Volume 20, Issue 5 (Mar '19)

D IGITA L

DISTRACTIONS HOW TECHNOLOGY IS AFFECTING OUR UNIVERSITY LIFE

WRITE CODE. SOLVE PROBLEMS. SAVE LIVES. R O L E S INC L U DE :

• • • • •

Software Developer Graduate Analyst Marketing & Communications Account Manager Technical Operations

NO E XPE RIE N C E RE Q UI RED

IN T E R N SHI P S AVAI LA B L E

www.tpp-careers.com

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Illustration by Elena Oliinyk, @lenlenstrations

go swim in Warleigh Weir. Yeah, we f roze.

The SU elections have also come and gone.

After some incredible campaigning from all candidates, including a real-life puppy, we are left with a few familiar faces and some new ones, all equally motivated to make real progress within our University.

Dear readers, S o much has happened since the last issue of Bath Time that I don’t really know where to begin. Perhaps I’ ll start with weather, a staple topic in the arena of small chat.

Remember last year’s ‘B east f rom the E ast’?

Well, his cousin payed us a visit and turned Bath into a snow y wonderland. Not too long after, winter pretended to be summer for a couple days, luring me and my housemates to

This edition of Bath Time tackles the impor tant issue of digital distractions and its impact on our university life. You’ ll also f ind an inspiring inter view with a Nicaraguan Fair trade worker and just when you thought you were free from elections-talk, the iconic R .O.N. co-stars in the erotica.

Finally, to ever yone f rantically looking for placements and grad-jobs, YOU GOT THIS. Hope you enjoy this issue, happy reading!

Diego Torres Design Editor

CONTENTS

5

COVER STORY

March 2019

LIFESTYLE

10 13

16

BATHTIME

Book Club

by Nidhi Arun

The Rise of Not Buying New

by Lottie Green Giving Up Social Media for Lent

by Chloe Granger

Digital Distractions

by Nicola Jennings and Felix Keane

FEATURES

NEWS & COMMENT

21

34

24

30

Politics in the Millennial Age

by Harry Bridge Nicaraguan Fairtrade Worker

by Darcey Stickley Sun, Sand and Sri Lanka

by Lydia Maurel

Note: Photography in this issue has been sourced from unsplash.com, Wikimedia and other sources which do not require crediting unless otherwise noted.

39 41

New Team Bath Gym and Fitness Center

by Francesco Masala Local vs Fairtrade

by Mannal Ajaz Upskirting Criminal Offence

by Emily Godon

March 2019 3

MEET THE COMMITTEE

4 BATHTIME

COVER STORY

D IGITA L

DISTRACTIONS HOW TECHNOLOGY IS AFFECTING OUR UNIVERSITY LIFE

By Nicola Jennings and Felix Keane Cover photograph posed by students. Photo taken by Nidhi Arun and edited by Diego Torres

T

he alarming picture of how our phones and computers affect us at university fits into a wider, national and international picture: the UK’s telecom regulator, Ofcom, revealed the following facts:

The impact of technology has grown faster in our lifetimes than for previous generations, with constant new and better digital tools stepping in to fulfil desires over needs, inevitably affecting how we spend our study hours.

Bath Time surveyed 100 students here at the University of Bath, and what we found confirmed complaints you have probably heard and voiced yourself:

When quantified, our screen time might appear scary, but it is somewhat unsurprising considering how intertwined we are with student, academic and popular culture networks: we are connected in chats to our coursemates, flatmates, group project teams, committees, friends, teammates; we subscribe to Facebook pages and groups, like Memeversity and Secret Admirers, which entertain us and create a shared culture; we require our screens to take the bus, check our ever-changing timetables, pay our tuition fees, top-up the laundrette card. Going phoneless is practically impossible in this context as one of our editors discovered. As we investigate these issues, and the effects of technology on our learning, it is important to remember it serves a vital service to students with additional requirements and disability access plans, aiding their engagement with the curriculum.

We also asked those with iPhones to give us their average daily screen time over the past week, and the outcome was serious:

5

COVER STORY

CHALLENGE: IS GOING TECH FREE AT UNI IMPOSSIBLE? I woke up, and I felt it: new me, who dis? As I walked to the bus stop, I was ready for the benefits of my digital cleanse to transform my being. Then it hit me: how the hell am I getting on the bus? I ran back and grabbed my phone, essentially failing my challenge in its first hour.

From then, it was clear that my phone would only be in airplane mode: bus pass, and nothing else. However, as I was pressing the plane button and saying hello to my new, screen-free life, someone sent the infamous “sorry guys, I can’t make it” to our group project chat.

A long “when can we meet” debate later, I sat down in the library and turned on my laptop to check my required readings. I’d better do the polite browse for notifications though, just in case the UN contacted me in the night with an internship proposal. Email 1, email 2, Facebook, LinkedIn, Moodle, Maggie Smith’s Wikipedia page…

Going fully tech free was not working, so I decided to limit the challenge to two self-promises: first, not to check anything before 11 AM. Second, not to use a single device in lectures.

No notification checking before 11AM turned out to be a killer productivity hack: if I stayed away from checking my phone or answering any message on a screen in the morning, my day began with an incredibly productive start.

I stuck to the second rule religiously, which also quickly had benefits: in the first few days I felt slightly fidgety in lectures, but since my phone was off in my bag I knew I couldn’t check it instantly. While I did still drift off sometimes, it was easier to get back into the lecture than after watching a video of a domesticated beaver building a dam with household objects.

I also became more aware of note-taking: because I was now doing everything by hand, I couldn’t just transcribe the words of the lecturer without thinking. I had to process it all to put it down in my own words, meaning going over my notes was not as necessary as it was before.

While going fully tech free is impossible considering how useful some aspects of it are here, setting myself limits definitely had benefits.

6 BATHTIME

TECHNOLOGY, THE NEGATIVES AND POSITIVES ON OUR MINDS So what do these distractions actually do to our heads? The psychological and health implications of constantly being distracted by readily available technology are probably under-studied in comparison to the widespread nature of the phenomenon, but some data is available: in 2005, before the smartphone, research from the London’s Institute of Psychiatry showed that subjects constantly distracted by emails and calls had an increased inability to focus and developed a drug-like grip to email checking.

More worryingly, 80 complementary studies showed a 10-point IQ drop between subjects hooked to email checking and others, which was double the effect of regular marijuana consumption.

Ex-Microsoft and Apple consultant Linda Stone framed this mental phenomenon as “continuous partial distraction”, a state in which we pay continuous partial attention in an effort not to miss anything. It is a permanently-on state that involves an “artificial sense of constant crisis”.

In this view, multi-tasking, something many claim to be skilled at in higher education, unfolds as a myth: the brain is not wired to do several things at once, rather jumping frantically from one point of focus to the other, with a consequently low concentration level While technologies such as the smartphone and social media are almost always discussed with much weariness when it comes to wellbeing, there is also evidence that smartphones have positive effects on mental health: “passive” use (scrolling mindlessly through an Instagram feed) has been shown to have a negative effect, but “active” use (communicating with friends and family) has demonstrated positive results. It is furthermore unquestionable that beyond digital distractions alone, smartphones provide new and invaluable tools. What then must we make of our attention-seeking technology?

COVER STORY

While incessant whispering may seem the obvious disruption for surrounding students, a study showed that those in direct view of a multitasking peer (one on their laptop) were likely to have their learning impacted greatly too. The results of the study demonstrated that multitasking on a laptop could have a detrimental effect on the understanding of lecture content for both users and those nearby.

THE SMARTPHONE: FRIEND OR FOE OF STUDYING? We spoke to Professor Richard Joiner from the Department of Psychology to explore his views on technology and learning. After we raised the question of whether to allow the use of handheld devices in lectures, he voiced strong enthusiasm for not ousting technology from teaching but rather incorporating it.

Indeed, he remarked that “we have a more powerful tool with more functionality than ever, and we’re telling students not to use it!” He highlighted the benefits of embracing our machines, pointing out that they provide a “less intimidating way to contribute to discussions” and a way for lecturers to “respond to questions as soon as they come up.”

Joiner went on to note what may be a truth hiding in plain sight: “lectures are a rubbish way to learn!

They’re old fashioned and we cannot expect students to sit and absorb everything they’re being told at an extremely fast pace”. His argument was that mobiles can make lectures “far more interactive and effective”.

However, with numerous social platforms at our fingertips, even using phones for lecture participation could hinder engagement, notably if notifications are constantly flashing up on our screens.

Professor Joiner said the problem is that “phones

allow you to switch contexts really easily” and he highlighted an academic article which proposed that ‘people often engage in multitasking because they are unable to block our distractions and focus on a singular task’, relating to Linda Stone’s “continuous partial distraction” concept.

MEET THE LECTURER WHO REPLACED MACHINES WITH MINDFULNESS

Interview by Magdalena Rojas We sat down with Dr Susan Johnson, who has introduced a “bring your minds not your machines” policy along with mindfulness exercises in some of her units.

She is a strong proponent of meditation, a practice which she says has greatly benefited her at a time when digital distractions increase. Could this policy serve as an answer to digital distractions at university?

What made you decide to implement the “bring your minds not your machines” policy and offer mindfulness exercises in some of your lectures?

Dr Susan Johnson: I first introduced it in a second year Social Science of Climate Change unit three years ago. It covers an emotional topic which affects people and I particularly felt the need to create some boundaries around the classroom, an environment March 2019 7

COVER STORY

where we could all engage with each other in a supportive way. It went well, students seemed to appreciate it!

This year I moved a little bit further and decided to add mindfulness. It was partly due to a concern for the increasing mental health problems that we are hearing about in universities, and also a desire to give students the opportunity to have a couple hours when they do not feel the need to check their screens.

How do students generally respond to the no-machine policy?

Dr Susan Johnson: In the Social Science of Climate Change unit, I would say everybody was okay with it. Some really appreciated it and there was probably just one person in the feedback saying they didn’t like it because it meant they had to write out their notes again. I took it as strong evidence that there was a need for this approach.

It was in this unit I spoke to some students which made me realise how impulsive the behaviour around technology is. I remember a student telling me that if her neighbour reached for their phone, she would almost automatically do the same. And it wasn’t because she was expecting a message, it was simply a peer induced effect. The evidence for the fact students distract other students is there: it seems to me that it is a challenge to us as staff to create an environment where students - in particular those with learning difficulties, high stress or anxiety – can have an opportunity to concentrate.

According to our survey 56% of students said they had used their phone in a seminar or tutorial for learning purposes. Do you acknowledge that phones can have learning benefits?

Dr Susan Johnson: I know students may be taking notes, looking at slides, using Moodle: all these are possible, but I wonder if what they often mean by learning benefits is that there is a lot of googling of questions. I would like those questions to be brought into the room, rather than into Google. This has the advantages of giving me feedback and creating a

8 BATHTIME

learning community.

We have to share what we know, and what we don’t know and a question from one student is probably shared by another. Readily available technology can disrupt the circular flow of information, by preventing us from having a dialogue. As much as you may think that we stand there to preach we actually don’t, we want feedback, to know where the students are at and how they are engaging with it.

In a sense, I think Google and the internet has also increased the sense of vulnerability of students. They think “I can look it up on Google, I should know it” rather than just asking and sharing in front of others that they don’t follow or understand some terminology or an argument.

What is the role of practises like meditation and mindfulness in the academic life of students?

Dr Susan Johnson: Mindfulness is about being aware of what is going on for you at this moment, internally and externally, bringing your attention to the present moment continuously. Our minds naturally drift away, and we have to keep bringing them back to what we want them to focus on. Mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, in an age where these have gone through the roof.

My understanding is that the digital world is part of this growing problem. People are always concerned about what is going on somewhere else rather than being in the present moment where they actually are.

The only place you can live your life is where you are now.

The first purpose of mindfulness is cultivating calm, and the second is insight. First, you create calm to decompress the nervous system, and then by noticing what your mind is doing you can gain insight into how it operates. So in lectures I explain that eliminating machines helps eliminate distractors, then a couple of minutes of mindfulness is intended to create calm and bring everyone’s focus into the room.

The full version of this interview is available on our website, unibathtime.co.uk

COVER STORY

WHAT TUTORS AND SEMINAR LEADERS THOUGHT If you hide behind rows of fellow students in a large lecture theatre, then constant delving into social media can easily go unnoticed. But what about the more intimate environments such as seminars and tutorials? We decided to speak with a range of tutors to get their views on tutees phasing out of lessons.

When it came to their emotional reactions, some tutors expressed frustration at students turning all their attention to devices. One tutor told us that, “on several occasions, a student has been on their phone, handed in their work and made a mistake that I directly warned them against” and another emphasised how “tutors put a lot of time into their tutorials so it’s frustrating when [they’re] ignored.” More generally they commented that “it’s just common courtesy to not use your phone while someone is talking to you”.

Building on manners, Professor Richard Joiner also said that “you wouldn’t sit in a lecture reading the newspaper, that would just be plain rude”.

Perhaps students feel less guilt for ignoring lecturers if it isn’t explicitly obvious they’re doing this. Either way, Joiner told us that “some lecturers have reversed the cameras in theatres to know exactly what’s happening on people’s screens.”

Some tutors further took mobile distractions to be an indicator of the teaching quality, saying that stu-

dents picking up phones was a “sign that they need to make the tutorials more interactive” or “a reason to reflect and make teaching more engaging”. It’s hard to judge whether this is an effective measure of quality, or whether it is unreasonable for tutors to be in constant battle for students’ attention.

The tutors unanimously agreed that mobiles should not be banned from tutorials since they could be useful for accessing Moodle or checking definitions without “disrupting the flow of the lesson.” Interestingly, one highlighted how students “may have important issues to deal with so they have to pay attention to their phone, despite wanting to come to the tutorial. In a case like that, banning phones would mean they’d have to choose between the two when in fact they could have both.”

Digital devices are almost unavoidable therefore, but the same cannot be said for the distraction they cause. Whether it’s to improve concentration, understanding of lecture content or simply to abide by basic rules of politeness, it would seem beneficial for everyone to put away their phones more frequently.

The example of Dr Susan Johnson introducing mindfullness in lectures also shows that practises have been shown to help manage the digitalising world.

There is no obvious answer for how to best moderate their usage, and indeed the evolution of learning tends towards embracing technology; however, the key takeaway could be to simply think about why we pick up our screen, and which of its uses truly serve a purpose to our wellbeing and productivity.

March 2019 9

LIFESTYLE

BATHTIME

Book Club KARTOGRAPHY (2001), Kamila Shamsie REVIEW By Nidhi Arun

I

n an industry dominated by white men, I was on a quest to find a voice closer to home when I stumbled upon Kamila Shamsie’s work.

Although her latest novel Home Fire was longlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize, something compelled me to pick up her third publication, Kartography, instead. Perhaps it was the poetic illustration on the cover or the misspelt title.

They say a book can mean different things to different people depending on the lens they read it through. My lens was coloured by high school history textbooks and a shared love for biryani.

Karim and Raheen have been inseparable friends since their mothers placed them spine to spine in a cradle. They finish each other’s sentences and share a love for anagrams. In the comfort of each other’s presence, the two enjoy an idealistic childhood. Their adolescent privilege keeps them guarded from the bloodshed in Karachi, that is, until the civil war between East and West Pakistan becomes of personal significance to Karim.

At 13, Karim discovers maps and is faced with the startling reality that ‘even seas have boundaries’.

Darkness shadows their lives and Raheen’s growing affection for her best friend becomes impassable. The novel hinges on a secret that is hidden from Raheen. Familiar voices become bastardised and she struggles to comprehend conversations with people she previously held dear.

10 BATHTIME

Kartography is a deftly woven novel about marking territory, both of land and body, and is unique in its refusal to soften the edges. This is not to say it is devoid of humour - Shamsie cleverly uses dialogue to comment on the amusing nature of social life amongst the elite in Pakistan. Her primary characters are very articulate, which makes for a delightful read.

There isn’t a shortage of literature that tackles the identity crisis, battle for survival and sacrifice that emanated from partition (in fact I’d say it’s a South-Asian writer’s favourite topic to explore).

However, when writing about a region embroiled in generation-long conflicts, it is very easy to forget the human stories that get entangled in them.

Shamsie does a great job of humanising these events. She crafts characters who happen to be caught in the unrest rather than who were born as a consequence of it.

I was raised in an environment where Indian politicians publicly trashed Pakistan (and rode the high wave of votes from collective hysteria) and many people still carried with them the bitterness of partition. The internalised hatred and hostility that persists in the region is not new to me.

Despite this, I found more commonalities through this book in our lives on either side of the border than differences. At its heart is a love story and an ode to Shamsie’s motherland.

If Kamila Shamsie could make me -a victim of popular media that tries so hard to demonise the neighbour- fall in love with Karachi, I can hardly imagine what magical pleasure her words could cast upon a third-party reader.

LIFESTYLE

Photo: Instagram

SEX EDUCATION

REVIEW: THE FEEL-GOOD SERIES WE ALL NEEDED

By Elie Breton des Loys

fection. But the real players here are without a doubt Ncuti Gatwa (Eric) and Emma Mackey (Maeve), who put on tremendous performances. It’s impossible to resist Ncuti’s beautiful energy or Emma’s savagery.

The three main actors form an adorable cast that are truly ‘friendship goals’. Another honourable mention goes to the amazingly talented Gillian Anderson, who portrays here a whacky sex therapist, much to our delight.

When Sex Education was advertised at the start of January 2019, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a good TV Show or just a cheap attempt from Netflix to ‘relate’ to its teenage audience. I wasn’t expecting it would turn out to be one of the best shows of the year!

What makes Sex Education so special then? Well it’s a very easy formula: First, you’ll need a good plot. Laurie Nunn, the creator, offers a pretty simple one: Otis, 17, has trouble dealing with his own sexuality and the fact that his mum is a famous sex guru. Him and his friend Eric, who’s openly gay, try to navigate the hormone-fuelled years of sixth form. When Otis attempts to get closer to his crush Maeve, he finds himself in a tricky situation: he’s coerced into becoming a sex therapist for his peers and many students are now seeking his ‘expertise’. This simple yet hilarious plot ensures that many people will relate to the character’s journey or will just laugh with them.

Secondly, you need good actors. Don’t worry, Sex Education has an incredible cast. Asa Butterfield shines as Otis and plays every bit of his awkwardness to per-

Thirdly, you need boldness. The show, like Skins back in the day, isn’t afraid to tackle sensitive issues and does so in an extremely respectful and effective manner. Episode 3, which focuses on one of the character’s abortion, is a clever look at society’s taboos while Episode 5 tackles the issues of homophobia, both of which are critical topics in our world. Those episodes offer raw scenes and performances that will likely spark debate, which is another reason why we love this show.

There you have it: the recipe of an incredible show.

Sex Education is a beautiful and funny look at our society, and how crazy sex can be. It shows it in a way that’s so utterly clever and touching that it has become one of Netflix’s must-sees. Don’t miss out on the hype, believe me when I say you’ll regret it.

March 2019 11

LIFESTYLE Photo credit: Matt Kennedy/Annapurna

VICE Film Review

By Jack McKevitt

is the latest offering from Adam McKay, Vicecreator of an array of cultural touchstones and

cult hits such as Anchorman, Step Brothers, and The Big Short. Vice is the most overtly political film of the bunch, charting the inconspicuous rise of Dick Cheney from White House intern to secretary of defence and finally a notoriously powerful Vice President during the reign of George W. Bush. Alongside Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice’s sprawl of prizes throughout awards season has been the subject of much dismay, cited as an emblem of the widening gap between voters and critics. The reality, however, holds more nuance.

Whilst Vice proves to be less subtle or informative than The Big Short in its critiques of the establishment, the thesis built up throughout the film of a prime symbol of American white middle-class mediocrity rising through the ranks without anyone noticing or caring provides a more incisive condemnation of societal attitudes as a whole. In particular, a remarkably-edited final sequence presents what should be the end of an American dynasty, and uses a grisly metaphor to show how the establishment allows it to continue into perpetuity, literally stealing life and political freedoms from others. McKay also uses his comedic background to present an SNL-inflected ensemble including Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell to put darkly comedic spins on the absurdity of key political figures such as George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Here, their performances manage to elevate the script from cheap impressions to genuinely lived-in characterisations. More chilling is the slew of

12 BATHTIME

recognisable political figures name-checked during a deep dive into Cheney’s political empire, with the mere appearance of their faces serving as first-hand evidence that this empire is very much alive in America, and more powerful than ever.

The bold and brash nature of Vice is a key strength, but does serve to undermine the work at key points.

Its one overarching theme - the continuing reign of mediocre warmongers - is perhaps too simplistic to justify the sheer number of stylistic quirks and storytelling techniques thrown about by McKay, and the didacticism prevalent throughout can come across as smug and classist, in particular through a poorly-judged mid-credits scene. Given the undeniable influence of McKay’s SNL tenure, questions must also be asked around the tendency for modern-day satire to perpetuate and habituate us to exactly the problem McKay is attempting to highlight.

Whilst unfairly grouped in the short-term with other awards-season movies which do contain genuinely objectionable stances, Vice’s saving grace in the long run may be as the defining piece on early 21st century right-wing American politics. Here, it does excel over The Big Short, with a message that we can still stop this from happening, as opposed to acting as a cautionary tale with respect to a unique event (the financial crisis). That Vice is daring enough to be angry and yet still pose several unanswerable questions (Can the public ever turn their heads enough to stop this? Should we prioritise political action over our daily lives?) is to its great credit, and sets it apart from its more favourably-viewed competitors this award season.

LIFESTYLE

THE RISE OF NOT BUYING NEW

By Lottie Green

T

he fast fashion industry is increasingly talked about as part of a growing emphasis on environmentally friendly practices and consumerism. With MPs calling for increased clothing tax to try and encourage more recycling in the fashion industry, the environmental damage caused and exploitative nature of the fast fashion industry is being publicly acknowledged.

Fast fashion is inexpensive clothing produced quickly in response to demand from consumers for the latest fashion trends. The biggest fast fashion brands include Primark and H&M. Whilst these businesses allow people with less disposable income to buy cheap and fashionable clothes, the clothing is often cheap because workers are often paid between 1-3% of the price of the item. As well as these exploitative working conditions, fast fashion produces a throwaway culture. Waste charity Wrap estimates that more than 300,000 tonnes of used clothing goes into landfill every year. With estimates showing that on average adults spend over £1000 a year on clothing, fast fashion is expensive, unethical and environmentally damaging.

The rise of the ‘Not Buying New’ seems to be the solution to this toxic consumerism. The trend is exactly as it appears; a movement of individuals taking their purchasing power away from fast fashion and buying second hand clothing. Not only is buying second hand cheaper than fast fashion prices, by not buying new, you are not contributing to the use of exploitative labour and can save fashionable, good quality clothes from being binned. The difficult part of second hand is spending a bit more time looking for the clothes you are after, although the Not Buying New movement has seen an increase in second hand clothing websites.

Every town and city has an abundance of charity shops, and they are a great place to find inexpensive but high-quality clothing, whilst contributing to the charity they support and rescuing clothing from the

land waste. But there is a knack to buying from charity shops...

Tips for successful charity shopping I. Spend time looking Finding what you want in a charity shop does take a little longer than browsing ASOS, but being patient really pays off.

II. Look at brands for a great bargain Charity shops often have clothing from normally expensive and luxury brands as well as cheaper fast fashion chains. A few years ago, I bought a cashmere jumper from Whistles for £5 (which I still own and wear now), only to discover the recommended retail price for the jumper new was over £150!

III. Look at the crockery Crockery breakages happen to all of us students, and charity shops often have a great selection of good quality and cheap crockery.

IV. Be bold Don’t be afraid to choose something a bit different to your normal fashion taste.

There are also various online platforms to buy second hand clothing, my go-to is Ebay. Here are some tips on how to best make use of it.

T ips for not buying new online

I. Be specific in your search terms and filter the results. Ebay shopping works best when you have something specific in mind, otherwise you have to wade through thousands of listed items! Some people find this off-putting, so when searching, add at least the brand name and size you are looking for to narrow your search down.

II. Sell your old clothes rather than throw them away. Ebay is a great way to make some money on clothes you no longer wear. This also helps you contribute to the not buying new and gives your item a second life with another owner!

As students, we have the privilege of time and of having our voices heard, so starting now, see if you can bring in some Not Buying New techniques!

March 2019 13

LIFESTYLE

CELINE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

By MATT KEMP

T

Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com

he appointment of Hedi Slimane at Céline in February 2018 was one that shocked fashion industry purists to the very core.

Slimane is a creative director who, for the best part of 18 years, has dominated an industry with a style he arguably birthed but certainly perfected.

His rock-inspired, LA, grungechic is best epitomised by a signature skinny silhouette – the very silhouette the late, great Karl Lagerfeld opted to lose over 90lbs just to fit into back in the year 2000. Having held the position of Creative Director at both Dior Homme and the self-re-styled Saint Laurent Paris, Slimane’s CV is one holding the heavyweight names one would expect to appear on that of Céline’s next architect.

The controversy however, remains, and is subjectively justified given the two personalities that have now become one.

Céline, under the adored Phoebe Philo, was arguably a re-moulder and consequential zeitgeist of elegance – consistently refining an aesthetic of grace, expression and function to the extent that it actually changed how women wanted to dress. Yet after a glorious decade at the helm, Philo decided to part with the house, leaving those strategizing at LVMH with a troublesome task of finding the brand’s next leader. Choosing Slimane as her successor, however provocative, appears a good move for business – as those managing houses seek to adapt to a market encroached upon by a populist, hype-driven shift in demand – but what does it indicate about the future?

14 BATHTIME

Slimane once catered to those admirers who now blur the line between Gucci and Vetements – the influence of pop-culture and, the entirely distinct mechanism that Kanye West carries with him, certainly having helped Saint Laurent develop such a broad base, alongside a 300% increase in sales over his tenure. Yet Hedi’s appointment, whilst potentially indicative of newfound success for an already vibrant house, raised fears of a destruction of Céline’s grand heritage – a critique previously levied at Slimane during his time with Saint Laurent.

Immediately after joining Saint Laurent, he swiftly abandoned the house’s previous nomenclature – Yves Saint Laurent was no longer and so too was its Paris headquarters. The backlash this received was indeed monumental yet arguably unjustified, especially when considering that Slimane was facilitating a realignment with Mr. Yves Saint Laurent’s initial vision of creating ‘shock’ and muting gender. Fears naturally arise however, now that Hedi has landed himself Céline, a house synonymous with the female form.

Writing now a year into Slimane’s direction, he’s already transformed the brand in his own vision – Céline is no longer, all that is left: Celine – a entirely new breed of animal.

Celine is now an outfit of ‘after-dark decadence’, with a menswear line that is mimicked precisely for the sizing of womenswear also.

His debut was different in every way from Philo’s vision – as explicitly referenced by Slimane in his naming of his debut show as ‘Celine 01’ and his consistent assertion that he is not trying to “imitate the work of [his] predecessor”. This is Slimane’s house in a way that Saint Laurent never was and I found it hard to disagree

LIFESTYLE

with the purists who long for the elegance that Philo once delivered. To quote the voice of a generation, in regard to Slimane’s takeover, “I don’t want the beautiful marble and the plants and the colour pallets to turn into Buildings. Tyres. Bags. People.” (Tyler, the Creator, 2018).

Having said all that, Celine 02 saw Slimane almost 180 on everything he alluded to as being his modus operandi in 01. Still subtle reminders of rock’n’roll remained but overwhelmingly, Hedi presented a ‘shockingly bourgeois’ collection – bastardising the styles of old through the use of his signature silhou-

ette. A lux take on Parisian 70s casual wear – with sumptuous hints of Big Sur drives in open-top Coupe de Villes – amongst dashes of rockstar poise; Hedi has perhaps delivered the most important show of his career.

There is once again an infectious buzz around the house of Celine and whilst it is not reminiscent of that garnered by Philo’s innovation of tradition, it is admiration deserved by one of the greats of 21st century couture. Controversial or not, style has reigned supreme.

WINE BAR REVIEW

By Ed Knaggs

B

arton Street Wine Bar, 50 metres up the road from student favourite the Canon. It seems small and when I went in I was greeted by a bar busy with excited chatter; I was worried we would be standing for our glasses of wine. However, once orders were made, the bar cleared and a seat near the door was revealed. There are three floors of seating so, although it may seem packed, a comfy perch can normally be found with little difficulty. The staff were extremely friendly and happy to recommend their favourites on the wine list.

Soon we had two glasses of a rich, delicious Valpolicella in front of us and we settled in to our wine bar adventure. We were surrounded by rare, old empty bottles that once held famous wines but now provided interesting reading and added to the ‘wine

bar’ feel. There was a piano in the neighbouring room that we discovered is used for live music. This takes place on a nightly basis, starting at 8pm.

On the night of our trip, we were entertained by a guitarist with a penchant for Britney Spears. We left two glasses of wine later, both agreeing that we had enjoyed a fantastic evening and that Barton Street had lived up to its 4 ½ star TripAdvisor rating. Although the drinks aren’t the cheapest in Bath, Barton Street Wine Bar offers an excellent spot for a glass of wine and is well worth a visit if you have time to spare in town.

March 2019 15

LIFESTYLE

GIVING UP SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LENT

By Chloe Granger

is a time where people can choose to give Lent something up for the 6-week period before East-

Photo credit: Rachel Titiriga on Flickr, graphics: Diego Torres

er Sunday. Practising this is traditionally a way that Christians would repent their sins and learn to live in a godlier way; giving up a luxury would facilitate this spiritual journey. However, in today’s society, many people – no matter their religious background or beliefs – choose to partake in the act of giving something up for lent. Frequently, this is used as a time to focus cutting out unhealthy foods. However, here, I will be exploring how we, as a society, can focus on something that would benefit both our physical and mental wellbeing: giving up social media.

As we have been told time and time again, social media really is the devil of the internet. Although it brings with it some great advantages, it seems as though they’re outweighed greatly by its disadvantages. One of the principle drawbacks is the negative effect it has on our body image and the way we perceive ourselves. When scrolling on Instagram, it is our natural instinct to compare ourselves to what we’re seeing and to covet the things we don’t have. Just think to yourself: how many times a day do you scroll Instagram and find yourself saying “oh her legs are so skinny I wish mine were like that” or “damn why doesn’t my makeup look as good as hers?”. My bet is that this happens far more often than it should. By giving up social media, it would enable us to stop judging ourselves and our bodies based on the unrealistic norms and negative rhetoric that have been curated. Half the time, the images we’re being exposed to aren’t even real life – they’ve been endlessly edited, filtered and tweaked that this level of ‘perfection’ we are all striving to 16 BATHTIME

become doesn’t even exist. Replace infinite sessions of mindless scrolling with listening to uplifting podcasts (I recommend Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place) or by practising yoga, as it’s a sport that doesn’t focus on how you look or how much fat you’re burning, but about how your body feels and your mindfulness.

Put down the phone and actually engage in the physical things going on around you! Cutting down the time spent on social media teaches us to value real-life encounters and not a virtual environment, which, in turn, leads to a more fulfilling existence.

Instead of going on a friend’s Facebook or Instagram page to see what they’ve been up to, FaceTime them (if they’re at another Uni or just very far away) or schedule a coffee date and relish in having a real, social interaction with the people you adore and who shape your life. My guess is you’ll feel so much more cheerful if you prioritise living through experiences rather than just ‘existing’ by laying in bed, staring blankly at a screen filled with photos and videos of everyone else out there living their lives.

Giving up social media for Lent gives you the power to change the narrative of your everyday life; you will have the independence and liberty to allow your thoughts to flow – without any distractions or social media influence.

Increased feelings of positivity will flourish and there’ll be more space to focus more on bettering ourselves as people, not the trivial matters such as the aesthetics of your Instagram feed or the length of your snapchat story.

Your Lent will be free from negative distraction and you’ll maybe even learn to love yourself a little more. You owe at least that to yourself.

LIFESTYLE

Agony Aunt Our next student loan instalment feels ages away but I’m rapidly running out of cash. I’ve been hunting for jobs but haven’t gotten lucky yet.

Is there anything I can do to make my cash go further?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a known magic money tree growing in Bath city centre – if you do find one, let me know! The good news, however, is that there are a number of things you can do to make the funds you have go further. It might be a good idea to work out exactly how much money you have remaining between now and the next highly anticipated student loan instalment. That way, you can work out a weekly budget. If you feel tempted to drift from this, perhaps withdrawing the money in cash and stashing away your bank card may help you to stick to your allocated funds. If you’re anything like me and find that a large proportion of your money is used up on food, shopping at a cheaper supermarket might be your saving grace. From experience, late evenings and Sunday afternoons are a great time to go bargain hunting; keep an eye out for the ‘reduced’ section in the supermarkets where you can sometimes find bread for 9p. Make sure you stick to essentials though (I’m afraid alcohol doesn’t quite count!) and batch making is a fantastic way to avoid the constant stream of ‘Ooh I’ll pick this up for tonight’. In this way, you’ll know that even if you don’t manage to secure a job, you’ll last until the next student loan instalment. It’s also always worth keeping an eye out on the SU job website as temporary positions, both on campus and in town, often crop up. These can range from helping on Open Days to catering at local events. After all, every little helps.

If you have any questions for Beatrice, please send an email to su-bathtime-lifestyle@bath.ac.uk

There’s this guy that I met a few months ago, I really like him, we hang out a lot and we have everything in common. But there’s a huge problem… we’re both graduating this year so I’m unsure of taking my feelings any further. Should I just call things off now before I get hurt when we both leave uni?

In your efforts to avoid setting yourself up for failure, it sounds like you’re already getting hurt.

It’s clear you like him but I understand why it’s so difficult to take things to the next level. I’d suggest you do one of two things all in or all out. First, you make a go of things. Cast aside your worry about what may or may not happen seven or eight months down the line. None of us have the luxury of a crystal ball so there’s no way of knowing what may work for the both of you. If you come to it, then cross the bridge of what happens with your relationship after graduation. If you really like each other then I’m sure you will find a way to make things work. After all, the first warning of an unhealthy relationship is making poor excuses for cancelling meet-ups. Or, if you’re still unsure then the other option is going cold turkey. Continuing to see each other, but not actually being in a relationship, is often painful in itself. Ending things now might prevent the inevitable and the constant back and forth. I don’t think there can be a middle ground with situations like this and, at the end of the day, if you like each other enough, you’ll find your way back together further down the line.

With love,

March 2019 17

LIFESTYLE

Memories of Bath

A

good friend once pointed out to me that, if you’ve only been in a city for a short amount of time, you’re likely to only have one distinct memory attached to each part of it. This resonated with me particularly as a university student: whilst you’re preoccupied in studying and campus life, you only get to explore the location itself in fragmented stages, and each stage brings with it a sliver of nostalgia to last a lifetime.

Bath’s beauty is undeniably unique and, unlike many cities, it does not have the constant sense of evolution, of new developments springing up and sprawling. Its bars, restaurants and main features are known to most and there’s a certain tick-list of attractions you feel obliged to visit. And, indeed, as you tick these off, you leave behind certain poignant memories. Some significant, mostly in terms of relationships, and some less prominent, which only resurface on revisiting. Here is a collection from my brief yet brimming time in Bath.

We start with The King of Wessex – not an Anglo-Saxon leader, but rather the questionably carpeted tavern with a cutlery-related colloquialism: Spoons. This marked the beginning of my first night out in Bath, joined by my new flatmates. We were a group of wide-eyed freshers, thrown onto a corridor together and now trying to go from anonymity to closest of pals with the help of only some cheap booze. The flow of pints was soon overtaken by the flow of over-enthusiastic small talk and the desire to ‘fit in’. Little did we know we’d be in a little terraced house together a mere year later.

Cross James Street West and stroll into Kingsmead Square. Boston Tea Party (the “little” Boston of the two) brings one of those memories of storytelling which has little personal relevance but still remains

18 BATHTIME

lodged clearly in my mind. This is where my aunt told me about meeting her husband, at the hospital in London where they were both training. He proposed a year later by the gates of Notting Hill.

From tales of swoons to Swoon itself, a few yards from BTP, and I’m overindulging in gelato at 10pm with a flatmate. We’re discussing the complex mechanism of a first year love triangle and predicting the looming outcome. We predicted right, perhaps with the help of the most sensational sweet treat in the South West. Swoon’s award-winning gelato, especially the ‘carrot cake’ variety, seemed almost suspiciously sublime, but the owners tell us that this delicacy has 50% less fat than traditional ice cream.

Heading up to Trim Street and off a narrow side alley and we find the Canary Gin Bar. This is where I had my first date with my boyfriend. We knew bits about each other, most notably that we shared a love of gin, and this was the most fitting spot to enjoy it over a maturing heart-to-heart - joined only by ‘Gin Austen’. Walking past there now rekindles fond echoes of debates concerning driverless cars and egg white as a cocktail ingredient. I now regret being too quick to judge either.

Bath’s quaint yet lavish selection of bars are particular culprits of the ‘single memory peculiarity’...mostly because they’re a blow to the student budget and can only be graced once in a very long while. A definitive example is Circo, the elegant underground cocktail bar on George Street. With waiter service and lemon iced water descending upon your table as you arrive, we’ve come a long way since our good friend, The King of Wessex. Here, my coursemate and I took it in turns to order drinks to prolong our visit without elevating the cost;

LIFESTYLE but the real reason this night remains especially clear in my mind is that it’s when my best friend told me she was having a baby. I came out feeling like our lives were about to change, and they did. Cliche, cliche, cliche but something I always ponder when meandering down George Street.

We’re at the top of town now, and creeping closer to Bath’s arguably most impressive feature: the Royal Crescent. It was the end of year 1, and after months of bravery when facing life on our own for the first time, months of trying to make every day the best of our lives, my friend and I were suddenly overwhelmed. We cried together on the lawn over personal fears and losses, whilst savouring a picnic of only Kettle Chips and grapes. Amongst the familiar sound of French tourists and children playing with footballs, we analysed intimate feelings and reflected on a landmark year.

Just the day after, one of my closest friends from home paid me a visit, which was her first experience of Bath. After a year, my university friends and I had become regretfully immune to the city’s beauty but the reality of it came flooding back as she stepped out of Bath Spa station and looked around in awe.

The iconic Bath stone provided a stark and somewhat picturesque contrast to her usual London landscape.

We, rather unoriginally, headed straight to the Roman Baths. For an attraction with so much complex history, it’s quite shameful to say that all I remember is my friend’s interactions with ‘Atonius the Merchant’, whose journey selling leather had led him to the town of Aquae Sulis. I enjoyed their daringly flirtatious exchanges, admiring each other’s fashion sense and comparing jeans with vans to robes with sandals. Atonius must have played a large part in the Baths’ 4.5 star TripAdvisor score.

As I write this, I am unlocking even more remarkable memories than I could have ever have anticipated. I suppose it’s kind of the reverse of being able to recall exactly where you were when major events happened. This aside, what I’m trying to say is, if you love Bath as much as I do, hold on to the memories you’ve made in its cobbled streets and try to take something away from each new place you visit. The memories may seem like a random collection now, but when we return for our 50 year reunions, we’ll be glad we stored that nostalgia away for another time.

March 2019 19

FEATURES

By Harvey McIntosh

My Mount Kilimanjaro trek is certainly a memory I will hold onto closely forever. The views, the scenery, the people, the sunrise: As corny as it sounds, it did feel like I was standing on the roof of Africa.

When I joined the University of Bath as an undergraduate student back in 2015, the idea of climbing Africa’s tallest peak had never crossed my mind. In fact, when I thought about it, as with a lot of people, I never even thought this achievement possible. It was through my unlikely engagement with RAG that I stumbled across one of my passions in life - trekking, and all of the amazing experiences which accompany it.

Mount Kilimanjaro was a highlight for me, and for many other charity fundraisers alike. Beginning your trek in the mania of Moshi, the world at the summit of Kilimanjaro is inconceivable. As you wander through the bustling streets, the unfamiliar colours and smells bombarding your senses are far away from the desolate side of the mountain.

There are several routes you can take to summit Kilimanjaro, each varying in difficulty and beauty. I took the Machame route, known for being one of the most difficult but also scenically rewarding. Over five days, I walked with my team for several hours each day, slowly gaining height. Songs were sung, copious amounts of snacks and water were consumed, and totally random conversations were had. It was during

these long days that I spoke to people I had never met before, making memories and friendships which I still hold on to now.

The peril of summit night should not be underestimated. Having walked all day, you grab a two-hour power nap before being woken up to take on your summit attempt in the middle of the night. It’s pitch black. It’s minus 15 degrees. You have never experienced sleep deprivation like it. And this shows – not everyone makes it, with several people being carried back down the mountain in the middle of the night.

But for those of you who press on, the black of the night slowly becomes a glowing blue, and the peak of Kilimanjaro comes into light. If you have timed it right, you will arrive just as the sun is rising over the Serengeti. You will cry. You will hug. And you will take a mental photograph which you will never lose sight of.

RAG has offered a Mount Kilimanjaro fundraising trek on and off for many years, and throughout this time has sent hundreds of students to Tanzania, all whilst raising thousands of pounds for their charity partners. This year one our BIG4 charities is going solo and running a Mount Kilimanjaro expedition of their own. Julian House, one of Bath’s local homelessness charities, is looking to gather a group of willing fundraisers to take on this challenge! If you think you have what it takes, or would like to get involved, please visit the Julian House’s website at: www.julianhouse.org.uk/support-us. It is definitely an experience I would recommend!

FEATURES

W

hilst politics and the media by their very nature are perpetually evolving, it is becoming clear that the millennial age has set a new stage for politics and its consumption in a way not much else has. The rise of social and digital media provides an elevated and infinitely interconnected platform for information sharing, which is very different from that of traditional political media. Information consumption now takes place on an entirely different playing field. The reasons for and effects of this change are important to note as we move forward into a completely new political realm.

Social media allows individuals in the political spotlight to share their thoughts without fear of misrepresentation from the mainstream media, which is notorious for doing so. Moreover, the platform gives political thinkers an unfiltered voice and direct contact with the entire world. Why go through a biased middle man when one can talk to their voters directly however they want, whenever they want and about whatever they want? In the same way, digital media such as YouTube has an especially salient impact - it has given a voice to many political commentators such as Ben Shapiro or Jordan Peterson and more importantly, has allowed for a diverse exchange of ideas between individuals.

While politicians and political commentators clearly benefit from the new platforms, the public does too.

Today’s youth have direct access to a huge variety of diverse opinions, which has led to a better informed and politically involved population which has had a direct effect on politics. Politicians now face an in-

creased accountability in relation to their actions and decreased voter apathy.

So, there are clearly benefits that come with recent changes in media when it comes to politics, all the way from a more informed voter base to a refreshing new voice for politicians themselves. However, this change isn’t without a negative impact. With direct access to voters and the world some politicians can use their platform to proliferate falsehoods that then only get fact-checked by news corporations and individuals that their voter base won’t listen to.

This ability to share without a middle man, although removing a source of bias, allows for a more inherently unchecked bias coming from politicians without direct challenge or analysis. The ability to choose who you listen to with such a variety of options also means many individuals only follow opinions that support their own world view, commonly referred to as the ‘echo chamber’. Increasingly we are finding that within politics now, people aren’t even debating the same issues as different parties spew starkly contrasting “facts”.

Advantages of the technological revolution in the millennial age are apparent, especially when it comes to political engagement and voter apathy. But increasingly, the unchecked and universal nature of the internet coupled with decreasing trust in traditional media outlets is permitting people to think from inside an isolated pool of thought that only reflects their own opinions and beliefs. Ultimately, this works as a blockade to the evolution of thought and real solutions.

March 2019 21

FEATURES

Inside the Life of

An International Student

By Ananya Saha

Growing up in the bustling city of Delhi with its busy streets and chaotic roads, the process of moving to a place like Bath could be described as no less than an upheaval for me. I had always dreamed of living somewhere that was quieter and more peaceful, but even such idealism couldn’t stop me from feeling homesick for the first few weeks. It took its time, but eventually when the bouts of homesickness became less frequent and less intense, I found myself settling into university life- making friends, attending classes, joining new clubs and societies.

When I went back home in December, people often asked me about how different living in England was.

Strangely, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘It’s really cold’. This was despite the fact that I was accustomed to Delhi’s chilly winters and the weather was not really a big challenge for me. In reality, living in a small town like Bath was a far cry from what it felt like to be a ‘Delhiite’. Moreover, moving to England itself to live on my own meant that I had to confront the dissimilarities in life between the two countries, both academically and culturally. This was where the real difference lay but I struggled to articulate my thoughts.

22 BATHTIME

The first thing I noticed upon landing in the UK is how organised everything seemed to be. While the roads in India are often disorderly, those in the UK had vehicles driving in straight lines and respecting traffic rules. I found good organisation in the way things were done as well, right from the well-maintained immigration services to preparations that were in place to ensure students moved into university halls without any hassles.

Living away from the comforts of home in a new country forced me to learn to do things on my own.

My friends and I spent ages trying to figure out how the laundry machines worked and constantly complained about bus ticket prices. But at the same time, we marvelled at our ability to keep our rooms clean and cook edible food that did not give us food poisoning (something we greatly feared). Soon, I learnt to respect queues and lines (something people here form without any questions), brave the erratic weather, and accept the concept of baked beans on toast.

While I do miss Delhi and its lively charm, there is something endearing about the way of life in England, which I have grown to love and embrace!

FEATURES

Q&A with

Nikesh Shukla

Is this really the end of ethnic discrimination?

By Miranda Dockley

I

recently attended a Q&A session with British writer and diversity activist Nikesh Shukla at The Edge.

It was set up as part of the University and Student Union’s #NeverOK campaign and focused on racial discrimination.

People often think that acts of racism are proactive and direct – such as using offensive language or putting up signs that segregate people with different ethnic backgrounds. However, as Nikesh pointed out, it isn’t always as clear and distinguishable as that.

There are subtle forms of racism both institutionally and in everyday life. It may involve the simple act of questioning people’s identities or verbally targeting a particular group. Racism may also occur in the form of disrespecting or excluding a person from an ethnic minority group. Nikesh recalled an example of racial targeting from a personal experience. While at a railway station, a stranger calmly approached the writer and told him he wasn’t English. He was then asked where he got his money from. The general tone of the conversation seemed innocent, however the manner in which the random individual spoke made Nikesh very uncomfortable. This qualified the incident to be a racially abusive one. Upon telling the train guard what had happened, Nikesh was dismissed with “It’s your word against his”.

The issue of institutional racism was raised many times in the session. According to the writer, a big part of the problem is the fact that cultural institutions are predominantly white. The publishing industry, for instance, is notorious for institutional-

ised racism. Nikesh’s book Diversity was rejected by one publisher because they did not view it as being “authentically Asian” and claimed that “there isn’t anything that readers would identify as being Asian”.

This raises many important questions: Are ethnic representations only going to be worthy to the public if they conform to stereotypes that already exist? Is censorship so well-hidden that we are unable to recognise it? Are we brainwashed into believing that we are equipped with all the knowledge needed to stop racism?

The ‘myth of meritocracy’ also surfaced in the conversation. Internships offered by journal companies are sometimes intentionally or unintentionally biased based on financial means, skin colour or cultural capital. People who are able to do unpaid work in cities like London have equal opportunity against one another in the selection process because they can afford high transport costs. But for those who aren’t in such fortunate positions, such unpaid opportunities are inaccessible. This boils down to the cultural and economic capital they are endowed with. As Nikesh said, companies should “advertise internships in ways that are equitable for everyone” – not just the wealthy and white but everyone.

The primary inspiration for this article were two simple questions raised in the session: Why do some people feel compelled towards racist behaviour? And, how good are we at identifying even the subtlest form of racism?

Like the rest of the audience, I was left with a whole lot of thinking to do.

March 2019 23

FEATURES

International Piece

TALKING TO A NICARAGUAN FAIRTRADE W O R K E R

By DARCEY STICKLEY

SPANISH TRANSLATION

University of Bath celebrates Fairtrade Fortnight at the beginning of March every year and this time, we were fortunate enough to receive Junieth Maribel Leiva here on campus. A 29 year old woman from Jinotega, Nicaragua, her story is enthralling and praising of the Fairtrade cause.

Cada año, la universidad de Bath acoge a alguien de una cooperativa de Comercio Justo para hablar sobre las experiencias y los procesos de vivir y trabajar con esta organización. Este año, la persona en cuestión es Junieth Mariebl Leiva, una nicaragüense de 29 años que trabaja en Jinotega, Nicaragua.

Junieth’s life has always been influenced by the presence of coffee farming, but her involvement got more intense when she became old enough to work in the cooperative, named Unión de Cooperativas Agropecuarias SOPPEXCCA. Watching her mother work on the fields as she grew up, she told us that since a young age, women in her community have had two jobs: manual labour and homekeeping.

Junieth estaba acostumbrada a ver a su madre trabajar en el campo, así que fue una progresión natural cuando ella también empezó a trabajar en el campo con 14 años. Su cooperativa se llama Unión de Cooperativas Agropecuarias SOPPEXCCA. En esta cooperativa, las mujeres siempre han tenido dos papeles; trabajadora y agricultora.

Although the aforementioned dynamic hasn’t changed, working with Fairtrade has opened the opportunity of education to everyone in the SOPPEXCCA community, which has allowed women to better understand their rights.

From the moment Fairtrade has been in her town, she has noticed a palpable difference; a functioning road, a recycling system and education from primary through to university level.

24 BATHTIME

A pesar de que esta dinámica nunca ha cambiado, la presencia de Comercio Justo ha abierto más oportunidades de formación, algo que ha ayudado a las mujeres de Jinotega a conocer mejor sus derechos. Desde el momento en el que Comercio Justo se estableció en su ciudad, Junieth ha notado unas diferencias impactantes: una calle que funciona, un sistema de reciclaje y un avanze en la formación, desde educación primaria hasta la universidad.

De hecho, trabajar con Comercio Justo ayudó a Junieth a terminar sus estudios con un título en Ad-

FEATURES ministración de Empresas. Su papel en SOPPEXCCA es ahora el de una administrativa, algo que le hace feliz, indicado por su expresión alegre.

Durante la charla con ella, Louise Whitaker de Bewley’s Tea and Coffee y el director comercial de Comercio Justo, Euan Venters, Julieth habló más sobre el proceso de la cultivación de café.

“Es muy satisfactorio para mí de visitar los cafés y saber que el café que vos consumes vino de mí y otros productores pequeños como nosotros” In fact, working with Fairtrade allowed Junieth to finish her studies and complete a degree in Business Administration. She now has an administrative role at SOPPEXCCA, which is something she seems contently satisfied by.

Junieth spoke more about the process of coffee farming during the main talk on Tuesday, followed by talks from Bewley’s Tea and Coffee (Louise Whitaker) and Fairtrade UK’s Commercial Director, Euan Ventres.

It’s been deeply satisfying to me to visit cafÉs and know that the coffee you’re consuming has come from my community and small producers like us

Durante la charla, Junieth trató la presencia del Premium de Comercio Justo. Esto es un paquete extra de dinero que los productores reciben cada año y algo que las cooperativas deciden gastar juntos para una causa común. En su comunidad, las prioridades son la asistencia médica y la educación, al igual que sus compañeros en Ghana. Además, Junieth profundizó sobre el impacto del cambio climático en Jinotega - durante los años recientes, esta área ha experimentado unas inundaciones sin precedentes.

Estos desastres naturales resultan en la contaminación de las plantas con el virus “roya”, algo que puede dejar una cosecha inútil.

At this talk, Junieth discussed the presence of the Fairtrade Premium, which is an extra set of money producers receive which will then be spent on what the cooperative collectively decide. In her community, their priorities are healthcare and education, much like their Fairtrade partners in Ghana. Further, Junieth also elaborated on the impact of climate change her in region - in recent years, Jinotega has experienced some unprecedented flooding, which infects crops with the ‘coffee leaf rust’ virus, something that can render a harvest un-consumable.

Although we often hear of the flaws in the Fairtrade system, through speaking to Junieth, it was clear that this programme has real, tangible benefits to many people in need of support. As students, though we have many excuses to justify opting for cheaper options, please do consider spending the extra few pennies to buy Fairtrade.

Junieth's visit is an ahs-PoLIS-Alumni co-funded event

March 2019 25

FEATURES

The Reproducibility Crisis in Science

For the last 2 decades, this problem has plagued n science, reproducibility is a measure of the extent multiple scientific fields, often because experiments were not being designed to a sufficient standard to to which multiple experimentalists in multiple ensure the researchers’ biases wouldn’t interfere with institutions following the same experimental meththeir interpretation of results. The pressure on scienodology achieve the same results. It is one of the key tists to publish quickly and the tendency of journals tenets of the scientific method and a high degree to favour the publication of sensational findings have of reproducibility is a necessary condition for any finding to be considered a scientific fact. To illustrate both been blamed for motivating scientists to be less careful in their work. More recently, the use of the importance of this mechanism, I would remind you that it was a single scientific article in The Lancet machine learning systems in data analysis has accelmedical journal that led to the unsubstantiated belief erated the crisis. According to Dr Genevera Allen of Rice University, the algorithms are designed to sift that vaccines cause autism. The claim was shown to through huge datasets and highlight interesting patbe fraudulent by subsequent experiments but in the media’s treatment of a single, irreproducible result as terns, regardless of whether these make sense in the scientific fact, the anti-vaccination movement gained real world. Often these findings are only shown to be false when the next large data set is produced (an support, directly risking the health of thousands. expensive and time-consuming process) and appliObviously, this is an extreme example, but it does highlight the importance of reproducibility in science cation of the same algorithm throws up results either irrelevant or contradictory to the initial findings. which is why the current crisis is so concerning.

By Tom Langer

I

A survey published in Nature in the summer of 2016 revealed that 70% of researchers had tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments. Additionally, the Reproducibility Project at the University of Virginia tried to replicate 97 psychological studies and found that only 35 of them produced results resembling those of the initial studies. A 2018 article suggested that around $28 billion worth of US research per year in medical fields is non-reproducible and a separate analysis found that 85% of biomedical research carried out in the world recently cannot be reproduced.

26 BATHTIME

These errors are wasteful of both resources and time in many scientific fields, so precautions need to be taken to avoid them. In the UK, for example, it has been suggested that the Research Excellence Framework should better fund and credit the publication of less revolutionary findings. Additionally, scientists including Dr Genevera Allen are working to create the next generation of machine learning algorithms which will hopefully have the capacity to assess the uncertainty of the results they produce. The reproducibility crisis does pose a significant threat to the credibility of scientific institutions, but if the flaws of the current system are adequately addressed, the scientific method will emerge stronger than ever.

FEATURES

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

By Rob Brett

of the most crucial conversations of our time is One how we eat. Recent figures show that six percent of the UK are vegan, and the momentum isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. A diet once reserved for religious groups and punks in protest has become a mainstream choice grounded in a desire to make a positive change in the world. Analysis shows that the single biggest thing an individual can do to help the environment is cut out beef. And there’s the other (more explicit) benefit of not taking life unnecessarily. Surely that’s a good thing?

But what about the other 94% of the population?

Whilst a lot of them fall into the broad category of veggie/flexitarian/pescatarian, many still consume meat every day. What could keep people eating meat despite the obvious ethical issues? Simply, the taste.

Despite the moral uncertainty that comes with meat consumption, many people couldn’t imagine life without their animal of choice. And by calling cow “beef ”, and pig “pork”, we maintain a tactical distance from the reality of our consumption.

Still, there’s even more hope for removing meat from our diets. Scientists are working on lab-grown meat, which will hopefully satiate those who can’t give up the taste. Lab-grown meat is produced by the in-vitro cultivation of animal cells to grow specific tissues. The technology is only just reaching the point of commercial via-

bility, but the idea has existed for decades. In 1931, Winston Churchill said that “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium", and by the 1970s, the first experiment to show that muscle could be grown in a lab was published. Since then the technology has developed, aided most notably by the development of reliable ways of culturing stem cells (the undifferentiated cells which can turn into any other type of cell).

In 2013, the first lab-grown burger was produced, costing a dizzying $200,000 to produce over two years. In the four years since, that price has dropped to around $10. If this trend continues, lab meat could soon be a commercial product, with a few notable start-ups are working towards that end. Companies are working on fishless fish, cowless beef, and even duckless duck. Not even that, but the benefits of lab grown meat extend beyond ethics - having control over the end product means that we could load our meats with additional nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids.

My personal utopian vision would see all of our farmland currently used to grow animals returned to some kind of wilderness, where forests were left to grow and support reintroduced animals like beavers and lynx. Who knows if that’ll ever happen, but at least we’re making steps in the right direction. Science is paving the way for even the most passionate meat eaters to make dietary changes that could not only save a few animals, but our entire planet.

March 2019 27

FEATURES

BATH’S HUNGER:

By Ben Turner

I

n a country that prides itself on being one of the richest in Europe, why is poverty such a prevailing issue? While the issue of hunger may not be something we immediately associate with the UK, there are over 14 million people living in poverty who are struggling to find enough food to survive. Locally, about one-third of Twerton’s children live in poverty.

These issues are particularly poignant in Bath, an affluent city where the rich live alongside the poor.

Between 2017 and 2018, the Bath Food Bank gave emergency food packages to over 4,000 individuals.

This was an increase of 36% from the year before. Of those receiving help, a quarter were children, mostly under the age of 11. This increasing demand for the Food Bank’s services begs investigation of the situation.

According the Trussell Trust, a nationwide hunger charity, the top three reasons for the use of foodbanks in Bath in 2017/18 were low income, benefit delays and benefit changes. Other drivers include illness, domestic abuse and homelessness. The Trust argues that the Universal Credit system bears significant responsibility for the rise in food banks. Across their 1,200 food banks in

Do food banks solve hunger issues in Bath? the UK, the charity has seen a 52% increase in usage since the programme was introduced in 2010. They assert that the five week waiting time between an application being made and payment being received is forcing many people to food banks. The charity is currently lobbying the government for this to be reduced.

Despite this political element of the hunger issue, individual food banks maintain an apolitical stance.

The Chair of Bath Food Bank, Tim Harris, told us that their prime objective is to give support to people in times of crisis. This support is intended to be temporary and the foodbank often collaborates with other authorities to tackle the underlying issues that force individuals to seek support.

Bath Food Bank is run in partnership with local churches and the Genesis Trust, a Bath-based charity that works with disadvantaged people. The Food Bank runs from three locations: Manvers Street, Twerton, and Southdown, though only the Manvers Street site is open five days a week. In order to use a foodbank, people must be given a voucher by one of the local welfare agencies. Once referred, they can redeem their vouchers for a three-day food package containing a range of foods, including cereals, bread and tinned meat. The packages can also be adapted to gluten free, halal and vegetarian diets.

A foodbank, however, only offers a partial safety net. In a six month period, individuals can be allocated a maximum of three vouchers, which is equivalent to nine days worth of food.

While Tim assured us that Bath’s foodbank is equipped enough to extend the three voucher limit if necessary, many others across the country experience shortages that can limit the scope of their activities.

Food banks mainly rely on volunteers to sustain their

FEATURES

activities. They typically receive food donations from schools, churches and businesses and in 2017/18 collected about 47,000 kilograms of food supplies. In Bath, over 100 people regularly volunteer to provide, sort and deliver these supplies.

So, how does the University of Bath contribute?

According to the SU’s Volunteer Support Coordinator, Louisa Peters, the University has worked with the Food Bank on a few occasions. In February, the University’s V-Team recruited 18 students to work with the Food Bank for a week and in December, SU staff donated three boxes of supplies. The campus accommodation team also organise an end of year food collection, where departing freshers can donate any unwanted goods.

Other initiatives such as the Zurich Community Challenge are also undertaken. The 2013 challenge encouraged a group of students from the School of Management to provide administrative support to Bath charities, including the Food Bank. They did this by applying their business acumen to improve the bank’s publicity, funding and productivity.

A notable observation is the lack of a systematic donation system at the University. In the city of Bath there are 13 donation points, while the campus, with over 3,500 resident students and two supermarkets,

does not have even one. The university certainly has the potential to give more to those in need but it must be acknowledged that students rarely have surplus food, money or time. Projects such as the Zurich Challenge could offer an alternative interesting way to utilise Bath’s academic strength to support disadvantaged communities and local charities.

Beyond university action, individual contributions are also very much required. If you would like to donate food to the Bath Food Bank, you can visit one of the donation sites in the city - the exact locations are visible on the ‘Give Help’ section of their website. You can also see the particular kinds of food the charity needs this month.

If you are planning on donating food it is important to make sure it isn’t opened, damaged or out of date.

Better yet, if you are interested in volunteering with the Food Bank, you can contact them directly. They are always happy to take on volunteers. The website also has fundraising advice if you would like to raise money to support the charity.

It’s time we put the wealth of knowledge and people we have at our university to better communal use.

With the impending crisis of homelessness in the city, there is no better way to give back to the society than donating whatever little our student budgets allow us and, more importantly, volunteering our time.

March 2019 29

FEATURES

By Lydia Maurel

H

aving unsuccessfully attempted to find relevant work experience in the UK, I wanted an opportunity to use my psychology degree to help people. Preferably in the sun. Therefore, I signed up to volunteer abroad in Sri Lanka for five weeks on an Advanced Mental Health Placement.

Sessions for the week were planned on the Monday morning and two sessions took place each day. I was encouraged to fully immerse myself into the Sri Lankan culture and so decided to use local transport to travel for work projects. Navigating buses and tuk-tuks on a daily basis was an adventure in itself.

All the volunteers’ timetables were structured differently but they were each designed to give us a chance to interact with a variety of people. I taught English to a group of service-users and also worked with individuals suffering from learning disabilities and substance-abuse histories. Working in psychiatric facilities with mentally ill individuals who came from a range of backgrounds was a real eye-opening experience for me. I felt truly rewarded by this project as I was able to contribute to the wellbeing of these people. The gratitude that service-users expressed reinforced this feeling in us.

30 BATHTIME

During the week, I lived in a homestay with a local Sri Lankan family. I was surprised by how quickly I developed a bond with my homestay family: despite the language barrier, each one of us were treated like family. It was also nice to have authentic Sri Lankan meals for dinner every evening.

During the weekends, the other volunteers and I travelled to explore the country. Sri Lanka was an extremely underrated tourist destination, hence the natural landscape and wildlife has been beautifully preserved. We did a range of activities, including: climbing Sigiriya Rock and Adam’s Peak, swimming in waterfalls, hatching and releasing turtles, and even spent long days lying on the beach.

The thought of living and working abroad can be daunting for many students. However, from my experience I found that when you travel abroad to volunteer, you often meet like-minded people and form bonds faster than one would expect. Together, our team faced multiple challenges but also shared enjoyable experiences. I would consider some of the people I met in Sri Lanka to be friends for life. I also now feel a lot more confident to navigate a foreign country and manage challenging situations. I thought five weeks would feel particularly long, but today, my only regret is not having stayed longer.

FEATURES

STOP PLAYING WHITE SAVIOUR

By Alisha Lobo

“It was so moving” “It changed my life” “They were so happy with so little.”

Sound familiar? Sounds like a gap year. How many posts have you seen of far-away places and poverty, of charity that has been “life changing” and heart-warming captions describing hope amongst despair?

There have recently been numerous articles that have emerged on ‘voluntourism’, most recently between Stacey Dooley and David Lammy. An underlying theme emerges from these trips, mainly that volunteers leave with little to no prior training on what they are entering into (although I do concede that this is dependent on the organisations that they are associated with). This presents challenges when volunteers are faced with immense cultural shocks, which, for some, will be incredibly challenging and difficult, but in other instances quite eye-opening.

Teaching English is always a good one to begin with.

Often, volunteers will trek off to countries with limited knowledge of the local language. Although English is the second most spoken language in the world, learning it is disproportionately prioritized, often to the detriment of the local language, which is the marker of cultural identity. To teach in the UK, our teachers must undertake extensive training and checks before even entering a classroom. This ensures that children in the UK are taken care of and provided with a high standard of education, an assurance I would argue is deserving of all children. Conversely, volunteers abroad often last a couple of weeks, which causes an unstable turnover of teachers, creating a situation where quality teaching is near impossible and where young children form bonds with different volunteers that are repeatedly broken.

Here, this is only comparable to having a different substitute teacher every week.

ulations are high and, as much as we complain, these checks and balances are essential to ensure the sustainability of the structures we build, the workers’ safety and the overall development of the area.

The final issue I raise is with the money invested by charities on covering flights and accommodation of these volunteers (I acknowledge this is dependent on the organisation). If the organisations and volunteers have a genuine desire to help these communities, surely the full amount of money is better invested directly in these areas?

In the globalized world that we live in, foreign travel is becoming more essential than ever. It remains by far one of the best experiences possible to undertake.

By engaging with people from a different country and a different way of living, we realise that we often have more in common than not.

However, if our aim is to support less developed communities, our help needs to be sustainable – this may require taking time out to substantially aid the country of your choice for a number of months or years to truly be a part of the change that you would like to see.

Let us not forget the benefit volunteering locally can have. In an era of austerity, UK charities are struggling and often rely on volunteers to get by and these organisations plug the gap where government provision has fallen short, have a look into V team if you’re interested in volunteering within Bath. Further afield, recognizing the history of colonialism and the negative impact that it has had is also essential. Critically, acknowledge privilege in everything you do, not as something to feel guilty about, but as a reference point of how we interact and function in society today.

Travel and engage with different communities around the world – we have a lot to share and you will be openly welcomed, but the relationship changes when you become a part of the developmental work in the community. At the forefront of your mind, recognise This moves us to the next concern about the building work that is often undertaken by volunteers, from wells that your presence in trips such as these, (even if done with the most sustainable charity) is a weighted politifor clean drinking water to schools. Again, volunteers cal statement that is steeped in a history of the violent receive no training for this and such tasks are underimposition of different ideals – simply put, colonialism. taken with little to no professional help, raising quesAt the end of the day, people of colour do not exist for tions surrounding the safety of those doing the work, and for whom the school serves. Once more, compare your benefit and the personal discovery of yourself. You the number of checks and balances that occur in these discovered us a long time ago and it did not end well. instances to what we have here. Limitations and regMarch 2019 31

FEATURES

Smaller Business for Small Businesses

The Growing Threat Of ‘Death By Amazon’

By Mohammad Lone

A

mazon is huge. Really huge. The firm set up by Jeff Bezos in a Seattle garage in 1994 brought in $232bn revenue in 2018. The market values Amazon at over $1tn and according to Forbes, Bezos is the wealthiest man in the world.

Amidst the craze surrounding the company’s plans for flying delivery drones, its grocery service and Jeremy Clarkson’s rant on its original show The Grand Tour, one might forget about Amazon’s origins as an online retailer. Online sales remains the largest driver of revenue, totalling $72bn in 2018.

However, as the famous saying goes, “behind every great fortune lies a great crime”. Is this true for Amazon?

Williams-Sonoma would say so. In December 2018, the California-based furniture retailer filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Amazon, claiming “it is implausible that Amazon could have conceived of a product line with nearly identical product designs… other than by intentionally undertaking to copy WSI’s West Elm product line”.

The Williams-Sonoma case is an example of a relatively large company taking on Amazon over alleged copying of products but in reality, many (often voiceless) smaller businesses are facing the same troubles. An oft-cited example is Rain Design, whose £40 laptop stand is alleged to be the direct inspiration for an almost identical product offered by ‘Amazon Basics’, which sells for just £13. Unlike Williams-Sonoma, Rain Design has neither the resources

32 BATHTIME

nor grounds to file a legal suit. According to them, “there’s nothing we can do about it because they didn’t violate the patent”.

Key to Amazon’s ability to capitalise on products of smaller businesses is the wealth of data it amasses. This supports the whole product process, from deciding which products are in vogue through search and sales statistics, to marketing them directly to consumers through ads. Moreover, Amazon has the budget and scale to produce and sell these products at knockdown prices. Produce a high volume of products at a low cost, sell at low prices and rely on volume, not the profit per unit sold, to drive up profits. If a product makes a loss? Amazon has the coffers to easily absorb it.

Sub-brands are also key. Amazon Basics is the most prominent of these, but it’s one of over 70 brands owned by Amazon, selling everything from spare DIY parts (‘Small Parts’) to baby products (‘Mama Bear’). The illusion of choice created by these ‘stealth’ brands, along with their competitive prices, mean Amazon’s sub-brands have thrived, often at the cost of smaller businesses. These small businesses can do little about it. Lawsuits are money-draining, lengthy and almost impossible to win against a firm as powerful as Amazon. Trying to compete with Amazon on price is just as hopeless.

Many still consider Amazon to be a valuable platform for small businesses, to access massive amounts of customers online. But as the firm continues to invest hugely in its own products, Amazon seems to be taking this platform back for itself.

NEWS & COMMENT

OLYMPIC MEDALLIST SWIMMER INDUCTED INTO THE STV HALL OF FAME

BY SAM PAKENHAM-WALSH

Swimmer Michael Jamieson has become the 24th inductee into the University of Bath Hall of Fame for Sport. Jamieson, now retired from swimming, won a memorable silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, setting a new British record for the event. He was narrowly denied a first-place finish by Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta.

He follows in the prestigious footsteps of other household names in British sport, which includes the likes of Amy Williams, gold medallist in the skeleton at the 2010 Winter Olympics and England Rugby Union star, Steve Borthwick.

Speaking to Team Bath, Jamieson was thankful to receive the award, describing it as, ‘’a really nice honour’’.

“Everything that I accomplished here was thanks to

Dave [McNulty] and the rest of the team, “ Jamieson explains. “When I look back now, you realise it was never about the medals – it’s about the way you chase the medals and the relationships you create along the way, and I made friends for life here.”

Born in Glasgow, Jamieson trained and studied at the University of Bath between 2009-2013 where he became a hugely popular figure around the Sports Training Village. He spent six years with the British Swimming National Centre Bath squad, picking up silver medals at the Delhi and Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2014 respectively. He also earnt podium finishes at the World and European Short-Course Championships.

British Swimming National Performance Director Chris Spice, who attended the induction ceremony, commended Jamieson on his award. ‘’We are very proud of you and, on behalf of British Swimming, we want to say well done on this award’’, he said.

March 2019 33

NEWS & COMMENT

New Team Bath Gym and Fitness Centre opens in STV

By Henry Somper & Freddy Campbell

W

ith the jumpers and coats coming off for the arrival of spring, it’s time to shake off that winter layer and get back into the gym. As well as a fifty-meter swimming pool and world-renowned tennis facilities recently used for the women’s Federation Cup, the Sports Training Village has a new Team Bath Gym and Fitness Centre.

Complete with a double tier-extension, two dedicated studio spaces, and the latest high-tech strength and conditioning apparatus, the new gym will work in unison with existing facilities, adding more than double the gym space currently available. Both students and general members of the public will be able to enjoy a vast range of new gym equipment, including over seventy new stations, a range of lifting platforms and a free weights area, as well as battle ropes for anyone dreaming of looking like Anthony Joshua.

Bath Time attended the exclusive opening ceremony on Tuesday 26th February, along with an array of University staff and alumni, including the likes of celebrity athletes and ex-University of Bath students, Lewis Moody, Amy Williams, and Jason Gardener. England Rugby World Cup winner Moody and

(From left) Amy Williams, Lewis Moody and Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Bernie Morley in the new Team Bath Gym & Fitness Center

34 BATHTIME

Vancouver 2010 Olympic skeleton champion Williams both delivered free group training sessions for students and members of the public.

Williams, a regular user of the STV, commended the new facility, telling Bath Time “this new gym is going to be a great training place for performance athletes, students, the general public – anyone who wants to keep fit. It is just a great space for exercise.”

We also spoke with one of the University’s Vice-Presidents, Professor Steve Egan, who praised the additional space the new gym would bring to the Sports Training Village, as well as the input the Students’ Union had in championing its creation. In addition, the acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bernie Morley, commended the additional area, saying that it will benefit both “the University Community and the City of Bath community as a whole”.

The new facilities exhibit a dual focus on exercise classes and free weights. The top floor is devoted to classes and lighter lifting, for those who perhaps

Amy Williams and Lewis Moody try out new Matrix equipment

NEWS & COMMENT

Lewis Moody leading a Hatton Boxing fitness class in the new upstairs studio space

find the incessant grunting of the weights area both intimidating and annoying. Within this, there is a separate studio, complete with full-length mirrors and sprung wooden floor where exercise classes will be held here for up to 30 people, with the potential for over 100 classes every week. Catering for the needs of every digitally-focussed millennial student, there’s also the Team Bath app which allows members to view timetables and book classes.

Underneath this exists a weights-focussed room, with an array of racks, dumbbells and cables, as well as cardio machines and spaces for individual exercise.

Bath Time was told that this doubles the free weights area of the gym, negating a common complaint surrounding the previous issues of limited work-out space.

Understandably, the announcement of the new gym has caused excitement at a venue which is already highly renowned for its sports facilities, so much so that it helped the University win the Sunday Times ‘Sports University of the Year 2018’.

As part of the University’s ambition to offer a range of student mental health services, the SU Sport Officer, Andy Galloway, has successfully campaigned for an exercise referral scheme. This program offers

Amy Williams leading a personal training session in the Gym & Fitness Centre’s functional area

students experiencing mental health difficulties a free eight-week gym membership, with the aim of improving student wellbeing.

For those of you looking to get motivated this March, as well as improve your conversion rates in Score, TeamBath are offering memberships with no joining fee or contract for memberships taken out in March.

Visit www.teambath.com/fitness to find out more.

In response to the opening of the gym extension, Andy Galloway, SU Sport Officer stated: “After a number of delays, it’s great to see the gym expansion finally completed. It was part of the SU’s Top Ten in 2016/17, after exercise space was identified as a major student issue so it’s fantastic that a response has been delivered. Whilst the space is appropriate for anyone looking to keep fit, it is certainly much more inclusive than the original gym, being more enclosed, with natural light and a more modern feel. In response to student feedback about why the STV sometimes isn’t very inviting, we’ll now be working with the gym to ensure that everyone feels welcome there.”

(From left) Lewis Moody, Sports Facility Manager Ron Stewart, STV Sales Manager Miles Peyton, Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Bernie Morley, Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley and Amy Williams

March 2019 35

NEWS & COMMENT

COMPLAINTS ABOUT SEATING AREA LOSS AT VIRGIL BUILDING CAFÉ

By Mayank Jagnany

T

he Café at the Virgil Building has been taken over by the SU. Rebranded as Flo’s café, the space now features new furniture and a fresh lick of paint.

Now serving the discounted Starbucks Menu, Flo’s offers a similar function to The Plug, wherein people can take a break from their work sessions.

However, this comes at a price: the renovation work has led to a reduction in seating. In a space which was previously used extensively for study by some students, this change is not entirely welcome. In a city like Bath, where the majority of students live away from campus, it might seem unwise to sacrifice a central study space for a café.

The existing struggle to find desk space might force students to go up to campus, which, given the current bus situation, takes much longer than it should. Needless to say, even this is not a possibility when library space becomes scarce in exam time.

36 BATHTIME

Approached for comment, SU President Eve Alcock said: “Space is a huge issue on campus. When taking over the Virgil Cafe, the SU had intended to - at the very least - maintain the capacity of seating down there. Unfortunately, having to do the revamp through the University’s Estates Department’s systems significantly increased our projected costs of this project, so we weren’t able to put as much seating as we had planned in the space as we were required to stick within our budget. We are enormously cognisant of this issue, and will - as soon as we are able - ensure that the space has the right level of seating that students require to carry out their studies in the building. We’ve applied for Alumni funding to address this issue. This is a prime example of why Estates Costs is an issue that appears on our Top Ten this year which we’re working hard to lobby the University on. We welcome student views on the new space as it helps us ensure the space meets your needs”

NEWS & COMMENT

LOCAL NEWS ACTIVISTS WALK INTO SAINSBURY’S WITH 100 SINGLE-USE PACKAGINGS FOR MANAGER Greenpeace volunteers entered the Green Park Sainsbury’s with a trolley full of single-use plastics on Sunday 24th February. They handed the branch manager over 100 pieces that had been collected by consumers, which included cling film, plastic trays and bags. The volunteers had signs reading “Free Veg from Pointless Packaging”. Greenpeace claim that Sainsbury’s finished at the bottom of their survey about supermarkets’ plans to reduce plastic packaging.

The action is part of their End Ocean Plastics Campaign, which seeks to counter the 800,000 tons of plastic packaging waste produced every year by UK supermarkets.

CLEAN BANDIT AND VAN MORRISON TO HEADLINE THE 2019 BATH FESTIVAL

Photo credits: Greenpeace, Justin Higuchi on Flickr & Bath Time

This year the Bath Festival begins on May 17th, with venues across Bath opening their doors to the public for live music. Last year saw the first Bath Festival ever, which proved hugely popular. Acts included Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Midge Ure. This year, the 10-day arts festival will be followed by the Final Weekend on 1st and 2nd of June at the Rec, where Grammy-award winning chart-topper Clean Bandit and legendary songwriter Van Morrison will perform.

CARS WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY FUTURE CLEAN AIR ZONE 7,854 individuals and 567 representatives of businesses and organisations responded to a council consultation on the proposal of a Clean Air Zone in Bath, which would bring in expensive congestion charges on vehicles. Many argued that including cars in the restricted vehicles list would damage businesses. Residents stressed that charging car drivers £9 a day to enter the zone, which covers all of central Bath, would make getting about very difficult. The proposed zone would reduce illegally high levels of pollution in the congested city. As of 5th March, the BANES Council Cabinet unanimously voted in favour of removing cars from the vehicles charged under the Clean Air Act. March 2019 37

NEWS & COMMENT

COMMENT

BATH’S CLASH BETWEEN

RESIDENTS AND STUDENTS

By Harry Bridge

R

ecently the Bath and North East Somerset Council has announced plans which would conclude with 105 new residential apartments and 186 student bedrooms being built alongside new landscaping, a coffee shop and 114 parking spaces on the site of Bath’s Hartwell garage.

The construction project would begin in July 2020 and is aimed to be finished by July 2022, although it is important to note that Oakhill Group Limited, the company behind the redevelopment project, are yet to apply for planning permission.

Despite the current lack of planning permission, this project is expected to go ahead without issue and has already prompted protest from several Bath residents. There is unfortunately a clear divide between ‘students’ and ‘residents’ in Bath as Eve Alcock, the University of Bath’s current SU president, pointed out in her blog post titled ‘Students’ VS ‘Residents’ Bath is full to the brim whilst she was a student. This divide hits on everything from behaviour to language but the clear issue promulgating this divide is housing.

Both students and residents are losing out when it comes to Bath’s housing crisis. The sole winners in this situation are landlords. Demand increases every year whilst housing supply frequently doesn’t, with the the resultant effect being that landlords are free to set their price due to demand being highly price-inelastic.

Prices have risen year after year and students have been applying for housing earlier each time.

With the system the way it is, prices are at a point where student loans barely cover most student housing in Bath, which is clearly an issue 38 BATHTIME

for everyone involved and acts as an embarrassing barrier to social stratification. We see issues like this mirrored around Bath, one such example being First bus who consistently increased prices due to a lack of competition. Financial pressure plays far too large of a role here at the University of Bath and this could act as a real barrier for people looking to escape a difficult background through University but lack the financial means to do so.

There are very valid concerns for residents, too. Families are being pushed out of Bath because of rising prices, and landlords now target students for profitability. Through targeting student housing, the supply of residential homes is decreasing, which, again, has the inverse effect on price - a serious increase.

All these issues are compounded by the fact that it is hard to get building work done in Bath due to its cultural heritage status, again limiting the supply of housing in the area.

What is clear is that all residents of Bath, including students, are suffering from a system that needs fixing. Unfortunately, unchecked capitalism with a lack of regulation and competition is benefiting the few whilst the many in Bath suffer. The proposed project by Oakhill Group Limited is a band aid for this issue as it will provide much-needed housing to both residents and students, but one can’t help but see that the negative response is fair: the plans tip the scale towards students in a way that damages relations between the two groups. We may need to start looking for more radical solutions, such as price ceilings, in order to ensure Bath remains affordable.

NEWS & COMMENT

Local VS FAIRTRADE:

UNI THINKING WHICH ONE TO PUSH

By Felix Keane

T

he University of Bath has launched a reflection on whether to pursue a more demanding Fairtrade accreditation or focus on direct/local trade for its use and sell of products. The Fairtrade Steering Group, which is made up of staff and students, met in early February to discuss the issue of Fairtrade versus Direct trade, with speakers presenting the benefits of both sides.

The Fairtrade Foundation awarded the University its current Fairtrade status in 2009, as well as the Gold Award for Best Fairtrade University in 2018. The award came as a result of a commitment to Fairtrade products and their promotion across campus outlets, notably including all teas and coffees served. The new accreditation, called Fairtrade University and College Award, would entail meeting 11 newly defined criteria, unlike 5 for the current “Fairtrade University” label: this would mean strongly developing product ranges, as well as a higher fee for the university.

We spoke with Kimberley Pickett, the SU’s Activities Officer, who looks after the organisation’s sustainability issues; she also sits on the Fairtrade Steering Group for the university as a whole. When asked about whether a focus on attaining the new Fairtrade label would prevent the university from also focusing on direct trade, Kimberley highlighted the time and effort would have to put into completing the new Fairtrade criteria. It is possible therefore that less attention will be put into developing relationships with local companies and producers to favour the development of Fairtrade product ranges.

the university regarding issues of sustainability on campus. “I believe we would be able to do a lot more streamlined events, activities, campaigns and have a bigger impact if there was a department reserved for sustainability” argued Kimberley.

Considering how small businesses and farmers are struggling to remain competitive in the face of supermarkets and imported goods, the question arises: should the university be prioritising producers from the other side of the world over local producers? To this question, the Activities officer said that while she understood the importance and impact of Fairtrade, she would personally prioritise direct trade: “I honestly think that right now we should be connecting more with our local communities, the town and gown relationship needs to improve, and we need to be working together more.”

While it is still early days for this reflection on whether or not to allocate the resources to a more constraining accreditation at the expense of local producers, several conclusions can be drawn: first, there is a need to optimise procedures relating to sustainability, as the current framework is disorganised.

Second, once a position has been created exclusively to deal with sustainability issues across campus, a position which would coordinate members of staff, it should not be necessary for the university to have to choose between direct and Fairtrade. While Fairtrade should be first in line where products cannot be locally sourced, it is in the university’s interest to build ties with the community around it and meliorate relations with the city.

According to Kimberley however, the problem seems to be on the absence of a specific sustainability position at the university, rather than on the challenging nature of the accreditation: “there isn’t a single individual who purely looks after the Environment at the University of Bath, and while there are a lot of individuals who have it within their remit, they also have other things to focus on.” There is therefore a lack of coordination between different actors of March 2019 39

NEWS & COMMENT

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE ORGANISED ON APRIL 6TH

O

n the 6th of April the University of Bath will be hosting the One Young World Caucus on the UN’s Sustainable Development goals (SDG’S).

OYW is a non-profit organisation that gathers young people from around the world to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. The annual OYW summit takes place in a different city every year and reunites young talents from every country and sector.

The University of Bath has been sending delegates for the past few years. Alex Butterworth, a fourth year International Management and Modern Languages student was chosen to attend the OYW World 2018 Summit in the Hague; Sophie Moody, an International Development student went to the summit last year in Bogota. The inaugural One Young World Bath conference was organised in 2017 by University of Bath students Emma Powell and Mohammad Lone, having been inspired at the 2016 Ottawa Summit.

The OYW Bath caucus will focus on the UN SDG’s through three sessions: Sustainability & the Environment, Health & Development and Wellbeing & Inclusion. The caucus will reunite international speakers with local speakers. Two speakers who went to the One Young World summit in The Hague will attend. Mary Helda Akongo is an entrepreneur, volunteer and founder of a charitable organisation focused on the empowerment of domestic abuse survivors in Uganda. Her initiative, Roaring Doves, takes advantage of digital technology to connect those affected by domestic abuse. Mary will be joining the caucus 40 BATHTIME

in Bath from Uganda to share her story as a victim of domestic violence and talk about her battle against gender inequality.

Also attending the conference will be Caroline Casey, a One Young World counsellor and one of the world’s leading campaigners on disability inclusion.

Legally blind, she has worked to shift the dialogue around those with disabilities.

Her latest initiative, The Valuable 500, is an ambitious campaign, which aims to promote disability inclusion on the leadership agendas of 500 businesses. She has been supported by global figures such as Sir Richard Branson.

Local speakers will include lecturers and research fellows from University of Bath.

Luisa Enria from the Department of Social & Policy Science will discuss her first-hand experience in the Ebola breakout areas of Sierra Leone. Luisa’s research is focused on community experiences and the perception of epidemic and biomedical interventions. Russell Arnott, another member of the Bath community, is an oceanographer and education consultant for Incredible Oceans. Russell will lead the conversation on ocean plastics in the sustainability and environment session.

The day will be an opportunity to hear from inspiring speakers and engage in interactive workshops.

Tickets are already available on the One Young World Facebook page and in the spirit of promoting access to all, attendance at the Caucus is free.

NEWS & COMMENT

Image: Wera Hobhouse on Twitter

Bath MP’s bill makes upskirting criminal offence

By Emily Godon

O

riginating as a Private Member’s Bill in March 2018, Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse has succeeded in enshrining the act of upskirting as a specific sex offence. After a long battle in the House of Commons, the government intervened to result in the legislation successfully passing through both chambers of Parliament.

The aim of this new “Voyeurism Act” is to deter perpetrators, protect victims and uphold justice against degrading and crude practices. A minor incident could now result in one year’s imprisonment and a fine, while serious cases will be tried at the Crown Court, threatening a maximum of two years. Whilst upskirting is already a specific offence in Scotland, illegal in New Zealand and India too, the new law will include instances where images were just taken ‘for a laugh’ or when paparazzi capture intrusive material. The act follows a drive by the British government to tackle sexual abuse as a priority, with popular rhetoric and social media aiding public awareness towards upskirting.

Since the original campaign and petition by 27-year-old upskirting victim Gina Martin, widespread support has developed to encourage the criminalisation of upskirting in England.

While it was previously prosecuted under the offence of Outraging Public Decency, many victims vocalised concerns that not all instances were covered under current law.

Wera Hobhouse called it “a victory for women up and down the country.” The momentum behind the 18-month long campaign was bolstered by the multitude of campaigners, victims, charities and cross-party MPs, as well as Justice Minister Lucy Frazer, who were determined to close the small loophole in current legislation.

Campaigner Gina Martin declared that this marked not only a triumph for ordinary citizens, but it also proves that “grassroots campaigning can make a real difference”.

The new law will come into effect two months from 12th February, when it received its Royal Assent.

March 2019 41

NEWS & COMMENT

SCIENCE NEWS

By TOM LANGER BATH TIME APOLOGISES FOR FALSE REPORTING

SNOWMAN-SHAPED ASTEROID ACTUALLY FLAT As readers of the last edition of Bath Time will know, NASA’s New Horizons probe survived its fly-by of Ultima Thule, the 21-mile-long object in the Kuiper Belt, 4 billion miles from the Earth. It will take a further 18 months to finish transmitting all the data the craft recorded concerning Ultima Thule, but the initial data has already offered some surprising insights. Notably, whilst Ultima Thule viewed from the front still resembles a snowman, the images captured of its side suggests that it is less round than anticipated and instead looks rather squashed. This new knowledge of the flatter reality of the celestial body has raised interesting questions about how it was formed, as no object of this shape has previously been observed orbiting the sun. It is hoped that further data and modelling will provide valuable insight into the physical development of other objects that have survived since the early solar system. As for Deep Horizons, NASA has now set its sights on even more distant rocks in the Kuiper Belt for the craft to explore, hopefully yielding equally exciting observations.

42 BATHTIME

GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE OBSERVATORY UPGRADED In 1916, Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) confirmed this by recording the gravitational waves produced by the collision of black holes, a cosmic event which, in its final moments, was releasing more energy than every star in the observable universe combined. Since then, LIGO has detected 9 further black hole collisions as well as a neutron star collision and now, at the cost of £25 million, the UK and US governments are funding a massive upgrade to the equipment. Physically, LIGO is a pair of 4km long L-shaped observatories that detect subtle disturbances in the curvature of space-time. Lasers are fired down the arms of the machine and reflected off mirrors before eventually arriving at a detector.

When a gravitational wave passes through the laser beam, the effective distance the laser has travelled will change and it is this change that provides information as to the origin of the wave. The upgrades to LIGO include making the mirrors shinier, changing the mirror coating and stabilising the suspension systems, all to improve the machine’s sensitivity. It is hoped that by 2024, the system will be sufficiently sensitive to observe 3 violent cosmic events every day. This data should aid our understanding of gravity, black holes and the expansion of the universe.

Picture credit: Getty images

BATH SCHOOL STUDENTS ON CLIMATE STRIKE Dozens of local schoolchildren skipped school on Friday 15th February to join the Youth Strike 4 Climate campaign. For around 2 hours, pupils protested outside the council offices at the Guildhall with placards reading “There is no planet B”, “Hope is action” and “I’ve seen better cabinets in IKEA”.

This demonstration of commitment to the fight against climate change prompted both attendance

and positive comments from the honorary Mayor of Bath, Patrick Anketell-Jones, as well as Bath MP Wera Hobhouse. We hope the students’ actions have inspired much more than a symbolic show of support from our politicians.

NEWS & COMMENT

STUDY FINDS CANNABIS USE STRONGLY LINKED TO DEPRESSION

BY SAM PAKENHAM-WALSH

A new study has identified a strong link between cannabis use in adolescents and the development of clinical depression later in life.

In a recent systematic review, researchers from the University of Oxford and Montreal’s McGill university found ‘robust’ evidence to suggest that smoking cannabis before the age of 18 increases the risk of developing depression by almost 40%.

This indicates that about 60,000 cases of depression in the UK could have been prevented if adolescents did not smoke cannabis.

The meta-analysis is the largest in its field to date, comprising over 23,000 participants from 11 previous studies dating back to the mid-1990s.

The report also found that teenage consumers of cannabis are three times more likely to attempt suicide before the age of 18, although the investigators emphasised the imprecise nature of this figure.

Additionally, the study failed to identify a significant effect of cannabis on the later life development of anxiety.

Cannabis is the most commonly used recreational drug in the UK, with 11.5% of young adults (16-34 years) having used the drug at least once in 2016. The main psychoactive ingredient, known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is thought to affect areas of the brain responsible for emotion and memory, and may also influence serotonin levels which are necessary for mood regulation.

There is also compelling evidence which associates cannabis use with the development of Schizophrenia, a risk exacerbated if the drug is regularly consumed in adolescence.

Co-author of the study, Andrea Cipriani, a Professor at the University of Oxford, emphasised the need for the government to recognise cannabis use as ‘a big public health and mental health problem’. She stressed the ‘devastating impact’ cannabis can have on the adolescent brain, which she said was particularly vulnerable in this stage of development.

Decriminalisation of cannabis has been a topic of political debate in the UK over recent years. In 2018, the UK decided to relax its laws on the matter following several high-profile medical cases, which now authorise specialist doctors to prescribe the drug in exceptional circumstances. Many people advocate for even less restrictive laws in the future.

The long-term adverse effects and potential health benefits of cannabis are still widely unknown. According to Dr Tom Freeman, lead director of the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath, more research is still required to properly inform the public on the risks of different products and levels of consumption.

March 2019 43

LIFESTYLE

EASY-TO-MAKE RECIPES

By Zuza Markovska

lazy custard fruit tart CREAMY potato bake A simple and easy recipe that incorporates every student’s second favourite ingredient: potatoes!

Ingredients: 2 large Potatoes (normal or sweet) 1 whole Onion ½ cup Double Cream ½ cup Milk 1 cup Grated chesse (mozarella, cheddar) Spices Garlic, dill, pepper, salt 1 Egg (optional) Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 200’C. Start by peeling the potatoes and boiling them for 10 minutes, until they’re cooked halfway through. Cut the potatoes into thin (½ inch), even slices. Put those slices in a bowl and cover with salt, pepper and oil, and toss them until fully coated.

Now, prepare the sauce. Chop an onion and fry it over medium heat until transparent. Add the half cup of double cream and then the milk. At this point, you may add an egg to the mixture if you wish, but it is not necessary. Mix in the spices to your taste and stir in the grated cheese. Butter up your baking dish (preferably a small, deep dish) and arrange 1 layer of potato slices.

Cover those with some of the mixture. On top of that, add another layer of potato slices and top off with some more mixture. Repeat this process until you’ve used up all your mixture and potatoes - if you can, top it off with some more cheese.

Put the dish in the oven until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked, which should take around 30-40 minutes.

44 BATHTIME

Guilty pleasure dessert Ingredients: 1 packet Butter tea biscuits of choice ½ cup Butter 200 grams White chocolate chips 3 Egg yolks 3 cups Milk ½ cup Sugar 1/3 cup Cornstarch ¾ teaspoon Vanilla Extract ¼ teaspoon Salt 1 tablespoon Butter 1 cup Berries (or any fruit of choice) Directions: First, prepare the base of the tart. Crush up the biscuits to fine crumbs and melt the half cup of butter. Mix the two until all the crumbs have been coated and press the mixture down into a dish of choice (preferably a pie dish) in a smooth, even thickness.

To prepare the filling, heat the milk over medium heat until it boils. In the meantime, mix the egg yolks, sugar, salt, cornstarch and vanilla extract. When the milk comes to a boil, quickly take it off the heat and pour a small amount in the egg mixture. Mix in the milk bit by bit so as to not cook the egg. Put the entire mixture back on medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil (20-25 minutes). While it’s boiling continue stirring and add the butter. Remove from the heat and pour directly onto the butter crust. Arrange fruit on top of the custard and put in the fridge to cool for at least 1 hour.

LIFESTYLE

EROTICA: Casting his Ballot

By Peanyle Disfon-Ksion

Chastity, a young, ambitious yet innocent young woman explores the intimate pleasures of being a University of Bath student.

C

hastity was walking down a buzzing and busy Parade, the February sun was tingling against her skin. There was an election going on, but for what she did not know. Suddenly there was a violent gust of wind, and a wide campaign banner flew into her face and temporarily blinded her. She lost her balance for a moment and tripped, feeling her KeepCup escape her hands and land in a splash, soaking her trousers with bubble tea, and covering her with tapioca pearls.

read R.O.N. “… Ron, I… really lost my balance there.” She did not usually vote, but she’d cast her ballot for him any time.

“It looks like my campaign might have hit you a little hard.” She laughed. He was funny. Ron was tall, his features elegant, his hands thick and his smirk hotter than Level 5 on a sunny day.

“I think we might need to find somewhere where you can take those off.” She looked down at her soaked legs, what remained of the bubble tea and then back into his eyes. “I would like that.”

“I am so sorry!” a voice called out through the sheet - a deep mellow voice which resonated like hard candies in a sweet jar. Chastity gasped as she felt a powerful arm grab her waist and hoist her up, the banner sliding away. She could not help but squint at the sight of the beautiful eyes which now stared into hers.

The wind gave another thrust, and before they could do anything the banner flew back at them, pushing them both to the ground, Ron landing on top of her. Suddenly it was like the world disappeared: rays filtered through the sheet down onto her brow; she could hear their panting melting into a laugh. He leaned his face closer and asked for her name. She told him.

“Thank you…” she looked at the banner, which

“Not for long,” he whispered.

March 2019 45

LIFESTYLE

You may have been approaching your goals in a rather spontaneous way, Aries, without much forethought. This month, practicality and rationality will dominate, and you will approach your tasks in a more thought-out manner. You will need to swallow your pride and continue if you want to be successful this month. Be flexible and show co-operation when working with others as this will put you in good stead for achieving what it is you want. If you’ve been given a coursework deadline this early on, start planning for it as soon as you receive it, as you’ll feel much better about completing it nearer its due date.

This month will be about appreciating the progress you made and to appreciate who you are at this current moment in time, Taurus. Although it might seem tempting to get hung up on the past; whether it be a past relationship, a past grade or a past conversation, it’s time to let that fall to the back of your mind as you put your best foot forward to strive for progress in the future. If you find yourself in a situation that you don’t like this month, don’t be afraid to use your voice to stand up for what you believe in. Your voice deserves to be heard.

You may find this month will be eye-opening in terms of your social life and relationships. This month, Gemini, you will realise which friendships are strong and which are weak. It is your choice how you want to process this information, but, if you have a bad feeling about a particular person or group of people, stay away from them.

Invest your time into friendships that really matter and learn to recognise who is a true friend and who is not. Make more of an effort with your true friends – go on a fun night out, or go round someone’s and just enjoy their company.

This month you must focus on cracking down on work, Cancer. Any upcoming deadlines are fast approaching and the earlier preparation you do, the better off you’ll be in the long run. Don’t rely on winging it or finishing it last minute as you won’t fulfil your real potential. Utilise the library as much as possible, whether it be for a nice quiet space to work or grab a ton of useful books that will help inform your work.

If you’re struggling with friendships recently, Leo, it’s time to invest some real time in those you want to be your closest friends.

Stop wasting time and effort on people who don’t give you what you give to them, whether it be your time, help or anything else. Choose your friends wisely as they will be one of the determining factors of how you enjoy your time at uni. Organise and get involved in more social activities, maybe go out to more society socials or organise a night out in Bridge with your flatmates.

You’re drawn to spend impulsively—and in a big way—as two of the most impulsive planets link up in your eighth house of shared finances. You may be feeling jealous of what others around you have but be careful not to act on these feelings. Switch off from social media for a while to try and remind yourself of what you have and to remind yourself to remain grateful for these things. Enjoy being at uni in Bath! How lucky!

You’re eager to get a coursework project started already, but forces beyond your control are causing delays. See if you can bring people to the table to discuss their real ideas and thoughts. While micromanaging will only lead to pushback, encourage everyone to speak freely, and make sure you create a safe space for that. Try not to be a bossy boots as this will drive your course mates away and make you an unpleasant project partner for the future.

Work and wellness could become new hot buttons as Chiron enters your orderly, health-conscious sixth house.

Your transformation could start with an epic decluttering; of your physical belongings, your social media and your relationships. Bring into your environment only things that make you happy and you will see such a difference in how you feel on a daily basis.

With Venus in your sign batting her lashes at spontaneous Uranus in your passion corner, sparks could fly with very little effort. With this kind of unbridled cosmic support, you’ll have the confidence to act on it. Invite your crush on a date and make the first move; you never know where it will get you!

You may feel uncharacteristically emotional this month as the fiery co-rulers of intense Scorpio lock into a fraught square. While it’s good for you to express how you feel, be careful that “sharing” doesn’t turn into “erupting like a volcano.” And if you do spew, avoid making any momentous decisions. You won’t be at your clear-headed best and you don’t want to cause any fall-outs between flatmates or course friends; focus on cultivating positive relationships at uni!

As the zodiac’s rebel, you hate rules (at least, ones that other people invent). So why follow an outworn convention of January 1 as the arbitrary date for planning your entire year? Treat every day as an opportunity to start again, to better yourself. Focus on being happy; regularly organise brunches or nights out with friends, invite family members to come and stay one weekend and just relish in being your best self!

Pace yourself for this month, Pisces. The Sun is in Aquarius and your restful twelfth house, so now’s a time to conserve your energy. However, this will be hard because energizer Mars is in Aries and your second house of work and money, spiking your productivity and turning up the heat on your finances. There may be times when you feel exhausted but keep pushing. If you’ve got deadlines looming; keep plugging away! You don’t want to squander an opportunity (Mars only comes here every two years), but you’re only human here!

46 BATHTIME

LISTEN TO OUR BRAND NEW PODCAST: “A DUCKING GOOD PODCAST” Available on: and more

Want to write for us?

We’re looking for reporters, writers, photographers and designers, so if you’re interested please contact us! www.unibathtime.co.uk su-bathtime-editor@bath.ac.uk Office: 1E 3.12