Palatinate 827

Palatinate Officially the UK’s Best Student Publication, 2018

Thursday 5th March 2020 | No. 827

www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE

Comment asks whether we can celebrate Tyson Fury’s achievements

Indigo interviews DH1 records and explores being an active bystander

Durham pays out £177,000 to silence students with NDAs Jack Taylor Editor-in-Chief Durham University paid out £177,300 to students following complaints, each with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), a Freedom of Information request by the BBC reveals.

Durham paid out £20,500

to fewer than five students in 2018/19 and £156,800 to eight students in 2017/18.

Rianna Croxford, an award winning BBC journalist, found that universities across the country were silencing students’ complaints of sexual assault, bullying and poor teaching by using non-disclosure agreements attached to payments.

Since 2016, 45 universi-

ties have paid out a total of £1.3 million, with payments ranging from £250 to £40,000.

Payments were also used nationally for complaints of false advertising of courses, lack of disability support and accommodation issues, according to Freedom of Information requests seen by the BBC The Next Episode podcast.

Universities UK, which represents 136 institutions, said that

NDAs should not be used to silence students. adding that “Every student should feel safe and supported through their time at university”.

According to the BBC, the government has said the use of NDAs for student complaints is “unacceptable” and they are legislating to stop such agreements being misused across society.

Durham University, when ap-

proached by Palatinate to comment on the use of NDAs said: “The University may add confidentiality undertakings to letters to individuals offering financial settlements, under a range of different circumstances. In some situations, for a number of reasons, the University may wish to maintain confidentiality in respect of the offer made and the circumstances behind the offer.”

Strikes: “We will continue until we win” Jack Parker, Anna Marshall and Tom Saunders News Team

▲ Staff gathered in market square last week to listen to music and speeches from Dr Sarah Uckelman, Vicky Blake and Sam Johnson-Audini (Tim Packer)

Neo-Nazi flag waved at Polo Ball

• Jewish Society “shocked and appalled by the event”, while Polo Club “condemn any such incidents” • The culprit, from UCL, states they “did not know” of flag’s far-right links and is “naturally not a Nazi” Jack Taylor, Theo Golden & Will Hutchings On Friday night, an attendee of the Durham Polo Ball, revealed to be visiting from UCL, was pictured waving a flag commonly used by Neo-Nazis.

The flag in question is the Ger-

man Imperial Flag. According to the ADL, a leading anti-hate organisation, due to the swastika and other nazi imagery being banned in Germany, the flag is commonly used by Neo-Nazi groups instead. Its use has also been documented in the United States and elsewhere in Europe.

A Durham student at the event

told Palatinate: “After the band finished their set, they then played ‘Jerusalem’ over the PA in the room where people were dancing. People were singing and a member of the crowd brought out a German Imperial war flag.

“This has been used in recent years by a number of fascist and hate groups. White tie balls

have a reputation for politically incorrect behaviour but this sort of behaviour has no place in Durham or in society.”

Another student in attendance expressed their shock: “I went to the ball as a guest, and I have never felt so alienated and embarrassed by this University.

Continued to page 3

Industrial action organised by the University and College Union (UCU) is reaching the end of its third week, with many staff still manning the picket lines.

Over 100 members and supporters of the ongoing UCU strikes gathered in Durham’s Market Square to raise visibility for the industrial action, as it approaches its final week.

The event saw multiple speakers give speeches including Sam Johnson-Audini, the Students’ Union Undergraduate Academic Officer, Dr Sarah Uckelman, Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, and Vicky Blake, the Presidentelect of the national branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU), amongst others.

Johnson-Audini told the crowds that “your working conditions are our learning conditions.” Dr Uckelman said: “Year in, year out, our working conditions are making it harder and harder to do our jobs. We have to do this for future students.”

Other groups also present at the rally included members of the Communication Workers Union, whose members have been refusing to cross the picket line to deliver mail.

Dr Baker, the chair of the Newcastle branch of the UCU said : “We Continued to page 4

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

2

Editorial

Palatinate, it’s been a pleasure

A

nd with that my time as Editor-in-Chief of Palatinate has finished.

It’s been a rollercoaster of two years full of late nights, breaking news and strongly worded emails, but I’ve loved every second.

For me Palatinate isn’t about the article views, the front pages or awards. I’ve just wanted to keep people honest, hold those in positions of power to account and give a voice to those without.

Don’t forget about me, I’ll be quietly watching from a distance, ready to help out if needed.

If you really wanted to, my time with the paper could be statistically summed up as 51 articles published and 63,536 unique views, but the article I owe everything to only had 284 people read it. It was an opinion piece that I wrote as a bored fresher about the Liberal Democrats, I still remember the wave of excitement when I saw it published on the website.

I remember at the time thinking I’d wasted some of my first year. I’d made some great friends and enjoyed some parts of my course, but there was a gap I hadn’t filled. Not every talk at the Union interested me, I didn’t play a sport and my musical ability was limited to college open mic nights spent playing the drums with a beer.

Palatinate was something to sink my time into and a new group of people to meet outside of college. Moving from Politics to Comment to News within one term probably raised a few eye-

brows, people tell now tell it was fairly obvious I wanted to be Editor-in-Chief with all the section changing.

Along the way we’ve revealed the University’s planned cuts to college and academic departmental staff, increases to accomodation fees and put your questions to the Vice-Chancellor. I’ll always be proud of how we held the University to account, I hope that through Palatinate’s coverage more students have been informed of changes and have been equipped to challenge them.

This term we focused some content on mental health issues as part of a campaign. We found that 28% of staff absences are due to mental health, students abroad felt “lonely, lost and helpless” at times and every section from Music to Sci-tech has commissioned content. I hope that this focus has encouraged people to talk about their mental health more, I know it has for me.

If I were to reflect on my time with Palatinate I’d say this past term has been my favourite As I leave I’d like to thank the past Editors-in-Chief that showed me the way. Thank you to Cameron, Julia, Anna & Oscar for being so welcoming, teaching me how all of this works and being a pleasure to know over the past two years.

If I were to reflect on my time with Palatinate I’d say this past term has been my favourite. I think we consistently produced great print editions, covered breaking news and our Editorial Board has really come into its

own after two terms together. In part this is down to Tom’s great work and dedication as my fellow Editor-in-Chief.

For me Palatinate isn’t about the article views, the front pages or awards We hit the ground running with some great stories, I’ve never felt more accomplished as a student journalist and editor than in the past term working with him. I probably owe him a great deal, as he actually published my first ever article when I was just a bored fresher and he was Politics Editor.

Someone that should get more credit for their contribution to Palatinate is Shauna Lewis, the Editor of Indigo for the past three terms. She spends her entire Tuesdays in the office with myself and Tom, finalising the print edition. Shauna has poured everything into making Indigo the best place for lifestyle, culture and arts coverage in Durham. She is the first person to ask if someone is okay and has helped foster a positive atmosphere amongst our Editorial Board.

My housemates over the past two years have also taken the brunt of my late nights and days away from the house. In particular this year, Calum and Henry have had to put up with a large amount of dirty dishes, skipped chores and “sorry I can’t I’m at the newspaper” texts.

In general for my time at Durham and Palatinate I’d like to thank my family for always being there to call, especially my sister for the daily morning phone calls. Thank you to every friend

Inside 827

Palatinate Editorial Board

News pages 3-6 Comment pages 7-9 Profile page 10-11 SciTech page 13 Politics pages 15-17 Sport pages 18-20

indigo

Editorial page 2 Features page 3 Music pages 4-5 Creative Writing page 6 Books page 7 Interview pages 8-9 Film & TV page 10 Stage page 11 Food & Drink pages 12-13 Visual Arts page 14 -15 Fashion page 16 from rugby, darts or college that has made the past three years so memorable.

And finally to everyone remaining with Palatinate, it has been a pleasure to work with you and lead you this year. Don’t forget about me, I’ll be quietly watching from a distance, ready to help out if needed.

Durham, it has been a blast.

Jack Taylor

Editors-in-Chief Jack Taylor & Tom Mitchell editor@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Editors Imogen Usherwood & Faye Saulsbury deputy.editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Will Hutchings, Jack Parker & Toby Donegan-Cross news@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Emma Lucia Felisi & Joshua Hurn deputy.news@palatinate.org.uk Investigations Editor Luke Payne investigations@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Jacob Whitehead & Pip Murrison comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editors Kiara Davies & Michael Knezevic Profile Editors Theo Golden & Tash Mosheim profile@palatinate.org.uk Science & Technology Editors Ewan Jones & Hannah Goldswain scitech@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editors Marina Mestres & Patrick Stephens politics@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Politics Editor Sophie Farmer & Meera Navlakha Sport Editor Tim Sigsworth & Tomas Hill LopezMenchero sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Alana Ker Mercer, Hector Pearce & Matt Styles Indigo Editor Shauna Lewis indigo@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Indigo Editor Hugo Millard Sub-Editors Lizzie Murrall, Ruth Waterfield, Naomi Rescorla-Brown, Chloe Waugh & Alice Latham Photography Editors Mark Norton photography@palatinate.org.uk Illustrations Editor Heidi Januszewski illustration@palatinate.org.uk Website Administrator Calum Johnston Advertising Officer Oliver Henry oliver.advertising@palatinate.org.uk

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

3

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

News

FOI reveals only 1 in 5 students are first time scholars Toby Donegan-Cross News Editor Could it really be spring? It feels like winter might finally be over.

Admittedly, by the time you actually read this we might be having snow and rain again, but I’ll hold out hope for now that it’s actually getting warmer.

I know that at this time of year many of us are frantically working on dissertations, exam revision, and other assessments. And it’s at such a busy time that a helping hand with any issues we’re having is more welcome than ever.

As always, the Durham SU Advice Service is available to any student who needs free, impartial and independent advice, whether it relates to an academic, wellbeing, housing, work or other issue.

Though it’s always busy at this time, it seems like this year there’s a lot more going on than usual.

You will of course know about the ongoing dispute over pay, pensions and conditions that’s led to another period of strike action.

The huge pay disparity at Durham, between senior execs and the services and teaching staff we interact with every day, is just one reason that myself and the Officer team are supporting the strike action. We’re encouraging students to support the strike, but we also know that this is a period of substantial disruption. You can contact the Advice Service for any individual problems you may experience as a result of strike action.

Elsewhere, consultation is open on the second phase of a review of College Operations. Our colleges are so important to our experiences at Durham, and many of us are rightly invested in changes to how they are run. You should fill out the survey you received in my weekly email as soon as you can, to make sure your views and concerns are heard. The more people who respond, the better our chances of impacting the outcome. It might be a busy time of year, but filling in the survey is a really important use of your time!

Continued from front ... I was shocked, but not entirely surprised. Another guest tried to pull the flag down, but the individual, along with his friends carried on. What hurt the most, was that no one else, tried to stop him, and the flag was flown at the front of the crowd.

This incident sparked a response from Durham’s Jewish Society: We are shocked and appalled by the events that occurred at the Polo Ball. We hope

A Freedom of Information request from Palatinate has shown that just under 20% of undergraduate students at Durham are confirmed First Generation Scholars (FGSs), which is significantly below the UK average.

‘First Generation Scholar’ refers to students whose parents do not have a higher education qualification. Measuring numbers of FGSs has become an increasingly popular metric for universities – particularly in America – to assess social inclusion and accessibility.

The information also reveals significant economic differences between FGSs and non-FGSs. For example, parents of FGSs are almost ten times less likely to have held “senior managerial or professional occupations”, and over four times less likely to have “lower managerial or professional occupations.”

HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) data from 2010/11 showed that 45% of graduates were FGSs. More recent data from 2017 suggests that as many as half of all UK university graduates are the first in their family to have higher education qualifications.

Durham currently offers support for FGSs at a departmental level. The support network was spearheaded by two members of staff, Dr Hannah Brown (Anthropology) and Professor Vikki Boliver (Sociology).

Boliver told Palatinate that “It is of course vitally important for

equity and inclusion reasons that Durham serves an increasingly diverse and socially representative student body.” She suggested that while the growing number of contextual offers might help in this respect, “we could all be doing more to advertise the fact that Durham is seeking to become a more inclusive university.”

In a similar vein, Dr Lewis Mates, who runs the FGS meetings in the School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA), suggested that, “There is an opportunity for Durham to be a trailblazer, to make a mark in a really progressive way.”

Reflecting on the situation in the America, and the need for a coherent University strategy, Mates said that “All the impressive programmes in the States are university wide. All the resources and information is centralised, and it is clear that the university at the top takes this stuff seriously. For us it is more piecemeal and bottom-up and reliant more on the goodwill of colleagues doing extra work.”

Nonetheless, Mates said that encouraging FGSs is “good for everyone concerned.” For less privileged students, First Generation Scholar programmes mean equal access to top institutions, and the more privileged receive a university experience which better reflects the diversity and complexity of British society. As a teacher, Mates noted that in his experience FGSs can be “more resourceful because they have had to be”, and therefore bring different perspectives which can enrich academic discourse.

Students at Durham have talked to Palatinate about their

experiences as FGSs. Additionally, evidence provided from Erin Hanson, a third year dissertation student who is analysing the experiences of FGSs in Durham, reveals the academic, financial, social and psychological effects that can characterise FGSs’ time at university.

Academically, over half of Hanson’s interviewees said that they had considered dropping out as first years, and some students have told Palatinate that, despite frequently achieving high grades, they still feel “like they shouldn’t be here.”

Encouraging FGSs is “good for everyone concerned” In addition to academic pressures amplified for FGSs, some reflected on financial pressures.

Of Hanson’s interviewees, nearly a third have part time jobs which they struggle to balance with their academic work.

However, the largest pressures appeared to be cultural and social. One student said the biggest problem he faced was the “culture shock” when he came. Reliving his first thoughts upon arrival, he commented that “pretty much everyone had posh accents.”

In freshers week, he continued, “first you have to wear a suit, which you’re not used to wearing, tie a tie you don’t know how to tie, and then buy a ridiculous and overpriced gown you will never wear again. Everything from the fees to the outfits make you feel out of place, and it seems that no one else feels that way.”

This links to a sense of isola-

tion many FGSs feel. Over two thirds of Hanson’s interviewees said that they felt “overwhelmingly isolated from the rest of the student body”, and many of these students felt they would not know who to reach out to.

Sociologists at UCL have shown that being a FGS “is an important barrier to university participation and graduation, over and above other sources of disadvantage.”

In general, issues FGSs can face include at admission, cultural differences, issues of social and academic confidence, and, at times, financial strain. This means that FGSs are less likely to come to university in the first place, and, once enrolled, more likely to drop out.

One student said that “My family have never been inside a university environment so they naturally don’t understand straight away. This can create an odd feeling where you feel socially disconnected from them.”

However, FGSs also often reflected on a sense of pride that they have insofar that they have got to Durham in spite of social barriers. One commented “I think I also wear it as a badge of pride and feel like I’ve made my parents proud”, while another reflected that “it spurs me on a lot to do well because I know they weren’t given the same opportunity I have now.”

Common among most students interviewed was the sense that the University could do more to honours its commitment to having a diverse and inclusive environment. One student said that the infrastructure appeared “virtually non-existent,” while another commented that the general environment is “alienating.”

“This must have been pre-meditated, I am so scared” that more awareness of Neo-Nazi logos and slogans will be promoted, to decrease the ignorance and hate that has been spread recently.

“Antisemitism is still extremely prevalent and is actively impacting how Jews engage with religion, as well as how society views Judaism. Here at Jewish Society, we aim to do everything we can to educate those about it, to prevent similar hateful incidents occurring again.

On Tuesday it was revealed

by The Tab that the student in question was visiting from UCL. In a long statement the student stated that he was “naturally not a Nazi” and had not been aware of the flag’s links to Neo-Nazi groups prior to taking the flag to the event.

“I deeply regret bringing the flag in the first place and casting such a dire shadow over the very well organised, executed and fun event.

“I apologise profoundly to Durham University, Durham University’s Polo Club, all guests who attended the Durham Polo Ball and all who have been insulted, offended and excluded by my actions.”

An investigation was launched after the Polo Club and Durham University were made aware of the incident. Professor Jacqui Ramagge, Executive Dean (Science) of Durham University, said: “As soon as we became aware of the incident, we launched an urgent internal investigation and the matter has been reported to the police.

“Although we believe the photographs were taken at an event hosted by a student sports club, we believe the individual photographed was from a visiting club.

We are seeking to contact this club urgently.

“We do not accept any form of prejudice or discrimination, and we condemn any such incidents

in the strongest possible terms.

When approached by Palatinate on Sunday, the Durham Polo Club echoed the University’s sentiment: “We do not accept any form of prejudice or discrimination, and we condemn any such incidents in the strongest possible terms. We would like to take

this opportunity to state that Durham University and the Polo Club wholeheartedly abhor the racist sentiments behind this action.”

“It is very upsetting for our club that such an incident occurred, at what had been a very enjoyable and successful event.”

4

Thursday 5th March 2020| PALATINATE

News

Lecturers: “Our working conditions are making it harder to do our jobs” Continued from front ... will continue until we win, and the sooner that the vicechancellors understand that, the sooner we can all get back to work.

“I want to call out Stuart Corbridge and Chris Day personally

to take responsibility, earn the big salaries they’re getting, and stand up for their institutions.”

Student groups such as Durham University Labour Club are encouraging support for the strikers, and Durham Students’ Union has been providing free hot drinks for striking staff.

Third year History and English

student Neve Ovenden has been organising support with Durham Student Worker Solidarity: “People have been bringing hot curry, sausage and bacon sandwiches, pancakes and homemade cakes to the picket-line.

There’s been people playing live music, and really rallying to raise morale and sustain numbers on the picket lines and show the strength of the movement and organisation against the University”.

Ovenden told Palatinate: “Quite a lot of academics in Durham live most of the time elsewhere, so for instance I know some staff from Leeds and from Edinburgh who can’t afford to travel to the picket-line but are doing action in their hometowns instead”.

sues needing immediate attention, particularly putting in place measures to ensure that students can meet the learning outcomes of the programmes on which they are registered.”

Those within the UCU are hopeful this week after reports emerged of a leaked email, which suggested that Universities UK are attempting to negoti-

ate with their pension provider.

Meanwhile, on 26th February, the UCU tweeted: “UCU met Universities UK this afternoon for constructive talks on a range of issues […] #UCUStrikesBack.”

In a statement to Palatinate Professor Alan Houston, ViceProvost (Education) said: “We are encouraged that negotiations are continuing at a national level and we urge both sides to enter into further discussions in the spirit of compromise.

“For some time we have been working closely with colleagues and Durham UCU to improve arrangements for how we engage casual workers and also ways in which we can reduce our gender pay gap.”

A survey by Palatinate found that 70% of respondents want some form of compensation from the University following disruption from the strikes.

When asked whether the University was planning to compensate students, Professor Houston told Palatinate: “At this point in time, we do not know the precise impact of strike action on individual students. We are focusing our efforts on is-

checks in which students may be fined for not maintaining a clean room.

It was also announced that under the proposals, shift lengths for weekend portering staff will be cut from 12 hours to 8 hours, resulting in significant income reductions.

Commenting on the Palatinate website, one porter wrote: “They are cutting my hours from 24 to 14. I can’t understand how this will save money. At present I work two 12 hour shifts.

“They are proposing 3x8 hour shifts, with 3 porters instead of two, that means 3x pensions, and 3x holidays. Makes me sick, 14 hours will not cover my rent and council tax.”

Despite the reduction in the amount of cleaning services provided to livers-in, college accom-

modation costs will not be reduced next year to compensate. A single catered room with shared bathroom will cost £7,894 for the 2020/21 academic year. Mr Cook said: “It is not within the scope of this review to determine any potential changes to residency fees.”

A Facebook campaign against the University’s proposals, named ‘Save Our Staff - stop BPR2’, has launched, and has attracted around 200 likes. A post by the campaign’s organisers calls the proposals “an attack on university staff, especially in colleges.

“This is a threat to colleges as we know them and it will affect Durham’s dedicated staff, who have been here longer than any Vice-Chancellor or Provost.”

Harry Cross, who chairs the campaign and is President of St Aidan’s SCR, reflected negatively

on last week’s meeting between the University and common room presidents. “The University has ignored the outcome of feedback sessions with students that preceded the formal consultation period, as we sadly feared they would.”

Cross accused the University of deliberately misleading students about the effects of cuts, saying “the university has publicly justified BPR2 based on its benefit to ‘you, the students’. We do not want these changes and the university must honestly state the real motivations behind BPR2.”

Furthermore, the fact that the University has, according to Cross, framed BPR2 in terms of cleanliness of rooms, which “trivialises the seriousness of BPR2 for the livelihoods of current Durham staff.”

A survey by Palatinate found that 70% of respondents want compensation

(Karen Jones)

“Students are expected to attend all lectures, classes and tutorials not affected by the strike” Some students are showing their support for the UCU by boycotting the NSS survey for finalyear students, and by continuing to not attend contact hours while the strikes are ongoing.

Professor Houston said that “students are expected to attend all lectures, classes and tutorials that are not affected by the strike, and to submit their assignments by their deadline as normal. If a student chooses not to do so in solidarity with UCU members, then this will be considered as an absence and the consequences of this will be determined by their course or module requirements.

HEARD ANYTHING NEWSWORTHY? Email news@palatinate.org.uk

Consultation for housekeeping and portering review opens Jack Parker and Toby DoneganCross News Editors The student consultation period for the second phase of the University’s College Residential Services Business Process Reviews (BPR2) has opened.

The proposals were initally unveiled in an email to all students several weeks ago, and involve major changes to housekeeping and portering procedures across the University.

The student consultation window will close in the last week of Epiphany term. If approved, the proposals will be implemented in August for the start of the 2020/21 academic year.

However, Palatinate understands that the online link to the student consultation survey was only sent out in an official capacity to certain colleges. Most students at colleges which did not receive the official email have been sent the survey link by their JCR Presidents.

In response to concerns that the student voice will not be considered, Jeremy Cook, Pro-ViceChancellor (Colleges & Student Experience) told Palatinate: “The proposals for the College Residential Services BPR phase 2 are available for all staff and students to view on the dedicated project web pages.

“We understand the impor-

tance of consultation with all stakeholders and encourage all staff and students to have an open dialogue on the proposals and to make suggestions through the relevant channels. Consultation involves actively seeking and taking account of the views of staff and students before making a final decision.”

The University has confirmed that it anticipates redundancies among the housekeeping staff employed by the University, but expects an increase in the number of porters hired. Mr Cook told Palatinate: “Until the consultation process has been concluded, we are unable to confirm the final shape that our revised portering and housekeeping structures will take or what this will mean for individuals.

“We are, however, committed to avoiding compulsory redundancies where at all possible and will be maximising opportunities for internal redeployment.”

JCR and MCR Presidents, as well as Students’ Union Officers, attended a formal consultation meeting with the University last Tuesday, at which further details on the proposals were announced.

Alongside the previously announced proposal that bedrooms will be cleaned on a termly basis, it was revealed at the meeting that bins will also only be emptied by staff once a term. There will also be fortnightly bedroom

(Les Hull via Wikimedia Commons)

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

5

News

Half of employed students say working affects their mental health flawed.

Frank Simpson, President of the Working Class Students’ Association, said of student financial support, “The Durham Grant isn’t enough. Any system that assesses eligibility based solely on household income is going to be unequal.

Will Hutchings News Editor A survey conducted by Palatinate and the Students’ Union has found that over half of Durham students with job agree that work affects their mental and physical health.

In response to the question, ‘Working affects my health (both mental and physical)’, 55.5% of the 63 students asked responded with ‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’.

Those who worked longer hours agreed with this statement more than those who spent less time at work.

“It’s clear that for some the funding gap they are trying to cover is too large.”

Alongside this, 63.5% of respondents agreed that working affects their university experience.

SU Opportunities Officer Jess Dunning, who co-created the survey, said, “Working while at University can be a really positive experience, but when students are having to work in a way that affects their physical and mental health, it’s clear that for some the funding gap they are trying to cover is too large.”

Inadequate funding is the key component motivating students to work. The majority of student workers are in the highest and lowest maintenance loan gaps, which suggests that the univer-

“The Durham Grant isn’t enough.”

sity provides inadequate funding for students of low-income backgrounds.

As these students work more, it is disproportionately students with lower parental incomes and students with lower maintenance loans who see their physical and mental health more adversely affected.

Currently, the University offers a £2,000 a year grant which is awarded automatically to students on the lower maintenance loan. Some colleges also offer additional grants, though receiving these grants can sometimes be a bureaucratic process.

As a result, the poorest students end up working even longer hours. According to the survey, 40% of Durham students in the

(Nicoletta Ascuito) highest maintenance loan bracket work 13 hours or more a week, compared to 28.5% of employed students in the lowest bracket.

It is therefore the students with the lowest parental incomes whose mental and physical health is most adversely affected.

A Chad’s student on the highest maintenance loan told Palatinate, “Working and studying is a nightmare, start to finish.

“Nobody ever has enough time at university, but working on top of everything else leads to coming in from a shift and crashing every single day. I feel like I never get a break.”

The significance of the highest maintenance-loan bracket in the results also suggests that the system of student loan application is

“For example, they completely fail to account for whether a household is trying to put more than one child through uni, so if a household with an income of £26,000 a year is putting two kids through three years at Durham they pay twice the costs with none of the support, losing out on £4,000 of support because they’re an inch over the cutoff point.”

One Grey College student on the lowest maintenance loan said, “It’s frustrating and reductive that there is such a focus placed on parental income. Just because your parents earn a certain amount, it doesn’t mean that income stays consistent.

“The government and the university both need to provide better funding systems for students.

God knows they have the money to do this!”

Despite the effect on students’ mental health., most students (71.4%) said that they enjoyed their job.

Another factor which increased stress was job applica-

tions. Most student jobs had two- or three-step admission processes, causing added stress to many job-hunting students.

The Students’ Union has plans to address the university’s inadequate funding. Dunning is already lobbying the university to give the Real Living Wage to all students and staff.

Dunning said, “The results of the survey will feed into this work, helping us highlight how students feel about working while studying and the effects it has on their studies.

“I will be submitting a paper to the University Executive Committee asking the University to pay all students and staff the Real Living Wage. Both David (your Postgraduate Academic Officer) and I also currently sit on the Casual Working Group, and are looking into pay issues across the whole of the University.”

“Working and studying is a nightmare, I feel like I never get a break” Dunning also explained that all Officers are dedicated to increasing funding. She said, “Kate, your SU President, is working with the University to create differentiated accommodation fees; Sam and David, your Academic Officers, are working with the University to determine the hidden costs of academia and their effects; and I am investigating how we can make extracurricular activities in Durham more accessible.”

Nightline: “Students can talk to us about anything at all” Tom Mitchell and Toby Donegan-Cross Editor-in Chief and News Editor Palatinate interviewed Chris Christou, one of the four public faces of Nightline, about what the service offers, how it works, and why students should make use of it.

Nightline is a phone service for students open from 9pm to 7am every night of term. Students can call to talk through anything during these hours to one of Nightline’s volunteers, all of whom have attended training weekends in ‘active listening.’ This is a technique slightly different to counselling. It is designed to encourage callers to explore their situation, without volunteers offering advice, neatly summed up in the service’s motto “we’ll listen, not lecture.”

The Durham branch of nightline was started in 1973 by three students, following the opening of the National scheme in 1970s,

which was itself an offshoot from the Samaritans. The logic behind its conception has proved remarkably durable: students may find it easier to talk and process with another member of the university community, as oppose to an external figure or service.

“University put a lot of effort to restructure, there would still be a place for Nightline.”

The work of nightline is funded from a few sources, including Durham Students’ Union, the GM Morrisson Trust, individual donations, and fundraising initiatives.

Christou did not believe that the service had any direct association with the University administration, although Nightline’s phone number is on all students’ campus cards.

Underpinning the service’s ethos are five principles: calls will always be confidential, both caller and volunteers stay anonymous, and calls will always be non-advi-

sory, non-judgemental, and nonaligned.

Christou emphasised in particular the anonymous nature of the calls, saying that “sometimes students just want to talk to someone that they don’t know.” Anonymity was also given to volunteers, bar a few students who publicise the service.

These principles informed Christou’s belief that there will always be a need for Nightline: “In the end there are a lot of things that could improve student life, but people will always have problems. I think that even if the University put a lot of effort to restructure, there would still be a place for Nightline. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone about your feelings.”

In terms of issues that students faced, there was a sense that every call was different, and there were not striking patterns. “It’s hard to get a sense of recurrent issues, because, first of all, we don’t know what happens to the calls.

It’s very hard to sense what is go-

(Nightline) ing to happen on a night.”

The plurality of different issues students’ faced was something Christou was keen to emphasise, as he was keen to debunk the myth that students should only call Nightline if they were in crisis: “Students can talk to us about anything at all.”

Nonetheless, there was recognition that some challenges students faced were unique: “For a lot of people, University is their first time away from home. I’m sure this brings problems, because you can lose your support.”

All those who support work the phonelines for Nightline do

so on a voluntary basis. When asked how volunteers balance their studies with their the late nights, Christou conceded that while “it can be difficult, we always have two people on duty, and our numbers – which are very good – mean that, should people need, they can take time off.”

Nightline’s number is on the back of students’ campus cards.

More information about their ethos and history can be found at durhamnightline.com HEARD ANYTHING NEWSWORTHY? Email news@palatinate.org.uk

6

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

News

SU delays revealing results of controversial election

Jack Parker News Editor Voting has ended in the Students’ Union Officer and Trustee elections - but the results may not be known for some time.

The SU was due to publicly reveal the results of the seven election races at Dunelm House on Thursday 27th February, but cancelled the announcement the day before by stating: “We’re anticipating there may be ongoing election investigations that will need to be resolved before the result of the election can be declared. The results will be declared on our website as soon as possible.”

The independent investigation into the election, overseen by the Durham University Secretary, had been announced earlier the same week by Deputy Returning Officer Gareth Hughes.

Palatinate understands that two seperate processes need to be completed before the results can be announced. The first is the investigation of a specific

formal complaint or complaints raised by a sstudent member or members during the election. The second is the independent review of the elections by the University Secretary, which was requested by the Students’ Union before any formal complaints had been received.

In an update posted on their website, the Students’ Union said: “We are required by our election regulations to resolve all complaints in full before declaring the results in any election. Any of our members have a right to submit a complaint during any election process, and we also have a responsibility to these members to resolve their complaints, before the results are declared. We are committed to being both thorough and timely during this process.”

The delay comes at the end of one of the most divisive and controversial student elections in Durham’s history. The elections were dominated by debate about the use of the Re-Open Nominations (RON) option on every

Postgrad accused of Grey thefts Jack Parker News Editor A Durham postgraduate student has appeared in court accused of breaking into Grey College Juan Carlos Miramontes Martinez, originally from Mexico and studying for a Masters, appeared at Durham Crown Court via video link from Durham prison.

Alongside the accusation of being equipped for burglary, Martinez faces three counts of burglary, including alleged aggravated breakin. The incidents allegedly took place on 5th January, when most students were at home for the Christmas holidays.

Martinez was reportedly arrested in the early hours of the morning in a female toilet block, and was found with a bag of tools and property stolen from a female student’s room.

Palatinate understands a total of 46 personal letters from the college’s Reception had been stolen, as well as jewellery and other property from student accommo-

dation.

The Grey College Master, Professor Tom Allen, confirmed the break-in had taken place in an email to all Grey students at the end of January. However, Professor Allen’s email confirmed that police had arrested the suspect, and that “they did a search of the suspect’s residence, and discovered a number of letters addressed to Grey students.” The email made no mention of the theft of jewellery and personal property.

The incidents allegedly took place when most students were at home for Christmas Palatinate contacted the University following Professor Allen’s email to ask what measures they planned to take to ensure such an incident does not take place again. The University declined to provide further comment, due to the incident’s ongoing legal proceedings.

(DS Pugh/Victor Watts Library)

ballot as a means of protesting against the SU. A campaign supporting a RON vote was launched on Facebook hours before voting started. The campaign advocated voting RON to protest the SU, which it accuses of running itself and the election undemocratically.

The campaign founders told Palatinate that the investigations were “reassuring”, but added: “We find it deeply concerning that the results may be withheld indefinitely by the SU. We feel that SU transparency is vital.”

The campaign was also partly overshadowed by the withdrawal of Presidential candidate Neve Ovenden, who criticised “veiled and not-so-veiled attacks” on her and her supporters when she spoke exclusively to Palatinate.

Several election candidates have criticised the hostility of the campaign and voting period. In a post on his Facebook campaign page, Welfare and Liberation candidate Ewan Swift wrote: “I want to use this statement to ask those behind the RON campaign

to apologise to candidates for any harm caused. I, and other candidates, have had severe anxiety and panic attacks this past week.

“The SU has also let us down.

The dissatisfaction with the fact that neutrality is not enforced must be addressed. We, as can-

didates, have been caught in the crossfire. I sincerely hope that should this election re-run, it is facilitated against a backdrop of kindness and empathy.”

Turnout in the election was 19.2% which is 5% higher than last year.

(Andrew Bowden via Flickr)

University announces new scholarship Saniya Saraf and Jack Parker News Team Durham University has received a £7.5 million donation from two alumni, which will be partly used to create a grant scheme for students from the North East.

The scheme, set to be called ‘Durham Inspired - North East Scholarships’, will provide financial aid and support every year to twenty students from low-income backgrounds in the North East of England.

The grant will be available to undergraduate, masters or foundation level courses. This program is being chaired by Rob Senior, who claims that the donation will aid in proving “underlying means” necessary to allow ambitious but underprivileged students to thrive at Durham.

The large donation was made

by Charles Wilson alongside Dr Rowena Olegario. Wilson graduated from Durham University in 1986 with a degree with Geography, and is currently the Chief Executive of the Booker Group, a subsidiary of Tesco.

Wilson was also the recipient of the Sunday Times Business Person of the Year 2017 and the Financial Times Entrepreneur of the Year 2011.

In a statement, Wilson said: “Rowena and I are delighted to be supporting Durham University and the Durham Inspired campaign. Durham is making an incredible difference to the North

East, the UK, and within the wider world; we are pleased that our support will assist the University’s objectives in each of these areas.”

The donation is the largest single contribution in Durham University’s history The donation, amounting to a cumulative £7.5 million, is the largest single contribution in the University’s history. It will play a significant role in helping run various other operations such as the Institute of Hazard Risk and Resilience (IHRR), which was founded by Wilson in 2004 to carry out research in the field of World Natural Disasters.

The grant has been well received, commended by various students and staff. Vice-Chancellor Corbridge deeming it an “extraordinary and hugely welcome demonstration of support for the University’s mission from two very distinguished friends.”

Bethany Henderson, 3rd Year English Literature scholarship student at Durham University from County Durham, said: “These scholarships are such fantastic news for students who live in the North East and want to come to an amazing place like Durham but just don’t know how they can make it all work financially.”

However, some students have drawn parallels between this scholarship and a similar one that

was financially scaled back two years ago.

Durham University’s Supported Progression scheme is also designed for North East students from low-income backgrounds.

Upon the completion of a summer school, successful applicants received a reduced offer for their course, and a grant from the University.

Supported Progression students arriving prior to the 2018/19 academic year received a bursary of £5,500 per year (including years abroad and industrial placement years). However, scholarships for the past two cohorts have been capped “up to £2,000”.

“These new grants only to make up for what the University has got rid of before” One final-year student, who attended Supported Progression in 2014/15, told Palatinate: “Although the new scholarship is great news for North East students like me, it’s sad that other amazing schemes like Supported Progression have been significantly reduced.

“The University are playing up how fantastic the new scholarship is, but behind they’re hiding the fact that they’ve already cut back Supported Progression, created for the same group of people. These new grants are only to make up for what the University has got rid of before.”

7

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

Comment

Can we celebrate cerebral Fury?

Roshni Gulati

Tyson Fury is an undoubtedly gifted boxer - one of the greatest heavyweights, i f not the greatest in today’s modern times.

Without his foot speed, agility and defensive acumen, Fury would be just another oversized puncher.

However, if one looks at the history of heavyweight boxing, one would struggle to find a boxer as tall as Fury who moves like he does or put up a fight as cerebral.

occasions.

As he is in the ring, so is he out of it - Fury is, quite unequivocally so, a controversial and unpredictable public figure. He has said things that can be construed as shocking at best and abhorrent and vile at worst. In a 2015 interview, Fury said it would only take the legalisation of paedophilia in addition to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and abortion to see “the devil come home”. He has also previously been accused of sexism and antisemitism.

Tyson Fury is a heavyweight boxer, not a role model

unfair to subject him to the behavioural, moral and social standards of a role model when he has never claimed to be one.

It is also quite unreasonable and unfair to subject someone from his background- a working-class boy, born into the historically and systemically marginalised community of Irish Travellers, who left formal education at the age of eleven for tarmacking roads and selling carpets to the lofty standards of acceptable speech and behaviour prescribed by the highly intellectually exclusive liberal rhetoric of uni-

He’s rude and crass, has rudimentary work-ethic and no charm. But politeness, sophistication and charm

Fury is, quite unequivocally so, a controversial and unpredictable public figure In the ring, Fury lacks systemic coordination. He is unpredictable - although it can be argued that his unpredictability is one of his greatest strengths. In the 2015 fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Fury, the latter won and one of the reasons for his victory was his ability to confuse Wlad. He used the jab feint remarkably well and switched to southpaw on several

versity students and the urban, educated elite.

Fury does not owe the public and the media accountability or an obligation not be obnoxious Although, his background, his orthodox Catholic beliefs, and lack of education offer a reasonable explanation for his regressive and problematic views- they are not a bulletproof defence for comments that fail to meet basic standards of decency and decorum. So when Fury says something as contemptible and repugnant as that he would hang his own sister if she were promiscuous, he deserves to be the subject of public outrage, scorn and criticism- as a private person and as a public figure.

Notwithstanding, it is imperative to remember that Fury does not owe the public and the media accountability or an obligation not be obnoxious.

This is similar to how every individual

a re n’ t exactly a part of a heavyweight boxer’s job description. And I would argue that Fury is an excellent one.

Tyson Fury is a heavyweight boxer, not a role model; it is quite

retains the agency and the right to either boycott Fury or to celebrate him.

This is neither a defence nor an endorsement of Tyson Fury, but instead a call for a more rational, reasonable and human prism through which to view public figures, and sportspersons in particular, under.

Tyson Fury is a great boxer with a loud mouth that spews out rebarbative balderdash time and again. He is also a depressed and anxious man who is clinically diagnosed with Bipolar and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and a prolific advocate for mental health.

Tyson is a talented, gifted and yet deeply flawed man- neither a hero nor a role model. Should he be celebrated or publicly denounced? The answer is neither.

GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send your thoughts to comment@palatinate.org.uk (Anna Shepherd)

Weinstein: Not time to celebrate Saniya Saraf The Weinstein effect, essentially explained as a trend where allegations against distinguished influential men are unveiled, is in every respect just that; a trend.

Analogous to its predecessors, this too has the propensity to backslide and regress. Weinstein’s circumstance may be the first one of its kind to receive the colossal backlash it has but are we naïve enough to give credence to its impact when countless men before him and countless men after him have been left unhampered and unobstructed? Even after the embarkment of the trial, the world has observed

the likes of John Heely, Gerard Depardieu and Sylvester Stallone, all significant men in places of power bereft of penalty.

We overlook all those powerful men who have perverted a single woman, or fewer women Harvey Weinstein was accused of a plethora of sexual crimes by near to a hundred women and the man walked away guilty on a mere two counts, one of which was rape in the third degree, with decided intention to appeal. If anything, Weinstein’s phenomena should be revelation, a window into the ascendancy of ‘formidable’ men.

The certitude in a reality where

it takes a hundred women to bring one powerful man to his knees, whilst having another potent, extremely successful woman defending him is lamentable. Here is a man who has been adorned by not just cardinal men in the world but women; Michelle Obama’s opening remarks, decorating Weinstein as a “wonderful man” in the 2013 Careers in Film Symposium are very telling into the standing of men like Weinstein. Subconsciously, we, especially women, tend to condone offensive sexual behaviour, if all other aspects of a man’s personality is reputable.

The Weinstein scenario is a freak event; the man exploited a copious number of women. His fall was inevitable and anticipatory. In reverence of the fact that a man as

apparently omnipotent as Weinstein has been exposed, we overlook all those powerful men who have perverted a single woman, or fewer women in isolated cases.

The ill-frequency of their instances allows them their freedom. It must be emphasised that a sexual offence is as grave whether or not the perpetrator has committed it for the first time.

The only way to move forward in the milieu of sexual abuse is to regard a penalty as an absolution While Twitter rejoices the minimalistic charges and a debatably mythical victory, there are scores of women being exploited at the

hands of men who, considering the ratio of offences to convictions, will quite patently get away. While his prosecution is a step forward, it is a dawdling step forward and shameful in regard to its intensity.

As as a society we must not just hold men accountable but ensure these men are brought up in a manner removes the need to hold them accountable. In constantly seeking procedures to contain sexual offences a disregard for the cruciality of reform at the ground root level has been generated. As any woman in 2020, a consideration of the result of the Weinstein Trial has to be one of ineluctable justice and not of incredible celebration. The only way to move forward in the milieu of sexual abuse is to regard a penalty as an absolution and not a conceivable triumph.

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

8

Comment

Do studytubers do more harm than good?

Rebecca Cabrera

The past few years has seen a rise in the number of students actively seeking advice on revision for exams, higher education, and mental health, no longer turning to their teachers and parents but instead to students their own age known as ‘Studytubers’. These study gurus are well-known for their own success stories at acing exams and have taken to social media platforms to share their experiences as a student. From stationary hauls to applying for university, these guys have got you covered in everything concerning the very stressful student life.

There is no denying they have made a positive impact in busting myths about university, motivating students from all social backgrounds, and have encouraged minority groups and state school pupils in applying to prestigious universities. However, I believe it’s time to also consider the much darker side to this growing phenomenon: the unintended consequences these influencers can have on their audience of all ages, in how they perceive their own accomplishments and experiences.

Have these influencers raised the bar in terms of what students today should be achieving and accomplishing? Are they doing less favours to our mental health?

In order to find out how some of the student population has been affected, in either a positive or negative way, I decided to run a questionnaire that included stu-

dents from universities from all over the country. The results were quite shocking. I firstly asked the participants their reasons behind watching Studytubers and found that 42.5% watched them out of curiosity and 30% to motivate themselves. An astounding 65% reported having some sort of anxiety, depression, and other negative feelings after watching content such as “study with me” videos.

Meanwhile another 52.5% agreed that these study gurus had affected how they view their own personal and academic achievements.

of this tend to experience “feeling guilty for doing nothing, feelings of inadequacy, constantly comparing yourself to others, constantly setting yourself unattainable targets”.

Many experts have expressed their belief that this rising issue stems from social media and our addictive daily dosage of perfectionism and overachievement.

So is it time to cancel studytubers? Absolutely not So, is it time to ‘cancel’ Studytubers? Absolutely not. Thanks

An astounding 65% reported having some sort of negative feelings after watching content such as ‘study with me’ videos

to these students, many young people have gained access to information that before wouldn’t have been easily available and have presented the tools to achieve your academic goals with lots of hard work and dedication. However, it goes without saying that sadly their content does have unintended consequences and due to this has taken a toll on students’ mental health. Despite their good intentions, social media has pressured all of us into maintaining a façade of perfectionism and success. As the saying goes: ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’.

From this, I discovered that many of the participants’ insecurities resonated with my own experience as a viewer of such content.

Whether it be worrying about studying enough hours, feeling as though you are underachieving, or feeling guilty due to not taking part in as many extra-curricular activities as the ‘typical Studytuber’. One participant went on to comment “The overwhelming presence of high achievers on Youtube has led to a disproportionate view of the typical grades to achieve. I absolutely believe that this added to my stress and made me raise my standards to an unhealthy level”. An article written by The Tab recently revealed that our generation is suffering from a new mental health issue of “millennial burnout”. Victims

“

Our generation is suffering from millenial burnout

”

(Tommy Hamalainen)

Should the BRIT Awards be political?

Yasmine Zong

At the BRIT 2020 award ceremony, Dave received his share of spotlights and applause, as the 21-yearold London rapper’s debut album, ‘Psychodrama’, was announced as the best album of the year. However, it was his performance, or more specifically, the explicit political comments in his performance that attracted more attention from the media and online viewers. And not surprisingly, it causes a new round of debates and complaints about artists being ‘overtly political’ or using ‘purely artistic’ platforms such as award ceremonies to convey their political allegiance or agendas.

For his part, controversies were provoked when during his performance Dave accused Boris Johnson, the current British PM, of being a racist. He also protested about ra-

cial discrimination in Britain in general, shouted out against the media’s unequal treatment of Kate Middleton and Megan Markle, paid tribute to Jack Merrit, a victim of a terror attack in 2019, and urged for more compensation for the Windrush generation and Grenfell Tower victims. All these comments were made through extra verses during the performance of one song, ‘Black’, with memorable phrases such as ‘It is racist, whether or not it feels racist / The truth is our Prime Minister is a real racist. They say you should be grateful we’re the least racist/I say the least racist is still racist.’

Dave may still deserve praise for managing to package so many points within one minute Regardless of one agreeing with his opinions or not, Dave may still deserve praise for managing to

package so many points within one minute. And anyway, the performance of the song as a whole was stunning.

Of course, political comments from public figures always lead to heated discussion, arguments, and fights amongst viewers. The interesting thing here is that in reaction to Dave’s performance, some viewers voiced out their disagreements to his political opinions, while others argued that the problem is more than that – he was being too political. He was hijacking the award ceremony, which is simply a celebration of music talents, to express his political opinions.

One complaint declared that ‘moralizing when award-winning is getting boring.’ One remembers another political moment at a BRIT Award Ceremony of 2019, it was another rapper, slowthai, who went onto the stage with a model of Boris Johnson’s head in hand.

And it seems as if whether at the Grammys or the Oscars, or any of

the major music prizes mentioned above, in the past few years no important artistic or entertainment award ceremony can be completed without a political moment, in speech or in performance.

No wonder people get a bit tired of these commentaries, especially if our lives have already been filled with political news, and the space they take up only seems to grow from year to year.

But what are popular art and entertainment, if they do not reflect the emotions and concerns of people producing or consuming them?

And aren’t these award events supposed to be summaries, celebrations, or moments of reflection, for the pop songs, movies and cultural products we viewed during the last year? How can one complain of politics hijacking artistic events, when art itself is a medium to convey any feelings and ideas and thoughts, including politics?

If society is entering upon a period of uncertainty, with people in

general becoming increasingly preoccupied with social and political problems or conflicts, their emotions and concerns will be shown in the art of that period – and not forgetting that artists and celebrities are part of the people who shared these thoughts, who, like many other people, are eager to discuss issues they feel strongly about.

Not to say that if political statements are excluded from award ceremonies despite being such integral parts of life and art, the fact itself will become another political statement demonstrating a political attitude – the declaration that you are not going to commit to politics is still making a choice about politics.

GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send your thoughts to comment@palatinate.org.uk

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

9

Comment

DEBATE: £7.5m North-East Scholarships Donation will have a ‘transformative impact’ Bethany Henderson The announcement of the Durham Inspired – North East Scholarships Programme which will support students coming from low-income backgrounds from the North East is, quite frankly, a breath of fresh air.

The £7.5M donation by Charles Wilson and partner Dr Rowena Olegario – £1M of which will go towards the scholarships, supported by an additional £1M from matching donations – has without a doubt opened up an exciting opportunity for economically-disadvantaged students across the region. The launch of this scheme will have a transformative impact on generations of students coming from low-income households who, through fate rather than fault, would not have been able to make the most of the developmental experiences that Durham has to offer.

overlooked and unaccounted for by institutions of education due to their financial and personal circumstances. We are all acutely aware of how North East students are a minority within the University and we already know that Durham needs to be more accessible and inclusive to such minorities.

Therefore, it is vital that the University have taken another major step towards aiding the support and success of underrepresented individuals with the establishment of this scholarship programme.

From my own experience as the recipient of the Robert Young Scholarship, I have witnessed

first-hand how essential these scholarships are for allowing students from the North East region to realise their merit and potential.

Before my scholarship, despite my academic abilities, I could not visualise myself coming to a university as respected and impressive as Durham.

Financial circumstances are recognised as limiting people from the North East gaining access to academia I doubted myself too much because of cultural insecurities and

yet my scholarship has allowed me to embrace university life to the fullest, both academically and socially, over the course of three years. I honestly believe that external (financial or personal) circumstances which are out of one’s control should not govern whether one is able to access and further their education; and indeed, financial circumstances are recognised as limiting people from the North East gaining access to academia.

More than anything, this new scheme will demonstrate to underprivileged but ambitious prospective students wishing to apply to Durham that the institution is

and will be invested in their future success. The Durham Inspired – North East Scholarship scheme will therefore enable people from the North East to perceive Durham as a viable option for themselves, both financially and academically – something that the Robert Young scholarship allowed me to see in myself. It is a privilege to see Durham taken another measure towards continuing to fund and aid people from underrepresented backgrounds access Durham University, and it is something we need to continue to strive for.

I have witnessed first-hand how essential these scholarships are Born and raised in County Durham myself, I have often been saddened by the financial situation and economic deprivation that leaves countless gifted, exceptional and talented young people without the means to attend university and advance their education. Too often are underrepresented groups

(Credit: Business_Durham)

Durham needs an ‘idiosyncratic Geordie identity’ Anna Shepherd

The recent generous donation to Durham University is certainly to be praised, as it meets the poignant cry for financial assistance the North East had beckoned for many years. For Wilson, the acting chief executive of the Tesco-owned Booker food wholesale group, to have his esteemed eye cast its gaze to the student locale of the Durham area is a seed thrown to the fertile ground of the academic potential of students here in the North East.

Stephen Gogard, from Durham’s own School of Education, has found in his research that through comparing similar stu-

dents from the North East with those in the rest of the country, students here do not perform any worse. Yet, the Independent has released that students from the North East are 6 times less likely to start a medicine or dentistry degree than students in London.

A seed thrown to the fertile ground of the academic potential of students here in the North East Yet from a narrower, selfish point of view, I want to assess this omission of local students from our university as an omission of the local culture, and thus a repletion of my own experience of the North East. The homogenous label I often find myself tossing

to natives of this town as ‘locals’ I am fully aware can be loaded with classist prejudice that divides private school students here from the people that live here.

I personally long to hear a Geordie accent pitched in a tutorial far more often than it is now.

Yet, this is a self-interested pondering on the real lack of opportunity students here face.

The question of whether university’s identities should include their local culture personalizes and enriches all students’ university experience that hopefully this donation will help make apparent.

The 20 students per year that this donation will assist is certainly a start in giving Durham university an idiosyncratic Geordie identity to add to its globally

representative student populous but most importantly it will hopefully give local individuals a real chance to break into academia more fervently than previous generations.

It will hopefully give local individuals a real chance to break into academia more fervently than previous generations The current global discourse of equality should be as apparent in access to higher education as in any other field. I hope that this donation will rightly allow the financially disadvantaged youth of County Durham and surrounding areas the financial impetus to emerge on similar national platforms through this institution.

“

I personally long to hear a Geordie accent in a tutorial more often than it is now

”

GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send your thoughts to comment@palatinate.org.uk

10

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

Profile

“I push my body to the limit each day” Paralympian Ellie Simmonds speaks about her medals, her inspiration and Tokyo 2020

Tash Mosheim Profile Editor Ellie Simmonds has just returned from Tokyo. She has been training in Japan, “getting ready for the jetlag and for the summer”, where she will be competing in her fourth Paralympic Games for swimming. She tells me that Japan “was absolutely incredible.

I’d truly recommend it. It was so cool seeing the culture, the Japanese people… Coming from London and what we know in Britain and then experiencing something else, helps to know what we’re going in for. Normally before a Games or a competition, if it’s in a different country, we go and experience it, to get used to it before it happens.”

You might think Simmonds is “used to it” by now. For an athlete, let alone a 25 year old, Simmonds has certainly had an astonishingly successful career. She has already won 9 medals, broken 2 world records, competed in her first Paralympics whilst being Team GB’s youngest athlete, was the youngest person ever to receive an MBE, to which she has added an OBE, and, in 2008, she won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

Simmonds learnt to swim at 5 years old. “I’m the youngest of 5, so I remember sitting at the sidelines, watching my siblings learn to swim. Then it was my turn to be safe in the water. From that point on, swimming became more of a social and competitive side. When I was young, I hated being bored. I always liked to be doing something every single day.

So I think swimming just took

over. I wanted to get my 20m badge, 50m badge, all the badges really. Once I completed all my badges, I started swimming competitively, and more and more for my club. So that’s how it really started, just learning to swim.”

“You get addicted to that feeling. When the session goes well, you get a real natural high from it” Simmonds, when she was younger, loved swimming “because socially, I was with my friends all the time, just being free, doing exercise, away from school. Also, because I was good at it, I started realising that I’m alright, I can do it.” Yet, now what Simmonds enjoys, “after Beijing, London and Rio, I think it’s the opportunities that it gives you.

I would never have been to a Paralympics if I wasn’t a swimmer, and I never would have met the people I’ve met or done what I’ve experienced due to swimming. I love what I do. I push my body to the limit each day. It’s quite an addiction. You get addicted to that feeling, when the session goes well, you get a real natural high from it afterwards.

So it’s changed from when I was younger to now as I’m older.”

Simmonds trains nine times a week in the pool, with each session lasting two hours. She also does three gym sessions “for about an hour and a half”, along with a weekly yoga class. What does Simmonds think about when she swims? “It varies. For my morning sessions, I actually think about what I’m going to do

in the day and what jobs I’ve got to do. Your mind goes weird. Or you imagine things happening.

But then key sessions, I’m focused on my swimming, so I’m counting my strokes, how many lengths have I got left? I’m pushing my body, can I go faster? Can I kick?

Competition time, I’m thinking of the feeling of winning, imagining my race happening. It’s a variety of different thoughts. I always find though, when I’m stressed, if I go for a nice, gentle swim, it really clears my mind because it’s the time where I can think.

It’s that time where I can sort out what my stresses are.”

Simmonds has “luckily enough, in [her] career, never been injured, so touch wood it doesn’t happen.” When Simmonds is not performing well, she motivates herself by “realising that, especially in training days, my body is not a machine, it’s not a robot and there are some days where I’m going to wake up and it’s not good. And I’ve just got to accept that, and look at things I can do well instead of thinking about my time or how fast I’m going. I look at maybe working at my skills. It’s hard when you’re not motivated or when you’re not feeling great. It’s hard to try and get out of that slump, but you always know that some days, when not feeling great, you’ve got to get out of that. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. This week I’m not feeling great but maybe next week I’ll be feeling better. I try to look at little things each day that have gone well. When my best friend and I are feeling low, we always say three things that we’re grateful for. It could be something small, like it’s nice weather outside, I had a good coffee today. When you’re not feeling great, look at the little things to make yourself feel better.”

“The sacrifices that I have to make to be the best that I can be are quite hard” Simmonds instantly knows what the hardest challenge of being a swimmer is. “The sleep, the early mornings. This morning I was up at 4.30. I try and get as much sleep as I can, but there are days when you are super tired and it’s not great hours. I try to be in bed by 9, asleep by 9.30. But I’m a 25 year old, do you know what I mean? It’s hard to be a normal person outside, and get enough rest and sleep. The sacrifices that I have to make to be the best that

I can be, are quite hard.”

Simmonds, for many, is one of the best Paralympic swimmers in the world.

“My body is not a machine, it’s not a robot” How does it feel for her to know she’s achieved her goals?

“Day to day, I don’t really think about it. Maybe when I retire in the future, I’ll look back and think, wow, I’ve achieved all that. But at the moment, I think when you’re in it, you’re always thinking about the next goal. So I don’t really remember much about London or Rio, because I’m always thinking, gosh this year I have Tokyo. It’s maybe not till I’ve finished, where I look back… But it feels nice, I think sometimes it hits me that I’ve achieved my dream and I’m going into hopefully my fourth games. When I was a kid I just wanted to get a gold and go to a Paralympics, but to think I’ve gone to four and I’ve got nine medals... It doesn’t hit you, because you’re so in it, in the zone.”

Does Simmonds have any specific aims for the upcoming Olympics? “At the moment, it’s all about trials for the Paralympics.

We have a qualification standard event in April time, where we will get given a time that we have to hit. And then, hopefully, we’ll get picked to go to the Games. So for now, that’s my aim. I just want to hit the time I’ve got to do and get picked for the Games. Once I’m on the team, that’s when I’ll revaluate my aims and objectives.”

Is there someone who inspires Simmonds the most? “I think everyone is amazing sportswise. You don’t see what they do behind closed doors, the likes of Serena Williams, Jess Ennis or the women’s football team. There is no single person that I want to be.

I just get inspired all the time. But when I was younger, I watched the Athens 2004 Paralympics, I was about eight or nine. I watched a lady called Nyree Lewis, she was a disability swimmer, and she got a gold medal. I remember as a kid asking, how old do you have to be to go to the Paralympics? How does she do that? That was when I was really saying, Oh man, I really want to go to a Paralympics, I want to get a gold medal.”

Does Simmonds agree that a Paralympic athlete’s least favourite word is ‘inspiration’?

Does it frustrate her that the word might detract from her accomplishment, might brand

her as different? “I know what you mean, I think we’re starting to break down the barriers now.

What we’re trying to come across for Paralympic athletes is that we’re the same as able-bodied athletes. We are athletes. We’ve just got disabilities as well. A few people maybe get insulted or whatever they feel about being an inspiration, because they don’t want to be a sob story. But I think there are different ways in which you can inspire people. Like when you inspire kids to achieve their dreams in whatever they do, that’s quite heart-warming, that’s what you want to go out to do. But if you’re inspiring people because it’s a sob story and they feel sorry for you, then that’s not right.”

Simmonds feels equally as passionate about equality of the sexes. “Women should be treated the same as men. You should view women’s accomplishments in the same way you view a man’s. They’re just as amazing as men or men are just as amazing as women; it’s about all being treated equally and the same.”

“We are athletes. We’ve just got disabilities as well” Is it difficult to deal with being in the public eye? “Living in London makes it alright. You don’t really get stopped because it’s a very multicultural city, people are just doing their daily business.

There’s quite a lot of famous people out and about. When I go home to my parents’ house in Aldrich, where I was born and where I’m from, sometimes it does get hard if I get recognised because I just want to be normal.

I just want to be doing my day to day stuff, instead of people coming up to me and saying, ‘well done’, and all this. But it comes with the sport and what I do, so you jut have to try and take it with a pinch of salt.”

Has Simmonds thought beyond the Paralympics what she might want to do in the future? “I’m unsure what my situation will be after Tokyo, but I think I’d love to teach children abroad. Maybe I’ll teach English internationally.

That’s what I’d like to do.”

Until then, Simmonds will be enjoying the little moments, before Tokyo beckons her to the pool once again.

Want to read the full article?

Find online at profile@ palatinate.org.uk

11

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th of March 2019

Profile

“A massive historic miscalculation” Former Government Minister and mental health campaigner Sir Norman Lamb talks to Profile

Theo Golden Profile Editor Sir Norman Lamb was part of the large swathe of talented MP’s to stand down at the 2019 election.

Lamb had served as the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk since 2001, serving both in opposition and within the 2010 coalition Government.

From 2010, Lamb became Chief Parliamentary and Political Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. He recounts how he was sat at the side of the room “looking across at the PM, with the view somewhat obscured by Eric Pickles.”

Lamb describes his time within Government as a “bizarre experience” as “in the whole postwar period Liberals have been on the outside, and the Lib Dems are conditioned to it.

“I was a state school lad, in the midst of a group of highly selfconfident people, who attended the country’s top public schools, and that included Nick Clegg!

You really felt you had to pitch yourself and stop that awful feeling that you aren’t up to it.”

“Being in government was a bizarre experience” Recently, Lamb was outspoken about Jo Swinson’s Lib Dem general election campaign, where the party ran on a manifesto pledge to revoke Article 50 if they gained a majority. Lamb called the move a “stupid” approach in an interview with LBC’s Andrew Castle on December 27, adding that “I have to say I largely fell out with the party in the period since the referendum… We doubled down on hard Remainers and we gave people across much of the country a positive reason to vote against us.”

Lamb said that “the Remainers in politics, which includes the Lib Dems, are guilty of a massive historic miscalculation. The strategy was ‘we don’t accept the outcome, and we will fight to remain’; that’s how we ended up with Boris Johnson.” Lamb “was an advocate for a Norway style arrangement”, meaning the UK would be part of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA), but outside of the political project.

This, however, went against the rest of his party, and during the House of Commons’

indicative votes, the Lib Dems missed their “chance to compromise”, he said.

The 2019 election delivered Boris Johnson the majority Government that he needed to deliver Brexit, and Lamb argues that “what the progressive parties offered the electorate was a back-to-a-future 70’s socialism from Labour or a refight of the battle of 2016”. Lamb believes that there is an “urgent need for a radical centre-gound” and has a “plea for progressive forces to re-think, either for the Lib Dems, Labour or a new force. We need to think about what we stand for and what our visions are.”

For City A.M., Lamb wrote that when confronted with the society’s ills “both belief systems [socialism and conservatism] represent a triumph of dogma over reality; bone-headed ideology crowding out the development of the creative solutions we need to explore.”

This belief is laid out in his recent publication for the think tank Radix - entitled “Re-booting Capitalism” - where Lamb lays out what he believes is a “liberal, progressive vision for defeating the statist left and the populist right.”

The report features “twelve recommendations to revitalise our economy and reboot capitalism for the twenty-first century” including: “Use the upcoming decampment from the Palace of Westminster to move our national Parliament to the North of England” and “Set a route to a more flexible working week, promoting radical models of work where hours fall and employment is equitably shared.”

In the face of the opportunities that the Labour leadership election offers for the centre ground, Lamb says that “he would have gone for Lisa Nandy, because she is refreshingly not from the metropolitan elite.”

Sir Keir Starmer, however, is polling as the frontrunner in the Labour race. Lamb says he “likes” Starmer, a former barrister – turned politician, but he asks “will he connect with voters in the North and Midlands?”

“I worry if he’s compelling enough. I don’t really know what he stands for, and if he has a vision that he can sell to voters”, Lamb said. In any case, “an opposition led by him [Starmer] will be better organised, professional and competent than Corbyn’s.”

Talk turns to mental health.

Indeed, Lamb’s political career is somewhat defined

by his unwavering support for mental health support and care. Lamb says that services have “consistently failed” those who are ill, and he “has always campaigned for more money, but also the need to re-think how it is spent”. Since the coalition, Lamb doesn’t think that the Conservatives have stuck to “the same level of real commitment” to mental health.

Theresa May’s commitment government did “good lip-service and the rhetoric was good. It was important for the PM to engage with it in that way, but there was a big gap between rhetoric and reality”, he said.

Lamb believes that care needs to “prevent crises in the first place”, rather than “interventions”. Lamb used the example of Trieste, Northern Italy to explain his position. “In Trieste, they don’t lock people up when they are ill. Instead they closed the mental health hospitals, and spent more money for care within community. This included getting people into employment, which gives them a sense of dignity.”

It is this “prevention rather than intervention” paradigm shift that Lamb hopes to achieve with his new ‘Sir Norman Lamb Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund’ for Norfolk. Lamb set up the fund after he announced he would not stand for re-election, in order to mark something positive. Originally, Lamb and his wife Mary, put in £10,000 and invited others to join. The fund now stands at £110,000, and Lamb hopes to get it to £1m.

The fund is in collaboration with the Norfolk Community Foundation, and Lamb believes that the fund might move beyond “the great and good”. To this end, they are pursuing “payroll giving”, so that members of the Norfolk community can all contribute to the fund.

Lamb was “an advocate of a Norway style arrangment” When the fund reaches £1m, Lamb intends to establish an “endowment fund” to give “grassroots organisations” a yearly amount of cash. The fund will go beyond just raising cash.

Lamb also intends to collect evidence from the grassroots organisations to find out what is “effective”, and he has entered into discussions to collaborate with University of East Anglia.

Lastly, Lamb wants to build a “Mental Health Alliance” built of community-based organisations.

Lamb says that university mental health support is variable across the country; “some take it seriously and some just pay lip-service”, he said. He argues that “these are, in effect, publicly funded institutions, and we don’t expect anything back from them, except for a formal education.

Therefore, “universities should have a legally enforceable minimum standard of mental health support for their state funding”.

Lamb’s support for mental health has a personal touch. In May 2016, he bravely shared with The Telegraph that his sister, Catherine, had taken her own life and that his son, Archie, suffers from Obssesive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and has done since his teens.

Yet, as Lamb told the Telegraph: “We were confronted by a six month waiting time in Norfolk to start treatment, and we were fairly desperate, and the truth is we could afford to get treatment for him. We paid privately. You do what you can

for your child, don’t you? But it’s not acceptable. You cannot even begin to justify a country where people with money get help and people without money don’t.”

Since receiving support, Archie is a highly successful music manager.

“Themorethatpublicfigures come into the open, the better, if it gives inspiration for another teenager that might be struggling.”

When asked about the relationship between MP’s and their mental health, Lamb spoke fondly of “MPs who have laudibaly spoken about mental ill health, offering a little bit of an opening of the door.” However, Lamb admitted that there is “an anxiety that it may effect their careers”, but “the more that public figures come into the open – the better – if it gives inspiration for another teenager that might be struggling.”

This year we’re proud to introduce the brand new Kingsgate Bar and Café, which offers great coffee, fresh food, and comfy seating for studying or study breaks.

ETHICAL COFFEE FRESH FOOD COCKTAILS FREE WIFI COMFY SEATING ON B LEVEL, DUNELM HOUSE 19 20 Welcome Booklet.indd 12

13/09/2019 14:38:11

13

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

SciTech

Mapping the first steps to a coronavirus vaccine Poppy Wilson The past couple of months have seen a certain viral disease increasingly dominate the news, and unsparingly steal our headlines.

Covid-19, a simple abbreviation of “coronavirus disease 2019”, has surpassed 80,000 cases in the last week. The first actively spreading population has appeared in Europe, in Northern Italy. Covid-19 is likely to remain in the spotlight for the near future. So what progress has been made towards stopping this disease?

Wuhan, China has left researchers scrambling to develop a vaccine.

On January 10th, the genome encoding the virus was released after intense sequencing. The data revealed SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats. However, bats were not for sale at the Wuhan Seafood Market, necessitating the existence of an intermediate animal host that enabled the virus to jump from bats to humans.

Identifying the true source of the virus is ongoing, though pangolins are a chief suspect. Nevertheless, the genome sequence has facilitated some resolute discoveries. Last week, utilising the genomic data, a team of scientists published a 3D map of the virus’ “spike” protein - the very protein previously shown to enable coronavirus cellular invasion.

The spike protein is located on

Pangolins are a chief suspect of the true source of the oubreak Covid-19 is caused by a novel strain of coronavirus capable of infecting humans: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease provokes a fever followed by a dry cough, and is believed to only be life-threatening to those with a weakened immune system.

Despite this, however, the rapid spread of the disease from its supposed place of origin in a seafood market (however a recent paper claims this was not the case) in

SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (NiAID via Flickr)

the viral surface where it binds to human cell receptors. These receptors act as gateway proteins since once bound, a shape change within the spike protein is initiated, enabling viral fusion with the human cell membrane.

At this point, the cell is infected.

A vaccine could be available within two years Consequently, mapping of this protein is a major advancement in development of a Covid-19 vaccine, providing us with a target to work towards. This target structure within the vaccine, termed antigen, is what our bodies develop antibodies against, seeding immunity.

Mutations have already been introduced into the protein to increase structural stability for future vaccine-based work. Indeed, the vaccine company Novavax has already developed several vaccine candidates utilising the spike protein. Currently working in animals, they aim to commence human trials by the end of spring. Novavax joins several other organisations and pharmaceutical companies racing to cultivate successful Covid-19 therapeutics. These include biotech firm Moderna, creators of

an experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) coronavirus vaccine. Interestingly, mRNA vaccines are cheaper and faster to produce, though their efficacy remains, thus far, unverified.

Work towards a vaccine is gathering mass with extreme speed, with some scientists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) claiming a vaccine could be available in 18 to 24 months; that is, much more quickly than normal vaccine development, which can take 10 years. Indeed, it was four months into the Sars coronavirus outbreak in 2003 before the genome sequence for this contagion was even obtained.

This highlights not only technological advancements but also the power of harnessing global efforts, the latter being something that also sped up development of the Ebola vaccine.

The outbreak of this novel coronavirus poses a pandemic threat of international concern.

This serious threat, however, has ignited innovation and collaboration, leading to promising vaccine development. This process is complicated, and there are still many hurdles to overcome, but the achievements so far provide hope in the face of a seemingly tireless foe.

Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos: friend or foe?

Hannah Goldswain SciTech editor Hippos are the most dangerous land mammals globally, killing around 500 humans every year.

Doesn’t sound like hippos, right?

Wallowing around in the mud, batting away the flies- but at over 2,500kg the huge mammals are prone to aggressive behaviour and alongside immense strength, have very sharp teeth.

Escobar’s old pet hippos are shaking up their new home in the Magdalena river, Colombia Bet Pablo Escobar didn’t factor that in when he made four of the animals his pets. And it seems that upon his demise, the Colombian government didn’t either.

In 1993, Pablo Escobar was shot dead, leaving, amongst other things, his “cocaine hippos” to live out their dreams of freedom. Seizing his expansive north-western Colombian estate, the Colombian government dismantled Escobar’s private zoo, parcelling off

the exotic, non-native animals elsewhere. All except for four hippos. Which, in the past 17 years, haven’t been wasting their time.

Now with a 100-strong population, Escobar’s old pets have set out to change the world, one ecosystem at a time. Parting with Escobar’s former ranch, the hippos made for the Magdalena, Colombia’s main river where they have become something of a pest.

Acting like an invasive species, if these hippos continue to reproduce at exponential rates, they will begin to displace native animals such as manatees or otters.

Not only that, the foreign animals can have dramatic effects on habitats adjusting their environments to suit them, known as “ecosystem engineers”.

Hippos feed on land and excrete in water, thus redistributing nutrients throughout the environment.

Adding these extra nutrients to aquatic surroundings alters the chemistry of the water altering predator-prey interactions of fish.

Even just wandering around in the mud can forge channels redirecting the flow of water in wetland areas. These drastic changes to the environment upset the ecolog-

ical balance having consequences on the food chain and habitats.

The hippos certainly haven’t been wasting their time Detectable changes are already being made to the current ecosystem with the formation of “hippo lakes”. These lakes have higher nutrient concentrations increasing the chances of toxic algal blooms which drastically reduce the oxygen content of the bodies of water causing other species there to die off. The differences between hippo lakes and other lakes around the region currently aren’t huge, but with the hippos still being rare in Colombia, increasing numbers could vastly impact the local environment.

But the nutrient increase in environments could also be a good thing according to some scientists by creating new niches for other organisms to positively impact the ecosystem. Similarly divisive in the community, the Colombian government has suggested a cull to remove the pests, but public outcry over a hippo killing in 2019 caused the government to take a hasty step back. Beloved by the

locals, the hippos are also facing extinction, so their rewilding and boosting numbers is beneficial to the species at large.

Currently, the hippos are being left to their own devices and being closely monitored, but with no plans of relocation or sterilisation.

There are fears for increasing numbers causing issues with residents in the area due to their aggression, however so far there have been no human casualties

resulting from their dwelling in close proximity.

At this rate, the hippos will continue their personalisation of the ecosystem around the river Magdalena, but if they continue to increase in numbers the effects could be both detrimental and life-saving in completely different ways.

For now, an experiment to monitor them is ongoing, to see just what mayhem Escobar’s old pets will cause.

(Megha Rolly)

14

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

SciTech

Are you what you eat? The link between diet and mental health Hannah Goldswain SciTech editor We’ve all heard that junk food is bad for us. We’ve all been reminded about our five a day. But as well as keeping our fitness, physique and metabolism ship shape- does what we graze on affect our mental health?

There are many, many publications stating different reasons behind the cause of mental health issues, from genetics to the environment, all the way down to microbes in the gut, so can something as simple as a Happy Meal be the answer to how our brains function? It’s probably not that easy, and overall mental health is complex and dependent on a wide range of factors, but studies have shown that different food products have profound effects on mental health compared to people without those foods.

Several studies have shown the benefits of a Mediterranean diet on improving mood and reducing depression in subjects, and many

oxidants, which have different effects on our internal homeostasis.

Thus, some foods play roles in inflammation.

Unhealthy food can cause inflammation, affecting mood

Eat your greens! (np&djjewell via Flickr) nutritional scientists advise eat- brain can affect neuronal transing more non-processed foods mission and neurotransmitter and fruit and veg. This all sounds function, which affects the chemiquite familiar but, it turns out cals controlling our mood and that there’s a scientific basis be- how often, when and where they hind it all. are released. Reduction in dopaDepression has recently been mine, which boosts our mood, has associated with chronic inflam- been correlated with increased mation and the immune system, inflammation around the brain. and there are strong links shown So, where does my ASDA shop between specific inflammation in become relevant in all of this? areas in the brain and depressive Different foods have different behaviours. Inflammation can nutritional properties, for examcause tissue damage, and in the ple vitamins, minerals and anti-

Staying away from too much junk food is something of a broken record, but studies have revealed that processed and unhealthy foods can increase inflammation.

As of yet, the mechanisms for this haven’t been elucidated, but it has been hypothesised that effects are mediated through the gut microbiota and effects the food is having there.

Weakening of the gut lining can occur through consumption of unhealthy foods, which stimulates immune responses increasing inflammation. If junk food is a regular part of someone’s diet, a low level of chronic inflammation will be maintained, which could be a risk factor for mental illness.

But it’s not all bad news. Eating ‘super foods’, along with

omega-3-rich fish and a healthy dose of fibre will all contribute to a healthier internal balance.

Organic foods and foods rich in anti-oxidants and fibre are known for anti-inflammatory responses, thus will help to maintain a healthy gut microbiome and stave off any inflammation.

Whilst a blueberry a day won’t keep you fully in check, eating non-processed, healthy foods will improve overall internal bodily homeostasis to lower the risk of mental health disorders arising from chronic low-grade inflammation.

Although food may play a role in depression and studies suggest that certain foods have the potential to alleviate mental health disorder symptoms, it’s important to bear in mind that mental health varies vastly between individuals.

However, this field of research is becoming ever more prominent and exciting, with stronger links found between diet and mental health- it looks like the empty fruit bowl in the kitchen’s finally about to have its day.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun Joseph Henderson Solar Orbiter, a revolutionary spacecraft on a mission to address some of the big questions of solar system science, launched in the early hours of Monday 10th February.

The £1.3 billion project, a collaboration between European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, is the first of its kind and aims to study the Sun up-close, taking high resolution photographs of the polar regions and helping us to understand how our star creates and controls the plasma bubble enclosing our whole solar system – the heliosphere.

Fitted to an Atlas V rocket that launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 4.03am GMT on February 10th 2020, Solar Orbiter is now hurtling towards the Sun. On its two-year journey, the spacecraft will make use of gravity-assist flybys of Earth and Venus to enter a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun. To slingshot itself out of the plane of the solar system (in which the planets orbit), the spacecraft will increase the inclination of its orbit using the gravity of Venus, giving us new views of the uncharted polar regions of the sun.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted after the launch: “We have a healthy spacecraft! Congratulations to the @ NASA, @esa and @ulalaunch teams on a successful launch of

#SolarOrbiter! I’m excited about this incredible mission that will conduct trailblazing science in heliophysics and give us our first images of the Sun’s poles.”

During the mission, Solar Orbiter will make at least 22 close approaches to the Sun. The first close solar pass will take place in 2022 at around a third of Earth’s distance from the Sun, followed

performing measurements of the Sun’s extended corona.

The spacecraft has already sent data back to Earth, after its 4.4 metre boom arm was successfully deployed. The carbon fibre and titanium arm, which was folded away for launch, carries crucial sensors. Signalling the start of a three-month commissioning phase, in which solar engineers

and the electromagnetic fields produced by the spacecraft electronics themselves. This will enable scientists to use the instrument to investigate how the Sun’s magnetic field generates “space weather”, sending out powerful solar flares that can create aurora and have the potential to disrupt technology here on Earth, knocking out power grids and disrupt-

by twice yearly solar approaches.

Solar Orbiter will be able to observe magnetic activity building up in the atmosphere that can lead to powerful solar flares or eruptions. Researchers will be able to coordinate observations with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission (2018-2025) which is

will test each of the ten on-board instruments, the magnetometer took readings throughout the entire boom deployment, beaming its data back to Earth.

Analysis shows that the instrument is working well, distinguishing between the weak interplanetary magnetic field

A long-awaited visit (Molly Murphy) ing air traffic and telecommunications.

At its closest approach, Solar Orbiter, which was constructed in the UK by Airbus, will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury, approximately 42 million kilometres (26 million miles) from the solar surface. Cutting-

edge heatshield technology will protect the spacecraft’s scientific instruments from temperatures of more than 500°C – 13 times the heat experienced by satellites in Earth orbit.

The advanced heatshield, which took years to perfect and is constructed from titanium, carbon fibre, and aluminium, is designed to dissipate heat while keeping the rest of the spaceship in a protective cone of shadow.

Small sliding doors allow sunlight into the instrumentation located directly behind the protective heatshield, including cameras, whilst protecting them from the harsh conditions.

To withstand an increase in temperature from 20°C at launch to more than 500°C in flight, the shield was designed to be highly flexible.

As neither paint nor glue would adhere to the shield and remain reliable at high temperatures, engineers instead turned to a chemical treatment originally developed for medical implants.

Calcium phosphate (extracted from animal bones) was bonded to the metal, becoming part of the material’s surface, enabling it to withstand the harsh conditions.

In testing, the shield was baked for two weeks at over 500°C to ensure that it was fit for the job.

The recent successes are just the start of a very exciting mission, and we’re well on the way to understanding a little more about our parent star.

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

15

Politics

It is time to make Durham great again

tre will do little to bridge the gap.

Lilith Foster-Collins

The main aim on Stuart Corbridge’s mind is money

Listening to Stuart Corbridge speak about university expansion plans, one might easily mistake him for a CEO proposing expansion of a corporation. Phrases such as ‘individual business cases for big capital projects’ and ‘international student market’ display the prevailing attitude of university management: profits over people, business over education. Durham University plans to expand extensively over the next decade. The opening of South College next year will bring the number of colleges to 17, including three set up since 2000. New buildings are planned for several departments, and up to five new colleges are to be built before 2027; developments are expected to cost hundreds of millions of student money.

Up to five new colleges are to be built before 2027 Community groups have raised concerns about the plans and for good reason: the city of Durham, already overburdened by the university, is increasingly seeing tension between locals and students. Large numbers of students put pressure on housing, pushing out young people and families, and cause disconnect in the social structure of the city.

It is not just locals who will suffer. Durham University prides itself on an effective college sys-

tem. Colleges provide a network for welfare, security, and community, but the newest colleges “don’t have the same collegiate atmosphere as established colleges”.

“It just feels like a large accommodation block with an empty bar”, a Stephenson fresher continues.

One can only imagine that South College will face the same issues and lack a true college identity. It is unsurprising that good colleg-

es are no longer being built, the haste with which developments happen leave no room for considerations of culture, community and well-thought out spaces.

And the expansion is not proportionate in every area of the university. New students are added at an astonishing rate: numbers are expected to rise by 4000 between 2017 and 2027; a

(ishiba via Creative Commons) number that in the 1960s represented the total student population. Study spaces, staff and support are not increasing at the same rate. Take the Bill Bryson library, well known for being overburdened during exam season, and can only be expected to experience greater pressure in coming years. Just 400 study spaces at the newly built Teacher Learning Cen-

The motivation for expansion is clear: the main aim on Stuart Corbridge’s mind is money. Forget the idea of a university that prioritises education, students, or staff. Instead, university education in the UK has become a profit-making private enterprise, fuelled by high tuition fees and the loan system. Its measures of success have become league tables and profit margins, completely dehumanising the sector and showing that the university only cares about churning out increasing numbers of degrees.

The university’s failure to negotiate with striking staff in recent weeks over equal pay, pensions and casualisation shows a lack of concern, as does the university’s newly released Operations Review (a thinly veiled attempt to cut services further whilst maintaining extortionate housing costs, and a move likely to lead to the loss of committed and invaluable staff).

If the university really cared about a world-class education it would focus on the number of students it already has, rather than on the potential money-makers it is choosing to pursue. And if it continues to expand as it is, much will be lost from what made me, and many other students, choose Durham in the first place.

At whose expense? Patel: Priti’s ugly behaviour Martha McHardy The University has announced that it will introduce changes to college housekeeping and portering services for the 2020/21 academic year that will standardize services across all colleges. These will include all university-owned college bedrooms being cleaned on a termly basis and increasing the amount of staff in portering services as well as standardising shift patterns and duration for porters.

These changes are part of an ongoing plan to increase centralisation of the University. The University claims that “the review seeks to enhance the student experience” and will improve the effectiveness of housekeeping and portering services. But at what cost?

It is likely that these changes will reduce the amount of hours worked by housekeeping and portering staff, which of course will come at a cost to their incomes.

It’s also possible that porters and

cleaners may take voluntary redundancies as a result of these changes, which will greatly impact the welfare of students as well as the college community.

It’s difficult to see how these changes will enhance the student experience when the jobs of the people who have the greatest impact on our welfare are under threat. This seems like odd timing to announce these changes as well, when academic staff are on strike due to a dispute with the University over their “failure to make significant improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads”.

It appears that the University has very little respect for their staff and that they are prioritising centralisation at the cost of people’s jobs and pay, as well as the student experience. This doesn’t make for a healthy environment to work in or to learn in, and it’s about time that the University started listening to their staff and did something to address this.

Florence Herlihy Amidst the recent accusations against Home Secretary Priti Patel of ‘bullying’ civil servant officials and distrust from MI5, former environment secretary Theresa Villiers has deemed denunciation of Patel as ‘spiteful’ and misogynistic. As a result, there has been a surge in discourse suggesting that any criticism of Patel is sexist, a notion that wouldn’t be so absurd if it weren’t for the fact that Patel is simply a self-serving and incompetent government minister appointed for her anti-European loyalty rather than political competence.

Claims of misogyny serve only to undermine the real sexist experiences of so many other women It is easily forgotten that Patel resigned as International Development Secretary over unauthor-

ised, secretive meetings with Israeli officials in 2017, or that she committed on the BBC’s Question Time to a pro-death penalty stance, something she has since tried to deny, distilling her minacious belief instead into wanting criminals to ‘literally feel terror’ at the prospect of committing an offence. Given that these examples merely touch the surface of Patel’s uneasy political career, it would be wrong to conceal her horrifying views under the guise of womanhood and of what she represents, to accept her position as one of the most influential roles in Britain just because she is a woman, and we need more of them in power.

Her Thatcherite individualism – demonstrated in the assertion that one third of children living in poverty is not the fault of the government’s harsh austerity programme, but of the ‘local’ authorities and people – is a damaging outlook for anyone to have, and must not be excused as an example of female strength and command.

Not only would the same words not be used to describe a male politician, but Patel’s support itself is littered with casual misogyny and physical superficiality, whereby her pseudo-feminist supporters revel in accusations of the sexist Left while applauding deportation and selfish immigration policies as the work of a ‘powerful, beautiful woman’.

She committed on the BBC’s Question Time to a pro-death penalty stance Claims of misogyny serve only to undermine the real sexist experiences of so many other women, women who wouldn’t deport their own parents. Ultimately, representation is not more important than politics, when the politics are so hateful.

GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? Send your thoughts

to politics@palatinate.org.uk

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

16

Politics

Johnson’s immigration proposals: hit or miss?

FOR Mary Kate Rylands The government’s recent proposals for a points-based immigration system have been met with outrage from many senior members of the Labour Party. It has been characterised as exclusive and elitist, implying that one must ‘buy’ entry into our nation. Labour’s disdain for the proposals is, however, built on a hypocritical foundation. A points-based immigration system has the potential to tackle the inequality of opportunity which permeates our society.

Labour’s disdain for the proposals is built on a hypocritical foundation.

Characteristically, Labour has sided with the interests of businesses, and not necessarily the people whose votes they wish to win. Implicit in their outrage is the defence of cheap labour and all that it entails.

How can you really blame them though? Who will pick our broccoli? Work in our abattoirs? Clean our homes and staff our NHS? Incentivising those UK nationals to work would be a good place to start. Although on paper overall employment is at record highs, hidden in the numbers lies the fact that over 800,000 18 to 24 year olds in this country are not in education, employment or training.

If a points-based system is implemented as proposed nothing con-

crete will change overnight. But, with time inevitably the attitudes of those businesses reliant on lowskilled workers will have to change.

Whether they come in the form of increased wages, better training or more secure job contracts, incentives will have to be made to get UK nationals to fill vacant jobs. This will come with challenges. It may, in certain cases, simply serve to accelerate a move towards robotic systems, more advanced technology and the replacement of people all together.

However, in other areas it has the potential to raise wages and

( Michelle Donolan Chippenham via Flickr) Conservative government have been standards in the workplace. If advocating for an Australian style a job and all that it entails is not points based system for some time satisfactory to someone born in now, so this should not be a surpristhis country, then why should ing headline. But, it’s still a relait be considered fit for anyone? tively shameful thing to see put into words, and simply exemplifies the regressive nature of British policy .

AGAINST Oscar Duffy Language wise, too often, migrants are hindered by their inability Ever since Brexit grievances were to speak English which bars them so highly dominated by the issue of from seeking employment effecincreased migration from Eastern tively and undermines their effecEurope (a trend which began in 2004 tiveness at integrating into commuwhen the European Union began to nities. If anything, it sows discord exponentially expand), we all knew and division, and has contributed to that a hardline policy stemming imanti-migrant sentiments among the migration numbers was coming. The

less open-minded British public. But language requirements are an age old issue that have caused numerous global controversies, as it discourages pluralism the globalism that Britain (as a world leader) should take pride in. For example, the USA spent the turn of the 20th century (over a hundred years ago) debating the necessity of a literacy test for incoming economic migrants from European nations. It was a controversial move back then and its pervasiveness a century on should make anyone who calls themselves a progressive uncomfortable.

There is also the issue that the points based system places faux moral grandstanding above the economic realities of a globalised world. No one appreciates corporations exploiting vulnerable foreign workers for less money than British counterparts, but while this should be reformed, cutting off low skilled migration stems the valuable influx of a workforce in some of the most vital areas of employment, most notably the social care sector.

It has contributed to anti-migrant sentiments among the less openminded British public According to the MAC (Migration Advisory Committee), many of those employed in this area fail to meet wage and skills threshold. I expect the system to be seriously revised once these implications come to light.

“Sit back and watch as Bernie and The Donald slug it out” Patrick Digby It seems likely that Bernie Sanders will be the Democratic candidate in the 2020 US Presidential election. I really hope not.

One of the enduring quirks of the US primary system is that you normally end up with more ideologically extreme candidates than the electorate wants. People with more ideological views are more likely to be politically active and vote in relatively obscure primaries as opposed to high profile general elections.

Untilrecentlyitappearedasif MichaelBloombergcouldbe the tangerine-dragon slayer Therefore, in 2020, candidates left of the Democratic party are more likely to be nominated.

Most Democrats claim to only want someone to beat Trump.

They are not voting like it.

The similarities to Britain are clear and often made. An unpopular right-wing populist with questionable hair and questionable policies versus a vilified left-winger who seems to think that the only thing worse than billionaires is appearing remotely telegenic and statesmanlike. It does not end well.

Until recently it appeared as if Michael Bloomberg could be the tangerine-dragon slayer, but after an incredibly weak performance in his first debate that was far worse than the low expectations placed on him (Elizabeth Warren, in particular, wiped the floor with him) it is now looking like he would be a poor candidate come November.

That leaves Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar as moderates and Ms. Warren as left.

The heart says Ms. Warren would be ideal; policies similar to Bernie’s but more nuanced and better costed, however, the head concludes that she occupies the same political space as him without the following or

myth making potential that a Presidential candidate needs.

At 38 years old, Mr Buttigieg would have been the youngest President in history.

In the centre there is the waning star of Mr Biden; feverishly clinging on to Obama’s coattails until his fingernails rip off somewhere in Dallas on Super Tuesday. Ms. Klobuchar has put in some solid performances in debates and lasted longer than many pundits thought she would, but, apart from in her home state of Minnesota, her poll numbers were low and she has withdrawn from the race. The same goes for Mr. Buttigieg; who looked like he got lost on a “bring your kid to work day” and accidently stumbled onto the debate stage. At 38 years old, Mr Buttigieg would have been the youngest President in history, and the first gay President to boot and I person-

ally would have loved to see Bill Clinton’s face when 30 year old Chasten Buttigieg became the first Presidential husband. However, Mr Buttigieg has also withdrawn.

Democrats will opt for Sanders, and all the rest of us can do

is sit back and watch, as Bernie and The Donald slug it out for a chance to berate a gridlocked Congress, for the next four years.

This article was written prior to the ‘Super Tuesday’ primaries.

( FolsomNatural via Creative Commons)

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

17

Dominicans fight for transparency Maxime Honinx Over the past week and a half, Dominicans have been protesting across the Dominican Republic and abroad. The Dominican people are calling for an independent investigation to explain why electronic voting systems failed during the municipal elections in February 2020, causing the cancellation of the elections.

They also demand sanctions for those involved.

The municipal elections were cancelled nationwide On Sunday 16 February 2020, municipal elections were held in the Dominican Republic for 3,849 positions across 158 municipalities. A system of electronic voting was introduced in 18 of the municipalities,

which according to the BBC cost the country an estimated 19 million US dollars, around 14.7 million GBP, sourced from tax revenue. Early on Sunday reports started flowing in of supposed ‘electronic glitches’ at voting stations across the country: candidates of the opposition were not displayed and several computers did not work. As a result, the municipal elections were cancelled nationwide, four hours after the opening of voting stations, which caused citizens in the capital Santo Domingo to light candles and protest in a peaceful manner on Sunday evening.

They demanded answers opposite the Junta Central Electoral, or JCE, a supposed impartial entity which oversees the correct proceedings of elections in the country, yet which is suspected to have ties to current president Danilo Medina’s Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD).

That same Sunday, a message was

spread via Instagram to join the protest on Monday 17 February at 3PM in front of the JCE in Santo Domingo. During the demonstration in Santo Domingo on Tuesday 18 February, a tear gas grenade and a flashbang were used on the protesters, whose numbers by then had risen to several thousands. This sparked a public outrage across the country, particularly because of the peaceful nature of the protests, and caused more protesters to join nationwide demonstrations. Protests were also held by Dominicans abroad, including in Miami, Paris and Ottawa.

On 17 February, it was announced that new elections would be held on 15 March, using the traditional paper ballot in all voting stations. Although an investigation headed by an impartial observer commission of the Organisation of American States (OAS) is currently ongoing, the protests continue as they address

( Silvia Camacho)

Is Russia re-writing history?

Anonymous On the 9th May, Russia will celebrate a special Victory Day; 75 years since the Nazis surrendered to the Red Army in Berlin.

Russia has already succeeded in making the label ‘fascist’ applicable to any international enemy Red Square will boast an even bigger military parade than usual, complete with millions proudly adorning a black-and-orange ribbon and Soviet iconography galore. The Russian propaganda has already succeeded in making the label ‘fascist’ applicable to any international enemy, thereby comparing the US to Nazi Germany casually and regularly; it is gradually underdoing years of de-Stalinisation with statues and systematic apologetics; and it panders to the administration by airing and perpetuat-

ing Putin’s counter-narrative that Poland was to blame for the start of what Russians call the ‘Great Patriotic War’.

We have learned to expect such behaviour from Russian media, politics and society. But before we jump behind the outrage from its Western counterparts, we should consider that no-one’s hands are clean. As the number of veterans dwindles, every side has the morbid opportunity to let the first-hand experience take a back seat and push its own historical narrative. For a start, Russia’s significance is mercilessly underplayed in Western discourse on the war. The Soviet Union lost at least 24 million citizens in the war – if China is excluded from estimates, that is more than every other country combined. That truth ought not to be shocking, yet the emphasis placed on British and American efforts are so significant that the Soviets are excluded from common knowledge of the war.

Indeed, Putin’s latest attacks

on Poland’s historical contribution were only in response to a revisionist and needlessly inflammatory motion passed by the European Parliament, where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were blamed equally for the Second World War. Whilst some of the motion was spot-on – the internal regimes of Hitler and Stalin were equally awful, and Russia’s reframing of a non-aggression pact with the Nazis in 1939 has been questionable at best – Europe is providing propaganda fodder for Russia and stooping to their level by brandishing gross simplifications for questions that are best left to professional historians.

a bigger picture: for many years, the country has been plagued by authoritative government, corruption, nepotism and botellas (a colloquial term used to denote a political sinecure within the government).

Politics

Editors’ point

My Feminist Rant Marina Mestres Segarra

After politicians from Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) and Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) encouraged followers to join the protests, a message spread across social media stressed the importance of the protests remaining free of association with any political party. The message urged protesters to stay home on Sunday 23 February and protest through cacerolazos, which entailed banging pots and pans from balconies, open windows and patios as loudly as possible for ten minutes at set times: 3PM, 6PM and 8PM. The cacerolazos were incredibly successful, with clattering heard across the nation. Daily protests at Plaza de la Bandera resumed on Monday 24 February.

A massive demonstration has been announced for Thursday 27 February at Plaza de la Bandera, which is when the Dominican Republic celebrates its Independence Day, and turnout is expected to be high. Along with the demonstration, a free concert will be held by Dominican performers including Juan Luís Guerra.

“Never have I ever felt unsafe walking home” is a question every woman would drink to. We may put policies in place, we can aim for proportional representation but the real change is yet to begin.

Never have I ever been catcalled, called ‘bossy’ for being a leader or told to act like a lady among men. Never was I ever told as a child that if a boy insults you it’s because he fancies you.

Many women are still fighting to legally be able to have an abortion, countless are struggling to get into high-earning jobs that they deserve and are qualified for.

The 8th of March is International Women’s day.

Each and every women in this university is to some extent priviledged, to another diffferent, there isn’t a single community of women.

Yet what brings us together is a common understanding of what it feels like to be the second sex.

I urge you to speak up, protest and be there for one another always, but most importantly this Sunday. Let’s join in solidarity for all the women that are aching, suffering and fighting every day.

consistently swipe under the carpet evidence of widespread collaboration and complicity in Nazi crimes. At home, we saw numerous politicians offering comparisons of Britain winning the war with leaving the European Union. This may have been rightly dismissed by many as absurd – but even having it uttered by important figures and circulated widely online shows

just how easily the memories of the war can be politicised.

So, when you see Russia’s glorification of victory on the 9th May, don’t just dismiss it as a typical authoritarian manoeuvre, or as proof that Russia is an aggressor. Look back home and see how Britain and her allies can do better than use the memories of millions to make contemporary political points.

The country has been plagued by authoritative government, corruption, nepotism and botellas

Russia’s significance is mercilessly underplayed in Western discourse on the war Meanwhile, Polish politicians downplay their nation’s role in facilitating Nazi concentration camps on their territory. Romania, Ukraine and the Baltics

( Ak Pk via Fllickr)

18

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

Sport Sport

“Floodlit is the pinnacle of college football”

Sport talks to players from Aidan’s, Collingwood, Stephenson and Hatfield about what makes the Floodlit Cup so special Matt Styles Deputy Sport Editor Aidan’s A comprehensively swept aside Staff A 5-1 to reach the final of this year’s Floodlit Cup on Wednesday night, but with Collingwood still in the mix they cannot afford to get carried away.

The Aidan’s faithful braved the cold and flocked to Maiden Castle in their droves to witness a comfortable victory for their side.

They unlocked the Staff defence at will and were consistently slick and assured in possession, with DUAFC 2s striker Harrison Pitt wreaking havoc throughout.

With the scores at 3-0, Staff were awarded a penalty for handball in the second half, which they converted, but Aidan’s showed their maturity by responding moments later with a fourth, before wrapping up a polished performance with another to secure their place in the final.

Though this was routine for the best of the rest in the men’s Premiership, they have endured a difficult route to the final that will leave them feeling confident of going the distance. A 3-1 victory in November over Hatfield, the current holders of the competition, came before a nailbiting win against a perennially formidable Van Mildert outfit, where they ran out 3-2 victors on penalties.

The remaining semi-final is between the ever-dominant Collingwood and Stephenson who, like Staff, are languishing in the relegation zone and have had a disappointing season, but will hope the magic of the cup can carry them through.

Naturally, you would expect Collingwood to win from this position, given that they are top of the Premiership and have already dispatched the other teams left in the cup in the league this season.

However, Aidan’s co-captain Sam Telling insists that league form has little to no bearing when it comes to the Floodlit.

“Anything can happen”, he tells Palatinate. “We don’t give up easily and we have got good players. There’s a really good level of commitment to the club on the pitch, which is reinforced by the class social scene off it”.

“You want to win, not just for yourself but for the college as well” Telling added: “Confidence is high after the semi-final victory, we were pleased that we ran out comfortable winners in a game that could easily have descended

Collingwood defeated Grey earlier in the tournament and will play Stephenson in the second semi-final (Toby Hillery)

into a scrappy affair. Whoever we meet in the final will be a tough game but it is one we firmly believe we can win.”

Meanwhile, Stephenson captain Ollie Theakston and his team are up for the fight, asserting that there is “absolutely nothing” stopping them from clinching the Floodlit crown.

“We’ve been the underdogs in the past so our team understands what it feels like. However, we play off being the underdogs in the way teams approach playing us.

“Having watched the match last year where JoBo stunned Collingwood, we know it’s possible to win and would love to overcome the favourites in the competition”.

He believes his side are “very close knit and will fight for each other on the pitch. This coupled with the quality that we have can cause any team problems and on our day we can beat anyone.

“The college definitely has the best supporters I have ever seen in any Floodlit game during my time here and to say they are rowdy is an understatement. The feeling you get when playing in front of the crowd makes you not want to do it for just you and the team, but for the college as well.

Our supporters will be living in

Collingwood’s head, rent free, no bills included, this Wednesday” He also tells us to keep an eye out for “Peer, our keeper, our knight in shining armour.

Although he can’t take his own goal kicks, don’t let this fool you, he’s like a cat in-between the sticks and all the women will be cheering him on. Also look out for our 6’8” South African giant, who will have Ben Parkinson and the rest of his team in his back pocket (his pockets are huge). With reference to Delia Smith: ‘Let’s be havin’ ya’.”

After failing to make it three Floodlit trophies on the spin last year, Collingwood will be looking to make amends this time out but won’t see this as a formality.

Though Richard Brooks has captained the A’s in the league this season, DU 1s stalwart Callum Elson has been taking charge of their Floodlit affairs.

Speaking ahead of their clash against Stephenson, he was quick to point out the irrelevance of reputation and downplayed the importance of league position.

“We’ve faced Stevo in the league already and they showed signs of a good team, with some individual quality and plenty of team spirit. It’s the latter that can be most dangerous on an occasion like this, but I hope we

can replicate the same ourselves and give it that extra bit to see us through the tie.

“In the Floodlit everyone turns up ready to win and line-ups can be totally different from what you would see in the league”.

“In Floodlit everyone turns up ready to win” While this is true, Elson spoke modestly. Though Van Mildert have games in hand, Collingwood A, B and C currently occupy the top three positions in the Premiership and have a ruthless winning mentality that stretches across their 14 college sides, as demonstrated by the fact that CCAFC have not had a team relegated from any of the seven divisions since 2015/16.

The challenge for Collingwood now is to handle the expectation and win the psychological battle against a Stephenson side who will look to use their underdog status to their advantage.

“In three years I’ve never played a game for Collingwood A where we’ve not been considered the favourites, it comes naturally with the reputation of the college.

As witnessed last year, anything can happen in the Floodlit, and so we’ll treat this game like any

other and need to perform at our best”.

On the subject of facing Aidan’s in the final, Elson was quick to point out that “It’s irrelevant to us at this point as we’re not through to the final”, but conceded that they “have a great set of lads this year, many of which are prominent members of the University football set up, so they play some good football.

“Should we get there then we’ll relish the challenge to face them”.

Overall it will be an exciting climax to the first Floodlit of the new decade. Last year proved that it is futile to speculate or dwell too much on league position. Instead, we should embrace the unpredictability of college football and watch the drama unfold.

Hatfield were the outsiders but emerged victorious, with captain Ben Gould saying this time last year that “Floodlit is the pinnacle of college football and with the fans cheering under the lights, anything can happen on Wednesday night. It’s coming home”. He was absolutely right.

Collingwood’s clash with Stephenson will take place next Wednesday at 20:15 on Rubber Crumb 2.

19

PALATINATE | Thursday 5th March 2020

Sport

Team Durham get set for BUCS Big Wednesday Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero Sport Editor There is less than a month to go until BUCS Big Wednesday, university sport’s showpiece event. Every year, the best university teams descend on Nottingham to compete for Championship and Trophy titles in every discipline ranging from American football to volleyball.

Team Durham have experienced huge success at the finals in recent years. They finished third in the medals table last year as they brought home gold in five of the 10 finals played on the day. The year before that, 13 teams were victorious in their finals as a record-breaking 18 made the journey down south for the highlight of the team sports calendar.

With over 20 teams still in the running for Championship and Trophy titles across nine sports at the time of writing, Durham are angling for even greater success this year.

The women’s basketball team won silver in Nottingham last year, narrowly losing the Championship final against local rivals Northumbria 80-86 with the score tied at 79-79 in the dying minutes. This year, the men’s 1s hope to take up their mantle and go one better.

They face an even bigger derby against Newcastle in the Championship semi-finals on 11 March. Having won all but one of their 10 games en route to the Premier Division title, they will face East London or fierce rivals Loughborough in the final if they get through. Their one loss this season? Loughborough.

Fencing has been a regular source of titles for Durham at Big Wednesday, having contributed three gold medals in as many years. The men took the Championship by two points last year against Edinburgh, and this

Five teams from Durham University Hockey Club remain in the running to win gold on Big Wednesday (Paul Gibbon)

year both men and women are still in the running.

Having beaten King’s College in the quarter-finals, the men’s 1s will have to overcome Nottingham in the semi-finals on 11 March to make it to the final against Bath or UCL. The women’s 1s will face Oxford on the same day after getting past Imperial, with the prospect of a final against Bristol or Edinburgh.

In football, the women’s 1s will have been disappointed not to make finals day last year after lifting the Championship trophy for the second year in a row in 2018.

They have the chance to put their name back on the cup this season, but first they must dispatch the University of Hertfordshire in the semi-finals.

That would set up a mouthwatering final against local rivals Northumbria or arch-enemies Loughborough.

Hockey is the surest guarantee of a medal for Durham at Big Wednesday, with five teams still on course to win gold in the Championship, Trophy and Vase competitions.

The men’s first team have experienced all the highs and lows of the finals in the past two seasons. Last year they had the heartbreak of losing on penalty strokes to Exeter in the Championship final, but the year before that they won an epic tie against Nottingham Trent on penalties themselves to bring home the title. Their semi-final opponents are Nottingham, with a potential final against – who else? – Nottingham Trent or Exeter.

It was the women’s 2s who kicked off that hugely successful day for Team Durham at the 2018 finals by securing the Trophy against Birmingham, and this year they are also

on course for the final. The women’s 1s, meanwhile, clash with Loughborough in the ICG Championship semi-finals on 11 March. Nottingham or Edinburgh await them in the final.

The lacrosse women’s 1s are looking to make it three consecutive Championship titles, having comfortably dismantled Cambridge in the 2018 and 2019 finals. They beat Newcastle in a tense local derby in the quarter-finals and face Oxford in the semi-finals. Beat them, and they will book their place in the final against Exeter or hosts Nottingham.

The men’s 1s won gold in style last year, seeing off Nottingham Trent 12-6. The Palatinates could face them again in the Championship final if they can beat the other Nottingham side on 11 March, having steamed past Swansea and Bath in the first two knockout rounds.

It will be a renewal of local rivalries in the women’s volleyball Championship semifinals as the first team face up to Northumbria, the team they beat 3-1 to claim gold in last year’s final. Defeating the 2019 runnersup in the semis would be a huge statement of intent ahead of a final against southern opposition in Bournemouth or East London.

The men’s 1s, meanwhile, will look to make it to Nottingham and hopefully avenge their 3-0 loss to Essex last time out in the Championship final. They face East London in the semifinals having beaten Newcastle and a huge tie awaits them in the final against either Essex or Northumbria.

Whatever happens between now and 24 March, this year’s BUCS Big Wednesday promises yet more silverware for Team Durham.

Durham defeated 76-47 in York college varsity Tim Sigsworth Sport Editor The annual Durham-York varsity match returned on Sunday 1 March as teams from each university’s colleges competed against one another across 16 sports.

For each sport, each university selected two teams, with five points awarded for a win in an A match and three awarded for a win in a B match.

The day started at 10:00 as James defeated Stephenson after a tie-break in the A match and Derwent defeated St. Mary’s in the B match.

This would have given York a

respectable 8-0 lead after the first two matches, had it not been for a mass forfeiture on Durham’s part after seven teams failed to show up.

Basketball A (Van Mildert), basketball B (Josephine Butler), men’s football B (Grey), pool A (St. Cuthbert’s), pool B (Ustinov), squash B (St. Mary’s and Hatfield), tennis A (Grey) and women’s touch rugby B (St. Chad’s and St. John’s) were all cancelled as a result, with York subsequently racing into a 35-0 lead after only an hour’s sport.

Durham were quickly up and running, however, as victories for Castle, St. Cuthbert’s, Van Mildert and St. Aidan’s in lacrosse B, women’s touch rugby B,

men’s badminton A and men’s badminton B reduced the deficit to 35-14 Not to be denied, York soon extended their lead with a double for James over Van Mildert with a 19-17 victory in rugby A and a 2-1 win in hockey B. 46-14.

With the B fixture cancelled, tennis A saw York extend their lead further still with another victory for James, this time 3-0 against St. Mary’s, before the remote possibility of a comeback was dangled tantalisingly in front of Durham.

First, Van Mildert won a tiebreak after a 4-4 draw in darts B. This was followed by an emphatic 6-1 win for Collingwood over Halifax in hockey A and

a stunning 34-33 defeat of Heslington East by St. Aidan’s in rugby B thanks to a dramatic lastminute try.

With the scores at 51-25, Durham needed as many wins as possible from the remaining fixtures. A narrow 34-32 defeat for Hild Bede in netball B against James was a sign of things to come, however, as a 5-0 thumping of Grey by James in darts A, a 4-1 win for Derwent over Collingwood in women’s football A and a 6-3 win for James over St. Cuthbert’s were enough for York to reach the 65-point mark which guaranteed them victory, even after Collingwood threatened a late riposte with a 2-1 win over Derwent in men’s football A.

Nevertheless, the Palatinates didn’t go down without a fight. Collingwood defeated Derwent 2-1 in men’s football A, Stephenson beat James 3-1 in mixed badminton A and Grey beat Heslington East 10-5 in lacrosse A before 17-0 and 2-1 wins for Castle in lacrosse B and Ustinov in volleyball A determined an overall 76-47 loss.

Alas, as is custom, York reclaimed the varsity trophy on their return to home turf. In 2019, Durham won in Durham with a 65-46, having lost in York 73-55 the previous year after a 94-31 win at home in 2017. This year’s defeat, therefore, was Durham’s worst since 2016 when, away from home, they lost 69-25.

Sport

Thursday 5th March 2020 | PALATINATE

The magic of the Floodlit Cup

Aidan’s beat Staff in first semi-final and Collingwood play Stephenson next (page 18)

Durham colleges defeated in York varsity

All the results as York reclaim the trophy on home turf having lost last year (page 19)

DUBC battle Storm Dennis to claim seven medals at BUCS Head in Newcastle Ella Bicknell

Durham have been indomitable this season and confirmed their title win with a hard-fought 24-14 victory over Leeds Beckett (Durham University RFC)

Durham crowned Super Rugby champions Hector Pearce Deputy Sport Editor On Wednesday 26 February, Durham’s first XV defeated Leeds Beckett 24-14 in a closely fought battle to become BUCS Super Rugby League champions.

Scoring four tries to Leeds’ two, Durham dominated the match, particularly in the first half, to ensure victory.

Alex Keay’s team excelled on the day, exploding out of the blocks in the first half with early tries which ensured victory and the championship.

Durham’s sustained power in the breakdown and lineout, tactics used throughout the title race, provided crucial front-foot balls for the back line, and denied their opponents a foothold in the game.

The first try, scored by Nathan Wyman, was emblematic of this dominance; coming after multiple phases of drives which sucked in the Leeds Beckett defence and allowed Wyman to score.

The second try, and 10th for Ben Fowles this season, took the score to 12-0 after 20 minutes, a points difference that Leeds Beckett were ultimately unable to truly overcome. While Leeds Beckett scored six minutes later, Durham remained in control, securing another pushover try before half time to tighten their grip on the game, and put one hand on the trophy at 17-7.

Durham all but sealed the deal three minutes after half time with a bonus point try in the corner

by Rory Stewart-Cox. A consolation try for Leeds Beckett 10 minutes before the final whistle could do little to prevent a Durham victory, as they ran out 24-14.

Whilst Fowles captained the team brilliantly, and Wyman controlled the game beautifully at number 10, man of the match was awarded to Josh Basham for his sustained impact on the game.

Winning the league before the end of the season is testament to this Durham team’s superb title challenge. Succeeding in the newly formed BUCS Super

League, which consists of the 10 best university teams in the country, Wednesday’s game once again showcased the abilities of the men’s squad, and the standard of elite rugby at Durham University.

Keay, Durham’s coach, highlighted the “high standards” that the team and squad have consistently set this season as crucial to ensuring success.

Ultimately, the match was the culmination of a hugely successful season for the men’s 1s in which they have lost only two matches.

The club now lead the league by nine points with a points difference of 254, 40 points more than that of their closest rivals, Exeter.

Taking the season “game by game”, in the words of captain Fowles, has allowed the team to excel at the highest level of university rugby.

Furthermore, the event’s support of Save the Children is testament to Durham University rugby’s ongoing charitable commitments.

By providing positive early life experiences for children, the

charity seeks to ameliorate specific familial hardships in order to ensure healthy development.

Save the Children facilitates supportive learning environments for children at home and in schools as well as overcoming the barriers many parents face in providing for their children.

Alongside the result of the match, raising £520 for Save the Children meant Wednesday was a hugely succesful day for the Rugby Club and Team Durham.

The University Rugby club hope for more success in the league playoffs and the cup competitions.

Certainly, rather than being the end of the season, the club is quickly moving on beyond this league success to ensure a high performance in both these competitions.

The team will compete in the quarter finals of the Cup at Durham City Rugby Football Club on Wednesday 18 March, and the match promises to be a fine sporting occasion with more top-class rugby on show.

On Sunday 23 February, there were concerns that the British Universities and Collegiate Sport (BUCS) Fours’ and Eights’ Head, one of the biggest events on the university rowing calendar, was at risk of being cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

The BUCS committee cancelled the novice races, allowing the intermediate and championship events to run on the Tyne.

Many Durham colleges pulled out, but for those who did make it to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the weather did not make the longdistance five-kilometre race any easier as crews had to battle extremely choppy water and powerful gusts throughout.

Durham University Boat Club’s rigorous training plan – which involves 12 sessions a week and an arduous training camp in Seville over the Christmas holidays – helped its rowers on their way to seven medals: two golds, two silvers and three bronzes.

The men’s eight missed out on a medal, though they did triumph in the championship and intermediate four categories.

Overall, DUBC were pleased with their success but remain hungry to build on their performance.

Durham’s main rivals, Newcastle University, came top of the medal table. They took home 10 medals, four of them gold.

BUCS is usually a good indicator of what is to be expected from university crews in the Head of the River races which take place in March on the Thames.

However, the adverse weather conditions on the Tyne tested the crews in different ways to the longer and less choppy OxfordCambridge Boat race course they will be racing at that event, where athleticism and technique will be of equal importance.

The only certainty is the increasing intensity of training for both DUBC and college crews over the next few weeks.