ‘boy’s club’ feeling for the club nights outside of these to include web: varsitypublications.co.uk around dance music. Yet it’s not just the dance more women. We need to escape the female music, but the dance oor itself which can DJ trap. ● FILM TV Vulture 29

Lights, camera, action: get involved in student lm

IMAGES: AARON KILERCIOGLU he variety of films being created the right people and his short lm soon came equipment is loaned out free of charge to all in Cambridge is truly exciting. together. members, removing one of the great nancial Why lm? Aaron Kilercioglu and Seth Jor- If you’re looking to learn the ropes of movie hurdles of student lmmaking. dan, as director and assistant making, Kilercioglu recommends checking out Ater interviewing Cambridge’s lmmakers, Tproducer respectively, worked on the regular CFA mailing list, or applying to any the more pertinent question turned out to be 100 Days Since last term. The title refers to advertised positions on Camdram that take ‘Why lm now?’ For a medium praised and how long it’s been since the mother of the your interest. At the same time though, don’t blamed for its immutability, its capturing of film’s protagonist, Mark, has left the house, hesitate to reach out to the directors of projects things necessarily past, it is perhaps surpris- and the moment he decides to take matters currently in production and o er an extra pair ing how oten our lmmakers emphasise the into his own hands. Jordan is currently also of hands. “You would be surprised how happy importance of the present. In the case of e producing a short film called The Tortoise, a most people would be to let you help out on Cambridge Climate, the contemporary signi - zany meditation on grief upon the death of a their set,” Kilercioglu muses, “and it is a great cance of the lm is easily apparent. e par- beloved family pet. learning experience to see how lms are made.” ticular challenge, in fact, was keeping up with In the documentary sphere, Bea Goddard’s His advice is also not to discount the value of the University’s rapidly developing relation- thoughtful and challenging e Cambridge Cli- making trailers for theatre, describing this as ship to divestment. At the same time though, mate had a successful launch recently at the a relatively low-commitment but absolutely Goddard is excited and proud “to feel a part CUSU Lounge. ough di erent in their styles invaluable way to hone lmmaking skills. of the conversation”, and indeed to be part of and interests, all three are united by an infec- a constantly unfolding story. tious love of cinema and a desire to share both On set But one need not engage in such a topical their lms and their lmmaking. theme to feel the same way. ere is a kind of For Seth Jordan, who works mainly as a pro- wistfulness in how Kilercioglu and the CFA see Getting started ducer, ensuring the smooth running of the the opportunity of lmmaking at university: production is his principal responsibility. More generally, Cambridge’s student one may never get the chance to make a lm Bea Goddard credits a lucky turn for spark- Scheduling, organising funding and lming lmmakers view the sense of collaboration like this again – free of nancial constraints ing her involvement in lm. A pilot scheme locations, as well as sourcing equipment and as both the central concern and most valued and purely for the joy of artistic creation. Nor, for AS Film Studies had only recently been props all come under the umbrella of the pro- component in the production process. indeed, may we ever nd such so conducive an introduced at her school. Goddard, who had ducer. “It’s been great to create something much environment to lmmaking than we do right dabbled in YouTube in her early teens and al- “ e most obvious challenge is of course bigger, and not have to do literally everything!” here in Cambridge. e incredible thing about ways had an interest in lm, seized the oppor- the cost of lmmaking,” Kilercioglu admits. Goddard laughs. For her short lm, which the medium of lm is how naturally it takes tunity to confront a serious issue head-on and “All you need for theatre, at a basic level, are focuses above all on our shared relationship almost all other art forms in its stride. Story- put the stories she uncovered to the screen. actors. You can’t make a lm without the oten as a University to environmental concerns, she telling, animation, photography, performance Coming up to Cambridge, she has continued expensive equipment.” e good news though made sure to involve the whole team in the big – cinema can incorporate all these forms and to combine lmmaking with the issues close is that plenty of arts funding is available at conceptual decisions. Producers, researchers, so many more, but not without a group of to her heart. both university and college level – the trick is editors and presenters met at the very start talented and passionate creators, determined For many though, it was not until arriving simply to be proactive in nding and securing of the process to discuss what they wanted to draw all these strands together and bring at university that the prospect of lmmaking it. In terms of student societies, the Dryden the lm to say. about something special. ● could be readily realised. Aaron Kilercioglu, Society and Christ’s Amateur Dramatics A singular creative vision is arguably more Ella Jones and Rachel Tsang current co-president of the Cambridge Film Society (CADS) have been particularly active important in a piece of narrative lmmaking, Association (CFA), made his rst lm in Lent in supporting student lms. So if you already but, as Kilercioglu insists, this vision must Term. He already had a script written, but have a good idea of what you’d like to do, you crucially be one under which everyone can be If you want to get involved in lmmaking, was unsure of how to move forward. Ater can send a proposal to the relevant committees united. He believes the director’s role is not only at Cambridge, join the CFA mailing list at contacting the incumbent CFA committee for and they’ll soon be in touch. to get the best out of the whole team, but also cambridge lmassociation.co.uk some advice, Kilercioglu was put in touch with The CFA is always on hand to help: to ensure that all voices are heard and valued. 30 Vulture THEATRE Wednesday 20th June 2018

REVIEWS ONLINE Varsity.co.uk/theatre Scottish plays: Camdram goes North

To ind out more about the Canbridge student shows heading to Edinburgh this August, Eimear Ryan-Charleton and Shameera Lin catch up with Fringe-bound thespians

▲ he ensemble cast of Reigen but of help to vulnerable asylum seekers in (Celine Rights of Passage need of a safe refuge – Lala believes it is “made Clark) to strip away all empathy”. Empathy is thus ◀ Will Hall channelled through this play, which Lala cites ◀ Rehearsing (indigo here is an echo chamber in as her reason for choosing to stage it in Cam- the Cambridge Netlix & Will produCtions) Cambridge, no one really bridge for the irst time. “hese characters are production goes to the theatre for the not heard wherever they go, not accepted in (laura Wells) sake of challenging them- any country, not believed,” Lala continues, his summer, Will Hall brings his one- “Tselves,” Director Sneha “I wanted a verbatim depiction of people’s man show, Netlix and Will to the Lela explains why she has decided to take actual voices and their stories.” TFringe. Hall self-acknowledges the Rights of Passage to the Fringe, after a high- As the character of Izzuddin comes from title is “a pun on a phrase that was popular ly-successful home run in Cambridge last my home country of Malaysia, I ask Lala how like three years ago and which I’m sure I will Michaelmas. The play maps out the real-life it feels for someone like Izzuddin to witness regret when nobody gets it at the Fringe”. He stories of three LGBT+ refugees, Izzuddin, his story being shared on stage at this point promises better jokes in the show itself. Hamed, and Miremba. Faced with emotional in history, given the homophobia prevalent A regular on the Footlights stage, Hall de- trauma and turmoil after arriving in the UK in Malaysia. She mentions that Izzuddin was buted his irst stand-up show earlier this term to seek a better future, the play addresses present at one of the Cambridge perform- with Netlix and Will’s Cambridge run. he their reasons for having to seek asylum and ances; he felt a sense of diiculty watching show’s somewhat enigmatic publicity blurb the human heart within it all – directly ral- the intimacies of his life staged for all to wit- tells audiences to “expect stories about love, lying against the increasingly popular anti- ness. life and an old Spanish tourist called Maria.” immigrant rhetoric rooted in contemporary Lala and her passionate cast and crew are To ind out more, you’ll have to head along. British politics. particularly enthusiastic about interacting On the prospect of doing a one-man show Clare Summerskill wrote Rights of Passage with those who may not necessarily be pro- at the Fringe, Hall describes it as “quite nerve- after attending a variety of LGBT+ marches, asylum seekers. he beauty of the Fringe in- ❝ wracking”, but also exciting, providing scope meeting a range of individuals and befriend- volves interacting with a broad spectrum of and lexibility and scope for going of script ing them in the process. Lala notes that Sum- people, from all walks of life, behind which it encompasses and talking to the audience. merskill considered her subjects “friends as lies a variety of narratives. Combined with the everything the A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, Hall de- well as interviewees” and hence wrote the unadulterated energy and passion from the scribes it as “an amazing place”, with lots of play in “a sensitive way” – to give agency to production and the mood set by the Fringe’s Fringe should be: shows to see. He sees this summer as “a great those stripped of a voice. environment, this production is going to touch chance to do the same show over and over hese three individuals, like many others, hearts and shape minds. In fact, it encom- talent, grit, and a again and hopefully by the end of the Fringe arrived in the UK with high hopes, only to passes everything the Fringe should be: talent, good story to tell it will have improved since the start. be trampled on by the system. he system of grit, and a good story to tell. Topical and real, “It’s such a privilege to keep doing a show gaining asylum currently in place is anything Rights of Passage is set to be a highlight. ● ❞ every day, so I can’t wait for that”. ● THEATRE Vulture 31

Vulture tips for Edinburgh adventures

Establish boundaries Establish your own spaces, and keep your pos- sessions tidy, but don’t insist on an excessive standard of cleanliness in every communal space. Let your atmates know if you’re coming home 1 late or if you want to have guests. Make an e ort to engage with your atmates, and when a problem crops up, always be direct!

Take some time for yourself Constant partying and communal living gets tiring, so don’t forget to take some time to yourself. ere’s more 2 to the city than just the fringe, so why not take a solo walk around Ho- lyrood Park, or visit the National Gallery for free! Edinburgh abounds in independent cafes which can be quiet reading spots in the morning.

Stick to a daily budget With so many good shows to see, and so many fantastic pubs, it’s easy to fall deep into your overdrat ater a month of the fringe. e best way to avoid this is 3 set a daily cash budget, and be careful not to go over that. Keep expenses low by seeing free shows, and cooking for yourself, or better yet, as a at. Earn money by picking up paid yering gigs or temporary bar work.

10% Rehearsals will begin with a week of en- Reigen semble building, focusing on movement and studEnt physicality. Costume Designer Georgia Hum- * phreys is hand-sewing the costumes, which discount da Günther, translator and director of are designed to encourage free movement, *v fy Reigen, has a passion and enthusiasm while incorporating some period features. alid ali NuS card to qu Afor the project which is difficult not Günther highlights the importance of move- Need to store to find infectious. The 1903 scandal play, ment, explaining the centrality of physical detailing conversations between couples interaction to the play, and her aim to incorpo- before and after sex, is on its way to the rate physical theatre into the verbal conversa- your stuff? Edinburgh Fringe. There, Günther will be tions which make up the script. Indeed, the directing an ensemble cast of four, and recalls for auditions consisted of a physical We collect FREE from any ground floor WIN! heading an impressively comprehensive theatre workshop, and the cast were chosen cambridge address Like us on Facebook, production team, including dramaturg, not for their suitability to a particular part, follow us on Twitter or No deposit or hidden charges write a Google+ review Gabriel Humphreys. but rather for their versatility. cambridge base for easy, convenient access and we’ll enter you into Translating an entire play is no mean feat, e four actors will be playing a total of our prize draw for a and Günther tells me that, when she began it, nine or ten roles, and Günther still isn’t sure discounts and offers available month’s free storage! she was not intending to have it performed. who will be playing what. is freedom al- Safe and secure - 24 hour ccTv, fully alarmed site Rather, having grown up in Vienna, she wished lows the team to play with switching around to give her friends access to a play which is characters, gender bending some, or merging Student self-storage, sorted. not only very famous in German-speaking others. countries, but which also has incredibly rich, Günther appears particularly enthusiastic and speci cally Viennese, language. about the gender-bending element, telling me Book your space today, call Finding the available translations inad- that Schnitzler’s play was new and modern equate, Günther sat down to do her own, at the time, and this sense of newness and oten nding she would y through a scene modernity can be taken into the 21st century. 01223 210691 or two an evening. Eventually, having de- What is more, challenging the gender of the [email protected] cided to stage the show, she consulted other characters has allowed the team unexpected peaks-storehouse.co.uk translations in parallel, creating the script insights into their impulses, and has served, the actors are currently working with. Even in some places, to heighten the emotional so, the nal work remains in a state of crea- intensity. tive ux. Günther tells me, for example, about Reigen, when it was rst performed, was her struggles with contractions: too many a scandalous play, which nonetheless en- I’ms, it’s, and could’ves, and the play sounds capsulated the spirit of Vienna. Günther has too modern, too few, and it appears archaic. taken this Viennese whirl and brought it to Adjusting this mix to the perfect balance is a Edinburgh, a city she has never visited before. process which will continue throughout the ere, it promises to be, if not a scandal, then STudeNT domeSTIc commercIaL archIve SToraGe rehearsal period. certainly a resounding success. ● 32 Vulture LIFESTYLE

Cashing in on the summer

Earning money and enjoying your summer can seem like a paradox, but Chloe Bayliss knows how to have your cake and eat it

ith the long summer break and this is a job that can be combined with looming ahead, many of us your travels, as you earn while you explore plan to do as little as pos- other countries. Finding fruit picking jobs sible, in order to recover locally can be a challenge, but enquiring at Wfrom the pain that Tripos local farms if you live in a rural area or just a has in icted over the year. Some of us, how- simple Google search can provide you with LYDIA BUNT ever, have grander plans to go gallivanting a lot of information. o around the globe to shake o the stench of Cambridge. But to do that, earning a bit Mud, glitter and music of cash is a prerequisite. If you’re anything like me, earning money during the holidays is something that has to be exible, with relatively few hours so it doesn’t get in the way of summer fun! Here are the best ways to earn money without sacri cing too much of your Whether you’re a rst-time festival goer or a seasoned free time. lover of the big names, Juliet Martin has you covered Match betting he essence of festivals can’t be collected are a rookie, as its likely that whatever you into a neat summary. Of course, there bring will end up well-acquainted with the Although not for the faint hearted, if you’re Twill be highlight moments that stand ubiquitous mud. Wellies are your best friend, willing to put in the e ort, match betting is out. Noel Gallagher at Latitude 2016 is one as are bum bags for valuables like money and a legitimate, mathematically risk-free way of mine: as the set nished and he sung the ID. Luckily, we can always rely on the Great to earn some money. It involves signing up opening lines of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, British summer to be unreliable: sunscreen to betting sites and placing opposing bets to we belted it back to him pressed together in a and a rain poncho are essentials. To make sure cover all eventualities of, for example, a foot- haze of high spirits breathing in the charged, everyone gets to see the bands they’re most Online tutoring ball game, which quali es you for a free bet cider-scented atmosphere; yet, like a kaleido- keen on, print o a list of the schedule with all without losing any money. en, using that scope, festivals tend to splinter into myriad the di erent stages, times and artists. A great is one is a no-brainer for Cambridge stu- free (matched) bet they give you, as well as colours, sounds, sights and smells until you’re way to familiarise yourself with unknown dents. It takes various amounts of time to set other o ers, you manipulate the system and let with a chaotic tissue of memories fash- bands is to make a playlist of all their singles; up pro les on sites such as Blue Tutors, Super can earn a fair amount. While you may need ioned from mud and glitter in equal degree. this will also help get you all in the esta mood Prof or Tutor.com, as some require you to pass to grab the nearest mathmo to explain the ins eir appeal is their fast-burning brevity, that a few weeks early, letting the hype build to a mock session; yet, this is an excellent way to and outs of how it actually works, sites such as unknown singer, that Mexican food truck, that fever pitch by the weekend itself. earn a lot of money in a short space of time, Pro t Squirrel provide step by step tutorials, heady evening sunset lying in the grass with Choosing a pitch for your tent upon arrival teaching a subject you (hopefully) love. e and for a small fee, give you information of music in earshot and drink in hand. Praise be! is maybe the most important decision you’ll hours are exible, as you can arrange online other deals you can take advantage of. It may Festival season is now upon us. make. e key is to get there early – ater all, appointments or home visits that t around take a while to take to get your head around With so many to choose from both at home you might as well get the wear out of the your schedule. One thing to look out for is what’s going on, but if you stick with it, this and abroad, it’s getting trickier every year to wristband you splashed out on. Don’t be lured how much commission the website you go can be a way of earning hundreds of pounds pick the best festival. Prioritizing your own into a spot next to the toilets, as the perceived through charges, which can either be a one o from the comfort of your own bed! However, particular taste and budget is crucial. A ticket convenience will very quickly lose its logic in payment when they match you with a client while it earns you money, quite a bit goes out to the big players like Reading and Leeds will the odours of unsanitary foulness wating into or a hety portion of each session. Another of your account at one time which is worth set you back more than £200; scour the line- your tent. Similarly, proximity to main paths way to go about tutoring is to advertise on noting. ups and photos from previous years before will keep you awake with staggering 4am foot- social media, and get your parents, grandpar- It can be said of the Cambridge routine that, you buy to ensure you’ll be getting just what fall. Look for a pitch that’s near to the festival ents, and any other families you may know though sometimes painful and exhausting, it you’re ater. My favourite is Latitude for its site and, because a friendly camper is a happy to share it. Informal clients mean you get to is varied and busy. Heading home for a long combination of music with literature, comedy camper, extend the hand of friendship to your keep all of the cash! summer can be a daunting prospect, as none and dance, not to mention the idyllic lakeside neighbours. You never know: they may in of us want to be sat at home, twiddling our location and woodland ‘Solas’ healing area turn extend a sizzling frying pan of breakfast thumbs watching reruns of Bargain Hunt where you can exchange campsite porta- to you one morning. Buying festival food can and Come Dine With Me ater the craziness showers for bubbling jacuzzies. For a beach- be outrageously expensive, but it’s also a big of exam term and the excitement of May Balls. side vibe, Boardmasters is home to some sick part of the festival atmosphere and uni life Having a job is a way of keeping your rou- sur ng action, or go urban at London’s Wire- may well have made you never want to look tine varied and giving purpose to the day, less for the hottest names in grime, hip-hop at another Pot Noodle. But be sure to suss out as well as providing you with a bit of extra and rap. Slightly cheaper options include the the best value fare before you spontaneously cash! So whether something to alleviate the feel-good pop party at Sundown, or Truck Fes- fork out £12 for some mac and cheese. boredom, or something to line your pockets: tival, still packing a punch despite its smaller e festival itself will likely pass by all too happy earning, and more importantly, happy scale with headliners including Friendly Fires quickly in a giddying blur. And while it’s im- spending. ● and George Ezra. portant to get the most out of the weekend, Fruit picking Ater making your choice, prepare yourself don’t fret about seeing and doing everything. appropriately, as practical packing can make Dip into small tents if something curious If you want to earn some serious money in an the di erence between a stellar weekend and catches your ear, or skip the big headliner intensive few weeks and aren’t afraid of physi- a decidedly shambolic one. It’s tempting to you were never that sure about and instead cal labour, fruit picking and packing is for you. question what more one really needs other join the crowd for a new up-and-coming art- Work in apple orchards usually begins in early than baby wipes, toilet paper and a ower ist doing an intimate set. Even if your im- July, and carries on in August, though work garland. While this might be slightly optimis- mediate memories are hazy, or clouded by can be temperamental as it all depends on the tic, you will probably have to trek a long way a mud-splattered hangover, the shimmering weather – which you can be exposed to – and from your transport to the campsite so pack as summer revelries of a festival won’t quickly how fast the fruit grows. While intensive, this ▲ light as you can. Expensive clothes and shoes be forgotten. ● work is only seasonal and pays relatively well, Best of the bunch (PETR KRATOCHVIL Wednesday 20th June 2018 lifestyle Vulture 33

Look North: A midsummer night’s pancake Looking to pimp up your picnics? Anna Hollingsworth brings a Nordic touch to your summer soirées

rom the lands of hygge, lagom, lat- even in Finland) to bring out my muurinpo- pings on Pancake Day. I mean, Shrove Tuesday packed furniture, and a social welfare hjapannu – an outdoor griddle pan. hink of marks the last day before Lent, not the irst Åland pancake Fsystem that Americans think is com- its importance this way: while Jamie mucks day of fasting, right? A Nordic-style summer Ingredients munism, I bring to you yet another Waterloo around with his sausages on a BBQ, I embrace pancake party has no Scandinavian mini- 1dl sugar moment: summer pancake parties. I realize the pan; when Gordon fucking marinades his malism about it, and ofers a smorgasbord 3 eggs that the expression is irmly trudging into smoke fucking pork ribs, I’m fuc… sorry, lip- (see what I did there) of toppings: berries, ¼ tsp salt oxymoronic territory in a country where pan- ping, pancakes. You get the picture. ice cream, whipped cream and jam form a 1 tsp cardamom cake dos are strictly a Shrove Tuesday Now, the recipe is nothing out of the standard line-up. 1 ½ dl lour afair – and Easter is never as late as ordinary, and probably comes in However, if you ind yourself in want of 2dl semolina or rice pudding June. I’m also very aware that as many variations as there a marvelous muurinpohjapannu, or pancake 7 dl milk when Mary Berry set ‘pic- are pancake makers. Mine lipping just isn’t in your ouvre, worry not. Method nic it for a queen’ as the is nowadays a vegan here is a less-hassle but equally oh-look- Beat the sugar and eggs, and add in inal challenge on Bake marvel with oat milk, at-how-Nordic-I-am alternative: the Åland the salt and cardamom. Mix in the Of 2016 as an epitome lour, sugar, an extra pancake to you. Like its home, the Åland is- lour. Add the rice or semolina pud- of good ol’ British sum- kick from sparkling lands – a little bit of heaven in the sea between ding and milk, and mix until smooth. mer times, it was all water, and believe Sweden and Finland – this member of the Pour the mixture into an oven tray wIkIMEDIA: TOYAH scones, quiches and it or not, no egg pancake family is a, thus far, well-kept secret. (roughly 20cm x 25cm), sit back, relax, tarts, with pancakes replacer. But any hink of emphasising the ‘cake’ in ‘pancake’. and watch it bake in the oven at 225°C as absent as soggy bot- vaguely crépe-like You add some rice or semolina pudding to for roughly half an hour (or go on toms. But please trust recipe will do, be- your standard pancake batter, pour it all into Netlix while waiting). For my fellow my inborn Nordic chic- cause what really a baking tray, pop into the oven, et voilà, you vegans, just substitute the dairy milk ness, this summer you matters is, just like on have yourself a trayful of super thick pancake with your preferred plant-based alter- want to ditch the old sau- Love Island, not what is with practically no efort at all. native – I’m an advocate of oat milk sage roll and get squirting on the inside, but what is Have your Pimm’s and sausage rolls by all in this case – and instead of the eggs, cream on pancakes instead. on the outside. means, but in the words of another Nordic mix in roughly one dl of soya yoghurt; he deining feature of my sum- I’ve always taken pity on miracle: take a chance on me. So, go on, give save your hand for other activities mer is when it’s warm enough (no, you those poor British souls who believe the BBQ a break, and follow this highway to with no eggs to beat. don’t need your Nordic knit all year round, that sugar and lemon juice are suicient top- guaranteed pancake bliss. ● ENCHANTED FOREST his May Week we step into a shaded, dusky clearing and invoke the magic and mystery of a fairy tale in elegant evening wear.

Classic satin and rich colours are the order of the day, providing timeless grace. Be it lowing or tailored, ind a silhouette that gives you a conident glow, and be the main character in your own enchanted tale. ● photographer clothes Olivia Buckland Bowns 24-25 Magdalene Street, models Cambridge CB3 0AF Jai Shende Nusrath Tapadar Purveyor of British Aakash Mohindra designer accessories Alie Crowley-Rata and clothes styling Gian Hayer additional clothing Olivia Neave Model’s own 36 Vulture LIFESTYLE

FULL MAY BALL REVIEWS ONLINE VARSITY.CO.UK LIFESTYLE

Five ultimate May Week essentials Best of the balls

Julia Davies is here to make your celebrations stress-free

s you may have spotted, May Week is upon us. A whole week where the students down tools and celebrate the end of exams, party the night and day away, and get in the Daily Mail for doing Aperfectly innocent things like having ‘gathered on a bridge’. Anyway, the thrills and spills of the term may have caused you to overlook certain items that might make your May Week much more stylish, comfortable and all-round enjoyable. To ensure you can enjoy the festivities to their full, I have collated a list of what you may need. Handheld electric fan I bought one such bad boy from Tiger last year, for the princely sum of around £3. It was invaluable during queues at the start of events, when it was really quite hot and there was no shade. Hopefully the weather will be as wonderful as it was last year, and if so this fan will see you through garden parties, May Balls and hangovers in comfort. that the decorations this time round were Blister plasters not quite as impressive, I enjoyed them as a ere is nothing snakier than a shoe that compensates for rst-time attendee. its beauty by lacking in comfort. Painful feet can ruin your Equally, the entertainment on o er did not night, so take every opportunity to protect them. Having fail to impress. Seaside games like a coconut blister plasters on you could act like a talisman and ward shy, hook-a-duck and the ‘test your strength’ o blisters, and even if you don’t need them someone else hammer were paired with a surf simulator is sure to. and volleyball court, which many were queu- Fold-up pumps ing to enjoy. e glitter tent was also a must- is is my pro-tip to you. If the shoes you choose are the visit, and shisha under canopies provided a sort that are too beautiful not to wear, but too vertiginous welcome respite from enthusiastic dancing to move in, get you some fold-up pumps and keep them in amongst the throng at the main stage. Aside your clutch. I discovered these when I was very little, both in from smaller acts on the Beach Hut Stage, age and stature, and they have been a godsend, both when Colonel Spanky’s Love Ensemble put on a wearing heels, and generally when trying to walk in cobbly typically feel-good and well-received per- Cambridge. formance. Sam Parker’s saxophone-playing To be able to slip o the torture devices called photogenic mingled with contemporary beats also went heels and boogie carefree is a delight that you should not down a storm at sea and provided an exciting, deprive yourself of. ere are some on Amazon for under £10 A fun- lled bubble- lled climax to the haze of a beach – you actually waste the cost of your ball ticket if you can’t aternoon. e Garden Party slid e ortlessly enjoy it due to footwear. Get the pretty shoes in your pictures, shellebration between the moods of sandy chill and beach and then party in pumps. party, meaning there was plenty of variety and A decent bag something for every guest to enjoy. You are going to need: at Medwards Needless to say, there were also plenty of your phone, ID, Cam- culinary treats on o er, with sh and chips, card, ticket or pro- rom the sticks of rock handed out to ea- candy oss and Mr. Whippy ice cream tending gramme, some make- ger queuers before speedy entry when towards the seaside theme amongst the well- up, electric fan, blister Fdoors opened at four, to the strings of loved classics of sweet potato fries, burgers plasters, safety pins, shells dangled from leafy branches, attention and mac n’ cheese. Whilst some food stalls fold up pumps… at to detail made this Garden Party a sand- lled seemed to run out or close fairly early in the the minimum. A de- success. evening, the bar was free- owing with a va- cent bag should be e gardens of Murray Edwards were suc- riety of bottles and beachy cocktails right up pretty, of course, but cessfully transformed into something between until the end of the event, meaning guests also functional. I advocate a clutch that has a strap, so that the ‘lively tropics’ and the ‘sandy beach of could enjoy the building beats with VK or you can party hands-free. Zara and ASOS always do a won- Blackpool’ that the committee took as inspi- ‘safe Sex on the Beach’ in hand. derful selection of these. And a word to the wise: go for one ration. Decorative highlights were the arti - e committee used the beautiful natural with a sot body, so that you can cram any last-minute es- cial beach and coloured lanterns suspended setting of the gardens to its advantage, mak- sentials in there that you may need. between trees, which blended well with the ing the Garden Party perhaps not the only, but Dental oss greenery and made the theme cohesive. Ef- certainly one of the best garden-located ‘shel- Imagine getting something stuck between your teeth at the forts at decoration mingled the showy with lebrations’ of the end of exams. It certainly start of a May Ball and not being able to do anything about the subtle and contributed to the fun yet re- kicked o my May Week in coastal style. ● it all night. laxed atmosphere of the party. Whilst friends Lydia Bunt Enough said. ● who had attended last year’s event suggested IMAGES: LYDIA BUNT LIFESTYLE Vulture 37

doughballs (ater a drunken friend described DJs could have done with some extra mixing No-frills fun at these as “small testicles covered in diarrhoea”. basics: why would you cut the Friends theme I had to give them a miss, even if I very much tune short and, instead of smoothly rolling appreciated the vegan option in principle), into the next upbeat number, have a break, Robinson ice cream from Jack’s Gelato, and a generous followed by painfully slow starting ri s? But chocolate fountain. I’m not asking any ball in the end, there was enough ‘Mr. Brightside’ committee to take two sh and ve loaves and to keep everyone happy (and some guests had ith standard tickets just under £100, feed the multitude, but a bit of variety would’ve clearly prepared to add their own chemistry to Robinson was one of the less pricey been welcome: I love all things doughy, but the mix, what with bags of white powder mak- Wballs. e resulting party was a case when you have stalls for meat burgers, veggie ing their rounds through nostrils). Mahalia with of you get what you pay for: I went expecting burgers, pulled pork burgers, breakfast bacon her mellow tunes as the headliner was a wel- not oysters and bespoke molecular drinks, but patties and breakfast veggie patties – oh and come change to so many balls opting for electro rather less class and more fun, and that is ex- toasties thrown in for good measure – I was beats and dodgy DJs. e real strength, though, actly what was on o er. getting a bit too much of carb-fuelled repeti- lay with the student performers. e acoustic e theme was Suspicion, a murder mystery, tion. e star of the show for me was therefore duo Nicola & Jono really owned their love song which was delightfully refreshing compared the non-burger option: the butternut squash covers: it says a lot of their appeal that even to the usual vague magic gardens and barely katsu curry (vegans, rejoice!) was perfection for when at 3:30am I found myself third-wheeling, pronounceable polysyllabic words (Corpus’s Wagamama a cionados, with rice sticky and sharing a table with a couple and feeling that Phantasmagoria in 2013, I’m looking at you). curry spicy enough to score full points in the being on Love Island would probably be a less Murder was dotted around here and there – a westernized Japanese dish league. awkward social situation, I stayed and listened nger print on the programme cover, mystery What the ball was lacking in culinary vari- to them. Another gem, Daniel Fannelli, had scribbles on the walls, a mug shot height chart ation, it made up for with its ents that were the bar dancing to his jazzy, rocky and poppy – and made up a refreshing storyline for the all no-frills, no airs and graces, actual fun. e covers, even when the venue o ered sofas and ball, with guests invited to solve a whodunit. human table football continued previous years’ armchairs as an option. Maybe it was just my lack of Poirot grey cell theme of taking humans and using them as e ultimate highlight of the ball was what prowess, though, but the presence of a puzzle entertainment (thinking of zorbing a couple of most balls falter at: the last hour before the was a bit too well hidden in the ball, mainly years back here – I’m starting to get a bit of an survivors’ photo. Dream ABBA played tribute noticeable from the introduction in the pro- ❝ Ancient Roman theme of doing gladiators and to, well, Abba, and turned the guests on their gramme. chariots and other, well, high-risk spectator last legs into dancing queens, only 17, and un- e food and drink, on their part, had de - The sports), the crazy golf and swingboats brought doubtedly increased the survival rate of the nitely nothing to do with mystery. For the most headliner in a festival vibe, and the bouncy castle bubble ball considerably (even if stiletto heels stabbing part it was a case of going back to the (very) served as a place to release your inner child (or, my toes, elbows smashing my belly button basics rather than any attempt at broadening was a a dark place for dark deeds, as it was inexplica- piercing into my intestines, and rogue sunglass culinary horizons: drinks-wise, it was vodka welcome bly hidden away in a corner of the garden). frames blinding me made me doubt the ball and coke, G&Ts, Sex on the Beach, and the rest change e underground silent disco was a bit of a tagline, “a little party never killed anyone”). of the usual suspects in generously sized plastic sweat pit, making me regret not bringing an Whoever dunit, I salute you for this. ● cups, while the food focused on pizza, burgers, ❞ industrial-sized can of Axe with me, and the Anna Hollingsworth

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wednesday 20th june 2018 39 Sport

against many all-male teams, an impressive result from a women’s squad. he New to a Blue: club’s increasing success has been recognized by the selection of members for international sides. he squads currently contain two members competing with the GB University squad. his interna- CU Ice Hockey tional representation is new for the club, and again demonstrates its growth as a

he number of Sophie Corrodi USA, Canada, Russia and Germany. discretionary Despite this, CUWIHC does not only Full Blues Most people would be forgiven for be- draw on international students, but in- 3 awarded to ing ignorant of Cambridge University’s cludes almost 75% UK students. While a women’s players prowess on the ice-skating rink. Along few have played the sport before, many last season with Oxford, the club makes up half of are drawn to the club as ex-igure skat- the oldest rivalry in ice hockey history, as ers, or even just interested athletes who club in performance level and popularity recognized by the International Hockey think that it looks fun. Historically, both of the sport nationwide. Hall of Fame in Canada. Since the irst the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams Although there is no Cuppers tourna- Varsity match in St Moritz, Switzer- travel to Peterborough every Sunday ment at the moment, once the new rink land in 1885, Cambridge University Ice night, leaving Cambridge around 7pm is ready, a new one is in the pipeline to Hockey Club has gone from strength to to return around 1am, for an hour of on- start next year under the name ‘Stanley strength and the men celebrated their ice practice. his is followed by two or Cuppers’. Named after the National 100th Varsity just last year. he women’s three itness sessions a week and a roller Hockey League trophy, the team hope club (CUWIHC), founded in the 1980s, hockey session to practice stick handling this will help to gather support for the boasts a slightly shorter history, but skills. However, notably, this is all about club and scout fresh talent in Cambridge. no less distinguished. It was one of the to change: an ice rink is currently be- Despite this, the sport is still well rec- irst women’s teams in the UK and re- ing built in Cambridge, to be ready for ognized in Cambridge, with the men’s mains one of two registered all-women’s Michaelmas 2018. Located near the air- Blues currently possessing Full Blue sta- teams. port, this will revolutionise ice hockey in tus due to their consistent outstanding Women’s ice hockey is still growing the area and nearly triple the clubs’ cur- performance, and the women’s Blues exponentially in comparison to the men’s rent ice time. Particularly for the newer possessing Half Blue status. However, game. While women’s teams are com- players on the women’s team, this is sure the women recently were awarded three monplace in the US and Canada, with to incredibly beneit the women’s side discretionary Full Blues for their inter- tens of club teams per state and many and yearly performance. national competitors and are planning high schools having their own team, the his change further places Cambridge to apply for Full status due to growing UK has around 20 female club teams on an equal playing ield with Oxford, slide victory of 16-2, hopefully marking ▲ he women’s popularity of the sport and improving competing each year, including the top who have had an ice rink in their centre Cambridge’s fortunes as being on the up, side enjoyed a facilities. semi-professional league. hough the city for a long time. his is relected in especially with the arrival of the rink to 16-2 win in this If you want to get involved with the sport is signiicantly less popular than the Varsity results, as to date Oxford have look forward to. While the women’s team year’s Varsity sport, be sure to contact Cambridge these North American powerhouses, it won about 75% of the women’s matches presents a team of mixed abilities, from match (DUSHANTH University Ice Hockey Club on their Fa- is becoming increasingly well known, as (although the men’s results are more newcomers to those who have played the SEEVARATNAM) cebook page or come and ind them at marked by a popular professional men’s 50/50). However, CUWIHC does not let sport for over 20 years, Cambridge still the Freshers’ Fair in October. hey are league. he Great Britain Men were re- this history get to them. his past year, competes at a high level in a mixed gen- always on the lookout for new talent, so cently promoted to the top division of incredible dedication and commitment der league. Playing in the second division if you are prepared to embrace the cold World Championships, placing them in from newcomers and returners alike of non-checking (women’s rules) hockey, and skate on thin ice (pun intended), ice direct competition with teams such as managed to rocket Cambridge to a land- the team normally place about mid-table hockey could be the sport for you.

Cryptic crossword: Cambridge edition 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 Unseated one of 12 gets member in, around midnight (5) 17 Political one of 12 can be found in a ield, by the sounds of it (6) 7 8 19 Gloom/nihilism is all-encompass- ing (4) 20 Wet saxifrage mixture, iltering out tips of fresh rhubarb and green echi- 9 10 nacea, is most inviting to bees (7) 21 Philosophical one of 12 reconsiders 11 sentient twig (12) 12 13 14 15 Down 16 17 1 A painter, crazy at heart, evokes naval leet (6) 18 2 Decrypting one of 12 going around without direction (6) 19 20 3 In gig, hen produces farmyard noise (8) 4 Six successful deliveries described Cardboard boats set sail and sink on River Cam 21 in oratorio verses (4) 5 Can be heard when speaking out had gone into decoration rather than ▲ Many creative loud (6) Marcus McCabe practicality; many got creative with cans boats took to Across 6 Sting left in; agony in lashes (6) Deputy Sports Editor of spray paint. the River Cam, 1 Naturalistic one of 12, two hours 10 Excuses given before reading One crew even opted to use past exam but no one went before lunch, sees places like Camden material (8) he ifth annual Cambridge cardboard papers as a sail in a telling purge of home dry (MILLIE (12) 12 Disgruntled core group of Illumina- boat race took place on Sunday after- Exam Term misery. In the end it was KIEL) 7 Controversial foodstuf; eating it hurt ti were familiar faces around here (6) noon as part of Suicide Sunday cel- Alex Watson, Roy Navid, Saim Saeed me! (7) 13 I go east without a self-centred ebrations. Several hundred spectators and Sam Holdsworth, second-year en- 8 Dry going in, and irate coming back person (6) eagerly gathered along the banks of the gineers from Trinity College, who rowed (4) 14 Comic one of 12 re-elects fanatic River Cam at Jesus Lock to watch the the aptly named ‘HMS Soggy Biscuit’ 9 Boat is gloomy and hot inside (6) without help from Russia Today (6) event with a picnic. hey cheered on to victory. 10 Poetic one of 12, initially publishing 15 Scientiic member of 12 in the cur- around 30 innovative cardboard craft Alex Watson told to Varsity that the lines as Ted Hughes (5) rent century (6) as students competed to stay aloat and team had been planning the boat since 11 hespian one of 12 to cook whitebait 18 Pretty model (and petite) (4) race to collect a “mystery item” from a last year, following a calamitous sinking (3) punt 100 yards upriver before returning in 2017. Nevertheless, within 20 minutes 13 Essential NHS training tips for ● Devised by Aneesh Naik. Check our to the start. of the start, all boats had been sunk. he otorhinolaryngology (3) Facebook page for solutions. For some, it looked as if more time carnage was over – until next year. 40 W 20 J 2018

Disaster on the Cam as all cardboard vessels sink Cambridge students’ engineering prowess may have hit its nadir over the week (p. 39) Sport

▲ (Above) Women’s second division boats take their position, (below) Wolfson found success on the river LOUIS ASHWORTH St John’s and Jesus hold headship

● No change at the top Behind them, Magdalene bumped LMBC M4. e quadruple overbump was More photos can four times to nish th in the men’s the rst since Peterhouse W1 in 1986, and despite some big moves division, bumping Downing on the nal only the second in the 131-year history be found on our day. Emmanuel nished level in seventh, of Bumps. Facebook page ● Wolfson College wins while First and ird rose two places to Safety once again was a concern this coveted Pegasus Cup eighth. Ater ursday, all the positions year, and on Wednesday the M5, W4, and course, while on Friday, Pembroke W4, remained the same in the top half of the M4 divisions were all stopped because pursuing Trinity Hall W3, collided with women’s division, as Downing, Caius, of carnage on the river. Two coxes were a crew that had bumped out on the exit Clare, LMBC, and Girton all rowed over banned for collisions with a stationary of Grassy Corner, hospitalising a rower Matt Gutteridge twice. crew. On Wednesday, Anglia Ruskin M1 who was hit with a blade. In both cases, ree other rst boats, Clare Hall M1, rowed into crews trying to clear the riv- the o ending crews received a £75 ne Lady Margaret Boat Club and Jesus Col- Trinity Hall M1, and Wolfson W1, also er in the Gut, the narrowest part of the and a bump against their name. lege Boat Club remained at the Head of achieved their blades by bumping up the River in the men’s and women’s on all four occasions. e Pegasus Cup, divisions respectively as May Bumps awarded for the best overall performance nished on Saturday. is achievement by a college, went to Wolfson, whose Men’s top division Women’s top division re ects their excellent form all season four boats gained an aggregate total of because both crews also nished at the 14 positions, celebrating 50th anniver- 1. Lady Margaret Lady Margaret .1 1. Jesus Jesus .1 top of the Lent Bumps table. sary of their boat club in style. It was 2. Clare Clare .2 2. Emmanuel Newnham .2 Despite promising showings from a Bumps to forget for Peterhouse and 3. Caius Pembroke .3 3. Caius Emmanuel .3 Pembroke in the men’s division and Murray Edwards, who both saw every 4. Pembroke Caius .4 4. Newnham Downing .4 Newnham in the women’s, in the end single one of their crews bumped down 5. Downing Magdalene .5 5. Downing Caius .5 neither headship was seriously threat- every day. 6. Peterhouse Downing .6 6. Lady Margaret Clare .6 ened as LMBC and Jesus rowed over In the lower divisions, this May Bumps 7. Emmanuel Emmanuel .7 7. Clare Lady Margaret .7 comfortably at the top in all four races. will be remembered for two remarkable 8. Jesus .8 8. Christ’s Girton .8 Pembroke bumped Caius and then Clare overbumps. On Wednesday, Wolfson M2 9. Magdalene Jesus .9 9. Girton Churchill .9 to start Saturday in second position, but achieved a double overbump on Girton 10. Peterhouse .10 10. .10 were then rebumped as Clare nished M2 to gain ve places in a single day, and 11. Selwyn Queens’ .11 11. Peterhouse Pembroke .11 the week where they had started, behind nished the week up eight by bump- 12. Queens’ King’s .12 12. Churchill Christ’s .12 LMBC in second place. In the women’s ing Corpus Christi M2, First and ird 13. Robinson Robinson .13 13. Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam .13 division, Newnham bumped Caius and M3, and Selwyn M2. Not to be outdone, 14. Christ’s Christ’s .14 14. Pembroke Homerton .14 Emmanuel to climb to second, but rowed Magdalene College M4, who started the 15. King’s Selwyn .15 15. Queens’ Peterhouse .15 over on Friday and Saturday without se- week at the foot of the river, achieved 16. Lady Margaret M2 Wolfson .16 16. Jesus M2 St. Catharine’s .16 riously challenging Jesus for the title. a quadruple overbump on ursday on 17. Churchill Lady Margaret M2 .17 17. Homerton Queens’ .17