The Independent ESTD 1947 Cambridge Student Newspaper 22nd June 2011 Issue No. 740 OPINION Rhys Treharne dissects the race to be the next Chancellor p9 CULTURE Celebrating May Week indolence in style p16 SPORT Full coverage of May Bumps joy for Caius and Downing p32 24 > 9 771758 444002 www.varsity.co.uk Comments to make? [email protected] 22nd June 2011 2 Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF Telephone 01223 337575 Fax 01223 760949 ESTD 1947 Issue No. 740 www.varsity.co.uk EDITORIAL DIGITAL DIGEST Just a few of blogs.varsity.co.uk’s Easter term highlights... here are many things wrong with May Week; not least that it T VERIFIED is held in June. When, earlier in the Beyond Trump year, Cambridge students took up residence in Senate House in protest Barack Obama wrote a book called against the steep rise in tuition fees, ‘The Audacity of Hope’; Donald there was an undeniable murmur Trump wrote one called ‘Think Big amongst commentators over the and Kick Ass in Business and Life.’ question why. With both Oxford David Westcott considers the meaning and Cambridge popularly seen as of these two very di erent visions of ‘universities for to s’ as one asinine EMAILS, LETTERS & TWEETS American political life comment on the Guardian’s website put it, the University and its student HUMANITY VALUE to his suggestion that the mantra ‘Educa- body should be astute and aware of tion is a right, not a privilege’ is indicative the image it projects to the world. Dear Sir, of ‘logical and moral incoherence’. The old VETEMENTS This year, 59.3% of places o ered I am a research scientist in Greece (with Soviet Block and Saudia Arabia certainly State-of-the-garb: The Elite were to students from state schools some years’ experience in Cambs back in the agree with him - but this country and forty- – a rise from 2010 but, despite a late 80’s) with a daughter studying English seven others voted in favour of adopting the With luxury labels becoming more huge budget being poured into vari- Lit at St John’s, so your article “New Col- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in universally available whether as the real ous access schemes at both college lege, New Problems” was a very interesting 1948, which includes the ‘right to educa- deal or not and brands selling lifesetyle and university level, this fi gure still read indeed. But while I wholeheartedly tion’ (including ‘fair and equitable access’ as much as clothes, Tanne Spielman comes nowhere near to the 93% of agree that “..New College simply succumbs to Higher Education) in Article 26. It also explains why fashion is still a mark of pupils that receive state education. to – nay, supports – this commoditisation features in Articles 13 and 14 of the Inter- social and political inequality The question then forms; why does of education “, what is the pragmatic, real- national Covenant on Economic, Social Oxbridge still struggle to dispel its istic alternative available under the current and Cultural Rights, signed and ratifi ed by ‘to ’ reputation? circumstances? the United Kingdom in 1966. Every year the media pounce on I mean, accepting that your Tory govern- VARSITECH A Note on Hacking our decadent after exam celebrations ment (coalition with LibDems is only in Charlie Draper and every year their expectations are name), has already reduced humanities via website fulfi lled. Post ball revellers parading funding to bare bones, what other choices So hacking is bad, right? Bad for the top hats and high heels home at do students have to get a top notch educa- INSULTS AND INJURY big software corporations particularly? daybreak make for the perfect image tion in Humanities? Even CU is cutting James Vincent argues for its bravura to fi t the ‘Brideshead’ perception. departments to cope! The Modern Greek Dear Sir, creativity and its elegance. And he Boat Club blazers, deck shoes and department at CU is going to close down Hugo Schmidt’s article reads as a parody explains why the likes of Microsoft have streets littered with Pimms bottles by 2013 and I am sure others, not com- of upper class reactionary bigotry, and is so decided to embrace the ‘homebrew and drunken students probably do moditisable enough, are to follow. The far from the truth it would be laughable if hackers’ not do anything to help. Along with only realistic alternatives are for the Unis people didn’t take it at face value. the combined organised carnage to subsidise them internally (which most I was there, sat at the back. His time of Caesarian and Suicide Sundays, can’t a ord to anymore) or charge full fees, was not wasted for 40 minutes. The talk VICE The Politician’s Wife it is no surprise that when it came like NCH is attempting to do, sugaring the was scheduled to begin at 730, and in the to standing up against the rise to bitter pill by o ering contact with some very end began at just before 8pm. Furthermore £9000 tuition fees, the juxtaposition good current thinkers. I really can’t see any I don’t see how the protesters wasted his With the media in love (mostly) with is problematic. Can students who are other alternative, can you? money, as the talk went on for as long as it Michelle Obama and Sam Cam with happy to spend hundreds of pounds I am a researcher in science/engineering would have had the interruption never hap- her fi ngers in many pies, Alice Tyler on tickets to balls (or thousands in but I agree that it is indeed a very sad day pened. If anything he got greater value for praises Vicky Pryce for challenging the the case of some charitable eBay-ers) when Humanity courses are seen as not money, a ‘warm up act’ as one of the men meek status of the politician’s wife. legitimately complain about a rise valuable enough. on stage decided to put it. He’s telling lies to in tuition fees which will paid back further his own snobbish ends. when they start to earn? George Vekinis His use of dehumanising language is The answer is yes. We have been via website deeply insulting - what di erence does it taught to believe that education make if somebody’s eyes are close together, or YOU, THE COMMENTATOR should be open and available and if RIGHTS OF REPLY if they have larger muscles than he considers A pick of the week’s comments from the website a starting debt of £27,000 risks put- acceptable? Does this make them any less ting o those who are most deserving Dear Sir, human or deserving of respect? The fact he but can least a ord it then we must Irrespective of the piece’s conclusion (and turns to the Island of Dr Moreau to charac- “How is it that these events are allowed to be doubly careful about the image of ignoring its fl agrantly insultingly dehuman- terise the protesters is a disgusting instance excess and decadence that accompa- isation of the protesters), I consider Hugo of othering anyone who doesn’t share his go into the early hours of the morning when nies it in Cambridge. Schmidt’s argument (‘Protests against point of view (and, frankly, what I’d expect Having plugged aware until the New College are ignorant and belligerent’, from a fan of Dawkins and his ilk), and pubs that have live music at a fraction of the early hours in the library all term online) to be shoddily constructed. The does humanism a disservice. there is no doubt that May Week implication of the piece seems to be that volume have to stop at 11:00pm?” provides a deserved fi nale to the year. questionable actions of a minority somehow Rees Nicolas Arnott-Davies John Hammond What we must remember as we fall alter the validity or morality of the actions via website into our beds with tired feet and sore of Grayling and his associates, which of heads is that it also casts a damaging course, they do not. They may undermine “The guy is a fruitcake” Jamie Black, on Michael shadow of elitism over our university the movement, as the editorial introduction - one that we must prepared to suggests, but this is not his claim. Mans eld QC temper at all costs. 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