Concrete - Issue 175

Page 1

PEOPLE & PLANET: YOUR GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH THROUGHOUT THE ISSUE

Issue 175 · Wednesday, March 9th, 2005

IN

Event The

UEA’S AWARD-NOMINATED STUDENT NEWSPAPER

RED NOSES THROUGH TIME Centre Spread

MARVIN GETS RE-MADE Page 6

Free - Please Recycle

ART FROM AFRICA Page 7

THE FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT AT UEA IN 2005

UNION PLANS TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY

Sarah Smith

Clare Bull

Most people know a bit about Fairtrade products and what the aim of the various fairtrade organisations is. However to raise further awareness about just what fairtrade products and organisations are out there every year there is Fairtrade fortnight. Various events have been organised this year by SEED and have been very popular. Events kicked off on March 1st with the debate society holding a discussion on fairtrade and whether people were in favour of it. In a hand ups vote more people were in favour of fairtrade by the end of the session than were at the beginning. Many questions from the floor were directed at and challenging the opposition. A Fairtrade LCR on Thursday also proved a successful evening. Fairtrade Fair Trade Events See page 10

2005 is the year of the ‘Make poverty history campaign’. Endorsed by many celebrities, charities and faith groups, and with the university promoting a campaign from the 14th of March, UEA is set to contribute substantially in the coming weeks, with Publicity Officer Rowena Boddington and Welfare Officer Jo Wright heading the campaign. The campaign’s manifesto highlights the fact that blame for world poverty can be attributed to three factors; ‘injustice in global trade; the huge burden of debt; insufficient and ineffective aid’. The campaigners feel that joining all these issues together will aid people’s understanding of the depth of the problem, and this raised level of awareness should ‘kick’ people UEA’s plans for MPH See page 2

GOVERNANCE BECOMES POLYTECHNICAL FOR UEA ‘SENATE’ Philip Benjamin Wednesday 2nd March saw the final round in the move to a managerial University as the senate voted against an amendment to the proposed changes. The amendment would have given all schools

a proportionate, and elected, presence on senate and were designed to change an approach to governance that has in the past been labelled “undemocratic”, “medieval” and “insane”. Dr. Rupert Read, Senior Lecturer in PHI and AUT rep who proposed the amendments has said of the decisions "This is a sad moment

in the history of UEA, and of British Universities in general. Senate has discarded the legacy of hundreds of years of democratic academic governance procedures in Universities in this country, in favour of an untested topdown ersatz replacement. As I and many others have warned from the start: We have now adopted gover-

nance procedures that resemble closely those of polytechnics. That is a shameful abdication of the proud traditions of the University." Academic Officer, Chris Ostrowski, was concerened over the move, but remained positive, “I was pleased to see how many academics were prepared to speak up

against the proposals to streamline senate. I think the university executive definitely saw how some members of staff felt alienated by what had been going on during the restructuring process.” A second amendment was not voted on as it was agreed that the process of nomination would be re-

drafted. This was partly because senate felt that 12 academics were too few. A vote to increase the number of academics from 12 to 16 was carried by majority. “It's good that senators demanded an increase from 12 academics to 24. It's a shame they won't be proper representatives.” Mr. Ostrowski concluded.

FOOTBALL HELPS TACKLE HIV AND AIDS - SEE SPORTS P.25


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