The Greenwich Telescope

Plastic ID cards win for Facebook Campaign

2008-02-15T22:00:00.007Z

The University of Greenwich will finally change the much-ridiculed paper Identity Cards to proper plastic ones from September 2008. The decision comes after the Facebook group 'Campaign For Decent Greenwich ID Cards' came to the attention of university hierarchy. Containing 812 members, the group quickly became a hotbed for anger, frustration and jokes about the ID card.

Students were informed of the decision first via the group and soon after by SU President Virender Choudhary who sent a all-student email. Oddly, he made no mention of the (completely independent) facebook group, saying "You asked whether the University could replace the
laminated paper Resource Card with something more
substantial and less tacky. Today the University
advised me that, as of September this year, it will be
issuing proper credit card style Resource Cards."

The figureheads of the Facebook campaign, Telescope editors Ben Wraith and Chris Williams were also involved in the 'Motiongate' controversy, where the SU rejected Mr Wraith's Motions for this year's AGM. Mr Wraith, in a message to all members, reasoned that "Students moaning in the Satisfaction Survey, the efforts of Karen Adomako in the SU and, probably decisively, the ranting on this group" all contributed to the final success.

A senior university figure' informed Mr Wraith that the card would be "plastic...have colour printing" with the possibility of uploading personal photos. In the future "Smart card payment facilities" (like the oyster card) would be a "distinct possibility". Ben Wraith first wrote of hs ideas for ID cards in his well regarded blog 'Greenwich Ideas'. Ben Wraith and Chris Williams, will continue their campaigning, running as candidates in the Student Union elections this year. It is hoped by many that this ID card success will increase appetite amongst students for making more changes in the University. The elections (March 3-6) will hope for a big turnout.

On the group wall, Magdalena Pryjmak encapsulated the feeling of all campaigners (even those who are about to graduate, in a post, screaming "WE'VE GOT IT!!".

Campaign for a decent ID card Facebook group

ID card campaign group reaches 500 members

2007-12-05T11:23:00.000Z

A 'Facebook' group calling for proper plastic ID cards has now over 500 members after only a week of operation. The target is 1000 members. The group was set up to get plastic ID cards introduced for September 2008, next academic year. The issue of the current laminated ID cards has been flaring up for many years at Staff-Student meetings in the university. Most students complain that they are being refused entry to clubs and discounts in shops. The greater issue is how easily the cards are fakable, leading to serious security issues. Some possible ideas advocated are integrating the card with photocopying cards, The 'Greenwich Card' for local council discounts, and even including oyster - this technology is already used in some American colleges. The petition will be taken to the university once 1000 members are reached.

Comms Sabb storms out of AGM

2007-11-28T23:10:00.001Z

Campaigns and Communications Sabbatical officer Stephen Aitken walked out of the AGM this week. The event happened after Education Sabb, Karen Adomako stole his microphone during an unexpected outburst about the absent President.

"I've had enough with him" He cried, to loud cheers provoking Karen to snatch the podium. He then decided to exit the lecture hall, only to be asked back 20 minutes later by a supporter, to more loud cheers. Aitken had previously been quietly vocal in his objection to President Verinder, although no one was expecting this kind of outburst, not least the other sabbaticals. Steve had previously threatened to quit over his fractured working relationship with the twice elected President.

AGM inquorate again as only 0.3% attend

2007-11-28T22:43:00.000Z

Only 61 people out of 22,000 students turned up this week to the Student Union's Annual General Meeting. This kept the meeting inquorate. The AGM is the only chance apart from the election that unelected students can have a voice. Due to it being inquorate (under 200 students in attendance) nothing could validly be voted on, only a informal question and answer session took place. The President (above) could not attend, despite knowing about the AGM date last March. He is currently on a visit in India with Ken Livingstone. There was much anger from the students who did turn up at the fact he had not attended, and many questions for him were directed at the other officers.

Rumours of a protest, after the SU rejected all motions submitted, failed to materialise. There would have been no motions to vote on if over 200 had showed up. SU excuses, that the advertised deadline was lapsed on all 12 motions, have been widely debunked. The University is now investigating the matter.

Last year the meeting was not rescheduled. University movers and shakers, and the university itself, will keep a keener eye on attempts this year.

Students discuss 'Motiongate' options

2007-11-16T13:28:00.000Z

Students are starting to develop ideas on how to respond to the Student Unions decision to controversially reject all motions in what has been dubbed 'Motiongate' or 'Motion Sickness'.

Official complaints have already been sent to the president, but options such as boycott and protests at the AGM are now being considered. The AGM is on the 27th of November.

Two Sabbs deny involvement in 'Motiongate'

2007-11-15T15:38:00.000Z

Both Services Sabb Jenny Chan and Campaigns and Communications Sabbatical Officer Steven Aitken have denied involvement in changing the motion submission deadline.

On the Facebook group supporting the motions, Jenny Chan wrote "As I was at the Universities Reception meeting with the Vice Chancellor that day, so I had no clue that had happened"

Steven Aitken also vowed to "take it up with the President". Three of his own motions were also rejected by the President and management.

The End of Democracy?

2007-11-15T14:46:00.000Z

AGM will have no motions to vote on as SU changes deadline on the day.

In an astonishing move this week, The University of Greenwich Student Union changed the submission deadline from 14th November to the 13th for AGM motions. This was only told to students at the submission desk on the 14th.This enabled them to reject 9 motions proposed by a students on that day. Overall they rejected 13 motions.

This decision was made after a 'Facebook' group was made which attempted to gain support for the 9 motions. One of the motions included was a proposal to bring The Greenwich Telescope Newspaper into the SU (while maintaining editorial independence), allowing the student run paper to end its financial crisis.

Other Motions included dropping the 22 wage difference, allowing fair pay for students under 22 in SU shops and bars, and allowing international students to work before gaining a national insurance number, in line with Home Office guidelines.

But on the 14th of November, as he was about to submit, it was told to Ben Wraith (the proposer of the motions) that the deadline had been changed.

Mr Wraith intendeds to make an official complaint to the President, Virender Choudhary.

The AGM (Annual General Meeting) will now have no motions.
Students will now have to wait for the elections in march to influence policy.

The Facebook Group for the motions

The 9 motions

1. That The Greenwich Telescope (GT) becomes part of SUUG, GT remains editorially independent of the Sabbaticals, VP Campaigns & Communications can veto only on grounds of libel, Social Society run GT until a Student Media Society is formed and that the Sarky Cutt budget is transferred to the relevant Society.

2. To scrap the age-based wage differential in the SU with immediate effect and to pay all part-time SUUG employees at least the highest rate (22 years +) of National Minimum Wage.

3. That full reciprocal membership, as laid out in the constitution, becomes operational policy. That steps are taken to promote this to local HE institutions including Goldsmiths College, Trinity School of Music and Greenwich Community College. That all SUUG staff are made aware of this revised policy.

4. The SUUG web-site states ‘It is VERY important that you have a valid National Insurance number. We are unable to process application forms without one.’ on its vacancies page. This is discriminatory and wrong. The VP Services should immediately change the statement in consultation with Student Affairs.

5. That prices for food and drink at Avery Hill and Greenwich SU outlets should be equalised by reverting to the lowest current price. That subsequent cumulative annual price increases for all food & drink should be kept low and agreed by a full quorate SRC prior to implementation.

6. To mandate the President and General Manager to take immediate steps to ensure that SUUG is able to send its full and correct delegate entitlement to NUS Annual Conference. To mandate the VPs Education and Campaigns & Communications to actively promote to members the opportunity to become NUS Delegates.

7. That 7.7 of the Bye-Laws be changed to: ‘The 8 SRC Officers shall be International Students Officer, Equal Opportunities Officer, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transsexual Officer, Part-Time Students Officer, Postgraduate Students Officer, Entertainment Officer, Accomodation Officer and Environment Officer’. And promoted as such at the next SRC election.

8. That all minutes for General Meetings, SRC, SRC Exec and F&GP meetings shall be made available at each SUUG reception and on the SUUG.co.uk web-site within 10 working days.

9. That the SU stops using polystyrene cups in all of its outlets and that it works urgently towards Fairtrade status.

2007-10-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

New October/November issue with out now! New! 12 whole pages of content!

Issue 8

2007-10-09T18:01:00.001+01:00

Get the full PDF in your inbox via our mailing list. Send an e-mail to: greenwichtelescope@gmail.com

Students shocked by police

2007-09-20T10:22:00.001+01:00

A shocking video of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer getting tasered by police officers has gained over 400,000 views on Youtube. Meyer was asking questions to former presidential candidate John Kerry about 'lost' black votes at the 2004 election. He asked why Kerry did not attempt to impeach George Bush, when Kerry lost the election. Meyer's final question "was Kerry a member of Skull and Bones" (the shady 'Stonemasons' style society that Bush is a member of) brought immediate action from the police. Meyer resisted arrest shouting "Is any body watching this?", and officers then forced him to the ground.
With a cry of "don't tase me bro" the police stunned the student.

Recently a video of a UCLA student getting tased for not having a ID card in the library was also posted on Youtube.

Andrew Meyer Video

a UCLA student being tased

Tout and be damned

2007-05-09T13:53:00.000+01:00

If you're stupid, and flash enough, you can buy tickets to see Take That for approximately £600 on eBay. How you react to that news probably defines your character as a human. If you look on it as an example of enterprising young businessmen acquiring tickets and then re-selling them at a profit, then you believe strongly in the free-market economy that governs most facets of our lives. If however you see it as a gross manifestation of human cupidity, then you are probably a music fan.

The growth of this market is explained away by eBay as being entirely legitimate, if one wishes to re-sell one's property, then why not? Nothing illegal about that here in England. However, gigs are already vastly over-priced to feed all the various snouts in the music-trough. Touting grants a new layer of charges. Discerning music fans are just paying tribute to the cowardly touts who hide behind usernames on eBay.

I live with a girl who is an internet tout, a semi-interesting character, she fulfils every negative stereotype one could have of lesbians. Her constant justification for her actions is that she needs the money, and can't find a job. This is patent nonsense, the indolent freak simply doesn't want to join all the other battery-farm students crammed into bars and restaurants waiting on others. I knew something was going on when I first met her and asked her name. In a strange, unearthly tone she replied ‘I am Legion, for we are many’. A cursory glance at eBay confirms this; the sheer number of tickets that fail to reach their reserve prices and are effectively wasted is staggering. I made four attempts to get information from eBay’s press room on statistics of wasted tickets and in each case they either didn’t call me back or deleted my unread emails. This speaks of a terrible naivete, ignoring the problem will only inflame it.

The fact that a fellow student is participating in this is so abhorrent to me that I can think that the only way to prevent this vile trade is to use football style naming on the tickets. Introduced, admittedly, to prevent hooliganism, this can surely be adapted to prevent larceny. Or alternatively, promoters could do an Eavis and insist upon face pictures for the ticket. Most of these traitors have pictures of themselves in bizarre poses on their Myspace pages, so why not on their tickets? If something is not done soon, I will personally start a campaign that our incoming Stalinesque prime minister live-up to his name and institute show trials to wipe out these vermin.

In the mean time, I'll merely hide my housemate’s chocolate.

George Hunter

Rocklands Festival, New Cross 05/05

2007-05-09T13:06:00.000+01:00

‘Little Nan JoJo loves’, the festival that was supposed to be in ‘Rocklands’ place, was apparently cancelled because of a ‘perpertual liar’ failing to actually book any bands he said he was going to. The event in its place, with 6 venues, 60 bands, numerous DJs, a special gaudy ‘Rave or Die!’ room, and for a brief while, the coolest kids in the country, was friendly, eclectic, necessary, wanky, unwanky, sweaty; and remarkably, only £8 for students (£10 for proper people). The crowd ranged from sideways farmer-hat-and-neck-scarf wearing pre-pubescent hair styles to veteran E-diet hollow-eyed stick-wavers. Every girl looked like a 14 year old Lauren Lavern. I once saw the XFM DJ sneeze outside Topshop (I like to remember it as a mucus-led protest against western consumerism, but, as of yet, i haven’t had a chance to ask). That might be confusing images, though.

Early on, there was an integrationist beauty seeing dads carrying kids on a sunlight-bleached dancefloor during punishing drum n’ bass, scenesters and SE14’s own collection of Foster’s carrying next-Alex Turners. It was quite wonderful. And, it almost made me cry.

Seeing a very loud, on-the-point-of-parody ‘new rave’ band was not really what I envisioned doing at one in the afternoon, but that was my first experience. They were bleepy and the lead singer was dancing around in an egg costume. It was like walking into the mid-90’s (with a Lion Mark). We had to go for coffee. On the way we decided to get ice pops. My (cola flavoured) ice pop just resembled a phallic frozen poo, so I decided to leave it to melt in Adam’s bag (presumingly into diahreea), and venture onto Goldsmiths Tavern. We walked into The Pepys (reasonable), saw some schoolboy white reggae (not as bad as you think), got surprised by Look See Proof (slick, sweaty and tight), then moved upstairs into the RAVE OR DIE room. The RAVE OR DIE room was kitted out with (slightly unrave) wicker chairs. There were, though, temporary smiley faces on the wall, and an excellent drum n’ bass DJ. Masked up, we danced like it wasn’t three O’ Clock and sunny. As is the way with drum n’ bass, we endeavoured to kept two body parts shaking in every point of the compass. Shitmat was late, and managed only ten minutes of his (TV theme tune and wedding song) drum n’ bass mash-ups.

If afternoon was friendly, the night was sweaty. As the smooth-chinned NME carriers went to bed (well, to the offie and a safe distance from the bouncers feet) the nocternists, fashion students and artists came out to pay (or, considering the number of ‘green’ wrist bands, get in on a blag). Of the venues, the New Cross Inn was most packed, although the Goldsmiths Tavern opposite was jostling for that right. Luckily, due to the size of the festival and the cancellations, Rocklands felt more like a cobbled together parish fete. Moving from one venue to the other was natural and uncomplicated, leaving villagers with an enlightening sense of utopian freedom.

Queing for the Goldsmiths Tavern and New Cross Inn frustrated matters; the kids and temporarily everyone else, got kicked out and a half day spring clean went into action. This could and should have been shorter. While paying punters waited outside, ‘Green Banders’ jumped the ques. Most were not helping set up the next acts, but they could have at least given some tables a wipe. Those cocaine stains probably were they're own doing, so a bit of Flash and cloth for free entertainment wouldn’t go amiss.

As for evening bands, 586 were a great indie-electro force, Ebony Bones, with three black front women were instantly danceable, but it was Sheffield-based Pink Grease that really stole the stage, installing sass, witt, drive, white Aff’s and arrogance into their agonizingly short set. Their new sound is tight as suspenders and, even though we didn’t hear Nick Collier’s wonderfully eccentric homemade synthesiser, they were quirky and attention-grabbing enough to conqer the ‘nu rave’ movement.

Being at a large festival can be like listening to the CD on Alba speakers, that are to music, what paper cups and string are to international communication. Rocklands was different, and it should be applauded. No ‘returning legends’, reformed bands, upturned portaloos or mud, just great music, feet from your face, coming in your ears. For other pub-hopping festivals I suggest you check out the Camden Crawl or the Great Day Out in Brighton. A small amount of money (£39) buys you three days of passion, and perpetually itchy fingers at your local HMV.

Chris Williams

www.myspace.com/newcrossinn
www.myspace.com/pinkgrease
www.myspace.com/586