Official Goldsmiths student newspaper Issue 20 March 2014 Free

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FEES

ELECTIONS: THE RESULTS

www.theleopard.co.uk@leopardnews

100% OF STUDENTS FACE “TECHNICAL PROBLEMS” IN LECTURES By Courtney Greatrex

Technology was one of the key issues flagged up by a recent study conducted by the Departmental Student Coordinators (DSC) which saw 100% of students sur-veyed stating that their lectures or seminars had been interrupted due to malfunctioning equip-ment.

The annual DSC report, consist-ing of a survey that was completed by over a thousand students, was presented to senior management staff last week including Warden, Pat Loughrey and College Regis-trar Liz Bromley.

The report stated: “Whilst the delay in each lecture may be only 5 or 10 minutes, the time that accumulates over the year is a significant amount.

“All students also responded “Yes” when asked if their lecturer or seminar leader had needed to call technical support for assis-tance. 52 per cent of students went on to say that this assis-tance, on average, took between 5-10 minutes to arrive and 32% stated that it took 11-15 minutes.”

This was confirmed by a separate survey sent to staff in which 82 per cent of staff surveyed had needed to delay the beginning of their lecture due to technical difficulties at least once, and all of them had consequently needed to call for assistance in fixing the problem. Within this staff survey, 72% of

By Ella Jessel

Goldsmiths Students’ Union has launched a campaign to put a stu-dent representative on

the remuneration committee that decides senior management pay, which the Chair of college council has promised to consider.

The request is supported by a peti-tion entitled: ‘Goldsmiths students should have a say on manage-ment pay’, which at the time of writing has already garnered 147 signatories and was initiated by Campaigns Officer and Presi-dent-elect Howard Littler.

Currently, the remuneration committee consists of three inde-pendent members of council:

Mr Dan Lambeth an Executive Director of J.P. Morgan, Cathy Runciman, an Executive Director of Time Out Group and Ms Mary Stacey a prominent employment judge.

The council chair is Baroness Morris of Yardley, ex-MP and now a life peer who sits in the House of Lords.

The Leopard spoke to Littler, who said he had not heard “any good arguments” against the pro-posal. He stressed that it was vital to tackle the cynical view that decisions like this are “some-how too important” to entrust students with.

“This is not just a reaction to the Warden’s 9 per cent pay increase,” he said.

COLLEGE TO ‘CONSIDER’ SU DEMAND FOR STUDENT SAY ON MANAGEMENT PAY

Photo Credit: Camilo Fernandez

Turn to page 24 for The Leopard’s Varsity 2014 coverage.

Continued on next page...

Continued on next page...

International students are being ripped of as fees rise

year on yearp12

Check out the winners of the GSU elections

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VARSITY ARTS CUP 2014 ENDS IN FIRST EVER DRAW

2 NEWS THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

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Editor-in-Chief:Courtney Greatrex

Layout:Lia Quijano Nina Smale

Alaa Alsaraji

News Editor:Ella Jessel

Features Editor:Gaëlle Laforest

Culture Editor:Emmet Simpson

Sports Editor:Olly Bellamy

Classifieds Editor:Harriet Sumner

Social Media Editor:Julia Haase

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ASBESTOS IN THE RHBBy Courtney Greatrex

Earlier this month following a recent loss of hot water in the Richard Hoggart Building, build-ers were removing tiles to replace a leaking pipe when potential asbestos sheeting was discovered.

A student contacted The Leopard, raising concern over the potential asbestos sighting in the old Rich-ard Hoggart Building. They said: “It started on Friday ... The Media Equipment Centre got a sudden notice to close.”

This was later con f i r me d by a spokes-person for Goldsmiths , University of London who said: “As soon it was d i scovered by members

of the Estates team – all of whom receive asbestos awareness train-ing - the area was covered up and contained.

“Appropriate notifications were subsequently issued and the asbes-tos has been removed by approved contractors with independent air sampling carried out. The area has now been given the all clear.”

RADIOHEAD’S PRODUCER LAUNCHES MUSIC STUDIO AT GOLDSMITHSBy Antoni Devlin

Music producer Nigel Godrich has recently launched a music production and recording studio at Goldsmiths. Located on New Cross Road, the space has been

designed to be “a creative space for research, performance and recording.” Before the launch, which was attended by Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, Godrich said: “I’m very excited to help launch the new Goldsmiths Music Stu-dios.

“A good studio is as important a place to a music producer as the laboratory to a scientist.”

Mikko Gordon, Head of Gold-smiths Music Studios, said that he was delighted with how the studio had turned out: “It’s fan-tastic that our students get to use this industry-standard complex as well as professional producers, engineers, artists and record labels across the industry.” Godrich is a well-known producer who has worked with acts such as

Paul McCartney, U2 and R.E.M. He is currently involved in an electronic music project dubbed Atoms for Peace, along with “Radiohead” frontman Thom Yorke, “Red Hot Chili Peppers” bassist Flea, and “R.E.M.” drum-mer, Joey Waronker. Goldsmiths Music Studio is open to both Goldsmiths students and the general public, providing access to state-of-the-art pro-duction equipment. The Studio, comprised of three live rooms, is available for commercial hire with an engineer or assistant-engineer, with significant discounts availa-ble for Goldsmiths alumni.

CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM MOVING TO GOLDSMITHS By Melanie Smith

The Centre for Investigative Jour-nalism (CIJ) has announced a new partnership with Goldsmiths and will be based within the Media and Communications department from this summer.

The CJI’s move to Goldsmiths will build on the University’s position at the forefront of training in eth-ical and investigative journalism.The Centre will now be housed in Goldsmiths’ Media and Com-munications department, which is currently joint top in the country for ‘research excellence.’

Gavin MacFayden, Director of the Centre for Investigative Jour-nalism, said he was “delighted”

about the move.

“In merging Goldsmiths’ aca-demic expertise and the CIJ’s extraordinary experience amongst practitioners, this partnership will continue the vital work of cham-pioning freedom of press and supporting ethical and fair jour-nalism,” he said.

The CGI provides training and resources for journalists, but most importantly in places where the freedom of the press is under threat.

The Department of Media and Communications will work closely with the CIJ in providing support, training and internships for journalist graduates both in the UK and for those facing oppressive regimes.

Marthe Holkestad, a first year BA Journalism student at Gold-smiths said the partnership would be beneficial for journalism and media students like herself.

 “I am excited about the fact that they want to move their base to Goldsmiths,” she said.

Goldsmiths also has plans to host the CIJ’s summer school, a training conference and series of practical “hands-on” workshops, public talks and film-screenings.  Professor Natalie Fenton, joint head of the Department of Media and Communications at Gold-smiths said that the centre will “bring an extra dimension to our international reputation.”

“It’s about getting student rep-resentation on all of the key decision-making bodies across the university.

“It is not a thorough and honest process if there are some commit-tees which remain secretive. This is about transparency and reas-surance that the student body is having a say on where their money is being spent,” said Littler.

The Students’ Union’s next move is to ‘ramp up’ the campaign starting with the online petition to build momentum before tackling the issue nationally. The campaign plans to go through the NUS and try and gain backing from gov-

ernment ministers such as David Willets and Vince Cable.

“There’s perhaps a conspiracy theory that the [remuneration] committee is full of Pat’s mates. What better way of debunking that than granting students rep-resentation on the panel? It will happen eventually, why not be the first and set a precedent?” Littler asked.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths, University of London said:“SU President, Conrad Grant, has proposed students be represented on the Committee and our Chair of Council Estelle Morris has promised to consider his proposal.”

staff responded that they gener-ally were not informed of changes that were going to be made to the equipment in their teaching rooms before they occurred.

A media department lecturer confirmed to The Leopard that this is the case, stating that this year has been as bad they can ever remember it.

They said: “There is a particular issue with the NAB, a new build-ing where problematic equipment was installed initially.

“They have been trying to do an overhaul this term in LG02, where all my lectures are. But it has just been handled badly as it has to be done in bits and

pieces because the room is usually booked on week-ends. Hopefully this is a particular issue that will be resolved over the break.”

The DSCs conducting the report on the subject of learn-ing resources recommended that morning checks take place, meaning that their budget should be increased for a member of staff or students willing to conduct the checks.

A recent statement by Liz Brom-ley, the Registrar and Secretary of the Univesity said: ““We apologise to those who have experienced problems and want to assure both staff and students that we are working on ways to provide a more effective and responsive

service.”

“To combat this and provide a more proactive service, we’ve hired Student Ambassadors whose role is to conduct daily checks on the most frequently used teaching rooms. We’ve also hired an extra full time member of staff to help with running our very busy equipment loan and teaching room support services.”

Bromley explains: “We continue to work closely with Gold-smiths Learning Enhancement Unit (GLEU) to ensure that the available equipment enables and facilitates effective teaching and learning across the University.”

NEWS IN BRIEF

Student say on management pay continued....

3NEWSMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

By Zak Thomas

The future of the Upper Gym is still under ques-tion, after talks between the Students’ Union

and the Estates Department have not yet reached a resolution.

The Upper Gym is currently the only indoor space freely availa-ble for Goldsmiths students to partake in sports activities. The dispute began when the University reclaimed the Upper Gym to use it as an exhibition space. Goldsmiths sports teams have reacted furiously to the decision.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths University said: “The Upper Gym will be used for the Department of Art Degree Shows 2014 and we have agreed funding for the Students’ Union activities for this period.”

Shay Olupona, Sports Officer at Goldsmiths SU said:

“Covering the cost in the short term is not a viable solution as the costs are just far too great and does not factor in students who might want to partake in recre-ational activity on campus. Nor does it take into consideration other departments who use the space, including Education who use it to train PGCE students.” Florrie Holloway, Goldsmiths Hockey captain wishes there were better sports facilities at Gold-smiths and said: “What we have at the moment is a bit pathetic.” Explaining that the Hockey team has to pay £75 for every training session they have on AstroTurf at Crystal Palace.

She also described the idea of the university covering costs for transport as a “flawed alterna-tive,”. Because there are not the correct facilities, the Hockey team already have to train off campus, and this discourages people from joining the team. She believes

that if sports teams lost the use of the upper gym, then other teams would experience the same prob-lem.

Olupona also believes this raises doubts about the future of the Upper Gym, and highlights the need for better sporting facilities in the long term. He said that ded-icated space for sporting facilities is limited and that Goldsmiths is falling behind other institutions in London.

He stressed that demand has increased for sporting facilities over the last year, and urged the university to do more to help its students partake in sport on campus, rather than off it.

Olupona also raised his concerns about sports clubs having to com-pete with other groups in the local area for space, and the distance these facilities would be from campus, which he believes raises issues of safety and security for Goldsmiths students.

Ellie Gay, Cheerleading captain at Goldsmiths said: “The Upper Gym is incredibly important to Goldsmiths Lions.

“It is our main and only training facility, without it, it would be very difficult to have a team and I believe we would have far less interest and commitment to prac-tices if we had to have them off campus.”

Goldsmiths Lions train in the upper gym for up to nine hours a week over four sessions. Gay said that it would be “very beneficial” to have better facilities and that the team would need a new safety mat if membership were to substan-tially grow next year.

She said: “For cheerleading the Upper Gym is essential to our pro-gress as it is important to train very

regularly to build up the necessary skills needed for cheerleading, as most members have never done the sport before.”

She also said that covering the full cost of the team’s needs by hiring “proper facilities” would not be financially viable, citing that a gymnastics gym would cost £60 per hour.

Cheerleaders have to buy their own uniforms and insurance which amounts to over £200. Gay said: “If there were a cost attached to every single training session then many of our members simply could not afford to do our sport at Gold-smiths, which would be a massive shame and highly unfair.”

Will Barnes, Goldsmiths Men’s Rugby captain said: “The Lack of investment into that space as a sporting facility is symbolic of the assumption held by many; that ‘people don’t come to Goldsmiths to play sports’, well guess what, they do!”

He also said that the upper gym is hugely important for his team, and provides a space for them to try out new things including yoga. He also explained that 70% of their budget went on hiring external venues and coaches.

Adding, that if the university were to move the space somewhere else, it would have to be within walking distance and fully covered finan-cially.

Holloway also said: “In my eyes sport is really damn important and just because we are primarily an arts college doesn’t mean we have to adhere to the stereotype that we ‘don’t do’ sport.”

“If anything there should be an increase in sports facilities and drive, especially for female stu-dents to join clubs - the Upper Gym changing its use would make this harder and thus be detrimen-tal for the student body.”

UPPER GYM SAGA RAISES QUESTIONS OVER “PATHETIC” SPORTS FACILITIES

4 NEWS THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

By Melanie Smith

Four members of The Leop-ard team won an award at The Times and Sunday Times’ inaugural hack

day, ‘Build the News’ last month. Editor Courtney Greatrex, News Editor Ella Jessel, Reporter Zak Thomas, and Designer Lia Quijano attended the weekend event, which saw teams of student journalists join web programmers, and then be challenged to come up with ways to create innovative forms of storytelling.

The Leopard team’s winning idea was entitled ‘Be There’ – a reim-agining of the live blog format during events or sports games. The concept was to bring atmosphere and debate to the user experience. Viewers could click icons that would lead to live streams and social media would be built into the design to create conversation between users.

Greatrex spoke about the competi-tion and their concept, which won

an award in the ‘crowd’ category:“Coming up with the idea was both a long process and a light-bulb moment. We’d spent hours trying to come up with an idea that was completely different than the one we actually went with.”

The Leopard team had “no idea” that they were going to win in their category.

“We were one of the only groups that didn’t have a developer. We were concerned that what we pre-sented wasn’t particularly on the same level as other competitors, so it was a really pleasant surprise,” said Greatrex.

‘Build the News’ also gave bud-ding hacks the opportunity to meet senior journalists, profes-

sional digital web designers, and technicians. It was held in central London and the event was well catered for with free food and goodie bags.

“It was really hard work,” said Greatrex. “Coming up with a tangible idea in two days is really quite difficult but I loved the chal-lenge and I think that we worked really well as a team – when they announced that we had won we sat sort of dumbstruck looking at each other!”

Matt TK Taylor, Production Editor at The Times, said: “Gold-smiths won for their really very inventive and innovative take on the live news or event experience, which is something we at The Times and The Sunday Times are very interested in given our recent contracts with the Premier League and Aviva Premiership.”

The Leopard’s news team are still surprised to have won. They said: “We haven’t celebrated yet, we’ve been too busy writing news! I think we’ll go out for some end of year celebratory drinks soon.”

LEOPARD NEWS TEAM HAVE THE TIMES OF THEIR LIVES AT HACK DAY

MARKING BOYCOTT TO GO AHEAD IF AGREEMENT IS NOT REACHED

By Ella Jessel and Melanie Smith

The results of the Univer-sity of London Union (ULU) referendum were released last week,

but despite the majority voting to keep the union, University of London (UoL) management are sticking to their guns.

All 18 of UoL’s institutions (approximately 120,000 students) were asked to respond to the fol-lowing question: “Should ULU’s building, activities and campaigns continue to be run democratically

by students?” The referendum has so far received 4,545 votes of which 86% were in favour.

However, a spokesperson for UoL told The Leopard that the turn-out figures only represent a “small minority”, with only 3.2% of the student body voting in favour of the referendum.

“We stand by the conclusions of our own review, endorsed by the heads of our Colleges and our trus-tees, which recommended focusing London University student rep-resentation in their own Colleges,” said the spokesperson.

UoL also said they would “con-tinue to support the principle of a

pan-London voice for all London students”. The Malet Street build-ing and its services will stay open and available to all UoL students.

Goldsmiths University, along with Heythrop College, was the only University not to be balloted for the ULU referendum.

The Leopard asked Conrad Grant, president of Goldsmiths Students’ Union, why Goldsmiths had not been given the opportunity to vote.“Unfortunately, IT Services had just completed the transition to new SSO (Single Sign On) details for all students. This was part of the email migration to the new Office 365 platform.

“It is quite a significant undertak-ing and the limited time frame we had meant that providing support to hold a fair and robust referen-dum was not achievable. Trying to hold the referendum without the work complete would have meant that we had no verification that eligible students were participating or a way to prevent multiple votes being cast,” he said.

Michael Chessum, President of ULU, is still fighting the closure of the union and accused UoL management of “running out of credibility”.

“The fight to keep the ULU build-ing in student hands isn’t just about ensuring the continuation

of vital campaigns and services, it’s also about what kind of edu-cation system we want to see: one in which students and workers are part of a genuine community and have the freedom and space to organise,” he said.

Shelly Asquith, Chair of NUS London and President of Univer-sity of the Arts said: “It is clear that students are rejecting the Univer-sity’s proposals, and the University of London must respect that. We are committed to working together to keep the ULU build-ing in student hands and create a pan-London union.”

REFERENDUM FOR ULU, BUT IS IT TOO LITTLE TOO LATE?

By Zak Thomas

A marking boycott will still go ahead if an agreement is not reached between uni-

versities and UCU.

Thomas Henri, Goldsmiths UCU President, believes that these talks came as a direct response to NUS President Toni Pierce, who urged both employ-ers and unions to get round the negotiation table.

Pierce described the 1 per cent pay offer to staff in The Inde-pendent as “measly” and said that the dispute now risks caus-ing huge disruption to students.

Henri told The Leopard: “Man-agement thought the boycott would be divisive between staff and students, but actually it has brought us together.

“My concern is that it will be soul destroying if we come back from these talks and all they offer is 2 per cent.”

Whilst Henri is encouraged by the talks, he said: “There is still a long way to go.”

Speaking to The Leopard when the boycott was announced last month, Geoff Stanning, who is studying a Social Work BA at Goldsmiths said: “I think it sounds like quite a good idea, because they need to do some-thing that will actually effect the university, and maybe if they do a marking boycott there won’t be stats for the university to publish how well they’re doing.

“It will hit them on the bottom line a bit more. Rather then just having a day off lectures, which won’t matter in the long run. I don’t mind getting my results a bit later.”

Mollie Kneath, 18, who is stud-ying English Literature and History at Goldsmiths said: “I don’t know who UCU are, but I personally don’t think I could support that; it would affect the students negatively and disrupt learning again, as all the other strikes have.”

A statement agreed between UCEA and UCU said: “The purpose of the exploratory talks would be to seek an early pos-itive dialogue on the key issues in the lead up to the 2014/15 pay round.”

MARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD 5

By Ella Jessel

Goldsmiths have invested 5 million pounds in their estate last year alone, and

another string of new develop-ments have recently been unveiled as the transformation forges ahead.

While the library has been a beneficiary – its new open-plan ground f loor area has proven extremely popular with students – the Rutherford building has not been earmarked by the Gold-smiths development ‘Masterplan’ as an area that requires significant development.

With the overall rise in Gold-smiths’ student population, the library is busier than ever before, and has even had to take the unprecedented measure of not allowing non-Goldsmiths students in for the upcoming exam period to avoid overcrowding.

A recent post on the Library’s blog explained that last year’s exam period saw such a high volume of users that there were not enough designated study areas.

“It was not uncommon to find stu-dents working in corridors and on

the floor whilst waiting for desks to become free.”

Students have become frustrated by the lack of study space to work, particularly in the silent areas. In a recent survey by the Departmental Student Coordinators (DSC), over 26 students responded that the library was the space that needed the most work, pointing to the noise, crammed workspaces, and ‘un-navigable toilets’.

One comment said that, “the library is in major need of a revamp”, with another saying: “library seating needs to be added in the quiet/silent areas’.

Sophie Searle, a third year English student told The Leopard:

“I think it would have to be bigger to improve. There are just too many people in one place. There are only a few places that are com-pletely quiet to work in now. The

second floor is so loud, and for people that might not have laptops I’m guessing it must be so difficult to work there.”

Karen D’Arcangelo, a media and modern literature student and DSC, told The Leopard:

“The library has been noticeably overcrowded throughout the year. During deadlines it is often diffi-cult to find a seat during the day, which impacts students’ work.”

Both Searle and D’Arcangelo, and other students interviewed gave positive feedback on the new open plan space at the bottom of the library.

One suggestion made by the DSC investigation was to open up the ‘dead space’ of the Prokofiev room to laptop users when no meetings are being held.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths said that the Univeristy is “com-mitted to improving student experience” through its planned developments.

“We’re also looking into future developments which will increase capacity for students in the Library, including maximizing facilities on the third floor and utilizing exist-ing space on the ground floor.”

“TOO MANY PEOPLE IN ONE PLACE” – STUDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT OVERCROWDED LIBRARY

NEWS

By Sebastian Kettley

Cyd Maddon Thom-linson and Gracey Morgan have been taking the initiative to

tighten the bonds of the LGBTQ community at Goldsmiths and have recently been elected as part-time LGBTQ Officers. Thomlinson and Morgan hosted the “Visibility Project” in the library on March 12. The Leop-ard took the chance to speak to Thomlinson about the current project and future plans for next year.

What exactly is the Visibility Project?It’s us working to build a strong LGBTQ community on campus, which is visible not only in gen-eral but specifically so that LGBTQ members of the student body know we are here, and that they can feel safe here.

Did you get any support from the SU? Or was it all done on your own with Gracey?It was led by Gracey, but we’re already very familiar with the current Welfare & Diversity Officer, Leon Killin, [formally Joe] who’s been extremely sup-portive of our work and of our campaign in the past year. Gracey is the founder of Gold-smiths LGBTQ of colour, and I’ve been the trans rep for the LGBTQ society committee, promoting and running their events.

Do you hope to stir things up a bit next year, and get the SU to take more interest? I think the SU has a lot of inter-est already, but it can only be improved. Between Gracey and I, and with improved links with the society it can only get better. My big interest, personally, is taking on the college.

So you are tackling the “Big Guns”?Of course. I want to work with the lecturers to ensure their lectures are safe spaces for LGBTQ students. I think it’s incredibly important to enforce the safe space policy. We also want to increase engagement with the student body. I think there’s a disconnection between the majority of students and the Union, which needs to change.

The LGBTQ Film Festival is coming up on the 20th of March?Yes. It’s over several days - but we’re planning two film screenings. We’ll be promoting through Facebook, Twitter, and the society mailing list, as well as posters. We’re also in the process of setting up a blog.

Any final words to the readers of The Leopard and those who voted for you? A huge thank you for voting, and mainly just know that we’re here for you. We work for you, we exist to help you, and we’re always available for you to talk to us.

CARRYING THE BANNER FOR GOLDSMITHS’ LGBTQ COMMUNITY

With the overall rise in Goldsmiths’ student population, the library is busier than ever before

Although, as Ibby Mehmet rightly says, turnout can “always be better”, this year’s turnout of 22% up from 20% in 2013 and 15% in 2012 shows we are competing with many other University of London institutions, and we’re in the turnout top 5!

1.SOAS with 23.07%2.Goldsmiths and Queen Mary’s tie second with 22 %3.UCL with 20.6 %TU

RNOU

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PRESIDENTHoward 750

Fred 276

HOWARD

SHAY

SARAH

BAHAR

ROSHNI

NAKI

ZIGGI

MARINA

TOM

SEANAN

DYLAN

DOUG APSI

FRED

CAMPAIGNS OFFICERShay 500Dylan 249Doug 162Apsi 141

EDUCATION OFFICERSarah 347Ziggi 233

Marina 174Tom 154

Seanan 133

WELFARE AND DIVERSITY OFFICER

Bahar 407Roshni 313Naki 236

SABBATICAL VOTES IN NUMBERS

By Cristina Lapadean

Leopard news reporter Zak Thomas will be editor of the newspaper next year after winning

the position in the recent student elections.

Thomas, who has closely followed the staff strikes this year, and writ-ten the popular article about the missing “D” on the Ben Pimlott building, said he is “absolutely delighted to have won”.

A gracious winner, Thomas said he would also like to thank his opponent Bart Foley for “running a really good campaign”.

Speaking to The Leopard, Thomas reinforced many of the points in his manifesto: “This is our student paper and it’s the perfect oppor-tunity for [students] to write and report on issues and events, while gaining experience in the field.”

His first steps as editor of The Leopard will be gathering a new

editorial team, as many current members are graduating this year.He said: “I’m also really excited about the prospect of having four columnists for each term next year, I believe this will really help to spark debate on campus, and build a stronger community at Goldsmiths.”

Thomas also said to look out for a new and improved version of our website, along with a “bunch of witty headlines.”

The Leopard caught up with run-ner-up, Bart Foley, who in light of last week’s results, said: “I’m per-sonally disappointed that I didn’t win, but I think that Zak will be a fine editor and continue the strong direction that the Leopard is taking.”

The Leopard also talked to current editor, Courtney Greatrex, who said she has “had a fantastic year” and is “excited to see what [Zak] does.”

“In the few short months Zak has been involved in The Leopard he has proven exceptional commit-ment to the paper and I believe it’s in good hands going into the future.”

“If I could give Zak one piece of advice [it would be] to make sure he’s surrounded by a great editorial team and a collection of commit-ted writers.”

By Ella Jessel

After a week of noisy campaigns on campus (and on Facebook), the winners of the Gold-

smiths Students’ Union elections were revealed in a tense evening under the twinkling lights of the Stretch.

The recent elections, which saw of 22 per cent of Goldsmiths stu-dents turn up to the polls, had the largest number of candidates and the highest diversity amongst the students running.

Ibby Mehmet, Democratic Representation & Governance Manager praised the candidates for getting creative with posters, badges, free bagels and live music, all which generated an “incredible atmosphere” on the Goldsmiths campus.

There was a record number of candidates running for all posi-tions, and the highest number of LGBTQ , BME, Women and students from diverse back-grounds.

Mehmet said: “Previously the union has struggled with the number of women candidates, this year there were more women candidates then male, with a 50/50 male to female sabbatical candidate ratio.”

The elected sabbatical team for next year comprises of Howard Littler voted as president of the Students’ Union, Sarah El-Aify as Education Officer, Bahar Mustafa as Welfare and Diversity Officer and Shay Olupona as Campaigns and Activities Officer.

The future SU President Howard Littler, told The Leopard:

“I’m really pleased with the results and excited for next year. We have lots of big ideas in the pipeline and I’m confident that with such a diverse and multi-talented team we can be more relevant to stu-dents than ever before.”  

Sarah El-Aify, future Education Officer said that although it was challenging running against such “high-calibre” candidates it was worth it when she won.

“I’m really looking forward to getting down to the core issues students face - things like time-table clashes, negligent feedback, and courses being cut - as well as working with the other Sabb, Media and Liberation Officers to really improve communication and representation in our Student Union,” she said.

ZAK THOMAS ELECTED AS FUTURE EDITOR

DEMOCRACY STANDOUT WINNER IN THE GSU ELECTIONS

6 THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014ELECTIONS

By Gaëlle Laforest

BAHAR MUSTAFA – Welfare & Diversity OfficerPreviously: Part-time Women’s Officer as a job-share with Karis Hanson.

Why did you get involved with the SU originally? As a woman from a poor back-ground with a myriad of identities affecting my daily experiences, I was frustrated and needed to share my anger in a forum with sympathetic folk.

What’s your top priority for your year as Welfare & Diversity Officer? Continuing to work on Safer Spaces, inclusivity, and give the management a tough time if they think they can continue to cut funding of Disability services and marginalised students on campus. I also want the Women’s Officer to be made into a full-time po-sition, and continue resisting the marketisation of education.

What’s your favourite thing about Goldsmiths? It’s the wonderful and creative people I’ve met and also my MA in Gender Studies; we have a great Gender Institute and awe-some lecturers!

Why would you recommend someone gets involved with the SU? Do it if you’re interested in mak-ing a difference on campus. Wield your anger creatively! And make management’s lives really tough.

Your favourite moment from elections…It was hearing my name being read out and knowing that I’d gotten the role. All the hard work was worth it, and now I have an exciting future at Goldsmiths to look forward to!

SARAH EL-ALFY – Education OfficerPreviously: Part-time Palestine Twinning Officer

Why did you get involved with the SU originally? In my first year I befriended James Haywood who was the SU President at the time. He really encouraged me to get more involved with the Union and societies, which led me to join the Palestine campaign committee.

What’s your top priority for your year as Education Officer?I want to actually speak to stu-dents and resolve the negative issues they’re reporting that they face at Goldsmiths. Nothing is too insignificant if it affects how students learn, and I want students to realise they have somewhere to communicate any problems they’re having.

What’s your favourite thing about Goldsmiths?I love Goldsmiths’ culture of acceptance and how you can meet so many different students from so many diverse backgrounds all in one place. It has this fantastic quirkiness, and it’s part of the Goldsmiths charm that I boast about to others.

Why would you recommend someone gets involved with the SU?I got involved because I feel not enough students are being repre-sented, and I have seriously been encouraging students to do the same. Not voting or not running for positions because you feel like the SU has nothing to do with you only results in exactly that, and we need to change this. It’s also really rewarding because you meet so many new people and do so many new things you never thought you’d do, even if you’re not initially interested in student politics. Your favourite moment from elections…Winning! But other than that, campaigning was a brilliant op-portunity to speak to others from outside my department and finally

see what others get up to in their own degrees and how different their university experiences were. SHAY OLUPONA – Campaigns & Activities OfficerPreviously: Sports Officer

Why did you get involved with the SU originally?I joined the men’s football team as a fresher because I thought sport would be the easiest way for me to meet new people.

What’s your top priority for your year as Campaigns & Activities Officer? Restructuring activities depart-ment, lobbying the university for support and tackling student engagement. I know that’s three things but they are all equally important.

What’s your favourite thing about Goldsmiths?I like the fact it’s small, it makes it pretty easy to meet people from across different departments in comparison to larger institutions.

Why would you recommend someone gets involved with the SU? It’s pretty cheesy but getting involved with the Union essen-tially changed my life. As a part time officer I learnt important life lessons and met some inspiration-al people. I’d encourage anyone reading this to do the same, I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for the people I’ve met at the SU.

Your favourite moment from elections…My campaign - the support I had all week from everyone was incredible!

SABB PROFILES

TOP TWEETS

7ELECTIONSMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

THE STUDENT PORTRAITBy Gaëlle Laforest Features Editor

Two weeks ago, you elected Howard Littler, 23, as your new Student Union President. I sat down with him for a chat on his first day back in the office after elections, where he has a few months left of being Campaigns Officer before moving to the opposite desk. Unsurprisingly, I learnt he’s been around the SU forever, loves it, and has big plans to make it more open, relevant and successful during his year as President.

First, tell us a bit more about yourself…I’m from Birkenhead, near Liv-erpool, where I went to one of the worst schools in the country. It didn’t inspire ambition in me, and I wasn’t actually sure about going to university. I thought it wasn’t for me, so I took a year out and worked as a caterer in Scotland. After several months of early shifts and really hard work, I thought: “This isn’t what I want to be doing for the rest of my life”. If I was going to go to university, Goldsmiths had to be it, so I only applied here! I did two years of Media and Modern Literature, before swapping to Politics.

Then you stepped in the Sabbatical Officers’ workspace and it seems you’re not leaving! What got you involved with the Students’ Union?I got involved with activism and it sort of took over my life! My first year was the peak of the student movement, with uni fees being tripled and Millbank. It really radicalised me. I think university is the only time and environment where you can explore where you are politically, and you should do that, you should explore life out of the lecture theatre. For me, the SU seemed to be where a lot of inspiring things were coming out. James Haywood was president, a very nice but also very involving

guy. Activism can be seen as a bit of a clique, but he was great at showing the SU is one of the only places where everyone can get in-volved and discuss the big issues.

You were Society Officer in your second year, then co-Campaigns Co-ordinator, and now Campaigns Officer. You’re now soon to become Union President. What’s your top priority? On a more philosophical lev-el, what I want is to make this Students’ Union relevant to all students. I want to involve people like myself when I first came here, and groups that are ignored like international, mature or part-time students. We must be a progres-sive force that makes the univer-sity as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.On a practical level, housing has always been my obsession and this year I want to take it further by creating a lettings agency run by the SU.

That was a big point in your manifesto, if not the main. Can you detail a little bit how it would work? We’ve been policing agencies and lobbying landlords with the housing campaign but we need to actually practice what we preach

now. To open the agency, all we need is a full-time staff member with experience in property, a location to do it in, and initial funding. I’ve been speaking to people from the University who are interested, now we just need to present a business proposal. We won’t charge fees; it won’t be run for profit so that won’t be our main concern. It’s really a project for students to get a good deal, and I’m ready to roll my sleeves up and get personally involved.

You say housing has been an obsession of yours, how come? If you spoke to any student, they’d have a horror story to tell you about their housing situation. I believe that as an SU, we should have a say on things that impact students massively, like hall fees. I saw nothing much was happening about housing, so I thought I’d start doing something!

Let’s talk about your team now – two self-identifying women and three BME Sabbs were elected alongside you. What difference does it make to your job knowing you’ve got such a diverse team?I’m incredibly excited about the entire team! I know them all very well and I’m actually intimidated by how talented they are. They’re not just diverse gender-wise or

ethnically, they also have very diverse skills sets. Shay knows all about activities and sports and can get these groups involved; Bahar has been fundamental to the SU and will be able to involve liberation groups every step of the way; Sarah is one of the most hardworking people I know and really committed to what she does. These skills put together come quite close to the

perfect Sabb team and I know they’re all going to do fantastic jobs. My job is to ensure the team are always working as one – it’s amazing the potential we’ll have then.

You talk a lot about getting more people involved in the SU, and especially groups or people historically isolated from it. How do you plan on doing that? We need to have a change of atti-tude, and ask not: ‘Why are they not coming to us?’ but: ‘What are we doing wrong?’ It’s about making it easier for people to access the SU, with simple things like live-streaming the Student Assembly or changing the times of our meetings to make them more accessible. Some people say they’re apolitical, but if you make an effort to speak to them, to ask them: ‘What do you think of management getting a massive pay increase?’, they usually have an opinion. We also need to get the part-time officers and student media more involved with more innovative training for them to ensure the SU is as inclusive as possible.

One issue that was at the forefront of elections was the SU’s financial difficulties and the future of The Stretch. You

said you want to keep the bar open, but what’s your plan to get money back in and ensure the viability of the SU?There’s so much misinforma-tion going around about the SU’s finances. We heard a lot of doomsday scenarios during elections saying the SU had an agenda of closing the bar, but that’s never been the situation. We keep looking, and rightly so, at ways to spend students’ money most effectively. With the bar, we shouldn’t look at how much mon-ey we’re making or losing, but at how students use the space or why they don’t. It’s a pretty terrible building, cold and chronically un-der-invested because management don’t realise how much sense it makes to invest in student life. We need to make students feel like they can own The Stretch. This is an on going conversation that I’ll keep having as President and an opportunity to really reform how we use our building.

Why would you recommend students get involved with the SU?I’ll go back to our cheesy motto: we inspire students to change the world. It’s quite ambitious, but it should be. The SU is such an en-abler for students to get involved broadly and meet people. There is a real power in collectivism, and by coming together through the SU we can change things instead of moaning!

A nicer one to end on: what’s your favourite moment from elections?I loved seeing people who had never ran campaigns before get really excited campaigning and thinking I might get to work with them. You make so many friends during elections; it’s got a great community vibe, with such diverse people talking about real issues. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: for the SU to succeed!

8 THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014ELECTIONS

MARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD COMMENT

By Jack Oliver-Blaney & Yusef Sanei

Will the con-troversial revelations about the Metropoli-

tan Police (Met) ever end? The recent publishing of the Ellison Report has shed even darker light on the Met’s disgraceful attempt at handling the murder of Stephen Lawrence. It reflects not just unprofessional, but morally abhorrent institutional conduct on a grand scale.

Lawrence, who was racially targeted and stabbed to death in 1993, and the subsequent mistreatment of the case led to now retired High Court judge Macpherson being asked to report on the Met. The Lawrence inves-tigation was handled atrociously to say the least, and Macpherson

concluded its failings were down to professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers. However, 15 years on, it has lead to no real change – unsurprisingly.

A recent independent inquiry showed that Scotland Yard had been spying on the Lawrence family. An unnamed spy was put in place to gather information on the family and their wider circle in order to give the police a pos-sible ‘secret advantage’. Surely a judicial system in place to uphold truth and justice wouldn’t need to have a ‘secret advantage’ over someone – especially when that someone is related to the victim, not the criminal.

Sadly the Lawrence case is not just a solitary example of the worst characteristics a police force can hold, but a running addition to a shameful list of exploitation of powers by the Met police. Assuredly now is the time to

realise that we must stop viewing the wrongdoings of the police in an isolated manner, and realise they’re indicative of a dysfunc-tional force that desperately needs to modernise and serve people without prejudice.

The Met’s wrongdoings in recent years include the killings of Jean Charles de Menezes, Ian Tomlinson and Mark Duggan, a racist abuse of stop and search laws (black people are over three times as likely to be stopped as others, resulting in perpetuating racial tensions between the Met and Londoners), and the ‘pleb-gate’ scandal with the attempt to stitch up a senior politician. If the severity and frequency of these scandals occurred within a private sector business, it would simply collapse in shame. People cannot keep maintaining the idea that the Met carry out what is wanted from a police force.

The problem isn’t a few bent coppers, but a whole institution,

intricately intertwined with a ju-dicial system, neither serving the people best. In light of these new controversies, it is almost certain that the police force are not in place to protect our democratic freedoms, but rather are in opera-tion to serve a small minority: the rich and whites. The police have an unparalleled position of power

within society, which is here being abused on an uncomfortably large scale with voices from within im-plying the Met is one of the most successful gangs in history. Chief Inspector Ian Kibblewhite once said: “You might have 100 people in your gang, but we have 32,000 people in our gang. It’s called the Metropolitan police.”

THE BIGGEST GANG ON THE BLOCK

As my departure from Goldsmiths comes ever so close and I reflect on my soon to

be five years here, I find it incred-ible what the Students’ Union can do to have a positive impact on students – as it has for myself.

Being one of the first officers in four years to hold a full-time position without before heading a society, sports team or being a part-time officer was definitely a great achievement for me. I did find it to be a struggle in the beginning to fully grasp the main concerns across the Students’ Un-ion, but as time went on during my year as Campaigns Officer, I found that being around the Sab-batical team and the knowledge from my Sociology degree helped me formulate my own political stance and become confident in the views I believed in.

The point I am making is that it is important that we continue to encourage students who may not be directly involved in the SU to stand in elections, regardless of their course or level of prior involvement. It is important that each individual brings their own unique perspective to campaigns and issues that need solving around the Union.

I have no doubt that the incom-ing Sabbatical team will be able

to champion campaigns and deal with the issues that affect stu-dents the most. During my term as Campaigns Officer I placed a huge emphasis on employability and on what the SU can do to help support students in getting experience for the future. I feel Howard, the President Elect, has done a great job taking this fur-

ther by allowing students to use SU facilities for work experience, with bar and shop skills sessions.

With the ongoing discussions among the student body about the future of The Stretch, having a Sabbatical Officer such as Shay will be very useful, he really has been innovative in regards to attracting students into the venue.

I feel Bahar has a great under-standing of the needs of libera-

tions groups. As part time Wom-en’s Officer she has spoken out about the gender inequalities that exist within the university, and I look forward to seeing her con-tinue to fight sexism on campus and build a strong platform for students from liberation groups.

Looking at Education officers nationally we often find they are solely focused on matters that affect their specific univer-sity. Fortunately, Sarah not only understands what quality educa-tion looks like on a national level but also on an international level, through her contact with students and universities from Palestine via her role as Palestine Twinning Officer.

The future of the Students’ Union is definitely in safe hands if it has anything to do with the sabbati-cal team and the promising new elected part-time officers. And with the election turnout increas-ing for the second year running, Goldsmiths Students’ Union is definitely heading in the right direction.

THE SU UPDATE

STUDENTS’ UNION

PRESIDENT – CONRAD

GRANT

Goldsmiths Students’ Union is definitely heading in the right direction

9

THE LEOPARD MARCH 201410 COMMENT

Goldsmiths preens to sit pretty on the shelves of the education marketplace, but while the expenditures of the refurbishments stretch into the millions, Ella Jessel asks about the costs to the university’s individuality.

The Richard Hoggart Building is basking in the glow of its million-pound

makeover. With self-frosting glass panels and hard orange seating, it now resembles a cross between a National Trust gift shop and a GP’s office.

At the risk of sounding like a jeal-ous lover, I wonder who this new look is for. Just an innocent paint-job? Or is Goldsmiths rolling out the glamour in hope of attracting more nine-thou—I mean students looking for an education?

You can’t sell degrees just by having a nice new building, so to compete in the education busi-ness, Goldsmiths has updated its ethos too. Up until this March the ‘about us’ page of the website hailed Goldsmiths’ ‘freedom to experiment’ and cited our ‘radical

and intellectually rigorous think-ing’ as some of the core tenets of our university. These have been demoted to a sub-section – what we’re really about now is “how to apply creativity to real life problems”.

Interdisciplinary learning is great and I’m not averse to better-de-signed webpages, but why the desperation to foist pragmatism on the arts, why remove intel-lectual stimulation and replace it with skills? Clearly even the most moderate use of ‘radical’ sits awkwardly with Goldsmiths’ vision of a market-orientated and profit-driven future, and no one will be surprised that it has been scrubbed off the blackboard of values. Any kind of activism or dissent has long been ignored by Goldsmiths management, and condemned by its stricter parents over the river in Bloomsbury.

“Oh it’s just a website blurb”, you cry! Perhaps, but a recent ‘Cam-pus Close up’ article by the Times Higher Education also champi-oned Goldsmiths for its ‘alloy of art and enterprise’. Ah enterprise, that well-known companion of poets and painters. When in the article, Goldsmiths Warden Pat Loughrey mentions capitalist art-market honey Damien Hirst

as the bastion of creative entrepre-neurship, alarm bells ring; when he claims the peak of creative thinking is a pop-up record shop, undergraduates might as well hang up their paintbrushes. For Loughrey, art has no value unless mentioned in the same breath as neoliberal buzzwords such as ‘innovation’, ‘entrepreneurship’ or even cold, hard, ‘real life problems’.

‘Creativity’ is just a skill to add to your CV, one that should be backed up with evidence of how you have made money from that mushy left hand side of your brain. No doubt senior manage-ment have good intentions, but with their non-existent presence on campus and their colossal sala-ries, their career advice is about as

unwelcome as David Cameron at the Bussey Building.

Goldsmiths continues its trol-ley-dash around the aisles of the education supermarket with a game-face more determined than the Russian winter Olympic team. We will not be left behind with our roll-ups and our run-down campus. Our building is shinier, our prospectuses glossier and our coffee cups say “Costa”.

But as diggers smooth the cracks in the concrete forecourt and students dutifully fill in surveys on iPads, it seems the Universi-ty’s attempts to perfect its image borders on obsessive. Recently, The Leopard was told to curb its (slightly excitable) tweets about the flooding in the newly refur-

bished main building as it might ‘put off ’ prospective students. Fair enough, Goldsmiths need-ed to send in the builders. But regeneration certainly hasn’t embraced the whole campus, and it is interesting which areas have not yet received the Midas’ touch. Academics are still hidden away in their ivory (Warmington) Tower, a building declared unfit for its former function as student halls. Yes, you read that correctly, unfit for student halls. Lecturers in the tower block freeze in winter and boil in summer and often do not have enough shelves for their books. Hyperbole? Only just. Despite the out-dated building, and the strange impression you are going to a crap house party when you are actually visiting the office of a world expert on James Joyce, the tower has a faded glam-our and eccentricity – a bohemia of academia. One sometimes expects to walk in to find the big-gest brains in humanities burning slices of toast. Many of them likely enjoy the irony and sym-bolism of their rooms with a view, but in all seriousness, why are our academics so low on the makeover ‘to-do’ list and stuffed in the tower like fairy-tale baddies?

Even further down that list? The Students’ Union, of course. At-tached to the glorious new RHB like a defunct hoover nozzle, not even its sticky floors and cheap pizza can keep the punters in. What has to be done before the Union gets a look-in, a heli-pad on the RHB roof? A Westfield in the courtyard? How many Costas need to be built before they fix the crumbling walls of the Union offices?

With its updated empty ethos and standardized ‘look’, Goldsmiths’ uniqueness and idiosyncrasies are being ironed out step by step. I expect the academics will be res-cued from their tower and decant-ed into fancier surroundings soon, but in many ways I hope they stay there. When it too is trans-formed there won’t be anywhere left that feels like a university. I’m not opposed to a lick of paint, but I am wary of this makeover’s implications. Just because we are forced to be education’s consum-ers does not mean we all want to be Damien Hirst.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

MARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD 11FEATURES

By Robert Martyn Thompson

Russia is currently domi-nating Western media’s headlines. Stemming from the Gay Propa-

ganda law, Russia drew massive condemnation over its blatant persecution of the LGBTQ community. In the run-up to the Sochi Olympics, the issue was highlighted following Channel

4’s documentary Hunted, with social and traditional media showing support to the LGBTQ community. This went as far as Google’s Russian language homepage displaying the rainbow

flag with a link to the Olympic Charter, which states that ‘every individual must have the possi-bility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind.’

Yet in recent weeks, focus has shifted entirely from Russia’s domestic affairs to its international ones. Its occupation of Crimea, following the Ukrainian revolu-tion, has drawn widespread from criticism. Considering Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, there are fears that it could escalate to war. As a result, the persecution of the LGBTQ community has qui-etly slipped from media attention

and into the archives. But just because the media stopped

paying attention doesn’t mean the issue has gone away.

This, of course, is not an isolated case. Syria is still tearing itself apart in civil war. The situation in

Libya is worsening. Egyptian cit-izens are still losing the rights they fought for when they overthrew Mubarak. Yet none of these issues are deemed head-

line-worthy enough anymore. Items that should be talked about in the public interest are being substituted for items that are inter-esting to the public.

Every government wishes it could have the power the media has:

the ability to set the agenda. They choose what is considered to be news, what we are exposed to, and therefore, the current zeitgeist. For example, the more the media reports on Crimea, the more we talk about it. As such, the media is an important tool. With the power to choose what exactly we are thinking about, they have the power to bring about change. By keeping its gaze on a particu-lar issue, the chance of action is increased.

When the media descended on Russia for Sochi, it hid away its homeless and tried to paper over its domestic issues. The Russian embassy tried to claim LGBTQ persecution in Russia was no

worse than the teasing of redheads in Britain. Ev ident ly, Moscow was concerned about the w o r l d ’ s o p i n i o n , which shows the extent to

which governments are worried by media attention. However, with the attention of the media now firmly on the Crimean crisis, the persecution of LGBTQ Russians is no longer in the spotlight – and abuse can resume, or exacerbate.

Media focus must remain on Russia’s treatment of its LGBTQ community until discrimination is ended and they are able to enjoy the same rights as other citizens. Only with pressure from inter-national organisations and media will the Russian Duma consider repealing the Propaganda law, beginning the path to equality.

When the world watches, the pol-iticians will act.

By Julia Haase

Ukraine has finally made a great step towards change, but with that step

turning what was an inner-po-litical conflict into a tensed

matter of international politics, was it really a positive one?

Ex-President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office after Ukraine MPs voted to oust him and an interim government is now working on reforms, but the country remains deeply divided.

The current heads of state exclude from their talks the politicians who worked closely with the former president. How can all demands and needs be taken into consideration if certain inter-ests are ignored? A long-lasting solution cannot happen without listening to every single voice.

Yet the former President’s sudden disappearance became almost irrelevant when Russian head of state Putin sent military troops to the peninsula of Crimea, bringing the conflict to the international stage. The president proceeded to take action and is now trying to draw Ukraine closer to its “big brother” than ever before, some-thing that the Crimea referendum seemed to confirm as the people’s will. It was reported 96.6 per cent of the inhabitants of the peninsula, still legally belonging to Ukraine, voted in favour of joining the Russian federation. Although the US and Europe are outraged about Russia’s inter-ference in Ukraine’s affairs, the results undoubtedly speak for themselves. Had this vote been long overdue?

The attitudes of West and East are hardening, but Europe faces yet another dilemma; with economical interdependencies at

the heart of it. Western states are indignant about the referendum and refuse to accept it, for they argue that under international law this vote is illegal. Really, they have their hands tied; their room for manoeuvre is limited because of their dependence on oil and gas from Russia. On the other hand, Russia earns good money from selling energy resources to Eu-rope, and the Kremlin is unlikely to simply pull the plug. Yet, the EU is planning to impose even harder sanctions on Russia, but Putin is unlikely to give in.

The rapid escalation of the situa-tion begs many questions. Should we expect more soldiers at border crossing-points? What of the tension in Ukraino-Russian areas? Are we on the verge of a second Cold War? Most importantly, how much freedom, if any, did the dismissal of Yanukovych really bring?

UKRAINE AT A CROSSROADS

RUSSIA ON THE MEDIA’S AGENDA (UNTIL IT’S NOT)

Every government wishes it could have the power the media has

Euromaidan protests on January 19. Credit Mstyslav Chernov

Google’s Sochi logo in support of gay rights

THE LEOPARD MARCH 201412 FEATURES

By Courtney Greatrex

“I was shocked when I found out I have to pay more for my second and third years. It made me feel miserable because I know I have no choice but pay it.”

Gigi Ching is a stu-dent at Goldsmiths speaking out against the stark, unsolicited

rise in fees that hit international students every year. Now in her third year studying Media & Communications, she is an inter-national student all the way from Hong Kong, here to get the very best out of her tertiary education.

Little did she know when she ap-plied that after her first year, she would be expected to pay £700 more for her second year and a further £1,400 for her third.

Students like Gigi from across the globe choose to travel to the United Kingdom to study, mak-ing it the second most popular destination for international students in the world, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

UCAS also say that 430,000 students from 180 countries come to the UK to benefit from its exceptional education system. For many institutions however, international students are a great way to make quick cash, paying up to four times that of a home student. It’s a fact that everybody knows but hasn’t addressed.

The average fee for an interna-tional student is £11,933 a year in the UK, and rises as high as £38,000 a year for one course at Manchester University. The concern is that these numbers are constantly on the rise. Gold-smiths in particular state that in-

ternational tuition fees are subject to annual review and are likely to increase by “approximately 3 per cent to 5 per cent each year.”

This however is not the case. The percentage increase between the 2011/12 and 2012/13 academic years was actually over 5 per cent, as it was for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 academic years. Respec-tively, fees increased 5.18 per cent and 5.03 per cent across all courses in the University.

“The real concern here is that the university has gone against their word,” says Elroy Laurent, an international student and De-partmental Student Coordinator (DSC) at Goldsmiths.

“Year on year, the students are made to stomach this unscrupu-lous behavior by the university. From the perspective of prospec-tive students who will, I assure you, hear of this exploitative,

unprofessional department, this would definitely be a considerable deterrent to choose Goldsmiths as one of their choices.”

Søren Goard, Education Officer at Goldsmiths Students’ Union believes that management needs to be responsive to students’ concerns. He says: “If you say that fees are likely to increase by 3-5 per cent per year, while in reality it’s at the high end of that esti-mate, you can’t be surprised when students end up feeling they’ve been mislead.”

The University of London, the collective of universities that Goldsmiths is a part of, said that there is no governing regulation for international fees and that the colleges set the fees themselves. UoL universities have some of the highest international fees in the whole of the UK.

The decision to charge interna-

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS -NOT JUST ‘CASH RESERVOIRS”

Every little increase counts, even if they think international

students come from rich families

and can easily fund their way through college, which is definitely not the

case for many, many students

MARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD 13FEATURES

tional students more that home students for their education came in 1979 under the Conserva-tive Thatcher Government who scrapped financial support for overseas students.

Between 1981 and 1984, univer-sities in the UK lost between 13 and 15 per cent of their total in-come and have since been forced to adapt to the lack of support from the Government. However, the switch of most universities to self-sufficiency has created a cul-ture that treats international stu-dents as cash reservoirs, increas-ing the cost of their education without any notice, and leaving students feeling ripped off.

Goard highlights that students, in particular international ones, are more and more feeling the eco-nomic pinch, which significantly affects their mental health. “Why give students more reasons to be nervous?” he asks. Goard believes that students could really benefit from the University making clear the hidden costs attached to their education.

Edinburgh University is one of the only UK institutions to have proven it is possible for univer-sities to take more responsibility for the setting of International Student fees. This came as a result of campaigning by their Students’ Association who pushed the Uni-versity to create a ‘fee guarantee’ for prospective students, meaning that students will know exactly how much they will have to pay for each year of their study before they begin their course.

Hugh Murdoch, the president of Edinburgh University Student Association told The Leopard: “This was a brilliant achievement by our reps last year and a very welcome step from the University.

“It will make a positive impact on international students at Edin-burgh starting in 2014. They will now know before they start their course what they will have to pay each year of their studies which will make it easier for them to budget for their time at Edin-burgh.”

Daniel Stevens, the International

Students Officer for the National Union of Students (NUS), has been campaigning against the unfair conditions for international students. He says: “Unfortunately the situation international stu-dents are finding themselves in at Goldsmiths is not uncommon.

“Goldsmiths is symptomatic of a poor domestic university funding system which forces universities and colleges to turn to interna-tional students and postgraduates to prop up where government has failed them.”

NUS research has found that at least 50 per cent of universities do not provide international students with this fixed fee guarantee like Edinburgh, but Universities UK, the representative organization for UK universities, suggests that the proportion of students impacted by fee changes could actually be much higher. They say 62 per cent of institutions, which amounts to 58 per cent of all international students, do not protect students from rising fees during their course.

Many students reflect this

discontent across the university, particularly due to the lack of support students today receive. Bartholomew Foley, a History and Politics student from Australia doesn’t believe that his course is ‘value for money’.

“Personally, my fees were raised from £11,000 to £11,700. My main question is: what exactly was £700 better? Inflation certainly isn’t that high and no reasonable signs were given for such a sub-stantial increase,” He says.

Goldsmiths have of course been quick to defend their situation by releasing a statement: “This year’s increase reflects significant investment across campus to improve the student experience – from upgrading teaching rooms, to hiring new academic staff and investing in our buildings.”

Their statement however raised some important issues for Shamb-havi Bhat, the elected part-time International Students Officer at Goldsmiths. For her, this state-ment insinuates that Goldsmiths have been pocketing international student fees for cosmetic chang-es to the University, such as the £1.4m restoration of the front

entrance to the College’s main building. She says international students were “not informed” that their fees would go towards a cosmetic project by the college.

Speaking about the financial pressure international students face, she says: “Every little in-crease counts, even if they think international students come from rich families and can easily fund their way through college, which is definitely not the case for many, many students.”

Laurent believes that if this discontent is not addressed, it will be reflected in student feedback surveys and departmental audits, which “would be largely detri-mental for the University’s stand-ing and potential recruitment beyond just the current batch of affected students.”

Goldsmiths have pledged their commitment to reconsidering the nature of International student fees: “We are discussing the fee setting process for continuing students with the Students’ Union and we are willing to look closely at any considered proposals for how this could be done differently in the future.”

14 FEATURES THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

WHY IT’S TIME TO UNPLUG

By Olivia Cassano

Are you and your smartphone inseparable? You’re not alone. A UK survey shows that 66 per cent of people are afraid to

lose or be separated from their smart-phone. I went two days without access to social media to see what would happen.

It’s 8 am on a Saturday morning and my alarm goes off. I swing my half-numb arm on my bedside table and with all too natural dexterity unplug my iPhone from the charger, bringing it about three inches away from my face. Seeing the lack of notifications on the screen, it takes me a minute to figure out why the WiFi icon on the top left corner of the home screen is missing. A reminder flashes: “SOCIAL MEDIA DETOX”. For the next two days my iPhone is to become nothing more than an overpriced phone. For someone who lives and breathes the Holy Trinity of social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), this experiment is akin to a herculean task.

We check our smartphones 150 times a day on average, with around 50 per cent of us posting content whilst we’re on the move. A 2011 Chicago Tribune survey showed that 40 percent of people with iPhones said they’d rather give up brushing their teeth for a week than go without their phone—alarming, isn’t it? Furthermore, a recent poll by the Huffington Post revealed that 50 percent of 18-29 year olds regularly use their smartphones on the toilet (have you ever tried to pull your pants back up with one hand while the other clutches your Pinterest feed? It’s hard). Here lies the crux of the issue: we’re so used to ceaseless connectivity that being deprived of it causes what is referred to as ‘disconnect anxiety’, the experience of negative emotions when unable to go online. This is why, much like with a drug or alcohol, abruptly cutting off tech use can result in withdrawal symptoms such as fretting and feelings of anxiety and isolation.

As I make my breakfast smoothie, it occurs to me that there is no point in drinking it from a vintage Mason jar with a pink

striped paper straw if I can’t post a picture of it on Instagram: an itch I can’t scratch. Fighting the urge to use some sort of app or social network makes me twitchy and fidgety, as if I didn’t know what to do with myself. I feel the need to check something —anything— I need to scroll. Social media is known as a culture of over-sharing: what we’re thinking, eating, doing, watching or listening to is online. Opening ourselves up in this manner is an emotional investment, and a 2012 study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that the longer people spent on Facebook each week, the more they agreed that everyone else was generally better off.

“An obsession with everyone’s online go-ings-on — to the point where you neglect what’s happening in your own life — can fuel feelings of isolation and self-doubt as you wonder if other people are better at their jobs, better-liked, or otherwise mov-ing forward more quickly than you”, says author and research psychologist Dr. Peggy Drexler.

Online, we’re constantly on the receiving end of approval, and with every ‘like’, ‘heart’ and ‘share’, we receive a dopamine hit that makes us feel good and creates a false sense of connection with people. However, neglecting the sources of real-life satisfac-tion (friends, family, lovers and career) and

turning more and more to the cyber realm for approval can be detrimental.

Mark Williams, professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University, says: “We need to understand the power of an e-mail or Facebook alert. It has the same psycho-logical status as someone waving to us in the street. We have evolved to notice and to respond to it. This is why it is so difficult not to respond.”

That’s what has made me a validation junkie. Despite me not being of conceited nature, posting a selfie was the equivalent of asking friends: “How do I look? Do you LIKE ME?” Similarly, I realized that I am constantly navigating through any mundane activity as I would the Internet. I think in status updates and translate experiences into 140 characters or less. Any great thing that is presented to me, I jump out of. My brain dissects and categorizes everything through social media: how am I going to describe this and where do I post it? And just like that, the moment is lost. A social media detox can prevent burnout. Not staring at a screen all day genuinely resulted in a better night’s rest, and by the end of the 48 hours I was able to wake up without hitting the snooze button. And, when you’re not on your phone, you instantly notice: everyone else is. Almost every single person I saw had their eyes

glued to a device while they were happily tapping away on touchscreens. Another thing I realized was that constant connec-tion drives down the value of a conver-sation. Every friend I met over coffee or lunch seemed to be more invested in their Whatsapp conversation than in me sat right in front of them.

If you find that you can’t go past the main course in a restaurant without taking out your phone to Instagram your meal, if you can’t visit the WC without using those 35 available seconds to respond to a Facebook notification, or if the very first thing you do when you wake up is to reach for your phone, you may want to consider break-ing up with your iPhone, Galaxy Note, or Nexus 5.

It’s a good idea to prioritize how you should spend your time online. Monitor your relationship with your device and social networks and realize that Facebook is not your best friend, but rather your human best friend is—talk to them (the operative term being ‘talk’, not text). It’s all part of shifting your focus: instead of thinking ‘I’m so great! I have 20 new followers,’ be thankful for legitimate moments of hap-piness, and not what’s found on your news feed. Fight the urge of broadcasting every memory, and, before you know it, you’ll be #cured.

Photo Credit: Jason Howie

Student Services Counselling www.gold.ac.uk/student-services

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Sleep & Wellbeing

Wednesday 26th March 2014 12 Places available 12 noon – 2pm |Venue confirmed on booking

Presented by Goldsmiths Counselling Service in partnership with Lewisham NHS

Do you: Sleep too much? Find it difficult to get to sleep? Feel tired and not refreshed after waking? Wake too early and can’t get back to sleep? Have difficulty concentrating? Have frequent headaches? This workshop may be for you. The facilitators will explore factors which can cause sleep disturbance by providing useful information, tips and techniques to help you improve your sleep pattern.

Booking forms are available in person or by email from the Service Coordinator, Goldsmiths Counselling Service.

The Counselling Service St James Hall Block 1A T: 020 7919 7472 E: counselling-service@gold.ac.uk W: www.gold.ac.uk/counselling

Student Services Counselling www.gold.ac.uk/student-services

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Substance Misuse

Information and Advice Service Mondays 2-4pm |Counselling Service

Goldsmiths Counselling Service in partnership with Lewisham CRI Goldsmiths Counselling Service is working with Lewisham CRI offering specialist support to Students & Staff on issues related to Alcohol and Drugs. The Substance Misuse Project worker will be available in the Counselling Service on Monday afternoons to offer information, support and advice. Existing clients can be referred by their Counsellor and new clients on completion of a form and short-referral assessment. Please contact the Counselling Service counselling-service@gold.ac.uk to make enquires or to register your interest.

The Counselling Service St James Hall Block 1A T: 020 7919 7472 E: counselling-service@gold.ac.uk w: www.gold.ac.uk/counselling

15CULTUREMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

CLASSIFIEDS

Student Services Counselling www.gold.ac.uk/student-services

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Exam Tips Workshop

Monday 24th March 2014 11 – 1pm | Venue confirmed on booking

Goldsmiths Counselling Service in partnership with Lewisham NHS

You will be given some ideas & tips for managing various aspects of the exam process. However the aim of the workshop is also to encourage you to think about your personal responses to exams & explore your own learning & performance styles. You will be encouraged to think about your perceptions of exams, which of your various coping strategies work for you & which you might benefit from changing or developing. There will also be an opportunity to consider the blocks to changing unhelpful study habits. Book in person or by email with the Service Coordinator at Goldsmiths Counselling Service. Booking Open Now!

The Counselling Service St James Hall Block 1A T: 020 7919 7472 E: counselling-service@gold.ac.uk W: www.gold.ac.uk/counselling

Student Services Counselling www.gold.ac.uk/student-services

Physical Activity Information Workshop

Wednesday 19th March 2014 12 Places available 12 noon – 2pm | Venue confirmed on booking

The Improving Student Lifestyle Series

Presented by Goldsmiths Counselling Service in partnership with Lewisham NHS and a Personal Trainer from Goldsmiths Club Pulse Fitness Suite

This workshop explores: • Simple ways to keep fit on campus • Free and easy ways to keep fit • Ways to improve physical activity • Representatives from Students’ Union dance, and team sports.

Health workers will provide, support, information and advice in a friendly group setting

Please contact the Counselling Service counselling-service@gold.ac.uk to book or to make enquiries

Booking Open Now!

The Counselling Service St James Hall Block 1A T: 020 7919 7472 E: counselling-service@gold.ac.uk W:www.gold.ac.uk/counselling

Who is.....

ROB JAMES?

@robjamesUK

BEST NEW MUSIC, UNSIGNED ARTISTS & INTERVIEWS

MONDAY NIGHTS LIVE www.wiredradio.co.uk

7 PM

WIRED RADIO

We are looking for new committee members for the academic year 2014-2015.

Find out more facebook page: facebook.com/goldsmithshistorysociety

Tweet us at: @GoldHistorySoc

Email us: goldmithshistorysoc@gmail.com

16 CULTURE THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

Here it is, the last Recommends / Condemns of the year. Who knows, it may even be the last ever. We know you’re scared, but it’ll be ok. Our Culture Editor, Emmet, wishes to extend his sincere thanks to all of you for failing to email him any suggestions for

this feature over the months. “You guys really didn’t make this what it was,” he says. Enjoy!

LEOPARD RECOMMENDS / CONDEMNS

Camberwell ReservoirThe best view of London you’ll get without paying however many million pounds it costs to go to the top of that big pointy bastard in London Bridge. It’s fenced off to the public, but there may or may not be a hole in the fence about half way up that may or may not allow easy access.

Pets at uniWe know it’s tempting to bring some sort of critter into your uni life, but it can surely wait. Let’s face it, most of us can’t even look after ourselves at this point in our lives, let alone something that can’t even navigate JustEat.

Getting up before 2pmSomething that has only recently become worthwhile. Now that the sun is making an appearance, let’s make it know it’s wanted. Get up, get out and show it your lovely face in appreciation.

Blindly sharing links on FacebookLet’s let this “First Kiss” advert video be a warning to all of us. If it’s well produced, comes out of nowhere and sets social media alight, it’s probably not what it seems. If something is worth telling your 500-odd online buddies about, it’s worth Googling first.

Sunflowers at The National GalleryVan Gogh’s sunflowers are some of the most famous paintings in the art world and two of them are hanging out together in the National Gallery for the first time in 65 years. The exhibition (if you can call it that) is free, takes about 10 minutes to see and is a once-in-a-lifetime kinda deal.

“So what are you going to do once you graduate?”FUCK OFF. JUST FUCK OFF. WE DON’T FUCKING KNOW. PROBABLY MOVE IN BACK HOME AND MOPE AROUND OUR PARENTS’ HOUSE. STOP FUCKING ASKING THIS FUCKING QUESTION....best of luck to all third years as the year draws to a close from all at The Leopard.

Procrasti- spring cleaningIt all starts with “I’ll never get this thing written with all this stuff on my desk” and quickly leads to “how will I manage a bibliography with all this old toothpaste in the sink?” And you know what? It’s a pretty bloody good way to avoid work, we say.

Rushing out to cycle the cityIsn’t it tempting it is at this time of year to hop onto Gumtree and grab a cheap old bike to explore the city on? It’s good for you, it’s good for mother nature and it’s cheap. But New Cross to Piccadilly Circus is not the best journey to find your cycling legs. Make sure you know the rules and how to stay safe before venturing out, it’s a jungle out there.

17CULTUREMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

By Emmet Simpson

In the last issue I published my love letter to Xiao Long Bao. I declared these Chinese soup dumplings to be the best

food of all, and I stand by that. I spent weeks after my experience with them thinking about just how lucky we are to live in a part of the world that grants us access to such a wealth of international delicacies. There isn’t a national cuisine that is not represented in this city. No matter what kind of food you want, it’s going to be available somewhere in this town. And that is amazing.

But what if that was not the case? What would London’s food scene look like without the influence of multiculturalism on modern London? What did London used to taste like? Fish and chips? Probably not, that’s best left to costal towns. Roast dinners? More of a Sunday ritual than a staple meal. Pie and mash? Now we’re talking.

I decided to seek out a true pie and eel outlet. I looked up the remaining pie and mash houses and settled on the oldest one in London. That, rather helpfully, turned out to be a 5 minute walk from my flat. The M. Manze pie and mash shop has been serving up true Cockney fodder since 1902, and very little has changed in that time. The establishment is a living antique in itself. The walls, clad with beautifully aged jade tiles, benched seating and antique light fittings giving it a feeling of true authenticity. Even the service was classic in its own way, the servers behind the counter welcome customers with the sort of Cockney warmth that seems almost too perfect to be genuine (although it is).

Scanning the offerings listed on the faded 70’s style menu board, I settle on the most popular dish. One pie with mash and the curi-ously named “liquor”. This liquor is, it turns out, essentially a sort of flavourless green-speckled sauce that serves to loosen up the heavy components of the meal. Appar-ently it’s a parsley sauce, but the flecks of vegetation within could

really have been anything. Gravy is also available, but looking at the size of the bucket housing the liquor compared to that for the gravy, I deduced that liquor was the more popular option and so went with that.

Once plated up, the meal fulfilled its description. One pie, three smears of mashed potato and a few ladles of liquor adorn a white plate. The pie is filled with lumps of meat in a brown sauce. Which meat it is, I could not say. To talk

about the taste of the pie would be tough, as there isn’t really much to report on that front. What we are dealing with here is a meal designed to fill a stomach rather than excite the palate. For the impressively low price of £3.50, you’d be naive to expect anything more. So yes, it’s bland, but I hadn’t anticipated much else as I ventured into traditional London grub. I suppose if I had been brave enough to sample the jellied eels I’d have been on the receiving end of a more intense flavour experi-

ence, but I’m happy for those to remain a mystery.

A visit to a pie and mash shop like this is more of a cultural outing than a culinary experience. It’s about looking into London’s past and experiencing its history first hand. It’s a chance to reflect on the changes this city has seen in the past few centuries. It helps you to appreciate the culinary multiculturalism we are afforded today, to which we rarely give enough credit.

By Albie Amankona

Last April, Beyoncé rocked the O2 arena with 6 sold out gigs and almost a year later she’s returning

for the second European leg of her sold-out Mrs Carter Show world tour.

Make no mistake, this is a com-pletely different show from last time. Since her last visit she has released her platinum certified, critically acclaimed self-titled ‘visual album’ which has gone on to sell over 3 million copies and spawn her 39th Top Ten hit ‘Drunk In Love’.

Before the show even begins the arena is in euphoria, the excited crowd audibly and visibly giddy with anticipation. When the lights go down the whole arena

has the same thought: Beyoncé is in the building.

After an intense build up filled with operatic notes and church-like music, the show begins with fan favourite ‘Run The World’. After this point we say goodbye to Beyoncé as we know her for when she reappears with a new costume and attitude - commanding we all ‘bow down’ and affectionately referring to us all as ‘bitches’ gone is the sweet, feminist-when-it-suits-her, polite Beyoncé we have grown to love; in is the domineer-ing, aggressive, punk-like Beyon-cé we are learning about every second that passes.

Beyoncé preaches 4th wave fem-inism over an aggressive hip-hop beat in ‘Flawless’ followed by a scorching, reggae’ed rendition of ‘Baby Boy’. Beyoncé’s cos-tume changes too many times to count, her most flamboyant is the

metallic golden leotard complete with silver ‘nipples’ she sings disco tinged, innuendo filled Blow in mash up with a bit of Candy courtesy of Cameo. Also per-formed in the silver-nipped-le-

otard is limousine sex anthem Partition where she pole dances and rocks more than suggestively on a TantraChair™.

Screeching Violins and snippets of Video with a black and white Beyoncé on a beach precede the highlight of the show ‘Drunk In Love’ the sexy duet with rapper husband Jay-Z. Beyoncé sings whilst straddling a chair in a

shimmering grey catsuit. Mi-graine-inducing strobes disguise a dark figure walking behind her before all of a sudden, Jay-Z himself is rapping away. The roar-ing crowd has a “did-that-just-happen?” moment in complete unison. As far as pop moments go, they don’t get much bigger than this.

Beyoncé tries her hardest to seem relatable in breakup anthem ‘Irre-placeable’ where she tries to trick us into thinking she’s been lied to and cheated on as many times as anyone else. Hands flicked left so many times RSI is a genu-ine concern, she runs through the crowd onto the B-stage and snaps her fingers for the four-key transcending ‘Love On Top’. She finishes the show with a truncated version of breakthrough hit ‘Crazy In Love’ followed by ‘Single La-dies’, a nod to Whitney Houston with a rendition of ‘I Will Always

Love You’, the heart wrenching ode to her miscarriage Heaven (in which she cries) before reaching the incredible climax of the show with current single ‘XO’ which she dedicated to her fans. The show concludes with the an-themic Ryan-Tedder (OneRepub-lic) produced ‘Halo’.

Beyoncé once again shows the world that she is music’s Queen Bee. She is Mrs Carter, Sasha Fierce, Mother and feminist icon all in one. She remains unparal-leled in the Pop world and is the closest thing we have to a Michael Jackson-like pop culture mon-arch. Without a doubt this tour will surely go down as one of her defining moments.

Beyoncé’s self-titled ‘visual album’ is available to purchase on iTunes now, the European leg of the Mrs Carter Show World Tour contin-ues until March 27th.

BEYONCE REVIEW

PIE AND MASH

Without a doubt this tour will surely go down as one of her defining moments.

18 CULTURE THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

By Zak Thomas

Equality,’ an art exhi-bition hosted by Goldsmiths LGBTQ society on Wednesday

12 March, was the first of three exhibitions, showcasing a diverse array of pieces that tackle issues from equal marriage, to issues of self-identity.

The exhibition began in the canteen of RHB, with a short film by Mandy Niewohner, de-picting the artist dancing with a cardboard cut out of Russian President, Vladimir Putin dressed as Wonder Women. The piece serves as a protest against Russia’s recent gay propaganda law, and it’s completely tongue in cheek.

As you watch the film, it makes you feel like the artist is taking con-trol of the situation, rejecting Putin’s anti-gay laws, and saying no, I’m in control, you’re just a cardboard cut out. On the whole it’s completely light-hearted, but serves as a reminder that a strong voice is still needed, if the LGBTQ community is to achieve equali-ty internationally.

The rest of the exhibition was held in L1 gallery, a small space on the first floor of RHB. The work of exhibition curator Tanya Kemp, was particularly striking. ‘Equality’ consisted of a wedding dress splashed in rain-bow ink with the word ‘equal’ sewn onto it multiple times. Originally inspired by the fight for equal marriage last year, this seems like a fitting tribute to the first gay marriages, which will take place in the next few weeks. Splattered with ink and placed upon a base of rainbow origami flowers, the piece is striking in colour, delivers a highly positive message and puts in to question what constitutes a traditional wedding.

‘Manual 2013,’ by Efrat Zehavi, depicts a hermaphrodite figure. Unfortunately the original could not be shipped from Holland, but the photographs on display completely did the sculpture justice. The sculpture is painted in a mixture of purple and red paints, a thin naked body with chiselled cheekbones, short hair and hands in the genital area. Overall, the piece challenges preconceptions of gender and sheds light on the fact that throughout history sculptures have largely neglected hermaph-rodite people.

The final piece, ‘Write Me a Note’ by Steffany Mortlock externalises all the many facets

of identity, from internal perception to personal experience and judgment from others, through a series of black and white self-portraits

that picture the artist covered in words. The photographs are highly evocative, with words like ‘creep’ written across her forehead and ‘dyke’ written on her arm, the experiences of the artist are laid bare for all to see. A reminder, that how we see ourselves is not just through in-ternal belief, but also forms from the language that people use about us and our experiences.

On the whole the exhibition was highly evocative, containing a diverse selection of pieces, whilst remaining faithful to the theme of equality. Considering the exhibition only contained four pieces, credit must go to the curator Tanya Kemp for finding and putting together such a distinct selection. If you missed this exhibition, never fear, this was the first of three exhibitions, which will take place over the next few weeks. An announce-ment from the LGBTQ society on the time and date of these will be coming very soon.

By Josie McCrickard

With issues of immigration all over the news and controversy about

European migration the hot topic of the moment, Luca Silvestrini’s new work Border Tales hits right where it hurts.

Silvestrini, artistic director of Protein Dance, has secured his place as leader of comedic dance productions in his unique fusion of movement and text, with acclaimed works including Dead Body and LOL. Border Tales is no exception; the remarkable cast delivers a substantial script while moving gracefully and effortlessly. But the weighty subjects of im-migration and multi-culturalism mean that the work has to subject itself to scrutiny. The performance follows the

personal stories of eight leading dancers of varying nationalities and the torment they endure as subjects of racial stereotyping in London. Good intention is palpable but Luca’s storytelling leaves him constrained within his own stereotypes. The cast hands judgments down to us as our own thoughts. “I think you think I have a bomb in this rucksack,” says Egyptian Salah, “I think you think I only drink Guinness” comes from Irish Stephen.

The ridiculous nature of these statements is superficially effec-tive, and the audience sniggers; but Luca is preaching to the converted. Is it enough to merely stereotype the stereotype-er? The audience of a show about mul-ti-culturalism by a contemporary dance company is likely to feel entirely comfortable with this sort of simplistic message; they are surely entitled to something deeper and more challenging.

Even so, the show is technically brilliant and the overall effect is moving. The multi-national cast delivers a quality blend of tradi-tional cultural movements, jolting fights over personal space and amusing character display. What underpins this success is the

essential connection that exists between the dancers. Whatever cultural assumptions they articu-late vocally, they rely physically on each other.

When Anthar from Columbia and Salah belt out a mash-up of Columbian and Arabic sounds, the result is mesmerising. The cultural blending is a clear meta-phor of multi-cultural harmony in London and is a more powerful message than any of their clichés of prejudice.

Taiwanese Yuyu Rau stole the show. The only female lead, she dances with a delicacy, which belies her powerful portrayal, shunning effectively the many ste-reotypes her character confronts; the submissive, the scared, the shy. Her illuminating performance is especially impressive as a lone female.

Perhaps we need to accept that the stereotypes exist; to dismiss them and move on. Although Luca dwells in the present more than he moves forward, the qual-ity of his cast makes Border Tales a sensation, albeit an awkward one at times.

LGBTQ EXHIBITION REVIEW

PROTEIN: BORDER TALES @ THE PLACE

By Melanie Smith

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave did pretty well at this year’s Oscars... And Golden Globes... And

BAFTAs – in fact, at pretty much every award ceremony.  It’s no wonder that Goldsmiths’ market-ing team, press office, staff and students are going pretty wild.

But a Twitter storm that caused much stir in the social hub of students at both Goldsmiths and Chelsea Art’s College calls

for a discussion of its own. Both institutions claim that McQueen is in fact their alumni. Univer-sity of the Arts London view McQueen as their alumni, as he studied there before coming to Goldsmiths. A half-jokey social media argument paved its way onto many a student’s Twitter feed throughout the aftermath of the Oscars, each student vowing allegiance to their long-gone graduate.

But this isn’t just a London based battle; before his time at either college, McQueen spent time at New York University (NYU) studying film. NYU also claimed McQueen as their own via twitter as he got up on stage and delivered a heartwarming speech – which interestingly did not include any recognition of his university education. Well, thanks!

However silly this mystery may present itself, it does make you

wander… whose alumni is Steve McQueen? Goldsmiths’, NYU’s or UAL’s? Is it fairer perhaps to question whether any of the universities are at all significant to his Oscar wins? Would he have been claimed as an “alumni” if he hadn’t been nominated or won Oscars? Probably not. Universities want to be represented in the best way possible. It’s a money game, a marketing strategy. As a prospec-tive Goldsmiths student tweeted: “Steve McQueen won and Oscar and went to Goldsmiths, I’m going to Goldsmiths, therefore, I will win an Oscar. #logic”

Fortunately, this saga is now con-cluded, and we’re happy for him whoever he claims to “owe” his success to. Ultimately, it is pretty special that someone who went to two London universities has had such a successful career. That says something about the education here, and the creative talents we have in the city.

MCQUEEN’S OSCAR, BUT WHOSE ALUMNI?

The exhibition was highly evocative, containing a diverse selection of pieces, whilst remaining faithful to the theme of equality

19CULTUREMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

By Rob James

Goldsmiths is a place where hard work and creativity combine to fantastic artistic

effect. Continuing this tradition are former BA Popular Music students, Caragh Campbell and Nick Powell. The pair met in their second year and began play-ing together. It wasn’t too long before they branded themselves as Buffalo Ink. We caught up with Nick to talk about his time at Goldsmiths, current projects the band are working on and how life changed for the band after grad-uation.

How would you define your time at Goldsmiths?

I worked really hard, I was in the library quite a bit. My main memory of Goldsmiths is the creative spirit that everyone has. There’s a real sense of creative to-getherness, it nurtures a commu-nity feeling on campus that you don’t get in other places. It was a wonderful time and we really enjoyed it. We learned so much, it really turned my view of music on its head.

What effect did graduating from Goldsmiths have on the band?

Graduating was tough, Gold-smiths is not a community that you’re cast out of but there’s the stress of no magic money through student loans. The main difficulty for Caragh and myself was trying to find some kind of work. As a band we managed to get hold of a little studio and we have been able to keep that going. Graduat-ing as a band didn’t really change us but it gave us the confidence that we could do this outside of Goldsmiths.

What are you working on at the moment?

We released our Moss EP last September. We’ve just released a video for our track ‘Spiral Start’ we’re currently working on some new stuff but we’re keeping it a

bit quiet at the moment. We’ve been playing together a while now and now we want to de-fine where we want to go. Our ambition this year is to make Pixeled a really good club night at the Amersham Arms, since we run it. It’s all about networking, trying to meet as many musicians as possible and engaging with the local community. We try to draw

our original audience and bring everyone together. We also want to record an album or EP that we’re really proud of.

Buffalo Ink have remained in south east London since gradu-ating from Goldsmiths in 2009. They continue to represent the music scene in the area with their avant-pop sound. Their perfor-mance at the Amersham Arms in early March showed a clear new direction for the band. Caragh’s technical on the drums is of the highest quality and gives their tracks a powerful foundation. This, coupled with Powell’s ability to make a guitar sound like it’s connected with his very soul, is most assuring. We can expect their next album or EP to be a well-crafted piece of work that perfectly displays the passion of the hard work and creativity that Buffalo Ink put into their art.

For more information head over to Face-book and Twitterhttps://twitter.com/buffalo_inkhttps://www.facebook.com/buffaloink-music

By Emmet Simpson

Last month I was lucky enough to be invited to an advanced press screening of the new,

highly anticipated (?) Need For Speed movie. Notable for staring Aaron Paul in his first post-Breaking Bad roll, the film is seeking to follow in the footsteps in the six-part vroom-vroom fest, The Fast and the Furious.

The Need for Speed video games are the most successful in their genre, with over 140 million copies of the 20 games in the series having been sold since it appeared in 1994. One thing I can say with absolute confi-dence is that the film franchise (assuming anyone bothers to put any money into a sequel) will not even come close to this level of success.

The screening I attended was at VUE, Leicester Square. After checking in and signing a press embargo, we were told to head

upstairs to a lobby that was being referred to as “the drive-thru”. I wasn’t sure why a pre-screening lobby would be labeled like this until I made it up there. Me and my fellow invitees were present-ed with a buffet table stacked high with boxes of McDonalds. It’s hard to explain quite how bad a table of 50 Big Macs, 50 Veggie burgers and 500 McNug-gets smells. It’s not good, anyway. What was good was the open bar, something that me and my fellow reviewers availed of fully.

But the free alcohol and fast food was not enough to make up for the absolute shit show that followed. Scenes intended to bring the audience to the edge of their seat instead had them leaning back in order to more comfortably die of laughter. The film has a plot that feels as though it was conceived in the editing room. The acting talent of Aaron Paul is completely wasted, to the point that I am actually left fearful for his career. How was this the best script he was offered since Breaking Bad? How did his management land

on this as the best way for him to transition to the big screen?

Need For Speed is, without doubt, one of the worst films I have ever seen. I need to make that absolutely clear. This is a truly awful movie. I briefly con-sidered going easy on it in this review, given my bias as someone who could not care less about footage of fast cars doing skids. I considered for a while how fans of the video games would feel about the film. Maybe they’d be into it? And, yeah, maybe they would… but I’d be very sur-prised. I think anyone paying £7 to see a film in a cinema expects some sort of coherent story line, something Need For Speed fails to deliver.

I suppose if you’re the kind of person who really likes the sound that cars make when they go round comers at speed and don’t consider a storyline an important part of the movie-going expe-rience, then this is is the film you’ve been waiting for. If you’re not that kind of person, see something else. Anything else.

TAKE A BOWBy Alice Lefèvre

Spring is on its way and it seems even to be giving us a sneak peek of the one we’re all waiting for,

the summer. It’s time to drop the heavy coat for a light jacket and the woolen hat for the sunglasses. It’s time to walk down London’s streets, smiling at people you don’t even know (careful not to get too carried away with that though!).

But we, the students of this city, seem to not be quite ready for the sitting and singing in parks without care, because it is dead-lines season. And even though we do go out in the sun, let’s be honest here, we’re doing so with an air of guilt.

The positive side of it all is that when it’s over, we will be free to enjoy the spoils of summer in the city. Meanwhile, I have a little secret to share with you and

help you cope with the unat-tractive appeal of the library on a sunny day; a place to get some work done, free of the memories of 5-minutes-to-deadline print-ing issues. My secret is called Muxima.

From the outside, Muxima looks like just another run-down chicken shop, but hold on your judgement until you go through the door. Remember that old cupboard in Narnia, taking you into a whole different and magical world? Well I guarantee a similar feeling upon entering Muxima. Unfortunately there are no magical creatures or the like, the vibe in Muxima is cool and it’s real. It describes itself as an independent art and culture cafe, i.e. it’s arty, music-orientated, and trust me, it offers the best coffee too. It’s a peaceful and in-spiring nest within the constant agitation of London.

You can go there with your laptop, books, tablets, or just on your own and have a chat with the very friendly and lovely staff. This cafe is a great place to get

some work done. It’s peaceful, relaxed and the provides a stu-dent with a calming murmur of a cafe in action at just the right volume. And once you’ve studied up an appetite, there’s the food. Muxima’s food is organic and as visually beautiful as it is delicious. Fresh food, an ever changing menu and fair prices all round.

Muxima comes equipped with the perfect remedy for your writer’s block, too. Simply take a look around you. There isn’t a single spot not covered or occu-pied by some interesting trinket or nick-nack, so you should have no problem finding a bit of creative inspiration.

I don’t want to give too much away, so get yourself down there for a look around this hidden gem! If you’re not already on your way, you should jump on the District Line to Bow and follow @MuximaMuxima to get exclusive info. Muxima is located at 618 Roman Road in Bow. See you there!

LIFE AFTER GOLDSMITHS: BUFFALO INK

NEED FOR SPEED: REVIEW

20 SPORT THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

By Shay Olupona

It’s been a mixed year for sport. There have been some improvements. We’ve had better access to transport for

sports clubs through the Lew-isham transport scheme. Men’s basketball had a very successful season remaining undefeated in LUSL competitions.

Whilst it took some time, it’s nice to see the Women’s Basketball start up again – playing sport at university takes a lot of commit-ment and it’s good to see people who are keen on developing and making sure the team does well.

Football improved as well with the club creating a partnership with Millwall Football Club, and we saw some of our play-ers further develop themselves through participating in commu-nity projects and earning coaching badges. I’m hoping this continues next year and we can see more people getting involved with the club even if it’s just at a recrea-tional level.

I am really glad about the amount

of effort people involved in student media put in this year to help promote sport. The coverage at this year’s varsity was good and reading profiles from students overseas who were involved in sport meant that there have been improvements getting more inter-national students involved.

I’m hoping next year’s Sports Officer, Greer, can do more to help tackle engagement of women in sport and increase the presence on sport on campus to help those who still are unaware of what is on offer at Goldsmiths. Similarly, I hope the activities department not only focuses on incoming freshers but also on encouraging second or third years who might

have just missed out on the op-portunity to try sport.

I think there needs to be more of a push for working with the local community and I hope the new Sports Officer can have a part in restarting RAG. I think there should be a focus on developing sponsorship and funding for clubs other than the annual fund and working with Club Pulse to see how they can better support our students on campus.

A FINAL NOTE FROM YOUR SPORTS OFFICER, SHAY

By Olly Bellamy

Perhaps not the most conventional sports team at Goldsmiths, the cycling club has

had an increasingly bigger impact on the students at Goldsmiths since its inception in 2012. The club, or perhaps more aptly the society, has made a series of efforts to provide its members with much more than just a club for people to cycle in.

Starting small the club provided a basis for people to coordinate rides around London, supplying them with safety information

and booklets on maintaining their bikes properly. With such a positive response larger initiatives have been coordinat-ed, with the cycling club pairing up with Goldsmiths to provide members with cycling lessons and group rides. While these may seem trivial, to people not used to cycling in busy streets, the idea of taking on 20 tonne lorries head to head may seem daunting. So the initiative was centred around familiarising people with cyclist safe routes around London as well as gearing them up so they can be confident riding around one of the most unfriendly cycle cities in the world. However by far their most impressive achievement is the new lockers that club found-er Benjamin Buckley has had installed at Goldsmiths. Ben stated “they’re part of an overall plan to make cycling to campus more accessible, allowing cyclists to store heavy items or a change of clothes.” The format was in-

troduced as part of the Barclays Cycle Superhighway Scheme, with Ben explaining that Nicola Hogan in Estates was a big part of securing the facilities for both students and staff members.

Something like this no doubt takes a lot of effort and time to prepare, but Ben continues to look to the future of the club, explaining that “a large part of the overall plan is providing cyclists with free repair services and bicycle education. The club has submitted a request to the Annual Fund to finance a work-shop from which we’d operate. We also are pressing the Space Management Committee to provide us with a location for the workshop.”

Aside from the lockers, other members have been encouraged to really participate in the clubs running, with people often organising weekly social rides, writing for the newsletter and even trying to get the club run-ning on a competitive basis too.

GOLDSMITHS CYCLING CLUB SECURES LOCKERS ON CAMPUS

They’re part of an overall plan to make cycling to campus more accessible

21SPORTMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

By Louis Sealey

Watching Gold-smiths take on University of the Arts

London in a game of Ultimate

Frisbee was a similar experience to watching the curling from Sochi - I didn’t fully under-stand what was going on but it was exciting, and quite frankly, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

If you’re new to Ultimate Fris-bee like me, it is very much like a mix between netball and american football. Two teams of seven players compete on a large rectangular pitch, a line drawn across the pitch at either end creates two “endzones”, and these are the goal-scoring areas. A goal is scored when a team completes a pass to a player in the endzone.

Like in netball, players cannot run with the frisbee, but must move and create space to work their way up the pitch towards the endzone they are attacking. If the disc hits the ground or is intercepted the opposition takes possession of it (it’s known as a “turnover”).

The sport is unique in the fact that it is self-refereed, even at World Championship level. I found this out when I commend-ed a UAL student for insisting that her side had not completed a goal from the sidelines to which she quite rightly responded: “Ah – you’re clearly a newbie, that’s actually the rules.”

A less wonderful part of the sport, from a Goldsmiths perspective, was the final score on day two of Varsity at a gloriously sunny Quintin Hogg: UAL 15–2 Gold-smiths. Still, to adopt some typical managerial clichés, the score line doesn’t tell the whole story and Goldsmiths can take many posi-tives from the outing.

As UAL student Jacqui Taylor told The Leopard: “The score line is surprising but you can’t expect anything from Goldsmiths as they’ve only been playing for a couple of months whereas we’ve had a team for five years.” Despite receiving a drubbing, Goldsmiths’ team can walk with their heads held high – they worked their socks off and came up against a very impressive team.

Ultimate Frisbee has the poten-tial to become a hugely popular student sport. There already exists an Open Championship for both the indoor and outdoor versions of the sport and some universities already have numerous competi-tive squads.

It is a test of accuracy, hand-eye coordination, agility and speed – yet its main attribute is its pure simplicity. With just a frisbee, an bit of grass, a few bags indicating zones and a handful of friends, you can have a game yourself, so why not give it a go? I know I will be.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE

BASKETBALL SEASON ROUNDUP

Photo Credit: SUarts

By Courtney Greatrex

Goldsmiths Men’s Bas-ketball team earned themselves a promo-tion from second to

first division of the LUSL league this year following an exceptional season. Despite an unfortunate loss in this weekend’s Grand Final, the team lasted the entire season undefeated, putting them at the top of the league tables with a comfortable 18 points.

The Leopard caught up with team members Ted Baker, Conor Griffing and Tom Rausch to find out what they’ve been doing to be so successful and ask how it feels to be one of Goldsmiths’ most successful team of the year.

The members of the Basketball team are a close-knit bunch, and Griffing believes that this is one of the main reasons that explain the success: “We’ve been able to win so much because it’s been organic… We’ve just let peo-

ple come along and have made really good friendships within the team.”

Raush agreed adding: “We have a very diverse team; everybody brings something else to the table, which makes us unpredictable for opponents. We are able to score in different ways and we take a lot of pride in defence.

“We’ve always tried to put more of an emphasis on having fun. We’re just regular people trying to play basketball.”

The season began with a win against Regent’s University 82 - 63, followed by a win at home against St Bartholomew’s 1st team. From here on Goldsmiths continued to turn the screws, increasingly annihilating their opponents, with a 30 point win over London School of Econom-ics, 22 point lead over Imperial, a staggering 41 point lead over Queen Mary and their final win of the season, a 25 point lead over Imperial 2nds. Baker said: “Saying this I feel cocky but turning up to the last few games I expected

to win… by 20 [points]. It’s a shame that it hasn’t been a little bit harder but I’m still happy that we’re winning.”

The team has made an exceptional improvement from last season. According to Baker, several conflicts that occurred at the beginning of last season took their toll on the team, marring their success. This year, despite the team consisting of almost exactly the same members with only a few additions, Men’s Basketball has never been stronger.

The team basked in a 33 point win over the University of Arts during Varsity, but suffered from the effort, with one of their ‘best players’ seriously injuring himself (he may have torn the ligament in his knee) which may have impacted on their success in the Grand Final.

Rausch, the player in question said: “It was really annoying not being able to help. The other team played really well and we showed a lot of heart but ran out of gas towards the end of the game.”

22 SPORT THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

MIXED VOLLEYBALL SEASON ROUNDUP

By Ellie Gay

I hope that through our var-ious bake sales and efforts, we increased our presence throughout Goldsmiths,

and that most of the student body are now aware of us. The Goldsmiths Lions are a co-ed, competitive cheerleading team who participate every year in national competitions all around the United Kingdom. We were in Bath in February, and are next going to Telford for the British Cheerleading Association National Universities on April 18.

As a university team, almost none of our members have had any prior experience at cheerleading. This issue comes with its own specific challenges, not limited to misconceptions of what competi-tive cheerleading really is. Varsity aside, we rarely do chanting or actually ‘cheer’ for other teams – we don’t own pompons. What we do, however, is throw people in the air.

Beginning this year the Lions were lucky enough to have a strong returning team, which meant that the newbies could learn more quickly under the guidance of our more experienced members. Our recruitment from Freshers’ Fayre onwards was com-pletely unexpected. We currently stand at 44 paid full members with more than 30 social mem-bers as well, which makes us one of the fastest growing sports clubs at Goldsmiths. From day one the freshers really threw themselves into learning everything new and all of the various gravity-ignoring skills involved.

The team has come so far in only five months. I couldn’t have asked for a more enthusiastic one! We’re currently building up to our next competition by learning a more complicated set of stunts and higher level tumbles. With such an incredible performance at Bath with the shortest prepara-tion time, I’m extremely confident in the Goldsmiths Lions’ ability in this next competition!

CHEERLEADING SEASON ROUNDUP

WOMEN’S RUGBY SEASON ROUNDUP

Photo Credit Johanna Lucke

By Adrihani Abd Rashid

The Volleyball teams at Goldsmiths, led by their captains Frederico de Melo

(Mixed Captain, President of the Volleyball Society), Giulia Sgarbi (Women’s Captain), and Michael Armah (Men’s Captain) have had mixed success this year. The Mixed team did notably well amongst the three, and is currently standing

at 4th in the LUSL league.

They started off the sporting year with a bang, beating Royal Holloway 3-0 in their first match of season, followed by an even number of wins and losses in subsequent matches. They have done fairly well considering the ever-present problem of a short-age of players and issues with venue bookings. More often than not, matches were cut short and given away as a result of insuffi-cient time booked at venues.

There are a fair number of new hopefuls in the Women’s team,

who will, with any luck, get much further in the league next year if they are able to secure a coach for the upcoming season.

One thing that must be admired about the Volleyball team is their sense of team spirit and camara-derie. They managed to stay posi-tive and upbeat, never turning on one another despite their lack of success in the competitive league. It must be admitted that they have had much more success in non-competitive matches; per-haps next year they will perform better under pressure and bring glory back to Goldsmiths!

Photo by Claudia Turkington

By Lydia Price

From the outset, drawing in enough players for a full female rugby team at Goldsmiths was

going to be tri-cky (excuse the terrible pun). As a team we have primarily focused on a strategy to establish the foundations of the female rugby team to ensure its longevity during and after our time at Goldsmiths. Although we are still searching for a venue to train and host

matches, we have been ap-proached by other universities such as LSE and Kings College London who are keen to play friendly matches against us.

Due to its snappiness, the name ‘Goldsmiths Gators’ was unani-mously chosen by our members for the design of our new logo, created by Design student Ra-chel Mayes.

Next year we will entice new players in with our new kit, Facebook page, posters and

flyers! It’s also encouraging that we received support from the Students’ Union and from the new Sports Officer, Greer, who has promised that she will work alongside us to develop the team.

Whilst it is highly unlikely that within the next influx of Fresh-ers we have the future female England rugby captain, we do hope that there will be some enthusiastic new joiners. Don’t forget that the rugby team is open to all ages and any ability!

23SPORTMARCH 2014 THE LEOPARD

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL SEASON ROUNDUP

WET WEATHER DAMPENS MEN’S RUGBY PROMOTION HOPES

By Dan Benson

The season started brightly for Men’s Rugby and contin-ued that way up to

Christmas. A narrow loss and a draw against league rivals Kent and Essex, but wins against everybody else placed Goldsmiths second in the BUC’s Southeast-ern 3B. Promotion to the league above would have meant that this is the highest achieving team in the history of the club… And then the rain came.

For two whole months there was no training and no matches. During this period the Hounds’ management did their best to try and maintain a bit of conti-nuity from the Autumn term. It wasn’t till February however that a friendly fixture was organised against Blackheath 3rds in which the Hounds miraculously drew in the last 10 minutes. The following week the Goldsmiths ‘Old Boys’ fixture used the same all weather pitch in Eltham. In an encoun-ter devoid of any sentiment, the Greyhounds scored a late try through Andy Miller to win the game with minutes remaining. The following week, we were due a cup fixture against Essex 2nds. The Hounds, who had already progressed further than any other previous Greyhound team in the past, were sure to gain a place in the quarter final. However due to a few administrative errors on both sides and botched fixture rescheduling as a result of the flooding, it was settled in an almost comical way – a coin toss. As fate would have it, Essex won the toss.

Disgruntled, the Hounds moved on. It was probably a blessing in disguise, given the congested play-ing schedule in the weeks to fol-low. Finally, the first competitive fixture since December arrived

on February 26th, a day in which Rugby lost but the Greyhounds won 17-10 against Imperial. The following week the Hounds played Essex 1st, a fixture billed as a promotion decider. Sadly, the Hounds arrived with only 14 men and a single specialist front row, with winger Adrian Arthur filling in as one of the novice props. The frustrating lack of numbers was a result of multiple timetable clash-es — a source of frustration for every sports team in Goldsmiths, every year.

The season went from bad to worse the following week with Varsity. On a day just about as organised as chaos, the Grey-hounds kicked off at 1.30pm against a UAL team two leagues below, on a pitch miles away from anybody else. We took a firm 10-3 lead within the opening 10 min-utes. However, following the sin binning of winger Kit Winchester around the 25-minute mark, and an appalling — and fundamen-tally game changing — decision to send Prop Callum Milburn off on 30, the game quickly switched with a succession of well exe-cuted tries from a lively UAL three-quarter line. In the sec-ond-half, running up the hill and against the sun, Goldsmiths were chasing the game. The final score was 42-32 to UAL.

With it unlikely that the Hounds finish all their fixtures for the year, it is important that the final two are won. Although recent results have been hard to accept, it is still an historic season for Goldsmiths Rugby. Enormous credit goes to Captain Will Barnes who has been an example with perfor-mances akin to an 80’s action hero, and President Rory Singh who managed the club for two years and widely improved the culture of the club:

Live in the moment with friends.

By Naki Ossom

Overall, Goldsmiths Women’s Football team has had a bit of a bumpy ride this

year. In the hopes of following last year’s successes of finishing 2nd in the LUSL League and breaking the deadlock by winning our varsity match, the team looked forward to this year’s new season with great optimism. With focus on Varsity, and working to win for the 2nd year in a row: a winning tradition we aim to keep going for many years to come.

There were however a few chal-lenges to overcome; with several players having graduated in the previous year, the team needed to build up a new squad. We signed up a lot of new members during Freshers’ Fayre, even managing to get a member whose preferred position was goalkeeper, which was a pleasant and very wel-comed surprise.

Our first game with a few of the new members was a pre-season charity match for Lionsraw against Kings College. It was a raging success as we won 7-0. We then won three out of five matches and were knocked out of the Cup tournament by Im-perial, but we made sure to get our revenge on them in a league match we won 5-1. The new members certainly made their presence known on the team, especially Emily Friedman (who scored a hat trick in her first match) and Simone Gregersen. Unfortunately, they had to leave after one term as they were vis-iting students and their presence on the pitch was missed.

The winter months were unkind to us and our training sessions became severely affected. With numbers slowly declining at each training session, a few players being out for injuries, and many lecture clashes, there was a lot of pressure on the team to perform at our best during matches. While some sessions even had to be cancelled due to very low turnout, the new members of the team showed a lot of dedication by continuing to consistently

turn up to training sessions.

The second half of our season did not start out so great, with all our matches being resched-uled due to the weather. Our first match back was less than stellar, as we lost to SOAS 8-1. The losses continued with 2-4 to Royal Holloway and 6-0 to St. George’s. We broke our losing streak at our Varsity match against UAL with a 4-0 victory. This big win was one that not only lifted our spirits but also gave us even more motivation to finish the rest of our season with wins to our name.

With two matches left in the season, GWFC is currently 5th in the League, with 12 points separating us from 1st place, and 6 points separating us from 4th place. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we will be able to match all the achievements of our 2012-2013 season, but we are still proud of our per-formance this year in the face of many challenges, and we are looking forward to a much better result for our 2014-2015 season.

24 SPORT THE LEOPARD MARCH 2014

By Courtney Greatrex and Olly Bellamy

The annual Arts Varsity Cup against Univer-sity of Arts London (UAL), ended in a

draw for the first time in its eight-year history. It was criticised by students participating after a series of organisational blunders that left students pointing fingers.

It began with the last minute change of venue of Men’s Basket-ball. While it was originally meant to be hosted at Crystal Palace with the Women’s Basketball and Mixed Volleyball, it became apparent that there had been a double booking of the court.

SU president Conrad Grant said: “The Union was informed last minute about venue changes which resulted in Mens Basket-ball and Rugby being played at

different venues. These were out-side the control of Tolu Magbag-beola who had to find alternative venues for these sports, which she was able to do.”

The Mixed Volleyball team’s fate fared little better. The game fin-ished 2 sets to 1 in UAL’s favour, but had to end prematurely due to time constraints, which both teams agreed to, according to the SU. However the team’s cap-tain, Frederico de Melo told The Leopard

“Surprisingly we were told that that set needed to be the final set as we were running out of time, so they had only 5 points to score and out of pressure, my team mates were very nervous and we lost the game.”

Natalie Mohc, another member of Goldsmiths’ volleyball team noticed that UAL’s coach, Tony Leung was playing for UAL in the varsity match. Mr Leung is in fact a student at King’s College and therefore not eligible to play for UAL.

The second day of varsity faced similar issues, most notably the Women’s Netball, whose two games were rescheduled without their prior knowledge. Captain of the Netball 1sts Allie Best said: “When we got there, we got on the court and they demanded that we start within one minute. We had no warm up, no time to mentally prepare ourselves, and we had to go straight into playing our first team game at 12.30.”

It is believed that UAL contacted Goldsmiths Students’ Union a

week before Varsity asking for the game to be pushed forward but had no reply before the day. Best told The Leopard: “With UAL’s team keen to get the game underway, Goldsmiths were forced into risking their players’ fitness, as with no proper warm up the risks of injury are much greater.”

Daisy Samuel, also on the team, said there was also a mix-up with referees. She said: “[We] had to play with a random woman [sic], who did not know the rules and did not know what was going

on.” It was later discovered that she was in fact the UAL sports coordinator.

Grant acknowledged the miscom-munication of last minute changes to the netball games. He said: “As a result of this it was agreed that all future communication between SUARTS and Goldsmiths Stu-dents’ Union should include both of the respective managers.

“The Union’s Activities Team is working closely with SUARTS to ensure that future Varsities encompass more sports and occur more smoothly,” said Grant. Despite these issues, Varsity went ahead and ended after two days with a result of 6-6 – the first draw in the history of the Arts Cup.

While there are usually an odd number of sporting events, the addition of Women’s Basketball to the competition meant there was an even number of sports. Because of this, the Arts Cup will be staying at Goldsmiths for a second year.

SPORT

ARTS CUP IN FIRST EVER DRAW AFTER MYRIAD OF MESS UPS