SPORT
COMMENT
PROMOTION RACE DOWN TO THE WIRE FOR UCD
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
THE JAN MOIR DEBATE RAGES ON P7
BACK PAGE
Observer Digest NEWS UCDSU stage protest at Wicklow County Council offices Late grants prompt action from the Students’ Union P3
ANALYSIS Racism off campus Dublin has become a dangerous place for international students P6
FEATURES Lost and Found
A new website can help track down those waylaid items P15
Safety concerns at Deadmau5 concert ALEX COURT Canadian electro and house artist Deadmau5 was forced to end his performance at UCD’s Student Bar early due to his concerns for the safety of concertgoers amid fears of overcrowding at the venue. The DJ posted his concerns on microblogging site Twitter first saying, “Dear ireland: CALM DOWN!!!! […] Think about safety guys!” A few minutes later he added, “Promoter oversold it.. Wayy too dangerous in there”. However, the DJ’s promoters, MCD Promotions, stated that as far as they were aware, the performer had not had any problems with his appearance at the UCD venue. Doors for the DJ, real name Joel Zimmerman, opened for his Friday 16th October performance at 9pm, and as the main act, Deadmau5 was billed to play for approximately an hour. According to UCD Students’ Union Entertainments Officer, Mike Pat O’Donoghue, the crowd seemed larger than it actually was because the stage needed to be pushed forward onto the dance floor in order to accommodate the extensive lighting and sound equipment required for the event. Continued on P2 >>
27th October 2009 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY...
1904: The first underground NYC subway lines open running between City Hall and 145th street at Broadway
SUPPLEMENT
PAUL HOWARD GETS THE OTWO TREATMENT INSIDE
Observer The University
VOLUME XVI ISSUE 4
NE QUID FALSE DICERE AUDEAT NE QUID VERI NON AUDEAT
27th October 2009
IRELAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER
PhD student’s house set alight in second attack BRIDGET FITZSIMONS
A
UCD PhD student has had their house fire-bombed by local vandals for the second time in three months. The student, who lives with their family in the house was uninjured in the attack, however a child with a broken leg was rescued from the building during the fire. Substantial damage was incurred to the property and the family car was destroyed completely. The incidents, the most recent of which took place on 3rd October, are believed to be racially motivated. In the first attack, the student’s spouse was injured when trying to extinguish a fire in their home. The incidents have forced the student, who does not wish to be named, to leave the area in which they and their family lived, despite overwhelming support from their neighbours. The Human Sciences student is continuing study in UCD after the attacks, and in a statement to a professor in the Graduate School of the College of Human Sciences said that it “hasn’t been easy coping - let alone, the huge instability and loss this attack has brought to our family”. Staff and students of the Graduate School of the College of Human Sciences, where the student is registered have formed a new response toward racism and racist attacks in support of their colleague. Director of the Graduate School of the College of Human Sciences, Professor Ben Tonra, has expressed his disappointment at the attacks. Prof. Tonra stated that staff have invited everyone in the Human Sciences’ Graduate School,
supervisors and graduate research students, to “offer suggestions as to how we can respond to this situation.” He said they will also welcome ideas from across the university. Professor Tonra has described the response so far as “powerful” and believes “that there is a strong determination that we should respond collectively in some meaningful way to highlight the issue of racial violence.” His colleague and thematic PhD administrator, Dr Christina Griessler, will be putting forward ideas on how to combat such attacks in the future to the college’s Graduate School Board. UCD Students’ Union has also been involved with the response, with Professor Tonra stating that Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn has been notified of the case along with the student’s Doctoral Studies Panel. The student told Prof. Tonra they felt “humbled” by the academic response to the attacks. Prof. Tonra reiterated the School’s support for the student, stating that he believes “that we each have a personal responsibility to address prejudice, intolerance and bigotry within ourselves, our families and our wider social networks,” and that UCD “as a community of scholars … [has] a particular role to play. Prof. Tonra believes that academics “are also in a position to identify strategies - in ourselves, our communities and our wider society - to challenge these attitudes and to provide policy makers and community leaders with the tools necessary to address them.” He further reiterated UCD’s responsibility toward international students, saying that “for a university with a core ambition to internationalise further, we can and should be in the forefront of such efforts.”
Des Bishop mid-routine in UCD last week. The comedian was on campus to collect the L&H James Joyce Award. See page 3 Photo Daire Brennan
SU and UCD to agree Student Centre refund GAVAN REILLY The University Observer understands that UCD Students’ Union and the University are on the verge of agreeing an unprecedented deal that will see UCD refund €7.50 of the Student Centre Levy paid by all students this year. The deal comes following weeks of negotiations between University and Union representatives after the Students’ Union had legal advisors send a four-page document to the University challenging this summer’s levy increase, which rose from €150 to €157.50. Rather than being directly refunded to each student, it is anticipated that the refund will be distributed to student interest groups including UCD sports clubs, societies, the Union itself, the Student Welfare Fund, and the Newman Community Fund, with the intention of contributing to student and community life on the campus.
It is understood that the business plan for the extension to the Student Centre – formally titled the UCD Student Learning, Leisure and Sports Complex – had budgeted for an increase in the Student Centre Levy to be linked to inflation, which had later been fixed at projected rate of five per cent a year on advice from the project’s financiers. Inflation for the twelve months up to August, when the increased Levy was charged to students, was just under minus six percent, meaning that the levy should have instead been reduced by approximately €9. Meetings between the University and Students’ Union have been ongoing for some weeks, with the Students’ Union adamant that no allowance for inflation was made when the project was approved by the student body by referendum in April 2006, and that students had therefore intended for the levy to be fixed at €150 after a series of pre-approved increases. The University Observer understands that the Students’
Union are prepared to seek judicial intervention in the matter, should its negotiations with the University fall through. A statement from the Students’ Union said that the two parties “are continuing negotiations which are at an advanced stage, and both parties are hopeful of an amicable outcome in the near future.” A University spokesperson added that “a positive resolution is expected in the next week or two.” Neither party was prepared to offer any further comment on the matter. The appointment of a contractor to begin construction work on the project has been put on hold while discussions were ongoing, and it is hoped to commence construction during the Christmas break. The project is currently running at approximately €5 million under budget. When first proposed, it was expected to open the new extended facility by December 2008.