Epigram 348

Grad-phobia Inside...

Saving lives

Cryptic Bristol

Graduating students have a certain stress about the future

National lifesaving championships held in Bristol

Special codeword puzzle on our favourite university city

The Croft, page 9

page 31-32

page 29

epigram

Fortnightly 16 March 2020

est. 1988

Issue 348

The University of Bristol’s Independent Student Newspaper

University halts rise in student numbers Ellie Brown News Subeditor

T

he University of Bristol has scrapped plans to increase student numbers for the next academic year, Epigram can reveal.

According to Student Living Officer George Bemrose, the University will not be increasing undergraduate student numbers as planned for 2020/21.

There is also ‘an expectation that the growth in the next few years will be at a slower rate’ to protect the quality of the services offered to students. A spokesperson for the University stated: ‘Following the issues faced by some students in finding accommodation at the start of last term, we have reviewed our growth plans for 2020/21 to ensure we can deliver the very best student

experience to everyone.’

Explaining the change, Bemrose referred to ‘the accommodation crisis’ earlier this year, which he linked to rising numbers of students at the University. ‘Over the last few years, the total student population at the University of Bristol has grown by between 500 to 1000 each year.

The majority of this growth is new undergraduate students’ he said.

‘After the accommodation crisis, I lobbied and worked with the university to ensure this would not happen again. In his view, it was ‘as a result of me continually raising this as a priority to university management’ that the University decided to scrap its planned expansion next year.’

The University has also been working with private accommodation providers to ensure that more bed spaces are available in the city next year.

Continued on page 4...

Epigram / Will Charley

Students clash with SU Officers over issues of racism and Islamophobia at the annual meeting

‘Skolstrejk för klimatet’: Swedish activist Greta Thunberg leads a protest in Bristol, page 5

Students may have to take summer exams online amid concerns over coronavirus Maddy Russell News Editor

I

n an interview Pro-Vice Chancellor Sarah Purdy stated that the University will be implementing additional measures to contain the potential spread of

the disease. Preventative steps taken could include having students take their exams online and postponing graduation ceremonies, in order to minimise transmission of the virus.

Speaking to Epigram, Professor Purdy also confirmed that areas

of the University may have to be closed, should there be an outbreak on campus. However, any decision to close the institution entirely would likely have to be taken by Public Health England.

ed

or

ns

o Sp

www.epigram.org.uk

EpigramPaper

by

@EpigramPaper

@epigrampaper_

Continued on page 3...

Editorial

epigram 16.03.2020

Co-Editor-in-Chief Co-Editor-in-Chief Deputy Editor

Imogen Horton Patrick Sullivan Will Charley

Digital Editor Tom Taylor Deputy Digital Editor Bethany Marris epionlineeditor@gmail.com

Don’t let mid-term stress get to you – and wash your hands!

B

ack in October I wrote about the mid-term burnout everyone was feeling. Now, in March I think we’re all getting to that point again. For those of us finishing in a few months this last sprint of the marathon seems an uphill battle; completing our big research projects, avoiding illness and making the most of university life before we’re properly thrown into the adult world.

With strikes and reading week, university seems to have ground to a bit of a halt. The workload certainly hasn’t, but campus seems eerily empty, even with the SU election campaigns last week. There’s definitely a lethargy among everyone I know and the attendance in my seminars has been dropping dramatically.

National headlines have been filled with the gloom and doom of Coronavirus. Last week we reported that the University has been making plans for students to sit online or open book exams and that graduation ceremonies may have to be moved to later in the year. Epigram is working with senior management to make sure students are kept up to date with the latest developments and plans, so make sure to keep an eye on our website for the latest developments.

One plea from me, if you’re coming back from somewhere badly affected please follow guidelines and self-isolate if you need to. We’ve heard so often that people in our age group won’t be badly affected by the virus, but we need to be mindful that the wider university community includes students or staff with underlying health conditions.I know our News Editor would also like to remind people to wash their hands properly. How people have got to the age of 18 and are unaware of how to wash their hands properly I’m not too sure, but there’s some great videos and songs

online for those of you who need a reminder.

Despite mass hysteria over a new virus, there’s definitely reasons to be positive, even if it is just that for some of us we only have a few months left of essay writing and revision. Last week the SPA nominations were announced and I’m absolutely ecstatic that Epigram has been shortlisted in six categories including Best Newspaper Design, Best Website and Best Use of Digital Media. I’m so proud of our whole team, from our editors and sub-editors to our business team. This year has been amazing and as this is my last editorial of the year I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has been involved.

We’ve made a big effort this year to focus on visuals, from pushing for more photography in the paper to introducing a ‘News in Pictures’ section. Though the biggest change to our newspaper design this year has been the introduction of a new A4 lifestyle pull-out, The Croft. This required a lot of Skype calls last summer to redesign the sections and our nomination has definitely made the long calls from different sides of the country worthwhile!

A big thank you to our amazing The Croft editors who have done a great job all year round but their efforts in the International Women’s Day issue should really be praised!

Their The Croft x TWSS event celebrating inspirational women of Bristol is taking place this week and tickets can be purchased online.

Elsewhere, despite the apparent standstill on campus, work is going on behind the scenes to continually make the University a better place.

We’ve still got one issue left this year and I’m looking forward to seeing the work we’ll showcase. Despite being tired when doing my editorial checks, I’m always so impressed at the creativity of students, showing that there’s a positive to everything.

What, in a very long-winded way, this editorial has tried to say, is that despite hitting a point in the term where everyone seems to be close to running away to Greece and recreating Mamma Mia (well, maybe that’s just my flat) there’s always positives to look for. Sometimes even the smallest things are enough to get us through the week!

Epigram is the independent student newspaper of the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this publication are not those of the University or the Students’ Union. The design, text and photographs are copyright of Epigram and its individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission.

Printed by: Iliffe Print Cambridge Ltd. Winship Road, Milton Cambridge, CB24 6PP

Write for Epigram Each section of the newspaper has a Facebook group where editors post commissions.

You can also join our Creatives group where we commission artwork, poetry and illustration.

For more information email: getinvolved. epigram@gmail.com

Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter Get the latest stories, photos and videos straight to your inbox every Monday morning.

Our editors handpick the best content from across the week and collect it all in one, easy to access newsletter.

From the archives: Union says no to pro-platform

After Amber Rudd’s Oxford cancelled talk last week, we turn to Issue 212, February 2009, when unmoderated free speech at Bristol rescinded

Student Council has rescinded the contentious pro-platform motion passed at the last AGM, but tensions remain over the integrity of union politics. The pro-platform motion aimed to ‘safeguard the rights of Bristol students, societies and organisations to ask anyone they deem appropriate to speak at an event they host’. Initially passed at the centenary AGM on 5 February, poor attendance meant it passed to student council for ratification.

The student council decision means that Bristol Students’ Union retains its ambiguous position on allowing extremist groups into the union.

Speakers with potentially harmful views can be invited to speak, but UBU has the power to ban them. If

it had passed, the motion would have removed the Union’s right to prevent extremist groups such as the British National Party or Hizb ut-Tahir from speaking to Bristol students. The General Manager of the union, university lawyers and security services will decide together which proposed speakers to allow. The central concern will be the safety of students who could be threatened by radical political or religious groups. Tobin Webb, UBU President, said: ‘I’m really pleased and think the Council have come to the right decision.’ Applause greeted the announcement of the decision, for which no member of the student council opposed. Despite voting against the motion, tension still remained over the debate at the AGM. The original

Subediting Team News, Opinion & Features

Chief Proofreader

Ellie Brown Euan Merrilees

SciTech & Sport

Entertainment Siavash Minoukadeh Daisy Game Gail El-Halaby

Caitlin Price

speakers against the motion, chosen

by Chair James Ashton-Bell, were considered ineffectual. Critics argued that Mr Ashton-Bell – who had previously opposed a no-platform policy – had chosen speakers inappropriately, raising questions about the nature of the debate. Only after a procedural motion of no confidence was suggested against him were other speakers allowed. Criticism was also made of the Union’s Steering Committee for the timetabling of the pro-platform motion and the opposing no-platform motion. Student Council has voted to create an AGM scrutiny panel in an attempt to regain confidence in the integrity and transparency of union politics.

Rob Trotter

Business Team Managing Director Emily Lowes

Director of Comms Olivia Tapper

Alice Proctor Esme Hedley

Head of Finance

The Croft

Head of Marketing

Rosa Stevens Claudia Dupé Imogen Elliott

Business Assistants

Clarifications & Corrections

Epigram strive to be as accurate and impartial on student news as possible. However, should you wish to raise any editorial, commercial or legal issues please email editor@epigram.org.uk with the problem, addressed to the Editors-in-Chief. Please be sure to include the issue number and article headline if the article was in print, or the URL if the article was online. We endeavour to correct any inaccuracies as soon as they are raised with us.

Edward Fraser Rory Hosty

Ethan Luc Charlotte Jones May Garland Maduka Karunatilaka Tom Stone Isabel De Sousa Kabir Madan

News

Editor Deputy Editor Investigations Correspondent SU Correspondent

Maddy Russell Benjamin Salmon Isaac Haigh Maggie Sawant

Got a story for the newsteam? Email newsteam.epigram@gmail.com

‘The decision to travel is ultimately yours, but please make sure you are well informed’

Unsplash / CDC

• The University has confimed that exams may be online or ‘open book’ • Parts of campus may have to be closed off in order to slow down the spread of the virus • Management have confirmed the possibility of isolating students in their halls • Students who wish to travel during the Easter holidays have been told that it is there decision, but to make sure they stay informed

Maddy Russell News Editor

Continued from front page...

This comes following the news on Monday that widespread transmission of coronavirus within the UK is now looking ‘highly likely.’

Management also confirmed that it was considering the possibility of self-isolating halls and that a large number of take-away boxes had been purchased, in order ensure that

students living in catered-halls were still able to eat dinner.

Students who may be wishing to travel over Easter have been told that the decision to do so is at their own discretion, but to ensure that they are well informed and have sufficient travel insurance.

Students were also reminded to ‘consider very carefully the current

health advice and travel restrictions’ when deciding whether to go abroad.

Any student who has returned from traveling to Hubei provide, Iran, ‘special care zones’ in South Korea or Italy (since 9 March) must stay indoors and avoid contact with other people for 14 days upon their return to the UK. Anyone who has returned from

foreign travel and developed a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath must self-isolate in doors and contact the NHS’s 111 service.

All other students are encouraged to continue attending organised teaching time as normal, unless informed otherwise.

Those who are particularly concerned about contracting coronavirus and who may be considering returning home before the end of term have been encouraged to speak to their School before making any decisions and to consider the impacts that missed teaching time may have on their learning.

Despite the potential for disruption caused by the virus, Professor Purdy confirmed that the she was ‘pretty confident’ that final year students would still be able to complete their degrees according to a normal timescale.

Students were also reminded to wash their hand frequently and to continue checking the University’s website for updated advice on the spread of the disease.

Proposed name change to the BME network would exclude Ashkenazi Jewish students

• Members of the BME network have proposed changing its name to the Students of Colour network • This would imply that European Jews and other white ethnic minorities would be excluded from the network • A discussion to change the name of the network is ongoing

Maddy Russell News Editor

A

proposed name change to Bristol’s BME network, would see it exclude European Jewish students and other white ethnic minorities.

During a meeting in December a matter was raised by students to change the name of the BME network to the Students of Colour network.

Those present voted to have a further

discussion about potential name changes to the network. Any formal decision of this nature would have to be passed at either Student Council or AMM. The proposed changes would imply that students who were not of colour but who are defined as ethnic minorities would be newly excluded from the existing BME network.

Prior to the meeting, which took place on 3 December 2019, Epigram became aware that white students who identify with the BME network were asked not to attend. Bristol SU have, however, received no formal complaints and students should go through the SU complaints procedures, if they have concerns.

The BME network also said ‘no students were told not to attend.’

In response to the news Jewish Student, Sebastian Sultan, said: ‘Anti-Semitism defines Jews as an

An extract of the forum minutes obtained by Epigram

ethnic group, targeting us for our ethnicity not our beliefs.

‘While Ashkenazi Jews are white passing, we have always been defined and targeted as an ethnic minority.

For the BME Network to deliberately exclude an ethnicity that faces racism is a disgrace.’

A spokesperson for Bristol BME Network said: ‘A motion was raised to change the network name from BME Network to Students of Colour Network by a Black student who felt that they couldn’t relate to the term BME, but it was not voted on.

‘The people present only voted that it was worthy of looking into and to have another more in-depth discussion about what the best name would be.

‘The discussion will take place at another forum, but the committee has not yet decided on how or when it will happen.’

• Free suicide prevention training offered at SU • Sessions will involve discussions on how to help people who may be at risk • Event will take place on 20 March

Benjamin Salmon Deputy News Editor

S

tudents and staff at the University are being offered free suicide prevention training to help deal with Bristol’s ongoing mental health crisis.

The session, run by Zero Suicide Bristol, will take place on the 20th March in the Gromit Room of the Richmond Building, Bristol SU. They will involve an ‘open discussion about suicide prevention and mental health awareness.’

The event will be ticketed as organisers expect there to be limited space.

A mental health first aider will be in attendance to make sure participants can engage with themes in comfort.

Zero Suicide Bristol was founded by former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, James Cox, in 2019.

The organisation campaigns

to help prevent suicide in Bristol by offering tools to protect those currently vulnerable.

Zero Suicide Bristol also campaigned to set up an AllParliamentary Group on Student Suicides in October 2019.

At the time, Cox said: 'Parliament needs to be working with universities to build a new strategy for student suicides.

‘I want to form a parliamentary group devoted to researching the causes of student suicides and bringing in experts and mental health professionals from across the world who have been working to bring down suicide rates.

‘I want us to find out what works, what doesn’t and why, and collaborate with universities so we can get the very best suicide prevention strategy for students.’

Currently, the city of Bristol has one of the highest suicide rates in the country with over 140 deaths from suicide in between 2014 and 2016.

Bristol University has also come under criticism from students, parents and the media in the wake of 12 student suicides between October 2016 and April 2018, though the University are implementing new mental health measures.

Bristol researchers feature in Newsnight report on coronavirus • Bristol biologists featured on BBC Newsnight programme on coronavirus • Dr David Matthews and Dr Andrew Davidson represented the University

Benjamin Salmon Deputy News Editor

T

he University of Bristol’s School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine featured in a Newsnight report about their efforts to tackle the growth of the novel coronavirus.

The report, which was broadcast as part of the 3rd of March edition of the show, explained how the Bristol researchers are working on understanding how the virus operates by growing the virus in a laboratory.

Newsnight reporter Deb Cohen explained how ‘the Bristol team are making copies of the virus to help test vaccines, drugs and other diagnostic tools. ‘[Bristol scientists are] working out how the virus interacts with the cells of the body and how the cells in the body respond.’

Cohen continued: ‘Scientists hope to decipher the genome in messages

Staff at some Universities paid an average of £2 per hour, says UCU • Some staff at universities are on wages which practically pay as low as £2 per hour • The claim comes after Bristol lecturers went on strike for a second time this academic year

Molly Pipe

First Year Politics & Social Policy

U

CU Secretary General, Jo Grady, addressed striking Bristol staff outside the Victoria Rooms.

Grady claimed that some staff members are being paid as little as £2 per hour, when their salary is averaged out across their working hours. During a protest with Bristol staff on Wednesday the 26th of February, Jo Grady rejected the claim that the UCU’s demands are unaffordable, saying instead that staff are ‘shock absorbers of bad management.’

‘If we are unable, because it’s unaffordable, to actually sustain this sector without people doing billions of pounds of unpaid labour,

that is because of bad management,’ Grady said. She claimed that some employees are being paid as little as £2 an hour when they calculate their working hours against salary, and said that, ‘Universities have never spent less of their money than they currently do on staff.’

This comes following the news that University staff have begun industrial action to combat poor pay and working conditions, alongside 73 other UK institutions.

Staff have cited that their reason for striking was the University’s ‘failure to make significant improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads’, as well as disputes surrounding the 'sustainability of the Universities Superannuation Scheme'.

Changes to staff pension schemes have meant that affected members could pay £40,000 more into their pension and lose £200,000 in payout, according to analysis by First Actuarial.

This is partly due to contribution rates hiking from 6.35 percent in

2011 to 8.8 percent in 2019, with a rise to 11 percent due in the next 18 months.

‘USS is becoming unaffordable for staff on low pay,’ a representative of the UCU said.

Addressing Bristol teaching staff, on the increase in casualisation across the Universities sector, Grady claimed that staff can be affected for large parts of their careers by insecure contracts.

‘The record was a woman up in St Andrews who spent 35 years on [them],’ she said.

In a statement in response to Grady's claims, a spokesperson for the University said: ‘While we can't speak for the sector as a whole, here at the University of Bristol we have demonstrated a commitment to addressing the issue of workload.

‘We have a Workload Agreement for all staff, drawn up in partnership with the trade unions, and have recently added a set of workload allocation principles which relate specifically to academic and teaching staff contracts.’

BBC

4 News Suicide prevention session offered in wake of mental health crisis

epigram 16.03.2020

the virus is sending and learn what the resulting proteins actually do.’

Dr David Matthews, a reader in Virology, and Dr Andrew Davidson, a reader in Systems Virology, were featured in the report.

Matthews spoke of Bristol’s effort to isolate and to ‘dissect the virus on many different levels and dissect our immune response. Some of the work we’re doing here is going to be to start to underpin that.’

Davidson reassured of the efforts to keep the virus totally isolated from the rest of the University: ‘the live virus [is in a] … sealed cabinet and we work with the virus in that cabinet using a glove system.

‘The virus is also within a contained room in a contained laboratory.’

The coronavirus itself likely emerged in a market in Wuhan, China and has since spread around the world.

The virus has been particularly ubiquitous in Italy and in South Korea with the UK seeing a rise also.

Details about the new virus are still unclear but public health officials are advising people to wash their hands thoroughly and avoid touching their face.

There are multiple efforts to develop a vaccine with Bristol’s research contributing to this scientific endeavour.

‘This is crucial to make sure that all students can access better quality services’ • University not increasing student numbers, as had been previously reported • Bristol SU Student Living Officer lobbied against the initial proposals • The news follows the offer of Newport accommodation in September

Ellie Brown News Subeditor

Continued from front page...

Bemrose stated that over 350 extra bed spaces have been found, with over 200 bed spaces ‘available as a contingency.’

However, the University’s longterm growth plans have not changed.

According to a spokesperson, the institution’s plan to increase overall student numbers to 30,000 by 2024 has not changed.

‘A large proportion of these additional students’ will be at the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, which is due to open in 2023.

Commenting on the changes, Bemrose said: ‘One of the first issues

I had to deal with this year was the student accommodation crisis in September and I have been working closely with the university since to make sure this does not happen again.

‘One of my main concerns has been university expansion, which is partly what led to the accommodation issues, so I’m really pleased that the university will not be increasing undergraduate student numbers in 2020/21.

‘It’s great that the University has taken my criticism on board and that growth over the next few years will be at a slower rate. This is crucial to make sure that all students can access better quality services.’

Last September, Epigram reported that some freshers had been housed in Newport due to a lack of hall spaces in Bristol - something the University have since rectified.

‘The University is in a healthy financial position and is taking a robust, long-term approach to implementing the University strategy and managing student numbers.’

16.03.2020 epigram

News 5

• Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to crowd of thousands on College Green • Thunberg warns of the ‘climate and environmental emergency’

Ellie Brown News Subeditor

G

reta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who founded the global school strike movement, addressed a huge crowd at College Green on Friday 28 February.

Thunberg, who was due to speak at 11am, was greeted with cheers and whoops as she walked onstage at quarter to twelve.

‘I’m so happy to be here in Bristol with all of you’, she said.

Striking schoolchildren and their parents listened as the activist, wearing her famous yellow raincoat, reminded them of why they were there.

‘People are already suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate and environmental emergency.

‘But it will get worse’, she stated.

‘Nothing is being done to halt this crisis.’

She paid tribute to the city, noting that ‘the plans to expand Bristol Airport were cancelled, a lot thanks to climate activists’ and arguing that

'it shows that [climate activism] does make a difference.

Thunberg joined the protestors as they marched through the city centre following the rally.

Also speaking at the event was 17-year-old climate activist MyaRose Craig, who recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol for her work on increasing diversity in the environmental movement.

She paid tribute to the ‘amazing young climate activists’ at the rally and recalled her ‘first bird-watching experience’, before reminding those at the march of how the climate crisis is affecting those in the Global South.

The popularity of the rally - 2.6k people clicked ‘going’ on Facebook, though the number attending is estimated at much more - prompted safety warnings by police, though the organisers, Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate, were clear that safety measures were in place.

Meanwhile, student-run Facebook page Wills Meme-orial Building created a special event - ‘Let’s Get Greta To Lounge’ - apparently in the activist's honour.

‘Greta Thunberg loves the environment. Lizards are animals, which means that Greta loves lizards.

Greta, Lizard Lounge is the place for you,’ states the event’s description.

At the time of writing, 105 people clicked going – though it is not known if Thunberg was one of them.

Epigram / Ellie Brown

15,000 Bristolians watch Greta Thunberg warn of impending climate crisis

epigram 16.03.2020

6 News: In Pictures

Students pack punches as ‘The Fighter’ returns to Bristol • 30 students do battle as ‘The Fighter’ returned to Bristol in February • Hosted by SWX, 800 attendees watched as their friends punched, ducked and swerved • The fighters themselves receive professional training in advance of their fight • The event sold out in 3 minutes

Benjamin Salmon DeputyNews Editor

F

The Fighter Bristol

ight night hit Bristol on 25 February as 30 students locked horns in the ring.

SWX played host to the most brutally glamourous night of the Bristol boxing calendar with quite a bit of alcohol helping people along.

Over 800 attendees cheered on their friends are trash-talked their adversaries with blood, sweat and teeth flying over the well-dressed crowd. The fighters are trained by professional boxers and coaches for months before their fight with all their practice coming down to only 6 minutes in the ring.

Tickets for this year’s event sold out in only three minutes.

Democracy in action: Students vote on the • Election results were announced 13 March • As well as SU roles, Bristol membership in the NUS was also voted on by students

Patrick Sullivan

Cordelia for UG Education

L

ast week, students campaigned for 2020/21 SU roles, including paid sabbatical officer roles such as Union Affairs and Undergraduate Education. A new team of seven fulltime officers was announced on 13 March after voting ran between 1012 March. At the time of printing the results were unknown. In the same vote, voluntary part-time officers and network chairs were decided and these students will take on the roles in June alongside their studies. As every three years, students also voted on whether to stay in the NUS.

Ostin D’Silva #1 for UG / Orlando Timmerman

Co-Editor-in-Chief

16.03.2020 epigram

Poetry Society ‘slam’ the competition at national poetry championships • Society win spoken word slam poetry competition • Bristol cruised through the prelimary rounds before winning the semi-finals and final

Sabrina Miller Opinion Editor

B

ristol University’s Poetry and Creative Writing Society won the ‘UniSlam’ poetry competition over the first weekend in March.

UniSlam is a national poetry competition that sees universities across the country send teams of up to five students perform 12 different, original poems.

The competition which took place from the 6 to 8 March, was hosted in the Birmingham Hippodrome.

The Bristol Uni Slam team had a clean sweep coming first in preliminary rounds, the semi-finals, and the Grand Final.

Each poem is scored between 0-10 points and is judged on both

quality of writing and quality of performance.

The University of Bristol team was coached by poet Eve Piper, President of the University of Bristol Spoken Word Society.

She has experience performing all over Bristol including at the Tobacco Factory Theatres.

Other team members include Ellie Sheppard, Patrick Benson, Justin Tabbett, Annie Wilson and Ife Grillo.

Ife Grillo is a Hammer & Tongue National Finalist, a Genesis Slam Champion, a Roundhouse Youth Slam finalist and won an individual award at the 2018 UK University slam championships.

In a Facebook post, Grillo said: ‘I am shocked and excited that Bristol won, and was proud to ‘represent Bristol’s amazing scene and live up to the city we came from.’

He added that participating in UniSlam was ‘the privilege of a lifetime’ and that ‘in an increasingly scary world, art is needed more than ever.’ UniSlam was founded in 2013 to champion young people’s voices.

News 7

Bristol Students begin raising money for legal fund for Sanctuary Scholars • Two Bristol students are raising money through a crowdfunder • The money will be used to fund legal issues that may arise from their status

Maggie Sawant

Students’ Union Correspondent

S

tudents from the Bristol University Amnesty International and Student Action for Refugees (STAR) have combined forces with the Students’ Union to launch a major fundraising campaign to support a new Sanctuary Scholar Legal Fund.

The campaign aims to raise £25,000, which Sanctuary Scholars will be able to use in the event that they are forced to defend their right to study at Bristol University in court, as the students do not qualify for legal aid.

Since 2016, Bristol University has provided 37 scholarships to students living in the UK from refugee

and asylum-seeking backgrounds to help them access foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Last year, the Home Office imposed so-called ‘study bans’ on two Sanctuary Scholars, one week before the summer exam season started.

If the two students had decided to sit their exams despite the ban, this would have been considered a breach of their ‘bail conditions’, which could result in a fine, or criminal proceedings resulting in up to six months’ imprisonment.

The two students were forced to rely on a crowdfunder in order to collect funds to appeal this decision.

One Sanctuary Scholar, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: ‘A study ban is one of the most horrifying experiences for anyone who has a desire for education.

‘It makes one feel neglected, not wanted, lost of hope and dreams which of course can cause emotional and psychological effects.’

Katie Bales, lecturer in law at the University of Bristol, a trustee

of the City of Sanctuary charity and a founding member of the Sanctuary Scholarship Working Group, explained: ‘With no access to employment and limited access to welfare benefits, this means that the only means students have in challenging the study bans is either to spend the scholarship money which is provided to pay for rent, books and food, or to raise money via external fund raising.’

Jason Palmer, Bristol SU’s Equality, Liberation and Access Officer said: ‘A legal fund will help consolidate the right of our Sanctuary Scholars to study at Bristol.

‘It’s essential in ensuring they receive the legal representation they deserve to have an undisrupted university experience - it would help alleviate both the mental and financial burden of legal costs.’

Students from asylum-seeking backgrounds who wish to study at Bristol may apply for Scholarships, which were established to lessen the barriers refugees face when trying to obtain a place at University.

Re-elect Julio #1 for Union Affairs

Bristruths Rory for Union Affairs

NUS and candidates campaign for SU roles

8 News

epigram 16.03.2020

News in Brief

Medical School first in the country to adopt racial harassment charter Benjamin Salmon ristol Medical School has become the first in the country to adopt a charter which commits to addressing the barriers that prevent ethnic minority from thriving in the profession.

The charter, which was launched in February 2020 by the British Medical Association, asks medical schools to adopt measures to prevent racial harassment such as training and responses schools should make when poor behaviour is seen.

The School committed to: supporting individuals to speak out, ensuring robust processes for reporting and handling

B

complaints, mainstreaming equality, diversity and inclusion across the learning environment and addressing racial harassment on work placements.

Professor Ashley Blom, Bristol Medical School Head said: ‘As the future of the medical profession, we want our students to study in a rewarding and inclusive environment where they can flourish while they train to become doctors.

‘In adopting this Charter we have committed to improving diversity and building inclusion for all medical students so they can become the very best doctor that they aspire to be.’

Pupils’ genes cannot accurately predict educational achievement, says Bristol research Maddy Russell study conducted by researchers at the University of Bristol has concluded that pupil’s genetic data does not accurately predict their educational achievements and therefore should not be used to create a personalised curriculum.

Researchers from Bristol Medical School and the MCR Integrative Epidemiology Unit took genetic and

A

educational data from 3,500 children during the ‘90s and compared their ploygenic scores with their educational exam results at the at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16. Analysis of the data showed that whilst genetic scores moderately predicted educational achievement, these measures were little better than using other standard measures, such as parent’s education and socioeconomic status.

Spoons introduce six new flavour of pitcher Maddy Russell n what can only be described as the biggest news story of 2020, every student’s favorite pub, Wetherspoons, has announced that it will be introducing six new flavour of pitcher to its drinks menu, later this month.The six new cocktail pichers being introduced are: Kopparberg Strawberry Delight, Hawaiian Pipeline Punch, Cranberry Breeze, Rhubarb Spritz, Mighty Booch and Moscow mule. The new drinks will include a variety of spirits including Captain Morgan Tiki, Golden spiced rum and vodka. Drinks being removed from the menu will include: Long Island Ice Tea, Ultra Violet and Very Cherry.

I

Bristol Airport cancels flights to Italy following concerns over coronavirus Maddy Russell ristol Airport has announced that it is cancelling flights to Italy by easyJet and Ryanair amid concerns over coronavirus. EasyJet has announced that it is cancelling all flights to Milan, Venice and Verona, following extended restrictions across the country in order to minimise transition of the virus.

On Saturday 14 March, Ryanair began suspending all flights to the country, however passengers were said to have been offered a ‘free move’ to an earlier flight.

Bristol Airport, however, is currently not temperature testing for arrivals.

B

Bristol courses among the best in the world, says QS Ellie Brown he University of Bristol is within the top 100 institutions in the world for 35 of its courses, according to the 2020 QS World University Rankings

by Subject.

Three courses made the top 20: Earth & Marine Sciences (15th), Veterinary Science (also 15th) and Social Policy and Administration (19th).Nine were in the top 50, and 29 per cent of the subjects improved their ranking from

T

the year before.

Tansy Jessop, Pro ViceChancellor for Education said: ‘Here at the University of Bristol, we strive to give our students access to some of the world’s best teaching by providing a diverse, research-rich education. These latest results, showing a nine-subject increase to 35 courses, are a testament to the hard work of our schools and faculties and our innovative approach to education.’

Badock has highest number of drug-related fines out of any UoB Halls Maddy Russell adock Hall has received the highest number of drug-related fines for this academic year, a report from The Tab, has uncovered.

Figures from a Freedom of Information Request have shown that a total of 10 drug related fines have been handed out to residents of the hall between September 2019 and January 2020. This figure is beleived to be higher than the total number of fines issued to students in five of the other North Hall student villages combined.

Students in Hiatt Baker, University Hall, The Holmes, Churchill and Wills received a total of nine fines in the same period of time. Fewer than five fines were issued to the students in both East Village and West Village and not a single fine was issued to students living in Postgraduate Halls of Residents.

Due to UK data protection laws, the University was unable to confirm how may seperate drug-related fines were issued per hall, as this could risk identifying the individuals concerned.

A freedom of Information Request in 2019 also revealed that Badock had the third highest number of private school students of any hall in Bristol.

B

Features

Editor Deputy Editor Digital Editor Investigations Editor

Robin Connolly Jack Charters Oliver Cohen Georgiana Scott

@robinnlcc @JackLChtrs @GeorgianaScott7

Twitter: @EpigramFeatures

Cracks have now formed within the pro-democracy movement

placed over her head, Christy feared being ‘physically attacked on campus.’ She said, ‘I was paranoid for several days over what would happen to me and I didn’t know what to do.’

Although she reported the incident to the police, she made the decision not to go to the University as she was concerned it would only add fuel to the conflict. She said, ‘The University are not there to take sides. If they put their foot in, someone will get upset.’

She added, ‘Once you give the University information you don’t know what they are going to do with that information. I don’t trust them.

‘If they have a go at some Hong Kong students, it just puts others on the spot. They will know that we went to tell the University.’

“

She received a death threat after she shared a social media post that questioned the actions of the anti-government protestors

“

“

She explained how this incident was just one in many cases of ‘social media abuse’ and ‘public shaming’ from other Hong Kong students she has experienced this year at University as a result of not fully supporting the pro-democracy movement.

‘My peers are quite aggressive; they attack you as a person instead of attacking your view. They just go to you “you’re rubbish, you’re a pig”.

Those kinds of insults I’ve heard a million times.’

She continued, ‘I know that if I continue to express my opinion publicly, then something will happen to me and that is now the norm I would say… If you’re around Hong Kong students in the UK, you better shut up.’

For now, there’s nothing we can do, but keep our silence.’

After learning of the incident,

‘Bristol Stands with Hong Kong**’, an activism group who are vocal in their support for the pro-democracy protestors, told Epigram; ‘The Hong Kong pro-democracy protests have turned into a movement of

unprecedented scale…and division growing between people with different opinions is unavoidable collateral.

“

The political divide between students has not just put their physical safety at risk

‘We sympathise with those who feel that they are unable to speak up just because they hold an unpopular opinion, as no one should be feeling in that particular way. Likewise, some of us who are more pro-democracy also fear retribution from those who take a more pro-China/progovernment/pro-police view.’

Recognising some students might not want to go to the University for support, the group added, ‘We strongly urge those who feel that way, to take action as you see fit, as it is their freedom and right to do so, and we do understand how it feels to be oppressed, helpless and alone.’

The political divide between students has not just put their physical safety at risk; students have expressed how the situation has become a strain on their mental health. They said they felt ‘powerless’ after continually seeing pictures of people in their home country being violently attacked and that they were constantly ‘concerned for their families back home.’

In response to the reported incidents, the University commented; ‘The University of Bristol is a place where everyone should feel safe, welcome and accepted.

‘We have not received any reports or information regarding these claims but are concerned if there are students out there who are experiencing this kind of abuse.

‘We understand the reticence to speak out, but it’s really important that anyone affected talk to a member of our wellbeing, residential

“

The University of Bristol is a place where everyone should feel safe, welcome and accepted

“

S

tudents have reported receiving social media abuse and even death threats from fellow Hong Kong students as antagonisation increases.

The differences in opinion centre over the current pro-democracy protests taking place across Hong Kong.

The riots, which started peacefully in June 2019, have greatly intensified, with both police and demonstrators resorting to the use of more violent tactics. As a result, previous issues have arisen on University campuses across the UK between those in favour of democracy and those against it.

However, cracks have now formed within the pro-democracy movement itself, between those who no longer condone the methods being used by the protestors in Hong Kong and those that believe their actions are justified in the fight for democracy.

Christy,* a third-year student from Hong Kong, reported that she received a death threat after she shared a social media post that questioned the actions of the antigovernment movement.

She explained how a ‘former

“

Investigations Editor

friend’ had taken a screenshot of her Instagram profile and posted it online with the words ‘Someone end this girl’ branded over it.

Christy explained that ‘ending’ is a term used by the pro-democracy movement to describe ‘where you have just beaten up someone who has different opinions from you.’ She said this is followed by the sharing of a picture of the victim ‘covered in blood’ on social media.

After seeing the term had been

“

A hidden conflict between the University of Bristol’s Hong Kong international students has emerged Georgiana Scott

Epigram / Anonymous

Epigram / Anonymous

Death threats and online abuse as tensions from Hong Kong infiltrate campus

life or security teams, or contact us online via Report and Support or the Health and Wellbeing web pages, so we can offer appropriate support and information. This can be done confidentially if necessary.’ *Names have been changed to keep anonymity **Bristol stands with HK disclaimer: ‘Our organisation does not represent the HK international student community within Bristol University Campus. Our response may not provide a holistic and accurate representation of your target demographics, and merely an observation.’

10 Features

epigram 16.03.2020

First Year, Sociology

R

ecent statistics produced

by Public Health England have shown the number of mumps cases are currently the highest they’ve been for a decade. Perhaps more worryingly, it seems these outbreaks have proved to be especially common in universities and colleges.

In 2018, the highest number of cases was 153 people from the 20–24 age category. In this example, the majority of those infected were individuals who hadn’t been vaccinated, which explained why the number of mumps cases was so high.

Mumps is a viral infection which is transmitted, much like the flu, through the transfer of infected saliva that you breathe in from other people who are infected. So, say it with me people: ‘Coughs and sneezes spread diseases.’

The obvious question following this is: how can we prevent the spread of mumps?

Well again, similar to the common

“

I felt pretty down the whole time I had it because my face was so painful that I couldn’t eat, laugh, smile or talk

One UoB Masters student, Verity, who has suffered from mumps in the last 12 months seems familiar with the ‘hamster face’, telling Epigram, ‘it started off with just having a bit of a sore patch

just below my ears; I actually thought it might be wisdom teeth related at first, but then it spread down my face and my whole face swelled up and I literally looked like a hamster!’

She also explained ‘I felt pretty down the whole time I had it because my face was so painful that I couldn’t eat, laugh, smile, talk, literally nothing. I basically lived off mashed potato, soup and ice cream for 10 days because I couldn’t chew.’

However, there is no need to panic.

Providing you’ve been given the MMR vaccine (and most people are vaccinated when they’re really young so you may well not remember it) you’re less likely to get the mumps. But, like all vaccines, there’s still a small chance – 5 per cent in this case – that you could still get infected. In fact, you might be reading this and thinking, that you recognise or have suffered from these symptoms, maybe even asking yourself ‘what on Earth should I do?!’

First thing’s first; contact your GP. Mumps isn’t a majorly life-threatening disease, but it has similar symptoms to more serious infections like tonsillitis.

So, it’s important to get an expert opinion. This will involve your GP asking you to open you mouth so they can have a peek at your tonsils and then getting a good feel of your face.

Following a bit of poking and

UoB / Lucy Daykin

Rebecca Widdowson

cold we simply have to observe good (if not, great) hygiene practises. Wash your hands regularly (with soap) and throw away any used tissues. Please don’t collect hordes of them in your bags or pockets, easy as they are to forget about!

Asides from hygiene advice you’ve probably heard a million times from your mum, it’s also important to know what to do if you suspect you have the mumps.

The most common symptom is what’s called the ‘hamster face’, where the sides of your face and the area under your ears swell up. And before your cheeks suddenly become quite chunky it is typical to have jaw pain. Talking to other students, it seems common to experience a high temperature too, unfortunately accompanied by headaches, which herald the imminent arrival of the mumps.

“

Mumps cases are at a decade high, with Universities being particularly affected

UoB /Anna Milne

‘I literally looked like a hamster!’: The rise of mumps at universities

prodding, your GP will also let your local Health Protection Team (HPT) know you might have the mumps. The HPT then sends you a little saliva testing kit so you can provide them with a sample to confirm if you have the mumps or not.

The most important thing to note is that people with the mumps are at their most contagious a few days before any symptoms develop and then for a few more days after that. This seemingly makes for identifying those who are infectious very difficult, seeing how you can’t immediately see it, but the best thing you can do is just keep calm, carry on, and offer support to anyone that thinks they might be infected.

Mumps itself is not actually curable,

but there are things you can do to relieve any pain you’re experiencing from the symptoms until they go away.

Most notably, the students experiencing jaw pain recommend taking painkillers, like paracetamol, and applying a cool compress to swollen the areas. It’s also advised that you should isolate yourself for the days you’re most contagious to prevent the spread of mumps, during which time you should try and get a lot of bed rest and drink plenty of water.

Finally, you’ll be glad to hear that you normally develop life-long immunity to the mumps once you’ve contracted them, so you’ll never have them again.

So, there seems to be something of a silver lining after all.

Do universities do enough to warrant their status as ‘exempt charities’?

An investigation into how Bristol’s universities have been questioned on their economic output Elle Maher

First Year, Maths

F

or many, the purpose of coming to University is to challenge yourself academically, socially and personally. Yet, little do we know, officially Universities are registered as ‘exempt charities’, meaning their purpose is literally ‘to benefit the public’. This allows the University of Bristol and University of West England (UWE) to prosper from tax exemptions, which Bristol City Council are currently scrutinising.

Considering the running of Universities is becoming increasingly more business-like, the question has to be asked: is this charitable status justified?

Amongst independent schools,

churches and museums, universities are registered charities and therefore cannot operate for profit, but instead, only for the public’s benefit. This status means universities can receive relief of up to 80 per cent on income tax, corporation tax, capital gains and property tax. For Bristol City Council, the Universities cause a deficit of £5.1 million.

This has led Bristol City Councillors to raise a concern about Bristol’s universities for not ‘paying their way’, which was responded to by Mayor Marvin Rees. Rees made clear that while the council recognises the contribution universities make to the city, it also emphasises that these benefits do not come free.

The Council have particularly focused on the University of Bristol and their operation of the Hawthorns café, and Goldney Hall, as these are both profitable businesses, with the Orangery at Goldney Hall being available for private weddings and costing up to £2,800.

It has been estimated that from these facilities alone, the University could be

liable for over £7,000 worth of business rates, but due to their charitable status, they are exempt from approximately £6,000.

In response to the Council’s criticism, the University have argued that their economic output to the city massively outweighs the tax exemption sum of £5.1 million: for example, in 2017 alone the University contributed £1 billion to Bristol’s annual economic output.

In addition, many students remain in Bristol after their studies, contributing to the highly skilled workforce.

Besides the economics, there is an ethical issue being discussed.

Considering the extremely high tuition fees, there is an increasing feeling that Universities, including Bristol, are running as businesses and thus exploiting their charitable status.

As a student who pays £9,250 in tuition fees a year, learning that my University is exempt from 80 per cent tax on this income led me to question how this is spent - especially considering current strikes over staff pay.

As ‘exempt charities’, universities have

to provide full financial accountability to prove they have reinvested their income and are not functioning to make profit.

According to the University’s financial review, the majority of its income goes towards services and buildings, such as the new Fry Building for the School of Mathematics or the provisional plans for the new enterprise campus near Temple Meads train station.

However, some are saying that universities cannot keep building and expanding, as for many cities, including Bristol, this is becoming unsustainable.

It could be argued that instead of consuming cities in order to prove they have reinvested profits; they should pay higher tax rates.

On the other hand, looking at Universities as research facilities, this charitable status can be seen as completely justified. It has been reported that for every £1 of public research funding, Russell Group Universities deliver an average return of £9 to the UK economy, Bristol being included in this. Socially as well, the impact of highquality teaching and world-renowned

research, especially in areas of Science and Technology, have shaped modern society.

It may not be that you associate world-known charities, such as Cancer Research, with Universities. However, they are mutually dependent on one another and together they have provided immense public benefits within the health and service sectors.

Whilst the Council has attempted to challenge the Universities’ charitable status, it is evident that the economic output of the University of Bristol and UWE outweighs the capital value of the tax exemptions, which is what is counteracting the council’s argument.

Of course, it should also be noted that the real power to deliver any change to the status of universities lies with national government, rather than Bristol City Council.

Overall, it seems that currently the running of Universities, whether as a business or a charity, is certainly liminal, yet ultimately as research centres they do provide a public benefit, justifying their status of ‘exempt charities’.

Features 11

16.03.2020 epigram

Epigram / Robin Connolly

‘It hit me that something wasn’t right’: Investigating student drink spiking

D

rink spiking is a dangerous and worrying act of violence that effects hundreds of students across the country each year. Defined as the act of secretly placing drugs into someone’s drink with the intent to incapacitate them, drink spiking is a serious, premediated act of violence that carries a tenyear prison sentence for perpetrators.

The issue with tackling this problem is that many cases go unreported, leaving law enforcement with little evidence to determine the scope and risk factor to individuals.

Current statistics gathered in the regions of Bath, Northeast Somerset and Devon suggest that there is a low risk to students being spiked on a night out, however this isn’t to say that it doesn’t happen at all. To give some insight into the vulnerability of the situation, an anonymous University of Bristol student agreed to share their drink spiking experience, revealing the real danger of drink spiking and the necessity for more protective measures.

The account is from a first year female who believes she was spiked at a halls party shortly after Fresher’s Week at Stoke Bishop in 2019. The source disclosed that she has an existing medical condition that requires

“

I was experiencing the third dimension; everything was echoing in my head

By around 3am that morning, the source’s friends had helped her get back into her room and were worried for her, saying that they’d never seen her in that state before. The group considered phoning 999 but decided not to after their friend had stopped being sick and passed out on her bed.

At 5am the next morning, the source woke up still feeling intoxicated and by 11 AM was feeling incredibly low and recalls having bouts of excessive crying for no reason.

When asked if she believed she was targeted at the party, she said that she didn’t and that she felt she was rather a victim of a ‘sick prank’.

‘Someone assaulted me, it wasn’t sexual assault, but it was still as-

sault… I feel more unsafe than before, I had a naïve perception of people I know being ‘fine’, especially when trying to make friends… It genuinely could have killed me’.

The severity of this account is alarming, but also highlights the necessity for more procedures to be put in practise to help victims know if they have been spiked and what to do in that event. To get a better understanding of drink spiking statistics in the area and the methods put in place to tackle drink spiking, the Director of Protocol, David Moore from Devon and Cornwall Police agreed to share information and advice.

Mr Moore discussed how the current statistics don’t ‘incorporate whether spiking was happening or not’ as they don’t disclose whether the drugs are purposely taken.

To rectify this, a three month drink spiking procedure was put into action last year in Plymouth which supplied licensed venues with drink screening kits. If a person in a club or bar believed that they had been spiked, then they could go to the bar and take the test. If it came back positive further action could be taken and an investigation would be initiated. If it came back negative, then it would bring great relief to the suspected victim and prevent the spread of false claims of being spiked.

He told me that ‘[the procedure] gives us much clearer figures and allows us to start the investigation earlier.’

The positive screening cards are used in forensics and are considered concrete evidence in an investigation. This, paired with CCTV and

witness accounts, can lead to prosecution. Mr Moore continued that preventative measures are also important to introduce and spoke about the Spike Aware Campaign. This involves displaying visual deterrents to perpetrators with posters placed in clubs and bars to demonstrate heightened security. The campaign is designed to make people feel safe when they are out and has proven to be very effective.

“

Someone assaulted me, it wasn’t sexual assault, but it was still assault

When mentioning the risk factor in private functions, like hall parties, Mr Moore recognised the limitation of spiking cases in the public due to the deterrents put in place. ‘[Private parties] have no capable guardian’, Mr Moore stated, suggesting that people have a ‘false sense of security’ and are therefore at more risk as they have their guard down. To combat this, Mr Moore recommended that every student carries one of the drug screening kits with them, like you would condoms for protection.

Having the cards and letting others know you carry them works as a similar deterrent to the poster campaigns in the Plymouth procedure, providing added security.

At Bath Spa University early last year, the Student Union included drink testing kits in their welcome packs for students as part of their

pack to make students safer when going out. The kits were produced by the local publishing house Rat Tales as part of their Anti-Drink Spiking campaign that aims to collect data and offer ways to protect people from being targeted. The cards test for a range of common drugs used for spiking including Ketamine, LSD and GBH and can be purchased for personal use on their website.

In response to the questions raised about student safety and drink spiking, a representative from the University of Bristol added that students should be encouraged to ‘be aware of drink spiking and the dangers of leaving drinks unattended’, before pointing towards information talks and leaflets available to students when first coming to Bristol.

‘The dangers of drink spiking and the importance of students looking after their own drinks is covered, alongside other safety and wellbeing topics, in our Welcome Week talks given by each Residential Life village team and in our Love Where you Live leaflet.’

“

The positive screening cards are used in forensics and are considered concrete evidence in an investigation

“

Second Year, History

“

Elaura Lacey

her to take high doses of anti-epilepsy mediation daily, preventing her from drinking excessively and taking recreational drugs, highlighting the danger of the situation. When asked how much she had to drink that night, she said only ‘a Gin and Tonic with a bottle of Cobra’ that she opened herself. After an hour of being at the party, she started to feel very intoxicated and anxious.

She told me how at one point ‘it hit me that something wasn’t right… it escalated very quickly. I was experiencing the third dimension; everything was echoing in my head…

I was scared I was going to have a seizure’.

“

Looking at how drink spiking has affected students at the university and how we can protect ourselves

Some of this advice maybe isn’t new and perhaps feels basic but it is still very relevant and important to remember if we want to protect ourselves and others during these vulnerable moments.

epigram 16.03.2019

12 Features

Robin Connolly Features Editor

A

nnually, the University of Bristol awards a number of honorary degrees to those who the University believe deserve credit and acknowledgement for ‘outstanding achievement and distinction in a field or activity consonant with the mission of the University.’ In previous years honorary degrees have been bestowed upon well-known names such as James Hillier Blount (better known as James Blunt), Matt Lucas, Simon King as well as others considered to be distinguished within their areas of expertise.

Amongst the February 2020 honorary graduates were MyaRose Craig (Doctor of Science honorary degree), who runs the blog known as ‘Birdgirl’, Luke Jerram (Doctor of Letters honorary degree), international artist and Jasper Thompson, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Jasper, who received his honorary degree for his service to Bristol’s homeless community.

Jasper started his charity, Help Bristol’s Homeless three years ago, and has subsequently raised more than £50,000 to convert shipping containers into micro-flats which provide temporary accommodation for the homeless in Bristol.

In 2017, Jasper and his wife, Tania started to work with homeless outreach groups in Bristol, handing out provisions such as hot food and sleeping bags. He tells me that he started doing this purely to give back to a city that he loves – ‘I just thought - let's do something for the homeless, do something for someone else, you know?’

But Jasper soon discovered that as well-run and well-intended as his outreach work was, it didn’t seem to be enough. ‘When I was out on the street speaking to the guys and girls, I didn't realise how bad the situation is.’ But having had these conversations with people, ‘I realised the situation is bad. And it's getting progressively worse.’

Displaying his core morals and beliefs, Jasper explained with feeling that ‘for me, I believe people living in doorways and tents and on the street - people deserve, as humans, deserve better.’

I asked him what it was that drew him to homelessness as a project, as opposed to other issues surrounding social justice, as there are still many problems that the city is battling to address. He illustrated how ‘you know, you actually go out and about and see homelessness,’ ‘you don't, you know, see people's mental health issues, or domestic abuse or violence or bullying.’

He expanded on this, making me chuckle – ‘it was quite prevalent to me, that the City of Bristol had a major issue and it needed a hand. So, I just thought, dun dun duuuun.... here's your hand.’

I am intrigued to hear where Jasper got the idea for shipping-container

living from. Help Bristol’s Homeless are now running 20 converted flats.

They measure at 30ft and there is also a shower block, a laundry, a kitchen, dining room and an office.

On site there is also a double-decker bus which has the capacity for twelve people undertaking over-night stays.

There is a zero-tolerance alcohol and substance abuse policy on their site in Bedminster.

He tells me that he didn’t get the idea from anywhere in particular.

During his time in the military he had some experience of living in containers, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that this wasn’t necessarily what inspired him. At the project's first site, on Malaga Road in Bedminster, there was an old shipping container, which was used as a storeroom and then an office.

‘And then I decided to sort of clean that out. And I put beds in both sides.’ He describes how this was their first attempt at making a

Courtesy of Help Bristol's Homeless Epigram/Vilhelmiina Haavisto

In conversation with Jasper Thompson, UoB 2020 honorary graduate and founder of Help Bristol's Homeless

Courtesy of University of Bristol

Introducing Jasper Thompson, honorary graduate

shipping container habitable. ‘When the weather cleared, I then decided that I wanted to build a flat out of a shipping container. Now, I didn't actually see this anywhere. Initially, it was just an idea that I got.’

However, it grew from there – Jasper involved a builder as well as local people who were willing to donate their time, expertise and money to get the project kickstarted.

It is these people, the Bristolian community whose praises Jasper is constantly singing. When telling me why he loves the city, he revealed that ‘the people here are very, very warm,’ and that ‘without the community within the city, I don't think our project would have got off the ground.’

Jasper clearly takes pride in the project he has built, and it sounds like this is more than justified. In fact, from what he’s telling me, I think the majority of student houses are in worse condition than his shipping container flats. ‘The units are immaculate. They're warm, they're safe.’

Not only this but Help Bristol’s Homeless seems to be successful in turning people’s lives around.

In 2019, a report from the charity Shelter estimated that there are around 280,000 people in Britain who are homeless, with a Bristol Post article revealing that homeless people in Bristol were dying at more than double the national rate.

Jasper explains that his project has the ability to help people through ‘rules and regulations,’ ‘being substance-free,’ and ‘having a base to work from.’ Even better that that, ‘we got people who can now engage with family because they're now in a more settled, gated environment.’

Knowing many students who struggle with seeing homelessness around the city but feel powerless to

change anything, I asked Jasper how he thinks others can best help the situation. He gives sage advice: ‘Bear in mind that you're at University studying. You have to limit yourself to what you want to do and can do.

You can't overstretch yourself, and don't over-commit yourself.

‘Join a group that you can assist maybe one day a week, one day a month. Don't overdo it. Don't get stressed out by it and don't really take it on board, where it's going to affect your mental health, your well-being.’

He describes joining an outreach group as ‘the best way’ to start helping Bristol’s homeless. ‘Don't start setting up distribution groups and collection groups because those things are already in place. Don't come on board thinking, I'm going to set this up once a week, because you'll never be able to commit to it and it will fall by the wayside and you'll feel let down by people. Join something that's already established.

Do your best.’

Jasper has recently been asked to head up a similar style project in New Jersey, USA. His ideas are going global and he is changing people’s lives for the better. He speaks with passion, empathy and is clearly someone who won’t take any nonsense.

When I ask him about how it felt to receive his honorary degree, he candidly revealed ‘I don't get excited about nothing but football.’ Quickly, he followed this up with genuine pride, stating ‘I get lots of awards and stuff, you know, but coming from Bristol, my city – was fantastic. That made it special.’

Finally, he says ‘it's a great, great privilege.’

Congratulations to Jasper, as well as all of the other 2020 honorary graduates. I wish him, as well as Mya-Rose Craig and Luke Jerram all the best in the future.

Opinion

Editor Digital Editor Deputy Editor

Sabrina Miller Kofo Ajala Elisha Mans

EpiCartoon: Seven deadly sins of the ASS Alice Proctor SciTech and Sport Subeditor

Fancy yourself as a budding cartoonist?

Send in your submissions or ideas via email to opinion.epigram@gmail.com

Syirah Ami

Third Year, Aerospace Engineering

E

arlier in February, Epigram released an article saying that Vice was looking for Bristolbased ketamine users or dealers for a documentary. But why Bristol?

Most people who are into the music culture would know that there’s also a culture of substance use, despite thorough searches by security and a drug crackdown by clubs like Motion.

In the Home Office’s 2018/19 seizures of drugs, the South West champions the UK’s list of ket seizures. Weirdly, Devon takes the top while Bristol is second (maybe farmers are taking in some horse tranquillizer for themselves). But it’s apparent that even though you can find drugs everywhere, Bristol does indeed have a problem with ketamine. This isn’t limited to students. Sure, the ket-lined carpets of Badock suggest otherwise, but the fact is that even locals largely participate in the city’s drug

culture. Whether you attend student favourites like Motion or venues where most people aren’t students, like the Black Swan, you’ll most likely see dubious pills or baggies of powder around. But to be candid: drug culture is genuinely dangerous in Bristol student circles. I’m not a fan of criminalisation, nor am I a fan of how drug culture has trickled into student spheres. As a fresher, you’re put into a situation where you suddenly have independence. You’re excited to be in Bristol, known for its diverse music scene. You probably know someone who enjoys going out and you want to fit in with them.

People tell you about how drugs can enhance your clubbing experience.

However they leave out the dark parts. No one tells you about the ugly side of drugs when you start using them. Like, why would your dealer tell you why you shouldn’t buy their drugs? You hear about people dying from drugs on the news; ‘But I’m different,’ you tell yourself. You know, in theory, drugs like ketamine can cause heart attacks, dehydration and even death – but you’ll be safe.

However, in my experience, students actually don’t take many measures

to stay safe. I know very few people who own drug testing kits, and even fewer who will regularly test.

Additionally, the sheer number of ket users in student circles means that people have the notion that it’s already fairly safe. In my first year, as soon as I stepped foot into Stoke Bishop, I was peer pressured to use different substances (many of which I’m thankful I never touched, but not everyone is as lucky). But this wasn’t intentional; my peers were first years then too, and it was also their first time navigating Bristol’s culture. The problem stemmed from the fact that Bristol’s reputation precedes itself with knowledge of drug numbers but

“

Drug culture is genuinely dangerous in Bristol student circles

“

Bristol must address the bigger problems of drug use in student life and beyond

little knowledge on harm reduction.

We definitely have a drug problem, but it’s more nuanced than just the number of people using drugs. Some of the biggest advocates of drug awareness I know have experience with drugs; I don’t necessarily think that someone who doesn’t use any

Vice UK Vice

Drug culture at the University of Bristol: Is ket really the problem?

will have a better grasp on harm reduction than a user. After all, I find stories about drug misuse more believable when it comes from an ex-user who managed rehabilitation, rather than from a family group chat.

When I think about the problems surrounding Bristol’s drug culture, I don’t think about drugs in itself.

Instead, I think about its glorification and how safety is rarely touched upon.

Ket’s reputation as a ‘relatively safe gateway drug’ (it isn’t actually that safe) is perhaps a bigger issue than individuals using ket. I’m grateful for organisations like the Bristol Drugs Project, who provide confidential support towards recovery. I believe that harm reduction is the way

forward because people will tend to use drugs regardless of legality. I don’t want students to have to wait until their final year to finally take steps towards recovery, nor do I want anyone to have a lifelong drug problem just because of glorification.

On one hand, I’m glad that the Vice callout for ket users blew up because it allowed this conversation to happen. However, the fact that it blew up, with some people even joking about it on social media, is a symptom of Bristol’s wider culture.

I think before we can ask why so many students in Bristol have a history of drug use, we have to first ask: what do students hear about drugs in the first place?

14 Opinion

epigram 16.03.2020

Debate after the panel: Should Bristol SU go vegan to fight for climate justice?

We must tackle the climate food crisis

Cordelia Hughes

Plant-based bans are restrictive and ineffective

Bristol Conservatives Vice-Chair

F

lushed cheeks, a quivering inner thigh, adrenaline at the fingertips; a stiff snifter usually sets me steady, a second tips me slightly into nonsense. I am rarely anyone’s first choice but Robert (BUCA President) was otherwise engaged and Cordelia (VegSoc President), looking for a token Tory, had been palmed me. Wanted or not, I do not like to disappoint and placed myself rather loudly in a suit and tie, between the other panelists representing the Cabot Institute, the Food4Thought campaign and the Bristol University Sustainability Trust. I faced an audience of eco-vegsustainability, interspersed with my own sympathetic few. Conversation ranged, compromise was found and even agreement, but I write now, looking back at Sustainability month and the defeat of Cordelia’s dairy ban. I will start here as I did then; I am proud of the Conservative record.

So why did we oppose the ban on beef? In the face of show-trial politics where some chose hypocritical mortification applauding Greta, as she speaks known truths. We chose to declare climate emergencies.

The Conservative party commits to pragmatic and practical responses.

As I told the panel; the work that they do, the tireless campaign Miss Thunberg has unwillingly taken up, is something we wholeheartedly back.

However, to continue to do something about sustainability, the case must be brought to each and every person.

Not as some pedestrian monoculture enforced from above. You cannot bludgeon and bully because the Man in the Richmond Building knows best. This is exactly why the beef ban was defeated and Cordelia’s

too. If people wanted vegan, they would eat vegan. The direct and daily democracy of choice is surely greater and more representative than a non-quorate vote. Trust in the individual to choose. Do not blame the institution, blame the individual.

In regimes such as the one in China, bans might make more of a difference.

China, the world’s biggest polluter also felicitously happens to have the political framework to enact more change, more quickly. It could do so without undermining its democratic values. Yet one never sees a big XR gathering outside the Chinese

“

If you ban beef in halls, you should ban milk, ban leather and then freespeech, dissent and creativity

“

Oliver Briscoe

embassy or the Indian one, for that matter (incidentally, a country with some of the highest emissions despite a culturally imposed beef ban and prevalent veganism). In Britain bans do little for their pound of democratic flesh. If you ban beef in halls, you should ban milk, ban leather and then free-speech, dissent and creativity. If you’re going to ban things in the name of Malthusian sustainability, you might as well ban sex. A good steak is just as good, and you don’t have to go to the ASS for it… I tease. What about the claim of climate emergency? To remove choice will not effectively help slow global warming. Forgetting the fact that diet has one of the lesser impacts compared to the emissions of cruise ships; that naughty Bristolian nasal habit. Such a ban would also be unsustainable. Unsustainable for the soul of our country, unsustainable

for the way we interact as a society.

A tyranny of the loud minority; only 1 per cent of consumers identify as vegans and 6 per cent as vegetarians.

Choice is the solution, not just the inconvenient moral impediment.

Choice will bring about competition, innovation, improvement. It will develop and incentivise more sustainable practises. If we are to take global action, we cannot force other countries to slow their growth. We must create ways in which to make that growth green.

With the University’s commitment to sustainability, they might subsidise vegan food in halls, make the options more appetising. Instead of flying quinoa from Peru, overworking the fields there; ruining other countries in our first world pursuit to greenwash our dirty habits. I would rather a Somerset steak than an out of season Chilean avocado. Whatever the policy, the burden is yours. Taxes, bans are never about sustainability, they are a cover to enforce ideological veganism. Sustainability should be about solutions self-centred agendadriven protest. We are committed to the climate. The challenge is one we must face and will face together.

Together, however, in agreement; a threat is no solution. Climate prophesying, so reliably incorrect, is continually astounded and overcome by human progress. The very fact that we have a sustainability month, something that did not really happen only three years ago when I arrived. The fact that we have panelists from various sciences and campaigns, engaging, discussing, agreeing. Therein lies our collective solution, our progress. I conclude, urging as I did then and have done before; abandon radical reaction for measured action and you may find people willing to listen.

I

would like to say to Briscoe that I am glad that you have some positive things to say about our plant-based panel and despite acting the token Tory, there has been agreement about the importance of environmentalism. However, I would now like to disagree with some of your impassioned points. Your glorification of the Conservative environmental record really does concern me. The Conservative Party has repeatedly cast aside the environment for selfpreservation. I feel terrified watching urgent solutions take second place to the sole drive to create money. I completely refute that you can place the weight on individual action’s shoulders when the roots of our system are so rotten. What you do not acknowledge, Oliver, is that we do not simply live in the United Kingdom, we live in a global world where the 1 per cent of emissions the UK claim to be responsible for is entirely unrepresentative of the true volume of carbon we outsource. There are only so many times you can lay the blame at China’s door when it is our system that demands multitudes of cheap, fast goods. You go on to dirty the importation of Peruvian quinoa and the Chilean avocado, forgetting that it was the same quest for economic growth that you ask to lead the way to green innovation, that spearheaded worldwide cultural and climate destruction. There is no necessity for relentless pursuit of global domination in order to retain a sustainable and successful

“

The University does not need a ban, but simply needs a shift in overarching ideology

“

Epigram / Oliver Briscoe

VegSoc President

economy. In the same breath, I must point out that the God-forsaken avocado is, in fact, better for the planet than your Somerset Steak.

Animal agriculture produces only 18 per cent of global calories, uses 83 per cent of our farmland, and generates 60 per cent of carbon emissions of all food production.

The researcher found that not even the scapegoat avocado was more detrimental than its weight in beef.

Whether your cows are coming from Brazil or the Welsh borders, they’re eating a lot of food, and producing

a lot more methane. I do not blame an overpopulation crisis, but simply a pursuit of greed. Humans do not need meat to survive and thrive.

The meaty middleman is an intrinsic flaw in our food system. Food system change is not about antagonizing the steak-eating patriots in our country; it is about making the choices we need to in times of emergency. If we could understand the scale of the suffering that climate change already begins to provoke, we would not be so precious about our carbon intensive conventions. I only agree with shedding the limelight on cruise ships and aviation; however, you fail to acknowledge that changing your diet has the biggest impact on your individual emissions. I ask the University what choices they want to make. The first university to declare a climate emergency shouldn’t continue business as usual. We are celebrating the divestment of fossil fuels, investment in green research, but I’m still here waiting for a decent range of vegan sandwiches. Paying more for a plant-based sandwich might very well be a first-world problem, but this price and lack of option is completely counterintuitive when you look at the environmental cost. The AMM and student council motions were initiatives to call for change. When I put forward the motion to trial a dairy free campus, however, it was a lesson that ride-ordie veganism is not accessible to all.

With a complete restriction on dairy I had sidelined many food-related disabilities. The University does not need a ban, but simply needs a shift in overarching ideology, and that involves a plant-based system. Each decision our university makes should involve a moment of self-reflection, a scrutinisation on whether it is truly representative of a climate emergency.

I raise this conversation because I do not feel we are committed enough to fighting global disaster. Individualism alone is not moving at the speed we need it to. No part of me has stopped believing that going vegan is the greatest way I have created change, but individual diet change is not enough - institutions need to follow suit. You speak of ambition, of innovation and of progressive steps towards a green future, and yet you ignore the revolutionary dietary research lying in front of you. We need to listen to new ideas if we have any hope. There is no status quo on a dead planet, Oliver.

Opinion 15

16.03.2020 epigram

Why the climate crisis has been dominated by the voice of the youth

Epigram / Maggie Sawant

Young people have always had to take to the streets to make their voices heard

young people are dominated by an environmental consciousness that dictates our eating, spending, and social habits. Awareness of climate breakdown is no longer confined to half a term of geography lessons in year eight, or the local ‘tree hugger’ that always seems to be knitting something. Environmentalism has become a fundamental component of school curriculums, shaping the day-to-day reality of young people’s lives in education. Perhaps still not to the extent that climate activists would advocate for, climate issues

are playing a key role in every syllabus from Year 5 PHSE lessons, to undergraduate history lectures. As well as this, accessible documentaries like David Attenborough’s Blue Planet and the BBC's War on Plastic have made climate education part of our everyday culture. Increasing our awareness of personal impact is vital, yet this new recognition has been targeted by a market that has

exploited environmental concerns for profit. Young people are particularly susceptible to this. Companies and advertisers use greenwashing to sell young people ‘ethical’ goods, that more often than not counterintuitively fuel over-consumption.

Market greenwashing has allowed for an increased visibility of climate change in consumer markets, but it remains fundamentally systematic of an unsustainable capitalist system that exploits the environment and workers, particularly in the global south. The climate movement needs to emphasise a recognition that progress comes from raising the voices of the most marginalised communities, de-colonising the climate narrative, and remaining opposed to a western system that exploits natural resources. Social media has allowed young people from across the world to share their experiences of climate change and organise in the face of climate breakdown. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are seemingly overflowing with tragic images of ice melt in the arctic, harrowing statistics from East African drought, and images of the flooded homes of Tuvalu.

“

Epigram / Will Charley

“

Social media has allowed young people from across the world to share their experiences of climate change and organise in the face of climate breakdown

“

T

his Valentine’s Day hundreds of young climate activists marched through the streets of Bristol for the ninth time since 2019. Armed with placards and ‘love letters to the planet’ their demands were clear: recognise the severity of the climate crisis and do something about it at the UN climate talks in Glasgow this year. Marking the one-year anniversary of the first nationwide strike, the day was part of a much broader, international movement, with events taking place in over 2000 cities. With the likes of Vanessa Nakate and Helena Gualinga leading the campaign globally, and BristolYouthStrike4Climate organising the recent school strike with Greta Thunberg at College Green; why has the climate crisis become such a youth centric issue?

Historically, young people have been vital proponents of civil and environmental justice movements.

From the 1960 Greensboro Lunch Sit Ins by four black students,

Our awareness of climate change on a global scale allows young people to understand that for countries that contributed least to the climate crisis,

the effects are being felt most. Social media has also allowed youth to organise, with September 2019 seeing four million people in 150 countries taking part in youth strikes from the Scottish Highlands to Senegal. Yet, the ubiquity of it all can leave you feeling hopeless, overwhelmed by the seemingly impossible task of fixing a system that seems so determined to push itself over the edge.

“

Awareness of climate breakdown is no longer confined to half a term of geography lessons in Year Eight, or the local ‘tree hugger’ that always seems to be knitting something

“

First Year, History

to the International Indigenous Youth Council in Dakota in 2016: with minimal representation in the mainstream political narrative, young people have always had to take to the streets to make their voices heard. In the last two years climate activism has moved from the seemingly radical into the mainstream, and young people have been the forerunners of this shift. The day-to-day lives of

“

Awareness of the climate crisis has been widened dramatically Greg Evans

A 2019 survey by the Washington Post found that 57 per cent of young people are scared for their existence on earth, and this compares to significantly lower rates among adults. Christiana Figueres, former head of the 2015 Climate Change Convention in Paris stated that ‘this is the decade that is make or break’.

This sentiment has resonated with young people. We take to the streets to express hope and put pressure on governments to act.

There needs to be real movement to divest from fossil fuels, proper legislation around corporate emissions, education on consumption and a demand for environmental justice for the most marginalised communities. More than anything young people want hope and uniting together to strike in the name of climate justice gives us that.

16 Opinion

epigram 16.03.2020

Ancient Greek and Latin – do they matter?

was an iron ceiling dividing the higher and lower echelons of Western society. This mindset has been

Classical languages are not problematic in and of themselves – rather, it is our inherently classist education system that has rendered them elitist

used as an indicator of sophistication and power – just look at our dear Prime Minister quoting The Iliad by heart in an interview (which, as Mary Beard reminds us, isn’t really that impressive and actually just makes you look a bit obnoxious).

So the question becomes – why even bother? What is the point of learning ancient Greek and Latin?

Furthermore, should we really be encouraging their continued importance to classical studies when their mere existence shuts out huge swathes of students? I include myself in this. I went to a relatively runof-the-mill state school (in idyllic Kent, mind, I do know my privilege), and although I learnt ‘classical civilisation’, which consisted of reading Homer, Virgil and Sophocles in translation, Greek a n d Latin were not available to me.

Moreover, I had and still have very

Epigram / Grace Carroll

Clearly, knowledge of a classical language continues to be used as an indicator of sophistication and power

“

little interest in learning them. Bristol is actually pretty innovative in this regard – the Classical Studies BA is very modern, and allows for a lot of freedom of choice as to which areas of classics you study. I therefore managed to achieve (not to flex) a first in my undergrad, and got accepted to write my MPhil at Bristol, without ever opening a horrifically heavy Latin textbook. So do I think that knowing the languages is important to understanding classics?

Well, it would be pretty self-defeating if I did.

But the idea that the languages should be scrapped from classics syllabi is troubling to me, in large part because this suggestion seems to ignore the key issue at hand. A

“

But the idea that the languages should be scrapped from classics syllabi is troubling to me, in large part because this suggestion seems to ignore the key issue at hand

“

“

crucial in shaping the current position of classical languages in our education curriculum – these days, you would be hard pressed to find a state school that teaches Latin or Greek, with most classical language education being confined to private schools. Clearly, knowledge of a classical language continues to be

lot of people these days seem to be making an argument for ‘burning the whole thing down’, getting rid

of the classical languages because of their elitist implications. There is an inherent flaw to this logic. Classical languages are not problematic in and of themselves – rather, it is our inherently classist education system that has rendered them elitist. It isn’t the classics that are the problem, it’s

“

I have often encountered a strange sense of awe from people who are under the impression that I can translate ancient texts, which is quickly dispelled when they realised it’s actually all Greek to me (get it?)

“

W

hen I tell people that I study classics, I often get confronted with a pretty big question.

‘What is classics, actually?’

Personally, I always respond with ‘good question!’ and then proceed to bore them with current debates in the academic discipline, to which they quite understandably respond that they suddenly need to be anywhere else really urgently. I get it, I’m a nerd. Classics is niche, and it can seem quite intimidating – especially when it comes to the languages. I have often encountered a strange sense of awe from people who are under the impression that I can translate ancient texts, which is quickly dispelled when they realised it’s actually all Greek to me (get it?). No, I don’t know ancient Greek and Latin. But I’m still a classicist. This begs a question that is becoming increasingly relevant to my subject, with Oxford just last week having the audacity to suggest that learning Homer and Virgil in their original languages might not

“

MPhil Research Masters

be absolutely necessary to getting a degree in classics (this suggestion has instigated the academic equivalent of an internet flame war). How much should classics really care about Latin and Greek these days?

Classics is still seen by many as an elitist subject, and with good reason. Being able to read and translate ancient Greek and Latin has been, broadly speaking, seen as the hallmark of an educated and ‘civilised’ mind in the UK for centuries, because it meant that you had attended the finest schools in all the land. This perception of the classics worked to entrench the class hierarchies of our society – if your family was wealthy, you could learn classics. If you knew classics, you were a real clever clogs.

Therefore, if you were wealthy, you were a real clever clogs, and you had a really easy path to power. Classics

“

Recontextualising classical languages will revitalise their relevance Grace Carroll

the systems of power that have kept them out of the hands of the many for such a long time. If we look at classics in this way, we can stop thinking of it as an evil bastion of Western patriarchal power deserving of destruction, and instead start to recontextualise it as knowledge worth having just for the sake of having it. If anyone in the world still thinks that learning Latin and Greek might be fun, and worth something, then that should be enough to sustain its relevance.

SciTech

Want to write for SciTech? Join our writers’ group!

Editor Deputy Editor Digital Editor

Vilhelmiina Haavisto Isobel O’Loughlin Topaz Maitland

Beyond Greta: youth climate activists across the globe

First Year Physics

pointed out, the climate strikes aren’t the first time she has missed school due to climate change.

Also inspired to activism by the effects of climate change is Xiye Bastida, whose hometown in Mexico experienced two years of drought followed by flooding. Upon moving to New York City, she also saw the impacts of Superstorm Sandy on the seashore. She led her high school in New York City’s first big climate strike in March 2019 and is now a leader of Fridays for Future in New York.

Bastida, who is a member of the Otomi-Toltec Nation, gave a speech on indigenous cosmology at the United Nations World Urban Forum in 2018. In an interview she spoke about how her heritage informs her view on the climate crisis, saying that for indigenous people, environmental activism and taking care of the planet is part of their culture and way of life.

Finally, proving that nobody is too young to make a difference is Ridhima Pandey. She made the news in 2017 when, at only 9 years old, she filed a petition against the government of her native India for its failures to act on the climate crisis. In addition, she is one of the 16 children who filed a complaint to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child over climate change.

Flickr / AJC1

O

n February 28, Greta Thunberg inspired huge numbers of Bristol students to attend the climate strike. However, she is just one representative of a multi-faceted campaign. Despite climate change disproportionately affecting those in developing countries, the media is often guilty of focusing on the activism of white Europeans – so besides Greta, who are some of the young activists leading the conversation on climate change?

Among the speakers on College Green on February 28 was MyaRose Craig, a birdwatcher and environmental activist who at just 17 has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol. This makes her the youngest person in the UK to receive this honour.

In her speech, she raised important points about how solutions to climate change need to take the most vulnerable people into account. For example, electric car batteries rely

heavily on cobalt – a lot of which is mined in dangerous conditions by children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mya-Rose Craig has also spoken about her experiences in nature as someone with Bangladeshi heritage and called out the lack of diversity in this sector. She created the project Black2Nature which runs nature camps for VME (visibly minority ethnic) children. This aims to improve equality and diversity in the conservation industry by creating more engagement with nature.

Looking beyond the UK, there are young activists fighting climate change all over the world. In Kampala, Uganda, 22-year-old Nakabuye Hilda Flavia began her first climate strike alone outside her university before others joined in. Flavia is the founder of the Uganda branch of Fridays for Future, the global student climate strike movement, and carries out a weekly lake shore clean-up with others.

At the 2019 C40 World Mayors Summit, Flavia gave a powerful speech on how the strong rains and dry spells caused by climate change impacted her family, saying ‘my parents had to sell off our land and livestock to sustain our lives’.

Because of this, her father couldn’t afford her tuition fees and she had to miss three months of school – so, she

Epigram / Maegan Farrow

Greta Thunberg is by no means the only youth climate activist leading the conversation on climate change Emily Barrett

In India, she has witnessed the damage wrought by humans on the environment; both directly, with the pollution of the Ganges River, and indirectly, through the severe flooding in Kerala. When interviewed, she has pointed out that India is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and therefore needs a science-based action plan to tackle it.

As inspiring as these activists are, it is nonetheless worrying that child activists have apparently become necessary to raise awareness – particularly those as young as

Ridhima Pandey. Greta Thunberg mentioned this in her speech on College Green and on other occasions.

Climate activism should not fall to children, but for many it feels like the only way to take their future into their own hands.

Of course, the four activists listed here are only a sample of the inspiring people speaking out on climate change. It is important to recognise the efforts and common goals of climate activists everywhere and not allow the environmental movement to become whitewashed.

It’s the climb: how to set and achieve your goals

I

f you’re anything like me, it is around this time of year that you decide to step things up academically. Yes, the New Year’s resolutions may have not gone to plan, but exam season is approaching – time for some new goals.

So, we flood the stationery stores buying notepads plastered in motivational quotes and whipping out the Colemans and pastel highlighters. Maybe you’ll even redownload the Forest app that you deleted as soon as January exams were over. Unfortunately, according to the latest research from Queen Mary University, a beautifully calligraphed list of aims won’t be the key to our success – how we

“

A beautifully calligraphed list of aims won’t be the key to our success

“

Second Year Medicine

approach our goals will.

The team at Queen Mary conducted a series of experiments into how much effort people were willing to put in to achieve their goals. They measured effort by looking at a person’s willingness to perform a mental task, which was a simple mathematical problem, or a physical task, that involved squeezing a joystick. The participants were given a range of financial rewards to choose from, each one requiring them to execute a task with a different level of difficulty.

After analyzing the data, they concluded that most people set a goal based on the reward rather than the amount of effort required to achieve it. However, when they start to work

towards the goal their focus shifts from the reward to the amount of work it is going to take to achieve it.

This makes it significantly harder to accomplish what we set out to do.

At first, I found this quite hard to believe. ‘Can’t be bothered’ sometimes seems to be the slogan of our generation, with many people often not applying for opportunities or taking part in things because it is simply too much effort. We already have a lot on our plates, why would we want to take on more?

But, on second thought it began to make more sense. Dr Osman, an experimental psychiatrist and one of the researchers running the study, explained that ‘getting up early to exercise for a new healthy lifestyle might seem like a good choice when we decide on our New Year’s resolutions, but once your alarm goes off on a cold January morning, the rewards aren’t enough to get you up and out of bed.’

Interestingly, there was no difference between the responses for the physical tasks and the mental

tasks; therefore, whether you’re hoping to run a marathon or reach for those first-class honors, the solution is the same. We need to switch our perspective. Consider the blood, sweat and tears it is going to take when setting the goal, and then keep your target in sight once you’ve made that decision.

You might be thinking that it is all very well telling us to concentrate on the finish line, but that really this is fairly hard to put into practice.

This is completely true, as there are many things that can distract us. One method that might help would be to set some milestones along the way.

Our brain’s reward center is built around the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is released when we achieve something, giving us a sense of pleasure. Doing a few things that trigger this response will make you hungry for that gratifying sensation and will hopefully make you want to keep achieving those milestones.

Drugs such as cocaine have the same effect on the brain, which is why they are so addictive.

Another important chemical when it comes to your ambitions are endocannabinoids – it is important to note these are found within the body, not cannabis, before you get any ideas. These are involved in habit formation and act on the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain to turn a goal

“

Exam season is approaching – time for some new goals

“

With exams and deadlines fast approaching, what can psychology tell us about how we set and achieve our goals?

Genevieve Clapp

into a habit. The more regularly you do tasks that help you reach your intended destination, the more endocannabinoids will be released, and it will become instinctive.

Whether these tips leave you addicted to achieving your goals or no further along than before, this recent research still gives us important insight into human behaviour. Hopefully, researchers will continue to dig deeper and find out why it is in our nature to set ourselves unattainable goals in the first place.

18 SciTech

epigram 16.03.2020

Is the UK doing enough to protect the world’s oceans?

“

The data shows we are currently not doing enough to preserve our marine life

therefore ignores how different parts within and across areas interact as one dynamic system. A whole-site approach would help to develop ecosystems that can better withstand and recover from natural and human threats in the long-term. The UK’s Lyme Bay houses the only study involving long-term, whole-site management of a marine area which looks at both ecological and socioeconomic measures. There has been

under MPA status, but many experts believe that 30 percent is required to protect biodiversity and fulfil socioeconomic needs.

For the remaining 90 percent of the

ocean, we need to develop ram Epig new policy that helps move us towards a sustainable future on a global scale; this requires cooperation across many sectors to enable a healthy seascape.

By viewing MPAs as part of a wider system, rather than special areas to be prioritised at the cost of others, we can help to ensure the long-term wellness of our oceans and a sustainable future for human life. /I

improved m a r i n e conservation. We also need to prioritise research into the economic benefits of biodiversity conservation.

Lastly, we need to look beyond MPAs and towards the entire ocean.

Unprotected areas are as important as MPAs and must be considered in the move towards sustainable living.

The current worldwide target is for 10 per cent of the ocean to be classed

’L

lO

e sob

Carbon chains adopt pasta shapes depending atom numbers

Tropical forest ability to tackle climate change is in danger

Researchers from the University College Dublin and the University of Bristol will direct a new project: Bump2Baby and Me. Dr Christy Burden, Consultant Senior Lecturer, Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Bristol Medical School, said the project ‘will investigate support … on healthy eating and physical activity for women during pregnancy and in the first critical year post-birth’. The app will be linking mothers at risk with health professionals from various maternity hospitals in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Australia.

A team from the School of Chemistry have modified carbon chains’ shapes by inserting methyl substituents. The new shape depends on the number of atoms in the chain; even-numbered chains adopt fusillilike shapes, while odd-numbered chains adopt floppy, spaghetti-like shapes. ‘The change in properties of a homologous series of molecules caused by the single addition of an extra carbon atom is extremely rare – here it results in the difference between order and chaos’, explained Professor Varinder Aggarwal.

Undisturbed tropical forests can slow down climate change by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees.

Data from Africa and the Amazon suggests carbon intake peaked in the 90s, and declined by a third by the 2010s. High temperatures and drought are killing more trees.

Dr Tommaso Jucker from Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences, a study contributor, said that ‘tree mortality rates in Amazonian forests have increased steadily over the past three decades’ is ‘deeply concerning’.

Isabel Rowbotham

Isabel Rowbotham

FUnsplash / Immo Wegman

Innovative app links pregnant mothers with health coaches

Isabel Rowbotham

Flickr / Jutta M Jenning

In the lab at UoB

Flickr / freestocks.org

H

ealthy oceans are an essential resource and support system for all life on Earth. Tools widely used by governments to protect marine life include Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): designated areas in the ocean which are used to help restore the health and integrity of biological and physical aspects of marine ecosystems, protecting them from unsustainable human activities such as overfishing. While the area of ocean covered by MPAs has grown rapidly in the past decade, marine biodiversity is on the decline. Several researchers, led by the Marine Conservation Research Group at the University of Plymouth, recently called on the UK government to set more ambitious targets for safeguarding our oceans, as the data shows we are currently not doing enough to preserve our marine life.

Brexit has provided an opportunity to rethink the UK’s marine conservation policy. In January 2020, the government released a 25year environment plan, a new UK

activity. It is important that we develop more control sites to enable more accurate monitoring of MPA degradation, which will f u e l

in

PhD Cancer Immunology

a reduction in fishing pressures and an increase in biodiversity that surpasses what would have been expected if area management had focused solely on individual species or habitats of interest. Socioeconomic benefits alongside thriving biodiversity in this area demonstrate the benefits of a broader approach.

The second recommendation is to bridge the gap between fisheries management and MPAs, as bountiful fish stocks rely upon healthy marine ecosystems. Commercial fishing is tightly linked to MPAs and often leads to an area being designated as one. Despite this, most UK policy on ecosystem conservation and fishery management has not been developed together. In 2009, a new act was introduced by the fisheries management in England and Scotland which aims to bring together fisheries and conservation; the approach aims to identify marine features which are most vulnerable to fishing pressure so that species and habitats at higher risk can be prioritised. This step in the right direction can be supported by further legislation that enables the idea of ecosystem-based fishery management to translate from theory to common practice.

Thirdly, the experimental designs of monitoring MPAs must be improved. Currently, only two MPA sites have the appropriate control areas to show how an MPA would look with zero destructive human

ou gh l

Carissa Wong

Marine Strategy, a Fisheries Bill, and an Environmental Bill.

Following these, a team of marine scientists published a paper in the journal Marine Policy in which they draw on their expertise to propose four key recommendations to the government. These would help create legislation that would enable ‘the improvement and restoration of the environment and better outcomes for fish stocks, ecosystem health, livelihoods, human health and wellbeing’.

The first recommendation is to shift to a ‘whole-site’ approach to MPA management, which currently focuses on specific habitats or species that must be preserved, and

“

Our oceans are in dire need of protection and proper management – solutions are around, but must be implemented correctly

16.03.20 epigram

Second Year Zoology

A

ccording to the Brain Tumour Charity, 5,000 of the 11,700 individuals diagnosed with glioblastomas die annually. Current statistics show that only 11 percent of those diagnosed with primary brain tumours in the United Kingdom survive five years post-diagnosis, and those which do have an estimated reduction in life expectancy of approximately 20 years. Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer with the highest mortality rates.

Glioblastomas are malignant tumours occurring in the brain and spinal chord. Survival times are approximately three months if they are left untreated. Initial diagnosis of suspected brain tumours is difficult, as many warning signs such as headaches, nausea or vision problems - can be attributed to many other illnesses.

Currently, practitioners diagnose brain tumours through initial neurological exams, such as testing vision, hearing, coordination and

reflexes. Imaging tests are also commonly used, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerised tomography (CT) scans.

Biopsies can be taken during brain operations, however such invasive procedures are accompanied by higher risks.

Despite the causes of brain tumours being largely unknown, it has been observed that a mutation in the TP53 gene coding for the tumour suppressor P53 is often prevalent in glioblastoma patients. Cellular division is a necessary and natural part of the cell cycle, required to periodically replace somatic cells in the body with new ones. Its phases are initiated and halted by molecule complexes known as cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs).

P53 is a regulatory subunit of CDKs, known as the tumour repressor, as it inhibits the transcription of certain cyclins responsible for the initiation of mitosis. Mutations in the TP53 gene, causing a lack of P53, are one of the most common causes of cancer, leading to uncontrolled mitosis and the development of tumours.

A multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers at the University of Bristol, Brain Tumour Research and the Bristol start-up FlouretiQ Limited are developing a blood test aiming to detect brain tumours. This project is led by Dr Kathreena Kurian, an Associate Professor in Brain Tumour Research and Dr Sabine

Hauert, a Senior Lecturer in Robotics.

It also requires the expertise of CoInvestigators, Professors Carmen Galan and Richard Martin from the University of Bristol, and ongoing assistance from Dr Neciah Dorh at FlouretiQ Limited and Dr. Helen Bulbeck from Brainstrust.

The blood test uses a combination of fluorescent carbon dots (FCDs) and nanophotonics in order to detect tumour biomarkers.

Biomarkers are chemical substances, such as proteins, DNA or micro-RNA, which are secreted by cancerous cells. As glioblastomas invade the surrounding primary tissue and cause lesions in the nearby blood vessels, biomarkers can be detected in the bloodstream for early tumour diagnosis.

One such biomarker is glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a protein which creates intermediate filaments which

“

Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer with the highest mortality rates

“

Brain tumours are very aggressive and their initial diagnosis is difficult, but new research may be able to change that Julia Riopelle

form support networks to astroglial cells, which assist the absorption of neurotransmitters and maintain the barrier between blood and brain.

However, GFAP levels tend to be too low for detection via antibody assay techniques, such as ELISA. Thus the

Flickr / voxil123

Diagnostic blood tests could be treatment game-changers

Flickr / voxil123

SciTech 19

team hopes to also find other more suitable biomarker options.

In collaborating with FlouretiQ Limited, the team is developing affordable fluorescent carbon dots (FCDs) in order to test patient’s blood. These are an upcoming class of nanoparticles with ‘high chemical stability, biocompatibility, low toxicity, resistance to photobleaching and easily modified’, according to a paper in 2014. Due to their high surface area to volume ratio, they are able to bind to many types of molecules, some of which can recognise specific cancer molecules and will specifically target them. The binding of these compatible ligands can emit fluorescence, which can be detected via assays under UV light.

However, a limitation of solely relying on biomarkers is that they

often occur at low levels in the blood.

Therefore, the FCDs will be detected with enhanced nanophotonic technology. Nanophotonics studies the behaviour of the emitted light on a nanometer scale and thus allows highly sensitive detection. This noninvasive diagnosis method would be game-changing in the time-sensitive race of treating brain cancer, possibly saving countless lives in the near future.

The project is generously sponsored with the investment of £500,000 from Cancer Research UK, with the hopes that this blood test will speed up diagnosis and treatment action.

If successful, it would drastically increase chances of survival before the tumour metastasizes, as well as improve the monitoring of the possibility of post-remission relapse.

Second Year Biology

N

ew research from the Endocrine Society has suggested that eating breakfast burns twice as many calories as you would burn eating the same food for dinner. Morning meals may also reduce your craving of sugary snacks. Dr Juliane Richter, one of the contributors of this research, suggests that this information is particularly useful for those who are diabetic or struggling with obesity.

Despite breakfast often being thought of as the most important meal of the day, many of us skip it to lose weight, because we have not got enough time in the morning, or simply because we are not hungry.

But there is increasing evidence suggesting a positive link between breakfast and good mental and

physical health; for example, lower risk of obesity. After every meal, our body burns calories as a form of heat called diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT). This tells us about how well our metabolism is working, which requires energy to digest and absorb our food. Depending on what and when you eat, DIT can contribute up to 15 per cent of your daily calorie expenditure. This new study showed that people’s DIT activity was 2.5 times higher after breakfast than dinner, regardless of the calories consumed.

“

There is increasing evidence suggesting a positive link between breakfast and good mental and physical health

“

If you want to burn more fat, it might be worth choosing a big breakfast over a big dinner Hana Azuma

This study also looked into blood sugar levels, total hunger levels and temptation to snack. The researchers evaluated 16 men after giving them a high-calorie breakfast followed by

a low-calorie dinner for three days, then repeated it but with a highcalories dinner and a low-calorie breakfast.

Aside from higher DIT activity after a big breakfast, the test subjects felt full over a longer period of time, thereby reducing their cravings for sugary treats as well as overall hunger.

Additionally, the level of insulin (hormone that maintains your blood sugar level) rose less after breakfast, keeping the blood sugar level low.

This is good news as high levels of insulin can lead to a development of obesity or heart disease. But how can eating breakfast lead to a lower risk of weight gain compared to no breakfast? Dr. Minisha Sood, an endocrinologist not associated with the study, said that our metabolism strongly correlates with the circadian rhythm, our natural sleep-wake cycle.

If breakfast is skipped, then your body might over crave for food to catchup with the nutrient loss, leading to excessively rich meal later in the day.

Furthermore, in another study, Marta Garaulet and colleagues found

Epigram / Vilhelmiina Haavisto

‘Breakfast like a king’ backed by science

that the activity of enzymes (small molecules that digest your food) are synchronized with the body’s circadian rhythm. So, the timing of food intake can alter the how it is metabolised. For example, eating a meal at an abnormal time can disrupt your circadian rhythms, which may lead to inefficient digestion and result in a higher risk of fat accumulation

which causes weight gain.

Overall, it seems that the time you eat is strongly linked with how well you burn your calories afterwards. If you are diabetic, obese or simply looking to lose weight, counterbalancing your dinner size by increasing the portion of your breakfast might be a start for changes.

Film & TV

Editor Deputy Editor Digital Editor Deputy Digital Editor

Leah Martindale Louie Bell Laura Aish Tom Goulde

Classic films: The ones that got away

“

The use of Rachmaninoff in the score makes for a transfixing, sensorily immersive experience

“

Classics have been tragically misunderstood and I am planning to put that right Leah Martindale Film & TV Editor

A

s technology advances quicker than many of us can keep track of, it is easy to forget the wonders that lie behind us.

As a film scholar, I’ve seen my fair share of shoddy ‘classics’, and at one point even fell foul to the misconception that older films are in some way inherently

ne could argue that Reed’s masterpiece, The Third Man (1949) deserves even more love and acclaim than it already has, but the same is even more true with so much of his filmography which has unfortunately been largely overlooked.

Featuring a very young James Mason as IRA gunman Johnny McQueen, who goes on the run after being wounded in a bungled bank robbery, what unfolds is a thrilling, moody and unabashedly expressionist masterclass in creating tension, through the depiction of our protagonist’s physical and mental turmoil, and how it affects the townspeople. It’s never just a tale of a man on the run as it has such richness to its narrative in using the basic plot outline as a way to explore the many facets of the tight knit Irish community at its centre.

O

Akira Kurosawa Ikiru (1952)

O

nly Kurosawa could make the story of the hollow shell of a lifeless bureaucrat dying from cancer somehow inspiring - but Ikiru is not your typical character study. It plunges into the deepest, darkest pits of the fears regarding mortality and a life wasted through the incredible performance of Takashi Shimura, whose Mr Watanabe embarks on a difficult journey of self-discovery to find some meaning in his tepid existence.

It is a cynical yet never dispassionate film that embraces the tragic and uses it to tell an inspirational tale of a broken man who repairs himself piece by piece, and finds a beauty in essentially the little things in life. A small-scale story brought to life by Kurosawa and Shimura with such dignity and sensitivity, the film deserves so much more attention internationally than it’s gotten for its portrait of the human spirit with all its strengths and faults.

IMDb / Bryna Productions

O

Stanley Kubrick Paths of Glory (1957)

T

his film may have been Kubrick’s finest hour. It consists of everything he is known and praised for as a director as well as exemplifying strengths in his direction that are often overlooked. It is a technical masterpiece in terms of its depiction of trench warfare, where the way the camera moves through the front itself is so far ahead of its time and paints such an unforgettable portrait of war through a suicidal attack by French soldiers.

What takes it a step further is how much heart it has in the character of Colonel Dax – the late great Kirk Douglas – as he defends his soldiers from accusations of cowardice, as it transforms from a terrifying examination of war to an equally horrifying depiction of military bureaucracy through a court-martial trial. It is Kubrick on top form as a director both at the height of his creative powers, but also showing a strangely humane side to him which was often overshadowed by his cold, calculating persona.

Read the full article on the Epigram website!

An ode to the old boring. Extremely odd? Many.

Outdated? Often. But boring? Never.

All art acts as microcosmic of its era, and cinema is no different. In fact, in its relatively short lifespan as arguably the newest artform, cinema has transcended expectations and performs in many ways as time capsules. Of course, this often leads to unfortunate inappropriate moments, in a time before political correctness, and the occasionally cringeably bad turn of phrase that even the biggest bigot would shudder at now. But without these moments, encapsulated in pulsating, tangible light, sound, and flesh, how could we truly look back?

I adore Some Like It Hot (1959) - it is one of my guiltiest pleasures. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis simper and swagger in low budget cross-dressing costumes in a piece that has divided gender studies in cinema since its conception. Marilyn Monroe, perhaps Hollywood’s most misunderstood icon, stars as the mistreated and hypersexualised Sugar Kane in a role that mirrored her life with frightening clarity.

The film makes my belly ache with laughter and my heart flutter with romance. It is cringe-inducingly, outdated at times and laughably aged at others, but its one constant is its

iconography. There are countless Some Like It Hots through cinema history films that could, would, and probably should, never be made in this age, but we are all quietly grateful were made once upon a time.

While technology ramps the arts into hyperspeed, there is a humbling element to seeing what was capable with a lot of talent, hard work, and very finite resources. Cinema classics are testimony to what passion can produce.

To all fans of culture, of history, of society, I implore you: watch an old film, and see what you find. I guarantee you there is more than meets the eye to these black and white beauties.

IMDb / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

B

efore embarking on acclaimed epics such as Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), David Lean made his name with a string of more low-key British 1940s productions, where the height was perhaps his work on Brief Encounter.

The extramarital affair between middle-class housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) is an incredible piece of filmmaking focused on a very simple storyline.

The astonishing black and white cinematography by Robert Krasker and use of Rachmaninoff in the score makes for a transfixing, sensorily immersive experience, and emotionally resonant through the POV of Laura’s experience, brought to life by the screenplay and Celia Johnson’s remarkable performance which is so powerful both in its repressed internalisation and bursts of expressiveness.

ne of America’s biggest film stars in the 50s, William Holden won his one and only Oscar for his leading turn here as a cynical opportunist prisoner in a POW camp who finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy among the American prisoners on suspicion of a German role among their ranks.

Billy Wilder made some of the most acclaimed Hollywood classics, but this is rarely mentioned along the likes of Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960).

It really should be considered a classic as it hits both the comedic and dramatic heights of his finest work, managing to make the unique enclosed world of the American POWs hilarious, heartrending and bringing such a strong tension to the proceedings which culminates in an atypical finale that ranks among Wilder’s best scenes, and led wonderfully by Holden utilising all the best aspects of his star persona.

IMDb / Two Cities Films

David Lean Brief Encounter (1947)

Carol Reed Odd Man Out (1947)

IMDb / Toho Company

MA Law

Billy Wilder Stalag 17 (1953)

IMDb / Paramount Pictures

Here are five pre-1960 works from renowned directors that really shone as displays of their talent, and rank among their finest works Calvin Law

16.03.2020

epigram

Film & TV 21

Fifties feminism, flirtiness and fame in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Arts Editor

going to be an easy one to cast.

Being the late fifties/early sixties, the prospect of playing a ‘high society call girl’ was enough to turn many actresses away, including Hepburn herself. Capote even admitted that his first choice for the role of Holly was in fact Marilyn Monroe - as Holly Golightly is actually blonde.

Unfortunately, she was already signed onto another film at the time and Jurow and Shepherd were set on signing Hepburn.

“

Second wave feminism was emerging and women’s voices were finally being heard

alone in New York is a good thing, and that Hepburn’s flexible image from her previous roles as a ‘good’ Audrey to high society call girl Holly Golightly was a step in the right direction for feminism in America’s anxiety-riddled sixties.

IMDb / MPTV Images

Hepburn was very sketchy about taking the part of Holly Golightly, and her choice to take on the role brought up the subject of career women vs wives. The casting of ‘good’ Audrey in the part of the ‘notso-good’ call girl Holly Golightly rerouted the course of women in cinema, but before accepting the part Hepburn heavily questioned how it would impact her ‘good girl’ image.

Paramount Productions went to every length to desexualise the role of Holly Golightly to match Hepburn’s ‘good girl’ image, leaving

only euphemisms to the character’s sexually active lifestyle.

Sex on screen was always going to be a problem for the screenwriter and producers of Tiffany’s, considering their leading role was a call girl.

There were codes of moral guidelines put in place to remove ‘unacceptable’ content in motion pictures. The production code did not allow such scenes as a man and a woman in bed together, marital sex and adultery, to be shown on screen. Both the code’s guidelines and the casting of Audrey Hepburn heavily impacted the subject of sex in the movie.

Offscreen, it was reported Audrey’s husband, Mel Ferrer, often made the decisions for her, he wasn’t afraid to criticise her work and downtread her performances.

Unfortunately, despite Breakfast at Tiffany’s redefining what it meant to be a woman in this new dawn, it was surrounded by male counterparts, and dulled down in promiscuity compared to Capote’s novella.

Still, Hepburn sparked this dawn of ‘The New Woman’ in 1960s New York. Her performance showed Holly’s entire persona was an act to manipulate the patriarchy around her, that living independently

IMDb / Bud Fraker / MPTV

M

any are familiar with the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but forget the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, written by Truman Capote only three years before the release of the movie to the big screen.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s recalls the story of an unnamed narrator who moves into an apartment in New York City. He makes the acquaintance of his downstairs neighbour: 18-year-old Miss Holly Golightly, a country girl from Texas turned New York cafe society call girl – or as Capote described her, an ‘American Geisha’. She struggles with a sense of belonging, and her eccentric and bizarre personality truly make her a stand-out character in 1960s America.

The movie proved to be highly controversial at the time of its release. Fifties America, having only just seen the end of the war, saw the subject of sex brought into the forefront of the media. The end of the war saw the return of men to their jobs, sending women back

to the domesticity of home life and snot-nosed kids, keeping the once approved order and gender lines in check.

Sam Wasson writes, ‘American moviegoers have been devouring a steady dosage of self-image… and in the fifties, if you were a woman, too much of sex was wrong, and too little of it was honourable. You were either a slut or a saint.’ Sex was something not to be spoken about, let alone be shown in cinema. Yet the sixties offered things never seen before in American film; second wave feminism was emerging and women’s voices were finally being heard.

Fifties America welcomed the bumbling blonde, the femme fatales of Hollywood, for the fifties was the era of the ‘blonde bombshell’, the ‘blonde sex kitten’ and the ‘sexbomb blonde’. After Marilyn Monroe’s infamous appearance in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), American film demonstrated the clichéd and stereotypical phrase, ‘Blondes have more fun’; thus, the ‘dumb blonde’ was formed.

Fast forward to the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s on the turn of the decade and we have a problem on our hands. The choice of casting rested on the shoulders of producers Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd.

The role of Holly Golightly was not

“

How did Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) bring in the dawn of the 1960s ‘Modern Woman’?

Livi Player

Read the full article on the Epigram website!

Editors’ Picks IMDb / Getty Images

IMDb/ LenFilm Studios

IMDb / Mars Films

IMDb / IFC Productions

IMDb / Horizon pictures

This edition, our editors are looking back on the classic films we will revere for generations

Leah Martindale Editor

Louie Bell Deputy Editor

Patrick Sullivan Co-Editor in Chief

Siavash Minoukadeh Entertainment Sub-Editor

Daisy Game Entertainment Sub-Editor

Gaslight (1940)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Il Conformista (1970)

Gamlet (1964)

Harvey (1950)

One of my favourite films of all time is the incomparable Gaslight. No, not the American bastardisation: the British original, with deeply English sensibilities bubbling to boiling point in a psychological masterpiece that birthed the term ‘gaslighting’ - meaning a form of psychological abuse that forces the victim to doubt their own sanity. The exceptional 40s Viennese actor Anton Walbrook plays the cleverly villainous Paul Mallen, and Diana Wynyard volleys his talent with precision and prowess as Bella.

This film is simply a must-watch.

Yeah, yeah, this is probably your Dad’s favourite film. But fact check: your Dad has great taste in film, because David Lean’s 1957 epic that propelled Sir Alec Guinness to stardom is actually a magnificent and utterly engrossing study of power and loyalty.

Revolving around the construction of a railway bridge by British prisoners of war in Myanmar (Burma), it is exciting, ambiguous and shocking in its portrayal of morality, madness, and the lengths one man will go to hold up his honour.

Oh, and you’ll be whistling Colonel Bogey’s theme for the next week.

Bertolucci started his career of filmmaking in the ‘60s and the Italian is one of the great classics of the evocative mediterranean cinema. His works delved into complex topics of the time, defining progression in ideas of masculinity, sexuality, and repression. Il Conformista is set during WWII and follows Marcello, whose wavering allegiance to Mussolini’s secret citizen police and repressed sexuality present the major conflicts of the film. It’s gripping, political, and romantic all in one, and is timeless in its all-encompassing scope of the time. Oh, and it looks absolutely gorgeous as well.

When we think of classic adaptations of Hamlet, we’re much more likely to think of Kenneth Brannagh’s atrocious 1996 version than Gamlet and that’s a serious shame. Spoken in Russian, Innokenty Smoktunovsky’s performance as Hamlet doesn’t feature any of the iconic lines we all know so well but instead he brings an moodiness and complexity to the role. Shot in gloomy, shadowy castles and featuring a soundtrack by Shostakovich, Gamlet rightly won a range of awards across the USSR and the West, but it has since been almost forgotten.

When you name your duo of small, somewhat absurdly proportioned sausage dogs after two movie characters, then wow, it must be a darn good movie. Harvey is a six foot tall imaginary white rabbit and loyal companion to Elwood (Jimmy Stewart) – AKA winner of The-HeartShatteringly-Charming award. The film sees our gentle pair face community scepticism and the psychiatric ward in what might be one of the most charming, quietly wise films we have.

So here’s to you, Harvey and Elwood: be you man, rabbit – or Daschund.

epigram 16.03.2020

22 Film & TV

Why we need the BBC Licence Fee Is it inevitable that the BBC licence fee has its funeral booked for the near future?

George Mellowship Third Year, Geography

“

The key thing is that [the BBC] is ours: no large companies or other corportations can influence it

IMDb / DreamWorks BBC

Now TV Film: £167.88

IMDb / Netflix

BBC License Fee: £157.50

Netflix: £107.88 IMDb / Amazon Studios

Many are now questioning the BBC’s value after the 3.5 year Brexit debate. People from across the political spectrum became entrenched in the view that the other side of the Brexit argument was completely wrong. Once entrenched in these views, many people became unhappy with the political coverage of the BBC that is meant to be politically impartial, leading to cries of BBC bias from both sides of the argument.

I am a self-proclaimed lover and loyalist to the BBC and will always try to defend it - but in recent years the corporation has made several blunders. From apologising for the Naga Munchetty race debate in which she expressed the view that Donald Trump’s statement about Ilhan Omar was racist, to the continued gender pay gap within the corporation,

criticism about the 2019 General Election coverage and the decision to remove the free licence fee for over 75s, the BBC has had a rough few years.

Recent blunders have led to people feeling disenfranchised from, and even angry at, the BBC. Some younger people feel it doesn’t represent them, some from older generations feel the BBC has become too politically correct - whatever that means. The BBC is certainly not perfect, but has it really lost so much value that it justifies the removal of the licence fee?

Licence fee money funds 14 TV Channels, 25 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations, and online services. The licence fee also covers all news, weather and sport coverage.

Whilst some may say that some of these services could be cut, the choice and diversity of content is wide. The BBC provides local radio coverage like no other company in the UK, which in turn provides an invaluable service for local people and communities. Any dent in finances could seriously affect these services. £157.50 is undoubtedly a lot of money, especially for families from lower economic backgrounds, but to me no other payment plan would fund the BBC and its services as effectively as the licence fee.

Decriminalisation of the licence fee however would seriously dent the funds of the BBC; we as students know this more than most as I would bet my right arm that the majority of students pay the licence fee because they have to.

Subscription-model privatisation invites unregulated price rises and

Amazon Prime Video: £79

increased expenses. A 2-screen Netflix package now costs £8.99, or £107.88 yearly, Now TV film £13.99 a month or £167.88, Amazon Prime video £7.99 a month or £79 for the year. These services offer no news, weather, radio, online services etc.

Whilst subscription services may seem cheaper, it is likely that people will pay for more than one of these streaming services, and so making the BBC subscription-based could price it out of the market. Companies like Netflix can be funded this way as they operate on a global scale, the UK-only market is much smaller and so the BBC even competing with Netflix is an achievement in itself.

A more likely strategy could be to fund the BBC with paid advertising.

In my opinion, the ad-free BBC is a haven from the constant onslaught of ads on social media, apps and other channels. Introducing adverts would taint the identity of the BBC, as well as risking its impartiality by introducing private partners, and potentially lead to a reduction in content. Most TV ad breaks last four minutes each with four per hour: this would equate to a loss of 16 minutes per hour of BBC content. In a series of 10 1-hour episodes this loses two and a half episodes.

The BBC is far from perfect, but the payback we receive from the licence fee is invaluable. Without it, we would lose last minute GCSE revision help with BBC Bitesize, recipe tips from BBC Good Food, as well as potentially reduced football and rugby matches.

That is before you even mention the wealth of content produced. If there are three words that could persuade you that the licence fee is

value for money, they would be Sir David Attenborough. The output of the BBC Natural History Unit is envied around the world and its quality is undoubtedly world-class.

In a privatised world where money is thrown at programmes to gather big audiences, niche British programmes are unlikely to be commissioned.

“

Many people became angry at the BBC which is supposed to be impartial, leading to cries of BBC bias

“

“

“

In recent years the corporation has made several blunders

BBC

Q

uestions are now being raised about Six Nations rugby fixtures moving from Freeview television to other services, and in recent weeks, the BBC has come under fire from a number of parties as Government ministers suggested the licence fee would be scrapped at the end of its current charter in 2027. The decriminalisation of the licence fee or swapping to a Netflix style subscription model is seen as the pathway forward.

As of 2020, the licence fee will cost £157.50 per year. Whilst the BBC is the main beneficiary of this money, a TV licence is required to watch or record any programme on live TV on any channel, as well as the use of BBC iPlayer on any device.

There are some misconceptions around the fee: it does not solely pay for BBC content and you cannot go to prison for not having one.

However, removing the licence fee would potentially end the BBC as we know it.

The output and content that we receive from the licence fee for all of this in today’s streaming service world is incredibly cheap. The BBC core value has been met with ease since its formation in 1922: ‘to inform, educate and entertain’. The BBC has shaped and enriched our lives and the key thing is that it is ours: no large companies or other corporations can influence the output. It is something that we can all share and enjoy. It is one of the only national media corporations to pour resources into local and regional content. In order for the BBC to last, it needs us to stand up for it.

Any change in licence fee would lead to serious damage to the BBC’s output. Is it far from perfect?

Definitely. Still good value for money? Without a question.

Read the full article and more on the Epigram website!

“

Arts

epigram 16.03.2020

@epigramarts

Editor Deputy Editor Digital Editor Deputy Digital Editor

Livi Player Imogen Howse Will Maddrell Serafina Lee

Instagram comic illustrators: celebrating independent creatives

I turn my Instagram into a positive place to celebrate the artwork of online comic illustrators Livi Player Arts Editor

Instagram / Meg Adams @artbymoga

I

Instagram / Samantha Rothenberg @violetclair

people and more creative accounts to inject a more positive vibe into my social media. While I still follow serious accounts that tackle important issues like climate change and world news, sometimes I need a breather. And for me, that breather, was in the form of Instagram comic illustrators.

As a celebration of these illustrators and creatives, here are my favourite Instagram illustrators, artists and comics who are sure to brighten your day and hopefully your Instagram feeds too.

Samantha Rothenberg (@violetclair) Rothenberg brilliantly illustrates the woes of modern dating to the point where they become comical and heavily relatable. She really engages with her audience - using real life texts from her followers to influence and inspire her comics.

She adds honest detail to her comics and I can’t recommend enough her ‘Screenshot Stories’ which are saved in her Highlights on her page.

They’re enough to make you cry with laughter, leave you shook and cringe at these honest dating fails.

Instagram / Catana Comics @catanacomics

Maya and Jude Devir (@jude_devir and @maya_ devir) This married couple are the epitome of goals. Creators of popular webcomics, they take regular everyday life as a married couple and turn them into cute comic-book style illustrations. Their Instagram pages give me a sense of girl power and give that superhero vibe which I love. You can’t help but fall in love with them, their relationship and their artwork, and with the birth of their first child their comics have been blessed with another adorable addition and reason to follow them.

Viakavish (@viakavish) Animation creator and comic artist Viakavish explores many topics in his random but funny comics - topics not limited to feelings of sadness, feeling lonely, feeling like life isn’t

going your way and when unexpected things occur and throw you a bit offkilter. He shows the sad realities of life, but somehow makes them not so sad. One particular stand-out comic for me remains his ‘Alone is cool’ animation and cartoon, reminding us it’s okay to be alone sometimes, that you don’t have to surround yourself with people every second of every day and that’s okay.

Catana Comics (@catanacomics) Cartoonist Catana Chetwynd illustrates the little moments of her relationship with her bearded fiance doing everyday things. The couple live in New York with their dog, and she takes her relatable inspiration for her comics from her relationship and daily life. Catana’s first comic book Little Moments of Love was published in 2018, with her second book Snug: A Collection of Comics about Dating Your Best Friend hitting shops only last month!

Cassandra Calin (@cassandracalin) Freelance illustrator, cartoonist and author Cassandra Calin wonderfully illustrates autobiographical comics and illustrations of her everyday life. Her addictive comics are a must follow, her true-to-life drawings are some of the funniest I’ve come across on my Instagram explore. She doesn’t hide her emotions in her comics showing her moments of grumpiness, tiredness, happiness and relatable

content of just being a woman.

Meg Adams (@artbymoga) Meg Adams is a comic and story artist from Seattle. Her colourful and funny comics showcase her distinctive and loveable style. She says she has the ‘simple goal of bringing some positivity and humor to my reader's days.’ She describes her work as the ‘musings of a happily married, anxiety filled, body positive mega-dork.’ Her comics have such a positive energy about them and always seem to brighten up my feed.

Flo Perry (@floperrydraws) Former Buzzfeed illustrator and freelance writer, Flo Perry’s illustrations aren’t afraid to show the hilarity of being a woman. From that end-of-the-day bra removal feeling, relatable ‘me in the morning’ laughs, summer chafing and period panties, and even writing her own book How to Have Feminist Sex: A Fairly Graphic Guide. Her mission is to get people talking more openly about women’s sex lives. No doubt you’ve probably come across some of her illustrations on Buzzfeed so why not check out more of her work on her website and her Instagram page.

“

Creative Instagram accounts inject a more positive vibe into my social media

“

nstagram is such a large part of modern life, so much so that it has become somewhat of a business and showcase of artwork for many people. For many creatives, Instagram is the most useful and easy way of showcasing their work, promoting their art and getting their name heard. Instagram is a breeding ground for original artwork to flourish. Comic illustrations are a particular kind of art that is on the rise across the social media platform, not necessarily the Marvel kind of comic, but new, fresh and unique relatable content with a comedic twist.

For me, Instagram has its good and bad moments. If you’re like me, sometimes social media can be a bit overwhelming and some aspects of the platform make me feel like I want a social media cleanse - leading me to delete the app entirely. Surely though there’s another way to make the platform a positive place where it can become a beacon of self-care and a blissful escape from the hubbub of university life? With this thinking in mind I turned my Instagram inside out. I started to follow influential

24 Arts

epigram 16.03.2020

From page to screen: the rise of classic period literature

Photo courtesy of IMDB

B

novels gracing excited ‘bestseller’ lists today can feel daunting, not least because many classics tend to exceed the three-hundred-page mark. But is it our fault as readers that those muchpraised older works sit gathering dust in forgotten drawers? Do we turn to a film adaptation of Alcott’s muchpraised novel simply because we lack the patience to appreciate 760 pages of classic literature?

“

Do we lack the patience to appreciate 760 pages of classic literature?

“

ooks and films are separated by an ocean of differences.

A book can be held, smelt, highlighted, bookmarked... meanwhile, a film brings the story to life in front of you, leaving less to the imagination.

Whatever your thoughts on the superiority of one medium over the other, it’s difficult to argue with statistics: the $203 million turnover of the box office hit Little Women is a resolute marker of the consumer demand for film adaptations.

However, this resurgence of classic literature in the form of film in particular suggests a social transition - perhaps one for the worse.

Many of us can be accused of skipping over the ‘Classics’ section of a bookshop, turning away from a Brontë or Austen novel in favour of a new bestseller. And while some people championing the ‘books are better’ mindset may criticise those for whom Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is their first and only encounter of Louisa May Alcott, it is undeniable that film adaptations are often considered to be more accessible than the ink-and-paper original. The near language barrier between hundredyear-old texts and the contemporary

However, the two can't simply be viewed as straight alternates to each other: after all, how faithful a film is to its source book can be greatly contested. The ending of Gerwig’s Little Women diverges from Alcott’s original: in the film Jo is a published author, whose book Little Women

tells the story of her family. The film ends with Jo’s romantic marriage to German professor Bhaer in her own novel, but with a decidedly more ambiguous outcome for the real Jo. In Alcott’s story Jo herself marries the professor, largely due to pressure from publishers who wanted the women in the story to be married by the end of the book; perhaps Gerwig’s adaptation is closer to the story Alcott originally wanted to tell. A benefit of cinema then is its ability to modernise and extend the lifespan of a classical story, bringing it to the eyes of those who might never have picked up a classic before.

Praising a film adaptation over its book source is often a landmine of critical discussion. But let’s face the facts: films can do things that books can’t. For those struggling with the linguistic challenges of classic novels, the visual nature of cinema can often show things a reader might find difficult to visualise or understand

a tight schedule better than the 500-page book. But should we feel guilty for forsaking the source for its adaptation?

To turn our eyes to the history of reading, literature itself is undoubtedly embedded within a wider tradition of storytelling. From medieval lay poems sung by entertainers at the King’s court, to performances of Shakespeare where the famous playwright’s words were spoken night after night to thrilled onlookers, the lifting of words from the page has been a centuries-

“

Perhaps Gerwig's modern adaptation is closer to the story Alcott originally wanted to tell

long habit. Perhaps then, whether you consume classical narratives through books, film, or both, what’s truly important is that the story is being told, one way or another.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

Third Year English

themselves. Struggling to picture Mr Murdstone’s miserable glass bottle factory in David Copperfield?

Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of the text can bring the story and characters to life in a more vivid and entertaining way for you. The film even utilises visual effects to create stunning scene transitions. For example, a happy scene in Yarmouth is torn from the screen by a gigantic hand, which turns out to be the hand of despicable Mr Murdstone as he rips up David’s drawing, keeping the lengthy narrative clear and compelling throughout.

It is, of course, possible to be both a reader and a watcher of classics.

Indeed, some might even enjoy both mediums without needing to compare the two. However, it would be remiss to ignore the growing fear that film adaptations might be replacing classics. The increasingly scarce commodity of time in fastpaced modern life means a twohour showing of Emma can fit in

“

Are film adaptations of classic novels damaging our appreciation for the original texts?

Yasmin Inkersole

Bristol's climate strike: stand-out signs T Epigram Arts round up our favourite creative signs from the climate march with Greta Livi Player Arts Editor

ens of thousands of young people joined Greta Thunberg in the climate strike on Friday 28th February at College Green. The Swedish teenager and climate activist joined Bristol’s Youth Strike 4 Climate group for the march.

Photo courtesy of Ellie Brown

Students, school children and parents alike took to the streets of Bristol to march for the climate.

Wearing her famous yellow raincoat, Greta addressed the crowd, ‘I'm so happy to be here in Bristol with all of you’. Thunberg joined the protestors as they marched through the city

centre following the rally.

Members of the public took the opportunity to bring their handmade signs and placards to support the march.

The variety of different signs showed Bristol's amusing humour in tackling such a serious issue. Some

Photo courtesy of Robin Connolly

placards were amusing, some were more serious, some were political – with plenty of Boris and Trump themed signs – but all were hugely creative, particularly the little knitted Greta attached to a pole waving over the crowd. We rounded up some of our personal favourite creative signs.

Photo courtesy of Rosie Angel-Clark

Arts 25

16.03.2020 epigram

Second Year Economics & Politics

A

Epigram / Imogen Howse

rt galleries – near or afar – have always held the ability to draw people in and evoke a certain emotional response. However, each gallery somehow still manages to have its own unique atmosphere. Perhaps it’s the holiday feeling of an international gallery by the beach, or the sense of a mystery unfolding in the Vatican city... or even just the serene ambiance provided by the modern architecture

“

The serenity of the garden provides a beautiful landscape, fresh air, and a relaxing escape from the buzzing city

and astounding Vatican Museum.

From the tapestries lined across the walls to the great collections from the likes of Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, the content definitely did not fail to impress. The Sistine Chapel, included in the price of the ticket I bought, was beautifully designed with the famous ‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo Buonarroti featuring as a centrepiece. The main distinguishing feature about this gallery was that the works were ‘one

of a kind’ pieces that really capture the era of time they come from. They also have the famous spiral staircase, something that is certainly worth a glance or two.

When visiting the Vatican Museum, I would advise going between November and February to avoid huge crowds; if this isn’t possible, it’s best to go later in the day, after the queues have died down. It would also be wise to allow for more time than you think - the Vatican Museums span over 7.5km in total! Finally, dressing appropriately is definitely worth considering; nothing hurts more than rejection.

My personal second place has to go to Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.

With over 900,000 objects, they have the largest Flemish collection with pieces ranging from Vermeer to Rembrandt. Van Gogh’s self-portrait is also worth mentioning - it's without a doubt their star piece.

The iconic artworks certainly attract well-deserved attention, but the serenity of the garden that lies behind the museum, providing a beautiful landscape, fresh air, and a relaxing spot to escape from the buzzing city, is in my opinion what

makes this pick really stand out.

Temporary exhibitions, including ones from Miro and Calder, have also been held at this museum, something which offers a taste of Southern Europe without having to increase your carbon footprint or break the bank. The inner architecture echoes a similar tone to the National Gallery in London, however the combination of the Gothic and Renaissance style

“

The combination of the Gothic and Renaissance style makes it unique to Cuyper's design

“

Jessica Li

of the MAAT in Lisbon. Each time, a different gallery encourages a different feeling – sometimes nostalgia, sometimes excitement, and admittedly, sometimes just straightup confusion.

Whilst interrailing, there was a vast array of galleries that really caught my attention. The first one that comes to mind is the impressive

“

One student gives her top picks from art galleries around the world

Epigram / Imogen Howse

Galleries around the globe: branching out from Bristol

is what makes it unique to Cuypers’s design.

Although Bristol undoubtedly has an impressive variety of art galleries on offer – from Arnolfini and Spike Island by the harbourside to the Royal West of England Academy just off the triangle – certain international art galleries have an unbelievably impressive aura to them. Although sometimes they come with a hefty price tag, they are truly worth the visit, whether that be for the varied architecture or the famous and celebrated masterpieces.

They are certainly well worth a trip if you are planning a holiday abroad – the content is phenomenal and the memories are to treasure.

Book Corner

First Year English

I

n Extremis documents the tumultuous life of war correspondent Marie Colvin.

Chronicling her life all the way from her childhood in glamourous Long Island through to her premature death in a bombardment in Syria, you are forced to reflect upon her turbulent life and consider how such a resilient, fearless woman came to be. Lindsey Hilsum’s writing style is brutally honest - she refuses to deviate from telling the truth about Marie’s character, who was often aggressive and reckless. But this allows for a truly holistic portrayal of Marie and makes for a fantastically compelling read.

Emma Hanson Third Year English

L

ike the twisting strands on the faulty DNA which gives the protagonist of this humorous realist novel their intersex condition, Jeffrey Eugenides twists together Greek and English influences to lend this simultaneously funny, poignant and sad tale its unique impact.

Following the Greek immigration of the Stephinades family, and tracing back the faulty intersex gene, this novel addresses themes of immigration, family, gender and sexuality. His realist prose effectively captures the unique circumstance of living between binaries and ultimately shows us that while we are all different, we are all human.

Tess Skelly

Third Year Politics & IR

S

et during the Troubles in 1970s Northern Ireland, Milkman follows an eighteen year old girl as she deals with the unsolicited sexual advances of a middle-aged milkman. Although she does all she can to stop the attention, the local community soon assumes the two are having an affair and the protagonist has to endure increasing prejudice from those around her. Instead of focusing on the conspicuous signs of unease during the Troubles, such as the police presence and violence, Burns focuses on the emotional toll of living under an oppressive patriarchy and dealing with widespread distrust and fear every day.

Imogen Howse Deputy Arts Editor

T

here’s something so uniquely atmospheric about Minnow Bly. Written in a double timeline and told by an unreliable narrator, you never quite know the whole story; it’s up to the reader to piece together the fragments of this poignant and harrowing tale.

Tackling issues such as the dangers of blind faith, the manipulation of religion, and the flaws in our justice system, this novel pursues a gritty trajectory. But Stephanie Oakes’ poetic prose still manages to balance the light with the dark, transforming this book into a tale about the power of having faith in oneself and the enduring strength of humankind.

Photo courtesy of Waterstones

Photo courtesy of Waterstones

Photo courtesy of Waterstones

Photo courtesy of Foyles

Ginny Darke

Photo courtesy of Waterstones

Epigram Arts’ regular feature: your go-to for our top literary recommendations

Maddy Raven

Second Year Theatre & Film

O

ne book that everyone has to read at least once in their lifetime is The Princess Bride. Many know it as the film cult classic, directed by Rob Reiner, but the book itself was written by William Goldman. Goldman insists that The Princess Bride is a novel he read as a child: the first part of the story thus consists of his epic quest to find the book for his son’s birthday, complete with amusing anecdotes about the film industry. This is essential reading for anyone interested in film and is a great choice if you're in the mood for some light comedy. It claims to be one of the best stories of all time, and I agree – it truly is.

Music

epigram 16.03.2020

@EpigramMusic epigram_music

Editor Deputy Editor Digital Editor Deputy Digital Editor

Francesca Frankis Guy Marcham Joe Boyd Will Snelling

Razor-sharp Riffs and Gen-Z angst: Bristol’s Best Student Bands

Epigram Music delve into Bristol’s thriving student music scene and introduce three new bands to sink your teeth into; if you like youthful anarchism and adrenaline fuelled guitars then look no further...

Katie Hubbard

Second Year Geography

Drawing influences from Shame, Mission of Burma and Bristol music royalty Idles, The New America certainly indulge in some of the noisier elements that music has to offer. Consisting of University of Bristol Philosophy students Zac, Oli, Tom and UWE Law student Cam, the self-described ‘scuzzy noise rock band’ have been gaining attention in the Bristol music scene recently. The band are signed to Mighty Atom Smasher Records with two singles ‘That wasn’t the Deal’ and recently released ode to Bristol ‘I love where I live’ being available on all good streaming platforms. The band make music that wouldn’t sound out of place as the soundtrack to an angsty American teen film (think a millennial remake of Heathers) with latest single ‘I love where I live’ combining a stomping drum beat with a hooky guitar riff and The Cribs inspired vocals.

Claiming to have met ‘Under a bridge at midnight on the winter solstice 1996’ the quartet explain how being in the band has helped as an outlet from university stress and that after taking a break they ‘end up feeling terrible until we get back to doing

band stuff.’ When asked about how they have been received as a new group in the Bristol music scene they explain that ‘We’re really lucky to be in Bristol because it’s got loads of small-to-midsized venues so you get the chance to play with a really wide variety of bands.’ They have recently supported the brilliantly named

“

The noisy, hardworking friends are set for a very exciting year

“

The New America

The New America/Facebook

U

niversity is a popular starting place for some of the world’s best bands with The Doors, Pixies, Blur, Radiohead and Alt-J all meeting in higher education. But what does Bristol have to offer in the way of student bands?

It turns out quite a lot actually. In this special feature I am going to introduce you to three of Bristol’s most exciting student bands, showcasing the rich diversity of talent we have here at university. You never know, your next favourite band might be closer than you think.

Dead Naked Hippies and Straight Girl at The Mother’s Ruin and are set for an equally busy few months ahead with many gigs lined up.

With two excellent singles under their belt and reports of a very good live show to boot, it’s clear the noisy, hardworking friends are set for a very exciting year.

Bosh Face Bristol five-piece, Bosh Face, comprise of a range of engineering, medicine, economics and English students. Meeting through University and Facebook - the band started out last year by ‘jamming in the Badock music room’ and have since progressed into their current form of

alternative and psychedelic groove rock. Their unusual moniker results from endless lager-soaked nights and ‘drunken nonsense’ (surely how all good bands names are formed?).

The genre bending musicians draw inspiration from a range of sources with guitarist and vocalist Ollie telling me that they all have different personal influences and that this variety helps them be even more original. Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Parcels and Radiohead were cited as just handful of their main influences.

Despite only having had limited gigging experience, the band have been excelling in the past few weeks; winning LiveSoc’s Battle of the Bands at the Fleece, being featured on BBC Radio Bristol and recording new music at Exaudium studios which they describe as ‘crazy’ and a ‘dream come true’. The chance to record more music is an exciting prospect for the band whose single ‘Air’ was recorded in frontman Alex’s bedroom. The cinematic track indulges in intricate melodies with a funk inspired bass line and ‘groovy moments’ demonstrating the groups wide range of musical influences.

The close-knit group explain how they have found the Bristol music scene to be ‘very accommodating’ with people being willing to ‘have complete unknowns on.’ One thing’s for sure and after

the few weeks they’ve had - Bosh Face certainly won’t be classed as ‘complete unknowns’ anymore.

Rose Ocean Many Stoke Bishop residents might recognise this tuneful alternative indie band. Rose Ocean, comprising of members Freddie, Sam, Jamie and Ben were formally called ‘The Esponas’ and put on some very successful gigs at Durdham and Wills hall last summer, covering indie and pop punk classics.

The upbeat group have now decided to focus on writing, performing and recording their own music (hence the name change). The entirely self-taught band write tuneful alternative indie treats that sometimes rage with a 90s Seattle-influenced grunge gnarl (most likely resulting from lead guitarist Jamie’s love of Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana.)

The group cite indie royalty Catfish and the Bottlemen and The 1975 amongst their influences. The varied

taste within the group is demonstrated best when asked what song they would play at pres with answers varying from The Stone Roses, to Thornhill, Blink 182 and Mongolian metal throat-singing band The Hu. The group have been making waves recently, finishing as runner up at Battle of the Bands (behind Bosh Face), being interviewed

by BBC Bristol and having their debut radio play with single ‘The View’.

Harnessing their current moment u m , t h e group are arranging to record their debut EP as we speak.

When asked of future goals, the ambitious band explain how playing at The Fleece was their original goal so they now need to aim higher, with drummer Ben stating their new aim should be to ‘play at 02 academy’. With their current trajectory - it doesn’t seem like that will remain as just a goal for very long.

Music 27

16.03.2020 epigram

The Class Problem in the U.K. Music Industry Epigram Music explore the lack of class diversity in the music industry, what it means for working class musicians and how we can level the playing field

Editor’s picks: Albums to listen to in March

Nadia Reid Out of My Province (6/03/20)

Cerys Croxen-John Second Year History

W

Loyle Carner/Practise Music

Baxter Dury The Night Chancers (20/03/20)

establishment. Yet this almighty transition from council estate to sold-out stadium is few and far between in our musical landscape. Historically, the music industry has been dominated by middle-class musicians.

The Word, a respected music magazine, concluded from research that the industry is home to more privatelyeducated musicians, such as Tom Misch and Lolye Carner, than those from less welloff backgrounds.

Their research highlighted the unequal representation

in the music industry, where a large proportion of U.K. chart acts were privately educated. This was not always the case in the 1990s where 80 per cent of chart entries were state-educated. The reasons for the ‘elitism’ of the music industry has divided opinion.

Some have argued that privately educated musicians generally have more resources available to them to enable them to break into the music industry more easily. A ‘first break’ in the music industry requires a dramatic sum of money and support which in turn puts working-class musicians at a disadvantage. The cost of making a demo without record label backing, playing gigs instead of working which generally pays better, travel etc are all things that are more easily financed by those from a privileged background.

Especially, when working-class people cannot afford to pursue a potentially financially fruitless career.

Others have argued the lack of class diversity comes down to the rise of university-culture in Britain. Pop producer, Pete Waterman emphasised the necessity of a degree to enter the music industry today, whereas in previous decades musical knowledge was the only ticket required. The

Guardian recently highlighted the class-related discrepancies in English university intakes, with more than half of the universities in England having fewer than 5 per cent of white working-class students. Additionally, only 22 per cent of all workingclass applicants from all ethnic backgrounds in Britain were successful in their application. If a degree is what is now needed to get into the music industry, then working-class

“

Music should be a place in which any voice can be heard

“

ith The Oscars and BRITs both coming under fire for the lack of ethnic and gender diversity, there seems to be a wider elephant in the room - the matter of class.

The music industry is increasingly coming under scrutiny for being institutionally biased against those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Accusations that privilege dictates musical success have been reported widely – from the BBC to the Daily Mail. The charge levelled at the U.K. music industry is that achieving success is becoming increasingly challenging for working-class musicians. The music industry in turn has become more ‘posh’.

Woody Guthrie’s guitar was once emblazoned with the slogan: ‘this machine kills fascists’. Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey once rattled ferociously and burst with youthful anarchism (‘I hope I die before I get old’) in 1960s Britain.

Later, in the 1990s Liam and Noel Gallagher plied their knack for surging and anthemic choruses to unite just about every inch of Britain. This music hinged on a distinct class-based rhetoric. The people rebelling against t h e elite

musicians are at a clear disadvantage.

Music should be a place in which any voice can be heard. A wide variety of voices is conducive to music’s greater cultural impact and value. The fact that the music industry is becoming increasingly ‘posh’ to no extent diminishes the success, talent or hard work of privately educated musicians. However, it does pose more questions than answers. Why are working class artists being sidelined and how can we elevate their voices?

Waxahatchee Saint Cloud (27/3/20)

Margaret Glaspy Devotion (27/3/20)

Little Dragon New Me, Same Us (27/3/20)

epigram 16.03.2020

28 Music

‘Annie Mac’s Coming! Hopefully she doesn’t think it’s terrible!’: In conversation with APRE Epigram Music sit down alternative pop duo APRE to talk about their biggest headline tour to date, the nature of political songwriting and attracting a more ‘laddy’ fan base Katie Hubbard

Second Year Geography

E

Apre/Facebook

so many support tours last year that it got a little bit relentless. So, it’s nice to play to our own audience properly every night.’ Vocalist and guitarist Charlie Brown elaborated on the advantages of your own headline tour by noting that ‘its been rewarding to see people come every night, it feels a bit more like you’re getting something back. It’s definitely more fun when it’s your own tour.’

Their headline tour is finishing at the iconic Scala in London. The duo are bursting with excitement yet still nervous and carefully fretting over the added weight and ‘pressure’ that comes alongside playing the in fluenti al venue near K i n g s C r o s s .

Charlie explains that ‘there’s a lot of important people coming, Annie Mac’s coming.

Hopefully she doesn’t think it’s terrible!’ he quips. ‘if it goes well it’s going to be good. Big

moment in the Apre career so far.’

When asked about the support bands for this tour (Polly Money and Weird Milk) Jules explains they had a lot of choice and ‘we wanted to make this tour a bit gang like, to have lots of people we like the music of and give them the chance to play to new people. They’ve all been lovely; they’ve all been so nice.’ With Charlie adding that ‘The Weird Milk guys are really nice. They’re really cool.’ It’s refreshing to see a band care so much about their touring partners. The band even curated a Spotify playlist before the tour consisting of their support acts so that people could listen to them and get to know their music beforehand.

This is quite likely influenced by all the mammoth tours Apre embarked on last year, covering most of the UK and Europe in support of both Inhaler and Half Alive.

The duo have had a busy few months since I last interviewed them in October with a Christmas single, several music

videos and an EP ‘The Gun’s Down’ being released in the interim. Charlie explains that he has ‘absolutely no idea where that came from, we’ve got a song called “you always get it wrong” that was originally called ‘Guns Down’ - I don’t know why that title just fell into my head’.

Jules expanded: ‘I think it makes sense because ‘You always get it wrong’ and ‘Dreamworld’ on that EP are quite politically charged, they were written when Brexit was coming to light. We found that there’s a link between ‘You

“

I think it’s important to share your views but not to impose them

“

It’s nice to play to our own audience properly every night

“

“

Apre/Facebook

pigram Music catch up with indie pop band Apre ahead of their sell out gig at The Louisiana. A tormented grey cloud looms over Bristol as wind sweeps through every narrow crevice – but APRE seem somewhat contrasting.

The pair are in high spirits – excited to be in Bristol as part of their first ever headline tour. The duo toured extensively in support of other artists last year with one half of the band, Jules Konieczny, telling me ‘we did

always get it wrong’ and capitalism and the break-up of a relationship.’

This interesting admission led to a discussion on the politicisation of music and whether bands should

express their political opinion with Jules eloquently telling me that ‘I think it’s important to share your views but not to impose them.’

He adds that ‘I

think n the arts it’s kind of inescapable to not express some anger of some sort to do with politics. It’s all around, I can understand why a lot of people are talking about it, but I don’t like it when people say you should think this.’ A more cynical Charlie adds that there are lots of bands promoting politics and other causes that they haven’t been interested in before. He adds that ‘there’s loads of bands that have never mentioned causes before that you see doing these things. And you think you just want more streams i

on your Spotify. I don’t like it.’

The topic of conversation then veers into slightly less serious territory with a discussion about Fifa as the duo’s powerful indie track ‘Come Down’ is featured on the Fifa 20 soundtrack.

Charlie muses that ‘it’s brought a bit of a ‘laddy’ audience, it’s brought a new mixture of people to our shows.

It’s a bit of a landmark really it terms of exposure, it’s a game changer.’

It appears this increased exposure has paid dividends with several dates (including Bristol) being sell outs on the tour, a feat all the more impressive when you remember it is their first ever headline tour.

The likeable duo have big plans for the rest of the year, Jules tells me after the tour they’re planning to release new music: a song named ‘Go Somewhere’ after which the tour is named. He then states following on from that they will head straight into ‘festival season and then a bigger tour of the UK in autumn (…) actually that sounds quite busy.’ If the past few months are anything to go by it seems quite likely that the synthloving alternative pop pair are going to remain busy for quite some time.

Head to epigram.org.uk to read our live review of APRE @ The Louisiana

Puzzles

Editor Subeditor

Kezi James Fergus Ustianowski

epigram.puzzles@gmail.com If you need any help, contact the editor by email or through social media

Cryptic Crossword Credit: Conor Cullen, Fourth year Engineering Mathematics 4.

5.

6.

8.

9.

10.

12.

15.

1.

2.

3.

5.

7.

11.

13.

14.

Across Measure unsteady notes (5).

Agree to obscure micro poems (10).

Deal made by rowdy cantina sort (11).

Language day in Spain with little to elect (7).

Binds to put down stink (5).

Architect of faulty reactor (7).

Assistant must assemble race tyres (9).

Inhabited by the rising devil (5).

Down

Popular saying comes away at edges, so it’s said (6).

Glasses with label on front are forbidden (5).

Get a tree from Edward in his vehicle (5).

Outbreak caused by scattering various corn (11).

Authority is away and mostly nicer (7).

Teams won a pleasant voyage on the radio (5).

Family relative puts us in the money (6).

Barrel gets the thumb, oddly (3).

Bristol Codeword

Each number is associated with a letter, so, starting with the solved letters, use your logic and vocabulary to reveal more letters, from words, and then crack the code. All of the words are Bristol based.

Credit: Fergus Ustianowski, Puzzles Subeditor

Word Wheel Create as many words as you can with the letters in the word wheel. Every word must contain the letter in the centre and you can only use each letter once.

T

N A

S

I E

H P

Continuing Puzzle This will be a running puzzle where every week the previous weeks answer will help you solve this puzzle. Every week the puzzle shall be put up online if a week is missed.

Credit: Fergus Ustianowski, Puzzles Subeditor

If you want it more live, what is the venue called in the city centre that shows it? (10)

Solutions will be posted online at: epigram.org.uk/tag/puzzles facebook.com/epigrampaper If you would like to submit ideas for Puzzles, email epigram.puzzles@gmail.com

30 Sport

epigram 16.03.2020

‘Mental toughness is indispensable’: the realities of marathon training Fourth Year, Dentistry

The late January sunrises and daily downpours have certainly made the first 7 weeks challenging but, I have battled to clock up the weekly mileage

“

I had previously ran half marathons and the thought of running double that was absolutely terrifying.

However, for my 21st birthday my sister decided a great gift would be to enter me for the 2020 London Marathon- how lovely of her!

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t take this well and probably took at least two weeks to get over the initial shock.

However, because I had a charity place for a cause that is very close to my heart, I knew early on that I was determined to succeed in this challenge. I will be running for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), in memory of my friend and 1st year flatmate Reece Webster who sadly lost his battle with a rare and aggressive cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma, after fighting it with immense determination for many years. Every day in the UK, seven young people are diagnosed with cancer, and this charity helps thousands of 13-24year olds through their treatment process.

So where did I start? As mentioned previously I play a lot of football (we have 6 sessions a week!) and have run two half marathons for the TCT so I would say that I am physically fit, although I certainly would not describe myself as a runner. My sister Siobhan (who also signed up) and I decided to follow an ‘Intermediate’ 16-week plan, made up of normal, speed and long runs.

The late January sunrises and daily downpours have certainly made the

The good, the bad & the ugly Good Foam rolling, rest days and absurd amounts of peanut butter

Bad

Early wake ups, fatigue and running in pouring rain

Ugly

Blisters, Bristol hills and the famous black toenails first 7 weeks challenging but, come rain or shine, I have battled the Bristol commuters walking to work to clock up the weekly mileage. So far, I am surprisingly quite enjoying it. There is something very satisfying about lacing up your trainers, popping your headphones in and going for a run before the majority of Bristol has awoken. Listening to podcasts whilst exercising is a very new concept

Epigram / Keira Madden

“

Epigram / Keira Madden

M

y name is Keira Madden; I’m a dental student at the University of Bristol who plays football for UBWFC and occasionally enjoys a run.

Like many people across the globe, I have often tuned into the live coverage of the London Marathon, watching in awe from the comfort of my sofa as everyone from Eliud Kipchoge to the man dressed as Big Ben take on the gruelling 26.2 mile race. With over 40,000 runners each year all running for their own reasons, it is impossible not to feel inspired and even a little motivated.

That being said, I still had never actually considered running a marathon, mainly due to the fact that

to me but when you’re running for several hours there is only so many times you can listen to Lizzo’s ‘Good as Hell’ and thus true crime podcasts have become my distraction whilst running. Not only have I experienced the dark streets of 5am Bristol, I’ve also observed several beautiful sunrises at Clifton Suspension Bridge and icy scenes around Ashton Court on morning runs.

Some days are great and you run feeling relaxed, strong and fast, whilst other days you lack all motivation to get out the door, feeling slow and heavy, something I felt intensely whilst trudging through 10cm deep water (thanks to Storm Dennis) whilst on a 12mile run. It’s a marathon, not a sprint (literally) and I’ve had to learn that not every run will feel rewarding; all that matters is that you just keep running!

Balancing my dentistry, football and running commitments has been the most challenging aspect of training; however, I strongly advocate that exercise is great for your mental health.

Shockingly, I’ve also somehow come to find speed runs quite enjoyable. Altering my routes has prevented monotonous training and lets me explore more of Bristol; only since training for example, have I found the scenic Bristol-Bath cycle path, a lovely (flat) 14-mile trail.

Running is like a whole new world, full of technical things I knew nothing about until recently: protein shakes, energy gels, negative splits, deloading weeks and compression socks, to name just a few.

Who knew that a coffee flavoured chia energy gel with the consistency of baby food could taste so good?

The entire experience so far has been a huge mix of emotions, it’s

knackering, challenging and I already feel nervous. Nevertheless, it’s exhilarating to think that this year I will be running along the crowd filled streets, with thousands of other mad runners attempting the 26.2 miles.

Everyone has been so supportive, and I’ve already raised just shy of £1000, so I am well on the way to my target of £2000. I really want to give back to the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity who supported Reece, his family and friends greatly throughout his treatment. If you would like to donate or follow the highs, lows and many miles of my training then please visit @maddenrunsamarathon on Instagram.

The main thing I have learnt so far is that you can do much more than you ever thought was possible, you just might need a little push. Of course you need some physical training, but mental toughness is indispensable.

Can I complete the Marathon? I guess you’ll have to tune in on April 26th to find out! Just remember, you could have gotten a worse birthday present…

Epigram / Keira Madden

One student running the London Marathon reveals what life is really like training for the most famous 26mile run of the year Keira Madden

Team of the week: Women’s Netball 2s This term has seen major progression both in terms of individual and team growth, demonstrated by this weeks game where we obtained an 18 goal margin against second placed Cardiff 2s. The win has to be attributed to the strong defensive pressure through-court, as well as tactical movement in the shooting circle and accurate feeds from the midcourt players.

Sport 31

16.03.2020 epigram

Bristol hosts national student lifesaving championship Student Sport Correspondent ... continued from page 32 On the second day, teams of four were tested on their ability to respond to an unknown emergency.

The aim of this event is to replicate realistic incidents that lifeguards might have to respond to whilst on duty. Competitors are given between two and two and a half minutes to react to one in-pool emergency and one out of pool emergency. This year the in-pool scenario included two inflatable boats whereby one had capsized, and a casualty was trapped underneath. Sunday’s winners were Loughborough, closely followed by Bristol and Birmingham.

The weekend also saw various student records broken. The Women’s 4x50m medley relay and 4x10m line throw relay records were both broken by students from Loughborough. The 100m rescue medley record was also

broken by a Loughborough student, Lea Donovan.

The Women’s 12.5m individual line throw was broken by Keira Stephens of Plymouth and the mixed line throw relay record was broken by a Birmingham student on the Sunday.

Overall winners Loughborough were dominant over the course of the weekend, coming first in both the Men’s and Women’s events on Saturday, as well as winning the team events on Sunday with their A Team.

Bristol also performed well over the weekend, missing out on second to Birmingham but still taking a place on the podium finishing third.

The skill of all participants was very impressive and their lifesaving abilities will surely be useful in the future. The atmosphre at the event was also electric. Lifesaving is not only an incredibly useful skill to have, but a unique sport that has a bright future in Bristol and at future competitions.

Epigram / Ollie Smith

Eddie McAteer

Student rugby team crusade for mental health the crusader contacted the founder, Susie Weaver, about buying t-shirts for Crusaders to train in.

After a few conversations an order of 23 shirts was placed, a number that exceeded expectations. All proceeds went to Young Minds and, so far, the campaign has raised over £7000 for the mental health charity.

Rugby has also played its part in improving this player’s mental health. Having initially played rugby at school and not enjoyed it, he redis-

er, this has not been his experience with the Clifton Crusaders. He still enjoys the social aspect and that is, at least in part, down to the fact that it is with friends. They do not feel like simply teammates, but friends that he happens to play rugby with.

This is not the first time that the Crusaders have been supportive of mental health campaigns. In Novem-

ber, as is common with many sports team, they participated in Movember, and by the end of the month they had raised £667 for mental health charities. In addition to their work off the pitch, the team is also finding success on the pitch. They are currently top of the intramural rugby league and recently beat the University’s rugby league team 32-5.

“

They do not feel like simply teammates, but friends that he happens to play rugby with

covered the sport whilst a fresher in Goldney Halls. It felt like the first time he enjoyed playing rugby with people, as opposed to just playing the sport.

The team spirit has only become stronger with time, and the team has been fully supportive of his decision to cut out alcohol. Lots of people feel that they need to drink to enjoy themselves on a night out; howev-

Epigram / Josh Jones

‘I

t’s okay to feel S.H.I.T’ say the t-shirts worn by players of Clifton Crusaders during their recent training session, reminding us all that it’s okay to not be okay. After one member of the team opened up about their experience with mental health, and the difficulties they faced, the team rallied around them, showing their support by wearing these t-shirts The player, who does not wish to be named, says he has struggled with his mental health for years and has made attempts on his own life previously. After a series of negative events reached boiling point, he realised that something needed to be done, so contacted the student health services and spoke to his GP.

Epigram / Josh Jones

Student Sport Correspondent

It was as a result of scrolling through Instagram, an app often portrayed negatively in the media, that the player came across So Happy In Town. Even as a proud Irishman, he still follows charismatic English rugby player Joe Marler on the app and noticed Marler promoting the campaign ‘It’s okay to feel S.H.I.T’.

This campaign is run by the blog So Happy In Town, which discusses all aspects of family life, including mental health. Having missed out on the first batch of t-shirts,

“

Intramural rugby team, Clifton Crusaders, recently held a training session and have teamed up with a blog to raise awareness of mental health issues Eddie McAteer

Sport

India Gay Edward McAteer

Epigram / Ollie Smith

Editor Student Sport Correspondent

Bristol saving lives T

he British Universities Lifesaving Clubs’ Association student championship this year took place at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre between 29 February and 1 March. Teams from around the country, as well as two

recognised sport with over 40 countries participating. The association also managed to secure their highest ever number of sponsorships from four

“

In particular, the manikin carry provided lots of drama

“

Student Sport Correspondent

Greek universities, competed over the weekend in various lifesaving events. Having never seen or heard of lifesaving as a competitive sport, reporting on this event was a first for me.

Competitive lifesaving began as a way for lifeguards to maintain and improve all the skills unique to lifesaving. The first official meeting was in 1891, when the Royal Life Saving Society was founded. As its popularity grew at university level, the BULSCA was formed in 2002 in order to facilitate competitions between universities.

Nowadays, it is an internationally

different companies; Camp Canada, Kind, Boost and Bristol’s very own Thekla all provided support for the event.

The first day saw a variety of

“

The line throw involves throwing a rope out to a person in the water and pulling them to the safety of the edge of the pool

“

Last week The British Universities Lifesaving Clubs’ Association Student Championship came to Bristol, where universities competed in various events Eddie McAteer

individual events such as the line throw, which involves throwing a rope out to a person in the water and pulling them to the safety of the edge of the pool.

The individual events were often

very close; the Men’s 200m obstacle event was decided by 0.96 seconds and the Men’s 12.5m line throw was literally too close to call, with the two fastest participants finishing in exactly 11.46 seconds.

There were plenty of team events in the form of relays, including the manikin carry relay, whereby competitors must carry a 45kg manikin for 25m before handing it over to their teammate. In particular, the manikin carry provided lots of drama as there were multiple disqualifications due to manikins being lost on the way.

Continued on page 31