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Palatinate Thursday 10th March 2016 | No. 783

C*nty High School for D*kes

The problem with single-sex schooling

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& why old-school student media is still the champion

Brexit would put North-East universities at risk Ryan Gould News Editor

Queen’s Campus riverside, Stockton

Photograph: Durham University

University continues to consult on the future of Queen’s Campus Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor The University has remained ambivalent on the issue of a potential repurposing and reshuffling of Queen’s Campus, which may include both faculties based at Stockton and John Snow and Stephenson Colleges moving to Durham.

In October 2014, it was announced that the future of Queen’s Campus was to be placed under consultation as part of a “New Academic Strategy ” and subsequently,

a Queen’s Campus Working Group was set up, headed by Professor Anthony Long.

In February 2015, Professor Long, on behalf of the Queen’s Campus Working Group, issued details of a report summarising the initial recommendations for the future of the campus.

The recommendations outlined in the report were endorsed by the University Executive Committee, meaning that the issue of the future of Queen’s Campus will be discussed at the University Council, the University’s governing body.

When asked by Palatinate

about the proposed recommendation by the Working Group, the University insisted that any recommendations are still at a “relative early stage.”

They told Palatinate: “The outcomes of the consultation process helped shape a well-evidenced report which contains initial proposals for further consideration through our governance process.

“Decisions on these proposals will be made in the coming months by the University Council, the University’s governing body.”

The summary of the initial recommendations was provided by the Working Group, which was

sent out to both staff and students.

The report proposed that the “academic activities” which currently take place at Queen’s Campus be moved into or near to Durham City.

Alongside this, the locations of the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health would be agreed following considering of a recent school review.

The moving of academic faculties would be accompanied by John Snow and Stephenson Colleges to establish “new homes” in Durham City.

Continued on page 5...

North-East universities would lose millions of pounds in research investment if the United Kingdom were to leave the European Union, it was claimed last week.

The Northern Echo reported that Labour’s Shadow Business, Innovation, and Skills Secretary, Angela Eagle, said that North-East universities had received more than £50 million in research funding via the European Research Council (ERC) since 2008.

Within that £50 million, £27 million went to Durham and £23 million went to Newcastle.

Addressing an audience at Newcastle University, Ms. Eagles said that “the North-East is rightly proud of the pioneering research being undertaken by its universities in Newcastle and Durham.

“The research at both universities and the potential spin-offs can play a huge part in driving growth and diversifying the North-East’s economy.

“These figures highlight the risk to our universities of the UK leaving the European Union. EUfunded research at the UK’s leading universities has led to vital scientific discoveries, including potential treatments for cancer and heart disease.

“Leaving the EU would put at risk this funding stream and undermine the UK’s world-leading university sector, including Newcastle and Durham universities, putting our competitive advantage and highly-skilled jobs at risk.”

The Northern Echo reported that Kevin Dowd, Professor of Finance and Economics at Durham, accused Ms. Eagle of “scaremongering.”

“To suggest that North-East universities, or any others around the country, are in danger of losing investment by our voting to leave is Continued on page 4...

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Editorial In defence of ‘old-school student media’ The Guardian published an article last month on the success of The Tab, claiming that the online tabloid is squeezing out ‘old-school student media’. If this is true, get me the hell out of here.

The Tab recently posted a harrowing account of someone whose friend tried to kill herself. The article was incredibly important, both for highlighting the University’s insufficient resources for dealing with these situations and for affirming student media as one of the few outlets to discuss this. The link to the article can be found on our website and I recommend that everyone reads it.

Despite this, the way in which The Tab (and by this I mean The Tab Durham) cherry-picks critical issues to report on, and sensationalises them to the point of hysteria, should be a red card for student media.

At the time of writing, two of The Tab’s ‘stories you care about’ are ‘Which Means Girls character is your college?’, and the predicted winner of this year’s student media award, ‘Why you should let the Turtleneck into your hearts’.

This light-hearted style of journalism is something Palatinate can learn to do better, but please don’t lump us in with The Tab for the title of serious student journalism.

Looking back over the last year, Palatinate’s coverage of student

life has been ground-breaking.

In 2015 Palatinate covered every aspect of river safety, constantly probing the University over the likelihood of reform and working with the City Safety Group to ensure the legislation of effective measures. Last Easter we revealed the University’s shameful investment in defence contractors and chemical companies.

We also exposed the University’s gender and ethnicity pay gap nine months before the University and College Union did (a report The Tab used this week to write an article branded a “load of horse bollocks”, “shameful sensationaism” and “intellectually disingenuous” in the comments).

The Guardian claims traditional student media is struggling to keep up, but is this observation completely founded? We are never going to get as many views as The Tab, nor match their profound insights into the gripping realities of student life (‘FINALLY: Deliveroo has arrived in Durham’). Click-bait has a place, but so does serious student journalism. The Daily Mail gets more views than The Guardian; is this a reliable guide to the quality of the respective publications?

I myself sometimes indulge in fittest Fresher or surveys of students’ biro preferences in those moments of truly desperate procrastination; I just feel that seri-

ous student journalism also has a place alongside entertaining crap.

The most irritating Tab article I have read concerned its backing of Jade Azim in the latest SU elections, citing her promises for change as reasons to vote (living wage, accommodation fees, divestment). Palatinate had been reporting on these issues for months before these pseudohipster bandwagon jumpers appointed themselves champions of the oppressed masses in the hope of getting a few more likes.

Not that you have to report on these topics, and not everybody will be interested in all of these issues all of the time, but Palatinate has a role to play, and tries as best as possible to represent a crosssection of views held by Durham students. We are Durham’s official indepedent student newspaper and willingly research and report every important aspect of this University. I feel like this sometimes gets lost, and wanted to use my final editorial to draw attention to some of the great work Palatinate does, and will continue to do in the future.

Josh Smith

Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

Inside 783

Editorial Board

News pages 3-8

Editors-in-Chief Alex Cupples and Josh Smith editor@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Editor Sandy Thin deputy.editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Ryan Gould and Charlie Taylor-Kroll news@palatinate.org.uk News Features Editor Holly Bancroft news.features@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Mirriam Brittenden and Emma Pinckard deputy.news@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editor Rob Littleton politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editor Mason Boycott-Owen deputy.politics@palatinate.org.uk Profile Editors Will Fremont-Barnes and Oliver Mawhinney profile@palatinate.org.uk Science and Technology Editor Bruno Martin scitech@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Dan Fox comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Adam Cunnane deputy.comment@palatinate.org.uk Sport Editor Kieran Moriarty sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Charles Richardson, Matt Roberts and Kishan Vaghela deputy.sport@palatinate.org.uk Indigo Editor Ellen Finch indigo@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Indigo Editor Yongchang Chin deputy.indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editor Isabelle Culkin feature@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Features Editor Cristina Cusenza deputy.features@palatinate.org.uk Food and Drink Editors Charlotte Payne and Ariadne Vu food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editor Laura Glenister travel@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Sally Hargave fashion@palatinate.org.uk Film and Television Editor Rory McInnes-Gibbons film@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Film and Television Editor Hugo Camps-Harris deputy.film@palatinate.org.uk Stage Editors Sofya Grebenkina and Simon Fearn stage@palatinate.org.uk Music Editors Jacqueline Duan and Will Throp music@palatinate.org.uk Creative Writing Editor Sarah Fletcher creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Hannah Griffiths and Ellie Scorah books@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editor Jane Simpkiss visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Chief Sub-Editor Marianna Mukhametzyanova sub-editing@palatinate.org.uk Sub-Editors Sarah Boreham, Ollie Mair, Ciara Murphy, Maddy Winnard and Becky Wilson Online Editor Kat Hind online.editor@palatinate.org.uk Web Editor John Morris Photography Editor Grace Tseng photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editor Verity Rimmer Illustrations Editor Kenzo Ishida illustration@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Illustrations Editors Faye Chua and Olivia Howcroft Events and Publicity Officer Morgan Hayden-Kent Advertising Officer Sian Round advertising@palatinate.org.uk Social Media Officer Beth-Ellen Hewitt

Politics pages 10-11 SciTech page 12 Comment pages 14-16 Profile page 17 Sport pages 18-20

indigo

Editorial page 2

Stage page 3

Travel page 4

Food & Drink page 5

Features pages 6-7

Fashion page 8

Books page 9 Music pages 10

Film & TV page 11

Visual Arts pages 12-13

Creative Writing page 14 A Day in the Life page 15

Letter to the editor(s)!

Disagree with something we’ve published? Want to put your views forward on a specific article? Think we’ve made a mistake? Send us a letter at editor@palatinate.org.uk and we will print it in the next edition,.

The best of Palatinate Online www.palatinate.org.uk

Comment: Why Britain is better off in a reformed European Union

SciTech: Too much oxygen can kill you

Film & TV: Baltic Bill

Travel: Street Food: the essence of travel

The European Referendum will be a prime time to rediscover our sense of democratic expression and shared ownership over Britain’s future...

Oxygen is great. But you don’t want too much of it. Luke Andrews looks at arthropod gigantism and the harmful role oxygen is playing in this.

Big Bill’s Baltic... A retrospective take on one of the North East’s weider exhibitions on Grand Budapest’s Ghostbusting Groundhog: Bill Murray

A rundown of the best street food from around the world.

Palatinate is published by Durham Students’ Union on a fortnightly basis during term and is editorially independent. All contributors and editors are full-time students at Durham University. Send letters to: Editor, Palatinate, Durham Students’ Union, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3AN. Alternatively, send an e-mail to editor@palatinate.org.uk

PALATINATE | Thursday 10th March 2016

Union President’s Column Facilitating last week’s college accommodation fees meeting between Common Room Presidents and the University, several key themes and calls to action from the student body emerged.

These were: the University should be more transparent with information, including providing information in ways understandable to students; an overwhelming majority of the students consulted felt that the price of accommodation was currently too high, even when recognizing the benefits received when living in; the Durham Grant is insufficient to cover accommodation costs; and many of the colleges were concerned that with higher years living out, the sense of community colleges are known for will be lost.

For the Common Rooms, Students’ Union, and students, none of this will come as a surprise. However, we are seeing evidence that the University is prepared to listen to what we have to say, with agreement that along with the Students’ Union the Chairs of the JCR and MCR President’s Committees will attend a meeting in June with the Scholarships, Fees and Awards Advisory Group (SFAAG), which submits recommendations on setting fees.

Understanding the importance of accommodation fees to students and our responsibility to keep the issue on the agenda, we have continually lobbied the University and sought views and ideas from students.

This began in Michaelmas term when we presented a detailed submission to the University criticising the proposed raise in fees for 2016-2017. Our submission was discussed by UEC and the 3.5% figure decided on by the University was significantly lower than the initial proposal. Believing this rise is still unjustified, we have pushed the University for wider student consultation, which was agreed to.

We held independent consultation to find out more about the direction students wanted our opposition to take. From this we identified the importance to students of having their JCR and MCRs involved, resulting in last week’s meeting, bringing together the Presidents of each common room, with University representatives headed by Graham Towl, ProVice Chancellor for the colleges, to present the key issues.

We will continue this fight and keep you updated on what’s happening.

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News

News

@PalatinateNews

Cherry blossoms against the snow by Hild Bede college

Photograph: Grace Tseng

International Study finds Report Students’ attainment gap suggests 5% between state and gender pay gap experience private pupils

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons

Turn to pages 4 to read more

News in brief

Photograph: Durham University

Turn to page 6 to read more

FIRST-YEAR EARTH SCIENCES STUDENT WINS ‘MONEY FOR BOOKS’ SCHOLARSHIP

DESIGNERS REVAMP CATERING FACILITIES AT COLLINGWOOD COLLEGE

A first-year Earth Sciences student has won the Money for Books scholarship worth £250. Alexandra Warren impressed the judging panel with her passion and desire to learn more through the medium of books. The Money for Books Scholarship was established by social enterprise The Scholarship Hub with the aim of helping a student cover the high costs of essential textbooks.

South Tyneside-based Restaurant Design Associates (RDA) has worked with Durham University to design and install a new catering space within Collingwood College. The College, founded in 1972, received all new catering equipment, including servery counters and coldrooms and refrigeration facilities. The RDA has previously worked with St Mary’s, Trevelyan, and St Aidan’s.

Photograph: Venus Loi

Turn to page 8 to read more

BOOK BY FACEBOOK CHIEF ON GENDER EQUALITY HAS BEEN ADDED TO DURHAM UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING SYLLABUS A global best-selling book ‘Lean In’, written by a Facebook chief Sheryl Sandberg, has been added to the the syllabus for engineering degree at the University. The book, focused on gender equality is now required reading for the primarily genderdominated degree. Ms. Sandberg said she was “truly honored at the move”

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Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

Durham study finds private school pupils have two-thirds of a GCSE grade advantage Ryan Gould News Editor A study carried out by Durham University has found that independently-educated pupils receive a boost equivalent to two years of extra schooling compared to state school pupils.

The findings, which were published in The Guardian two weeks ago, found that independent school pupils in England gained an advantage worth nearly twothirds of a GCSE grade after the effects of income, gender, and prior attainment were accounted for.

“This difference equates to a gain of about two years’ normal progress and suggests that attending an independent school is associated with the equivalent of two additional years of schooling by the age of 16,” the research says.

Funded by the Independent Schools Council, the research suggests that the attainment gap between state-schooled and independently-schooled pupils is larger than initially thought.

Talking to The Guardian, Robert Coe, Professor of Education at Durham, spoke of unexplained differences between pupils, stating: “It is always difficult to unpick the causes of any differences—and we think it is unlikely to be purely an effect of better teaching in independent schools.

“But we find a clear and significant difference in the GCSEs achieved that is not explained by

Continued from front page... ...a nonsense,” he said.

“Britain has more world leading universities than any other European country—including Durham University and Newcastle University. It’s because of these assets that global investment comes to Britain, not because of EU membership.

“The costs of European Union membership far outweigh the inputs from the likes of the ERC funding. Outside of the EU we would save and invest that money in our own universities, without the bureaucracy that comes with the EU. Angela Eagle’s comments are another case of scaremongering from the Remain campaign,” Professor Dowd said.

Ms. Eagles’ remarks come after Professor Stuart Corbridge, ViceChancellor at Durham University,

any of the factors we can account for,” Coe said.

The research also remarks of “unobserved factors” that could affect the differences in GCSE results, and as such, “due to these limitations the results must be interpreted with caution,” it noted.

Professor Tom Ward, Pro-ViceChancellor of Education at Durham, told Palatinate: “Durham University values academic freedom and is committed to promot-

had joined a list of 102 other university leaders in signing a letter showing support for the UK to stay in the EU. The letter, which was published in The Sunday Times, read: “We urge the British public to consider the vital role the EU plays in supporting our world-class universities.

“Inside the EU, we are better able to collaborate with partners from across Europe to carry out cutting edge research, from medical and healthcare advances, to new materials, products and services.

“In the EU, the UK is also a more attractive destination for global talent, ensuring that our students are taught by the best minds from across Europe. This has a direct impact on our economy, driving growth, generating jobs and ultimately improving people’s lives.”

ing and positively encouraging free expression, debate and independent research.

“At Durham, we are actively engaged in a range of high-quality recruitment activities to continue to encourage and support applications from the brightest and best students, irrespective of their background or school type, who have the ability to be considered for entry.

“The latest HESA statistics for

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons

the 2014/15 academic year report that 63 per cent of UK first degree entrants aged under 21 at Durham University were from state schools and colleges. This follows a significant improvement from 2011/12 when the figure was 59.2 per cent.

“For the current academic year, we are committed to investing £3.25m on outreach where there is evidence of effectiveness. The University has a track record of investing one of the highest amounts

in the sector,” Professor Ward concluded.

The University also noted that its Supported Progression scheme continues to be popular, attracting large numbers of applicants. The scheme recruits high-achieving students from the North-East, Cumbria, and West Yorkshire who might not have otherwise applied to Durham.

The University noted that the number of entrants to the University from the Supported Progression scheme “more than trebled” between 2011/12 and 2015/16, and is “set to grow further.” In 2011/12, there were 31 entrants into Durham via the scheme; in 2015/16, there were 104.

Additionally, the University continues to work in collaboration with the Sutton Trust by delivering an expanded programme of Summer Schools as well as a Teachers’ Conference. The Sutton Trust works to improve social mobility by providing educational opportunities for young people from nonprivileged backgrounds.

Durham collaborates with four other North East universities in the Raising Aspiration Project, which extends to almost 16,000 students in the region.

As part of a basket of contextual information, the University provides its admissions selectors with an indicator of whether the average school performance where the applicant took their GCSEs is above or below the national average.

Oriental Museum robbery part of £57m haul

Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor The 2012 robbery of Durham University’s Oriental Museum, where around £2 million of artefacts were stolen, was part of a larger £57 million raid of British museums, it has been revealed.

The men, who are linked to an organized crime gang, have now been convicted of plotting to steal close to £60 million in artefacts from museums across Britain.

According to the police, the gang had managed to steal items which were more valuable than the combined value of the infamous Hatton Garden raid that took place last year.

The gang’s first attempted raid of the Oriental Museum, located opposite Van Mildert College, took place in early 2012.

The gang intended to steal a jade bull, but was spotted by a member of staff who grappled one of the gang members to the floor.

The gang was successful later in 2012, having reportedly smashed a hole in the wall of the museum late at night. They managed to steal a figurine and Ming dynasty jade bowl, described by police as “one of the best in the world.” The combined value of the items was thought to be worth roughly £2 million.

Both objects were then left at a pre-agreed “deposition site” on wasteland near Durham’s Meadowfield industrial estate after the

late-night raid.

The gang members who masterminded the raids across Britain, including the raid at Durham’s Oriental Museum, have now been found guilty after a 27-week trial which took place at Birmingham Crown Court.

Detective Superintendent Adrian Green of Durham Constabulary has been heavily involved in the case since the robbery took place four years ago.

Comparing the overall raid of British museums to that of Hatton Garden, Detective Superintendent Green said: “If you thought Hatton Gardens (robbery) was big, then I am going to blow this out of the water, Hatton Gardens was paddy compared to this.”

PALATINATE | Thursday 10th March 2016 Continued from front page...

The report emphasises the need to retain the “identity” and “sense of community” that is currently associated with the colleges.

As for the future of the campus, the report includes the proposal for the campus to become an International foundation college, with the aim of attracting students from across the world to study their foundation year of study at Durham University.

This would be with the eventual aim of moving into the collegiate system in Durham City.

Any potential change to the purpose of the campus would begin in September 2017 at the earliest.

The decision as to whether the recommendations of Working Group will be carried out will not be made by the University Council any earlier than July 2016.

The consultation process among staff and students remains ongoing despite the initial recommendation that has been issued.

Since the release of the report, the Working Group has held town hall meetings inviting members of John Snow and Stephenson College, as well as members of the wider community, to communicate their opinions to the Working Group.

It was reported that during the town hall meeting, a number of departments favored relocation, combining with departments in Durham, whilst members of the Queen’s Campus Colleges emphasised the need to expand and improve the existing campus if it was to stay.

If the recommendations are approved by the University Council, the details of the implications remain unclear.

When asked by Palatinate about the location of any potential relocation of John Snow and the Stephenson College, the University did not specify.

The ability to accommodate more students in Durham City, however, does seem likely. Indeed, according to planning permission

Aerial view of Queen’s Campus

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documents held by Durham County Council and accessible online, there is a proposal for a six-block student accommodation facility to be built in Neville’s Cross.

The map of the potential student accommodation site also includes facilities such as a “social space,” laundry room, and gym.

The project was issued for planning in December 2015.

Whether this is related to any plan to relocate and repurpose Queen’s Campus is not specified, however.

Second-year Psychology student Jamie Brewer, a member of John Snow College, told Palatinate: “Whatever is decided will be in the best interest of future prospective John Snow or Stephenson College students.

“A move to Durham could, however, potentially be very beneficial and progressive for both colleges.”

Harry Smart, another member of John Snow College, also told Palatinate: “I believe I can speak for a number of students at Queen’s in saying the campus provides a great

increased to £60.7 million in the following year, but proceeded to drop slightly in 2014/15 to £60.4

million in the last academic year.

However, the overall amount spent on Arts and Humanities was significantly low in comparison. with the high sums dedicated to the Science courses.

In the 2012/13 academic year, the University only spent £18.7 million across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities—a figure which only increased to £20.6 million in the following year.

Whilst the Science and Social Sciences and Health faculties both spent over £60 million in the year of 2014/15, the Arts and Humanities faculty saw only £22.4 million spent across its departments last year.

sense of community.

“However, I think it would be positive moving into Durham City and join the college system adding to a greater student experience, as long as the proposal ensures that the identities of the colleges are maintained.”

This recommendation to repurpose Queen’s Campus has been a result of a long-term consultation process, which began in Michaelmas term of 2015.

This consultation process included a questionnaire which both

Photograph: Durham University

staff and students were invited to partake in, as well as a number of consultation meetings held at Queen’s Campus, where both Long and a member of the University Senate were in attendance.

The meetings outlined to the students the consultation process, as well as facilitating discussion for students to put forward their experience at Queen’s Campus and proposals for change.

Ryan Gould contributed to the research of this report.

University reveals faculty spending figures

Emma Pinckard Deputy News Editor

Durham University has revealed the difference in spending across its three different faculties over the past three academic years.

The figures highlight a particularly big distinction in spending between the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Sciences.

The University disclosed that, in the 2012/13 academic year, the Science faculty reached a total spend of £58.6 million. This figure

£60.4m

Science faculty spend in 2014/15 million.

The total expenditure for the Social Sciences and Health faculty reached a similarly high figure, increasing from £63.3 million during 2012/13 to £66.3 million, but climbing to an impressive £68.5

£22.4m

Arts and Humanities faculty spend in 2014/15 Professor Tom Ward, Pro-ViceChancellor (Education), explained the discrepancy between the figures.

He stated that “the actual cost of teaching different courses varies, and in particular courses which require laboratory teaching and specialist equipment may be more expensive to run than those which require extensive reading and

seminar discussion.

“The student tuition fee also helps to fund facilities that enhance the wider student experience such as the library and sport, drama, music, and volunteering activities.

“Much of our institutional reputation comes from the benefits to students of studying in a multidisciplinary academic community based on our full spread of subject offering,” Professor Ward said.

For all of the latest updates, follow @PalatinateNews

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News International Women’s Day

Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

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University celebrate International Women’s Day Miriam Brittenden Deputy News Editor Both University students and staff alike have organised a series of activities and projects to celebrate International Women’s Day. This week, academic departments across the University have been hosting events to celebrate the week in both science and humanities faculties.

Events include an evening of ‘Celebrating the Bronte’s’ with the English Department, a lecture on Women and Education past and present by the Education department and an event by the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health: “Creative women who have inspired us”.

The day is also being celebrated with a free concert for International Women’s Day hosted by Music Durham. A showcase of drama, poetry, song and comedy put on by Pitch Productions Theatre Company, in association with Durham Student Theatre.

Music Durham’s concert celebrated the creativity of female musicians throughout the ages, and presented a number of works by female composers, ranging from early Byzantine hymn writers up to the present day. All the works is conducted and directed by female students both inside and outside the music department.

Music Durham said: “the percent-

age of female conductors, and musical directors is much lower.

Palatinate spoke to Isabelle Culkin, creative director or the International Women’s Day Drama Showcase.

She said: “International Women’s Day is a good time to focalise and raise awareness of important women’s issues.”

“The gender imbalance so inherent to theatre as an industry means a lot to me, as great male characters dominate the canon, which gives little outlet to the huge number of great actresses who are so vastly underused.

“It’s a great way to celebrate female achievement and talent in a field I care so much about” Culkin said that the most important aspect of the showcase was: “to give a platform to female voices and talents”.

“It’s a little farfetched to think it’s somehow going to change how theatre works as a whole, but even if it just gets some people thinking or talking about some of those issues, that would be fantastic.”

As well as celebrating the achievementws of women, a particular issue both university staff and students have been tackling as part of International Women’s Day is the lack of sanitary product provision for many women in the local area.

The Colleges Office is organising a University-wide ‘Tampons and Towels Donation Drive’ for homeless and vulnerable women in Coun-

The Week includes ‘Celebrating the Brontes ‘ Photograph: Mr. Absurd via Wikimedia Commons

try Durham and Newcastle throughout this week.

Cathy McClive, Lecturer in Early Modern European History at Durham, said: “With limited or no access to sanitary products, homeless women are often forced to go without. It doesn’t bear thinking about, and that’s the problem” The places where the products

will be donated too are Sanctuary 21, Wear Valley Women’s Aid, who operate a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic abuse and Ron Eager House, which is a drop in for people sleeping rough in Newcastle.

A similar project, is being run by Durham student group Just Love.

‘Giving: Strings Attached’, coordinator Catherine Braddock, told

Palatinate that the project differed from the University’ collection by having collection points in several student houses, in the Viaduct, Claypath and Gilesgate, and a local church, St. Nicholas, and running for a month rather than a week.

The products will be donated to three local Durham charities, A Way Out, Oasis Aquila Housing and Durham Foodbank.

Braddock told Palatinate: “We’ve been in touch with the university collection and are considering how we might collaborate in the future. ”It’s important because it’s an issue which hasn’t got very much attention in the past but is a real struggle for the women it affects.”

Charlie Evans, a member of the Giving Strings Attached team, said: “As a guy I don’t ordinarily have to buy female sanitary products, so this is not an issue I would normally consider.

“It’s definitely an important need and one of the reasons this collection is great is that everybody can contribute really easily.”

Lettie Broom, President of St. Mary’s College Feminist Society, and also a member of the Giving: Strings Attached team said: “I think it’s really important for us to talk about issues like this, and the taboo surrounding menstruation has a lot to do with firstly, why there’s no funding, and secondly, why there’s a lack of donations of sanitary products”

Report suggests 5% gender pay gap among “academically-related staff ” Charlie Taylor-Kroll News Editor A report published as a part of International Women’s Day has revealed that there is a 5% gender pay gap among “academicallyrelated staff” working at Durham University.

The report, “Holding down Women’s pay,” published by the University and College Union (UCU), aimed to use relevant statistics and facts to examine the gender pay gap in universities and academic institutions.

In the report, Durham University was ranked 14th for greatest pay gap in the “academic related staff” category.

According to the report this is defined as members of staff “at the contract levels of non-academic professional, team leader, manager and section manager” The report states that the salary difference in this area is on average 5%, which equates to a difference of £2,023 annually.

It is not stated in the report as to whether factors such as hours worked or job position were controlled in the comparison analysis.

In response to the report by the UCU, the University said: “Durham University conducts equal pay audits which includes a comparison of male and female salaries by grade.

“The term ‘academic staff’ can cover a large number of different occupations and grades which can make comparisons less meaningful.

“We will read the national UCU report with interest and will continue to work with our local trade union representatives on the matter.”

Under the ‘Equal Pay’ section on Durham University’s web-

site, it is stated that the University “supports the principle of equal opportunity and is committed to eliminating any barriers people may experience.”

The website also states that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) advise that a gender pay gap of greater than 5% is “of concern” and that action should be taken to address such a gap.

The University also ensures as part of their commitment to reducing the equal pay gap, they undertake an “Equal Pay Review” (EPR) every two years, with the next review scheduled for the 2016/2017 academic year.

The report issued by the UCU this year also concludes with a demand that every university and employer should aim to conduct an equal pay audit but “crucially then develop and monitor a meaningful action in conjunction with their UCU branch.”

In July 2015, Palatinate reported, via a series of Freedom of Information requests, that the number of men earning a salary in the highest grade pay scale (Grade 10) is more than double the number of women earning a salary in the same grade.

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Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

International Students’ experience: Integrated or Excluded? at the foods that his Indonesian and Singaporean friends enjoy, not knowing how these foods embody their cultural identities. He sometimes even adds slight racial slurs into the mix of comments.

“

...it feels like one big family in College

Photograph: Venus Loi er, go for formals together, and attend society events together, and it really helps.”

But social integration isn’t something that can be artificially built by university policies or events alone, helpful as they can be. Socialisation happens spontaneously between people as they mingle and converse with one another. Unfortunately, foreign students tend to start off on a different wavelength from local students, and so experience an inability to find a common ground on which to talk.

“

... sometimes I feel this disconnect between myself and the local students.

“

University life is arguably a highly fragmenting and alienating experience. It’s the first time you are in a place where people from all over the country, and also the world, congregate in a prestigious academic environment. This coming together of different peoples presents challenges in assimilation. A common joke goes: ‘There’s a Northern Society in Durham, why isn’t there a Southern Society? There is: it’s called Durham University’.

This joke highlights the differences that local students might face. But this North-South divide has nothing on the divisions that often plague international students here. While a number of international students who spoke to Palatinate have said they were adjusting well into university life,, a number have expressed their difficulties becoming accustomed to social life in Durham.

Benedict, a Malaysian from Josephine Butler College, says: “Honestly, I just don’t really feel integrated into the university community. The university’s international community (and the International Students Association) puts on parties, but I’m just not interested in parties.”

Clarissa from St. Cuthbert’s Society also says she feels alienated from her British compatriots: “With Cuth’s, they do have an international committee with international reps set up, and they host different events.

“But sometimes I feel this disconnect between myself and the local students. I’m just not into partying or drinking, so it can be quite difficult to enter into the community at times.”

She also highlights the artificiality of all foreign students being grouped under the umbrella of ‘internationals’, even though they may come from wildly different countries. Practically, she feels, what tends to happen is the support and welfare for international students becomes a patchwork of compromises as effort is made to accommodate and represent every culture and nationality worldwide.

That said, students like Clarissa appreciate the collegiate system as the JCRs and MCRs allow people to get to know each other in a more intimate setting.

Mandy, a postgraduate from Grey College, agrees with this sentiment, saying: “Because students mix around in accommodation blocks, it feels like one big family in College. We have meals togeth-

“

Yongchang Chin Deputy Indigo Editor

There are many aspects of social life that local students often do not realise are unique to this country.

This causes an inability for foreign students to integrate themselves as well as local students, who, through no fault of their own, widen cultural rifts between themselves and foreign students when they ignore such differences.

It can be as simple as the particular words that many use. For instance, to say ‘trousers’ instead of ‘pants’, to say ‘geezer’ to mean a young person instead of an old

person, or to use ‘sick’ or ‘chundered’ as opposed to ‘puke’.

There are also differences in text as well, especially when you and your friends take to Whatsapp or Facebook Messager. Many internationals would have not heard or seen phrases like ‘ayy lmao’, ‘allow’ or ‘m9’ used in the British context before.

Then there are the whole arrays of drinking songs, chants, and challenges that are completely alien to anyone outside of the UK. Finally, once you add in how strange some accents sound to British ears – such as the authentic Southeast Asian accent from countries like Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines – it isn’t difficult to see why communication breakdowns occur.

While it might seem miniscule, language and its use can affect the nuanced tones that conversations take, and it is this that stops foreigners from truly communicating on the same level as the locals.

It is worse if you are not from an English-speaking country, such as in the case of the many Chinese students studying here. Two of them, Tiana and Katy, both postgraduates from St. Aiden’s College, cite the “language barrier” as a cause for their inability to assimilate.

Katy says: “I’ve had a positive experience (interacting with others) so far, but sometimes I hesitate because I don’t want people to laugh at my English as it’s my second language. I have to think in Chinese, then speak in English and it affects how smoothly I speak.”

They also told Palatinate about other factors affecting them social-

ly, such as the size of the college.

Tiana says: “St. Aiden’s is massive, and I don’t think I get much of a chance to socialise with people in college on a deeper level.

“Most of the time when I eat in the dining hall, I eat with my fellow postgraduates or other international students.”

On another level, being in a completely different physical environment takes some getting used to.

For instance, Katy says: “Tiana and I take day trips to see other places. The first time I went to Newcastle, I was absolutely amazed by the city.”

In a similar vein, a Singaporean student, who did not want to be identified, describes London as “just one big suburb”.

And understandably so – Singapore, a modern metropolis, is densely packed with buildings 20 to 30 stories high, even in the poorer residential neighbourhoods. If you have seen Singapore, you might just see where he’s coming from.

But try communicating these ideas to a typical local student, and it’s no wonder some foreign students come across as downright strange.

National cultures might not translate so well either. The Asian obsession with food is one topic many locals fail to understand. So too are the customs and traditions that are celebrated by Asian peoples but are not in the UK. For instance, Edward, a local student in St. John’s College, admits he makes fun of his friends in college who are from other nonEuropean countries. He pokes fun

But cultural and social differences do not inevitably lead to difficulties integrating. His friends respond to Edward’s comments by saying that these slurs are made all in good fun, and that such remarks only feature because of their pre-existing friendship.

The friends also say they are careful when making comments of this nature around others outside their circle.

Furthermore, being able to talk about these admittedly serious topics in a light-hearted manner is a positive sign of integration in spite of difference.

Thus, to say that social and cultural differences cause social divisions within Durham University is too simplistic.

It is ultimately on the onus of the individual as to how he or she deals with these differences. That is what determines whether or not students are successful at integrating themselves with the university community.

However, it is hard to expect an international student, who has just been put in an unfamiliar social context, to make the extroverted leap across these boundaries.

Native students must feel some responsibility to reach out to those who might not always feel welcome. Only too often does the fact someone is ‘different’, through no fault of their own, cut them off from community.

Friendships, whether across different cultures or similar ones, boil down to similar qualities – such as the building of trust, the revealing of vulnerabilities, and the sharing of joy.

These qualities are nationalityblind. Therefore it is these common qualities that all peoples, no matter what background, can strive to develop.

10

Politics

www.palatinate.org.uk

Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

Modi’s Hindu Nationalism Gamble Threatens Free Speech and Democracy Victoria Lincoln India’s democracy is facing some immense challenges. As a developing country India is at a crossroads between the socio-cultural, linguistic, religious, caste and class divides and the growing educated middle class emerging from economic development. To make matters more complicated India has a federalist political system which is notoriously slow and corrupt and the source of much discontent. In response to these tremendous challenges Prime Minister Modi has undertaken a form of Hindu nationalism to try and unify India, but his gamble does not seem to be working.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calls itself the people’s party of India, but are better known as a Hindu nationalist party. The brand of Hindu nationalism is a dark strand of aggrandising nationalism. Using brute force to enforce silence and assert hegemony is a far cry from the democratic nationalism that spurred India’s independence movement. The democratic nationalism of Mohandas Karam-

chand Gandhi was a movement of anti-colonial struggle, but central to Ghandi’s movement was the principles of tolerance, accommodation, secularism and negotiating differences.

BJP Hindu nationalism is flirting with fascism and could endanger the development of India.

The BJP have orchestrated a climate whereby if you do not align with their views you are seen as anti-Indian. Even though Modi’s approval ratings have been dropping they are still twice as high as leader of the opposition, Rahul Ghandi. Ghandi’s leadership of the congress has been weak which damaging the long-term prospects of democracy. In addition to weak opposition the BJP’s demonising tactics of liberals and social democrats has been effective in weakening pluralism.

This is further seen in the BJP’s treatment of students, institutions, lawyers and journalists that dissent against the government.

The BJP have whipped up a storm of ‘nationalist hysteria’ in particular relation to the use of colonial era sedition laws used to persecute university students. These students’, similar age to ourselves,

only crime is being ‘anti-national.’ The latest arrests were in the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University that has strong UK ties to the Universities of Oxford and The London School of Economics. The case was tainted with police brutality, the beating of the accused by government cronies and the use of fake evidence.

Nehru University has a long tradition of critical thinking, dissent, scholarship and debate, but its freedom of thought is under attack. Other institutions the Government have attacked include the Pune Film Institute, University of Baroda and the Aligarh Muslim University. Surely national unification should not come at the cost of free speech and debate.

The attack of Aligarh University is even more suspicious as it was over the rumours that the university served beef in the canteen. It is an example of Hindu vs. Muslim tensions that have not been addressed by the BJP that feels India is ‘Hindustan’ and has no place for minorities. It is deeply embarrassing for India.

BJP has been too busy battling free speech and bolstering its image that it has put vital economic

divided despite calls from the next most likely winner, Ted Cruz, for them to abandon their own campaigns and join his to prevent a Trump victory. Marco Rubio, who took only Minnesota, is arguing that he can challenge Trump in states that send delegates proportional to each candidate’s share of the vote - he insists that Trump won’t cross the threshold for nomination. Elsewhere, the Republican establishment are now preparing

will be proposed by a breakaway Republican group. Despite a very confident press conference on the night of 1st March, in which we saw a glimpse of would-be President Trump, there is still an outside chance that he will be eliminated come the national convention. If the party unite behind Cruz, who has now proved that he can defeat Trump, it’s possible that the billionaire’s presidential aspirations will be over quicker than we thought.

Hilary Clinton’s path to the Democratic nomination is a little clearer after Super Tuesday, after steep victories in seven states. She won the Southern states where she was predicted to do well, and also gained support from Massachusetts and Virginia. As of 2nd March she is almost 200 delegates closer to the 2,383 needed to win than Sanders. But in Vermont Clinton gained only 14% of the vote; Sanders’ is a Vermont Senator, hence the huge support for him here. The question now is whether Sanders can replicate the success in Vermont in other primaries, which is not an impossibility. The

The BJP have been battling free speech

Photograph: Republic of Korea via Flickr

and political reform on the backbench. The BJP has been obstructionist to tax reform that would benefit all Indians and add 2% to growth. It is an ugly compromise where the BJP would rather appease individual heads of state rather than a tax reform that has been desperately needed to reduce economic inefficiency. The BJP are afraid to reform, but not afraid to pursue an even more dangerous route of nationalism

and oppression of free speech.

Prime Minster Modi has also been criticised in the handling of Caste riots in BJP ruled Haryana, Kashmir and inability to deal with the rape endemic in India. The future of political and economic development in India is at risk. Rather than pursuing the enemy within approach the BJP needs to change its nationalist rhetoric in favour of reducing political stagnation and solving domestic ethnic tensions.

Sanders campaign has been quick to remind us that a majority of states are yet to vote, and there are plenty of delegates left to be won.

The next important date on the Presidential election calendar is 15th March, when another five states announce their results - expect more success for Clinton and Trump. After this, the remaining states will continue to hold prima-

ries and caucuses until July, when the delegates will be sent to party national conventions to formally nominate their Presidential hopefuls.

If the Republican field remains divided, and Sanders’ predicted wins in California and New York don’t come to fruition, it looks as if it will be Trump vs Clinton for the White House.

US Election: Clinton and Trump win big on Super Tuesday On 1st March eleven US states announced the results of their primaries, the vote to decide which Republican and Democrat candidates get delegates at the national conventions. Much of what we predicted about Super Tuesday 2016 came to be so, with especially strong performances from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz managed to take three states and Marco Rubio one; both have been left behind by Trump in the contest for the Republican nomination. In the Democrat camp, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders had some success, with wins in Colorado and Minnesota.

The Sanders campaign remain convinced that victory in California and New York could win them enough delegates to challenge Clinton.

Donald Trump’s perplexing monopoly on Republican voters was cemented with big wins across seven of the eleven ‘Super Tuesday’ states. His opposition remains

“

Much of what we predicted about Super Tuesday came to be so

“

Kate McIntosh

to mount an attack on Trump, with some news outlets even reporting that a third Presidential candidate

Opposition Trumped by Donald on Tuesday Photograph: Thijs ter Haar via Flickr

PALATINATE | Thursday 10th March 2016

11

Politics

www.palatinate.org.uk

Boris and Brexit: A New Civil War? Rhys Tanner

DUCA Returning Officer The standard lazy person’s response that ‘they’re all the same’; that politics is dreary, inconsequential, and tedious has been blown out of the water. The monotony of the coalition era has reached an abrupt end with the extraordinary 2015 general election result, the astonishing rise of the Britain’s most radical Labour leader in decades, and now the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU – we are witnessing the most dramatic political theatre since the downfall of Thatcher in 1990, in my opinion. And it is no hyperbole to state that this is the most significant political decision to be made in a generation.

It has almost been a forgone conclusion that voters will do as expected when the question is put – our mental affinity for the status quo will surely result in an overwhelming ‘In’ vote, for a leap into the dark is beyond the realms of

the British voter. Yet with the ‘gang of six’ cabinet ministers and now the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, defying the official government position, to support Vote Leave, the race has been blown wide open.

Many pundits have dubbed this to be a civil war in the Conservative Party; they say the EU issue, the spectre which has haunted the Tories since the 1970s, will be the coup de grâce which blows them

back into opposition for a decade.

I disagree. As a Tory supporting Vote Leave myself, and former President of the Durham University Conservative Association, I’ve witnessed first-hand the gracious nature with which this internal debate is being conducted. We outers or remain-ians fully understand that we are opponents, not enemies – there is a vast difference. Plus after eighteen years of desperately struggling to obtain a

Photograph: Derek Bridges via Flickr

majority, we know full well not to squander parliamentary time and the political effort to govern.

MPs and Conservative figures on all sides are immensely grateful to the Prime Minister for granting us an opportunity to put this issue to bed, especially as he is jeopardising his career and legacy in the process. Ministers have also implicitly agreed not to debate each other in public as neither side wants a blue-on-blue bloodbath. This is typical of the wellmannered nature and rhetoric by which opposing politicians are conducting themselves.

Yet it should be stated that to totally reduce this issue to the level of party politics is mistaken - is not about right or left, it’s about right and wrong. It is for this reason that I am bemused that Labour exaggerate Conservative divisions when Corbyn and McDonnell have made loud Eurosceptic noises in the past, and also given that the numbers of the Labour Leave campaign are growing rapidly; the oldleft Bennites have not had their

day just yet.

This media furore surrounding Boris versus Cameron is little more than theatrics, and amateur dramatics at that. Even Boris has said that Cameron must stay, come what may. In the event of Brexit we need an internationally respected, level-headed figure with decent rapport with other EU leaders to negotiate the best possible free trade agreement for Britain. Boris knows this. Yet Boris also knows that if the knives come out early for Cameron immediately after the referendum he will be punished for his fratricide. Michael Heseltine learnt the hard way that ‘he who wields the dagger never wears the crown’.

The essence of the Conservative Party is enormously much more than banging on about Europe. This issue is surmountable, and come the 24th June when this referendum is over and the people have spoken, we’ll come in from the rain, laugh off our battle wounds, and focus towards retaining a majority in 2020.

In memoriam: what remains of the Lib Dems

Mason Boycott-Owen

Deputy Politics Editor If my task were to inspect the state of the 3 main parties in Westminster, the Liberal Democrats would be absent from that list. Both the SNP with 42 more seats and UKIP with almost double the Lib Dem share of the vote, would be better candidates for this. Yet given the rich history of the Party and the dramatic nature of their descent from power, they do deserve some sort of eulogy.

The Liberal Democrats descended from coalition partners to the same number of seats as the DUP in a single night. It will be for many in the Party, a bad dream – but not one which they can forget.

As with any natural disaster the rebuilding effort needs to start from the ground upwards: grassroots and core principles both have to be readdressed. They have the luxury (if it can be called that) of thinking far beyond the next general election.

In terms of what went wrong, it is a lengthy list – yet few of them come as a surprise. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Conservatives in their Coalition tenure was how they themselves took credit for more popular policy and shifted blame for unpopular policy onto the Liberal Democrats in the minds of the electorate.

Tuition fees is the first which springs to mind and seen by many

as indicative of why the Party lost the trust of the electorate – slashing their voting percentage by two thirds.

Their student base, usually a bastion of their core votership has been damaged perhaps beyond repair. The full extent of which may be apparent in the years to come as it is dangerous to make an enemy so early on in the voting lives of so many of the electorate. Even if they did vote for the Lib Dems in 2010, many are unlikely to ever consider it again. These aren’t simply voters of other parties who can be shepherded towards the yellow flock, these are votes which are unwinnable.

With Farron, however, they have someone largely untarnished by the tuition fees fiasco, as he was vocal in his opposition. Having said that, collective responsibility may well dampen that reputation.

Those angry with the Liberal Democrats propping up a Tory government, something many Party voters and activists spent a lifetime trying to prevent, voiced their frustration in an interesting way.

They voted Conservative.

These 27 seats that made she shift from yellow to blue indicate that for many former Liberal Democrat voters would do anything not to vote Labour. Their reason? The economy, on which there seems to be a Liberal Democrat-Conservative consensus. The watch-word for the election seemingly capable of severing party ties. Others, albe-

it to a far lesser extent, voted UKIP and for the Green Party. Seen by some as the ‘other choice’, a protest vote of sorts, in the same way as the Liberal Democrats were viewed in the 2010 election, UKIP and the Greens seem to have taken a share of the votes of those dissatisfied with the two-party system.

In the fallout from the election, what voice therefore do the Lib Dems still have? A voice on Europe? Perhaps. A voice on voting reform? Certainly. A voice on issues of diversity? Certainly not.

Out of the 8 remaining Liberal Democrat MPs there are no women, no ethnic minorities, and none who identify as LGBTQIA. Though

‘A true ally of farmers’

the Party themselves cannot be exactly blamed for this, as they had no control over who would survive the onslaught from the electorate, it still shows they are somewhat limited in the scope of issues they can engage with.

Farron himself has gone some way towards rectifying it saying that 50 per cent of target seats would field female candidates as well as 10 per cent fielding BME candidates. Yet this is likely to remain a problem for another 5 years, an exceedingly long time without women or ethnic minorities being represented in the party.

Upon his appointment, and to some extent today, many voters’

Photograph: David Spender via Flickr

reaction to the name Tim Farron was ‘who?’ Though not of political insignificance he has much to prove – adorning his website profile with more than the accolade of “a true ally of farmers”.

For a party with saturated press-coverage such as Labour or the Conservatives this is less of an issue, yet for a Party now fading into political obscurity, their leader needs to be very much vocal.

Perhaps the best way to go about this may surprisingly not be a readjustment of their principles but an act of embracing one of their most closely-held – Electoral Reform.

Though it was UKIP who was more unjustly served by the current voting system the Liberal Democrats have 8 times that voice in parliament. Coming off the back of rumoured talks with Jeremy Corbyn about a possible alliance on voting reform, it looks as if that may indeed be on the cards The United Kingdom needs the Liberal Democrats, despite how many turned out to say that this country doesn’t want them. The Party represents the interests of a great many people in the UK, and during their time playing second fiddle in government they were seen by many as incapable of delivering on or standing up to those interests.

Perhaps with a return of faith in the Party there will also come a return to the heady heights of ‘the third party in the UK’.

12

SciTech Reader’s Scigest A QUICK LOOK AT SCIENCE

ACHILLES HEEL

As cancer spreads through the body, it evolves. This makes the genetic makeup of tumours from the same patient appear very different. However, research from MIT, Harvard and UCL has revealed that spreading cancers retain a set of surface proteins shared by all of a patient’s tumour cells. These surface proteins act as a universal flag for the immune system to target, which opens two new routes for cancer treatment. One option is for doctors to take biopsies of tumours and multiply the immune cells found within that recognise these surface proteins; they would then be reinfused into the patient. Alternatively, the surface proteins themselves could be isolated from tumours to create a vaccine.

FAR SIGHT

After nearly 26 years in space, the Hubble telescope has just set the record for observing the most distant galaxy yet. The light detected came from a group of stars called GN-z11, which is 13.4 billion light years away. This means that, through Hubble, we are now observing the galaxy as it was just 400 million years after the Big Bang. The old telescope is set to retire when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is launched in 2018. During its years in service, Hubble has surpassed all expectations, considering when it was launched no celestial object further than 7 billion light years had been detected. Scientsits still hope to find stars a further 200 million light years beyond GN-z11.

MONKEYING AROUND

A team led by Professor Miguel Nicolelis, from Duke University in North Carolina, has taught two rhesus monkeys to telepathically control a robotic wheelchair. The monkeys had two electrodes surgically implanted in their brains so that a brain-machine interface could decode their neural signals and translate them into movement commands. This allowed the animals to drive the wheelchair across a room to a grape dispenser using thought alone.

The scientists hope to deliver this implant to humans soon, enabling people who live with paralysis or motor neuron disease the possibility of driving wheelchairs independently.

www.palatinate.org.uk

Thursday 10th March 2016| PALATINATE

Students review teachers Gender bias and abrasive language

Olivia Howcroft

Student evaluation of teaching is an essential part of any education system; however, it is far from perfect.

Teacher evaluation websites highlight its numerous flaws, such as gender bias and abrasive language.

From student reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, it is clear that teachers should be granted a far more comprehensive evaluation system.

The way in which students assign grades for example is questionable.

It is based on the criteria: ‘helpfulness’, ‘clarity’ and ‘easiness,’ however it doesn’t take into account important aspects such as diligence or engagement. Engagement refers to

the behavioural intensity and emotional quality of a person’s active involvement during a task, something that could easily be assessed. The term ‘easiness’ is also problematic, as subjects vary in difficulty, so the standard of teaching is better represented in subjects considered to be less difficult. Student reviews on this website show that quantitative subjects tended to receive the lowest ratings, the subjects of Philosophy and English enjoyed the most frequent use of the word ‘brilliant’, while Computer Science and Biology scored the lowest.

Some question whether students are experienced enough to understand what the teacher is fundamentally trying to provide for them. It

Male teachers are more likely to be described as “intelligent”.

has been shown that teachers may be penalized for giving low grades or for telling students they are not working hard enough, yet this is essential for progression. There is a risk teachers will fail to reprimand students for slacking on work because they are concerned that they will receive poor feedback.

In addition, banal and even damaging comments arise in teacher evaluations. Students often use asterisks in reviewing websites to bypass four-letter word restrictions and type words such as “sh*t”.

These comments help no-one, are offensive to teachers and diminish enthusiasm. The way in which they undermine teachers could have a strong negative effect on their teach-

ing. Indeed, it was shown in a study of 55 religious school teachers that the stronger the teacher’s belief that their teaching can be successful, the more the teacher supported student autonomy, the interpersonal behaviour which helps build the students’ inner motivational resources and drives engagement. So although most evaluations are innocuous, some are unnecessarily abrasive and this could hinder the teaching instead of improving it.

As well as the faults in the criteria used to assess teachers and the language permitted during evaluation, teachers’ appearance and their gender have a strong influence, where physically attractive men are considered to be better overall. A study from Psychological Reports in 1989 found that attractive professors were “judged to be better teachers, more likely to be approached, more likely to be recommended to other students and less likely to be blamed if a student received a failing course grade”. On RateMyProfessors.com men are more likely to be described as ‘intelligent’ or ‘fun’ whereas female teachers have a higher frequency of the adjectives ‘mean’ or ‘nice’. And finally, the gender of the reviewer also confounds the data, as teachers are not rated equally by male and female students, causing unsubstantiated differences in their evaluation.

Photograph: Jü via Wikimedia Commons

Reversible stretch from woven molecules Bruno Martin Modern materials are created by assembling old elements in new ways.

Engineers are particularly interested in flexible materials with unusual combinations of properties, such as high conductivity, strength and porosity, which make them more useful than most naturally-occurring matter. Such materials already exist, in sheets like graphene, but synthesising similar substances in 3D has proved difficult because the third dimension confers rigidity. An international team of scientists has arrived at a promising solution: weaving threads of organic molecules into a three dimensional fabric.

Their achievement, which has earned a place on the front cover of Science, has been to weave helical

threads without chemically linking them together. This forms a lattice of long molecules that can slide past each other under mechanical stress, conferring elasticity to the structure. Previous efforts to produce netlike structures in three dimensions yielded mostly webs of interlocking molecular rings, which cannot be pulled apart without irreversible damage. The material they have synthesised is called COF-505, the newest member in a family of solids known as covalent organic frameworks: organic elements bound by rigid, directional bonds in highly ordered crystalline structures—until now. A key property of covalent organic frameworks is that they are porous. In COF-505, the mesh of organic threads is full of gaps that can be easily filled by copper ions.

These metallic molecules bind to the

threads where they interlace, making the material ten times more rigid without modifying its woven structure. The right solvent removes all copper ions, returning COF-505 to its flexible state.

This interaction is instrumental to the synthetic weaving process: the team used the copper ions as templates for bringing together small sections of the organic threads at the desired linking locations. These short sections were then chemically extended. Due to the helical shape of the organic molecules, each thread entwined with its neighbours while remaining chemically independent of them. With the copper ions inside, the structure resembles a rigid, crystalline framework—and behaves as such. Without them, it is a molecular cloth. Crucially, this reaction is fully reversible: adding copper again will

cause the threads to ‘zip’ at their original linking locations, restoring COF-505 to its synthetic structure.

Materials with a woven molecular structure like COF-505 will have far-ranging applications. A bumper capable of recovering from deformation seems plausible. Enrique Gutiérrez-Puebla, from the Materials Science Institute of Madrid, suggests a more urgent application; if a similar fabric is developed with the potential to bind ions other than copper, woven organic frameworks could be used as molecular sponges to mop up heavy metals from our contaminated waters. There are cheaper ways of doing this, but none would be more thorough. The next challenge will be to test whether the weaving process can be applied to other structural elements. If it can, we should expect to hear more textile jargon soon.

PALATINATE | Thursday 10th March 2016

13

Comment

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Beyond reasonable doubt: rethinking how we interpret cases of sexual violence Misconstruing legal definitions and concepts meant for juries helps no-one Sarah Fletcher

When Durham student Louis Richardson was acquitted of rape and sexual assault, dialogue around the case went far beyond the Durham bubble. Students echoed the claims of his defence lawyers and were quick to talk about false rape allegations (such as Sarah Westlake in her article for Floreat Castellum, or Charles White for The Tab) - but so were high profile people in the media. Angela Epstein wrote in The Telegraph that we should “name and shame” the “bogus victims”. Martin Daubney went on air to talk about the psychological effects false allegations can have towards young men. Most damningly, Sandra Paul, a criminal defence lawyer at Kingsley Napley, said: “the fact that he was falsely accused of rape will always be known and precede whatever else he has to say or contribute. How can that be right or fair?.”

Not only are these conclusions false, they’re misconstruing legal terminology for manipulative purposes - and this rhetoric goes far beyond the Richardson case. This is a trend in how we talk about similar cases in the media that needs to be addressed. There is often the unspoken assumption that an acquittal translates to innocence, assuming perfection from the court. But in reality, these two concepts are not straight forwardly synonymous, as much as we wish they were. An acquittal tells us little about the motives of the accuser. An acquittal is not a moral assessment that proves one side was lying - especially when the defence and prosecution put forth such radically different versions of the alleged crime - so we should stop treating it as if it is. An acquittal solely means that there was not sufficient evidence to give the accused jail time. This is all too common in sexual assault trials, which often take place long after the alleged crime and so often turn into “he said, she said” accounts of the event due to lack of evidence. Being found “not guilty” in the court of law is not an objective assessment of the situation, but rather a conclusion that there was not enough information to jail someone “beyond reasonable doubt”, a phrase defence lawyers often purposely conflate with

“beyond any doubt”.

Sexual assault and rape cases are undeniably different in nature from other crimes, though they are treated the same under the justice system. In no other crime does the defence of the accused lie so heavily on the alleged dishonestly of the accuser. Other crimes are “whodunits?” - the defence has to convince the jury that there was a different perpetrator rather than deny the crime was committed at all. And the definition of rape by law is not in the victim not giving consent, but in the accused’s reasonable belief in his or her consent. In these scenarios - in which the perpetrator can argue he reasonably believes the accused consented despite the victim’s protestations - there is no conviction, but no way the accusation can be false either. Unfortunately and naturally - and at the expense of many sexual assault crimes being reported to the police - this most often plays out in court as character assassination for the accuser. Many people rightly believe that people can be raped and continue their relationship with the accused - women in abusive marriages as an example. Many people also believe what a women wears and how much she drinks has little bearing on whether she was sexually assaulted. Despite this the rhetoric that always underpins the defences’s statements is the archaic “she was asking for it”, because it’s the only way, most of the time, they are able to fight for their client.

And when the accused are named in the media, people routinely ask: “what happened to innocent until proven guilty?” The truth is: nothing. “Innocent until proven guilty” is a legal concept that is upheld solely within the court room. Whether or not you think it’s an ideal the rest of society should strive for, whether or not you believe in anonymity for the accused, is your own prerogative.

But people who believe an accuser who has subjected herself or himself to the scrutiny of the court or reporters who form their own opinions on a case are not going against the concept.

Lawyers like Sandra Paul are actually making weighty accusations themselves with their statements about false accusations and are failing by their own standards. Paul talks about the “fact” of the false allegation - a crime? So where is “in-

nocent until proven guilty” for the initial accuser before she has been tried in a court of law? Paul fails the own high standards she sets for herself by speaking so carelessly about the Richardson verdict. In many cases, this rhetoric can even turn into libel. Think about the victim of footballer Ched Evans, who has had to change her name 5 times to escape harassment over her ‘false accusation’, despite the fact that the court of law found Evans guilty of rape.

When we speak of sexual assault and rape trials in the future - trials that often follow messy and conflicting narratives - we are welcome to our own opinions on the verdict.

To look at the data, between January 2011 and May 2012 there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape in England and Wales compared to 35 false allegations. Of the 3,891 rape cases that went to court in 2014, 60% ended in conviction - and surely we realise the accusers who make of the

remaining 40% are not manipulative liars or conniving and hysterical opportunists, despite the popular narrative. But no matter how we interpret these statistics, misconstruing legal definitions and using concepts meant for juries to bludgeon opposition helps no one. Whatever standards we set ourselves, let’s be consistent and question our own underlying assumptions and rhetoric.

Illustration: Olivia Howcroft

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The Christian Union should change its name Jemima Bush

Truth should be more important than unity for the Christian Union

I’ve had just about as Christian an upbringing as one can have – my Dad, godfather and three out of four uncles are vicars, I’ve been going to Church every Sunday since I was born and now I’m in my first year studying Theology.

Yet despite firmly identifying as a Christian, I cannot bring myself to be part of the Durham Christian Union. The CU claims to be a society for Christians across the university, so why is it then that I and various Christian friends can’t get on with it?

It’s no coincidence that the society’s newly elected president for next year is male, as is this year’s, and last year’s, and the year before’s... Of course, this is not an official or written rule – if this were the case then one could easily make an argument for discrimination. But this does appear to be an established trend and anyone from the outside looking in would see this as discrimination, including me.

The choice you have to make when it comes to disagreements within organisations like the Church is which is more important: truth or unity? Should we hold firm to the truths that we see as so important to our faith that they cannot be compromised or should we put our differences aside and come together under our shared faith in the name of unity?

If you’d have asked me this a year ago I would have said that unity is more important. 100%.

But this attitude becomes more problematic when you are seemingly standing by and ignoring injustices that make your heart beat faster. When someone is claiming that it’s the truth that unifies us - what if this ‘truth’ isn’t your ‘truth’?

The issue of women in leadership for Christians is more complicated than I can do credit to in this short space but it is rooted in a combination of passages from the Bible, tradition and institutionalised misogyny.

Now, I understand and respect the views which some conservative Christians take; the disallowing of women in church leadership

is their ‘truth’. However, this becomes difficult when it comes into conflict with my truth – yes unity’s important, but whose truth do you choose for an organisation which is supposed to represent Chris-

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Whose truth do you choose for an oranisation which is supposed to represent Christians across the entire university?

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tians across the entire university?

In order to get around the issue of disagreements, the UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship – to whom all CUs across the country are affiliated) has a ‘doctrinal basis’ – beliefs

that all Christians share which they can unite behind. This is the set of beliefs that anyone with a leading role in the CU has to agree to. They are far narrower than the doctrines espoused by, for instance, the Methodist Church, or the Church of England.

When reading them, point c. struck me most – “The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God.” Understanding different ideas about the Bible is one of the reasons I got interested in theology in the first place.

I’ve met plenty of Christians who agree with the understanding of the Bible put across by UCCF but equally I’ve spoken to many (both Christian friends and Theology academics) who believe the Bible can be absolutely central to Christian faith without having to be infallible or necessarily perfect.

So what does this mean? I haven’t been to many CU events but it only takes a couple of talks to identify the strongly conservative Evangelical stance. There may be nothing wrong with holding these views, but they are certainly not the views of all Christians in

Durham. At a few moments during CU talks to which I’d brought friends I wanted to shout, ’you don’t have to believe that to be a Christian!’ Those who adhere to the doctrines set out by UCCF (who, by the way, used to be called Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions) shouldn’t claim to be representing Christianity as a whole. I propose they change their name to the ‘Evangelical Christian Union’ or set out a doctrine which all Christians can actually agree on – what’s wrong with the Apostle’s Creed?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Of course they are, especially when it comes to religion. But I cannot bring myself, even in the name of unity, to compromise on a truth so fundamental to me – that of gender equality.

I don’t know what the answer to the gender issue is if we are trying to keep everyone happy.

What I do know is that we are more strongly united by positives; perhaps there’s no need for any further unifying positives beyond the love and grace of God.

Mental health at university: living on a stage Society’s unwillingness to discuss mental health is encouraging people to hide themselves

Steven Williams

Mental health at university almost has a strange, almost paradoxical, existence. The presence of mental health often feels stigmatised yet normalised. Mental health conditions occurring within students at university is a common phenomenon, yet discussions resolving around mental health remain rare, with the subject being almost taboo. With this in mind, I wanted to write about my experience with mental health at university (predominantly with my depression), in particularly focusing upon the pressure I felt to hide my depression.

Living with mental health has been compared to living a double life; you need to balance how you feel and how you want to be perceived feeling, but I’ve always

found it to be more complicated than that. You’re pushed into a situation where not only are you balancing how you feel and how you want people to think you’re feeling, but you’re also scared about how people may be interpreting your actions. This sparks an identity crisis; as a person, are you how you feel, or how you try to present yourself? Are you how people actually see you, or something else?

Ultimately the problem of living a double (or even a multifaceted life) is that you lose the real you. You feel like you have fractured yourself, some pieces made from truth, some only inspired by truth, and some entirely fictionalised.

This year I have spent a considerable amount of time with student actors. Talking to them about their characters and the choices they make to portray them struck a chord with me. The need to have a deep understanding of the motivation, quirks and the

soul of someone other than yourself, heavily reminded me of the early stages of depression. In some sense, living with mental health is theatre, (in the least glamourous of senses). What started as me trying to simply hide my depression developed as the original seed of hiding grew. It became less of “I need to hide my depression” and more “I need to hide”. I saw myself as damaged, and while I may have simply started by hiding my depression, I grew to attempt to hide everything. I tried to grow into someone other: a better version of myself. I began to act like the lie I wanted to be, not who I was.

The world truly became a stage to me, but I was more than an actor. I was directing myself, writing myself and dressing myself according to this new character; I felt as if I were an entire ensemble and crew. I directed myself extraordinary leaps to hide the extent of depression. Essentially creating

an entirely new persona with a set of defensive “quirks” to hide the symptoms of depressions.

So why do this? The answer is simple and lies in fear. Society says depression isn’t normal, it says it’s scary and taboo. It feels as if something has been taken from you, that something being the most basic of necessities: the chance to be happy. In the face of fear, it’s easy to become somewhat desperate and fall into one of the most familiar coping mechanisms- pretend it’s not there and it will go away.

Words have a sense of power. Before the words “I am depressed” are muttered, it doesn’t feel entirely real yet. It exists somewhere not quite as narrow as your own personal world, but not quite within the wider social conscious. Saying the words are a necessary step to recovery, but are also a frightening step. Due to the absence of mental health from wider social narrative, you often can’t guess how people

will react to its entry or intrusion into a social narrative. It felt like running in the dark, never being sure how someone would react to being told about my mental health.

Looking back, I was lucky, most of my friends were very supportive, and while that made it easier, it didn’t make it easy.

Society’s unwillingness to discuss issues such as mental health is encouraging people with mental health conditions to not only hide their mental health but to also hide themselves. It creates the idea that once diagnosed with depression, you can’t be happy unless you’re someone else, not only robbing people of the support they may need to recover, but also of themselves.

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The EU referendum will be decided by history

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Our history has had an impact on contemporary perceptions of British capabilities Caroline Harding

Perceptions of the United Kingdom have changed greatly with the political, social, economic and cultural changes that have occurred throughout its history. However, there now appears to be a discrepancy between the real and the imagined power of the UK based on its past.

It can be said that the more positive aspects of British history have had a pervasive legacy, one that allows for a more powerful and successful image of the UK than is realistic. The assumptions concerning Britain’s surviving power could have damaging consequences, particularly for the impending referendum on the UK’s place in the European Union.

The United Kingdom, for such a geographically marginal country on the periphery of Europe, has played an important role in world history.

For much of the past 350 years the UK has been economically, militarily and politically powerful, but in recent years this power has waned.

However, the way the UK remem-

bers its history, partly through museums, statues and Armistice Day ceremonies, may serve to preserve perceptions of British power beyond the realms of reality.

The history of the UK is a long and illustrious one. From being a political backwater in the reign of Henry VIII, the break from Rome and the 1588 Spanish Armada helped propagate a type of English Protestant nationalism. Ideas of national pride were furthered following the turmoil of the Civil War and the establishment of colonies in the New World. The newly unified Britain experienced great success in foreign trade first in the Americas then in Asia, undergoing the Industrial Revolution before any of its European counterparts. British history remains a fairly recognisable story of imperialism, war and political struggles up to the present day.

This article appears to maintain an overly large focus on the British Empire, and the beneficial aspects of the British Empire at that. Evidently, achievements in trade and war were made alongside working class exploitation, brutality towards people abroad, social movements and scientific developments. However it is the positive aspects that are ceremonial-

ly remembered by jubilees, antiques, even support of the army, contributing to an unrealistically grandiose image of the United Kingdom and its history.

One particularly important legacy of the UK’s history is the perception that Britain succeeded ‘on its own’. This is largely an exaggeration. Historically, though the UK may have presided over the most profitable trade networks or consistently avoided invasion; it did not accomplish these feats by itself.

Collaboration was an incredibly important aspect of the UK’s past. It is widely acknowledged that developments in trade, military successes and the establishment of London as the financial capital of the world came only after the union between Scotland and England in 1707. The UK’s relationship with the United States also deserves a mention as a key example of cooperation. Many of Britain’s proudest moments, such as victory in 1945, were achieved only through American involvement and resources. Moreover, it is important to acknowledge the ethnic diversity in the UK, and the impact that foreign ideas and cultures had in shaping British history. A distinc-

hit rate as it is by their print sales and website aesthetics are now critiqued as much as the paper publication itself.

The reason for this is obvious, a key principle of journalism is delivering new information, and thus speed is a necessity because if the news or story is already out, then you’ve lost the battle.

Journalism is changing quicker than it ever has before. This has significant implications for student journalist publications and student journalists, not just in terms of the new and changing demands of running a student publication, but in the consideration of the type of essential skills that are now needed to break into an increasingly competitive industry.

Ten years ago, an editorial role for Palatinate and no doubt other student publications would be completely different. The extent to which how much content would be needed would be restricted by the space given to each section every fortnight and the technical duties would not

extend greatly from formatting the paper ready to be printed every Tuesday.

Of course, these skills are still at the heart of what is needed to be a student journalist, innovative, imaginative content is the minimum of what is asked of you for print, and editors continue to tackle the formatting side of the newspaper every fortnight.

But these principle skills are no longer enough for the student journalist - sourcing news on a daily basis and writing an article ready for publication as soon as possible are the bare requirements now. For the newspaper as a whole, an excellently produced newspaper every fortnight is also not enough - the website has been updated so that it is aesthetically pleasing and the publication has recently embraced social media as a platform for promotion with the introduction of #readpalatinate. Just as the industry adjusts so has student journalism.

In fact, student journalism can exist now with only online content -

The way in which the United Kingdom has chosen to remember its history is significant in the present day

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tion between ‘English’ history and ‘British’ history soon emerges, with the former entailing a white man’s narrative that continues to pervade modern society.

Due to the complex and multiethnic nature of the UK I am not suggesting that the coverage of the Royal Wedding instilled a sense of nostalgia and British pride in everyone. However, the perception that the United Kingdom is a nation independent of, and perhaps superior to, the rest of Europe may be significant in influencing people’s decision to remain in the European Union. It is important to consider seemingly

comical foreign perceptions of the UK; the French disdain for poor English food and emotional retardation for example may have more serious implications. Stereotypes such as the American belief that an English accent can denote intelligence, the idea that all Britons obsess over cricket and tea, and the association of brands such as Barbour with luxury serve to perpetuate a sense of British ‘otherness’. It appears from both domestic and foreign perceptions that the UK operates with a degree of autonomy from Europe, which might promote beliefs that the UK can thrive by itself.

It is clear that the way in which the United Kingdom has chosen to remember its history is significant in the present day. Celebrating instances like the siege of Dunkirk, deemed a “colossal military disaster” by Churchill, because of the way it encouraged national unity, is important because it shows how a sense of national pride based on history can be invoked. This could have repercussions for the EU referendum, as particular types of British history can illustrate why and how the UK has often succeeded more than and without its European counterparts.

The way we understand journalism is changing Charlie Taylor-Kroll

“The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times and the red tops - all print sales are falling and will cease to exist as we know them within decades” – I remember being told this during a journalism workshop hosted by the Press Association back in November - ironic considering that the course was in part advertising for prospective students to spend thousands on a masters degree to become a journalist. This demise is clearly happening: last week The Independent announced that it would cease printing in March, going fully online. But this is certainly not to say that journalism is a dying industry and that journalists are a dying breed - rather, how we define journalism is undergoing a radical change.

The reason for the radical change is not exactly profound - it’s the internet. The success of news outlets is reflected as much by their website

ask The Durham Tab. The Tab would not exist without an online platform and students’ overreliance on social media - and it is here to stay.

The content objectives of The Tab are inherently different to those of Palatinate’s and for me I would always favour content focused on important student issues rather than ‘clickbait’. But the different approach to content between Palatinate and The Tab is not my point.

My point here is that student publications have to evolve as the industry evolves and become much more than just a print edition.

It has always been notoriously difficult for student journalists to enter the industry but it is equally hard now to work out what you need to be doing as a student journalist to break into the industry.

It seems that the best route into journalism is no longer gaining work with regional publications and progressing eventually to the national publications. Even personal blogging does not seem the most desired way to make it onto the desks of the big

broadsheets. Instead, newspapers are hiring those journalists who have an extensive knowledge of the inner workings of online news outlets, coupled with the ability to research and write articles within hours, not days. It seems that the ‘big’ roles in journalism are now taken up by BuzzFeed employers, rather than those who have served on a regional newspaper for decades.

Such a changing and dynamic industry makes discovering the best route in, immensely complex.

In essence, the meaning of the role of journalist, both for students and for established professionals has expanded to such an extent that a broad skill set is not just desirable but an essential requirement.

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My feminism vs. your feminism: an illusory choice Durham University Feminism Society fails to take account of the “supply side” of gender discrimination Gergely Sebestyen

In October, it was agreed in my colege that the university’s Feminism Society have rules which fail to live up to what it ought to represent. This article outlines some of the critiques we came up with. Feminism should have a voice at the university which is worth listening to, and an inclusive space for student discussion is the very first step in that direction.

At this moment, however, something different is on paper. Quite a few students would identify as feminist when I asked them over porridge, but none of them would identify with the society’s ‘Code of Conduct for Men in Feminist Spaces’.

This is a not too well-known piece of writing circulating in your primary source of procrastination: the internet. In my opinion, the three deal breakers in this document are that: (i) men are excluded from the game; (ii) crucial aspects of feminism are missing; and (iii) oppression by men is held as an underlying truth, instead of a problem for us to collectively address.

Behavioural advice and subtle exclusion Only few of the society’s social media supporters know about their tacit agreement to the arguably eccentric ideas contained in this document. While the Code touches upon important issues and never fails to attract the reader’s sympathy through including grains of truth in every statement, two and a half pages clearly explain that men ‘do not need to be given a space in feminism’, for they already have a ‘space in society’ that they can make ‘feminist’. However, the document also states that, since one aim is to ‘change the culture of Durham University’, the society would encourage men to participate in the events if they are held for all genders. The text would suggest that spotting this contradiction is nothing but bad judgement, given that being oppressed is part of the female identity, while entering into an ‘allyship’ with feminism is barely a social position of choice.

To both my regret and relief, the code of conduct does not address what a male identity would be or

how it is transforming. They see the primary characteristic of a man to be his privilege, which leads us to further declarations: (i) no matter how a man has lived his life and where he stands in the discussion, he is expected to ‘check his privilege’, meaning the only way he can present his opinion is from a stance of belonging to the oppressive crowd; (ii) if any of the women present believe that a man’s argument is sexist, the only way he can respond is ‘asking for excuse’, for reasoning could not triumph over society members’ experience of centuries of oppression; and (iii) men cannot enter the discourse as to what feminism is about and how it could gain more space, for it is only up to women to decide its true meaning .

Mismatch between society title and vocation Naturally, this final point should be changed to include all members of the society - otherwise the code of conduct would not exist. A considerable group of women identifying as feminist find it essential to include men in the movement. A leading example is a young actress who, as a child, spent some time in our Cathedral with a wand (see HeforShe.) Yet, Feminism Society also excludes most liberal (or socialist) feminist movements which have different ideas about what this word represents. This is why I am admittedly puzzled by the name. The real problem is not what the group deems appropriate to include in core documents (this is their decision after all), but rather that this is presented from the vantage point of a university-wide forum which is supposed to be suitable for anyone who wishes to get involved. If there are pre-existing judgements which manipulate how the society conducts a discussion, it fails to provide such a platform – it simply favours certain groups of thought over others. There is no difficulty in holding every meeting in a red room if tinted lenses are required for admission.

The role of men in feminism If we define feminism within this exclusive sense, men at best can be labelled as bystanders in a struggle which - my college would argue spreads beyond the female gender.

Clearly, if not in a comedy show, men should not debate what it means to live and act as a woman. However, the society’s sound judgement on

ideal behaviour is not too accurate in that it holds the male identity as fixed. This is ironic as the document also calls for men’s attention not to treat women as a ‘monolith’ – a statement of which I nevertheless completely approve.

Let us agree that both genders are psychologically and socially affected by who they are. The core feminist idea of this trade-off is that the female identity has been historically exposed to exploitation and oppression by males, and this could hardly be a matter of debate. But just because we should have more sympathy towards the oppressed, it does not follow that we should not observe how the identity of the oppressor is also constrained. It is problematic to argue that the ‘universal man’ has an inclination to treat the female as a secondary gender unless we believe that an often greater physical force is a direct accelerant of misogyny. What should be discussed is not a relation between women who struggle to change general perceptions of their role in society and men

complacently pondering their social privilege, but a relation between two gender identities being extended or transformed. If the focus is here, a positive impact on gender interaction is more likely than if one side starts looking for solutions internally. Fortunately, neither side does that outside the code of conduct.

Implications To put this together, I argue that the Feminism Society fails to take account of what would be the supply side of gender discrimination. They do not (publicly) agree that a more broadly defined identity for men is a necessary catalyst for feminist aspirations. Since a significant group of feminists do, however, the society is also liable to open up itself in this regard - unless of course it would rather choose to operate under a more specific name. (My suggestion is ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’).

I also want to suggest that the male identity can be equally rigid, and that the long pattern of male oppression should not be depicted as a

pure social gain for men or a positive goal for women to achieve. The economic term I used – supply side - is the quantity of men who are probable to play the oppressive version of their gender identity as opposed to the rest looking for alternatives.

I find it crucial that we explain the reasons behind a recent reduction in the (historically large) supply of oppressive men and how this can continue in a way that means (i) each party has the ability to conduct a discussion; (ii) each party is keen to ensure that the other party has the ability to conduct a discussion; and (iii) the two parties interact when the issue at hand is not only genderspecific but clearly affects gender relations .

If any of these elements can fall out of discourse, certain movements will be distant and alienated from the significant crowd of the ‘other’ - a consequence which is both ironic and counterproductive.

Illustration: Kenzo Ishida

Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

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Profile

Malcolm Rifkind: “There would be dancing in the Kremlin if the European Union fragmented.”

Will Fremont-Barnes Profile Editor As a former cabinet minister and one of the foremost foreign policy experts of his generation, Sir Malcolm Rifkind witnessed significant events in modern history from a privileged position. “I was very much involved in the preparation for Mr Gorbachev coming to the United Kingdom when he first met Mrs Thatcher”, he tells Palatinate, remembering what was to prove a vital meeting in the cooling of tensions between Britain and the Soviet Union.

Whilst Thatcher spoke with Gorbachev, discovering that he was someone with whom she could do business, her Europe minister was tasked with giving Mrs Gorbachev a tour of Chequers. Rifkind recalls a surprising exchange: “I’ve never forgotten that as we looked at the books in the library, she said to me through the interpreter, ‘I am so delighted to be in England. I’ve always wanted to be in the country of Hobbes and Locke’”. This, as Rifkind points out, “is not what your average Soviet wife would have said”.

Rifkind, whose primary political ambition was fulfilled when he became Foreign Secretary in 1995, represented Britain on the world stage for two years during the interregnum between the end of the Cold War and the rise of Islamic terror. Does he regret that the Western powers missed an opportunity to establish a new, safer world order?

“We are in a much safer world”, Rifkind replies. “A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union could have led not only to a third World War, but the ultimate ghastly horror of a nuclear weapons exchange, which could have destroyed the planet… That is not remotely on the cards either now or for the foreseeable future.”

Furthermore, it is not as though Britain retreated from the world in the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the September 11 attacks. Rifkind led the government’s involvement in the peace process between Israel and Palestine, becoming the first Foreign Secretary to advocate a two-state solution at a time when lasting peace seemed a realistic possibility. However, the “tragic” assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, on November 4, 1995 changed everything. Having attended the funeral, Rifkind met with Yasser Arafat the following day.

Their scheduled meeting was cut short so that the Palestinian leader could visit “Leah Rabin, Rabin’s widow, to send his condolences. The very fact that he was intending to do that indicates that the atmosphere then was… a lot more positive than it has been recently.”

Although he maintains that the world has become safer during the post-Cold War era, Rifkind warns

that regional security should be a serious consideration in the upcoming EU referendum. “There would be dancing in the Kremlin if the European Union fragmented”, he claims, adding that “the weaker the European Union is, the happier they will be”. He cites the EU’s imposition of sanctions against Russia following its annexation of Crimea as an example of its current power, along with the “negotiations with Iran over their nuclear programme”.

What about the security offered

by NATO? “NATO is the provider of our military security”, he acknowledges, “but security for any country requires a combination of alliances and cooperation, not only on military matters, but political, diplomatic and economic issues. There is no doubt that the countries of Europe, when they feel able to speak with a single voice, carry far more weight”.

Rifkind complains that Eurosceptics within the Conservative Party have overlooked David Cameron’s “solid achievements” in the renegotiation package brokered with Brussels. “I personally attach the main importance to the clarity that ‘ever closer union’ no longer applies to the United Kingdom, which means we will be able to consider any proposals for future integration based on whether they would be helpful to our security or our prosperity.”

Many in Scotland have postulated that a vote to leave the EU would trigger a renewed push for an in-

“

There is no doubt that the countries of Europe, when they feel able to speak with a single voice, carry far more weight.

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dependence referendum north of the border. Rifkind is unconvinced.

“It is not correct, as the nationalists suggest, that Scotland is very proEuropean while England is very Eurosceptic.” He uses an example from the 2014 referendum to illustrate his point. “For a good number of years the nationalists said that if Scotland became independent they would immediately apply to join the Euro.

What in fact happened was that the Eurozone went into crisis just before the Scottish referendum, and the SNP realised that to say that an independent Scotland that would join the Euro and leave the Pound would im-

Photograph: Wikipedia via Creative Commons mediately mean that very few Scots the overnight transition from being would vote for independence.”

Foreign secretary to an out-of-work Rifkind supposes that the outpolitician. come of a second independence Rifkind returned to parliament in referendum, should it be held at the safe Tory seat of Kensington in any point in the foreseeable future, 2005 and, after five years serving as would be the same as in 2014 beChairman of the Intelligence and Secause of “the collapse of the oil price, curity Committee from 2010-2015, which makes economic arguments retired from frontline politics for for independence non-existent”. good at the last election. The manDuring his time in the Scottish ner of his retirement was not as he office, where he served as a junwould have hoped. Along with Jack ior minister and then as Secretary Straw, Rifkind was investigated by of State, Rifkind implemented a the Commons Standards Committee ground-breaking piece of legislation. in a cash-for-access allegation after “I was responsible for the Right to a Channel 4 undercover sting last Buy, for council tenants to buy their February appeared to show him ofhomes… Before we passed that legfering access to British diplomats for islation, which the Labour Party and a fee. The Standards Committee, to the nationalists strongly opposed, use Rifkind’s own words, dismissed Scotland had fewer home owners the allegation as “a load of old codsthan communist Hungary.” This rewallop”. flected the “radical” action taken by Whilst his parliamentary career the government in which he served, ended on this unsavoury note, his led by Thatcher’s determination to conduct was vindicated by the inchange Britain “as it had become” vestigation. “I’m pretty phlegmatic after World War II. about it”, he says of the episode. “I The first stage of Rifkind’s parwas very angry with the way they liamentary career ended when, afhad behaved, but politics is a rough ter eighteen consecutive years as a and tumble business.” minister, he lost his seat as the ConIn any case, Rifkind is looking forservatives were swept from power wards rather than backwards. “I find in 1997. myself as busy as ever”, he reports Much as he enjoyed “re-joining enthusiastically. “I’m now a visiting the human race”, Rifkind admits professor at King’s College in the that he had become accustomed to department of War Studies. I’ve just life in government. “Retirement for sent a book to my publisher, which a minister is when you climb into will be coming out later this year.” the back of your car and it doesn’t Rifkind seems to be enjoying his latgo anywhere”, he laughs, lamenting est return to the human race.

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Hot topics from the world of rugby

Concerned that rugby is picking up bad habits from football and following the recent release of a study which calls for a ban on tackling in school rugby, Charlie Richardson addresses the burning issues within the sport

Charlie Richardson Deputy Sport Editor

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There’s no way that the core values of rugby are what they once were.

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“The answer is no, my job is here and I love it here.”, were the words of Harlequins Director of Rugby Conor O’ Shea when asked in April 2015 if he was interested in the vacant Italy head coach job.

When quizzed on the same topic in December 2015 he stated, “It’s very flattering, but my job is here, full stop.” A pretty emphatic denial,

wouldn’t you agree?

In January 2016, it was announced he would take up the Italy role at the end of the current season. Hardly surprising really?

Attracting new fans is obviously vital but the sport must remember the famous words of rugby’s new hottest prospect, Nigel Owens – “this is not soccer”. And if we’re not careful, Nigel, it will be soon.

There were calls for rugby brainbox and clearly outstanding rugby coach Mike Ford to be dismissed from his post at Bath after a string of bad results,.

Yet the exact same group of players were the most fluid and organised team in the league last season.

So where does the blame lie in that situation? Those isolated Bath ‘fans’ clearly believe that it was with Ford.

So he must have just become a bad coach in the off-season, then? Too many piña coladas perhaps? Perhaps not.

In a January Aviva Premiership fixture, Saracens Welsh loosehead prop Rhys Gill was yellow-carded for a clumsy yet nasty tip-tackle on Harlequins centre George Lowe.

Craig Maxwell-Keys - who was the man with the whistle for the afternoon – and his TMO agreed that the incident was worth reviewing on the

big screen.

After umpteen replays and several “sitting-on-the-fence” sort of conversations, the two of them eventually came to the concurrence of opinion that the offence deserved upgrading to a red card. Mike Brown, the Harlequins and England full-back (and role-model), stood 10 metres away from Maxwell-Keys and, as he wielded the red card, he stood and clapped.

To think many ‘journalists’ wanted Brown to captain his country. If this is what rugby union is destined for, I want no more part in it.

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“This is not soccer”.

If we’re not careful Nigel, it will be soon.

“

Rugby supporters’ haughty selfrighteousness in its relationship with football has become embarrassing, pathetic and false in equal measure.

The so-called “Beautiful Game” is so-called for a reason; it was - at one time or another - beautiful. Whether you like it or not.

Now look at it; a capitalist jungle of prima donnas, superficial supporters and television executives.

Fans of Oxford, Accrington, Exeter et al will be seething in their punditry armchairs at this unfair, sweeping generalisation.

However I don’t think any selfrespecting football fan can say that English football, as a concept, is anywhere near what it was.

I do not like football, I admit. Yet isolated as a sport, it can be mesmeric.

Out-of-touch, self-righteous and arrogant rugby followers love to loquaciously lambast football supporters with the following adage; “Football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans. Rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentleman”.

Whenever I hear this, my reaction is always the same; to shrivel into a big ball of cringeworthy nothingness.

It’s just utter drivel.

It was once perhaps, correct. But now the unstoppable juggernaut of professionalism is in full swing and there’s no way the core values of rugby are what they once were.

We are in the early stages of where football once was; inter-union rows, too heavy a playing schedule, players played like marionettes by Machiavellian agents and, worst of all, a decline in on-field conduct.

Tackling- the debate

Elsewhere in the rugby world, perennial party-pooper Allyson Pollock has struck again with her vociferous army of watery fun sponges.

From the team of ‘dedicated researchers’ that brought such headlines as “ban rugby scrums in schools” comes the dreary and unnecessary sequel, “ban rugby tackling in schools”.

The next in the series will inevitable be “ban rugby”, then perhaps “ban schools”.

The supposed findings of Allyson Pollock and her team are nothing but scaremongering twaddle. In the first instance, the physical benefits of a high contact sport such as rugby always heavily outweigh the potential risks.

This theory is not even solely applicable to rugby. Every sport has a risk of danger, from darts to dancing, but it’s the thrill of the competition and the development of skills and physique which provides enjoyment – for children and adults.

The need for danger and competition in a controlled environment is vital for the holistic benefits of sport to thrive.

For those that are unable to express themselves in a school environment, sport is the only way to achieve that self-expression.

It’s often the only distraction for the talented, driven child who would thrive on the rugby field but not in the classroom.

The character-building, discipline and friendships that are built through a sport like rugby far outweigh the potential side-effects. What Pollock doesn’t understand is when you remove physical toughness, you reduce mental toughness also.

An online British Medical Journal blog has looked into Pollock’s results, and quite frankly, torn the empirical evidence to shreds.

The blog suggests that the statistics that she has provided are completely false, which is rather alarming considering the amount of national press coverage that this non-story has received.

Besides, if Pollock and her team don’t enjoy watching people tackling each, they could always watch Super Rugby? They’ve been trialling it for years.

PALATINATE | Thursday 10th March 2016

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Sport

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Third time lucky for York as Durham lose College Varsity competition Sophie Bingham College Sport Coordinator

Matt Roberts Deputy Sport Editor 10:00am – The action gets underway on York’s Heslington West Campus.

10:50am – Durham secure the first win of the day, a tight 3-2 victory in the Women’s Rugby B game for Cuthle, the combined Cuthbert’s and Castle team.

11:00am – York pick up their first points of the day in the women’s football A as Alcuin beat Grey 2-0.

Shortly after, the spoils are shared between Vanbrugh and Butler, with both colleges earning half points after a 1-1 draw.

11.30am – Castle show their class in the Lacrosse B match, withstanding an honourable fightback from Halifax to come through 16-6. In the tennis, there’s a clinical win for a very strong Collingwood outfit.

12:15pm – Vanbrugh edge John Snow in an absorbing basketball B match in the Main Hall. A breathless final quarter saw the visitors close the gap, but to no avail. Three more

points to York.

12.25pm – More disappointment for Durham in the football as Langwith come from behind to beat the Stephenson Rangers 2-1 in a scrappy encounter.

The visitors had lost just one match all season but missed a host of chances in the second half, including a penalty which was tipped over the bar.

1:00pm – The scoreboard begins to turn predominantly gold as York start to dominate.

First, Alcuin clinch a well-deserved 2-0 victory over Aidan’s in the Hockey B game, scoring both goals before half-time and seeing out the remaining minutes without alarm.

The same York college then win 5-3 against Chad’s in the squash.

Moments later, James beat Hild Bede 22-7 in the Men’s Rugby B game, although the match is marred by a couple of unfortunate injuries to the Durham side.

Finally, Langwith steal the points in the tennis B game over Mary’s, with their second seeded pair coming through a decisive championship tiebreak 10-4. The hosts have the momentum.

2.00pm – Two important wins for

Durham just before the lunch break.

The combined Mildert and Butler team – Milbut – make it two from two for the Palatinates in the women’s rugby. These results were all the more impressive considering Durham had to adapt to York’s rules and play touch rugby.

In the main hall, a pulsating and heated basketball A match goes the way of Ustinov over Derwent. At halftime, York have a slender 24.5-22.5 advantage.

4.40pm – The formidable Collingwood win their third match of the day, dominating Wentworth 8-0 in the squash to bring the overall score level. 35.5-35.5.

3.00pm – With the overall contest evenly poised, the Varsity enters a crucial passage of play. Of the nine 3pm fixtures, six of them are A games and worth five points each.

4.45pm – A seismic shift in York’s favour as they earn 10 valuable points across two sports.

A depleted Aidan’s rugby A team lose 27-10 against a Derwent side boasting a number of university players before St John’s go down 9-5 to James in the lacrosse A game. All of a sudden, York lead 45.5-35.5 and the magic 53 point mark is in reach for the hosts.

4.20pm – Some much needed good news for Durham as Hatfield win the hockey A game 5-1 over Goodricke.

The ever-reliable Collingwood then beat Derwent 35-25 in the netball.

5.00pm – With York leading 48-38, they’re just one A game away from winning their maiden College Varsity crown. It’s all perfectly set up for Wentworth in the volleyball who haven’t lost a game in two years.

4.00pm – The first afternoon scores bring misery for Durham as James beat Van Mildert 3-0 in the Volleyball B game and James thrash Grey 69-25 in the Netball A.

4.25pm – Langwith win two of the decisive final three matches to beat St Cuthbert’s 6-3 in the badminton B fixture.

4.50pm – Honours even in the men’s football A game between Castle and Halifax as the Durham college twice come from behind to draw 2-2.

5.30pm – Wentworth take a two set lead in the volleyball. St John’s, and Durham, need a miracle.

Whilst victory eventually went to the hosts, the 312 Palatinates who travelled to York put up a brave fight.

Durham won the A team matches 37.5-27.5.

However the battle was lost in the B team games by only very fine margins, unfortunately often going against the Palatinates.

A perfect example of this would be St Mary’s Tennis defeat on a tiebreak and the relentless Stephenson footballers missing a penalty against Langwith.

Nevertheless, Durham’s teams did well to adapt to the Varsity rules.

The hockey and basketball teams played a mixed format alien to the Durham programme.

Nevertheless, the ever-growing women’s rugby programme – represented by Milbut and Cuthle – proved that they were masters of the touch format of the game too, with both teams comfortably overcoming their York opponents.

The Varsity day did so much to raise the profile of College Sport and the camaraderie of Durham’s athletes was admirable.

Although the Palatinates just failed to do the job in York’s backyard, I have no doubt that the scoreline will look very different back at Maiden Castle in 2017!

5.40pm – YORK WIN THE COLLEGE VARSITY! A service fault from St John’s gifts Wentworth the third set in the volleyball and York earn the five points required to give them an unassailable 53-38 lead.

5.45pm – Unaware that York have sealed Varsity victory in the tent next door, Mary’s badminton brilliantly win the final three matches to beat Halifax 6-3.

6.00pm – The York party begins with a booze-fuelled finale of darts.

The hosts have enjoyed fervent home support throughout the day and the atmosphere inside the Roger Kirk Centre is electric.

8.10pm – ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! Trevelyan’s James Wilkinson throws a magnificent maximum but the Hexagonal college succumb to Vanbrugh 6-1 in the darts B game.

9.45pm – Castle produce an admirable fightback against Derwent to win the A team darts fixture 4-3.

This consolation win earns Durham the final five points of the Varsity and bringing the overall final score to be 56-48 in York’s favour.

Sport

Thursday 10th March 2016 | PALATINATE

York Varsity Review

Palatinate Sport review the York Varsity, including how the day unfolded, as well as Sophie Bingham’s view on the standout performances and areas for improvement in time for next year’s edition.

The Rugby Column

Palatinate Sport discusses topical issues in the rugby world.

Palatinates march on with silverware in sights Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor

Durham’s Men’s Football 1s were unable to complete their first ever double after a disappointing afternoon at Maiden Castle.

Photograph: Kieran Moriarty

Men’s Football 1s suffer semi-final heartbreak

Kieran Moriarty Sport Editor

Men’s Lacrosse 2s Maiden Castle Durham

6

urham Durham Men’s Football 1st XI’s cup run came to an abrupt end last Wednesday as they were beaten 3-0 by a well-drilled University of South Wales team.

With the league title secured last term and following a tremendous victory against Bath in the quarter final, the stage seemed set for the 1st XI to make history.

However, Durham were ruthlessly punished for their lacklustre defending at set pieces.

The opening stages were unsurprisingly cagey and chances were scarce.

Around the 15-minute mark,

McGrath got the better of the South Wales full-back with a mazy run.

Bursting into the penalty area, he astutely cut the ball back to King who, having sold the centre back

with an outrageous dummy, saw his shot blocked.

Soon after, the visitors took control. A counter-attack down the right wing saw a dangerous cross whipped into the box.

Dudzinski was alert and managed to tip the ball off the head of the striker. However, from the subsequent corner, Dudzinski was not so fortunate.

The corner was hit deep to the back post and then expertly flicked back into the fray by an unmarked winger, before the visitors’ striker was quickest to react to bundle the ball home.

Things soon got worse for Durham. A free-kick was delivered from the left and was looped high up into the air by one of South Wales’ burly centre backs.

The defence were slow to react

to the deflection and the ball was clinically nodded into the net by an opportunistic striker to make it 2-0.

Despite being behind, Durham continued to play their football.

However, the visitors were content to suffocate the game through a combination of organised defending and some cynical challenges.

Several players picked up bookings and tempers looked to be boiling over as Durham became frustrated with the referee’s leniency towards some tackles. Near the end of the half, Durham began to carve out some opportunities.

King managed to beat two defenders with a weaving run before his shot was blocked by a last ditch challenge.

In another move, Green smartly cut inside the visitors’ right-back, but he could only drag his effort wide.

The first half ended in a heated fashion as Durham picked up two bookings in a fracas sparked by a late Durham tackle.

Despite the Palatinates’ need to score, it was Cardiff who began the second half with the chance of the game.

The crossbar rescued Durham going 3-0 down after a rasping half-volley from the visitors’ right winger. The home side continued to work hard but they could not breach the impregnable South Wales defence.

Midway through the second half, it was game over. A corner was met with a thumping header which forced Dudzinski to produce an unbelievable save to keep it out and then block the rebound.

Nevertheless, in the ensuing scramble, the ball crept in, to the visitors’ jubilation and Durham’s despair.

The home team continued to soldier on but the result was now a formality.

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There was still plenty of cause for celebration on a huge day of BUCS sport last Wednesday.

Durham Women’s Lacrosse comprehensively beat Exeter 13-5 and advanced into the BUCS National Championship final.

Clearly inspired by the success of the women’s team, the Men’s Lacrosse team duly followed their example as they thrashed Loughborough 24-8 in their semi-final in the afternoon.

Both teams have been in scintillating form this season and based on these results, one would be confident of a brace of silverware for DU Lacrosse in a week’s time when the finals are played.

It was not all doom and gloom on the football front for Durham. The Women’s 1st XI beat Leeds Beckett to progress to the BUCS National Championship final, where they will play Northumbria 1s.

The 1s were forced into extra time after Beckett equalised to cancel out Rodriguez’s opener. However, they dug deep and goals from Nicki Gears and Emory Camper ensured that they went through as 3-1 winners.

The 2s also emulated their counterparts by winning their National Conference Cup semi-final against Northumbria 2s, courtesy of a Georgia Oakley goal.

They will now play Liverpool John Moores 1s in the final, setting up the prospect of double cup glory for the women’s football teams.

To finish the day on a high, Durham’s 1st XV charitable off the pitch exploits did not extend onto the pitch in their semi-final match against Bath.

In front of huge crowds under the floodlights on the rubber crumb at Maiden Castle, the Palatinates annihilated their opposition 28-3 to progress to the BUCS final.

Following such impressive semifinal performances and with many of these finals set to be played next Wednesday, the Palatinates can anticipate a huge haul of silverware being brought home before the end of this term.