Fortnightly 2nd October 2017 Issue 316 Winner of Best Publication and Best Use of Digital Media 2017
University of Bristol’s Independent Student Newspaper
Uni invests £1 million into mental health services Freya Cox News Reporter
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Bristol
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Science & Tech Sadhana Kalidindi argues that women in STEM is more than a feminist issue Page 14 EpigramPaper
Living
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Food
The university have decided to implement brand new wellbeing advisors along with £1m in additional investments into student services. Following the wellbeing review – a two year long strategic assessment conducted by the university – four teams of wellbeing advisors are to be employed within the academic departments, with each team working with a cluster of schools. The advisors will be closely linked with the counselling service and will be students’ first port of call if they feel their mental health is suffering under the pressures of university life. This link with the student health service will provide students with a direct route to the help they may require. The review was conducted under the new Vice-Chancellor, Hugh Brady, and accelerated by the unfortunate student suicides of last year. 24 advisors are to be employed in total. Head of student services, Mark Ames, said in an interview that these advisors are not only to be used by students with long-term conditions, but also for students to have someone impartial to talk to in difficult times, or for friends of those suffering to discuss their worries. ‘From the beginning of this term, we hope that students will feel more supported,’ he said. The university will be introducing sessional counsellors, as well as those employed by the university, for periods of high demand at the counselling service. Students will also be able to book extended same-day mental health GP appointments with minimal delay. These proposals will be put in place gradually throughout the year, and within the next few months recruitment rounds will be taking place for the new roles. Mark Ames said that ‘it has been clear for some years that students’ needs are changing’ and that by recruiting more staff dedicated to the mental wellbeing of students ‘we can have more resilience, more diversity in the staff.’ Continued on page 3
A letter from Bristol
Dear Aunt Aggie: I found my
professors to
vegan girlfriend’s secret stash of
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Epigram | 02.10.2017
Editorial
A note from Alex...
You survived! Congrats, your first couple of weeks of uni are in the bag. The initial adrenaline rush of freshers’ week has passed and perhaps you are starting to feel a bit more settled, less of a deer in the headlights - or maybe you are beginning to miss home a bit. Either way, or even a mix of both, is totally normal. I remember this time two years ago - I knew I had made the right decision, that Bristol was the right place for me and I was in for a great three years. But I missed the home comforts, being able to talk to my mum whenever, my dog, even simple things that halls lack like having a lounge and a TV. As naturally quite an introverted and insecure person, there were many points that I really struggled in my first year. It is important to know that if you do feel low at any point, you are not alone - university can be really difficult and everyone struggles at some point. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter if this year isn’t the best of your life. For me, first year was all about getting to know myself and my surroundings. It made me a lot more aware of my mental health and what affected it, my interests and what I enjoyed, knowledge that made my second and (hopefully) third year a lot more enjoyable. When you do feel low, it is important to take care of yourself. Especially as a fresher, there is constant pressure to have the time of your life, to go out, socialise and meet new people. If you feel you need to take a breather - whether that is a night in pjs watching shitty American dramas or even a trip home - go ahead and take it. Get over your FOMO and do what is right for you. If you do feel like you do need to reach out and get help, there are many people employed by the university to help. As reported on our front page, the university is investing £1 million into mental health services, a result of the Wellbeing Review. This is in addition to the facilities already out there, such as Big White Wall, the Student Counselling Service, Personal and Senior Tutors and Nightline. Our Wellbeing section is here to advise you about these services and provoke discussion about mental health. You meet a lot of people during freshers’. It doesn’t matter if you don’t meet your best friends in this week. Friends are found in a multitude of ways, ways you probably haven’t even anticipated yet. Societies are a great way to meet new, likeminded people so join the ones you are interested in and put yourself out there. There are still times I really do struggle, but my uni experience has given me the resources to nurture my wellbeing. Try to see a bad patch as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and if you feel like you need help, please reach out and take it.
2 Co-Editors in Chief: Alex Boulton and Noa Leach
Online Editor: Georgia Marsh
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Deputy: Edie Essex Barrett
Online Deputy: Lucy Thompson
Editorial Assistant: Mary Richardson
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From the archives- ‘The Green Issue’ When Epigram went vegan
In 2007, Epigram editor Alan Tang decided to abandon the standard news front page for a climate-change awareness campaign. The paper was decorated with ‘green’ graphics, features, and environment-related articles. ‘Climate change. It’s flippin’ everywhere’, read the inside cover: ‘In a similar fashion, all things green and ethical have burrowed their way like woodworm (free-range) into every section of this issue. ‘We’ve engineered this edition to try to find a way for everyone to contribute to making the world a better place.’ The front page advertised its contents with a free organic juice voucher, a centre spread on how to calculate your carbon footprint, and a TV article on ‘The money shot: enjoying wildlife porn.’
Inside, articles included vegan recipes, sustainable fashion, and ‘the ethics of your drug habit.’ Issue 186 still channelled the student voice, and all its sections continued to publish regular commissions alongside the ethical additions. Here at Epigram we believe in responsible journalism, and think that media has a big role to play in shaping public attitudes. We have taken inspiration from our Epi-ancestors, so keep an eye out for this in future issues. (And recycle your Epigram when you’ve finished reading!) First published in Epigram on the 15th of January 2007
Alex Boulton, Co-Editor in Chief
Epigram is sponsoring its very own football team in the Wednesday afternoon intramural league! The team is for writers and editors alike, so contact Epigram sports at sport@epigram.org.uk to get involved. The new team will meet at the Water Tower on Durdham Downs on Wednesdays at 2pm.
Job opening! We are looking for a Deputy News Editor. If you are interested, please send a CV, an ideas sheet, and 3 examples of your writing to: getinvolved@epigram.org.uk
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Chief Proofreader Lucy Moor Sub-editors on this issue Jess Cselko, Yasmin Hamidi, Nadia Hassan, Chloë Moloney, Izi Miller, Imogen Benson, Lena Ferriday, Jess Browne- Swinburne, Jamie Muddimer, Poppy Price, Samuel Wong, Laila Freeman, Dani Salvalaggio Managing Director Calli Keane Director of Communications Joe Jones Director of Finance Josh Moloney Deputy Finance Jeremy Mei Head of Ads and Sales Aravin Skantha Ads and Sales Assistants Grace Rose, Frances McNab, Cameron Hooley Head of Marketing Lowri Daniels Marketing Assistants Kate Nissen, Tara Lidstone
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News
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@epigramnews Editor: Nikki Peach news@epigram.org.uk
Deputy Editor: Hannah Wakefield
Online Editor: Emma Chittleburgh
Deputy Online Editors: Emily Vernall, Jecca Powell
Number 16 bus replaced by U1 Emma Chittleburgh Online News Editor
Epigram / Georgia Marsh Epigram / Emma Chittleburgh
The number 16 Wessex bus service which ran from University residences at Stoke Bishop to the main campus and city centre has been replaced by Bristol UniBus U1, run by First Bus. James Ryle, University Sustainability Manager, describes the new buses as ‘Purpose-built, lowemission, double-decker buses with Bristol UniBus branding, free Wi-Fi, USB charging and next stop announcements.’ Bus passes are available to all undergraduates living in University residences as part of their accommodation package for the academic year. Buses have changed their passes from a bus card to an app downloaded by students to their mobile phones, designed to make boarding quicker and easier. The passes are valid for the U1 and First services three, four, nine and 72. The U1 buses are due to come into operation in November to December 2017. Similar buses with temporary Unibus branding are running in the meantime. The new buses will run on the same timetable as the one from January to June 2017, which was revised following a number of complaints
in 2016 about the service and a widely circulated petition. The petition, started by student Alex Crocker, gathered 878 supporters calling students to hold Wessex to account for the ‘substandard’ number 16 bus service. Crocker argued against the increase in price to the service (included in residence costs) claiming, ‘despite paying more, we are getting less, and what we are getting is extremely substandard.’ Second year student, Maria Burns, who lived in Stoke Bishop last year, echoed the sentiment, saying ‘I was regularly late for lectures because of the unreliable bus service.’ When asked if the online petition was a factor in the decision to terminate the contract with Wessex Buses the University transport team responded: ‘First Bus were awarded the contract for the University bus service for a five-year period following a competitive tender process earlier this year. The previous five-year contract with Wessex came to an end in June 2017’. First year student Katya Spiers gave her initial response to the new service, saying that ‘the app is handy for me as there’s not the risk of losing the card and I always have my phone on me.’ Students without smartphones will be issued a bus card instead.
Bristol Unibus (U1) run by First Buses
Drink spiking reported at Wills Hall, Stoke Bishop Jecca Powell Deputy Online News Editor At least three cases of drink spiking have taken place at the Wills Hall bar. Professor Robert Vilain, the Warden of Wills Hall, posted a statement on the Wills Facebook page yesterday evening, alerting residents to the first incident which happened in ‘recent
FLickr / Michael Gumn Epigram / Freya Cox
Wills Hall
days’, and warning them to be vigilant. ‘This is the first time I am aware of this happening in Will’s Hall, which is very disappointing,’ he said. ‘I hardly need to say how disgusting and dangerous this practice is. It is nasty, predatory behaviour, and those who do it are beneath contempt.’ ‘Do not leave drinks unattended, even for a minute’, he warned Wills residents. ‘Men are vulnerable as well as women.’
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Vilain then posted about two more incidents, and again warned students to ‘watch out for anyone who may seem to be “profiting” from anyone incapacitated.’
From the beginning of this term, we hope that students will feel more supported
Two victims have reported the incidents to the warden, but have chosen to remain anonymous. The third has not yet made contact with him. Vilain urges students to get in touch if they have been targeted, so that he can alert the authorities and ensure students’ safety. Vilain told students he would inform them of every spiking incident reported, in order to ‘create awareness of the extent of the problem.’ Simon Bray, Director of Residential and Hospitality Services at the University of Bristol, said, ‘this type of behaviour is not acceptable and we’re extremely disappointed that it’s been reported in one of our halls of residence. We’re offering support to those affected and would urge anyone with concerns or information to speak to their warden or a senior resident. ‘The University’s Police Officer is now involved and will be looking into what has happened. We take a zero-tolerance approach to criminal behaviour and any student found to be spiking drinks will be reported to the police and will be subject to our internal disciplinary measures.’
Wellbeing Review Concludes Continued from front page: Ames said that these proposals will be discussed with existing staff and students before they are put in place. ‘We want to work together and strengthen our connection with the student body’, he said. He stressed that the process would be complex, and that the right people cannot be found immediately. ‘We are learning how to support students most successfully.’ The proposals are part of a broader wellbeing support plan across the institution. The plan focuses on creating a greater sense of community for new students within the academic schools and residences, as well as helping students manage enduring mental health difficulties. It also aims to inform students on how they can use the services to manage their own wellbeing.
Hampton House, Student Health Service
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Flickr / Matt Gibson
Bristol ranked 249th out of 380 local authorities
Bristol among worst places for women to live in the UK Bristol has been ranked among the worst places in the country for women to live, in new research by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). The study, conducted on behalf of BBC Woman’s Hour, ranked 380 local authorities in the UK from best to worst using data from sources such as the Office for National statistics’ 2016 Annual Population Survey and the 2011 Census.
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Bristol was ranked 249th out of 380
The research looked at eight factors that women were found to value most in a place, including income, housing affordability, personal wellbeing, safety, education, life expectancy, environment, and culture, in order to determine their overall quality of life in each area. East Dunbartonshire in Scotland was found to be the best place for women to live, with Islington in
North London named the worst. Bristol was ranked 249th out of 380 in the country overall. In the education and income categories Bristol did well, ranking 45th and 68th respectively. Bristol was also ranked reasonably highly in the environment category, which was judged on pollution levels and air quality, claiming 191st place. In all other categories, however, Bristol ranked well below average. The city was named 237th for life expectancy, and 249th for housing affordability. It also came 249th in the culture category, which was measured by access to entertainment, arts and museums. Bristol’s worst scoring category was safety, where Bristol ranked 364th out of 380. This was judged based on crime rates, and was considered a particularly important factor for women when choosing a place to live. For women under 30, an age group which includes most of Bristol University’s female students, the results were even worse, with Bristol ranking 254th, compared with 249th overall. The results for this age group were dragged down by the education category, which was judged on the proportion of the local population with A Levels and some form of higher education. In this category Bristol was ranked 80th; 35 places below Bristol’s overall education ranking. The results were also affected by the employment
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Jecca Powell Deputy Online News Editor
category that was added for the under 30s group, in which Bristol came 175th. Karen Dalziel, Woman’s Hour Editor, said ‘the Best Place to be a Woman analysis has given us a powerful tool to understand the factors affecting the quality of a woman’s life in Great Britain’.
As a student, Bristol seems to be a very progressive area, where women are celebrated
However, she also recognised its limitations in determining women’s real happiness. ‘How important are low house prices, good schools and availability of jobs? Can access to green fields or cinemas compensate for high crime rates? Or is having family and friends nearby what women value most?’, she asked. Some female students at Bristol University were surprised by the results of the survey. Law student Cecily Donohue-Hall said, ‘as a woman living in Bristol, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. I haven’t encountered anything unpleasant that I haven’t had in other cities. I’m really surprised at the results, especially in the safety category, because to me Bristol has
always felt really safe’. Iona Holmes, also studying Law at Bristol University, said, ‘I don’t think my gender has had any impact on my experience here. I think the city as a whole is really inclusive. I feel like the opportunities I’ve been given and the experiences I’ve had have all been fair’.
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We don’t understand the everyday issues that affect women here
Bristol student Alice See told Epigram, ‘I’m really surprised by the study, and a little disappointed as well, because I think it gives Bristol a worse name than it deserves. As a student, Bristol seems to be a very progressive area, where women are celebrated, and I haven’t felt any inequality personally.’ However, Alice acknowledged that the student perspective may not be representative of Bristol as a whole. ‘Maybe we only have a narrow view of Bristol as privileged students, and we don’t understand the everyday issues that affect women here’.
University’s Freshers’ Fair clashes with Jewish New Year This year the University of Bristol’s Freshers’ Fair fell on the same day as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This clash of interests between university students and the Jewish community has proven to be a large disappointment for J Soc (Jewish Society) and other religious societies who feel the Student Union is failing to represent them. Many Jewish students could not attend the Welcome Fair, and subsequently missed one of the university’s biggest social events of the year. The Welcome Fair is an annual opportunity for students to engage with the different socieites and activities that Bristol offers, as well as providing the chance to meet hundreds of other students. Des Ibekwe, Equality, Liberation and Access Officer for the university was contacted by J Soc on this matter and has said: ‘The clash between Rosh Hashanah and the Welcome Fair was drawn to our attention
recently. The Welcome Week dates are set by the University and scheduling has led to the Welcome Fair falling on the Friday, so we will highlight this issue with them. We have been in discussion with J Soc to ensure that they still have a presence at our Welcome Fair and there will be a number of other opportunities for Jewish students to engage with our welcome offer in the coming weeks.’ Ruby Rosenthal, second year Liberal Arts student and member of J Soc says, ‘it’s a shame because the Freshers’ Fair is such a great place for people to find out more about J Soc and how to get involved, regardless of how religious they are. I think the fact that so many people who run J Soc won’t be there is going to stop the society from giving the impression it deserves.’ It is not just members of J Soc who feel let down by the date of the fair. Zoulikha Belblidia, a second-year student and the Interfaith Representative for the university’s Islamic Society, says, ‘The SU must learn that in order to achieve its goal to represent every student, it needs to consider the festive holidays of all faiths and cultures before planning … events intended for everyone, so that no student
Epigram / Emily Vernall
Nikki Peach News Editor
The fair hosts stalls from all societies at the university
feels excluded because of their faiths.’ However, considering the Union’s explanation of this encounter, a second-year student, Talia Rack, who identifies as Jewish, has stated: ‘In this day in age, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that J Soc could work around the clash and their celebrations and find a way to adequately represent themselves at the fair.’ Avital Carno, an active member of J Soc, has commented, ‘Jewish students have as much
of a right to attend the university as students of any other faith (or lack of ); we want to participate in university life, to contribute and benefit from all that the university has to offer. Hopefully, at next year’s Fresher’s Fair, Jewish students will be able to attend.’ Although it has been confirmed that J Soc did still run a stall at Friday’s fair, it was not as large as they would have hoped. They are instead had a separate meet and greet for anyone interested in their society on the 26th of September.
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Gordon Brown to speak at Wills Memorial Building Emily Vernall Deputy Online News Editor Bristol Festival of Ideas has announced that Gordon Brown will be hosting an event at Wills Memorial Building this November. The former Prime Minister and nation’s longestserving chancellor is the latest addition to the lineup of the ‘Festival of Economics’, a season of events that aims to debate amongst experts and audience ‘some of the key economic questions of our time.’
Brown’s talk, ‘A Life in Politics’, is set to take place on 14th of November from 18:30-19:45 and coincides with the release of his memoir ‘My Life, Our Times’.
has stated that any questions that people may have for Brown will be collected at the time of booking
to ensure that they ‘include as many audience questions as possible on the night’.
Flickr / Downing Street
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A rare opportunity to have a former Prime Minister come to Bristol
Information released regarding the event promises that the talk will reflect upon his expansive political career and cover key historical milestones like the 2014 Scottish and 2016 European Referendum. As the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Brown also has significant influence in the field of education, which makes him a person of interest for students. The Festival’s Director, Andrew Kelly, has told Epigram, ‘It’s a rare opportunity to have a former Prime Minister come to Bristol to share experiences and we’re looking forward to this. We expect the event to be very popular – with students and the city – and early booking is recommended. Bristol Festival of Ideas was started in 2005 as an initiative to stimulate city-wide debate and now offers an expansive and diverse calendar of events each year. Other notable events have included a sold-out talk by Bernie Sanders last June as well as a series of events titled ‘Festival of the Future City’ which focus on tackling some of the most pressing urban problems of our time including sustainability, inequality and segregation. Free tickets for Gordon Brown’s events will be released on the 16th October but organisers have limited bookings to one per person. They event
Gordon Brown set to speak to students on 14th November
Two thirds of the British public think tuition Students take on the Great fees should be lowered or scrapped Bristol Half Marathon A recent Sky News Data poll has revealed that the majority of the British public (63 per cent) think that university tuition fees should be either lowered (34 per cent) or scrapped altogether (29 per cent), whilst 20 per cent think they should remain the same and just three per cent think that they should be raised. Young voters are more likely to support lower fees as they are more likely to be affected by changes to the cost of tuition, but support for lowering fees did stretch across all age ranges.
Matthew Gibson, a final year student, has told Epigram that he believes ‘the results of the poll show what is common knowledge for students, that the cost of a university education is too high and places an unreasonable debt burden on young people at the very beginning of their adult lives, and that the cost of tuition is preventing young people from wanting, or being able, to attend university’. One third of the public also have been shown to believe that they do not believe university to be worth the cost, both of tuition and living. This appears to particularly be the case amongst young people (18-24), with 53 per cent saying that it is not worth the cost and only 39 per cent saying it is worth it.
The figures are much lower for those who have already been to university with just 22 per cent saying it was not worth it and over three quarters (76 per cent) saying that they thought it was worth it, however, that is the opinion from across all age groups and so would have included people who paid less than the current £9,000. Nia Evans, a Bristol master’s student, said that ‘university can be worth it if you really enjoy your course and feel like it’s going to help you in the future, although the amount of debt you leave with is a downside most people are in the same boat’. However, there is far less support from the public for cancelling recent graduates’ student debt, with 38 per cent in favour and 47 per cent opposed.
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Hannah Wakefield Deputy News Editor
Emma Chittleburgh Online News Editor
Bristol students were among 10,000 runners who took part in the Great Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday 17th September. Bristol students joined the ranks of runners taking on the half marathon, now in its 28th year since the race first began in 1989.
I really enjoyed the race because the route is incredibly scenic
The 13.1 mile route took runners under the Suspension Bridge, along the Avon Gorge, to the harbourside then into the city center. The women’s race was won by one of the UK’s top distance runners, Emma Stepto, who completed the race in 01:17:42. Aaron Richmond took the title for the men’s race, finishing the course in 01:08:07. Second year Bristol student, Olivia Cooke, was back for the second year running to undertake the race.
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The sense of community spirit at the race was amazing
She said, ‘I really enjoyed the race because the route is incredibly scenic. Also, the sense of community spirit at the race was amazing- so many Bristolians turn out to support the runners, which is so helpful when you need a boost at mile 10!’.
02.10.2017
Features
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Editor: Ellen Jones
Deputy Editor: Dani Bass
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Epigram
Online Editor: Olivia Cooke
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Joint honours: double the subject, double the work? Dani Bass discusses whether studying two subjects is unnecessary additional work or the best of both worlds Dani Bass Deputy Features Editor Increasing numbers of students are taking on the challenges involved with a joint honours degree. Joint honours courses allow students to study two subjects rather than focusing on one. The courses are split 50:50, yet with the challenges of getting to know double the number of tutors, students, departments and teaching styles, many joint honours students complain that it feels more like 60:60. Hannah Worthington, a second year Theatre and English student says that ‘At first, studying both English and Theatre at Bristol was tough. The departments are not mutually compatible – they hardly even talk to each other. So, for a newcomer Fresher, to be assigned to a personal tutor in one subject, who had very little awareness in what the other department was demanding or expecting, was in itself, a challenge.’
Hannah believes it is up to the students to make the courses complement each other. ‘This year for example, I have chosen to study Shakespeare in both disciplines. Last year, I went from painting a door for set design, to studying erotic
two disciplines, joint honours students may be increasing their opportunities post university.
A joint honours course might prepare you for the rigours of the workplace
Vince Peart, an advisor at the National Careers Service believes that a joint honours course stands students in good stead for the challenges of the workplace demonstrating independence,
flexibility and self-motivation. ‘When you start your graduate career you’ll often have to deal with different subjects and styles of tasks – a joint honours course might prepare you for the rigours of the workplace.’ Employers may favour joint honour students as they recognise the difficulty in balancing the demands of both degrees. The diverse skills obtained through a joint honours course can provide students with a range of transferable skills making them stand out in the ever-competitive employment market. From a social perspective, joint honours students are exposed to a wider social network and, while this
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can feel daunting at first, it does mean double the socials and the chance to join even more societies.
A joint honours course can provide students with a range of transferable skills making them stand out in the employment market.
For any freshers starting joint honours, be prepared for the challenges ahead but get ready for what might be a more interesting and varied three years.
Flikr / UBC library
“ It was hard to feel a belonging to both departments as I was constantly darting back and forth between the two
Emily Dickinson poetry. Though this provided variety, it was hard to feel a belonging to both departments as I was constantly darting back and forth between the two.’ Joint honour courses can offer variety which single honour courses are unable to do. Max, a third year Economics and Management student, says that ‘it allows me to study a broader range of modules and tailor my degree to the industry I want to work in.’ Yet, with the variety and wider choice of modules comes challenges. Being part of two departments can result in students feeling like they are not part of either subject. It is difficult to be constantly choosing which subject to prioritise and clashing deadlines can pose as a major issue for joint honours students. Annie Elloitt, a second year politics and sociology student says ‘because my subjects are in the same school, they complement each other really well. They’ll often be overlap between topics in the subjects which adds an entirely different perspective and enriches your work. I have never had difficulty with deadlines overlapping or being too close, however I have heard that studying two subjects in different departments can be a struggle’. There’s no denying it. Joint honours degrees can be harder. Despite having only half the contact time, half the practice and half the feedback per subject, joint-honours students are marked and compared against their fellow single honour students who have had twice the experience to develop in depth knowledge in their subject. So why would someone choose to take on all this extra work? By taking on
Many students are finding the demands of a joint honours course challenging
Students have 99 problems and money is one Becca Thomas gives her tips and advice on how to save money at university The freshers’ slump of illness and exhausted funds tends to arrive one or two weeks after the wonder of welcome week. Whilst fresher’s flu is often short term, financial difficulties can be something altogether more chronic, particularly if you have a nasty habit of crazy contactless spending and hoping for the best. This is unsurprising, as the reality of student living is that it’s tight. Living in a hip and happening city such as Bristol is brilliant but does come with considerable financial drawbacks, such as inflated living costs and eye watering transport fares. Whilst our costs are cheap in the eyes of London students, expenses can quickly become long, anxiety inducing numbers on your bank statement. First things first you need to prioritise. There are a number of
pulls on your budget, the largest one of which will be your rent, which is averaged in Bristol at about £120 per week. Getting your rent payment in on time should always be the priority as letting it slide can enter you into a whole world of pain with your student housing provider.
“ Consider cooking in big batches to keep costs down if you can bag yourself enough freezer space to store it
Make sure you know the precise day rent is due as well as setting up an emergency rent fund in your savings; this will tide you over if/when finances start getting sticky later in the year. Remember good housing habits now will set you in good stead for next year when you legally bind yourself
to a landlord and your motley crew of housemates. Yet paying your rent is useless if you’re slowly starving to death due to a self-inflicted diet of Brevita biscuits and reduced Sainsbury’s sandwiches. Consider cooking in big batches to keep costs down if you can bag yourself enough freezer space to store it. If not, cook with your housemates, as buying in bulk is often cheaper and can be a nice way to get to know each other better. Tinned foods are also a good alternative, though by this I don’t just mean baked beans, tinned fruit and vegetables are actually just as tasty and are often easier to store than their fresh counterparts. Nights out are also an expensive drain, particularly if you have a habit of going rogue when it comes to ordering drinks from the bar. My advice here would be to get organised. Get your pre drinks game on with as many fairy lights as you can muster
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Becca Thomas Features Writer
and cheaper bottles of alcohol from the supermarket as and when they go on offer. Take cash not card, that way you can stick to your budget without the tempting lure of Jaeger pulling you off track, as well as planning for the big events like Cirque du Sol and Regression sessions in advance. Clubs have an irritating little way of hiking up the prices nearer to the event which means it can get costly if your squad has the organisational skills of a gnat.
Get organised and get spending savvy
Sports memberships at Uni are another financial minefield with top level membership at Bristol coming in
at £225 annually. Whilst it’s a necessary purchase if you are affiliated to the university sports teams, it might be worth looking elsewhere if your aim is simply keep your fitness levels up. Gyms in Bristol offer competitive packages for students and are often in better and more easily accessible sites than Tyndall Avenue. Failing that, Bristol has a plethora of running routes which will cost you the meagre price of a pair of trainers. Remember that we’ve all been there. You’re sharing a city with seasoned student experts who have all navigated the financial waters of freshers’ with varying degrees of success. Talk to as many people as you can as well as checking out the Bristol SU website for pages specifically dedicated to money management. Get organised and get spending savvy and you’ll soon find financial troubles easier to avoid than inevitability of fresher’s flu.
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Extra-curriculars: exceptional value or excess effort ? Julia O’Driscoll explains why extra-curricular activities are more than just time fillers
“ For most of us, university is about so much more than academia alone
Can we even justify committing our time to extra-curricular activities when most degrees now come with a
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show, and promised I would write more regularly for Epigram. And two years later, and I’m doing all those things again this September (this article being testament to that…!).
Bristol offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities, including clubs such as Quidditch!
considering a career in professional pottery and art therapy.
Societies can give what a degree alone can rarely do, the first step towards an alternative career path
Joining all those societies gave her what a degree alone can rarely do,
Brrizzlepuffs / Ajantha Abey Flickr/ John Bauld
It happens every year. As September arrives, so does the resolution to make more of your Uni experience - get involved in a society, meet new people, maybe give your CV an edge. In a FOMO panic you sign up to pretty much all the societies at Freshers’ Fair before your free pen runs out. This will be the year you discover a natural talent for Sign Language, Ultimate Frisbee, Pole Dancing. But then the emails start rolling in: taster sessions, try outs, membership fees. That newfound resolve starts to waver as reality kicks back in.
£30,000+ price tag? We’re being told that roughly 1 in 4 students are now expected to leave Uni with a first-class degree, a ratio far higher than just five years ago. The financial pressure, combined with the knowledge that it’s (supposedly) never been easier to get those top grades, provide a convincing incentive to stick it out in the library and make your degree your top priority. And what’s more, being a member of extra-curricular societies doesn’t always come cheap. Once you’ve forked out for membership, sports kit or class costs, and spent your weekly budget at an embargos social in an effort to make all those new friends, the rose-tinted vision you had of yourself as Volleyball President by next year’s AGM is a little less enticing. But for most of us, university is about so much more than academia alone. It’s an oppurtunity to move away from home and start adulting (*gulp*), making friends and figuring out what on earth your future’s going to look like. My housemate Ella is the champion of extra-curriculars. When we met in halls she was in 8 societies - I was amazed by her dedication. By the end of second year Ella was President of the Pottery society, and after graduating in Psychology this summer, is now
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Julia O’Driscoll Features Writer
the first step towards an alternative, fulfilling and creative career path. While Ella was running between the boxing team and massage society, I spent first year figuring out what my degree was - Liberal Arts, still looking for help here guys - making friends and getting to know Bristol. I thought that was keeping me busy enough, but soon realised I was missing out. By fluke, I got onto a summer volunteering project with BVDA (Bristol Volunteers for Development Abroad). That 7-week project got me back in my stride. Coming back to Bristol, I joined the BVDA committee, signed up for a radio
Surely that’s what uni is about: giving it a go
From personal experience, a degree without many contact hours can make it difficult to find your feet at uni. Extracurriculars provide a much-needed change of scene from the ASS, and help you to keep work stress in perspective. For me, it’s been the best way to get the most out of the annual £9000 debt I signed up to. I’ve been a part of things I’d have struggled to access outside of uni, such as Burst Radio, and have taken on fun and fulfilling responsibilities. Maybe running for Liberal Arts President wasn’t my best impulse decision, but it was worth a shot. And surely that’s what uni is about, giving things a go, figuring it out, and doing it with friends who are in the exact same boat/boxing team.
Welcome to halls: words of advice from a second-year Olivia Cooke gives her words of wisdom about moving into and making the most of halls
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Bristol has dropped five places...it must focus on improving Arts and Humanities
Making an effort to integrate yourself as part of a student community in halls does significantly enhance your experience at university. Halls can be conduits in which you seek out opportunities from the academic, to social, or creative. From the imposing structure of the outdoor gym, the pool table in the JCR bar, and the theatre in the common room, I urge any student living in halls to utilise all facilities that
Wikimedia Commons / Rept0n1x
Term has started again, and a new cohort of students have arrived in Bristol. Starting university can be one of the most paradoxical experiences you ever have. Free from the constraints of parents, university promises an endless amount of exciting opportunities for a new student. From developing intellectual pursuits to embarking on consecutive all-night raves, a fresher can find themselves enraptured in a hedonistic experience of studying and partying to the full. However, the start of this defining chapter in life also brings an incredible amount of challenges. Moving into halls is a defining experience whilst at university. I remember the cold, icy panic which settled in my stomach as I approached Stoke Bishop for the very first time. A million questions rushed through my head: ‘Will I enjoy my course?’, ‘How do I make sure I don’t get lost around campus?’, and the most disquieting of all, ‘Will I make any friends?’ As I said tearful goodbyes to my parents, the realisation of having to venture outside the safe and cosy confines of my room seemed daunting.
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Olivia Cooke Online Features Editor
Looking back at my time in halls, the best piece of advice I can give to new students is to push past your comfort zone when it comes to those first interactions with the people living in your halls. Although it may seem like the most awkward and uncomfortable social cue, introducing yourself to flatmates or corridor neighbours metaphorically (and literally) opens up doors to friendships. Offering a cup of tea and leaving your room door propped open are guaranteed ways to strike up a conversation and break the ice with your neighbours or flatmates.
Moving into halls in a new city can be a nervewracking experience your accommodation can provide.
Still, Bristol seems to have retained a fantastic reputation with employers
Not only can you get your money’s worth in rental fees and satisfy your desire to play Hamlet in an am-dram
production, but you can also help develop those friendships which may last after your graduation from Bristol. Moving away from home is hard. Harder still are those first few weeks settling in to university. It can sometimes seem near impossible as a first-year to negotiate between the worlds of studying, partying, budgeting, and learning to be an adult. Love or loathe them, halls form a formative part of your first year at university.
The friends made in halls could be the friends that you end up sharing a house with in second year. Crucially though, halls enable students to set up strong academic and social links within the wider student community of Bristol. So, to those students having just moved into halls, I wish you all the best of luck for the year ahead and advise you to embrace any opportunity, big or small, that may come your way living in halls. You never know, it may just change your life.
Epigram
02.10.2017
8
Beginners’ luck or breaking the bank? It’s time to discuss student gambling Ellen Jones looks at the latest student issue to hit the headlines Ellen Jones Features Editor Since writing my previous article on students’ entrapment by government loans and interest rates, I have read more and more about another rouse to which students keep falling victim: gambling. Last week the BBC reported claims that independent research shows that gambling amongst students is on the rise, with some racking up £10,000 worth of debt from their betting habits. Despite using our loans to fund gambling habits actually being a breach of our agreement with the Student Loans Company, research conducted in August by the agency YouthSight has revealed that four out of five students gambled in the four weeks prior to being questioned. Furthermore, one in eight undergraduates surveyed admitted that they had missed lectures or seminars due to their gambling habits.
“ One clear stimulus is betting companies’ hardline targetting of students
Flikr / Nicu Buculei
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So, when students are already strapped for cash, what is it that’s influencing such a disproportionate number of us to gamble our money away? Is it the thrill, or is it because, as indebted students, a growing number of us are desperate for quick cash? One clear motivation has to be betting companies’ hardline targeting of the student community. As recently revealed on the Victoria Derbyshire show, one of the UK’s biggest casino brands, Grosvenor Casinos, runs a special student-only poker league and offers student discounts at their casino branches. This has attracted considerable criticism from student-interest groups such as the NUS, which has claimed that gambling companies need ‘clamping down on’. The truth remains however that these kind of marketing techniques are legal and commonplace in multiple other, potentially equally damaging, industries. Gambling, in its purest form, surely isn’t a problem. We all
A YouthSight survey has revealed that four out of five students gambled in the four weeks prior to being questionned tried the novelty lottery ticket on our 16th birthday, and, let’s face it, none of us are strangers to a good game of odds on. In a world where our freedom of speech and movement appears to be in increasing jeopardy, who are we to say that it’s a problem when someone gets their kicks from gambling, rather than the more socially acceptable expenditures like shopping, eating out, or going to the pub? For many Bristol students who I spoke to, gambling was exactly that: a fun, social and occasional activity. Giles Moss, second year Maths student at Bristol, claimed he sees no problem with the concept of gambling: ‘I don’t think there’s an issue with gambling. It’s fun time to time after a night out and for most people it’s nothing more than that’.
Engineering student, Tom, agreed. ‘I have the occasional bet for the thrill of winning. I think for a lot of people it’s not about the money. I also think it’s not agencies’ responsibility to protect student gamblers…if a student doesn’t have enough money, they should stop themselves’. Yet I can’t help but feel gambling is both a cause and an effect, exacerbating the existing and prevailing issues within the student community. Student gambling seems to be the current ‘hot topic’, but we should be using this to recognise and discuss the underlying problems which gambling highlights. A lack of money, an abundance of spare time, and the prevalence of ‘banterous’ peer pressure are all common student experiences which act as direct incentives
to take up betting. Similarly, student loneliness, a lack of support, and the absence of loved ones’ ‘watchful eye’ appear to prevent those who get stuck in the gambling rut from escaping with ease.
‘My friend won £2000 one day and lost £4000 the next’
Jack, a Theology and Philosophy student, shared his experiences of watching friends get into bad gambling habits. ‘He won £2000 one day, and lost £4000 the next. The confidence boost he got from winning
meant that he got more and more hooked. He’s now so far into his overdraft that he had to ban himself from playing anymore. It’s a risky game and doing it for anything more than a bit of fun can lead to serious difficulties’. This is something that universities are becoming increasingly aware of, as gambling charity Gamcare has encouraged. ‘It’s time to open up a conversation about gambling in universities’, Trevor David, a training and development consultant at Gamcare told The Guardian. ‘University staff need to know how to spot a problem and what support to provide’. Personally, I can’t help but remain sceptical about university staff spotting issues and providing the necessary help to prevent student gambling from becoming an
issue. With so many students on campus to monitor, so few contact hours a week - …can you tell I’m a disgruntled Arts student…? - and university support still seemingly very much working on a don’t-askdon’t-get basis, how are our lecturers supposed to spot the early signs of a gambling addiction? Gambling represents a whole host of student problems which we need to help with and, in order to do so, discuss more. I commend universities, and the national news, for talking openly about the issue of student gambling, and how we can remove the stigmas attached to ‘going too far’ and asking for help. For now, all we can do is keep hedging our bets by remaining hopeful of sensible betting and improved support for those in need.
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Epigram 02.10.2017
Comment
@epigramcomment Editor: Ed Southgate
Deputy Editor: Jake Porter
Online Editor: Cameron Scheijde
@ed_southgate comment@epigram.org.uk
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Epigram Comment is the home of the student voice. The opinions expressed here are from individual students with an individual perspective. As an independent newspaper, we do not affiliate or associate ourselves with any one view, but aim to publish all views of the student body as and when they come to us. If you would like to respond with an opposing point of view in a subsequent issue, please contact the Editors.
The SU must represent us as students
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Cameron Scheijde shares his optimism about the potential of the new full-time officers to create a representative SU Cameron Scheijde Online Comment Editor The Students’ Union: that body of democratic representation and bastion of facilities for clubs and societies that you will probably have not been near. Tucked away in a corner of Clifton, the SU is distanced far from the halls of Stoke Bishop or the flats of Cotham and Redland. It is therefore unsurprising that, for many Bristol students, the SU is an organisation separate from their own uni experience. You might have purchased the wristbands during fresher’s or attended some of their alternative fresher’s events - which are excellent - but apart from this, how does the SU fit into your normal life? There is no need to go anywhere near it, and the policies they champion may seem somewhat irrelevant to your day-to-day life. Were it not for the fact that I did a lot of Drama last year, I would have had no reason to be involved in the SU whatsoever.
Yet, despite this, it is one of the best tools of political engagement we have. Much like in any other professional vocation, we students have a union whose job is to represent our greater interests and ensure that the University, corporations or any other organisation that works with students don’t rip us off. Don’t like your course? Think your hall is a bit shabby? Need somewhere to set up your society? It’s the SU’s job to make sure these issues are dealt with. The discrepancy between the power the SU has and the power that us students actually use is, doubtless, a problem that the Union is struggling to fix. In this article, I will lay out why I think students feel disillusioned with the SU, and what can be done in order to capture the hearts and interest of the main student body. For starters, when I arrived in Bristol a year ago this week the Students’ Union had a reputation as a bit of a left-wing cult filled with people who would get offended if you looked at them and offended if you didn’t. An organisation where the officers are
The SU full-time officers are meant to be our primary source of representation
Whether these reputations are accurate is a matter for a separate article; here I would like to argue that the SU is a force for good in our lives and that, despite its many shortcomings, this year could be the year where the SU can finally make a noise in Bristol. The SU full-time officers are meant to be our primary source of representation, but something struck me at SU election time last year: hardly anyone knew who they were. Despite the posters everywhere, no one really cared. There was another problem with the officers last year: while they were doubtless a hardworking, approachable and diverse group of people, they were not exactly representative of all political viewpoints. A quick search through the twitter feeds of any of last year’s officers would provide you with their leanings: staunch defenders
of ex-NUS President and controversial figure Malia Bouattia, firm believers in the NUS, and very much on the far-left of the political spectrum. One of the mission statements of Bristol SU is “We are the collective voice of University of Bristol students”. It struck me that were I to campaign for views not matching the political leanings of the SU officer team, there would be little chance of receiving SU support. This year, however, things are different. The SU officers elected seem to have a different outlook, with less focus on general politics and more focus on student issues. Stanford, Union Affairs officer this year, is, as far as I can tell, mostly apolitical. Certainly, you cannot tell his political leaning from Facebook or Twitter. His issues are ones of ensuring societies have the space they need, providing better facilities and connecting students to the SU. As a popular figure, he is an example of how the SU can better connect with students. Politically, a more diverse range of opinions in the officer team, such as those of Lucky Dube, Student Living Officer, are very welcome. A mix of the political and apolitical in the SU team is ideal and I think that this year there is a far greater chance of a broad and open dialogue on SU matters. After all, the SU does itself no favours when it ends up in the national press for censorship, no platforming and the likes. As the students’ union is such a large and impressive landmark, there is a clear possibility for it to become the university rallying point. Away from political causes, the SU is scarcely used as much as it should. Just a quick survey of my flatmates was enough to tell me what I needed: some use the SU for societies but most don’t go in, or go rarely - perhaps
to see a play, but not much else. Even fewer know of the SU’s job as a representative body, or feel at all represented by the SU. I feel that the official Students’ Union response to this article will be something along the lines of ‘we’re trying!’ which is completely understandable. However, two things need to happen. Firstly, students need to know that the SU is where we can go with the multitude of legitimate complaints we have. Secondly, the SU needs to be broader and work to shake off the reputation that all student unions have. It needs to paint itself as the place for every student: quiet, loud, drinkers, teetotallers, conservatives, socialists, liberals, and every identity under the sun.
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The SU officers seem to have a different outlook ... with more of a focus on student issues
Our students’ union is a fantastic organisation and with a broader outlook for students, focusing on issues that affect all of us: housing, tuition fees, grants, inclusion and so on, it can be the bastion of representative democracy it so strives to be. The SU are currently running elections for first year and PGT course reps, PGT Faculty reps, the chair of the Postgraduate Network and JCRs. Make sure you cast your vote to ensure that you are represented in the best way possible.
Instagram / bristol_SU
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For many Bristol students, the SU is an organisation separated from their own uni experience
effectively mouthpieces for the NUS, and everything is clouded with some frightening degree of utopianism. Somewhere that doesn’t affect your life and that you probably couldn’t care less about, apart from when desperately swerving to avoid being accosted by rep hopefuls or leaflet campaigners. The building, despite being one of the largest custombuilt student unions in the country, is a far-flung palisade met with ambivalence and ignorance.
The new SU officers: Des, John, Stanford, Lucky, Shubham and Mason
What the #editors are saying...
Epigram
02.10.2017
11
Freshers’ Fair excluded Jewish students
Avital Carno challenges the placement of this year’s Freshers’ Fair, which fell on the Jewish New Year
Two weeks ago thousands of freshers and returning students were looking forward to the SU (Students’ Union) Welcome Fair. One of the SU’s largest annual events, it is the first opportunity for freshers to discover the enormous range of activities now open to them. It provides both new and returning students with the chance to engage in university life, and, for many, joining these societies can serve
It would be inconceivable for the university to organise it’s Welcome Fair on Christmas Eve, so why is Jewish New Year any different?
as a lifeline in the potentially overwhelming university environment: it’s a chance to meet people with similar interests, to pursue old hobbies and discover new ones. Unfortunately, this year the vast majority of Jewish students were not able to attend. This is because the fair had been scheduled on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), which is one of the two holiest festivals in the Jewish calendar. This clash led to widespread disappointment amongst the university’s Jewish community, many of whom - including myself - feel deeply let down by their union. ‘I feel really strongly about this as we shouldn’t be put in the situation of having to choose between our extra-curricular lives and our beliefs, culture and family life. I personally feel completely torn as my family want me at home to celebrate Rosh
Hashanah but I also want to know what societies I can join … not having the same information that the rest of the university does isolates us… does the SU not want Jewish students in their societies?,’ said Sadie Karia, a Second Year Dentistry Student. Other faith groups on campus shared the same sentiment. ‘It’s a shame that the Students’ Union, which has done so much over the past year to be as inclusive as possible, hasn’t served its purpose as a union on this occasion by excluding a large majority of the Jewish community from one of the biggest annual events … the SU must learn that in order to achieve its goal to represent every student, it needs to consider the festive holidays of all faiths and cultures before planning events intended for everyone, so that no student feels excluded because of their faith,’ said Zoulikha Belblidia, a Second Year student and the Interfaith Representative for the university’s Islamic Society. As a Jewish student myself, I often sense that the prevailing attitude amongst the Jewish community is an overwhelming need to keep one’s head down; we are paralyzed into silence by a pathological, inherited fear of rocking the boat. I think that this fear of protest, of speaking too loudly, is the result of hundreds of years of anti-Semitism, which has taught Jews to stay quiet and not to take up too much space. In an environment such as Bristol University, which prides itself on its supposed inclusiveness, liberal values and open-mindedness, I feel that this attitude is outdated and quite simply ridiculous. Jewish students have as much of a right to attend the university as students of any other faith - or lack of; we want to participate in university life, to contribute and benefit from all that the University has to offer. It would be
Twitter / @Bristol_SU
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Avital Carno Deputy Arts Online Editor
Freshers’ Fair is the biggest SU event of the year
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inconceivable for the University to organise its Welcome Fair on Christmas Eve, so why is Jewish New Year any different? Admittedly, the number of Christian students is far greater, but the university’s rapidly growing Jewish Society nevertheless has over 800 members.
I’ve been left shocked and disappointed by this apparent disregard for Bristol’s Jewish students Up until this point, my experience as a Jewish student at Bristol has been almost entirely positive. I’ve encountered very little casual antiSemitism, and my professors and personal tutor have gone out of their way to make sure I am able to catch up on any material missed due to religious observance. In fact, one of the reasons I’ve fallen so in love with Bristol is because of the accepting and open-minded attitude which seems to prevail. It’s because of all these good
experiences that I’ve been left so shocked and disappointed by this apparent disregard for Bristol’s Jewish students, a ‘mistake’ which also occurred two years previously. I’d like to believe that what has happened is the result of simple carelessness, instead of indifference to the welfare of Jewish students, or even subtle antiSemitism. I want the SU to prove me right; I want to see that they can learn from their mistakes, and do their job of representing the entire student body, not just a convenient portion of it. Hopefully, at next year’s Fresher’s Fair, Jewish students will be able to attend. Des Ibekwe, Equality, Liberation and Access Officer at Bristol SU told Epigram‘The clash between Rosh Hashanah and the Welcome Fair was drawn to our attention recently. The Welcome Week dates are sent by the University and scheduling has lead to the Welcome Fair falling on the Friday, so we will highlight this issue with them. We have been in discussion with J Soc to ensure that they still have presence at our Welcome Fair and there will be a number of other opportunities for Jewish Students to engage with our welcome offer in the coming weeks’
UniSmart presentations: pointlessly patronising Phoebe Chase argues that UniSmart presentations are too patronising to deliver a serious message
What circulated my mind most of all during that hour and a half was... ‘when can we leave?’
From our arrival, one of the things said most frequently to new students is, ‘You are adults, so we are going to treat you like adults’. However, it is disappointing to report that, so far, this hasn’t been followed through particularly well. I am referring to the UniSmart presentation freshers sat through in Welcome Week, designed to give us innocent, fresh-faced first years some insight into the perils of university, drugs, and living semiindependently. In actual fact, what circulated my mind during that hour and a half was none of these things, but more along the lines of ‘when can we leave?’.
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It is the beginning of a new academic year and thousands of fresh-faced students are pouring into Bristol to start their university education. First impressions of this new life are probably varied and a little overwhelming for most. However, one event is apparently notorious among past - and now present - first years, and it is talked about long after Freshers’ Week.
After being awoken at 6:30am for a fire drill, my halls then had to wake up again in time to meet outside at 9:15 to be led to the SU building. Sitting in a large hall, hungover, at 10am, we were introduced to a pantomime ‘crazy scientist’ lady - a supposed expert in technology and part of an apparently highly advanced company specialising in smart technology. Her pitch all in a painfully fake American accent - was to convince us to try these newly developed ‘smart contact lenses’ that were now in a beta testing stage, telling us that we could get some of these for free if we wanted to be part of the testing. It then transpired - shockingly - that this was all a joke, and the crowd of reluctant new students was subsequently subjected to a bizarre strip show in which the woman threw off her ‘disguise’, revealing a much younger Kiwi woman, who then spent a few minutes performing a glow in the dark show.
Information that is actually very important to know...was completely sidelined by the poor attempt at comedy
The entire presentation continued in this bizarre vein, with attempts at comedy the entire way through. Clearly we are all too young and immature to sit through an actual talk outlining
Flickr / Scott Feldstein
Phoebe Chase First Year, Archaeology & Anthropology
‘There was no change in my functionality when I decided to make some tea this morning’
important information about our lives at university. ‘I thought the information she had was important, but the way she presented it was patronising and distracting and the message got lost because of that,’ said Connie Weir, a fresher who also sat through the presentation. The intention, I suppose, is to give new students all the information they need to prepare them for university life, in an entertaining and engaging way. The description given on the UniSmart website states that it is ‘Designed specifically to educate and empower new students’. Disappointingly, I feel exactly the same, except for a slight wariness of people from New Zealand. What was essentially achieved was an overwhelming and very long ‘comedy’ performance with some information thrown in between sketches, that really only seemed to succeed in patronising those watching and treating them like a student freshly entering
Year 9. I believe that hardly any of the information - the whole point of this presentation - was even taken in. The website also claims that after watching UniSmart, students ‘function better [and] are more confident’ - though I can safely say that there was no change in my confidence or functionality when I decided to make some tea this morning. The question is: how are new students to be expected to act like the adults they are, when they are treated like children? As Connie said, information that is actually very important to know when starting university and living away from home for the first time, such as the issues surrounding consent, the consequences of plagiarism and what to do when struggling or feeling depressed, was completely sidelined by the poor attempt at comedy by this woman bouncing around on stage. Do the organisers of this event think that students will actually enjoy this? In my opinion, this presentation is, essentially, a waste of university money, time, and resources. It patronises students and does not succeed in giving them the information they need in order to do well, especially when settling in over the first weeks and adjusting to this major change in their lives. Indeed, treating students in this manner, as though this is the only way to somehow get the information across is a little insulting as well as embarrassing. Possibly the only benefit to this event is its help in encouraging students to bond… over how awful it was.
Epigram
02.10.2017
12 A response to the round-up...
Political round-up
Controversial cameo proves our ability to forget
World politics: Former White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, makes a surprise appearance at the Emmy’s UK politics: Boris Johnson has been accused of ‘damaging’ the Tory party and derailing Brexit negotiations after setting out his personal vision for a post-Brexit Britain
Following Sean Spicer’s Emmy appearance, Daniel Harris laments how easily we ignore his political past we ostracise those we don’t agree with, but surely
Daniel Harris Second Year, Spanish and Portuguese
Bristol politics: Thangam Debbonaire MP receives scathing criticism from a sex worker after suggesting prostitution should remain illegal
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This may be my cynical attitude showing through, but isn’t this all a bit ridiculous? It is, perhaps, easy to laugh. Laugh at the ridiculous nature of his statements, the deliriousness of the Trump regime, and the general incompetence of an administration that many wish to see fail. Yet Spicer, the former face of the Trump administration, has been
A response to the news...
Flickr / DonkeyHotey
A shock cameo brought controversy to a surprise-filled ceremony for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards: Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary, made an appearance on the stage. For those unfamiliar with Spicer, you need only watch Melissa McCarthy’s convincing impersonation of him during Saturday Night Live’s past season. Her impression was so successful that she not only won an Emmy for it, but ‘Spicey’ himself referenced SNL sketches from the White House podium. Indeed, the hilarity of Spicer’s brief tenure detracted from the impact of the absurd statements he made during his White House post, such as the claim that not even ‘someone as despicable as Hitler’ had ever sunk to using chemical weapons.
welcomed back into the public eye less than two months after resigning. Greeted with screaming, applauded offstage and apparently mobbed in the lobby, Spicer’s return to the limelight couldn’t have gone any better. He becomes relevant again, will be able to charge absurd fees for after-dinner speeches and an inevitable book deal, and we will all have a good laugh. This may be my cynical attitude showing through, but isn’t this all a bit ridiculous? I find Sean Spicer as comically ludicrous as the next person; I waited in eager anticipation for McCarthy’s weekly mockery of him on SNL. But the critical point is that we were laughing at Spicer. Not with him, with his lies and stupidity, but quite clearly at him. ‘No, that’s not your joke to make’, as McCarthy herself said after Spicer referenced her impression. By letting Spicer poke fun at himself, he becomes part of the collective mockery and is ultimately accepted back into society. Now, I am obviously not suggesting that
our memories aren’t this short? Spicer doesn’t deserve our attention right now, and he certainly doesn’t merit our applause or adoration. Whether or not he agreed with Trump’s idiotic regime, he was certainly a complicit part of it, which is more than enough to warrant his disappearance into obscurity for the next few years. In reality, I write this not because I never want to see Sean Spicer’s face again; I truly thought his appearance at the Emmy’s was fantastic and hilarious. It is what his reappearance stands for - our goldfish-like ability to forget any manner of sins when it comes to celebrities - that I can’t stand. Remember convicted criminal turned family favourite Mark Wahlberg? Remember antiSemitic Mel Gibson, and his return to fame for Hacksaw Ridge? Casey Affleck’s Best Actor win at the 2017 Oscars is another prime example, along with Brie Larson’s refusal to shake his hand. By simultaneously sweeping the major awards and causing controversy, Affleck tested our ability to forgive and forget. Finally, let us spare a thought for George W. Bush. The same George W. Bush of the Iraq War, the Great Recession and Hurricane Katrina is now doing the rounds on chat shows, selling his god-awful paintings, complete with appalling dancing and intimate - or vomitinducing - cosying up to Ellen Degeneres. I guess that’s just an indication of how increasingly short our memories can be. Whereas Bush had to wait eight years, Spicer is back at our door like a pitiful dog just two months after we shut him out the house.
Our Vice-Chancellor: vindicated?
James Cleaver explores our Vice-Chancellor’s recently published pay, arguing that it is justified
Responding to public pressure, the Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, has recently demanded that all university employees earning more than £150,000 a year must have their salaries justified by the Office for Students. The figure of £150,000 per annum was chosen because, in Johnson’s words, ‘When pay levels are exceeding those of the prime minister, it’s important they are justified by exceptional performance.’ While I’m not sure whether the current prime minister should be considered the barometer of exceptional performance, it’s as good an arbitrary figure as any other.
Flickr / Novartis AG Twitter / @BristolUni
Professor Hugh Brady: worth every penny?
I want to investigate whether the University of Bristol has created a fair and meritocratic way of paying its Vice-Chancellor. This current issue is not a new one to Bristol students; in 2010, Maria Fernanda Jimenez made a Freedom of Information request to the University of Bristol asking for the ‘total remuneration packages of the 25 best paid employees’ over the previous three years. To their credit the University did respond, revealing the previously-unseen salaries of numerous positions below the ViceChancellor, then Sir Eric Thomas, whose salary was already publicly available.
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The Vice-Chancellor’s role ... is networking - an undoubtably vital function for the university The current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol is Professor Hugh Brady, a position he has held since 2015. The Vice-Chancellor’s role is explained on the University’s website, and to sum up a lengthy description, the gist of it is networking - an undoubtedly vital function for the university to attract investment. This is demonstrated by the Vice-Chancellor’s prominent role in securing some of the £300m investment required to build a new campus near Bristol Temple Meads, creating - in his words - a ‘dynamic partnership between the University, industry and the city’. His pay is determined by the University of Bristol Remuneration Committee, a body which meets twice a year. Despite not being a
member, the Vice-Chancellor is able to attend all meetings, except ones which relate to himself or herself, allowing the body to claim some form of impartiality. The most recent figures state that there were 20,365 students at the University of Bristol in the academic year 2015/16, a year in which Professor Brady’s basic salary was £264,000. Each student effectively contributed around £13 towards the Vice-Chancellor’s annual basic salary. Doesn’t seem much, does it? While it is evident that students’ payments cover other salaries than the Vice-Chancellor’s, it seems that the national outrage directed specifically at Vice-Chancellors is misplaced. Furthermore, compared to other universities, the University of Bristol appears to take a relatively pragmatic approach to its highest figure’s pay. The previous Vice-Chancellor, Sir Eric Thomas, earned £344,000 in his final year. That the Remuneration Committee ensured his successor, Professor Hardy, only began on around three-quarters of Thomas’ salary shows their commitment to careful consideration of the issue of experience and pay, and as such, this should be acknowledged.
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James Cleaver Second Year, History
Each student effectively contributed around £13 towards the Vice-Chancellor’s annual basic salary The Vice-Chancellor’s annual basic salary currently stands at £282,472, up 1.7% (below the rate of inflation) from before August 2017. For the Remuneration Committee to justify any increase in pay, there must be tangible Professor Hugh Brady: worth every penny?
evidence of the University having progressed under him. Such proof is given by the Complete University Guide 2018, which has Bristol rising 7 places in 2018 to 17th, more than any other university in the top 30. This shows that our Vice-Chancellor has - correctly - been rewarded for improving results. Furthermore, the Vice-Chancellor’s pay does not appear to be excessive when compared to other Vice-Chancellors’ or other University of Bristol staff members. He does not appear in the top 10 highest paid Vice-Chancellors in the 2017 Times Higher Education survey. The University of Bristol was revealed in the Times Higher Education Survey to have similar levels of wage inequality between the Vice-Chancellor and an average academic to other universities. This demonstrates that the Remuneration Committee does not outrageously inflate the Vice-Chancellor’s salary when compared to the average academic’s. In conclusion, not only have the Remuneration Committee adjusted our Vice-Chancellor’s salary to account for his relative lack of experience, but they have also responded to positive signals from improved university rankings, whilst maintaining a widely-copied balance between staff pay. While I have deliberately left alone the debate about whether University Vice-Chancellors’ salaries are too high in the first place, it is nonetheless clear that the University of Bristol is not a leading culprit in mindlessly driving up ViceChancellors’ salaries. Read the original news story in last week’s issue (issue 315) on page 4 or online.
Epigram
02.10.2017
13 Raymond-Hayling
Helena Raymond-Hayling Online Arts Editor
the
utility
and
morality
of
animal
experimentation
many medical-based animal trials utterly futile. Aspirin, a safe and well used painkiller available to purchase in any supermarket or pharmacy, is devastatingly toxic to cats, mice and rats and would not be on our shelves today if it had been tested according to current animal testing standards. The narrative on the value of animal lives dictates that they can be appropriated for any use that humans see fit. This is surely unnecessary in the 21st century, given our access to technology. The lives of animals are still regarded as disposable, and the process of experimentation is often incredibly wasteful. A review of 101 high-impact science discoveries based on animal experiments found that only 5% resulted in approved treatments within 20 years.
Animals have pronounced fundamental biological differences, rendering many medical-based animal trials utterly futile
As with most issues in the ethics of science, animal testing persists because of habit, resistance to change, and a lack of education on the subject, not because it is the best science. ‘Animals provide data – of course they do – but it’s the wrong data,’ Andre Menache from Animal Aid stresses. Alternatives to these cruel methods exist: human tissue testing, cadavers, sophisticated human-patient simulators, and computational models have the potential to be more reliable, more precise, less expensive, and more humane alternatives. It is now possible to test skin
“
Instagram / tokyoworlduk Flickr/ Understanding Animal Research
The University has landed itself in some hot water with animal rights groups regarding its policy on animal testing and experimentation in its research. The figures obtained for the past year list the 26,990 animals used for three main purposes: ‘identify[ing] key physiological mechanisms that control how our bodies work’, ‘identify[ing] and develop[ing] ways of assessing [animal] welfare in order to influence standards of care in farms’ and ‘develop[ing] better treatments for sick people or animals’. These aims may appear reasonable, but it has become increasingly clear in the last decade that animal experimentation is largely unnecessary, ineffective and inhumane. 63% of the University’s testing is conducted on mice and rats, bred purely for these purposes. Dr. Richard Klausner, former director of the US National Cancer Institute, has come forward to criticise the use of rodents throughout the development of modern cancer therapies. ‘The history of cancer research has been the history of curing cancer in the mouse. Though we have cured mice of cancer for decades, this simply doesn’t work in human beings.’ Ineffectiveness is often the best case scenario; there are countless examples of drugs that make it through to clinical trials after testing on animals that have in fact caused harm to the participants. A clinical trial of Hepatitis B drug fialuridine had to be stopped because it caused severe liver damage in seven patients. Five of these patients died, despite extensive prior animal trials. It has been proven that only one third of substances known to cause cancer in humans also cause cancer in animals owing to the fact that animals have pronounced fundamental biological differences, rendering
contests
“
Helena
Animal testing is unnecessary
Will our descendents look back in shame at our treatment of lab rats?
irritation using reconstructed human tissues, produce and test vaccines using human tissues, and synthesise insulin using bacteria instead of harvesting it from pigs.
Alternatives to this kind of cruelty exist
Despite the above possibilities and the knoweldge of the ineffectiveness of current methods within the scientific community 50 years of unsupportive governments following landmark proposals and thus a lack of necessary
funding to find replacements the use of animal experimentation has spiked in the last decade. For me, the issues of human rights and animal rights are not so dissimilar. Cruelty inflicted on any species is a shameful waste of human privilege and intellect and a world built on compassion rather than oppression should surely be our overarching goal. The abuse of animals in farming, sport, circuses, zoos, the fashion industry and medical experiments will, in the future, be viewed as shameful and a tragic waste of both animal lives and human lives when testing did not go to plan. We, like the leading figure in the understanding of animals and their relationshiup with humankind, Charles Darwin, need to recognise that ‘The love of all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man’.
Brexit will be a left-wing opportunity for universities
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Over a year since the Brexit vote, Tyler Royce-Liddle argues that Brexit will be beneficial for Higher Education Tyler Royce-Liddle Second Year, History I walk down a cold and deserted street. It’s dark and cloudy. A tattered poster advertising cheap holidays to Budapest is swept away in the howling wind. Humming Beethoven’s ninth symphony for comfort, my right hand clenched firmly around a miniature cut-out of Jean Claude Juncker, I struggle on towards a dilapidated outlet of Pret a Manger. I step inside. The place is completely empty save for a tearful Italian barista; she is presumably in anguish at having to go through the same immigration process as a ghastly nonEuropean. I head towards the canteen. The glass is shattered and the lights are flickering. When I reach the counter I see no croissants, pizza or baguettes.
I then wake up in a cold sweat. This was the recurring nightmare I had in the run-up to the Brexit vote, now over a year ago. But my nightmares became true. The UK actually voted to leave the European Union. One year on from the vote, though, and I am not convinced that my life as a student has drifted into oblivion.
universities are European and there is much collaboration in research between British and European institutions, which is greatly assisted by the ease of travel within the EU. However, in an age of Skype and Facetime, making international journeys for the sake of conferences is becoming obsolete. It is also debatable that levelling the playing field for academics being able to work in the UK may create a more meritocratic system.
The Vice-Chancellor’s pay does not appear to be excessive
Integration with the EU has discouraged academics coming from places such as the US, Canada and India in seeking work in British universities. There is also the issue of funding. Around 2.6% of universities’ total funding comes from the EU, and about 15% research and development funding in universities is from the EU. Brexit would seemingly present these institutions with a fairly hefty blow. But when we say ‘funded by the EU’, what we really mean is how the EU chooses to spend the reduced amount of money that we get back from contributions. Praising the EU for investing in our universities is no different to praising someone who you’ve given £10 to for buying you a Twix. Surely it is a good thing if our own democratically
elected government is in control of our hardearned cash, as opposed to a foreign and antidemocratic EU commission? Sarcasm aside, I did in fact vote ‘Leave’, making me one of the measly 15% of the undergraduates who chose to do so. Call me a Fascist or ‘Tory hemorrhoid’, but I feel safely cocooned in the knowledge that voting leave was the most left-wing political decision I have ever made - and I voted for Jezza Corbs in the last election. In the shortterm, the vote has and will present us students with a few little setbacks to our frankly privileged lives. But the vote also presents us and the nation as a whole with a wealth of opportunities; we can now govern our country ourselves. If you want more funding to be distributed to universities, you can vote for a party that pledges to do so.
Flickr/ Duncan Hall
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Voting leave was the most left-wing political decision I have ever made
So far, in fact, I don’t feel much compromise at all. The only real burden I’ve had to bear - as one of many privileged students - is the depreciation of Sterling, which rendered my summer slightly more expensive than I would have liked. I wouldn’t describe this, however, as disastrous for everyone as British exporters have in fact benefited from late rates an overvalued Pound. The total value of UK goods and services sold overseas was a record £547.6billion this July. This depreciation in currency, has, in fact, increased university revenue streams. One report issued by the Higher Education Policy Institute revealed that top British universities such as Oxford and Cambridge each annually benefit from £10m in additional revenue following Brexit, as foreign students are more attracted by the relatively cheaper rates. It is also very possible that British universities will benefit from higher rates paid by European students once Britain does actually leave the EU. This clearly isn’t great for European students themselves, but can we really justify charging European students a third of what non-European internationals pay considering non-European countries are relatively much poorer? How is that not discrimination? It is true that we haven’t actually exited the European Union yet - I wouldn’t deny that this may present British universities and incidentally students with certain challenges. Higher education in this country is probably more integrated with Europe than any other industry. Around 16% of academic staff in British
Brexit-inspired art from Banksy
Epigram
02.10.2017
Science & Tech
@EpigramSciTech Editor: Emma Isle Deputy Editor: Oliver Cohen Online Editor: Sadhana Kalidindi scienceandtech@epigram.org
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Women in STEM: more than a feminist issue Sadhana Kalidindi Online Science Editor A recent study called Jobs for the Future, commissioned by EDF Energy, reports 640,000 jobs will be created in STEM related careers by 2023 – 50,000 of these will be in the Bristol region alone. The report showed that based on current figures, there will be a shortfall in the number of graduates available to fill these new roles, highlighting the critical need to encourage more women to pursue science and technology in order to fill the future skills gap. In addition, women are particularly underrepresented in the industries identified in the report as likely to see the most future job openings, such as in computing services, architecture and construction.
The ‘leaky pipeline’ analogy refers to the loss of women across STEM
proportion of them carry the subjects through to university level, meaning that some of the students with the most potential are being lost very early on. Organisations such as WISE and Soapbox Science work to provide young girls with role models they can relate to, helping to transform preconceptions they have as well as those of their teachers and parents.
Bristol University’s Women in Science Society is an exciting new society that aims to celebrate the achievements of women in science and encourage more young women to pursue higher education. The society runs an outreach programme, visiting primary schools across Bristol in order to give young girls a taste of what a degree and career in the sciences could look like. Women
in Science will also be launching a mentorship programme this year in which undergraduate science students can network and receive support from PhD and Masters students in their respective fields. We are always looking for new members to join our team: you can find us at @UOBWomeninScience on Facebook!
It is time to hasten the pace of change when it comes to gender disparities
Although this issue is one that is multi-faceted and largely influenced by both sociological and biological factors, there is no denying that it is time to hasten the pace of change when it comes to gender disparities in the work place, if not only to secure our country’s future growth and prosperity. Studies have shown that having the same number of women as men working in STEM fields in the UK would add an incredible £2 billion to the country’s economy. Girls at GCSE level consistently outperform their male counterparts in STEM subjects, but only a small
Flikr / GrrlScientist
“ Women are particularly underrepresented in the industries identified in the report as likely to see the most future job openings
fields as they get older. The Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that the wage gap widens most dramatically after the birth of a first child – according to a survey from McKinsey & Co, women with similar career demands as their husbands continue to do a disproportionate amount of child care and housework.
Data breach exposes student vulnerability Oliver Cohen Deputy Science Editor
Rain Rabbit/ Flickr Flickr / Marco Verch
What do your Instagram profile picture and your driving licence number have in common? The answer, if you are an American citizen, is that they are both most likely stored online and, as recent events have shown, are more vulnerable than ever. Only this month did news emerge that the mega US consumer reporting agency, Equifax, had been struck by a hack exposing the details of 141 million people. Around 400,000 of those hit were British, making this a multinational exposure for the company. The information exposed was not low level nor specialised. Included in the information affected was social security numbers, birth dates, addresses as well as driving licence numbers. For a smaller number of people - 209,000 - credit card details were also leaked. The leak is not the largest in history, a title which belongs to a Yahoo hack in 2013 when around a billion email addresses were targeted. Nevertheless, owing to the vast amount of significant data involved, this might be one of the most serious digital crises in recent times. Exposed financial data is also not exclusively a US problem. Not only were many Brits affected, but the industry Equifax technically belongs to is that of a credit reference agency. These agencies aim to inform other institutions such as banks by amassing financial data, which can then be used in processes like mortgage lending. Credit referencing is an industry that is as big in the UK as it is
across the pond. The truth is blunt: your data is undoubtedly stored on a server somewhere on this planet. Whether or not it is more secure or as at risk as those involved with Equifax remains to be seen. You may be forgiven for wondering what the talk of large American financial institutions has to do with the humble Bristol student. My unfortunate realisation when writing this article is that it has everything to do with you and I. Have you ever wondered which generation is more involved with the age of technology and the internet than all the other generations? Yeah, it’s us. A recent 2016 report by the ONS demonstrates this plainly. For the age group 16-24, 99.2% used the internet recently,comparing to just 38.7% of adults in the 75 years old and over category. We are in an age where visceral photo mediums - the likes of Snapchat stories, Instagram posts, selfies and Facebook groups - dominate our online presence. It is sometimes easy to overlook the less flashy part of your digital presence, despite it getting ever more dangerous to do so. Whether it’s your financial data, bank details or personal information the list is endless and exhaustive. In the days of old, a time which certain members of the family will no doubt relish with a somewhat tinted enthusiasm, data was physical. Physical data has no endless list of negatives, but some would argue it is certainly more defensible than digital data. Indeed, the switch to digital in the late part of the last century coincides with an increase in the frequency of publically disclosed data breaches. Big questions are raised for a
generation where deeply personal data, from spending habits to home addresses, is increasingly being stored online. For all the talk of data privacy and what information the government may be collecting on its citizens, could we be part of the generation that has to overhaul big data management altogether? Or is the bigger question that of data protection, focusing on how we stop those with no business in possessing private data from exploiting it if given the chance? The definitive truth is the future trend is one-sided. I am sure I can say with absolute certainty that paper will not be making a later century resurgence,
assuming a nuclear war does not Trump my prediction. With such a future on our doorstep, big reforms are needed. This sad state of affairs was forewarned of by Roger A. Grimes, in an article published over half a decade ago. ‘The fact is cyber crime isn’t going away anytime soon for two key reasons: First, everything is hackable. Second and more significant: Cyber criminals rarely get caught or punished for their act.’ The new data laws being discussed in Parliament may go some way to solving the problem, allowing people to request deletion of data and putting hefty fines on companies that don’t play by the
rules. Personally, I feel that more drastic reforms are needed further still. I am unfortunately not an expert in cyber security so I can only guess what these will exactly look like. It may be a slight but powerful change to the current infrastructure, a paradigm shift with new technology such as biometric security, or quite possibly something that has not even been theorised yet, let alone built. If this recent breach teaches us anything, it is that for a generation online we must be careful not to let our online security woefully mismatch our standards for the physical world.
Epigram 02.10.2017
15
Expressive faces disrupt recogniton Emma Isle Science Editor
The research conducted by Anabelle and her team, published in I-PERCEPTION, sought to build on the previous research in this area, and look at whether different facial expressions could cause the same confusions. They created packs of 40 cards, each a mixture of two different faces portraying either highly expressive faces or their neutral counterparts. The highly expressive and neutral photos were taken from the same film segment, so that variables such as lighting were consistent and the only difference between the two packs was the level of expressiveness on the faces
shown. They found that for both the expressive and the non-expressive packs, people generally thought that there were more than two faces in the packs. On average, most determined that there were between five and eight different faces. This implies that unfamiliarity with faces makes you less likely to recognise that person if their expression has changed. However, the change seems not to affect the ability to tell when faces are not the same, leading simply to a perceived higher number of individuals. They also found that with the more expressive faces people confused the two identities, putting them together
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“ Several images that don’t look alike could be identified as several different people
as though they were the same person at a far higher frequency than for those who had the packs with the less expressive faces. Unfamiliarity with faces makes you less likely to recognise that person if their expression has changed
Her findings suggest that when faces are more expressive, confusion can be caused when we attempt to identify a person. This can lead to the confusion of one person with another, as participants mistook the expressiveness as an
Epigram/Matt Davis Flickr / Lennart Takanen
Recent research led by Annabelle Redfern within the department of Experimental Psychology has found that more expressive faces can lead to confusion when attempting to identify people. We have probably all found at some point that we have photos of ourselves that look dramatically different to each other. How many times have you seen a friend’s I.D. and thought that it looks nothing like them? Such differences mean that, for strangers, the same two photos could be identified as different people - as a few people who constantly are questioned when using their I.D might be able to tell you - and several images that don’t look alike could be identified as several different people.
identity signal. The findings also suggest that we don’t remove or factor out facial expressions when recognising or identifying people from their face, instead combining both the facial features and their expression to identify the individual face. As particular expressions are also different for each individual, it would follow that as we learn someone’s face better, we also learn their variability of expression. The next step in the research attempts to build on what has been found to determine what happens when we become more familiar with the face, predicting that as we become more familiar with a face, we learn how it expresses itself, and hence
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expressiveness stops hindering the recognition process.
We are almost always able to recognize our friends and family, no matter how expressive they are being
This would certainly be explained by the fact that we are almost always able to recognize our friends and family, no matter their expression. Indeed, often we recognise a particular expression as being a particular characteristic of our loved ones; I am certainly known for my scowl.
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Sadhana Kalidindi...
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James Charlick... reports on the aftershocks of the North Korean nuclear tests
Sadhana Kalidindi... chats to us about a new form of exciting energy generation
Flickr / thellr
Epigram
02.10.2017
Letters Professor Havi Carel Professor Gene Feder Professor Tariq Modood Professor Tom Sperlinger
Editor: Ellie Chesshire letters.epigram@gmail.com
An open letter
including within the Jewish community. In a legal opinion [http://jfjfp.com/ ?p=91344] sought by Free Speech on Israel, Independent Jewish Voices, Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Hugh Tomlinson QC concluded that the definition is ‘unclear and confusing and should be used with caution’ and that the Government’s adoption of it ‘has no legal status or effect and, in particular, does not require public authorities to adopt this definition as part of their anti-racism policies’.
“ “ “ “ We wholeheartedly endorse Hannah Rose’s conclusion that the University must always be mindful of the need to support students from minorities and to act in solidarity with those facing oppression
‘Public authorities are under a positive obligation to protect freedom of speech. In the case of universities and colleges this is an express statutory obligation,’ Hugh Tomlinson QC also concluded. Between us, we have worked with Israeli writers or academics and with Palestinian academics. We agree with Hannah Rose that it is vital that all students (and staff) feel able to pursue their academic interests. This
Flikr / James Baker
Dear editors, We are writing in response to Hannah Rose’s opinion article, ‘AntiSemitism at Bristol: not taking action is not an option’. The author notes that the University of Bristol has found that an article by Dr Rebecca Gould, ‘Beyond Anti-Semitism’, was not antiSemitic, following accusations that were published in various places, including in Epigram. We do not know details of the process by which the University reached this conclusion. However, we have each read Dr Gould’s article and have separately concluded that it is not anti-Semitic. On the contrary, it is scrupulous in arguing that the Nazi Holocaust should not be utilised for political ends, including to justify the oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories. It would be entirely reasonable for some readers to disagree with Dr Gould’s arguments but that does not justify depriving her of the opportunity to make them in public and in academic spaces. The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-Semitism, which Hannah Rose cites, is not without its controversies,
@EpigramLetters
The university concluded the article was not anti-Semitic.
must include those who wish to raise legitimate questions about Israel or Zionism, and who engage in important debates about the definitions and misuse of anti-Semitism. For example, there is a long tradition of Jewish thought that is critical of Zionism, of the particular versions of it that underpinned the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, and of current and historic Israeli government policies. These traditions have been traced, most recently, in Judith Butler’s book Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism. We wholeheartedly endorse Hannah Rose’s conclusion that the University must always be mindful of the need to
support students from minorities and to act in solidarity with those facing oppression.
However, we have read Dr Gould’s article and conclude seperately that it is not antiSemitic
Antisemitism does not operate in a vacuum and we believe that, at the current time, it is vital that those of us who are Jewish or of Jewish descent (as three of us are) also work in solidarity with those experiencing Islamophobia,
as well as other forms of racism. In our opinion, this should include solidarity with those Palestinians, including many academics and students in the West Bank and Gaza, who face restrictions on their freedoms, including their freedom of movement and interaction with academic communities beyond the occupied territories. Yours sincerely, Professor Havi Carel Professor Gene Feder Professor Tariq Modood Professor Tom Sperlinger
My day with Thangam, Bristol’s MP Ollie Smith Second Year, History
To new and current students, I hope this gives you an insight into your local MP and the hugely important work she does
Thangam explains most MPs specialise in certain areas; in her case she’s the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees. Hence our next stop, a meeting of refugee charities who she meets to give her support and arrange further meetings while I’m briefly mistaken for her secretary. Much of our perceptions of politicians are through the media but to actually experience it first-hand showed me how MPs work overtime on an endless range of causes. In the Commons, Thangam votes for a debate on education policy before another debate begins on drugs policy. As this goes on I’m frequently stared at by Shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbot.
Epigram/Lily Flikr / almostHammond witty
June’s election saw our Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire re-elected with a dramatically increased majority. A month after, I had the opporutnity to shadow her for a day in Parliament to better my knowledge of government. To new and current students, I hope this gives you an insight into your local MP and the hugely important work she does. I meet Thangam at 10 in the morning at the entrance to Portcullis House. She leads me on a whistle-stop tour of Parliament; her favourite place, the House of Commons Library, is truly stunning. There she hands me the day’s parliamentary agenda and the report of the previous day, full of transcripts of the chamber and voting records. From there, I’m led to Central Lobby and we run through the agenda for the day. Thangam leaves for an Opposition Whips’ meeting (her role in the Shadow Cabinet) while I go and see Westminster Hall. Following the Speaker’s Procession I enter the Commons Chamber with a signed pass she’s given me. Whenever I enter the Chamber I’m always in awe; this time it’s different, I’m not behind protective glass but actually in the chamber in the Opposition viewing gallery. Below, Chancellor Philip Hammond trades blows with his
opposite, John McDonnell. Thangam questions the government on the difficulty of those given refugee status to be allowed to work; not only does she get an encouraging response but, determined to follow up, we find the Secretary afterwards who agrees to meet and discuss it with her at a future time.
The Houses of Parliament by night
Somehow finding time to grab a sandwich, we dash to Thangam’s office where she manages to interview someone on another cause, review her upcoming speech and show me the hundreds of emails she gets in a day. I also discover she’s taking Arabic lessons to contribute to foreign politics in the Middle East. Back in the Chamber, Thangam gives her speech, arguing for drug misuse to be treated as a health rather than a criminal issue and for greater recognition of alcohol in drugs policy. I also witnessed several inspiring maiden speeches by new MPs on both sides and was struck by the praise given by
members of rival parties.
Much of our perception of politicians are through the media but to actually experience it first-hand showed me how MPs work overtime on an endless range of causes
We spent about six hours in the Chamber overall, with Thangam finishes in the Opposition Whips’ place on the frontbench by the Speaker. She then brings me to the Opposition Whips’ office and shows me the headquarters
of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Dianne Abbot stares at me again as we pass in the corridor. By then it’s past 7 in the evening and I have to go home while she still has work, so we say our goodbyes and she gives me directions to Victoria station before we part on a joke about the trains running on time. Thangam was a pleasure to spend the day with and she did everything she could to help me. She’s devoted to Bristol and does everything she can to make the most of her position. We are lucky to have an MP who takes such a committed approach to representing her constituents.
E2
Epigram / Charlie Gearon
Happy October!
Living Wellbeing Food Style Travel
Online Editor Josie Roberts
Editor Jordan Barker
18
Deputy Editor
02.10.17
Emily Hayman
living@epigram.org.uk
@EpigramLiving
An ode to... Motion “An angsty tour de force” - Terry Eagleton. An adventure to Motion, every student can relate So here’s an Ode to why it’s so great. From the fresh, to the ravers, to the scatty old men, Your night is sure to be ten out of ten. Approaching the tunnel, you down your drink ‘No queue this time!’, we start to think. ALAS, the queue has reached back far But Motion’s gates are still on the radar.
A quick pat down: ‘Chewing gum?! It’s a NO!’.
Into star charts, diagrams of celestial bodies and made-up bullshit? See what life’s got in store for the next two weeks! Aries | 21st March – April 19th You’ll be visited by the McDonald’s Grimace and forced to embark on a perilous quest through the Nine Circles of McDonaldland.
Taurus | 20th April – 20th May You’ll realise that this mode of being you currently occupy is, unfortunately, when all’s said and done, at the end of the day, and not to put too fine a point on it, in fact just a phase.
Gemini | 21st May –20th June
Sagittarius | 22nd November – 21st December You’ll meet someone you believe will drastically alter your life, only to realise later that – though they’re perfectly decent – they’re really not all that interesting.
Capricorn | 22nd December – 19th January Walking in the woods one day, you’ll see a little girl tell a weeping man in a mallard costume that ‘We will go to our graves with this secret’, as they shovel soil into a large, man-sized hole.
You’ll have a highly sexual religious experience that will ultimately leave you thinking: ‘Is that it?’.
Cancer | 21st June – 22nd July You’ll meet someone who applied to Oxford, and after asking them which college they applied for, they reply: ‘Brookes’.
Leo | 23rd July – 22nd August Your mum will decide that the best thing for her to do as a single woman in the 21st century is wear a choker, and there’s nothing you can do to stop her.
Flickr / Liga Eglite
Past the barbed wire, excited we go
Your fortnightly horoscope Epigram/Jasmin Perryw
Emily Hayman, poet extraordinnaire and Deputy Editor, celebrates the Seshman’s spiritual home
Epigram Living Section 2017/18
Past the fake dogs, just there for a scare We charge on into Motion’s lair.
Aquarius | 20th January – 18th February
Packed to the brim, yet still space to dance
A new Danish dance craze will elevate you to a higher level of consciousness, one so great you’ll chunder ev-reh-waaahr.
Swirling lasers send you into a trance. From Sub Focus, to Bicep and of course My Nu Leng,
Pisces | 19th February – 20th March Flickr / Sam Kelly
This dutty bassline is going to be PENG. Up to the balcony, best place to be Birds eye view, feels like ecstasy
A Geology postgrad who wants to get in your pants will talk to you for several hours about how intelligent Rick and Morty is, and
Ground is shaking, sweat pours down Motion’s gotta be the best place in town. Trip to the redroom, disco ball shimmer Drop down low as the lights get dimmer. Endless friends to be made there. Head back in with the friends you meet To the Marble Factory, with the funky beat. Drum n Bass to Techno, DJ’s renowned,
A profound metaphysical truth will be revealed to you in a blinding light, and it’ll most definitely play havoc with your bowels.
Libra | 23rd September – 22nd October A former bus conductor called Tony Arkwright, 78, who now goes by the name ‘Mr. Tits’, will offer to give you a ride home in his Ford Fiesta that’s painted to look like a red London bus.
Scorpio | 23rd October – 21st November Someone will throw a used rubber johnny at you, an experience that will finally give you the courage to write the next great American novel.
Flickr / William Tung rd Sandoval Flickr/RIcha
Lost your way? Head out for some air
Virgo | 23rd August –22nd September
Whatever the genre, you’ll find your sound. Before you know it, the lights come on, It’s seven am, where’s the night gone?! Into the daylight, spot a commotion
Nineteenth in the world this club is placed, All for good reason, it can’t be replaced. Quiet ride home, crawl into bed Bristol you killed it, what event lies ahead?!
Flickr / pasevich bogdan
Rush for the taxis, until next time Motion.
02.10.17
19
Found my vegan girlfriend’s secret stash of Matteson’s Chicken Bites! This week, Aunt Aggie offers her advice to a heartbroken vegan who no longer trusts his girlfriend
I worry I might find out that she’s not an anarcho-feminst, but a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party!
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Epigram / Aunt Aggie
Dear Aunt Aggie, So, I’ve been seeing this vegan girl for about a year now. Before coming to university I was really closed minded. Since meeting her, my life’s changed in so many ways. From learning about the women’s libbers to ensuring my fabric softener is animal cruelty free, I’ve become a much more pious person. But the other day, while I was round at her flat, she asked me to fetch a jumper from the cupboard. Entering her bedroom, I noticed one of the floorboards was slightly loose - something was definitely under there. I know it wasn’t any of my business, but I removed the floorboard. Lying there was an enormous stash of Matteson’s Chicken Bites!
Should I confront her? I’m so infuriated. Who knows what else she’s lied about? I worry I might discover that she’s not really an anarcho-feminist, but a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party! I still really love her. From, A heartbroken vegan ____________________________________________________
Dear heartbroken vegan, Darling, this is what happens when you go about pulling up loose floorboards; you’re inevitably going to find some ugly truth staring back at you. It’s like the time I found out my husband was having an affair. Lifted up a floorboard in our bedroom and found two tickets to New York! At first, I thought it was an anniversary present. Then I remembered that, following my involvement in the student protests of the 60s, I’d been given a life-long ban from the country for reasons I won’t go into here. I realised the backstabbing liar had been canoodling with that floozy secretary of his for nine long months. It’s a difficult thing to come to terms with. Finding out that you’ve been duped for so long is painful and anger is a perfectly
justifiable response. Understand, though, that no one is a perfect vegan. The vegan ideal is something that people aspire towards and it’s understandable that many fall short. Veganism is a tough gig, and anyone who attempts that life is admirable. Sometimes, though, you’ve just got to have a bit of chicken. And that’s fine. You won’t face eternal punishment in some kind of Vegan Hell, where the damned are whipped with celery sticks and have odd fruit shoved in places where odd fruit shouldn’t go. Unless that’s your idea of heaven. Hey, fair play – everyone has their fetishes. Push her towarwds confession. Next time, when you’re shopping, comment on how you miss Mattesson’s Chicken Bites, how you know it’s so, so wrong but you’re still gagging for a bit of chicken-y goodness. At some point, if she persists hiding this guilty pleasure from you, then confront her. Otherwise your relationship will consume witself like a famished ouroborus.
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I didn’t know what to do. I placed the floorboard back as quickly as I could and pretended I’d seen nothing.
If you mess with Aunt Aggie, you’ll end with your testes in a... Well, never mind.
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She obviously feels guilty. I bet not as guilty as my husband felt after I sent him that package. A broken man now. If you mess with Aggie, Richard, you’ll end up with your testes in a… Well, never mind. Be kind to your vegan girlfriend and remind her that it’s 100% okay not to be 100% vegan. All the best, my darling, Aggie XO
Write to Aunt Aggie with your complaints at living.agonyaunt@epigram.com
Bristol Blind Dates Returns
flickr / freestocks.org
Yes, that’s right! Blind Dates is back, and it’s going to be bigger, filthier, nastier, dirtier, and more morally bankrupt than ever before. Imagine an infected piercing, one so pus-filled and bloody your doctor says the only thing they can do to prevent disease spreading further is to cut the thing off. Or something to that effect... Email living@epigram.org.uk to apply and we’ll hook you up with someone that’s definitely maybe alright!
02.10.2017
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Pee spots and piss pots Living’s public urination guide: ensuring the end to your night isn’t a stick one College Green
Come on lads, we’ve all been there. Quarter to twelve, mid-way through your quest to a club/pub/house that’s miles away, and suddenly your bladder starts kicking. The hour has struck wazzo-clock. You think you’ll be alright and shrug off the feeling in your groin, certain you can hold it in for another twenty minutes. But barely thirty seconds passes and the pain becomes unbearable. You broke the seal hours ago and you’re beginning to feel a bit like John Hurt in Alien, yet with a pissier kind of xenomorph convulsing inside you. You’ve got to go. If you don’t go now you’ll die, or worse: piss yourself. Attitudes to the involuntary release of urine have changed drastically since the beginning of the century. Not naming names, but “They” are probably behind it. Has the world changed, or have I? It’s essential that you find somewhere to release that yellow fountain unto the world. Well, Living is here to tell you the best pee spots and piss pots the city of Bristol has to offer.
Epigram / Jordan Barker
Wills’ Memorial Building
‘Why is the grass on college green so pure and verdant?’ I hear you ask. That, my friends, is due to piss. Litres and litres of urine soak the soil of College Green each and every week. Do your bit for the environment and go for a big old piss on College Green this week!
This one’s for the maverick pisser. Going for a wazz on the suspension bridge is like no other wazz you’ve wizzed before. A thrill like no other! The wind in your hair, the amazing view... Pissing is taken to a new level, and you’re taken to a higher plane of existence. The man in the box at the end might come down and chase you away, but that’s all part of the buzz.
Most places, TBH
The ASS(L)
If you haven’t been for a slash on Wills’, are you really a Bristol student? The answer: No. It’s a rite of passage. Not only are you going to be abusing those arrogant, smug bushes in front of that eff-off-massive tower, but sticking it to The Man at the same time. When you go for a wee on Wills’, it’s often referred to by those in the know as el classico pisso.
The Suspension Bridge
It’s a known fact that the Ass Library is the most hated thing to have ever existed. If it were alive, the only moral thing to do would be to euthanize it. It’s repulsive, it’s always packed it’s… ugh. So why not treat yourself, and have a slash on that most hated of concrete slabs. It’ll be the most cathartic piss you’ve ever had. Do what’s just and piss on the Ass.
Really, if you think about it, every where’s a toilet. Social scientists have agreed that the toilet was an invention by the bourgeoisie to supress the masses and keep us numb to The Truth. So, if you want to be part of the Revolution, piss to your heart’s content. Now, go forth and become The Wonderful Wizard of Wazz.
Creature from the self-absorbed lagoon Living Editor, Jordan Barker, offers his thoughts on dealing with a manipulative ex
The person you once loved has transformed into a gigantic moron, foaming at the mouth with stupidity
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back their lost love, even if it means disregarding their ex’s dignity, along with the reputation of a perfectly decent piano. That’s not to say you can’t whack out a lute when you want to woo a nice-piece-of-awight. In fact, grand gestures of love are usually a sure-fire way to anyone’s heart. Well, within reason. Writing poetry or ‘popping the question’ after only two dates are really not on. There are several ways an ex might try to manipulate you. Saying things like ‘No one loves you like I do’ is a hackneyed phrase they’ll often use. What this means is not, ‘I really love you’, but ‘The only chance you’ll have of finding love is if you’re with me’. Their intention is not to make you feel cared for; they’re desperately trying to make you feel guilt for having ditched them. Usually they’ll also say it in the most whiney voice ever, like a puppy with a thorn in its paw. Another manipulative technique is involving you in unnecessary drama. They may make you worry for their safety without intending to do anything, or embroil you in a fuss designed to cause you anguish. ‘I’m going to do it,’ they’ll say down the phone. ‘I’m going to eat a whole bag of peanuts, and come out in a horrible red rash, and you’ll have done this to me, you bastard!’. Truly the worst kind of scum.
This is why boundaries are important during the post-break-up period. If they can’t respect your decision, and if they persist in trying to make you feel ashamed, then the only thing you can do is ignore them. If you’re dealing with a narcissist, communication is only going to feed their appetite for self-loathing. Out of sight, out of mind. You don’t want to give them the opportunity to claim that you’re ‘leading them on’ even if all you’re doing is being civil. It’s their fault if they can’t adjust to a purely platonic friendship. I could be talking out of my arse. But once upon a time I was a Luke Howard. Many of us have been at one point or another. The joys of being a teenager, I suppose. Difference is, he’s a bleeding fully grown man. And although I think you can have sympathy for heartbroken dweebs, sympathy has its limits. It doesn’t excuse this sort of mistreatment, especially if it’s directed towards someone they supposedly love. Don’t be a prick to your ex. And if you’ve been through a messy break-up and have a musical gift like our friend Luke, stop, think and put down the trombone.
Flickr / Bill Smith
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Then there are break-ups that resemble something like The Thing. Ugly, messy and ungodly - that seem to defy all natural and moral laws. It all ends in tears, and four months later you see your ex on the news, claiming they won’t stop playing a piano on College Green until you take them back. The person you once loved has transformed into a gigantic moron, foaming at the mouth with stupidity and a dangerous lack of self-awareness. That’s how I imagine things are with Luke Howard, who decided to do just that a few weeks ago. However, his grand gesture – a final stint to win back his girlfriend – was met with disdain. Derided by the press and the public alike, the whole thing blew up in his face. And rightly so. If you think this kind of emotional manipulation is chivalrous, think again. What Howard did was about as romantic as entrapping his ex’s cat in a death maze made of piano wire and blunt knives, and allowing them 24 hours to him you back, ‘or else Tiddles gets it.’ It’s truly startling the lengths some will go to win
Flickr / Kevin Dooley
Ahh! Oh my shitting god! What is it? It’s hideous! Oh, the horror! Oh, humanity! It’s… It’s…! Some break-ups are easier than others. If you’re lucky, your relationship will end amicably. Both parties will accept that the spice and thrill has gone, leaving you no option but to end things. You shake hands and depart with a plaintive goodbye and a smile. When you see each other around there might be a pang of regret in your heart, as you watch them walk into Nandos with their arm around someone else. Deep down, though, you know that you’re both better off apart.
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369x289_Bristol_Uni.indd 1
RECOMMENDED
09/08/2017 16:38:12
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Editor Chloe Payne-Cook
@EpigramWB
Deputy- Editor Jasmine Burke
Online Editor Leila Mitwally
The University is pouring an additional £1 million into Student Services, in the hope that the prevalent poor mental health conditions of many students improves. Is £1 million really enough to prevent student suicides and create a better support network for students who are struggling?
The concern for me is that this is another service which will be overloaded
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Epigram / Chloe Payne-Cook
It’s World Mental Health Day on the 10th October! What can you do to get involved?
However, there is still an emphasis placed on the academic success of students. Of course, many people who attend university want to gain as much as possible from their studies, and strive to achieve to the best of their capabilities. But mental health conditions, and the way they affect somebody’s life, is not factored in. Depression does not lend time and energy to academic studies, neither does anxiety or eating disorders. Consequently, students who are dealing with such problems are unlikely to be achieving their best results, purely because of the crippling nature of mental health conditions. Above all, the wellbeing and health of students at university should be a priority, before academic success. It is simply the case that a student who is struggling with mental health illness will not be able to lend their time to study fully, and therefore the university should be making every effort to help students with their wellbeing and health, before looking at their academic achievements. Far too often the trope of mental illness is that it is an entirely preventable problem which is always exacerbated by trivial factors such as lack of exercise, an unhealthy diet and a negative outlook. But mental health is a crippling condition, which cannot just be ‘cured’ with exercise and diet. It is an illness, and therefore should be treated as such. It does look as though this funding will create a largely more supportive network and community for students to access, which is a hugely positive progression. As it is a process, these actions cannot be implemented immediately, and will undoubtedly take time to adjust to. Ultimately, the student services are encouraging students to work closely with their wellbeing advisors, personal tutors and other specialist services, in order to prevent student suicides. However, it is fair to acknowledge that fellow students who are suffering with mental health conditions, are unlikely to have much faith in a service which has previously failed many of us. Thus, the outcome of this funding remains to be seen, and will inevitably take a while to fall into place, but additional services and greater emphasis on the wellbeing of students is a progressive step towards managing the levels of mental health illnesses which are experienced within university populations.
Chloe Payne-Cook Wellbeing Editor
This year we want to focus particularly on self care and what your mental health means to you. On the 10th October we will be going around campus asking you for your own self care tips or opinions regarding mental health. We’d love to hear your own advice and experiences because maybe they’ll encourage others to come forward and be more open about their own issues! We think it’s great that mental health awareness is being recognised globally and we seek to help reduce the stigma faced by students in particular. Mental health has no age and no gender and no one should feel like they can’t speak out. Look out for us on campus and head over to our Twitter and Instagram (see above) to see what we get up to. Also, if you want to be involved but don’t happen to see us around, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and we’ll share your stories and tips as well.
Jasmine Burke Wellbeing Deputy Editor
Fight for your mind
Here you’ll find a new person or service to follow or check out online which you might find beneficial to your wellbeing.
@bopoportfolio Flickr / Rachel Andrew
By far one of the most promising outcomes of the funding appears to be the introduction of ‘student wellbeing advisors,’ who are set to be present within every school. These advisors should be the first point of contact for a student who is struggling with their wellbeing, or a mental health illness. This should, in theory, elevate some of the pressure put onto personal tutors and other members of staff, who aren’t necessarily trained in how to respond appropriately when a student is showing signs of high-risk behaviour, or general mental health difficulties. These advisors will have close contact with other student services, such as the health and counselling services, meaning that they can, supposedly quickly and efficiently, get you the support you need, as urgently as you need it.
Whether you’re a budding journalist or just have an interest in mental health and wellbeing, we want to hear from you! If you are interested in writing about your own personal experiences with mental health, offer advice or write about current mental health events, join our Facebook Writers’ Group or email us at: wellbeing.epigram@gmail.com
Flickr / Carmela Nava
As somebody who has, at her worst, experienced suicidal thoughts, I want to look at whether the university is doing enough to prevent such awful events. Prompted by the horrific events of last year, the Student Services are putting an additional £1 million into this area of the university, in the hope that this will tackle the ongoing high levels of mental health illnesses currently experienced by students. There are a variety of ways in which the extra funding will be used in order to strengthen student services, namely by providing sessional student counsellors during times of peak demand, ie. examination periods, and employing additional GPs within the students’ health service, whilst providing extended appointments. As somebody who has had limited success with such services whilst being at the high risk side of mental health illness, it is difficult to believe that the introduction of a few extra counsellors during peak demand will have an overwhelming impact on the wellbeing of students. However, it is, above anything else, a good step in the right direction.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW WRITERS!
Mental health is such an important subject, yet it is often viewed as something which is taboo. World Mental Health Day works to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and allows people to talk about their mental health freely!
Epigram / Chloe Payne-Cook
Last year, Bristol university tragically lost five of its students to suicide, an arguably preventable situation. It served as a huge shock to many, but rather disturbingly, such deaths also resonated with a large number of students, who were and still are suffering from ongoing mental health difficulties, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Universities are a breeding ground for mental health illnesses, particularly Russell Group universities, due to the high levels of stress put onto students through out the year. This expectancy of academic success arguably exacerbates or creates mental health illnesses amongst the student population. Additionally, universities can be isolating and exclusionary for all students, especially to people within minority groups such as BME and LGBTQ+ individuals; making them a place where mental health problems can manifest and thrive.
As somebody who has always found going to the ‘right place’ for help with their mental health challenging, the introduction of student wellbeing advisors sounds like a largely positive implementation into the lives of students. Yet, with the overwhelming amount of mental health problems being faced by students at university, is one advisor per school really going to be sufficient? The concern for me is that this is another service which will be overloaded, and therefore struggle to provide the best mental health advice possible to the people who really need it, often desperately. It seems as though the measures being put in place this year, serve to strengthen the student service system, in order to provide more consistent help to students who are struggling; something which is crucially important when working with ongoing mental health problems.
02.10.2017
@epigramwellbeing
Epigram Wellbeing
£1 million more for mental health Is £1 million enough to stop student sucicides?
Don’t forget to register for the GP! Student health service: bristol.ac.uk/students-health/
Instagram / bopoportfolio
Bristol University’s Body Positive Society! This week, we encourage you to follow - and join - @bopoportfolio, a body positive society which was founded by Sophie Ward. It features students who want to feel good about themselves, whilst also having important conversations about mental health illnesses, such as eating disorders.
02.10.2017
Long-Distance relationships at university Having your own support systems separate from each other Flickr / Hamza Butt
The transition from a relationship where your loved one is regularly and easily accessible to you, to one where you are for the most, apart, is really bloody scary. Insecurity can be rife, and combined with uncertainty and unknowing about how to master this new way of loving, it can be easy for things to become difficult. However, long distance relationships can, and do work. They often require more effort and mutual strength and support, but with the right strategies in place, they can be managed in a healthy and enjoyable manner. As someone who navigated their way through almost two years of loving someone who lived 230 miles away, I want to write this article to help others learn from the mistakes I made before making them themselves. Friends that have had successful long-distance relationships have inexplicitly taught me how I could have bettered my own. It’s so easy to fall into unhealthy and unhelpful habits, so below I’ve listed some tips to help get the best you can from this new way of loving. Communication When you’re in a relationship, communication is key. I don’t just mean being in regular contact, but being honest, being open, and clearly communicating your feelings to one another. We unfortunately do not have the capacity to read each other’s minds, and when you’re physically apart, without the ability to read body language and listen to the other, it becomes even harder to gauge what your partner is feeling. When in a long-distance relationship, it’s of vital importance that you are honest about how you’re feeling, and understand that your partner does not have the ability to just know. Communicate.
Get into a flexible routine of facetiming or phoning each other daily, or every couple of days, is really helpful
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What I’ve learnt about communication in a long-distance relationship is that too much of it is detrimental, which may come as a shock. Being glued to your phone, constantly updating each other, constantly trying to be there with your partner, is really unhealthy. It feeds into a possessiveness and dependency, and can create two very insecure, jealous individuals. Rather than talking constantly, getting into a flexible routine of facetiming or phoning each other daily, or every couple of days, is really helpful. You look forward to catching up fully, and have the space to live your own lives. The relationship feels lighter, and the two of you associate speaking to each other as something exciting, not something that holds you back from living. When you do speak, make sure you’re sharing enough to make your partner feel involved in your life, enough to make them understand where you’re at and what you’re experiencing. Sharing the little things means more when you’re distant. Be aware that you will take it in turns to struggle more with missing each other, and try to be empathetic and support each other’s needs even when you’re not feeling the same way. Some weeks will be very difficult, some weeks will be a breeze, but don’t be afraid to communicate that with each other and try to take note of what makes the pain lessen.
University offers such good opportunities to make new, great connections with other people. It’s easy to forget that you can share with other people when you’re in a relationship, because it becomes habit to just do that with your partner. Talk to mates and family about your experiences, your feelings, and your news. Don’t forget the importance of maintaining good connections with others, it can be incredibly easy to forget there are other people in your life that you can share with. Having support from other people is important not only for you, but for your relationship. Part of loving is supporting, but when you’re with someone it’s unhealthy to be dependent on just their support. It can put a strain on the two of you. Share, love, and be there for each other, but don’t forget there are others that will be there for you too. Seeing each other regularly It’s the most obvious aspect of making a relationship work, but to ensure it does, it’s important to make time to see each other. You want to get the most from your university experience, but when you’re in a relationship you need to make sacrifices for your partner and will often miss out on weekends with mates to travel up to see them. You both have separate lives, so you should take it in turns to be a part of each other’s worlds. Try to not hang out so much that it takes away from your ability to do your own things, but do make time for each other. Seeing each other every two or so weeks is definitely advised. Sharing fares for travel is also important. Sharing that responsibility detracts from any added pressure for one person, which can add unnecessary issues. Long-distance relationships can, and do work. Get into a healthy routine and try to be aware of your own insecurities and needs and how they might be contributing to your relationship. And when things are hard, don’t forget all the reasons why you’re in love with this person and why you’re doing this. When love prevails, the pain is worth it.
Amy-Leigh Hatton Politics and Sociology, second year
Don’t know what to do after University? Perhaps Ikigai is the answer ‘What will I do once I leave university?’ is a question that almost all students find themselves asking at some point during their education. It’s a question that has plagued university students probably since the University of Karaouine - the oldest, still operating university in the world - the more you know! - which first opened its doors in 859. Yet, in an increasingly fast paced and competitive environment, more students than ever find themselves lost, struggling to find a purpose or rewarding career post-graduation. Enter Ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese philosophy that has been making waves in the lifestyle community. Some have crowned it the possible heir to Hygge’s throne as lifestyle trend of the moment. It only takes a quick Google search to find a shower of articles on the topic posted in the last month. But, Ikigai is so much more than a trend. It’s an outlook that has been used by the Japanese for centuries and is said to lead to a happier, longer - more on that later - and more fulfilling life.
Ensuring you both have your own lives, whilst being a part of each others
Flickr / RualPacheco-vega
It may sound obvious, but it’s so important in any relationship, to have your own lives outside of each others. If you both ensure you’re fulfilling yourselves separately, as well as together, there’s less opportunity for dependency on the relationship, and you can be sure that you’re loving for love, not a perceived need for each other. Encourage each other to live the best lives you can, and not waste your lives awaiting reunion or fantasising about when you can be together permanently. Doing more for yourselves offers more to the relationship as it gives you exciting stuff to share with each other.
23 20 Is Netflix damaging to our society? There has been a lot of controversy in the media this year about the likes of 13 Reasons Why and To the Bone and whether it glorifies mental health problems. This in fact prompted me to question whether Netflix on a wider scale has started to damage our society. For a long time, I believed that Netflix was a way of escaping. I had and am still fighting against depression, and Netflix seemed to be a good a way to hide. I would sit in my bed under the covers for hours, binge watching series after series. It’s great to be able to escape from reality, but when it starts to take over your life, then it becomes problematic. I got to the stage at one point last year when I was missing lectures, seminars and seeing my friends just because I was hooked on a series. I had become so separated from my reality that I began to think that the world of the TV series I was obsessed with was better and more valuable than my own. When I came to finish the series, there was an emptiness and a real sense of loneliness that overcame me. This is such a common thing that is happening to a lot of people. I talk to my friends around campus and they tell me of amazing shows that they recently binged, and it starts to become a one-up-manship of who is the better binger. Surely we should start to actually live our lives? This escapism, this act of immersing yourself in a different world, is changing the human race. Netflix has over 100 million subscribers from February 2017. That is 100 million people, plus more, with many people sharing accounts, that are joining the fad of binge watching. I find it hard to think of anyone my age without access to Netflix and this scares me because this is the time when people my age are supposed to be making life choices, working hard at university, or their new job, and applying themselves to their lives. Instead they are locking themselves up in their rooms and missing out on their lives through this binge watching. I’m not saying do not ever watch Netflix again because I am all for having duvet days when you have just had a really difficult exam or crazy night out and just want to chill. However, I am a firm believer in balance. If you feel like you deserve a duvet day, go for it. But next time you sit down on your sofa or snuggle up in your duvet, have a think and consider whether or not there is something more valuable you can do with your life.
Zoe Hudson-Rose Engineering Maths, second year So, what is Ikigai? The word means something similar to ‘a reason to live’ or ‘the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning’. In Japan, finding this involves a lengthy journey of self-discovery. This is bad news for students, who don’t have much time in university to ‘find themselves’. Fortunately, the path to one’s Ikigai is often condensed in the West into four questions as part of a venn diagram: What do you love? What are you good at? What does the world need? What can you be paid for? A person’s Ikigai is the sweet spot where the answers to all four questions overlap. If some qualities overlap and others do not, the person may have found a satisfying career but not a truly fulfilling one. A person’s Ikigai can only be found when they see a spot where their mission, passion, profession, and vocation compliment each other. For example, if a person loves reading, is also good at writing, knows they can be paid as a journalist and feels the world needs a raised awareness of mental health, their Ikigai could be writing in the wellbeing column of Epigram - if only it paid! Performing this exercise could be helpful for students who find themselves stressed in the search for a career that matches them. Ikigai is not simply a stress busting, career searching tool, however. People from the island of Okinawa, Japan, have the highest life expectancy in the world, with many elders living over the age of 100. And while a great diet is partially the reason for their lengthy lives, Okinawans give much credit to having an Ikigai or purpose. The elders of this island take pride in doing the things they love well past the age of 100, such as fishing or gardening. So, could having an Ikigai also be a kind of elixir of life? The benefits seem endless. It’s important to note that finding your Ikigai won’t necessarily lead you to be featured on the Forbes 100 list, but it might make you a damn lot happier than if you were. It’s also a concept that dares people to dream and in this Internet Age, it’s easier than ever to make a business out of doing something you love. So, what are you waiting for? Why not take a seat for ten minutes, draw four circles and write. You may find that you’ve discovered your calling quicker than you thought. I should know. I’ve done it and it may be the very reason that I’m writing this article.
Kristian Latosinski Second Year English
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Editor
Deputy Editor
Online Editor
Jane Cowie @janecowiefood food@epigram.org.uk
Holly Penhale
Sarah Roller
Epigram Living 2017- 18
02.10.17
@epigramfood
Where do you end up after a night on the Triangle? Immy Birkett rates her favourite post-night out food joints
M & M Kebabs and Pizza An odd place. The name doesn’t lie: kebabs and pizzas are what they do best. M & M is strategically positioned on the corner of Aberdeen Road, which just so happens to be the turning for every second-year student on their way home to Redland. You’ll likely end up here when you’ve tried to save money by not buying food on the Triangle, and then you’ve caved when you’ve spotted their familiar faded blue sign. It’s like a test of your will power, and possibly the only reason why M & Ms is still in business. That said, I am grateful for its existence - many times has it has provided me with some much-needed nuggets before the final stretch of my walk home.
On your stumble back in the direction of the U1 bus stop (RIP the number 16), I don’t doubt that you will have paid a visit to the Triangle’s infamous kebab vendor, Jason Donervan.
Pixabay / picaidol
Jason has certainly nailed it on location, parking his Donervan smack-bang in the path of most first, second and third years stumbling home after a messy one in Bargs. Why would anyone venture further afar? Well, whilst Donervans is reliable and delivers a mediocre portion of chips for a mediocre price, Bristol is in fact home to a plethora of far more exciting eateries to satisfy your post-night out cravings. You need only look.
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Grecian Kebab House If you’re lucky enough to live on Gloucester Road, this baby is on your doorstep. Despite its name, this shop is best known for its incredible £5 12’’ pizzas. It is a wonder that Grecians haven’t caught onto the fact that their pizzas are an absolute steal, but no one is complaining.
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Pixabay / LibbyandMarcelcom
But it doesn’t matter, because they are both unbelievable, filled with chicken or pork, and topped with red onion, tomato, tzatziki, and the crowning glory that is the skin-on fries. Merely a stone’s throw from our best-loved clubs, you’ll likely find yourself staggering in the Taka Taka direction rather shortly, and you won’t regret it. If you’re feeling bold, opt for the large Skepasti for £7.50. Slix Stokes Croft’s greasiest fried chicken shop is set just across the road from the Love Inn. As my housemates have instilled in me, any chicken shop worth your time must be able to deliver on the wings front. And, thankfully, Slix does not fail in this department.
Many times has it has provided me with some much-needed nuggets before the final stretch of my walk home
I spent six weeks teaching English in Mexico, and on my last night two of my friends, knowing how much I loved food, promised me a culinary tour of the city.
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We
But the third one was bizarre – it didn’t taste like meat at all tried
various
types
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of
enchiladas, desserts, and all kinds of tacos, but there were three they ordered and refused to tell me what was in them. The first two were relatively OK, earthy and meaty, and I’d have happily ordered them again, but the third one was bizarre – it didn’t taste like meat at all.
Pixabay / asteinfest
Taka Taka The proud home of the ‘Magic Roll’ - and magic is an understatement. This Greek pitta house is what dreams are made of; whether you be a committed carnivore or a vegan, Taka Taka has it all. The majority would opt for a souvlaki or gyros, and the majority would not know the difference.
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It’s kinda dingy, but you kinda love it
The weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten: brain
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Pixabay / LibbyandMarcelcom
With Freshers’ Week drawing to a close, I’m sure all you freshers out there have already become well-acquainted with what the Triangle has to offer when it comes to a night out.
At a mere 50p per wing, you’ll be laughing, and they’re bloody good. You can also guarantee that you’re getting good value for money as Slix does not disappoint on portion size. It’s kinda dingy, but you kinda love it.
These beauties are the real deal: we’re talking stone-baked, with options like ‘Texas’ - spicy beef, bacon and pepperoni - or my personal favourite, ‘Grecian Special’, topped with chicken, ham and mushrooms. You can even ‘create your own’ for the same price. The Grecian is conveniently open until 5am at the weekend, to cater for you mad ravers out there. So, next time you step out of Lola Los, stop and think. Who knows, you may find yourself attending those weekly Triangle nights out solely for the excuse to eat some of this delicious fast food before you head home. Immy Birkett Third Year, English
It was smooth in texture, mild in taste, and generally not very nice. They later revealed we’d been eating innards, tongue and finally brain. Needless to say I was not impressed, and they thought it was hilarious. Sarah Roller Online Food Editor
02.10.17
25
Have you been whisked off your feet by the new GBBO series? Sasha Semple shares her opinion on the return of the nation’s most polemical issue: the Great British Bake Off
The stigma around Channel 4’s knock-off, combined with my own principles, meant admitting to tuning into the new series of Bake Off felt like something of a confession. It was as though I should be ashamed for sinfully indulging in an hour of tense technicals and cake-related puns. However, as biscuit week rolled into bread week, my commitment to BBC One began to crumble away. On the surface, very little has changed. At a time when the world seems to be descending into chaos, with each news notification reporting another missile launch or natural disaster, there is comfort to be found in the consistency of cake.
Sandy mirrors Sue’s dry wit and whilst Noel’s flamboyant shirts are sometimes show stoppers in themselves, his eccentric humour brings back fond memories of Mel. Prue may be overlooked as a Mary Berry downgrade, but it is difficult to expect her to fill the last judge’s small, sugar coated shoes. Dare I say it, the stroopwafels might be sweet enough and Prue’s
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As a firm BBC supporter and Mary Berry devotee, I believed my position to boycott the Bake Off reboot was as set as my refusal to surrender to the Love Island anarchy earlier this summer. Yet I have readily succumbed, not to the garish neon décor of the villa, but instead to the familiar white peaks and pastel counters of the GBBO tent.
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It was as though I should be ashamed for sinfully indulging in an hour of tense technicals and cake related puns
criticisms are what the programme lacked. Whilst the new judge may fall short of expectations, the quality of cake decorating has received a significant upgrade. Many of the creations being unveiled, namely Steven’s chess set or Yan’s sushi, would look more at home in Carlo’s Bakery, not on top of the gingham alter.
There is a general feeling that Channel 4’s relaunch has brought with it a more human element to the show. Maybe it is against the backdrop of political turmoil that I am frantically trying to find displays of empathy, but the new Bake Off seems to portray a more genuine side to each contestant. I revelled in the ice cream-fuelled dramas of the earlier series, but there is also peace to be found when, within a divided country, bakers can come together to help assemble a plate of food. It may be the only noticeably different element to the show, but this comradery is a beacon of fondue-covered hope in the wake of the Brexit aftermath. I implore you: break your allegiance to earlier series, climb out of the fridge and admit that the new series lives up to, if not supersedes, the Bake Off everyone has grown to love. Sasha Semple Third Year, Liberal Arts
Pixabay shaunlee2008
Pixabay / Hans
Epigram / Jane Cowie
Best of the bunch as Autumn approaches Jane Cowie gives some advice on cooking with the best fruit and veg in season them raw dunked into a plentiful serving of hummus, but I also love roasting them with some garlic, olive oil and seasoning - I recommend paprika.
- and you shouldn’t be deprived from having it just because you’re not in the comfort of your family home. This recipe uses blackberries and Bramley apples, which are both incredibly juicy and satisfying fruits at their best.
Here are some recipes to try out with seasonable produce: Epigram / Jane Cowie
Best this month: • Courgette • Blackberries • Aubergines
Good this month: • Runner beans • • Blueberries • • Sweetcorn
Squash Bramley apples
The summer is coming to an end and that means the end to the oh-so-popular strawberry and raspberry season. However, the autumn months boast a variety of versatile, delicious and nutritious produce, which should be a staple in your fridges for the autumnal months. Whether you want to get these at your local supermarket or your local greengrocers - my personal favourite - is completely up to you, but if you want to be kind to your bank balance and kind to your body, this section will advise you on the best recipes to make with the freshest, most seasonal produce. This month’s best fruit and vegetables are: ripe, hearty aubergine and courgettes, the sweet red pepper and succulent blackberries. Courgettes, aubergine and red peppers can be put together - as core ingredients in Mediterrainan cooking, they complement one another fantastically. I would recommend griddling or frying them. They are so versatile that they can be made into vegetable crisps, the main attraction of a plate or even a fantastic pizza topping or pasta bake addition. Peppers are a staple in my fridge; I often find myself eating
Courgette, Aubergine and Red Pepper Pasta Bake Serves 4, ready in 40 mins. Ingredients: 225g uncooked pasta 1 vegetable stock cube (opt.) 2 courgettes, diced 2 aubergines, diced 2 red pepper, sliced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 onion, finely sliced 600g tomato passata 1 tbsp fresh basil (opt.) Salt and Pepper
Serves 4 Ingredients: 180g oats 200g ground almonds 100ml maple syrup 3 heaped tbsp. coconut oil 2 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg Filling: 6 Bramley apples (any apples will do but Bramleys are best at this time of year!), peeled and cored. 400g blackberries 1 tbsp maple syrup ½ tsp cinnamon Method:
Method:
1. 2.
1. 2.
3.
3. 4. 5.
Preheat Oven to 190C. Cook the pasta in boiling water, with the vegetable stock cube, and drain. Fry the courgettes, aubergine and red peppers with the onion and garlic for four minutes. Add the basil and passata. Stir the sauce until it gently simmers, then add the cooked pasta and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to an ovenproof dish, and place in the oven for 30 mins. You Grate some cheese on the top if you’re a cheese fiend like myself.
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Apple and Blackberry Crumble 6. Crumbles are such a comfort when the weather begins to worsen, and the woolly jumpers start to come out. It’s a real Great British favourite
Mix the ground almonds with oats in a large mixing bowl. Place coconut oil, maple syrup and cinnamon in a saucepan and heat through until the coconut oil melts and the ingredients mix together nicely. Pour this mixture over the almond and oats and stir well, until the oat mixture is totally coated by the maple mixture. You can put this aside. Soften the apples in a saucepan, with a cm of boiling water just covering the bottom of the pan. Add the maple syrup and cinnamon and leave for 10 minutes, until the apples have slightly softened. Transfer the apple mix and the blackberries onto the baking dish (baking the blackberries in this state means they hold better shape and don’t become too soggy), and cover the fruit layer with the topping. Bake for 30 mins, and enjoy! Jane Cowie Food Editor
02.10.2017
26
Top five pizza places in Bristol Simona Ivicic shares with us her favourite places to dig in to the best
But of course, you go to Bosco for the pizza. The Sicilian-trained chef uses a wood-burning oven to create a faultlessly puffy and chewy base, with pools of cheese in the middle and with such a range of truly traditional Italian toppings. Priced between £9-£12, what’s not to love?
Romanesca
Pinkmans Bakery
Owner Greg Hynes believed that no one was doing as the Romans did – cooking pizza using a slow fermented high hydration method – so he made it his mission to do so. Naturally, our curiosity was sparked. This extremely skilled and labour intensive method means that the pizzas take longer to cook, but the result is a perfectly crispy bottom and a thick, soft, chewy crust.
‘But it’s a bakery,’ I hear you cry, ‘not a pizza place’. Well, Pinkmans was not only voted one of the top 25 bakeries by the Sunday Times, but it was also voted ‘Best Newcomer’ in 2016 by the Bristol Good Food awards. With 12 pizza options starting from £6 this is easily a student favorite.
Greg literally creates pizza heaven in the form of fresh, local toppings on light Roman-style sourdough bases. This unassuming and cosy little place on Gloucester Road does not disappoint, with their reasonably priced £8-£13 Pizza al Taglio inspired pizzas.
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Kicking off the list with a personal favorite is none other than Bosco Pizzeria. First opened in 2014 on Whiteladies Road and more recently in Clifton Village, this Naples and New York inspired pizzeria will definitely not disappoint. With nine meticulously crafted pizzas, a range of veggie options and a selection of other Italian dishes to choose from, you are truly spoilt for choice.
The pizzas are made in an Instagram worthy wood-burning oven at the back of the bakery
The pizzas are made in an Instagram worthy wood-burning oven at the back of the bakery and have a similar light and chewy sourdough base as that of Flour & Ash. If somehow you are still wanting more after one of their amazing pizzas, you can’t go wrong with one of their cakes.
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Planet Pizza
Flour and Ash is another homegrown Bristol favorite on Cheltenham Road. With pizza cooked in a traditional wood-burning pizza oven using locally sourced ingredients, there’s no doubt that Flour and Ash’s pizza deserves its award-winning status.
Next up is Planet Pizza on Gloucester Road, where the pizzas are out of this world (I promise that’s the only one). Planet Pizza is classic Bristol: forgoing the usual trend of pizzas names ‘margarita’ or ‘Mighty Meat’, theirs are called ‘Plan-It Pizza’, ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Pluto’. Freshly made dough and new original combinations of pizza toppings make Planet Pizza a must-eat when you’re bored of your typical ‘Meat Feast’ or ‘American Hot’. Better yet, they’re on Deliveroo meaning you’ve got no excuse not to send your taste buds to the moon (I lied).
Epigram / Holly Penhale
Flickr: Andrea Goh
Flour & Ash
Their sourdough is made from locally milled flour, salt and water and left to prove for 72 hours, ensuring the perfect chewy base. With excitingly different pizzas such as the ox cheek and red wine ragu with béchamel sauce, it’s these vibrant dishes that put Flour and Ash on the map.
Epigram / Holly Penhale Epigram / Jane Cowie
Bosco Pizzeria
Epigram / Holly Penhale
Epigram / Holly Penhale
From the cosy dinner dates to the cheeky take away, this list has you covered for the best and sauciest pizzas this side of Naples.
pizzas in town
Simona Ivicic Third Year, English
Recipe: Vegan Apple and Banana Muffins
Epigram / Jane Cowie
Confession time: I have a sweet tooth. For a while I tried to deny this, telling myself I was someone who simply didn’t care that much about sweet foods. That, I can say wholeheartedly, is not true. I love having a little sweet treat after dinner for a satisfying end to the meal. I think these muffins are a perfect mixture of being a sweet treat, whilst enabling you to keep up with your healthy routine - or just an excuse to grab a few extra. Instead of grabbing an ice cream or chocolate bar and sending your insulin levels through the roof, these nourishing treats will leave you feeling well content and utterly innocent.
I’m not vegan, but I like experimenting with new, healthy recipes to indulge in. These little beauties are brilliant because no matter whether you’re a vegan or a carnivore, you can enjoy every last bite without any feelings of guilt - what a dream. You can either have these as they are, or you can heat them up and serve with some creme fraiche. You’ll not even realise there’s no refined sugar, butter or eggs in the mix. Without further ado, this is the delicious recipe: Cook Time - 17 minutes Ingredients: 1 apple (diced in to small chunks) 2 large bananas (very ripe and mashed) 100g whole wheat flour (or any flour of your choice) 80g porridge oats 30g ground almonds 1 tsp cinnamon 85ml coconut oil 115ml almond milk 30ml maple syrup 1tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt
1sp vanilla extract Toppings: Dark chocolate chips Cranberries Desiccated Coconut Raisins Method: 1. 2. 3.
4.
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6.
Preheat oven to 200 C. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the above ingredients (apart from the toppings). Mix all the ingredients together (I used a spoon to start with, however once the mixture starts to bind together into a fluffy, doughy consistency, you can start to just use your hands). In your muffin tray, lay out cupcake holders, and scoop a heaped tablespoon in to each. You should have enough mixture to make 12 muffins. Get your toppings involved at this stage - and get creative! I highly recommend the dark chocolate chips. These babies are a delicious addition to the muffin when they’re on the verge of melting. Bake for 17 minutes, and enjoy! Jane Cowie Food Editor
Algorithms
Numerical analysis
Probability Number theory
Algebra
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Combinatorics Integer factorisation
Editor Nancy Serle style@epigram.org.uk
28
@e2style
Deputy Editor Lottie Moore
@epigramstyle
02.10.2017
Online Editor Hannah Worthington
Epigram Style 2017/18
Get the London Look From the catwalk to Bristol’s very own campus: London Fashion Week’s biggest trends translated into looks perfect for a student budget
Zara £25.99
Zara £39.99
Urban Outfitters £34
Pull and Bear £17.99
Ruffles
The Puffball Whilst often thought of as an 80’s fashion faux pas (the skirt tucked in knickers look has never been great), the puffball look got a revamp this London Fashion Week with the likes of Mary Katrantzou and Halpern sending some stunning pieces strutting down the catwalk.
Pull and Bear £19.99
Looking at the shows and presentations this London Fashion Week, it is evident that ruffles have been revived for another season. Whether you like Christopher Kane’s use of subtle detailing that adds texture to his collection or Ralph and Russo’s cascading waves, ruffles are still the ones to watch.
H&M £24.99
Topshop £24
Zara £29.99
Missguided £18 Zara £25.99
Drawstring
Athleisure and high fashion were in perfect harmony this year with many designers making use of the practical drawstring to create shape and cinch in the waist. From Mary Katranzou’s puffball raincoats to Pringle of Scotland’s dreamy desert pallet- it is evident that the drawstring is now a must have feature on any item.
Topshop £25
Sheer
The sheer look is clearly one of the biggest trends to emerge this season with many designers, from Topshop to Burberry, daring to bare all. Whilst going sans bra is definitely NSFU (not suitable for uni) there are some fantastic pieces on the high street that subtly show off a little skin.
Topshop £26
Nancy Serle Style Editor
l-r Instagram/ @MaryKatranzou, Instagram/ @Halpern, Instagram/ @Halpern, Instagram/ @ChristopherKane, Instagram/ @ChristopherKane, Instagram/ @RalphandRusso Instagram/ @MaryKatranzou, Instagram/ @PringleofScotland, Instagram/ @MaryKatranzou. Instagram/ @Burberry, Instagram/ @Burberry, Instagram/ @Topshop
02.10.2017
29
Is Kendall Jenner fashion icon of the decade?
From geek to chic
Deputy style editor Lottie Moore Online style editor Hannah Worthington observes the shift in attitudes towards discusses whether the Kardashian star wearing glasses desrves the prestigous title
Noticeably, this is the first time the Daily Front Row – a fashion industry publication based in New York City – have run this award. Previous honours at the annual Fashion Media Awards have been largely publication based, from Fashion Magazine of the Year to individual prizes like Publisher of the Year. So not only was it surprising that Jenner won the title, but also the fact that such an honour was added to the event. Hence yes, there are no comparable recipients, but this did not quell social media to make comparisons anyway. Many users on Twitter were quick to offer the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé and A$AP Rocky as deserved winners, while others were simply commenting on the fact that the Kardashian star only started modelling at the age of fourteen. Indeed, I was quick to jump on the band wagon of disapproval. For me, the time span of this award was the main issue, and my quick association of Kendall’s fame with Keeping Up with the Kardashians certainly went into the mix. The clothes she wore on the show in her pre-adolescent years were just like any other eleven-year-old American girls’ clothes, nothing inspirational or remotely different. Moreover, I always seem to conclude that Jenner wouldn’t be in the position she is without her sisters. I encouraged myself to think differently however. Listening to spokespersons from the Daily Front Row, their justifications behind Jenner’s win were a lot to do with the influence revolving around her social media following. A defense for the Daily voiced their reasons in a statement to the Huffington Post. ‘We’re living in a digital decade and Kendall is the ultimate style influencer. [The] digital generation more than ever turns to social media to learn what’s next and Kendall has 83 million devoted Instagram followers, many of whom emulate her style. ‘A fashion icon is someone who influences the look of a generation and Kendall has been making a huge impact on their style.’ Thus, it is clear that this digital decade business is key. Jenner is unquestionably a leading representative of the millennial driven social media platform, or
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10 years ago, she was just 11 years old
what Vogue term ‘The insta girl era’. Yet Kendall doesn’t have the largest following. Notably her sister Kim is 19.8 million instagram followers ahead, Ariana Grande holds 114 million and Selena Gomez leads the race with 127 million. So visibly there are other motives behind why the Daily honoured her with the fashion icon label. Jenner was signed by Wilhelmina Models back in 2009, and since then her career has escalated rapidly. Just a year later she was snapped for Teen Vogue and from 2014 has been in leading catwalk shows. Yet just like any other model, Jenner still undergoes the rigorous body assessment scrutiny processes. Though Jenner’s casting video for Victoria’s Secret was not revealed like Gigi’s, Australian Vogue released the following information in an article on rejection from the fashion show. ‘Being cast one year doesn’t guarantee you’re cast the next. Every model – unless you have an ‘Angel’ contract – has to audition, no matter how many times they have walked previously’. Therefore, it does seem like Kendall is the same as everyone else in selections, regardless of her experience. Equally, though not a respected designer as such, Kendall did launch her own collection with sister Kylie, and stands as the third highest paid model in Forbes’ annual rankings.
We’re living in a digital decade and Kendall is the ultimate style influencer
Therefore, whether you take a liking to Jenner or not, we cannot doubt she has drive and works hard. And yes, whilst we still might remain confused about how her style from ten years ago can be described as iconic, she certainly has advanced the fashion scene and online media.
Instagram/ @Kendalljenner
on the red carpet. Critically acclaimed designer Nicole Farhi has just launched a range with Specsavers. Trendy online start-ups like Cubitts allow you to try four pairs for free before deciding which ones you want to keep. Reasonably priced, stylish spectacles have never been so
Reasonably priced, stylish spectacles have never been so accessible
accessible. As part of the generation who grew up with Harry Potter, it’s only fair to pay homage to the small, wiry, round specs made famous by the boy wizard. While many would argue that Harry was a bit of nerd at the beginning, he certainly brought glasses into the mainstream. Celebrities such as Alexa Chung and Kendall Jenner have since managed to pull off the look. My glasses now say more about my style than anything else I wear. I am naked without them, and also nearly blind. This is partly due to the fact that every time I put them on I feel like I have triumphed the stereotype I used to feel trapped by. Whereas once the most discrete glasses were those considered most stylish, now the boundaries are limitless when it comes to what you can put on your face.
Lottie Moore Deputy Style Editor
What are you wearing and why: Freshers’ Fair edition
Olivia Pockett, Theatre and Performance
Hannah Worthington Online Style Editor
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Just a few hours before Kendall Jenner was named ‘Fashion Icon of the Decade’ by the Daily Front Row, she was strutting her stuff down the New York Fashion Week runways for the likes of Alexander Wang and Tom Ford. Not a bad life to lead, we think. Yet bagging herself such a prestigious accolade on September 8th saw her faced with a showering of criticism, namely because 10 years ago, she was just 11 years old.
Having grown up wearing glasses, all of my childhood memories were seen through finger-smudged, yoghurt-splattered lenses. I was only allowed the NHS ones because I would break them so often in protest. They were always substantial, wiry and round, with the occasional diamante butterfly embellishing the sides. As I fumbled through my adolescence, I stopped wearing glasses completely. Along with rolling up my puritanical school skirt and smearing my forbidden pink Vaseline all over my cheeks, I would whip off my glasses as part of my walkto-school transformation. My mother used to bribe me with the myth that wearing glasses supposedly makes one look more intelligent. I never used to find this stereotype especially comforting; when I was fifteen, less scholarly pursuits were prioritized over looking clever. I would have done significantly better in my GCSES had I been able to read the exam papers. For reasons unknown to myself, there is still no such thing as glasses etiquette. Many a non-glasses wearer have violently plucked my glasses from my eyes and thrust them on (with dirty fingerprints) whilst exclaiming, ‘Christ! You are blind aren’t you?!’ and ‘Gosh you would look SO much better without them!’ Thanks darling, you look much better when I don’t wear them as well. And so my relationship with glasses has been fickle but ongoing. Yet over the past few years, our society has changed the way it looks at glasses. People actually now want to wear them. ‘Geek chic’ has firmly established itself as a style with glasses as its most principal accessory. Topshop sell racks of clear frames and Jennifer Anniston regularly flaunts hers
A tartan bin bag but its comfy with some Versace decor!
Jake Porter, Ancient History I am wearing a pink Ralph Lauren shirt, ASOS ladies dungarees and Timberlands because dungarees are the ultimate garment!
Nicky Savage, Physiology I am wearing dungarees because they’re comfortable!
Editor Nick Bloom travel@epigram.org.uk
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@EpigramTravel
Deputy Editor Evy Tang
Online Editor Ellie Caulfield
02.10.2017
Epigram Travel Section 2017/8
@epigram_travel
Why you should work on a year abroad Travel Editor Nick Bloom explains why the most rewarding thing you can do on a year abroad is to go out into the world of work
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A Year Abroad work placement is the perfect time to take a chance on your career - a ‘mock exam’ to help you decide on the direction you want to head in
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Epigram / Nick Bloom
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At first glance, working during a year abroad sounds like a rabbit hole you just don’t want to jump into. For many students, the prospect of a time-consuming job search, unforgiving hours and full-time immersion in a foreign language is a daunting one. In any case, a year abroad is the time to finally let your hair down, right? What a golden opportunity to put university work on hold for a year and get yourself as far away from home as possible. That’s why many modern language students choose to study abroad. A semester in one of Bristol’s sister universities can be an enriching and eye-opening experience. It can also be a whole load of fun. As your grades don’t technically count towards your degree, you are free to take up whichever modules you fancy, be it Chinese, Che Guevara or Chilean dance. Studying abroad also affords you the time to explore a new city, make friends from all over the world and travel. The sky really is the limit: go sign up to your dream photography course, take up the Spanish guitar, or get that tattoo you’ve always mulled over. And after all the stress of uni work, why not make the most of an enforced ‘break’? While the application process to study is often pain-free, securing an internship abroad can be a nightmare. Languages students may be able to perfectly recite Baudelaire’s poetry, but when it comes to practical and vocational skills, we’re often found wanting. Or that’s what I found, struggling for months to land a job. When I finally got accepted in the commercial department of an advertising agency, I was chuffed to bits. Now I still wonder whether it was all worth it. From my experience, working abroad is synonymous with stress, frustration and a whole load of selfanalysis. The work was a real challenge. I was the youngest, the least experienced and the only foreigner in my department. I found myself in a fast-paced, high-octane professional environment, struggling to adapt to a new industry and complex office politics. I also became aware of how difficult it is to truly master a foreign language. Speaking French turned out to be much more difficult in a pressurised, corporate context than a classroom full of English undergraduates. So why am I glad that I chose to work? Why would I urge future Year Abroaders, or rather all UoB students, to consider working abroad? I learnt a huge amount. I not only have an newfound interest in an industry I used to pay very little attention to, but also
Rather than fearing the unknown, embrace an intorduction to the world of work abroad; despite all its challenges, you might just find it pays off in the long run
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a much better understanding of my career goals, and a much greater respect for those who remain motivated despite not enjoying their work. I now realise how much of a privilege it is to love your job, and that the challenges I experienced will stand me in good stead for the future. More than anything, I love the autonomy and sense of achievement that work offers. It’s exciting - and it always feels good when that pay cheque comes in. Working abroad is a fantastic opportunity to boost your CV. While most students try to squeeze in a summer internship to gain experience, modern language students complete one, if not two, six-month internships, dealing with language barriers and foreign working methods. This instills them with a lifelong confidence to work abroad and equips them with the linguistic know-how to survive. Working abroad means greater independence. You have to establish a routine and stick to it. You tend to manage your time more efficiently, making the most of evenings and weekends and even finding the time to pursue other interests and develop new skills. Working abroad can also be surprisingly sociable. An eagerly anticipated drink with fellow interns after a long day can be a truly bonding experience. For the party animals out there, working just means you go extra hard on the weekends. While most students working abroad live on their own, or in small, tight-knit groups, you are still likely to be surrounded by course friends on Year Abroad placements in the same city. As a minority of foreigners, you tend to cling on to each other for dear life, strengthening friendship groups before your final year. Finally, for those who are unsure about their futures, a Year Abroad work placement is the perfect time to take a chance on your career - a ‘mock exam’ to help you decide on the direction you want to head in. As the main objective is to improve your language skills, any work experience where you are immersed in a foreign language is worthwhile, even if you decide later on that it’s not for you. While studying can be an invaluable experience, working abroad definitely has its merits - and I would definitely recomment it. My final year at university suddenly seems less daunting – I never thought I would miss essay deadlines! So rather than fearing the unknown, embrace an introduction to the world of work abroad; despite all its challenges, you might just find that working on a year abroad pays off in the long run.
Nick Bloom Travel Editor
Foreign Affairs
Whirlwind summer romances don’t live up to expectations Meanwhile, a certain Bristol law student had high hopes going into a first Tinder experience in Essex...
A charming Bristol historian had a bit of a crap date while studying abroad in Germany...
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Down goes the dog-friendly date tactic. What a party pooper that little Shih Tzu was!
Flickr / www.yashicasailorboy.com
I had to dog sit that day. My date said he didn’t mind. When my dog took a s*** in Heidelberg’s main high street, the date ended rather abruptly
Conversation and drinks were flowing nicely, until he launched into an in-depth account of his recent prostate examination
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Nice guy, but not exactly what she was looking for... If you’ve been sitting uncomfortably reading this, feel free to send in your own romantic mishaps on the road.
02.10.2017
31 The Windy City
Travel troubles:
Ex-Deputy Editor Stefan Rollnick blows us away in the Windy City, Illinois’ most famous urban landscape
caught in a storm
he sees a man with no values – someone, he thinks, even Ronald Regan would be disgusted by. Our conversation is cut short by the organisers, who have decided enough people have congregated and we begin to march into the centre of the city.
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‘I just hope the resistance can stay on board’
Corrupt politicians, violent police officers, rampant gun crime, and political resistance are all part of Chicago’s DNA
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The march proceeds peacefully with regular cries of ‘Not my president’, ‘No KKK, no racist USA’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’. People line the streets to watch the march go by. Husbands and wives, entire families, stand and smile as they watch their city make its voice heard.
The chants, speeches and resistance will carry on for the next couple of hours, but I’m heading home
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El “huracán” was taking no prisoners. Grey, angry skies, rain sleeting sideways, frequent bolts of lightning. Shops boarded up, hotels welcoming no more guests, electricity only available for a few hours a day. No sign of a surfboard or a spiced rum and coke anywhere.
We arrived, buoyant and cheery, in the middle of a tropical storm
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To make matters worse, we were trapped. All flights to and from the island were cancelled. After waiting for hours at the local airport for information, all we got were semi-sympathetic shrugs and a half-hearted word of advice: stay inside, don’t bother trying to call as the telephone lines are down and get to the supermarket now while they still have supplies.
I take my bike across the street to try to take in the whole picture, a growing crowd of people now quite literally standing in the shadow of Trump, refusing to be intimidated by its relative size. The chants, speeches and resistance will carry on for the next couple hours, but I’m heading home. As I cycle home with the wind at my back now, the waves coming in from Lake Michigan serve as a perfect metaphor for the city itself. Waves can be destructive, but with the right amount of wind and the right amount of skill you can learn to surf them, creating something beautiful. I just hope the resistance can stay on its board before it gets dragged under the waves.
Stefan Rollnick Ex-Deputy Editor
Epigram / Nick Bloom
Epigram / Stefan Rollnick
Loud and clear, jefe, we’ll just stay put. We went back to our hostel, twiddling our thumbs.
Flickr / Roman Boed
At this point, it has been a week since neo-Nazis marched in the streets and only days since Trump euphemistically defended their actions. Calling neo-Nazis ‘good people’ was never going to go down well in a city like Chicago, and as I stand among its protesters it’s clear the wounds are still raw. As the crowd beings to build in the central plaza, organisers take it in turns to address the crowd. Standing too far away to make out what’s being said, I start talking to Howard, a white guy in his mid40s who has lived in Chicago all his life. Anecdotal evidence has its limitations, but if there was one genuine take-away from my chat with Howard, it’s that these protests weren’t just full of Democrats looking for an excuse to oppose a Republican presidency. Since he was eligible to vote, Howard has voted for Gerald Ford (Republican), Ronald Regan (R), George HW Bush (R), Bill Clinton (Democrat), Al Gore (D), George W Bush (R) and Barack Obama (D). Howard isn’t partisan, and he doesn’t view Trump’s presidency though that lens. In Trump, he doesn’t see a far-right republican,
Our time in San Andrés, a beautiful tourist hotspot a few hundred kilometres from Colombia’s northern coastline, did not go as planned. We arrived, buoyant and cheery, in the middle of a tropical storm. Epigram / Stefan Rollnick
It turns out, however, that Chicago gets its reputation for being ‘windy’ because the first politicians in Chicago would shout at each other with such ferocity they would shower the whole chamber in hot air and spittle. Cities are best described by articulating how they make you feel. Feeling the onshore wind as I cycle towards the city centre I feel intimidated, not just by the crowded cluster of cuboidal sky scrapers but by the history of the city itself. Corrupt politicians, violent police officers, rampant gun crime, and political resistance are all part of Chicago’s DNA. What’s difficult to reconcile however, is the contrast of this feeling with the beauty of the lakefront, the charm of its sports teams, and the warmth of its people. Regardless, I continue to cycle hard against the wind into the belly of the beast. Chicago’s place in American politics has been that of the ticking time-bomb waiting to explode, the pressure cooker, the inconvenient mirror of truth held up by its African American population to the rest of country. From the race riots and political protests, to the historic black mayor Harold Washington and first black president Barack Obama, Chicago has inconvenienced White America with everything from hard truths to hopes of a more integrated future. On this historical backdrop it makes sense then, that one of the first large rallies in the wake of the horrors of Charlottesville was to be held in the centre of Chicago.
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When you drive along the main highway that runs alongside the city of the Chicago on the lakefront, the view is uninterrupted sky scrapers until you reach the river, where a gap in the buildings reveals a huge, glass tower with ‘TRUMP’ stamped on it in giant silver letters. That giant silver insult offends the locals personally and politically, and is also the final destination of our march.
Epigram / Nick Bloom
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I thought Chicago got its nickname, ‘The Windy City’, because it sits on the edge of Lake Michigan; a ‘lake’ that makes the Irish Sea look like a river and with waves so high you could surf them.
The march proceeds peacefully with regular cries of ‘Not my President’, ‘No KKK, no racist USA’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’
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‘People are protesting against a man with no values’
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‘I stand among the protestors, it’s clear the wounds are still raw’
A boiling tropical island off Colombia’s Caribbean coast with three of your best friends doesn’t sound like a holiday most Bristol students would turn down. Hot sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, endless seafood, moped rental services and restless reggae nightclubs - paradise, no?
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Stefan on Direct Action:
How often are you stranded on a tropical island?
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But, after a while, we learned to laugh. How often are you stranded on a tropical island? After two or three days of playing board games and watching films, the storm subsided and we headed home. An unforgettable experience!
Nick Bloom Travel Editor
welcome to
bristol! COMEDY, CLUBBING AND MORE!
welcome week highlights STUDENT ELECTIONS
nominate yourself to be a rep bristolsu.org.uk
FREE PERIODS
get involved with the campaign
Our top 9 welcome week moments
Our opening night was sold out and the Welcome Week energy was high!
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Silent Disco vs Roller Disco
Still wiping away the tears – no joke. 6XFK D IXQQ\ QLJKW /RRN RXW IRU PRUH comedy later this term.
Dance Night
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Plant Potting
Proper Jokes Comedy Carnival
International Food Festival
Welcome to the Circus
Wonderland
Swing, Bollywood Dance Society and ,QFUHGLEOH 2XU ELJJHVW QLJKW RI /H5RF SXW RQ D IDE HYHQLQJ :H ZHUH WKH ZHHN ,I \RX ZHUH RQH RI WKH exhausted! thousands there, you’ll know how great it was.
Nominate yourself or a friend at: True Tales bristolsu.org.uk/elections
A runaway hit – it was great to see so /LNH VWRU\ VODP EXW QRW *UHDW WR KHDU PDQ\ RI \RX NHHQ WR SRW SODQWV $QG LW \RX DOO WDONLQJ DERXW \RXU )UHVK 6WDUWV was sunny!
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welcome fair Highlights from the biggest event of the year!
free periods 'HV ,EHNZH (TXDOLW\ /LEHUDWLRQ $FFHVV 2IĂ€FHU WDONV XV WKURXJK WKH )UHH 3HULRGV FDPSDLJQ VKH V UXQQLQJ IRU IUHH VDQLWDU\ SURGXFWV LQ VWXG\ VSDFHV /RRN RXW IRU WKH 3HULRG 3DUW\ RQ )ULGD\ 2FWREHU DQG D SHWLWLRQ WR VLJQ RQ FDPSXV VRRQ The Tampon Tax is a condition in sales tax law which means that feminine hygiene products are not tax exempt. Unlike essentials such as toilet paper, soap or even condoms, all of which are available for free at the University, sanitary products are treated as a luxury.
The institution should commit to ensuring there are no barriers to education posed by biological functions in the same way, admirably, it seeks to look after our sexual health via free STI/D checks and condoms on tap. The issues that are posed by the Tampon Tax obviously transcend the University but ensuring that students do not fall into the trappings of period poverty is a good VWDUW 7KLV LV ZK\ DV (/$ RIĂ€FHU , ZLOO OREE\ the University to provide free sanitary products in all study spaces and the Student Health Service.
Periods are unavoidable so in order for those who menstruate to be properly functioning members of society, to go to work, to school, and to university we need sanitary products. However something that is essential is so out of reach for many people. The way that EXVLQHVVHV SURĂ€W IURP SHULRGV DQG DGG WR the living costs of those who menstruate #FreePeriods is sexist and unfair. Period poverty is real and as an educational institution we have a duty to ensure no barriers to education exist for those who suffer from it. It is a hot button issue with retail giants such as Waitrose and Tesco absorbing the 5% tax and Scottish towns piloting schemes where the National Health Service provides free products for young people.
Do something more. Become a course rep and work with your university, students’ union and students like you to get the best student life EULVWROVX RUJ XN HOHFWLRQV Nominations close 11 October
WHAT'S ON varsity colour run Wednesday 4 October, 3pm, UWE Frenchay Campus So successful last year that we’re having two this year… A fun event that everyone can get involved in, it doesn’t matter who you are or how much you can run…this event is all about getting out there and having fun! Included with entry are a Varsity Colour Run t-shirt and sunglasses. So what are you waiting for? varistyseries.com
Monday 2 October, The Big Fat Bristol RAG Pub Quiz Hosted by Bristol RAG, expect obscure facts, near impossible challenges, general hilarity and really cheap beer. By far the best thing to do with your Monday evening! Recommended donation of £1 per person to enter.
Thursday 19 October, Comedy Central Live Head to our monthly comedy club for a night of fun and laughter. A line-up of Kelly Convey, Ed Night (Edinburgh Newcomer Nominee this year) and Paul McCaffrey. Book your ticket in advance!
Thursday 5 October, Thursday Night Live A weekly night of free live music from a stellar line-up of local and student bands, cheap beer and tasty food in The Balloon. Pretty much the perfect Thursday night. See you there.
Friday 6 October, RAGaoke Another great event brought to you by Bristol RAG - it’s karaoke time in The Balloon. Belt out a classic, or force a mate to do it for you. Go along to watch and by the end of the night you'll want to join in.
Tuesday 10 October, Postgraduate Quiz Night Get quizzical and put your knowledge to the test in the best quiz in town, hosted by our amazing Quizmaster Sam Briggs! Great prizes up for grabs, including £50 of Amazon vouchers for ÀUVW SODFH
Wednesday 11 October, Vintage Fair University Vintage Fairs is back - a one stop pop-up shop for all your vintage needs. Affordable, handpicked, on trend, reworked, one-off and vintage just for students. Free entry. Debit/credit card accepted.
Period Party, Friday 13 October, 6:30pm, Balloon Bar Get involved with the #FreePeriods campaign, sign the petition for free sanitary products in study spaces and hear from some guest speakers.
For more information on all upcoming events see bristolsu.org.uk/events
Epigram
02.10.2017
Film & TV
filmandtv@epigram.org.uk Editor: Charlie Gearon Deputy Editor: Gabi Spiro @GearonCharlie
@GabiSpiro
@epigramfilm
Online: Tim Bustin Deputy Online: AshleyYonga @timbustin1
@ashyonga
Encounters Festival 2017: Child’s Pose review Encounters Festival is back! Alex Williams reviews a series of short films exploring innocence and childhood
Encounters / My Gay Sister
Alex Williams Third Year, History While most normal people spend Freshers’ Week sleeping off concurrent hangovers, those of us who can manage to get out of bed are able to enjoy Encounters - a short film festival that attracts international filmmakers down to the harbourside. Child’s Pose is one of such international programmes hosted by Encounters that brings films from the USA and Europe onto Watershed’s screens. These international films are unified by the universal theme of childhood. It’s warming to see how children hold the same quirks and habits regardless of nationality. Specifically, the programme focuses on those moments where the lines between one’s infancy and adolescence suddenly start to blur. The majority of the films within this programme derive their power from the shattering of innocence: the events that force these cherubic, childish faces to comprehend adult reality. Perhaps it should be no surprise that at an art-house film festival, three of these films deal with death. It remains a suitable theme insofar that it triggers children to face questions of mortality for
the first time, but some of these films handle it better than others. Good Luck Orlo sees a young boy lose his baby sibling, implied to have died in childbirth. It deserves credit for refusing to provide the audience with any answers or solutions to the loss of the loved one. Instead it only shows the pain caused, and includes perhaps the programme’s most harrowing piece of acting as Orlo witnesses his father huddled in the foetal position, bawling his eyes out. By contrast Death in a Day is perhaps the most subtle portrayal of losing a family member from a child’s perspective. Much of its strength lies in how it delays any revelation until the final moments, when a young Chinese boy finally starts to comprehend that he is going to lose his father. As should be expected at any film festival, this programme also has its fair share of pretentious non-films. Small Town is visually superb, all sweeping Portuguese vistas and rustic palettes. Yet it is let down by the lack of any real narrative structure, and the young child at its centre does not even have a speaking part. The film instead strives for thematic meaning through pseudo-philosophical voice-overs from the child’s brother and sister. It adds little to the film and, combined with the rural backdrop, leaves the impression that Tarkovsky has directed an olive oil advert.
Likewise, the young girl who narrates Behind the Walls is unconvincing in her world-weariness, and her musings on life in a Belgian council estate rarely ring true and end up as an irritating backdrop to the film. Fortunately, this is a film with considerable substance and is the only film in the programme that is unafraid to show how cruel children can be to one another, even if it is in the most banal way. The programme is at its best when it veers away from pretension and shows the kids just being kids. When filmmakers do this, they create some of the funniest moments of the programme. Spinosaurus captures the innate comedy in many of the things young children say, and My Gay Sister finds considerable humour in childhood love. It is the purest of these films, focussing as it does on love instead of death. The child actor does a fine job of capturing the affectations of someone falling in love for the first time and the necessary awkwardness and secrecy that it demands. As an LGBTQ film it wears its politics lightly, and mostly focuses on the emotion that you feel when you admit you love someone for the first time. Like any festival programme, Child’s Pose has its share of duds. Yet, this is largely a consistently strong programme with a clear theme.
Encounters : an interview with Peter Mackie Burns Film & TV Editor Charlie Gearon chats to the Scottish director of Daphne ahead of its Bristol premiere Charlie Gearon Film & TV Editor
Encounters / Jacqui Barr
The Shorts2Features strand of Encounters festival aims to celebrate the debut feature-length works of filmmakers who previously worked in the short film medium. This year, the spotlight falls onto Peter Mackie Burns. Epigram spoke to Peter ahead of the screening of his phenomenal debut feature, Daphne. ‘It’s a character film’, explains Burns. ‘We wanted to build an authentic, three-dimensional character.’ Although this is a debut feature, the character of Daphne has existed in some form for several years now. She made her first appearance in a short film Burns made in 2014 entitled Happy Birthday to Me and has very clearly stuck with the director since. ‘Happy Birthday to Me I made with (writer) Nico Mensinga and Emily Beecham who played Daphne. I thought she was really interesting, and when I saw Emily’s performance in the short I thought, well, there’s so much more to explore with this character.’ Burns said. The affection Burns has for the character of Daphne is equally evident both in his speech and in the film itself. The audience lives with Daphne for around a week, the camera barely leaving her side as she goes about her daily routine. There’s no hint of melodrama, with every interaction coming across as original and genuine.
The penchant for capturing individual scenes is very clearly a skill which Peter developed in his work with the short form. His short films often function as individual snapshots; brief insights into characters, their lives and their motivations. Daphne takes this snapshot approach to story-telling, and over the course of 90 minutes creates a three-dimensional collage of Daphne’s character. There is no convenient and tidy plot-arch. Instead, we simply follow Daphne as she tries to stumble her way through the mess that is inner-city life. That is not to say that Burns’ film lacks focus. Towards the start of the film, Daphne witnesses a violent crime which stays with her and forces her to re-evaluate her fairly nihilistic approach to life. ‘I’m interested in the process of character films where the character is about to recognise some form of change. I’m not really interested in seeing the change per se. What I’m interested in is when the character starts to be aware of the need for change. Daphne starts to realise that she can’t keep living the way she’s living.’ Burns explained. It seems that Burns’ primary motivation in creating the character is to give cinema a female character to whom audiences can relate, who they can recognise in women that they themselves know. ‘We just wanted to make someone who was relatable. I feature lots of women in my short work. And we just weren’t seeing women that we knew in the context of cinema. That’s why we wanted to make the film.’ Burns said.
Epigram 02.10.2017
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Encounters Festival 2017: Sweet and Sour review Gabi Spiro gives her take on this series of animated shorts which blend the lines between light and dark
Flying Putzi is a heartwrenching and sensitive film
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British Cakes 4 British Boys owes its success to the simplicity of its idea
Encounters is over for another year! What did you make of this years’ festival? See anything good? See anything bad? Let us know on twitter @epigramfilm
Encounters / The Best Customer
A stunning example of the parallels between ‘sweet and sour’ is Flying Putzi. This film, directed by Israeli film maker Putzi Hameofef, tells of a boy with a cognitive disability who wishes he could fly with his best friend, Pepi the turkey. Encouraged by the bullying neighbourhood boys, he stands at the top of a building and leaps out. We watch him fly free, beautiful and happy for about half a minute before he pummels to the ground. At the end of the short, Pepi flies away and we sense optimism. Flying Putzi is a heart-wrenching and sensitive film, and it’s noteworthy that Hameofef manages to achieve this in a mere six and a half minutes.
Encounters / Pink Elephant
The best feature of the short was the narration. A male voice performed poetry, inspired by Daniil Kharms and John Cooper Clarke. He adds to the film’s humour with witty puns such as ‘Prepare to be battenburged!’ while we see a fist pummel a cake. British Cakes 4 British Boys owes its success to the simplicity of its idea. It was not pretentious, and it appealed to its majority student audience. A criticism of the current political climate will always go down well, especially in Bristol. The Romanian film The Best Customer was another stand-out. It is a
consisting of more goblin men who sort through the mail and eventually worship her as their queen. Though the premise is original and interesting, the lacklustre animation withdraws from the intriguing peculiarity of the film. It is reminiscent of The Rugrats in its pastel, 90s cartoon like feel, which means it doesn’t resemble the same calibre of the rest of the short films in this collection. The films were remarkably different, especially considering the category was themed. Though watching collections of varied short films can sometimes be disorientating, even the darkest of these films had charming elements - perhaps by nature of animation - and they complimented each other well. Many, such as To Be A Tree, were tender, while others, namely Invisible Barriers, were bursting with overt political commentary. As a whole, these films from across the globe, by both professional and student film makers, live up to Encounters’ esteem which the festival has established for itself over the past 23 years. Encounters / Flying Putzi
Encounters /British Cakes 4 British Boys
This compilation of animated short films is centred around the vision of juxtaposing whimsical shorts with darker ones - in the words of Encounters, films which ‘swing from one extreme to the other; from sweet and light-hearted to ominous deep oppression’. Even within singular shorts, the mood often changed from comical to depressing, or poked fun at grim matters in order to satirise them. A clear favourite was British Cakes 4 British Boys, directed by Goldsmiths’ Tobias Cameron, who was sat in the audience and was introduced before the screening began. This short surreal film, made up of both stop frame motion and cartoon 2D animation, explored the British far right’s racist attitudes, comparing them, somehow, with cakes. The film satirises politicians like Theresa May and Boris Johnson (more sour than sweet), with laugh-out-loud moments of absurdity.
beautiful short centred on a husband and wife who own a funeral home, and are paid a visit by a suspicious customer. The wife trails him, realises he is harmless, and befriends him before his eventual death at the end of the short. What makes this film remarkable is its careful, tidy mise-en-scene. The set is quaint and the puppets have a softness about them. The voice over, which is delivered in rhyme, adds an element of comedy to what initially appears to be a dark film, and is later revealed to be a story about friendship and mourning. A perfect example of how cinema, short or otherwise, can balance both light and dark elements, in a cohesive hole.
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Gabi Spiro Film & TV Deputy Editor
These films from across the globe live up to Encounters’ esteem.
Hot Dog Hands, by American director Matthew Reynolds, was frankly bizarre. A suburban woman cannot stop growing fingers, and becomes reclusive because of it. She eventually follows a goblin-esque creature through a post box where she discovers his colony
This week in cinema history
6th October, 1927: ‘You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!’ - Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer is released
Flickr / ASIA Plus
The Jazz Singer is often remembered for one particular achievement: namely, being the first non-silent film. True, this alone is enough place it firmly in the cinematic canon. It’s clear that The Jazz Singer’s technical innovation changed the landscape of film and revolutionised Hollywood, establishing it as the seat of big-budget cinema for the century to come. But to reduce The Jazz Singer solely to the inclusion of syncronised sound would not be to do it justice. Too often this film is remembered only for its technical achievements, ignoring its visual beauty and poignant exploration of family and religion. The film tells the story of a young man (portrayed by Al Jolson)
who runs away from his Jewish Orthodox family to become a jazz singer. His father, a cantor, disapproves of this choice and disowns his son, only seeing him again once he returns to New York for his Broadway debut. Though at points melodramatic and sentimental, the film remains emotionally powerful. The penultimate scene in which Jolson sings ‘Kol Nidre’ while his father lays on his death bed remains affecting to this day, 90 years after the film’s release.
Charlie Gearon Film & TV Editor
Epigram 02.10.2017
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mother! review: has Aronofsky finally gone too far? Bethany Smith reviews Aronofsky’s new film and reflects on his career of disturbing cinema and difficult partnerships Bethany Smith Third Year, English
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Lawrence is obviously a consenting, intelligent actress, aware of the reputation of this controversial director
At the center of mother! is an unnamed protagonist (Jennifer Lawrence) and the house, once destroyed by fire, that she has put her heart into restoring for her husband (Javier Bardem), a once reputable but now struggling poet. He takes this gift of love from her and quite literally offers it out to the world, makes it public to his fans, and lets it be torn apart by them – in a surreal, terrifying sequence of events – for the sake of his ego and poetic reputation. It is a carefully
Twitter / The Hollywood Reporter
The latest film from the director of Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Wrestler (2008), and, most famously, Black Swan (2010), is, quite simply, a nightmare. It’s difficult to form a coherent opinion of mother! since it is both mesmerizing and almost impossible to sit through, equally stunning and horrible, and both the best and worst film that Aronofsky has ever made. This is a director that delights in making his audience squirm – from his feverish, paranoid first feature, Pi (1998), to his infamously disturbing addict-nightmare Requiem for a Dream and the delightfully frantic ballerina tragedy Black Swan, Aronofsky seeks to disturb and divide audiences.
considered mediation on humanity, and we’re not looking good. Mathew Libatique’s cinematography particularly recalls the trance-like quality of Requiem for a Dream, which he also worked on – the signature hand-held camerawork that follows her like a creature, that reveals things only as they are revealed to the protagonist, and the distinctive use of tight face-on closeups, creates a claustrophobic inescapability that pins the audience member to their seat. Insatiable mobs of people cram into the house and grasp and shout down the lens, turning violent and becoming bewitched by mass hysteria. At moments the framing recalls newspaper photographs - of riots or conflict in ruined cities - and at other times, Renaissance paintings. With his attention to people, en masse, obsessed and divided by one man, Aronofsky toys with ideas of false idolatry and religion. It’s a domestic drama-turnedapocalyptic nightmare of biblical proportions. It’s hard not to ruminate on the autobiographical parallels here, between the poet and his young wife and Aronofsky and Lawrence - 47 and 29 respectively - who began a relationship during the shoot. Lawrence has been open about the emotional challenge of the performance and the lengths the director would push her; apparently Lawrence dislocated a rib and tore her diaphragm from exertion in one scene, and Aronofsky flipped the camera-angle onto her face and ran the scene again. Lawrence is obviously a consenting, intelligent actress, aware of the reputation of this controversial director, and who will as equally profit through the success of the project as him. So, it’s hard
to have much sympathy – the click-bait scandal that was whipped up by most of the press in light of this information is predictable and, frankly, a bit boring. Where the dialogue about male directors taking precedence over female stories in Hollywood is so important and relevant, the automatic return - without any green light from the actress herself - to the narrative of the submissive lead actress as a victim to the grooming, controlling, but supposedly genius male auteur dismisses the recognition of the poise and talent of great actresses like Jennifer Lawrence.
Lawrence’s performance is her best to date. Her rising panic is contagious, her submissive willingness is sympathetic and convincing, and her utter helplessness is never confused for weakness. It’s hard to escape this film, even after it’s over it follows you like a nightmare. Nothing about the viewing experience is enjoyable, a moment of relief is tailed by a return to hysteria and horror – it’s gory, busy, painful, and demanding. The director himself admitted, in one interview, ‘Well, [I] always go a little too far.’ And we can only dread what he’ll put us through next.
Editor’s Picks
The real winners at this year’s Emmy Awards Wikimedia commons
Wikimedia commons
Netflix Press
Flickr / Ron Cogswell
Charlie Gearon
Gabi Spiro
Tim Bustin
Ashley Yonga
Editor
Deputy Editor
Online Editor
Deputy Online Editor
Nominated for 4 Awards
Nominated for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series’
Nominated for 22 awards
Westworld
Sterling K. Brown - This is Us
Fargo’s most recent iteration is probably not its best. There are several strong performances, particularly from Carrie Coon who was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series, while Dana Gonazales’ cinematography provides a stark and ever-inventive backdrop to the unfolding drama. Despite this, the balance between slapstick comedy and stomach-twisting violence is not quite as finely balanced as in the previous two seasons. Perhaps its failure to pick up any wins at this year’s Emmys can be blamed on the incomparably high quality of the show’s first two iterations. But when Fargo is compared to the rest of the current televisual landscape, it remains one of the most captivating and original dramas currently being broadcast. Its fairly limp performance at the Emmys is unfortunate and fails to recognise the ingenuity of one of television’s finest shows.
A large part of Orange is the New Black’s success can be attributed to its characterisation. We invariably grow affectionate towards these characters. A clear favourite for many is Crazy Eyes, played by Uzo Aduba. Despite being unsuccessful in this year’s Emmy Awards, Aduba is one of the few actors to receive an Emmy in both the Comedy and Drama categories for the same role. In this series, we watch a volatile Crazy Eyes suffer as she mourns her friend and omits to take her medication during the prison riot. In a particularly poignant scene, we see Aduba staring in the mirror and reassuring herself than her black skin is beautiful. We also witness her psychotic break, when she digs manically at the prison ceiling trying to reach Heaven. These, among other challenging scenes, are testimony to Aduba’s acting prowess, doing justice to her tragically beautiful character.
‘The Violent Delights have Violent Ends’ unfortunately rang true for Westworld on Emmys night, the show only picking up wins in technical categories after leading with 22 nominations. HBO’s Game of Thrones replacement series displays a brutal play-world recreation of the Wild West, where humanity’s wealthiest let loose at the violent expense of the theme park’s semi-sentient robotic population. The show offers a deeper metaphor on the human condition, as the robot Hosts are simply reset, patched up and shipped back out again and again after every trauma, every rape and every murder suffered at the fate of the games of their human gods. The future does at least look bright for season two’s 2018 Emmy success, for this dystopian series about the eventual decline of humanity to a more evolved, mechanical species.
Sterling K. Brown plays the adopted child, Randall, of the Pearson family. He is a family man who struggles with his identity and dealing with anxiety. Brown’s Randall is a triumphant husband, a loving father, a thoughtful brother and giving son who goes through a remarkable journey during the first season of this show. Brown brings such poignant nuances to this character who at first appears so steadfast and strong. As you watch the season slowly chip away at his armour, Sterling K. Brown lets you into Randall’s psyche and you feel his devolution. Viewers form an emotional connection with Randall Pearson, testimony to the many who play him. It has been almost 20 years since a black actor won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and it was an incredibly worthy win for Sterling. K Brown.
Fargo
Uzo Aduba - OITNB
Awarded ‘Outstanding Lead Actor’
39
Arts
Epigram
02.10.2017
@EpigramArts
Editor: Alina Young Deputy Editor: Anna Trafford
Online Editor: Helena Raymond-Hayling Deputy Online Editor: Avital Carno
arts@epigram.org.uk
Fighting xenophobia - what has art got to do with it?
Avital Carno discusses how art can aid the cause of social justice, in a time of such distrust of refugees and migrants Avital Carno Deputy Online Arts Editor The Oxford English dictionary defines xenophobia as a ‘deep antipathy to foreigners’. Its etymology comes from the Greek words ‘xenos’ and ‘phobos’, meaning ‘stranger’ and ‘fear’. To me, this suggests that the word’s own origins classify xenophobia as nothing more than a fear of the unknown. A quick disclaimer - I am not, in any way, trying to belittle the enormous danger posed by xenophobic people and their actions, particularly in today’s political climate in which a racist orangutan in a suit is masquerading as the President of the United States. Ignorance and narrow-mindedness can have disastrous effects, as shown recently by Brexit and Trump’s electoral success, but also by the discrimination against and persecution of immigrants, gypsies, Jews and other different minority groups throughout the centuries.
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different refugee artists. The exhibition was intended to help people to view refugees in a compassionate light, as fellow human beings rather than troublesome statistics. Refugees featured works such as Vietnamese Dinh Q. Le’s photograph of a burning ship on a beach, and Pakistani Khadim Ali’s disturbing vision of demons, lions and wild, spectral animals. These raw evocations of suffering and fear cannot fail to show refugees as frightened rather than frightening. While curated exhibitions like Refugees are often powerful and extremely moving, a large proportion of the art which takes a stand against xenophobia is informal. One doesn’t even have to look closely to find it everywhere, from ‘solidarity’ and ‘coexistence’ graffiti scrawled along the Berlin wall, to posters and banners across England proclaiming welcomes to refugees, and ‘Black Lives Matter’ graffiti in the USA. London’s famous Notting Hill carnival was initially created in part as a reaction to the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in an attempt to improve the state of race relations which had worsened as a result of widespread xenophobia following the 1948 British Nationality Act.
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Without a doubt, xenophobia is hugely dangerous. However, what I choose to believe is that a large part of xenophobic feelings and behaviour simply stem from ignorance and narrow-mindedness. I can’t accept that so many human beings would behave in the awful way that they do if they really, truly understood that the ‘foreigners’ they’re so terrified of are just people, in exactly the same way as they are. And that’s why I believe that art can play such an important role in fighting xenophobia. You can’t tell what language an artist speaks by looking at their painting, or the colour of an author’s skin by reading their book. Art has no borders and needs no passports. Art humanises people and helps to communicate their deepest feelings, and this is inherently a way of fighting xenophobia: art can force xenophobic people to confront the reality, which is that, underneath surface differences like skin colour, language and birth-place, ‘foreigners’ are not so foreign after all. Around the world, galleries, playwrights, poets and artists have shared the same sentiment. In 2016, the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Sydney curated a Refugees exhibition, which included works from 22 different refugee artists. The exhibition was intended to help people to view refugees in a compassionate light, as
Epigram / Gabi Spiro
Art humanises people and helps to communicate their deepest feelings, and this is inherently a way of fighting xenophobia
Of course, the arts can also be used as a medium for protest. Xenophobia makes people angry, rightly so, and for many the arts can become a means of channelling their anger without resorting to violence. For example, on President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, the art collective Artfinksters began organising the installation of gold toilets around the United States. The toilets are labelled ‘Take a Trump’, and have illustrations of a pig wearing a crown inside their lids.
The arts can become a means of channelling their anger without resorting to violence
Dumile Feni, sometimes known as ‘the Goya of the townships’, portrayed the absurd extremes of suffering endured by black South Africans: his abstract works feature a cacophony of shacks and chained figures. For Thami Mnyele, another anti-apartheid artist, art was inherently linked to the fight for social justice. ‘The act of creating art should compliment the act of creating shelter for my family or liberating the country for my people.’ There are many worthwhile ways of fighting xenophobia, but the arts deserve their place among these. Art can be used to shout, to protest the cruelty and unfairness of a situation, or to strip away the bigoted caricatures and racist stereotypes which fuel xenophobia’s fires; both are important.
Can art be key in achieving lasting social change? Add your comment online at :
While this is a facetious and humorous response to a problem which is far from funny, at other times the art used to protest xenophobia can be searing and deeply emotive. One such example is the resistance art of the 1970s against the South African apartheid. Dum
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ARNOLFINI
SPIKE ISLAND
Until 24/12 - Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!
Until 17/12 – Kim Yong-Ik, I Believe My Works Are Still Valid
Shown for the first time outside of London, Perry’s free exhibition is a big deal at the Arnolfini this autumn. Using the contrast between traditional mediums and current social issues, Perry’s work tackles big contemporary talking points, including Brexit and ‘Divided Britain’, and promises to be as exuberant as the renowned artist behind it.
Coinciding with the British Council’s ‘UK/Korea’ Season, which aims to celebrate the relationship between the two countries, this exhibition showcases the work of prominent South Korean artist, Kim Yong-Ik. If you like avant-garde and experimental art, this will be right up your street. Free entry, plus you can drop by Spike Island’s cute café on the way out.
Epigram
02.10.2017
41
Out of the closet and into the arts In honour of Coming Out Day on October 11th, Lucy Hall, Alina Young and Helena Raymond-Hayling reveal how a selection of LGBTQ artists have channelled their experiences through their work
In Literature
On Stage Playwright Steven Fales
Spoken word poet Andrea Gibson ‘Can you imagine how many gay teenage lives were saved the day matthew shepherd died could there have been anything louder than the noise inside his father’s head when he begged the jury please don’t take the lives of the men who turned my son’s skull to powder Flickr / Neil R
and I know nothing would make my family prouder than giving up everything I believe in still nothing keeps me believing like the sound of my mother breathing’ An extract from Dive For so many, coming out is simultaneously the worst and the best. This fluidity between good and bad, hatred and love, white and black is explored in Andrea Gibson’s work. A queer spoken word poet, they have authored 3 anthologies and 6 albums that take the reader through their heartache, self-discovery and fulfilment. As a person whose own sexuality and gender identity has been interchangeable, Gibson’s writing reaches every corner of the LGBT spectrum. As well as this, they are vehemently aware of their privilege and takes great pride in writing for people of colour and those minorities that are so often overlooked in ‘gay culture’. It is hard to read sometimes. It is crude and ugly and, at points, altogether pretentious. But crucially, it also has the ability to reflect the lives of LGBT people who may not have seen themselves in literature before, and offer some comfort to those in a closeted place. Lucy Hall
With Art
Visual Artist Keith Haring ‘So imagine how horrible it must be to some young kid who knows he’s gay or someone thinking of experimenting. They could have a sentence of death. It’s horribly frightening. It gives so much fuel to the people who are telling you that it’s wrong to be who you are. ‘There are so few people who are good openly gay role models or just good people who are respected who are open about their sexuality. Now there has to be openness about all these issues.’ Together with his focus on honestly representing humanity - its sex, its love, its politics and social struggles - Haring fundamentally believed that art needs to be universally accessible. He began his career in New York’s subways and, despite his increasing success, continued to include murals and public art in his body of work. His visual language, with its simple lines and homage to Pop culture, allows anyone from the critic to the commuter to appreciate its honest message. Haring’s social contribution, as well as his artistic one, solidifies his role in the advancement of progressively depicting homosexuality. Alina Young
Flickr /Ken Lig
Flickr / Emily Mills
Keith Haring’s iconic work throughout the 1980’s unashamedly embraces all aspects of his sexuality. From intensely erotic imagery to outspoken political statements, Haring’s explicit approach to visually representing homosexuality influenced a new generation of artists to be open about their sexual lives. An advocate of spreading the importance of safe sex in the gay community, Haring was a social activist for many causes through both his art and public involvement. In 1988, with the foundation of National Coming Out Day in the USA, he designed Coming Out Day’s official first logo in his characteristic style. A year later, after being diagnosed with AIDS, Haring’s social awareness drove him to be at the forefront of changing the American public’s perception of AIDS. ‘AIDS has made it even harder for people to accept, because homosexuality has been made to be synonymous with death,’ he explained, and his concern led him to often speak publicly about his illness. In 1989, a year before his death, he founded the Keith Haring Foundation with the intention of supporting AIDS organisations as well as childrens’ charities. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1989, Haring expresses why he believes AIDS awareness is crucial to supporting homosexual men in future generations. ‘I think one of the hardest things AIDS has done is to kids growing up now, trying to figure out their sexuality in an unbiased way. They always will have their sexuality shoved down their throats, but they’ll make their own way because it’s such a strong thing - it will override everything, no matter how much brainwashing’s going on.
‘He asked me to define sin. How did I feel about sin? Did I think I had sinned? We weren’t getting anywhere. I didn’t have the right answers anymore, my absolutes were failing me and I couldn’t say what he needed or wanted to hear. “Mr State President, it’s been doctrine this and dogma that my whole life, work work work work work at your salvation, never being worthy enough of God’s love. Where is the love?” He told me they needed to keep the Church pure.’ An extract from the Excommunication Scene in Confessions of a Mormon Boy
The solo play Confessions of a Mormon Boy tells Fales’ heartbreaking story of his journey from being a devoted Mormon to coming out and being excommunicated in the formal church court for homosexuality. This raw, gritty and incredibly moving one man performance describes Fales’ painful divorce, subsequent experience of being a gay dad, crystal meth addiction, alcoholism, and his time as a highpriced gay prostitute in New York City. Fales describes his motivations for writing this play. ‘After all of the reparative therapy I had undergone, and all the sacrifice and service to the church and my family, I found it all so fantastical and barbaric. It was clear that someone needed to write this.’ Despite his experience, Fales has not entirely given up on spirituality and religion, believing that the idea of ‘God’ transcends any house of worship. He has developed his own philosophy, that ‘no one has the right to put their stamp on spirituality. It belongs to everyone. And you don’t have to earn it. Spirituality (like sex) should be fun and for free! And with a global recession raging, all the free sex and religion in this show makes it a real bargain!’ Confessions of a Mormon Boy is a highly personal and entirely brilliant piece of theatre, which has been significant to many in the LGBT+ community who have suffered heavily at the hands of their communities and families after their own coming out. Helena Raymond-Hayling
BRISTOL OLD VIC
THE WARDROBE THEATRE
03/10 – 07/10 – Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Every other Monday from the 2nd of October – Closer Each Day: The Improvised Soap Opera
This play was originally written for the Royal Court Theatre back in 1982, and later adapted into the cult 80s film. The play is semiautobiographical, drawing on elements of the writer, Andrea Dunbar’s, childhood on a council estate in Bradford. Behind the comedy there are darker themes of abusive relationships, alcoholism and reality of life on a council housing estate. Tickets start at £10.
If you’re looking for an alternative to beginning yet another Netflix series, this show may be for you. It’s a live narrative, played every other Monday, and has been running for 5 years. Containing everything you would normally expect from your TV soap opera, but improvised and played out on stage. Tickets are £7.
Watch out for our upcoming reviews
Epigram
02.10.2017
Music
@epigrammusic Editor: Alexia Kirov
Deputy Editor: Kate Hutchison
Online Editor: Joe Samrai
music@epigram.org.uk
Preview: Simple Things 2017
On October 20th, Simple Things returns to Bristol. The festival will take over the city’s best venues to showcase the finest names across a spectrum of genres. Metronomy open the festival at Motion and on Saturday music will run from the afternoon until the early hours. Here are Online Music Editor Joe Samrai’s weekend highlights.
Joe Samrai Online Music Editor Lorenzo Senni (Warp) Flickr / Arts Electronica
Italian trance extraordinaire Lorenzo Senni will grace the festival with his presence on Saturday 21st. Focusing intently on the formulas of trance and techno, Lorenzo Senni places them in an entirely new context. Pushing dance music to its absolute boundary is his forte and his recent EP Persona on Warp Records this year was proof of this. Gaining a well deserved 4.5/5 on Resident Advisor for it’s ‘hyperreal sound design’ and ‘harmonic elegance’, Lorenzo Senni is an artist who previously focused on the big room arpeggios of 90’s rave culture. Now, with this element still remaining at the core, it has been amped up. In October of last year, Senni told FACT magazine that Persona was ‘a process of searching for euphoria’ highlighting his self description as a ‘Rave Voyeur’. Senni’s tracks are not floor fillers, but club spectacles evoking a truly immersive experience.
Clark (Warp)
Flickr / Rene Passet
Clark will unveil his new live show at Simple Things 2017. Having already performed at festivals such as Sónar earlier this year, the show will be focused around his 10th album Death Peak. Expect Clark to pull off an immaculate set, including two dancers and a mesmerising light show. The artist has been releasing music on Warp Records since 2001 with his debut album Clarence Park. His sound seems to be getting bigger and bolder with each release. Tracks from his new album, such as ‘Hoova’ and ‘Peak Magnetic’ , make it clear that Clark is creating dance music with a focus on melody and texture. Expect atmospheric soundscapes that will propel you into the stratosphere; this is certainly an act not to be missed at this year’s festival.
Previously having a background in indie rock, Kelly Lee Owens now combines dream pop and ambient techno to her advantage and has created one of this year’s most interesting releases. Kelly Lee Owens’ self-titled album underlines the influence of Daniel Avery and Ghost Culture, with whom Lee Owens used to work with in various record stores. Her ethereal falsetto peppers the album, whilst pounding techno percussion creates the urge to dance. It’s a match made in heaven that undoubtedly will have audience members in a trance at Simple Things.
Flickr / Andrew Darby
Kelly Lee Owens (Smalltown Supersound)
Jlin (Planet Mu)
Flickr / Rene Passet
In early 2010, a young woman from Gary, Indiana began defying the laws of Footwork - a sound and genre highly reflective of Chicago’s underground dance music scene. This experimentation soon became Dark Energy, the debut album from Jlin in which its lead single ‘Erotic Heat’ was picked up by Mike Paradinas, a musician and owner of Planet Mu records. The rest is history. Despite being immensely dark and heavy hitting, a characteristic not necessarily associated with the Footwork genre, it is evident that this sound has come from Jlin’s personal view on life and the world around her. In January of 2016 she told Resident Advisor that ‘darkness is a beautiful thing. The stars come from the darkness. It was dark inside your mother’s womb and it was a beautiful thing. When I say darkness, it is the birthplace’. Her signature sound has earned her friendships and collaborations with other experimental innovators of sound, including the likes of William Basinski and Holly Herndon, on her latest record Black Origami. Innovator of sound is an understatement for Jlin, who will defy all musical logic at this year’s Simple Things festival. Don’t sleep on this one.
Always boasting a versatile lineup, Simple Things is arguably the most eclectic music festival to take place in Bristol each year. More acts not to miss: Daphni, GAIKA, The Bug ft. Miss Red, Shanti Celeste & Willow. Tickets: simplethingsfestival.co.uk.
Charlie Gearon Film Editor
The album is separated roughly into two halves signposted by two 15-minute, three-part compositions entitled ‘Bosses Hang’ and ‘Anthem for No State’ respectively. Their anti-establishment political message is placed immediately on display with these titles; in conjunction with this album, GYBE made a tongue in cheek demand that ‘the fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again.’
Despite all this disillusionment, it would be wrong to label Luciferian Towers as a pessimistic album. It is perhaps their most hopeful and melodic album to date. The instrumentation is thick and lush, with whirling guitar textures filling out the sound. The repeating brass melody line on the album opener ‘Undoing a Luciferian Towers’ is relentlessly positive, forcing the listener to remember that despite GBYE’s negative political outlook, they still retain hope. The album does somewhat fall short in terms of clarity and structure. When held in comparison to 2001’s Lift Your Skinny Fists…, the compositions can feel slightly aimless and meandering. The focus seems to be more on ambience and tone rather than on compositional development. Though never boring, this can render some of the longer compositions on this album fairly repetitive.
As a whole though, Luciferian Towers is undoubtedly a success. It shows a more detailed understanding of sonic textures than any of their previous works and will surely earn a valuable place in GYBE’s catalogue of work.
Facebook / Godspeed You! Black Emporer
Album Review: Luciferian Towers Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Canadian post-rock ensemble Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s sixth effort is an unwieldy beast. In the two decades since their inception, GYBE’s discography has given rise to some of the genre’s greatest works and Luciferian Towers seems to have been created with the same ambition and experimentation that cemented their earlier works as modern classics.
Epigram 02.10.2017
43 Some reviewers have said LCD Soundsystem’s resurrection in the form of American Dream just had to be ‘good enough’ to be worth it. I’m happy to say that it is far more than that.
Album Review: American Dream LCD Soundsystem Joe Goreki Third Year, German & Spanish
The opening track itself is enough to vindicate Murphy’s controversial decision to revive the band. The half minute of build-up opens the album with such urgency that you immediately know that this isn’t a cynical cash grab; when the synths finally hit with such aplomb, you remember why LCD were the dance rockers. ‘Oh Baby’ also presents a tender yet desperate side to Murphy that hasn’t been explored as much, and sets up the album as being darker and deeper than their previous albums. As such, the album is less dance-y, but this tends to create an accentuated punch when the ‘dance breaks’ do arrive. ‘How do you sleep’ is such a claustrophobic track - an inescapable bad hangover in audio form - that when the delayed groove arrives it is truly arresting. David Bowie’s influence is all over the album. This is apparent both audibly - ‘change yr mind’ is very ‘Fame’ and the Enoesque synths of ‘american dream’ sound straight off side 2 of Low as well as in the theme of revival and reinvention that imbues the whole album. The album’s title reflects this, and its songs perfectly demonstrate why it was worth it.
Album Review: Antisocialites Alvvays
Joe Goreki Third Year, German & Spanish
Alvvays’ 2014 self-titled album was such a solid debut, so perfectly realised, that a follow-up would not be an inviting task. Three years later, the band, fronted by Molly Rankin, have returned with Antisocialites, which is unmistakeably Alvvays, even if the fuzz-drenched sound that defined their debut has been toned down. The album begins promisingly with its lead singles ‘In Undertow’ and ‘Dreams Tonite’ which, while not quite reaching the giddy heights of ‘Archie, Marry Me’, do well to showcase the band’s latent lyricism. More attention is paid to the lyrics this time around and to good effect, lifting ‘Plimsoll Punks’ from being more than its repetitive if fun chorus. One of the reasons that their debut was so strong was the musical diversity of the record, proving Alvvays to be more than just another grungy-sounding indie band. Unfortunately, a few of the album’s tracks blend together in a slightly disappointing guitar thrashing haze and then, just as they begin to truly get interesting again, the album ends abruptly. This gives Antisocialites the impression of being disappointingly rushed. It does not, however, stop it from having more than its fair share of enjoyable moments.
Penguin Cafe @ Colston Hall, 13.09 Music Editor Alexia Kirov was lucky enough to catch the innovative Alexia Kirov Music Editor Penguin Cafe headlined Bristol’s Colston Hall as part of an event celebrating the tenth anniversary of their label, Erased Tapes. As a label, Erased Tapes champions the avant-garde, and no band could better represent their ethos than Penguin Cafe. The band is a collective of musicians with different musical backgrounds, including members of Razorlight, Gorillaz and Suede. Penguin Cafe is a continuation of the legacy of Simon Jeffes’ Penguin Cafe Orchestra, who were active from the early seventies until 1997 when he tragically passed away.
The set begins with the brilliantly hypnotic ‘Telephone and Rubber Band’, one of Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s best-known tracks. Even those who have never listened to one of the band’s records would probably recognise this song, and ‘Perpetuum Mobile’, which features later in the set – both have been used frequently in television, film and advertisements. Whilst the
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Today’s Penguin Cafe is the brainchild of Simon Jeffes’ son, Arthur Jeffes; they perform his father’s work, as well as their own new material. Although they’ve dropped the ‘Orchestra’ from their moniker, they’ve lost none of the magic that made the original group so special.
Flickr / PeterTea
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They’ve lost none of the magic that made the original group so special
Penguin Cafe in full flow
all-seated venue and the nature of the event means the audience is tamer than at other gigs, their reaction to these tracks, and throughout the evening, is far from subdued.
their reaction to these tracks, and throughout the evening, is far from subdued
One standout moment of the set is the intensely moving ‘Ricercar’, opening track to Penguin Cafe’s third LP, The Imperfect Sea. More than half of this album, released earlier this year, is present in the setlist. This new material, like their other two albums, provides affirmation that Arthur Jeffes and Penguin Cafe are so much more than just a cover band; they strike a perfect balance between celebrating Simon Jeffes’ work and doing something new. ‘Rescue’, from the same album, is introduced by Jeffes as ‘the soundtrack to an animated film
we haven’t made yet, about a guy who falls down into a lot of quicksand and starts to sink. But at the very last minute, he’s pulled out and saved by a very nice girl so the tune becomes a lot happier’. On paper, a band that mixes harmonium, cello, ukulele and cuatro among other instruments sounds esoteric, but their music is in fact remarkably accessible, and the story of ‘Rescue’ comes across very well. Indeed, the very concept of Penguin Cafe could seem slightly quixotic, but this gig proves that the band works wonderfully.
ST U DE N T DISCOU N T OF F E R. NOR M A L PR ICE S F ROM £12.
137 W H I T ELA DI E S ROA D, BR ISTOL.
£7
W W W. BR I T ISH BA R BE RCOM PA N Y.COM W I T H T H IS VOUCH E R.
9:0 0 –5:0 0PM MON – F R I. OF F ER EN DS NOV 30T H 2 017.
Epigram
Puzzles
02.10.2017
@EpigramPuzzles
Editor: Joselyn Joanes puzzles@epigram.org.uk
Solutions will be posted online at www.epigram.org.uk before the next issue is released.
The Omnipuzzle The aim of the Onmipuzzle is to find a word. Some clues here can give you a letter, a number or a symbol. A hint will be released online on Epigram’s website and tweeted on Wednesday.
Word Sudoku ladder
Fill the empty squares with numbers 1 to 9, so that each number appears once in each row, column and 3x3 box.
Can you get from top to bottom, changing only one letter from one rung to the next?
Killer sudoku
Sudoku rules apply and all the numbers in a cage must add to the number in the top left corner of the cage.
If you need any help, contact the editor by email or through social media
Word grid Word links How many words can you find including the middle letter, with at least four letters per word? There is at least one nine-letter word.
18= Average 24 = Good 30= Excellent
Find the three letters that can suffix the word on the left or prefix the word on the right, in each case giving a real word. E.g. HE-AR-MY.
DEATH SMART RATA LITTER INTER
Cryptic crossword ACROSS 1. Sounds like they go well together, what a compliment (10) 7. The grunting of the animal within Epigram (5) 8. The flat slab for calculating (6) 10. The alcohol inside every engineer getting them wasted (3) 11. Contains churned waste below (5) 13. A short reply (2) 14. The lack of iron in a machine that’s not hot (7) 18. Sounds like the clergyman made money from the Prophet (6) 20. Move the limb and take it away from their parents (9) 22. A suffix with a net charge (3) 23. Put aside the ‘from’ of dehydrate and add a note to the front (9) 25. The last Greek letter buried in the gnome garden (5) 26. A clumsy primate (3) 27. The category in stereotyped (4)
DOWN 1. Swindle caused by the Earth (7) 2. Rejected the imperial system only to crumble under a man army (7) 3. The revelation of a hole (4) 4. The rejection of the end of a porno (2) 5. The island in Baltimore (5) 6. Hitting high for some whisky King (5) 9. Ancient city of piss, I see (4) 12. Sounds like she sometimes leapt on for no charge (6) 15. The cosmetic in Marc’s motoring organisation (7) 16. Spice isle around a garden (7) 17. You can produce what is desired in inefficacy (8) 19. Only one astray holy hip boss (6) 20. The headless theatrical contractor (5) 21. A doctor’s enemy part of an emotionless master race (5) 24. Check out the organ (3)
SPREAD HOLE LING EYE TUPLES BY: PHOENIX
Just a phrase Find the word which can come before each of the three words given, in each case giving a common two-word phrase. E.g. CAR park, CAR stereo, CAR alarm.
1. Time, Light, Dream 2. Skin, Berry, Ability 3. Fold, Self, Day 4. Rest, Band, Chair 5. Fully, Less, Work
Kropki Sudoku rules appy and adjacent sqaures sharing a white circle must have a difference of one, and all adjacent squares sharing a black circle signifies that one of the squares in half the other.
Follow us on Twtter @EpigramPuzzles If you would like to write a puzzle for the paper, do get in touch.
Epigram
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02.10.2017
Twitter / ITV News
College), a short period after Sampson had moved from Bristol Academy WFC to a position with the England Women’s Team. Martin Glenn, chief executive of the FA stated that Sampson had ‘overstepped the professional boundaries between player and coach’. Although no further information has been released by the FA at the time of this article SGS College believe their reputation may be in jeopardy. Sampson spent several years at Bristol Academy WFC based around SGS College who have subsequently had to assure their students and parents that the college is still a safe environment for women to play football. The college was given no indication by the FA that any safeguarding investigation was to be reopened in conjunction with the
former Bristol Academy coach. The college is also eager for the FA to share information about the investigation with them so they can conduct their own internal investigation into the allegations. Bristol City women’s team, formerly Bristol Academy, start their campaign on Sunday against Chelsea and still have strong connections to SGS. SGS is held in high regard within women’s football to the extent that Mo Marley, England Women’s U-19 coach has recommended the college to prospective players. SGS believe this very reputation may be at risk due to the recent investigations by the FA. However, The Telegraph has reported that SGS actually ran its own investigation into Sampson in 2012 but
Epigram / Nicky Withers
Bristol based college’s reputation tarnished by Sampson sacking
found no evidence of inappropriate behaviour or wrongdoing. On Thursday, the day after the dismissal of Sampson, the entrance to SGS was guarded and players were told not to speak to the press. Recent academy players at SGS include Sophie Baggaley who has been called up to the England squad by Sampson but remains uncapped. Until more information is released by the FA, SGS will continue to check their records to search for any formal complaints made against Sampson, apart from the 2012 investigation, that they may have overlooked or not followed up. It also remains unclear as to whether the FA knew about allegations held against Sampson before appointing him as Head Coach in December 2013.
Ex-England women’s coach Mark Sampson, sacked on Wednesday 20th September
Tim Godfrey Twiss Deputy Sports Editor
Sampson made comments to her about her family possibly bringing Ebola into England. Sampson now denies such a comment was made stating ‘I can’t remember any particular conversation [about Ebola with Eni Aluko]’. Although investigations into racism and bullying are ongoing, Sampson was sacked on Wednesday by the FA because of ‘clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by a coach’ whilst working at Bristol Academy. The anonymous claims of unacceptable behaviour were made in March 2014 by an adult female at SGS (South Gloucestershire and Stroud
Twitter / Sky Sports Football
The recent decision by the FA (The Football Assosiation) to sack Mark Sampson, the England Women’s head coach on Wednesday 20th September has left the Bristol based South Gloucestershire and Stroud College asking the FA questions about the alleged misconduct. The unexpected sacking stems from a string of reports and allegations held against Sampson over his coaching career. Most recently Sampson has been involved in an investigation into racist comments he may have made to England striker Eni Aluko. Aluko, who has Nigerian family, has claimed that
The England players celebrating with coach Sampson after the first of six goals against Russia Women
International touch rugby success for Bristol students
UoB Touch Rugby Club / Eden
University of Bristol touch rugby players pose for a team photo in sunny France
Felix Rusby Deputy Sports Editor Bristol touch rugby see international success for both men and women, as they take silver in France. This summer a contingent of Bristol University students travelled to France to compete in the 2017 EFT Championship Permit tournament. It is an international competition, that sees representatives from universities across the country compete for England as the England scholars compete against various international teams. Bristol had five representatives at the tournament: Eden Coates, Emily Moore, Prentice Everett, Max Edgington-Rooley and Nick Hodson. All the students put in a brilliant performance, with both the men’s and women’s teams earning themselves a silver medal. The competition took place over a number of days, with several matches played across each day. Nick Hodson explains, ‘it was a really good experience being in a competition of that high standard of play and especially for three days playing almost three games each day. Inspiring to carry on playing in the future!’ The women’s team made it to the final of the touch rugby competition. This was a tight fought match against France and the game was level three all at full time.
However, the match came down to a drop-off and unfortunately the England girls just came short. The men’s game was similarly hard fought in a tight final against a strong Dutch side. In the end, despite some impressive play, the game finished 8-7 to the opposition. Eden reflected on the summer experience, saying that it ‘has to be an absolute highlight of the summer and I am very grateful for whoever had the nuts idea to throw together 30 uni students from around the country and send them to France on tour.’
“ It was a really good experience being in a competition of that high standard of play
Following on from this success, Bristol is looking forward to hosting the first competition in the calendar for the UTS series (the touch rugby equivalent of BUCS), that will be taking place on Saturday the 14th of October. If you’re interested in getting involved with touch rugby check out their Facebook page or email : bristolunitouch@gmail.com.
Epigram
02.10.2017
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Epigram introducing... Korfball NW: Had you heard of Korfball before University? NM: I had heard of the sport before university, but had literally no idea of what it involved. I think that’s one of the best things about the sport; the fact no one has heard of it before we see them at Welcome Fair means that everyone starts from the same level. Obviously, there are a smattering of members who
have played before university, some to a very high level, and these members often become qualified coaches within a year.
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Invented by a Dutch P.E. teacher, Korfball was originally adapted from the Swedish game ringboll, with its name coming from the Dutch word ‘korf’ meaning basket. If you’re looking at a korfball pitch you’ll see 16 players, eight on each team. Notably four of them will be male and four female as it’s one of the few mixed sports by definition. The pitch is divided into zones and each team will have set attackers and defenders, who swap roles after two goals are scored. The aim of the game is to score through a three and a half meter tall basket and
much like netball, running or dribbling with the ball is not allowed, making your teamwork crucial. I interviewed University of Bristol Korfball Club captain Nick Main:
NW: What made you join the Korfball club? NM: When I came to Welcome Fair in my 1st year, I really badly wanted to find a sport that I had not played before. I initially thought about handball, only to find that there wasn’t actually a handball club at the University. I was drawn to Korfball because of that fact that everyone starts new, it was very affordable and seemed very fun!
I doubt many university clubs can claim to have beaten an international side!
NW: What’s your best memory with the club?
Twitter / Bristol Uni Korfball
Nick Main, the University of Bristol Korfball Club captain
NM: Our tour to the Netherlands in 2017 stands out for me. We sent two teams to take part in the annual Attila Tournament in Eindhoven, an international tournament where teams from as far as Slovakia take part. Out of 26 teams, one of our sides came 6th, an incredible placing, including a brilliant victory over the Swedish National Team. I doubt many university clubs can claim to have beaten an international side! We also had an alumni team alongside us, and it was great to see them still playing the sport, some having left university three years previous. There were also two socials over the course of the weekend, both were brilliant events, and korfball is always best played slightly hungover the next morning! Other than that, BUCS South-West Preliminaries in December 2016 were
Facebook / University of Bristol Sport
Nicky Withers Sports Editor
Upcoming BUCS fixtures Wednesday 11th Oct
a highlight for the club. Our 1st team managed to clinch the title, scoring in the last play of the game!
Men’s Football
NW: What are your aims for the season?
University of Bristol 1st vs University of Cardiff 1st
NM: Last season was probably one of our best ever. For the first time, we had three teams competing in BUCS and in the local leagues, with our 1st and 3rd teams winning. I think our aim this year has to be similar, and perform even better in BUCS as well. We are currently the 5th best university side in the country, and it would be amazing to push into the top three, something that
University of Bristol 2nd vs Marjons 1st
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We are one of the cheapest and most accessible clubs at the University, we welcome absolutely anyone
Women’s Football University of Bristol 1st vs University of St Mark and St John 1st University of South Wales 2nd vs University of Bristol 2nd Men’s Rugby UWE 1st vs University of Bristol 1st University of Plymouth 1st vs University of Bristol 2nd
is definitely achievable.
Women’s Rugby
NW: What would you say to anyone thinking of joining this year?
University of Bristol 1st vs Oxford University 1st
NM: For me, there is no better club at the University. Our memberships start from £35, which is great value. For that fee, you get access to our training sessions, led by highly-qualified coaches, access to our socials, some of the best at the whole University, and if selected, matches every weekend in the Local League and BUCS Tournaments which are held throughout the year. We are one of the cheapest and most accessible clubs at the University, we welcome absolutely anyone. If you haven’t got that football trial, or have missed out on the rugby teams, definitely come along and join us! There is no other club that has the same dynamic as us!
Fantasy Football
Epigram Sport is running its very own Fantasy Premier League. Feel free to join! Epidivisie Code: 787477-1079615 Good Luck!
Five reasons to join a sports team this year Nicky Withers Sports Editor
Twitter / UBWRFC
Sport is a huge part of university life for many students, but why is it such a big deal? Here’s our five reasons to get involved with a sports team this year. One: Making friends! Joining a sports team is arguably the quickest and easiest way to make friends. You train together, compete together and inevitably drink too much on socials together. Whether you’re super competitive and are gunning to win the league, or just enjoy the sport, you’re guaranteed to make friends. Two: Travel! If you fancy playing competitively, BUCS Wednesdays are a great chance to travel to other universities and meet even more new people. There’s nothing better than an early morning coach trip to bond with your teammates. You get the chance to scope out other universities and travel the country’s campuses, building friendships and rivalries as you go. Three: Routine and commitment! Moving to university can be a bit of a shock to the system, even if you’re a returning student. The freedom is brilliant but can also throw you off without some sort out routine. Once
lectures kick in that creates some stability, but playing a sport gives you set commitments each week that you can work your life around. Four: Stay healthy! whilst some students have the amazing ability to eat salad, cook decent meals and avoid binge eating at 2am, the same cannot be said for all of us. Inundated with Dominoes vouchers and lacking the ability, or energy, to cook, it can be difficult to do your body any favours. If piling on the pounds is a concern, playing a sport will help you work off all those calories and shake the food guilt. When you’re running up Park Street to make that 9am lecture you’ll really appreciate keeping your fitness in check too. Five: Destress! The links between mental and physical health are well documented and when the stress starts building up, there’s little better than a training session to clear your head. Whatever sport you do, sweating it all out in the company of your mates is a great de-stressing tool. When you’re focussed on scoring a goal or reaching that PB, you’re freeing your mind from all the other worries you may have. There are so many sports to choose from, find them on the SU website!
UBWRFC (women’s rugby) showcasing their top notch team photo skills after playing a match last year, this could be you!
Epigram
02.10.2017
Sport
@epigramsport Editor: Nicky Withers
Online Editor: Ben McCall-Myers
Deputy Editors: Tim Godfrey Twiss & Felix Rusby
sport@epigram.org.uk
Meditating with momentum: the benefical impact of exercise on mental health Upcoming Fixtures (continued) Wednesday 11th Oct
Ben McCall-Myers Online Editor
Oxford University 1st vs University of Bristol 1st University of Bristol 2nd vs Cardiff University 3rd Men’s Basketball University of Bristol 1st vs Cardiff University 1st Cardiff University 2nd vs University of Bristol 2nd
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of one hour and 51 minutes. Mental health seems to be an issue affecting more and more students. A recent survey, entitled ‘Not By Degrees’, reports that a whopping 19 per cent of 16-24 year olds experience a mental health condition; that’s almost one in every five. This figure has risen from 15 per cent back in 2003. Whether
Women’s Hockey
The finish line at the Great Bristol Half Marathon
it’s our binge drinking culture, our craving to be ‘liked’ (both on social media and in reality), or just more of a willingness to confront these issues, there has been an undeniable rise in mental health
The marathon, as sport so often does, brought people together
adversely affecting young adults. To get a sense of the scale of this problem, it’s enlightening to note that in 2015/16, 15,395 UK-domiciled first-year students disclosed a mental health condition. This has increased five-fold since 2006/07 and such statistics further emphasise that mental health is a growing problem in our increasingly highpressure society. It’s important that those who are brave enough to discuss their issues get the care they need and we find strategies to combat mental health problems and maintain positive mind-sets. When asked why he chose Mind specifically, Charlie responded ‘I see an intrinsic link between running and mental health. Whenever I’m feeling anxious or nervous about something, I run as a kind of therapy.’ Certainly, if
the atmosphere at the finish line was anything to go by, there is weight to this concept of running as therapy. Charlie reminisced on five different children offering him jelly babies, and complete strangers encouraging him to keep going. The marathon, as sport so often does, brought people together. There’s more to this ‘therapy’ than just the atmosphere of the marathon, though. Charlie elaborated that running ‘forces you to focus on your breathing and empties your mind in an almost meditative fashion’. In this respect, running offers escapism. While you’re out there, all you focus on is making that next step, pushing yourself that little bit harder. Your problems disintegrate into the cool breeze and your primary concern becomes sustaining your target pace. Just for a little while, all of life’s difficulties melt into insignificance. Evidence supports this idea of running as a form of therapy. The Bristol SU Annual Survey asked students ‘what has helped to support your wellbeing at University?’ and 13 per cent of respondents noted sport or exercise in their response. As well as the aforementioned biological benefits, being part of a wider sporting family instils a strong sense of belonging in those who take part. It’s a way to keep fit, it’s a way to make friends and
vitally, it’s a way to have fun. Ultimately then, sport, exercise and running, most specifically, can only be seen as beneficial methods of coping with life’s inevitable unpleasantness. If you’re ever feeling down about something, stick on your trainers and go for
Women’s Basketball University of Bristol 1st vs Cardiff University 1st Cardiff Metropolitan University 2nd vs University of Bristol 2nd Keep up to date with what’s happening on Twitter at @ epigramsport
a run. Breathe in the fresh air. Take in your surroundings. I can almost guarantee you’ll feel better by the end of it and although your problems won’t just go away, it will help you to process them in a productive and healthy manner.
Epigram / Ben McCall-Myers
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There has been an undeniable rise in mental health adversly affecting young adults
University of Bristol 2nd vs University of Cardiff 2nd
Epigram / Ben McCall-Myers
Immediately after the half marathon of September 17th, there was a great buzz around the city of Bristol. People seemed inspired, upbeat and most importantly, happy. Over ten thousand had turned up for the 13.1 mile run and, in spite of some agonising facial expressions leading up to it, at the finish line it was smiles all round. This community of runners had liberated themselves through completing such a gruelling and impressive distance, as their pride spilled over to infect onlooking strangers with joy and admiration. It is certainly no coincidence that the half marathon produced such a positive and exuberant atmosphere. Science has proved that exercise will stimulate the production of endorphins, serotonin and dopamine; all feel-good hormones that contribute to a positive state of mind. Despite the taxing physical nature of the run, the brain works to reward the body for its troubles. Biologically, it’s a win-win situation. Furthering the atmosphere of optimism was the fact so many people had run, not just to challenge themselves, but for great charitable causes. From a man who ran the whole thing dressed as an elephant to two women who tied themselves together and ran it as a three legged race, there were some jovial efforts to raise money for their respective charities. Epigram’s very own film editor, Charlie Gearon (pictured right), was one of these people. He managed to raise £250 for Bristol Mind, a charity that focusses on ensuring everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets the support and respect they deserve. Impressively, he also managed to defy the student stereotype, as he quit smoking and avoided alcohol for the month leading up to the race, honouring a training regime that led him to a completion time
Men’s Hockey Oxford Brookes University 1st vs University of Bristol 1st
Charlie Gearon with his t-shirt after completing the half marathon