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Thursday 19th November 2020 | No. 833
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Sport speaks to author Harry Pearson about football in the North East
Music talks to Durham’s student record label, DH1 Records
Durham in UK top 10 for staff on over £100k Martha McHardy News Editor Durham University has been named in the UK top 10 for universities with the most staff on salaries of over £100,000. A Freedom of Information Request submitted by the Taxpayer’s Alliance revealed that Durham ranked ninth in the UK in
2019-20 for the number of staff receiving salaries over £100,000, and eighth in the UK for the number of staff receiving salaries over £150,000. Durham ranked jointly with the Open University for staff on over £100,000, and above the Open University and St George’s, University of London for staff on over £150,000. The Open University has al-
most ten times as many students as Durham. The London School of Economics ranked the highest amongst the universities with the most staff on over £100,000 and £150,000, with 306 staff members on over £100,000 and 109 staff members on over £150,000. The figures include salary, performance related pay in the form of bonuses, pension-related pay-
ments and ‘all other payments’. No other universities in the North-East are included in the top 10 list, however Newcastle University was not included in the list. A Freedom of Information Request submitted by Palatinate revealed that in 2019-20, the University’s Faculty of Business had the highest percentage of staff on over £100,000 of any
Durham faculty. 17 of 423 staff members receive over £100,000, amounting to roughly 4% of its staff. This is compared to the University’s three other academic faculties, which all ranged between 0.6%-1.3% of their staff members receiving salaries of over £100,000. Continued on Page 5
University emphasises student safety amid reports of street harassment Max Kendix, Toby DoneganCross and Rose Kohen News Editor, Deputy Editor and Contributor Durham University has urged all students to prioritise safety amid a number of reports of harassment late at night in the city of Durham. Since the beginning of term, Palatinate has received numerous reports of harassment, including cases of students being followed by cars and public accostment. One student told Palatinate about an incident in the north of the city, recounting that “The street I was walking down […] was poorly lit. A car passed at the bottom of the street, the driver noticed me, turned around, and started to follow me. “I hid behind some hedges, and the car stopped in front of where I was. They rolled the window down, and the men inside the car shined a torch out of the window, waiting for me to pass. Continued on page 3
▲ Durham Castle was illuminated for Diwali over the weekend (Mark Norton)
DPOCA launches campaign for “a racism free Durham” Patrick Stephens News Editor
Durham People of Colour Association have sent 17 letters to the leadership of Durham University, which one letter referred to as a “call to action”. The first letter was sent from DPOCA itself, while the other 16 are signed by the People Of Col-
our Representatives of each college. Several JCR Presidents also signed the letters for their respective colleges. One letter, from Stephenson POC rep Vinayak Trivedi and signed also by Stephenson College JCR, referenced a series of bigoted screenshots from members of the former Durham University Conservative Association and Durham Free Market Asso-
ciation. The letter claimed that “the exposed issues are just the tip of the iceberg to the issues at Durham”. In reference to procedures for dealing with racist hate speech, the letter claims “there is a massive flaw within the university’s hate crime complaint proceedings. “Those victims of ‘less’ serious hate incidents are instruct-
ed to write a letter to their perpetuator. We at DPOCA cannot believe that in order for victims to get justice at this university, they must relive their trauma and explain themselves to their perpetrator. “This is distasteful and this needs to change.” Continued on page 4