palatinate issue 730

A Durham University Archaeol-ogy Professor was made a dame in the Queen’s Birthday Hon-

ours List.Professor Rosemary Cramp, Emeri-

tus Professor in the Department of Ar-chaelogy, was one of just eight women awarded a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire), when the list was announced on 11th June. Professor Cramp was awarded the honour in recognition of her serv-ices to scholarship. Her research has focused particularly on Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture and the archaeology of medieval northern England.

The Professor reflected on her achievement: “It would be difficult

not to feel pleased and honoured, but if these awards mean anything it is be-cause they reflect a wide range of con-tacts and support, and here I include the support which the University has given to my work over a very long time”.

Joining a department that did not officially exist until 1956, the year after

she joined, must have been a strange position to be in. Previously, the Ar-chaeology Department was based in a small hut which stood where Hatfield

College’s tennis courts are today. Pro-fessor Cramp helped to expand the De-partment from its Roman and Anglo-Saxon base to cover all periods. She was integral to building up the department’s current esteemed reputation.

She trained five Emeritus Professors during her time at Durham as well as many senior academics and individu-als who are now important figures in the commercial and public sectors of archaeology.

In 1971, Professor Cramp became the first female Professor at the Univer-sity. She remains committed to expand-ing the number of women within the academic field of archaeology. She re-tired in 1990 after 35 years of dedicated teaching.

Despite having been a Trustee of the British Museum, and a Commissioner for English Heritage, she has main-tained her involvement with Durham University alongside her work.

She established The Rosemary Cramp Fund to give grants to groups or individuals proposing innovative re-search into the archaeology of the Brit-ish Isles AD 400-1100. This funding is vital for Durham postgraduates.

Although largely focusing on the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon North-umbria, Professor Cramp also began a groundbreaking project: the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. This work has since been followed up by scholars in France and Italy.

Students slate Grayling’s New College of Humanities

Students and lecturers have rushed to criticise A. C. Grayling’s plans to open a London-based higher education in-stitute.

The Philosopher’s New College of the Humanities (NCH) will open in 2012 and has a founding ‘Profes-soriate’ of 14 academics, including Richard Dawkins and Niall Ferguson. Its courses will include Law and Eco-nomics single honours degrees, and Joint Honours programmes in which students will study two subjects from History, Philosophy and English Lit-erature. Students will also take science literacy and critical thinking modules and learn “professional skills”, includ-ing the principles of accountancy. The College was immediately deemed an “atheists’ college” by the media due to its lack of a Theology department and the fact that two of the Professors are evolutionary biologists.

Despite initially publicising itself as a University College, NCH will not have degree-awarding powers or re-search students, and will instead pre-pare students to take the University of London’s International Programme (ULIP) exams, which are distance-learning degrees studied by more than 50,000 students. The majority of ULIP students pay less than £1,500 per year for their course materials and examina-tion fees.

NCH students, however, will be charged fees of £18,000 a year for the three year courses – double the maxi-mum £9,000 which can be charged by public universities. They will leave the College with an ULIP degree and a separate New College Diploma which the College claims will “reflect the greater richness of [students’] studies”. The students will not be eligible to join University of London sports teams, and will have to pay additional fees to use the University library and student union facilities. The College therefore stands in stark contrast to Durham University, which is using its research-led culture and wide range of extra-curricular activities to attract students.

The official student newspaper of Durham Students’ Union since 1948 Tuesday 21st June 2011 | Edition 730 | www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE

Green League 2011Durham is ranked on its environ-mental and ethical performance Page 3

Wave goodbye to your 2:1The Higher Education Report recom-mends an overhaul of the degree classification system Page 4

Hate crime in UniversitiesPalatinate takes a closer look at the recent NUS report on ‘hate crime’ in Universities Page 5

YUM investigation Is YUM good value for money? Palatinate investigates its prices com-pared with the high street giants Page 6

>> Comment p14&15 Our writers reflect on democracy in Durham and graduation anxiety

Dom Joly on his new showand his career so far

Durham 20: ones to watch for the future

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Palatinate, Profile, 12Palatinate, 10&11

IN THE NEWS

Durham rolls out the red carpet for Crowe, Indigo page 4-5

PALATINATE

Continued on page 7

Archaeology Professor made a DameCharlie Taverner and Rowena Caine

“The University has supported my work over a very long time”

Continued on page 7

Editorial Favourites, letters, corrections and editorial

PALATINATE Editors-in-ChiefDaniel JohnsonJohn [email protected]

Deputy Editor Olivia [email protected] Editor Sarah [email protected] Features Editor Mei Leng [email protected] News EditorsEttie Bailey-King, Rowena Caine, & Emma [email protected]’s Campus News EditorLea [email protected] EditorRachael [email protected] EditorJessica [email protected] EditorAlexandra [email protected] Comment EditorMichelle [email protected] EditorsHugh Anderson-Elliot & Peter [email protected] Sports EditorsTom Clarke, Patrick Fletcher & Tom [email protected] EditorMadeleine [email protected] Editor Alison [email protected] and Drink Editor Charlotte [email protected] Editor Jess [email protected] EditorsLaura Gregory, Rachel Bailin & Tom [email protected] Arts EditorTamara [email protected] and Television EditorRachel [email protected] EditorsKathy Laszlo & Lyndsey [email protected] TeamNico Franks, Jess Denham, Briony Chappell & Will Clement [email protected] EditorHannah [email protected] EditorJon [email protected] Sub-EditorLisa [email protected] Sub-EditorsJoanna Turner, Olivia Mercer, Kayleigh Brandon & Gemma NealeWebsite TeamChris Miley, Tom [email protected] EditorQuin [email protected] photography EditorChris [email protected] EditorDavid [email protected] TV EditorAlex [email protected] and Advertising EditorCharlie [email protected]

Editorial Board21.06.2011 No. 730

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. Send letters to: Editor, Palatinate, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3AN. Alternatively, send an e-mail to [email protected]

Favourites

Including Jam by the Lake and Evolution Festival

Music indigo, page 12-13

Contents

indigo

Comment page 13-15

Sport pages 17-20

News pages 3-7

Careers pages 8- 9

Profile page 12

We talk to finalists about lessons learned during their time at Durham

Lessons learned?

PALATINATE | Tuesday 21st June 20112

Editorial www.palatinate.org.uk

Festival reviews

An amazing season

We look backon a great year for Team Durham

Sport Palatinate, pages 19

Reviews page 2

Music page 12

Food & Drink page 10

Music page 13

Stage pages 4-5

Travel page 7

Features page 3, 6

Film & TV page 14

Games & Photography page 16

Visual Arts page 11

Books page 15

Fashion pages 8-9

A year of numerous ups and downs...For a student journalist, Durham has been an

ideal proving ground this past year. Eleven issues of Palatinate have passed before your eyes, and

amongst their pages has nestled a veritable smorgasbord of content. Palatinate has courted controversy and cel-ebrated success in equal parts, and it is our hope that the University can be the better as a result.

Durham has been tainted by the scent of scandal over recent months, attracting the kind of national public-ity that it would rather avoid. But, it is our hope that the University will emerge stronger from such trials, taking internal and external criticism on board. Three times Durham’s willing receipt of funds from question-able sources has been brought to light, but it would be churlish to obscure the many bona-fide donations and sponsorships that the University both to facilitates and maintains.

There are some who would have Palatinate watered down to the extent that it became merely the student run arm of the University’s public relations offices un-der the ‘Experience Durham’ banner, but we believe that would be an injustice. It is to this end that Palatinate has attempted to highlight and speak out against actions which seem unbecoming of our University.

However, there have been other, less contentious nar-ratives on these pages, and as another year passes it is only right that we look back on some of the highlights.

Perhaps the greatest of Durham’s successes this year has been in our sporting accomplishments. The Palati-

nates have enjoyed their best this century, finishing in fourth place nationally and within touching distance of second. Thousands of you travelled to Twickenham in April to watch our men’s Rugby side secure the national title, and this was just one of a liberal scattering of su-perb sporting stories that have punctuated the past nine months. Across the country the sight of our purple-clad athletes has become a harbinger of defeat for their op-ponents, and praise should also be given to the coaches who have supported our sporting elite from first round to final.

Over the past year Durham’s continued reputation for academic excellence has also been highlighted, with the University a fixture in the higher echelons of numerous higher education league tables.

Another highlight came earlier this month when we were treated to the visit of Russell Crowe. For an actor of such high acclaim to choose specifically to come to Dur-ham is a real privilege, and for this we have our Chancel-lor, Bill Bryson chiefly to thank. Bryson’s term as the fig-urehead of our University shortly comes to a close after six years of fantastic service, and it should be seen as an acknowledgement of Durham’s reputation that such an erudite and well respected individual accepted the role and has served with such dignity.

2010/11 has certainly been an eventful year for Dur-ham, and while some at the University will be glad to see its back, here at Palatinate we are lucky enough to benefit equally from the downs and the ups.

Come Dine With Me - Episode 4Our diners meet for a final time and solve a devious murder

Corrections and Apologies Palatinate would like to apologise to the library and its staff for some innacuracies in an article which appeared in edition 729 on page 5. Library fines revenue decreased by 5.4% in 2009/10, and did not increase as suggested by the title of the article - ‘Library fines soar to £167,979’. The article also stated that three day loans are charged at £1 per hour overdue, but it is actually £1 per day. The Library has not increased fines since 2002. We sincerely apologise for these mistakes and any upset caused by the article.

PALATINATE

Palatinate TV will soon be recruiting, so keep an eye out for vacancies on www.palatinate.org.uk or sign up to our mailing list!

Battle of the College Fashion ShowsBehind the scenes and on the catwalk with Collingwood and Mildert

Features indigo, page 3

www.palatinate.org.uk/tv

Palatinate Editor-in-Chief Vacancy!Want to follow in the footsteps of Jeremy Vine and Harold Evans? The position of Palatinate Editor for Michaelmas term is open for applications. Email [email protected] for an application form or with any queries.Deadline for applications is 5pm on Wednesday 22nd June, and applicants are also required to make a short presentation to the Palatinate Editorial Board on Wednes-day evening. Good luck!

Durham 20 pages 10-11

Earlier this month, People and Planet released their Green League tables for 2011, award-

ing Durham a ‘2:1’ for its environmen-tal and ethical performance.

Overall, Durham was ranked 41st out of 142 institutions, scoring 35 points out of a possible 70 for its green credentials. This is well behind top scorers Nottingham Trent’s 53.5.

People and Planet, a national organi-sation of student-run environmental campaign groups, has been running the Green League initiative since 2007. Last year Durham fared similarly, being placed 43rd with a score of 32. Durham has evidently made improvements over the last twelve months although they are limited.

Professor Tim Burt, Dean for En-vironmental Sustainability, Durham University, said: “We are totally com-mitted to addressing the vital issues surrounding environmental sustain-ability.

“We face some very particular chal-lenges: as a collegiate University, a large number of our students live on campus and as we look to consolidate our posi-tion as a world class research-intensive institution with a growing estate, we have two significant underlying issues putting pressure on our demand for energy and therefore our carbon foot-print.

“Despite this, we have set ourselves a very ambitious target to reduce carbon emissions by thirty per cent by 2014 and have recently been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for the effec-tive action we have already taken over the last three years to address these is-sues.”

This year points were awarded in thirteen categories, with Durham gain-ing full marks in four areas: environ-mental policy, environmental manage-ment staff, sustainable food and staff and student engagement. While these are the same categories for which Dur-ham received top marks last year, they nevertheless reflect a continued ‘green’ commitment, particularly in areas re-lating to staff initiatives.

Durham showed marked improve-ments in two particular areas; those of ethical investment and carbon man-agement. The latter was no doubt relat-ed to last month’s announcement of an ambitious plan to cut the University’s carbon emissions by 30% by August 2014.

But Durham still fares reasonably

poorly for carbon management, scor-ing four out of seven. However, this is double last year’s score of two and is ev-idence of a concerted effort to improve one of the most widely recognisable aspects of environmental best practice.

In terms of ethical investment, Dur-ham’s ranking jumped from zero to two out of three, thanks largely to the adoption of a publicly available ethical investment plan.

In one area; however, Durham fared marginally worse than last year; that of Fairtrade and ethical procurement. This drop in ratings can chiefly be at-tributed to the inclusion of a new cri-terion for top marks in the 2011 league – affiliation to the Worker Rights Con-sortium (WRC) – which Durham does not meet.

The WRC is an independent labour rights monitoring organisation which investigates working conditions in fac-tories worldwide. Durham must affili-ate to demonstrate its concern for the rights of its suppliers in the developing

world.While Durham received full marks

in four areas, it also scored zero in four categories: curriculum, renewable en-ergy, carbon reduction and water con-sumption. The most worrying of these

are the figures for renewable energy and carbon reduction, both of which could be improved upon relatively eas-ily. It should be noted, however, that renewables play a significant part in the Gateway project (the new law school and library extension currently under construction on Stockton Road) and upon completion it is anticipated that 15% of the energy demand from the new buildings will be met through re-newable technologies.

The figures for carbon emissions also make for sobering reading, with emissions per head for the University as a whole currently standing at over two tonnes. This figure represents an increase of 14.18% on 2005 levels. While the carbon management plan shows that the University recognises

the need for positive action, substantial changes will need to be made to meet targets.

In terms of water consumption Durham’s usage is 25,050 litres per head, almost ten times that of category leaders Sheffield Hallam (2,650 litres). None of Durham’s water comes from rainwater or ‘greywater’ sources (water recycled from domestic use).

With recent reports highlighting the worrying extent of environmental de-terioration across the globe the need for action at every level of society has never been greater.

If Durham is to move up the rank-ings there is much to be done, and we can all play our part by cutting down on water usage and taking care to re-cycle as much of our waste as possible.

John Burn-Murdoch

PALATINATE | Tuesday 21st June 2011 3

Durham Newswww.palatinate.org.uk

Criticism of £125,000 tobacco donation builds

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Green League 2011: Durham awarded a 2:1

Daniel Johnson

25,050The amount of water consumed per head by Durham students (litres)

Wind farms help increase County Durham’s renewable energy output but the University still has a long way to go to reach its 2014 emissions target

Cancer Research UK and Durham academics have publicly criticised the University’s decision to accept £125,000 from a tobacco company.

Robin Hewings, the charity’s to-bacco control policy manager, said that “the tobacco industry’s record means academic institutions should have nothing to do with it”, calling on Dur-ham to “return the money”.

The University’s interdisciplinary Smoking Interest Group also con-demned the donation, describing it as “cynical philanthropy”.

They added: “We are writing to ex-press our dismay at the University’s ac-ceptance of a gift from British Ameri-can Tobacco to help fund scholarships

for Afghan women students.“While we are extremely supportive

of the University’s initiative to help the women of Afghanistan, the acceptance of this gift does not sit well with our commitment as a University to being ‘a socially-responsible institution.”

Sarah Atkinson, Associate Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities, also wrote to Vice-Chancellor Chris Higgins calling on the University to re-turn the funding.

She said that “it is perverse for us to accept this funding even as we pro-mote ourselves as a centre that has ex-cellence particularly in the social, polit-ical and humanities-facing dimensions to health and wellbeing.”

The reactions came after Palatinate revealed that in June 2010 the Univer-

sity signed an agreement with British American Tobacco (BAT) to receive £125,000 towards the Chancellor’s “Scholarships for Afghan Women” ap-peal.

Speaking at the time, Higgins said: “Who are we to deny these deserving students access to the Durham educa-tion you and I have been privileged to enjoy just because many of us have a personal distaste for tobacco?

“These funds were donated for char-itable purposes and were intended by all parties to be anonymous and simply to do good in line with the University’s charitable and educational commit-ments.”

From the academics Palatinate has spoken to, there is growing disquiet at the donation itself and the way it has

been handled.The Smoking Interest Group urged

“all academic members of staff to take a stand about their retirement income

being dependent on the prosperity of a company which actively markets its deadly products worldwide.”

British American Tobacco donated £125k towards the ‘Afghan Appeal’

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How deep is the Town vs. Gown divide?

Every university in the UK will be asked to replace its existing system of degree classification

(first, second and third class) with a new, more detailed measure of per-formance.

The Higher Education Achieve-ment Report (HEAR) recommends that the “blunt instrument” of current degree classes be replaced by a record which “drills down to modular level” and reveals how students perform across a range of activities, indicating whether these are “timed examina-tions, projects [or] dissertations”.

Robert Burgess, the Chairman of the Universities and College Admis-sion Service (UCAS) and head of the steering group calling for classification reform, called the current system a “crude” measure of performance. The HEAR will include details of students’ “achievements in extra-curricular ac-tivities” such as “[representing] the university in terms of sport or [being] conductor of the university orchestra”.

Burgess has been a prominent ad-vocate of reform since 2003. In 2004 his “scoping group” produced a report claiming that the grading system had “outlived its usefulness” - and called for a more informative “progress file” to reflect the increasing importance of a graduate’s University performance in the employment market.

Since 2004, pilot schemes have op-erated in twenty Universities. Of these, Leicester will be the first to award the

HEAR to graduates this year. Mean-while the “template is in place” for every University to follow suit the fol-lowing year.

Burgess states that “the intention is to propose to the sector, as from Oc-tober 2012, that all students entering higher education institutions will get the opportunity to achieve a HEAR having worked with it through a three-year period”.

This information will also be on of-fer to employers- with the student’s

consent – before graduation so that it can be used as part of the application process.

The Association of Graduate Re-cruiters (AGR) warns that amid fierce competition for jobs and increasingly stringent requirements, the class of one’s degree has never been so im-portant. A recent survey for the AGR found that 78% of employers insisted on a 2:1 minimum degree class, and that graduates with a 2:2 or below risked being filtered out by automated

applications. As University tuition fees have

risen sharply to an average of £8,750 per year, students are likely to “expect a much more detailed evaluation of their performance”. It is hoped that the HEAR will provide the kind of “de-tailed evaluation that can be given to employers and can be used in order to help them in their careers”.

Furthermore, it aims to measure a range of skills which are not usu-ally apparent from one’s CV. Using the HEAR, employers will now be able to tell whether students are “really good in timed examinations”, to help them pick graduates with the skills they “re-ally require”.

Hild Bede finalist, Sarah Ingrams, believes that it is a “good idea” to give potential employers more informa-tion. She continued: “There’s a big dif-ference between a high 2:1 and a low 2:1. The new system would help differ-entiate between students who would be awarded the same degree category”.

UCAS will also be diversifying the information which it presents as part of an application for Higher Educa-tion. Now, students’ own details will be accompanied by information such as the school’s academic performance and the percentage of pupils receiving free school meals.

The Office for Fair Access is current-ly vetting Universities’ plans to charge higher fees, to ensure that they are con-tinuing to work towards widening ac-cess for students from all backgrounds.

Oxford University fellows voted over-whelmingly to have “no confidence” in David Willetts, Minister for Universi-ties, following his university reforms.

The motion, signed by 170 lectur-ers in May, was passed by 283 votes to five. It was the first time an English uni-versity has declared no confidence in a government minister.

Oxford professor Robert Gildea, who proposed the motion, described the government’s higher education plans as “reckless, incoherent and in-competent”. He said that the govern-ment would make university a “red car-pet for the rich”.

Another professor warned that high-er fees would result in rich international students filling the University’s ranks, going against the University’s belief that education should be available to the largest number of people possible. Oth-ers argued that debt would force fewer students to enter postgraduate research.

Peter Oppenheimer, Mr Willetts’s former economics professor at Oxford, described him as “no politician”, while Oxford’s Students’ Union President voiced fears that some subjects could almost disappear from the University.

Cambridge University academics are expected to pass a similar motion later this month after 150 signed a compa-

rable motion to Oxford’s. Meanwhile, 1000 Warwick students and profes-sors signed an online “no confidence” petition and another was created at Goldsmiths, University of London. It is unclear whether Durham will follow in their footsteps.

Professor Gildea said he hoped Ox-ford’s action would have a “rousing ef-fect” on other universities to pressurise the government into thinking again.

Durham University Vice-Chancellor Chris Higgins told Palatinate in March that “with our plans for a generous and flexible programme of financial sup-port, we aim to ensure that affordability will not be a barrier to Durham attract-ing the best and brightest students”.

An official statement, reassures that Durham will continue to recruit the students with “the greatest merit and potential, regardless of background”.

However, only a few hundred Dur-ham students turned out to protest against the fee increases last Autumn, suggesting that a no confidence vote in Mr Willetts may be some way off.

Yet the creation of the website www.noconfidence.org, which encourages Students’ Unions to pass motions of no confidence, means that such motions may become more common in the build-up to the application process for courses with higher fees from October.

Durham NewsNews DurhamPALATINATE | Tuesday 21st June 20114

News www.palatinate.org.uk

DSU President’s ColumnSam Roseveare

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Wave goodbye to your 2:1 as changes planned for degree classification

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Oxford University has “no confidence” in policy changes

The HEAR system would mean none of these graduates would get a first

A DUCK stunt for the fearless: stu-dents with a head for heights bungee jumped from a 175ft crane on Palace Green to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund: The Soldier’s Char-ity. Mr Eric Ingrams, Chairman of the

North East section, was “very grateful” to DUCK for organising the jump: “Events like this are how we raise our money”. DUCK raised a toal of £3,000 from the event to support serving and retired members of the army.

Tim Perry

A recent report recommends scrapping the current classification in favour of “modular levels”.When things come to end it is often hard not to get overtly sen-timental, and wheel out meaning-less clichés, which don’t do justice to all that has been and gone. As such in this, my last Palatinate col-umn, I will try to articulate what has happened at DSU this year, and what I, and my team have been able to achieve.

I am proud to say that we have completely revolutionised the democratic structure of DSU. In fact, as I write this, it is literally breaking news to announce that both of the recent referenda have passed, ensuring that the Union is able to register as a charity and that we will enjoy the benefits of an additional sabbatical officer. We have also ensured that the re-lationships with common rooms are articulated, and that postgrad-uate representation is embedded within the institution and not be-fore time.

Having been a JCR President last year, it is particularly pleasing to note that the perennial issue of JCR Governance has finally been resolved, with each JCR has been able to pick a route which is right for them. Currently 4 JCRs have opted to register as independent charities and 10 have chosen to become DSOs, and nest within the University.

We have been able to take a holistic look at the building – Dunelm House (which is surpris-ingly beautiful; I’d highly encour-age you all to read DSU’s Annual Report, and take note of the stun-ning photo on the front cover) en-suring that substantial investment will be made going forward, trans-forming the space into something that is not just fit for purpose, but is an excellent central space for both undergraduate and post-graduate students.

I am proud of all that has been achieved, and it has only hap-pened because of the hard work and dedication of a number of individuals. As such, it seems only fitting that I am able to end this with a few thank yous.

To all of the JCR and MCR Presidents, for all of your work with governance issues this year and for sharing our vision for the Union. To the DSU Officers and Reps, for tirelessly engaging with the membership, and ensuring that every vote truly represented the views of the student body. To the staff for all of your sup-port and advice this year – and especially to Kayleigh, who made sure I didn’t forget to eat. To all of the University staff who either through their work or vocal sup-port have ensured we achieved all that we managed to this year. To Palatinate, for their seemingly limitless patience and for hosting this column. To my fellow sabbs, for their vision and also for their company which has lightened even the most miserable and drab day. Finally, thank you to all of you for engaging with us this year, and especially to those of you who have reached the end of this final column.Want to get involved in Palatinate? Email [email protected]. No experience necessary!

On Sunday 12th June, DUCK hosted the annual presentation evening in the Great Hall of Castle. The Mayor of Stockton and the Deputy Mayor of Durham joined the Vice Chancellor and representatives from over 60 char-ities to celebrate the achievements of DUCK. DUCK’s fundraising total for 2010-11 was also announced. Stand-ing at a phenomenal £827,306.83, it is one of the best figures amongst UK universities and equates to almost £50 per Durham student.

So how is this made up? Well, a quick anatomical overview of DUCK might look something like this: 12 fearless members of the exec + 19 tireless college reps + 10 international expeditions + 50 ragraids + 914 par-ticipants in 30 sponsored events from marathons to bungee jumps = an in-crease of almost £150k from this time last year.

This is amazing for student partici-pation and development but it’s frank-ly fantastic for the charities DUCK has been able to work with this year. Over half a million pounds has been sent to over 150 charities.

There are too many people to thank here for making this such an incredible year since over 51% of Durham students are somehow in-volved with DUCK. Whether you’re cycling across the Himalayas for us or just came along to one of our college events…thank you. DUCK is one of the best fundraising teams in the country – but we’d be absolutely noth-ing without the incredible support of Durham students.

A report published by the NUS earlier this month reveals that an alarming number of students

are victims of a hate crime. The results of a survey that took into account 9,229 students’ experiences led to the estimate that over 400,000 students are likely to experience some form of hate incident while studying at a British uni-versity.

Hate crime is broadly defined as abuse of a threatening or harassing na-

ture, motivated by prejudice against a perceived characteristic. Race, religion, gender identity, sexuality and disabil-ity are amongst the most cited reasons that someone may find themselves the target of a hate crime. The report re-veals that 30% of ethnically driven hate incidents are against Chinese students and 31% of lesbian, gay or bisexual stu-dents have experienced a hate incident while at university. Such incidents vary and may be verbal or physical.

Although cyber-bullying has grown more common over recent years, a large proportion of hate incidents re-ported to the NUS occurred in the

victim’s place of study. With 41% of incidents of verbal abuse and 31% of physical altercations taking place on university grounds, including student unions and study areas, some feel that institutions should be doing more to protect their students.

“The heart of academia... is de-stroyed when students are targeted by anti-social behaviour or crime because of their differences and yet, for nearly one in six students, this is an every-day reality,” said Ben Whittaker, Vice-President and Welfare Officer for the NUS. “Eradicating hate is a crucial step to ensure our colleges and universities

are places in which a diversity of people and opinions is not only accepted, but celebrated. Each and every student has the right to express themselves without

fear”.However it is difficult for institu-

tions to take steps towards combating hate crime when students fail to report incidents leaving staff unaware of the extent of the problem. The NUS sur-

vey found that only 13% of hate inci-dents are reported to someone holding an official role in the victim’s university and in fewer than one in ten instances is a report made to the police.

Reporting incidents is important

because positive change can be insti-gated. Last year, St Cuthbert’s Society’s women’s football team were on the receiving end of verbal abuse during a match against another college. Rachel Rodgers, who at the time was captain of the St. Cuthbert’s team recalls the in-cident: “One of our players had scored three goals and the opposing captain started shouting ‘Take the dyke down. Don’t let the dyke have the ball’ and en-couraged the team to do bad tackles on her. The referee was inexperienced and didn’t know how to stop them”.

Olivia Amos, the current Women’s President of the University’s LGBT

Association, took the issue to Team Durham: “I reported the incident my-self to the Head Referee and they took an immediate stance, sending out an email reminding all referees that they have a duty to protect their students”.

Sadly this is probably not the only hate incident that has taken place in the Durham student community. Pa-latinate spoke a Jewish student about the NUS’s figures: “It doesn’t surprise me [that 31% of Jewish students polled by the NUS had suffered from a hate crime]. I really do think there is a fair bit of anti-Semitism about, espe-cially as it can be a really sensitive issue for some people”.

One student of African descent also told Palatinate that, while study-ing in college, she had been physically attacked and had subsequently filed a police report. Since coming to univer-sity, she had on a couple of occasions received verbal abuse from drunk indi-viduals.

Such abuse is often underreported by victims. The NUS survey found that “feeling it was too common an occurrence to report” and “not believ-ing the police could or would do any-thing about it” were two of the most frequent reasons why someone would choose not to report an incident.

However, the Durham Constabu-lary urges students to report all hate-related incidents. They have placed a self-reporting form on the University website, along with details for contact-ing their dedicated Hate Crime Offic-er. The website explains why reporting all hate incidents is vital: “It enables us to identify areas of concern, patterns of behaviour, will help us to catch and prosecute offenders, and may help us prevent further incidents taking place. It is important to report all incidents to help us in tackling hate crime. You may remain anonymous if you wish”.

Additionally, a University network of ten harassment contacts has been formed and all members have been given specialist training to help those who feel harassed or bullied. Although the NUS report shows that hate crime and under-reporting is a significant is-sue for students at British universities, it is important to remember that re-porting such incidences not only helps prevent their reoccurrence but also helps the victim access any support they might need.

Research grant to discover what makes our universe tick

Mei Leng Yew with extra reporting by

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www.palatinate.org.uk

6.2% turnout for DSU referendum The turnout of voters was just 6.2% for two referendums to decide the future of the DSU.

This is significantly lower than last year’s referendum in which 2496 stu-dents out of approximately 17,000 stu-dents voted.

DSU President SAM Roseveare ex-plained that last year’s referendum was held in February alongside the Sabbati-cal Officer elections. This raised the profile of the referendum and resulted in a higher turnout.

The first referendum passed mean-ing the DSU will change its name in order to register as an independent charity. The second means that there will be the separation of the Education and Welfare Officer into two positions and a move to make the student repre-sentative council more representative.

13% The percentage of hate incidents reported to a university official

SCA ColumnChris Pettet

DUCK Officer’s ColumnMartin Dorset-Purkis

Palatinate looks at the recent NUS report on ‘hate crime’ in universities

NUS reports hate crime prevalence

“The heart of academia is destroyed when stu-dents are targeted by anti-social behaviour”

With exams finally over, SCA week travelled from Queens Campus to Durham, providing students with worthwhile activities to fill the hours of free time.

This year several taster sessions ran during the two week period, to give potential volunteers a sample of what each project entails. Sessions were on offer at local care homes, Darlington Dogs Trust, the Seaham project with disadvantaged children and the very popular Thurston drama project.

All taster sessions were well at-tended and will provide a great base of volunteers for next year.

The highlight of the week was the annual beach trip. Durham volunteers and SCA office staff headed to Crim-don beach to give it a good clean up. The day trip was a great way to get out of Durham for a few hours and spend time in the fresh air.

After a few hours of litterpick-ing, everyone relaxed on the beach. Whilst some dared to dip their toes in the North Sea, nobody was too keen on heading out for a swim!

To find out more about any of the volunteering opportunities men-tioned above, email [email protected] or come into the of-fice for a chat on level A of the DSU (Durham) or room D215, Ebsworth building (Stockton).

Rowena Caine

NUS Vice-President and Welfare Officer, Ben Whittaker, believes that eradicating hatred is a “crucial step”

News

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Lecturer reveals Europeans were cannibals Azeez Siddiqui

A new book by a Durham lecturer reveals that European high society practised cannibalism up until the end of the 18th century.

Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires, which covers the history of European corpse medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians, claims that both roy-alty and scholars ate parts of the human body for medicinal purposes.

Examples include applying, drink-ing or wearing powdered Egyptian mummy or consuming human fat, flesh, bone, blood, brains and skin.

“In the heyday of medicinal canni-balism bodies or bones were routinely taken from Egyptian tombs and Eu-ropean graveyards. Not only that, but some way into the eighteenth century

one of the biggest imports from Ire-land into Britain was human skulls” writes Dr Richard Sugg, author of the book.

A Research Fellow in Literature and Medicine in the Department of Eng-lish Studies, Dr Sugg’s book explains that such cannibalistic customs were particularly popular in aristocratic cir-cles. Several members of the royalty swallowed parts of the human body. Notable users include Charles II, Fran-cis I, Elizabeth Grey Countess of Kent, William III and Queen Mary. The practice was endorsed by doctors such as Elizabeth I’s surgeon John Banister.

The book will be published on 29th June. Dr Sugg’s research will be fea-tured in a future Channel 4 documen-tary with Tony Robinson in which old cannibalistic medicines will be recre-ated using dead pigs. John Tradescant the younger

With a bottle of water costing £1 in YUM but only 50p in Tesco and 65p at M&S, is

the University catering for the financial needs of its students?

The results of a price comparison survey undertaken by the YUM man-agement in March indicated that their products were generally more expen-sive than Tesco’s, but cheaper than branded coffee houses.

While YUM’s cheapest sandwich costs £1.80, M&S offers ham sand-wiches at only a pound, and a wider selection of sandwiches is available for as little as £1.35 in their ‘Count on Us’ range.

Given these findings, some stu-dents have complained to Palatinate that YUM sandwiches are “overpriced for students”. It can be as expensive as £2.15 for a standard, egg and cress sandwich (to eat-in), compared to Tesco’s chicken and chorizo sandwich, which is £1.80.

Additionally, and not available to Queens’ Campus cafe-goers, YUM of-fers a £3.50 meal deal that includes a sandwich, any 500ml drink and a snack (either crisps, a small portion of pre-pared fruit or confectionery).

In Tesco, a far cheaper meal-deal can be found, costing just £2.50, and the range of products included in it is more extensive. Besides sandwiches, diners can choose from boxed sushi and wraps. And for 45 pence more than YUM’s deal, a student can grab an M&S meal deal which offers far greater

variety, including salads and pastas as well as the option to include a healthy fresh orange juice or smoothie.

Although YUM does not hide any price inequalities, displaying price-comparisons on signs in their out-lets, the question remains concerning whether YUM succeeds in meeting its self-proclaimed philosophy to “exceed the needs of our customers”.

Arguably, YUM does “exceed” some of its customers’ budgets.

Yet the University-run catering serv-ice remains popular amongst students, with queues often forming during lunch hours. During the exam-period

lunchtime rush, unlucky students were confronted by near-empty shelves and a coffee machine without milk. YUM management reviewed product avail-ability earlier this year and increased their orders on average by 370 products a week.

Students’ continued use of YUM franchises reveals one of their key strengths: convenience. Situated in prime locations including the main li-brary and Queen’s Campus Ebsworth Building, YUM cashes-in on students’ notorious laziness. Whilst a £1 cheap-er lunch may await in market square, YUM’s custom remains steady as stu-dents appreciate the ease of grabbing a snack between lectures, in the morn-ing rush to labs after a heavy night in Klute and during extensive stints in the library.

Founded in 2001, YUM expanded over the Easter break 2010 to open its

latest branch in the Riverside Café of the DSU. After a period of losing on average £700 per week, management of the Dunelm House café was handed over to YUM, in an attempt to help re-duce the deficit of the DSU which then stood at £130,000.

Alternatives considered for the space included licensing it to Starbucks. Some believed that this would have been a more viable option because such estab-lishments, though far more expensive, are extremely commercially successful.

Despite the above criticism of its food provision, YUM can be praised for their coffee prices and the loyalty card scheme which makes the hot bever-ages better value for money. Constantly evolving, YUM’s loyalty card gives stu-dents their eighth coffee free. It is simi-lar to the innovative loyalty schemes of companies like Costa, that gives cus-tomers 5p for every pound spent.

YUM’s coffee-prowess arguably stretches beyond its prices and loyalty scheme. Serving only Fairtrade, organic and Rainforest Alliance certified cof-fee, their green-credentials are undeni-able. Fairtrade guarantees that farmers receive a minimum price of $1.26 per pound of coffee, whilst the Rainforest Alliance ensures that wildlife and the environment are not damaged in the process of growing coffee.

Nothing is wasted as left-over coffee grounds are composted at the botanic garden.

YUM is neither the cheapest option, nor does it offer the most varied selec-tion of food but it is both convenient and socially responsible. Picking up a meal deal from the corporate giant Tes-co on the way to lectures in the morn-ing will make the student loan stretch a little further. But, for some students, the difference may be in more than just the price.

Lauren Stark and Sarah Ingrams

YUM: price vs qualityPALATINATE | Tuesday 21st June 20116

YUM Investigation www.palatinate.org.uk

£1.00 YUM

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“to exceed the needs of our customers”

Time for a YUM break: Durham and Queen’s Campus have branches

Price comparison: YUM versus the High Street

50p Tesco

Bottled Water 500ml

YUM’s philosphy

Once living costs are factored in, students will spend more than £28,000 per year of their studies, just £2,000 less than the cost of boarding fees at Eton. Professors at Birkbeck College, which Grayling has resigned from to set up NCH, condemned the fees as a move to “foreclose access to higher education for all those whose

bank accounts are not overly pro-vided.”

NCH students will not have access to government tuition fee or mainte-nance loans and only one fifth of the students will receive scholarships. Boris Johnson praised Grayling for creating a college for “the cream of the [Oxbridge] rejects”, but it is un-likely that many students would pre-fer to pay full fees at NCH when an Oxbridge education will only cost £9,000 a year.

Grayling has been further criticised for encouraging the commercialisa-

tion of the British higher education sector by promoting the celebrity status of the Professoriate and relying on publicly-funded resources such as the University of London’s library and syllabi. Indeed, Grayling himself argued in 2009 that university edu-cation should be provided “free of charge to all those suitably qualified for it” and denounced the NUS’ fo-cus on contact hours when evaluating courses. It appears that these qualms have been forgotten, as the New Col-lege of the Humanities website cites increased contact hours and tutorials by “14 of the world’s topic academ-ics” as a core part of its appeal.

However, it has emerged that stu-dents will only receive a single one-to-one tutorial each week, which will be not given by a professor. Two of the founding History Professors, Sir David Cannadine and Linda Colley, will only give one lecture each in the College’s first academic year. Their profiles on the College website state that they are “visiting Professors”.

It was also revealed that almost half of the professors will teach on the “science literacy” and “applied ethics” diploma courses only, rais-ing fears that students will be pay-ing extremely high fees to hear lec-tures which are already available on YouTube. Despite Grayling likening the Diploma courses to American Liberal Arts programmes, students will not be required to have any sci-

ence qualifications except a grade C in GCSE maths and will therefore only be given lectures on popular sci-ence and “professional skills” rather than taking advanced Maths and sci-ence courses.

Whether the College will be a suc-cess or not depends upon whether a few hundred sixth formers are willing to sacrifice their wider university ex-perience and convince their parents

to invest heavily in their education. Yet with the job market becoming ever more competitive and employ-ers increasingly looking for students to have teamwork and leadership skills (which are most commonly developed through participation in sport and societies) NCH’s students may find that getting a return on their investment is harder than they thought.

It is a college for “the cream of the [Oxbridge] rejects” Boris Johnson

Continued from front page

Students slate Grayling’s New College News



Grayling: renowned philosopher and founding member of the New College

Her retirement has not diminished her standing in the archaeological com-munity. She retains many roles includ-ing the Presidency of Durham and Northumberland Architectural and Archaeological Society (2000-2003), membership of the Management Group leading the Wearmouth and Jarrow bid for World Heritage Status (2009) and membership of the steer-ing group for Bede’s World, Jarrow.

Professor Cramp also continues to work in Durham University’s Archaeol-ogy Department, representing it on the international and national stage.

“One of the greatest joys though has been the number of old students who have written and e-mailed to say what they remembered about my teaching and excavations,” Professor Cramp ex-plained. “Some were from the begin-ning of my Durham career and they are spread throughout the world”.

The North East enjoyed further suc-cess in the honours list. Popular singer, Bryan Ferry, originally from Washing-ton, Wearside, was awarded a CBE for services to music. Before becoming the frontman of the iconic band Roxy Mu-sic, Ferry studied fine art at Newcastle University.

But the main headline was recogni-tion for television entertainer, Bruce Forsythe after an extensive public cam-paign.

Continued from front page

Professor made a Dame

Name: Hals BaggaleyYear of graduation: 2008 (BA Hons) 2009 (MA)Subject studied: Theology and ReligionCollege: HatfieldCurrent company and job title: The Co-operative Group, Project OfficerLocation: ManchesterStarting salary for graduates: £23,000

My role involves working on, and managing, a variety of projects across our different businesses. I first com-pleted a mini-project in Food Opera-tions, looking at till point efficiency and queuing times in stores. I then took a four month project in Food Commercial, focusing on raising the profile of Fairtrade with internal colleagues and delivering a variety of elements for Fairtrade Fortnight. I am currently working in Funeralcare in the Marketing department, develop-ing a new product range and Point of Sale.

The responsibilities of my role vary depending on the project I am working on. It varies from creating and managing a project plan, engag-ing key stakeholders, chairing project meetings, undertaking research, report writing, delivering presenta-tions, developing and issuing creative briefs, and acting as the key contact for suppliers.

Employee members receive an an-nual dividend of £500, and the Group invests heavily in the development of its graduates, offering us regular man-agement training, a personal develop-ment budget of £1000 to spend as needed, and the option to undertake a professional qualification, such as CIM and CIPD.

One of the perks of my job is that I’ve had lots of chances to meet and network with people. We change projects every four months, so I have made contacts during my different roles. The graduate scheme is also very sociable, holding regular events.

Name: Hannah MoffattCollege: St Cuthbert’s SocietyYear of graduation: 2010Company: Teach First

I’m a first year participant on the Teach First Graduate scheme. Es-sentially graduates are trained for six weeks over the summer before being placed in exceptionally challenging schools as full time teachers. It is Teach First’s mission to address ‘edu-cational diasadvantage’, and whilst this is certainly one aspect that motivates graduates to apply, you also receive a teaching qualification for free whilst being paid a teacher’s salary.

A further attraction for graduates is the corporate connection. Teach First has highly influential sponsors with whom many participants do an internship, and subsequently work for, after their compulsory two years in their school.

Despite these perks, Teach First is a brutal option for any graduate. The days are long: I get in to work for 7 am and leave at 6 pm, and in my first term I worked at home until 11 most evenings.

The behaviour is also incredibly challenging. On a daily basis students are rude, uncooperative and disrup-tive. This is punctuated by more marked and extreme behaviour: tables overturned, punches, arson and being told in no uncertain terms to f*** off.

However, working with young people is incredibly rewarding. Many of my students are kind and giving. They are incredibly entertaining in an

obvious way; the pupils’ Black Death performance to Beyonces’ ‘Single Ladies’ was a particular highlight, but they are often unintentially hilarious too. In our first lesson on Medieval history, I asked a student why the year 1066 sounded familiar and she responded by saying that it was the devil’s number.

Not a day goes past when I don’t feel overhwlemed that at 22 years old, I am responsible for over 300 students’ learning. However, this soon passes when I am confronted with a group of year eight students whose performance of the ‘Good Samaritan’ seems to be turning into a scene from the exorcist and I have to step in.

News Durham8 Tuesday 21 June 2011 | PALATINATE

Graduation seems a long way off for most of us. Ever wondered what it could be like in the cold hard world? These graduates are working and willing to tell us all about it.


Careers Interviews with Durham graduates, looking at their careers since leaving university and offering advice to this year’s leavers

Careers

Less than 10% of first degree leavers in 2009 were assumed to be unemployed, while over 30% went straight into a job.

Life after Durham: catching up with our graduates

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Name: Jenny Downey Year of graduation: 2007 Subject studied: Spanish and Italian College: Van Mildert Current company and job title: Metal Derivatives Corporate Sales, BNP Paribas

I work within Commodity De-rivatives, marketing both base and precious metals hedging solutions to corporate clients based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We work with the producers, mining companies and smellters on solu-tions to hedge their production, as well as the consumers and ultimate end users of metals, such an engine

or car manufacturers (nickel is a key element in stainless steel and aluminium is used for the body-work) or the beverage industry who require aluminium, tin or steel cans.

As for highs and lows, there is a fair amount of travelling involved - going to meet clients and getting to know and understand their underly-ing business is a key part of the job. It is very much a people business so contacts and networking is vital. However, the hours can be long, and being a sales role, there is always pressure to meet targets, but it is ultimately a very rewarding career.

Commodities in particular is entering an exciting new phase, as China enters the fray, and the developing world becomes increas-ingly industrialised - which of course creates a demand for raw materials such as steel rebar and copper wiring on the metals side.

Durham leavers take note: you don’t necessarily need a degree in Economics or Finance to get a job in banking - any good degree will bring its own set of skills. My Spanish and Italian have also really come in useful on a day-to-day basis. The in-terview will of course assess a broad understanding of macroeconomics and you do need to be prepared for a steep learning curve. In what is a very competitive field, demonstrat-ing drive, tenacity and willingness to learn are key.

Name: James SparksFormer college: TrevelyanSubject studied: GeographyYear of graduation: 2007

After I graduated in 2007 I went through a tough patch looking for a job. I had two unsuccessful stints as an estate agent, though I was fortunate to have some part-time work in a horse-racing syndicate to fall back on.

It wasn’t until eight months after my graduation that I was hired by British Airways, where I’m still em-ployed today in staff training.

However, I’ve always possessed an entrepreneurial streak and I’ve been involved in numerous (many unsuc-cessful!) business ventures over the years. My current project is Speed-birdConsultants.com, where I’m part of a team that gives presentations to men on how to make themselves at-tractive to women… not your normal everyday business, I’m sure you’ll agree!

To people who are leaving Durham this year, the most important thing to remember is that each year there are a lot of graduates who are all going to be in the same boat as you, so you have to make your job applications stand out. Tens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of people are all going to

be applying for the same positions, so it is crucial that you make yours dif-ferent and catch the employer’s eye. It is pretty easy to guess what points the majority of applicants are going to be saying about themselves – keep these in mind when constructing your own, and then make yours stand out with

an undercurrent of genuine enthu-siasm about the position in ques-tion. I’d be delighted to answer any questions. Please email me at [email protected]

Name: James KnowlesCollege: John Snow Subject studied: Business Year of graduation: 2009 Job Title: Graduate Merchandising Trainee Starting salary: £24,000

John Lewis is such a well regarded company that I actively researched what graduate schemes were on offer.

One highlight in particular was my first Christmas there, and the experi-ence of trading in the Gifts Buying Office - there was such a buzz and a huge amount of energy around the office, and it was great to have respon-sibility for my own area (games, i.e. board games, jigsaws etc.) to maxim-ise sales. I also enjoyed the exposure I have had with senior managers in the business - it really is an environment where you can become very much involved, openly challenging and contributing to wider scale initiatives that are going on.

To be honest, there really haven’t been any lows that stick out in my memory! Perhaps the more frustrat-ing things are those which you can’t do very much about e.g. overseas shipments coming in late and missing product launch dates. I have worked on two main projects so far, alongside some of the other grads. The first was looking at our shop-floor service

proposition in Fashion and recom-mending future changes. This was really exciting as we presented to two of the Board of Directors, and we are now looking to implement some of our ideas. The second was centered around the John Lewis Value Range and analysing our current offer. Again, this is something that we are taking forward, showing that you really can have an impact at John Lewis on how the Partnership runs the business.

My advice to this year’s leav-

ers would be to understand what competencies the specific job or grad scheme is looking for, and think of work and University examples that show some of those character traits. If you focus on those attributes this will stand you in good stead. And finally, don’t be put off by the number of ap-plicants applying for jobs. Ultimately some grads have to get the jobs, why can’t it be you?!

Name: Rosie KinchenYear of graduation: 2004College: CastleCurrent job: Home News re-porter at The Sunday Times

Languages have helped my ca-reer as a journalist because they gave me an opportunity to offer something that other aspiring journalists couldn’t. I studied French and Italian at Durham and spent two years working in marketing and not using either.

When I decided to leave and do a journalism course, hav-ing kept up my language skills helped to land me a job as a trainee on the Sunday Times Foreign desk. It meant that I was able to contribute more because I would be monitoring the French and Italian media and be able to contribute ideas. It also meant I could help correspond-ents with stories if they needed interviews or research done in languages they couldn’t speak.

I am now a reporter on Home news so there ought to be less of a demand for them, but I find that with the EU ever important, I’m using them as much as ever.

When I chose to study lan-guages, I did it out of pure enjoy-ment, and I had no idea that they would come in as handy as they have. It’s been a very pleasant surprise in terms of career, and I still love getting foreign films out of the video shop to help keep me up to speed…

It’s too hard to call regard-ing my most exciting project with this job- there have been lots of weird and wonderful ones: being in the kettle outside Fortnum and Mason with the anarchists at recent protests, interviewing Brits who’d been stuck in Libya after a marathon 30 hour journey home…

What are the downsides of your work? Anti social hours and high pressure.

For those who wish to enter a media-related career, I would say it’s important to be enter-prising, and it’s more about making good relationships than it is about amassing great stuff on your CV (though I’m sure that helps too).

What are you doing next year? Write to [email protected] more graduate profiles online at www.palatinate.org.uk/careers

9

Graduation seems a long way off for most of us. Ever wondered what it could be like in the cold hard world? These graduates are working and willing to tell us all about it.


Careers Interviews with Durham graduates, looking at their careers since leaving university and offering advice to this year’s leavers

CareersPALATINATE | Tuesday 21 June 2011

Life after Durham: catching up with our graduates

Name: Ed LevyYear of graduation: 2007 BSc, 2009 MASubject studied: Geography BSc, Management MA (Durham Business School)College: HatfieldCurrent company and job title: Accenture, AnalystStarting salary for graduates: £31,500 (plus £10,000 split over two years).

The aim of my role is to help global sales and marketing teams at major pharmaceutical companies to disseminate information out to the companies’ regional and coun-try level practices as efficiently as possible. I spend most of my time talking with client and third party stakeholders on the phone, face-to-face, and over email to get things moving, monitoring activi-ties, risks and issues on the project, training people, and helping to plan new projects. My role also allows me to make time to help Graduate Recruitment reach out to new members of the Accenture team, with a particular personal attachment to Durham!

Apart from the financial bonus, we have a host of deals, vouch-ers, coupons and performance bonuses available that cover most aspects of non-working life, from a free coffee maker, through to a driving experience day, or a night in the company box at the O2 Arena or Twickenham. There’s always an opportunity to travel; I’ve travelled to Zurich and Vienna with the company, and members of my team returned from Miami just last week. Meeting people is what we do a lot of, and it’s a big asset to the company if you can do it well. I’m rarely in the same of-fice on a given day, so I am always meeting new people, whilst at the same time enjoying working as part of a close knit team of around 12 people.

The salary and perks are com-petitive for the hours I currently do (circa 45 hours per week), and the people I work with are all highly intelligent, great fun to work and socialise with, and keen to be team players. But sometimes the work can get a bit hard going, but no harder than a dissertation cram-ming session and you get paid for this one!

My advice is to stay true to your-self. I love my job now, but with the benefit of hindsight, I should probably be a Geography teacher...

News Durham10 Tuesday 21st June 2011 | PALATINATE


Durham 20: graduates destined for successDurham 20

Alistair LinsellJosephine Butler, Chemistry

As the workshop officer of the Im-provised Comedy Society, Alistair has improved the standard of the society’s output hundredfold and elevated it from a handful of people to a society that has been to the Edinburgh Fringe festival twice and been named one of the top 5 improvised comedy acts there by The List, an Edinburgh festival review sheet. He will be at the Fringe this year with his own comedy troupe and is bound to make an outstanding contribution to comedy in the years to come.

Alex TweddellSt Aidan’s, Law

With the largest number of nomina-tions in the Durham 20, Alex (pic-tured above) has been an invaluable member of Durham Student Theatre, holding the roles of Technical Direc-tor of the society in his second year, and President in his third. He has worked on over 50 productions dur-ing his time at Durham and also on productions at the Edinburgh fringe and the National Student Drama festival, for which he was a Venue Manager this year. Next year, he is be-ginning a stage management course at Bristol Old Vic. Alex has also worked with professional companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet, National Youth Theatre and British Youth Opera.

Lucinda McDadeHatfield, English

Lucinda has worked unrelentingly over the last 2 years to establish ‘Siren’, a Feminist Collective in Durham. Overcoming setbacks in the disputing of the ‘need’ for feminism in Durham, she has created a weekly lively forum of discussion, fundraising events and a community of nearly 300 members. Lucinda was also elected as Gen-der Equality Officer last year, and represented the university at the NUS Women’s Conference. She edits The Bubble’s ‘Sex’ section with a feminist slant.

James HubbardHild Bede, Theology

James has been active in DUCK and Student Community Action (SCA) since he began at Durham. From organising all of DUCK’s ragraids for the year 2009-10, to sitting on the SCA exec, to being director of both DUCK and SCA in his final year and sitting on the board of a national volunteering conference, Jamie has devoted copious amounts of time and energy to activities and projects which benefit others.

Amy AnnetteSt. Mary’s, Politics

Amy has been heavily involved in the Arts since arriving in Durham and has held the position of St. Mary’s Arts President for over two years, introducing The Bloody Mary college news-sheet. She has performed in a number of Operas, notably in Albert Herring. She was Social Secretary for DULOG this year and is also the edi-tor of the online magazine Durham21.com- overseeing a massive increase in pageviews, in part due to the intro-duction of a student food section. She is producing the ex-Durham Revue to the Edinburgh Fringe this August.

Philip HatzisTrevelyan, Civil Engineering

Philip has completed a number of Iron Man triathlons during his studies, as well setting up, along with some friends, Tri Training Harder, a company specialising in training for arguably the most gruelling sporting discipline on the planet. For details, see www.tritrainingharder.com.

Kieran AldredTrevelyan, Combined Hons in Arts

As the brains behind the Durham University students against enforced 38 week lets for freshers campaign, Kieran gained the support of over 1,200 students, leading the proposal to be scrapped. He was also welfare officer for the LGBTA last year and brought in a special awareness week. This summer Kieran has secured a civil service internship and will travel to Amsterdam in September for his masters in European studies.

Claudia ConwaySt Mary’s, Politics

In her three years at Durham, Clau-dia’s theatrical experience includes producing and stage-managing many shows in Durham, as well as a uni-versity-wide talent competition, and production managing the University Charity Fashion Show 2010. She was a member of the executive commit-tee for the Durham Drama Festival of New Work 2009 and co-directed the festival in 2010. She has also worked professionally with Northern Stage in Vermont as Assistant Stage-Manager and Tour Manager for their Project Playwright. She has produced and tour managed two international, professional Castle Theatre Company tours and is currently doing likewise for this year’s tour.

Improvised comedian Alistair Linsell, one of Durham’s ‘ones to watch’

Rob MalaneySt. Cuth’s, Politics

Malaney, pictured right (centre), captained the rugby 1st XV to an unbeaten season and won the British cup at Twickenham for the first time since 2004. His try set up a thrilling finale in the national final, and Rob will no doubt be in high demand after such a stellar performance.

Durham’s alumni include the likes of athlete Jonathan Edwards, cricketer Andrew Strauss and former Bond actor George Lazenby. Durham 20 is Palatinate’s round-up of those of the class of 2011 who are aiming for similar success

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Durham 20: graduates destined for successDurham 20


Adam McGuinnessHild Bede, Sociology

Last year Adam achieved major suc-cess when he was crowned national Ju-Jitsu champion. After the bitter disappointment of the sport not being adopted by the IOC for the London Olympics, he remains hopeful that the organisation will provide the sport with the recognition it deserves by granting it a place in Rio in 2016. Adam continues to train hard in the hope of competing at the United Nations Ju Jitsu Annual Congress competition in South Africa in 2013.

Rebecca CollingwoodHild Bede, Earth Sciences

Rebecca won acclaimed D’Oscars for both ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Best Actress in a Musical’ last year for her roles in The Blue Room and West Side Story. She will be heading to drama school next year; currently holding a place at Mountview for Musical Theatre and is about to attend a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art audition.

Sophia RogersJosephine Butler, Law

Sophia was president of the Dur-ham Innocence Project this year, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people, and she has been instrumental in organising a BBC documentary that will feature the case they are working on. Sophia has been offered places on Law courses at Oxford University, NYU and Har-vard, reflecting her excellent academic abilities. After lengthy considera-tion, Sophia has chosen to follow in the footsteps of Barack Obama and study at the prestigious Harvard Law school.

Matthew MorganSt. Cuth’s, Music

Matthew is an enormously accom-plished musician and has spent three years as a choral scholar in the Cathe-dral choir. He has also performed as a soloist on multiple occasions, in con-certs both in and out of the cathedral. Next year, Matthew will be taking up a place at the prestigious Royal Acad-emy of Music in London, and should most certainly be considered as ‘one to watch’ over the coming years.

Ash CookeHatfield, Chemistry

As a budding singer/songwriter, Ash (pictured above) has made a con-siderable contribution to the music scene in Durham. As well as perform-ing regularly at a host of venues, he was events manager for Alt soc and organised the Immaculate Machine and B>E>A>K gigs which were the first profit making gigs the society has run for a number of years.

Katie SloaneSt Cuth’s, Ancient History

Not only has Katie played first team lacrosse at university level for 3 years, she was social secretary in her second year and captained the side in this, her final year. With Katie playing as a fresher, Durham were knocked out in the national quarter finals by Cam-bridge and in her second year they were eliminated by same opponents in the semi-finals. This year with Katie as captain they beat Cambridge in the finals to be made Champions, the result paying testament to her leader-ship and considerable dedication to the sport.

James BirchHatfield, Geography

Racing motor cars since the age of 9, James (pictured below) has a mass of international championship titles under his belt, including European Volkswagen Champion 2009. He is also the youngest driver who will ever race the full Nurburgring in a single-seater.

Nathaniel BarberGrey, Law

Nathaniel was one of Durham’s representatives in the Jessup Mooting Competition, in which the team man-aged to win the national rounds and place very favourably in the interna-tional rounds in Washington DC. In the national rounds he scored 98/100 as an individual oralist. As President of the Mooting Society he also played a significant role in training other students in preparation for national mooting competitions, as well as organising volunteering at Durham Gilesgate Sixth Form.

Archie DallasTrevelyan, English

Archie (pictured above) has spent a year as DUCK Challenges Rep and not only organises everything but takes an active part in it all as well. Despite spending hours on end in the DUCK office he also finds time for college sport and is a prominent figure in Hill Theatre Company pro-ductions. Next year Archie is DUCK Manager elect, and will no doubt bring more of the same enthusiasm and dedication to the role.

Emily Warbuton-BrownSt Mary’s, sabbatical

President of St. Mary’s JCR, Chair of JCR PresComm, Student Senate Rep. and formerly Social Chair at Mary’s, Emily has thrown herself into every aspect of college life with alacrity. For-merly a classics and ancient history student, Emily also worked hard on resolving the 38 week lets issue and will no doubt rise quickly in whatever role she takes on, though even she couldn’t save Saturday nights at the DSU from the grave.

JAZZY LEM

ON

Ciaran O’MalleyVan Mildert, P.P.E

Throughout his time at Durham Ciaran has worked hard to create the infamous Gold brand and nights as well as creating, marketing and sell-ing the Elvet card. Ciaran’s inspired entrepreneurial spirit will no doubt lead to success post-Durham so he’s definitely one to watch.

Durham’s alumni include the likes of athlete Jonathan Edwards, cricketer Andrew Strauss and former Bond actor George Lazenby. Durham 20 is Palatinate’s round-up of those of the class of 2011 who are aiming for similar success

With Durham 20, Palati-nate brings you a selection of this year’s most prom-ising gradutes in various fields, as nominated by their fellow students. All of the students featured on these pages have shown huge potential while at Durham and we wish them the best of luck as they seek to reach the pinnacle of their respec-tive careers.

Dom Joly’s path into comedy has been far from conven-tional; but then Dom Joly is

not your average comedian. The son of English parents of Swiss extraction, Joly was raised in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War; he attended the same school as Osama Bin Laden (though they were twelve years apart) and graduated with a degree in Arabic from SOAS, going on to work as a diplomat, management consultant and political researcher.

It doesn’t immediately put one in mind of the kind of surreal and irreverent sketches he made famous in ‘Trigger Happy TV’, in which animal-suited actors attack each other on the streets or perform surgery in costume; lure members of the public into helping him with cartoonish “rob-beries” or perform KGB-style “deals”. Furthermore, since the second series came to an end, Joly’s TV has only be-come more bizarre. He is particularly proud of being paid to “drink [his] way around the world”, “dress up as a giant penis” and “travel to Nicaragua to ski down a volcano”. Despite award-winning travel columns and a string of TV successes, Joly confesses he still “[wakes] up every day wondering how [he] blagged it”.

His latest show, ‘Welcome to wher-ever I am’ is about “asking how I got here”. It details his travels to exotic and secretive corners of the earth – places that “very few other people make it to”. Visits to North Korea, Chernobyl and Iran provide some of Joly’s more fantastic anecdotes. In North Korea, Joly was struck by the “dancing traffic martials” who direct “non-existent traffic” along the street, beside lawns that are “clipped with nail scissors”. As part of the tour, Joly presents his “impressive holiday snaps”: some 10,000 photographs through which he tells “bizarre” stories he has picked up on his journeys. Yet he is adamant that even the most surreal encounters point up the “normality” of people’s lives. He reminisces at length about friends he made in Iran who “took [him] skiing and got [him] drunk”, as though these two things are the cornerstone of everyday life. Drinking is evidently rather close to Joly’s heart (he persuaded Sky to pay him to make a programme about drinking all over the world).

If it all sounds a bit too much like “fun”, it is intriguing that Joly can offer some decidedly sober thoughts as to where this brand of comedy

originates. He cites his upbringing as one source: growing up with his “feet in two very different worlds”, he absorbed some “really hybrid” ideas. A lot of his early reading was “French stuff” and he sees something “very European” about the “surreal” comedy he is now known for. There is an underlying sense of “pointlessness” to it which is rather “Continental”; more than this, it is “pointless things which are funny”.

He tells me about a long and ardu-ous journey to the Arctic, travelling for days “only to bash a pair of cymbals behind an Eskimo’s head and then go all the way home”. Reflecting on what

it is that makes “funny stuff” worth doing, Joly offers: “I like doing stuff for the sake of it”. Yet his answer seems defiant rather than simple. In conver-

sation he has veered dramatically from self-consciously clipped responses to elaborate, almost endless ones within the space of a few minutes. I’m left wondering whether it is an act – de-

signed, perhaps, to show that he won’t be drawn out on anything unless he enjoys it.

Asked if he ever felt like an out-sider, he replies without a moment’s hesitation: “always”. “In England, being Lebanese; in Lebanon, being English […] I’ve never fitted in”. Yet there’s not a hint of melancholy- in fact, Joly seems to relish his “difference”. He laughs light-heartedly at his own remark that his “neighbours in the Cotswolds hate [him]”.

Joly has a gift for attracting abuse. Aled Jones called him a “knob” after appearing on television with him, and his twitter feed is awash with

four-letter word insults from absolute strangers. He is so frequently criticised by celebrities and viewers alike that one almost feels sorry for him, but then he takes extraordinary delight in returning the insults. It’s hard not to believe him when he says “I love the haters”.

Joly acquired many of his ‘haters’ from Trigger Happy TV’s willingness to implicate passers-by in uncomforta-ble settings. In one sketch, Joly dresses up as a robber (complete with bag labelled ‘swag’) asks a stranger for help with a ‘burglary’ and leaves yelling “me and him just burgled this house!” When I suggest there might be some-thing lazy about comedy that relies so heavily upon the look on a stranger’s face (rather than any particular verbal brilliance on Joly’s part), he seems not to hear the criticism. Nor can he comprehend why people would call it “mean-spirited” to showcase passer-bys’ confusion in his comedy. He deflects the question by explaining

that his real interest is “pathos”. It feels for a moment as though I’m being thrown a clever word as a piece of bait, to distract me from criticism. But Joly is too sharp for tricks, and goes on to explain that he’s not interested in “pranks”, nor are his sketches about “violence”: it is simply part and parcel of comedy to “unsettle” people and “freak them out”.

Why, then, would an unconven-tional and successful comic choose to participate in ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get me out of here’; a programme where careers seem to go to die. Joly himself called it “the death of hope”, yet he has also called it “the greatest show on TV” and rather proudly adds, “they asked me every year” even though he always said no. But with a movie deal, a book deal and a TV deal in the pipe-line, Joly went on the show because “I didn’t need it at all”. After living in the jungle, stripped of familiar items like wristwatches and telephones, endur-ing the “unusual” ordeal of eating out of Gillian McKeith’s pants, Joly is deeply “glad” he did it. In fact, he “lost so much weight that it was genuinely good for me”.

Having visited some of the most secluded spots on earth, imagine my surprise when the continent-hopping Joly says he has visited Durham. Dur-ham in England, I ask? (Cue withering put-down from Joly). In fact, Joly met his first girlfriend on the train up to his interview; she also had a place to read Arabic at St. Aidans. Although Joly “loved” Durham, he was obvi-ously rather keener on his girlfriend, who gained a place at SOAS and Joly dutifully “followed her there”. Asked for his reflections on University life, Joly pauses – a rare interruption – and sombrely offers, “Never do anything just for a girlfriend”.

Durham News

Profile For more interviews, go to www.palatinate.org.uk

Joly’s enigmatic career continues Dom Joly chats to Palatinate about his upcoming show, Trigger Happy TV and being at school with Bin Laden Ettie Bailey-King



“Joly confesses he still ‘[wakes] up every day wondering how [he] blagged it”

Trigger Happy TV’s willingness to implicate passers-by in uncomfortable settings gave it a huge following

“Never do anything just for a girlfriend”

“His latest show details his travels to secretive corners of the earth”

The resurgence of the British monarchy

May 2011 will be remembered as the month when the Brit-ish monarchy announced

itself as being here for the longhaul. After years of public disappointment and questions surrounding the value of a constitutional monarchy for the nation, the House of Windsor has re-emerged, with Queen Elizabeth II at its head, as the perfect ambassador for Britain to the world.

In the last two decades, the British monarchy has suffered some strik-ing blows to its integrity. When the relationship of Prince Charles and Princess Diana began to wane, it was a far fling from the spectacle of their grand marriage in 1981. While the couple completed their divorce in 1996, the damage had been done. Af-fairs in a couple who were supposedly representative of the nation as a whole placed an almost indelible blemish on the monarchy’s respectability.

Diana’s death in a car crash in 1997 changed the entire view of monarchy once again. Criticism surrounded the royal family including suggestions that they handled the global media attention badly, not showing sufficient sympathy. Meanwhile dangerous con-spiracy theories suggested that perhaps Prince Philip was involved in plotting

Diana’s death.In more recent times, the argu-

ments have become far more general. Following the realisation that major spending cuts needed to be made, the focus swung dramatically onto the royal family. The argument was made that Britain should not be spending such money on an empty constitu-tional body, particularly when the rest of the nation was feeling the pains of recession.

But, contrary to the negativity of recent years, in the last month or so, the British monarchy has shown itself to be a real power for modern times.

On 29th April, an estimated one billion people worldwide stopped to enjoy the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. What was it that attracted such a large proportion of the world to stop their daily lives for the wedding of two young people, especially if the monarchy as an institu-tion is democratically defunct?

William and Catherine were a sym-bol of everything the monarchy can be for Britain. They were young: both still in their 20s. They were cool and in-touch: they drove proudly out of Buckingham palace in a ‘just-married’ open top Aston Martin. William and Catherine showed that the monarchy can be relevant to younger generations of British people.

The Queen’s visit to Ireland in recent weeks also showed that the monarchy can be still be a useful political force for Britain as well. The Queen’s speech at the Irish State Dinner, which she opened with the Gaelic “A Uachtaráin agus a chairde (President and Friends)”, was a spoken symbol of how the brutal tensions between Britain and Ireland can be healed with calm and considered negotiation.

It will be argued that the Queen,

with her exceptional diplomatic skills, adherence to political neutrality and decades of experience, is the glue hold-ing the rickety structure of the royal family together. However, William and Catherine show that the monarchy will remain in exceptionally good hands. They showed by their perfectly judged wedding, that they could pick the public mood almost perfectly. Even Prince Charles, has moved on from his troubles in the 1980s and 1990s, and has shown himself to be a fervent supporter of current issues such as

environmental protection and youth work.

Barack Obama, proposing a toast at a state banquet at Buckingham palace, summed up the monarchy’s impor-tance perfectly. The President noted, “We can face the challenges of the 21st century together, based on the rock solid foundation built during Queen Elizabeth’s lifetime of extraordinary service to her nation and to the world.” Political leadership is temporal, it waxes and wanes with public opinion. But the leadership of the monarchy

can stand firm and maintain adherence to the core British values of resilience, generosity and dignity.

If we are to maintain a constitutional monarchy, then it needs to consistently be a potent force for good, represent-ing Britain’s best interests worldwide, while maintaining a level of poise and dignity high above the fleeting nature of politics.

On the evidence of the last few months, the British monarchy is here to stay for a long time.

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Comment Reflections on graduation, plus a special report from Spain

Durham News

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Will Clothierhates:

Facebook taking over your life

A wedding, a trip to Ireland and a toast from the US President - suddenly the monarchy seems stronger than ever

Charlie Taverner

Facebook has started doing a curious thing. Well, it’s started doing many curious things, such as immediately displaying the five most recent pho-tographs of you last night, on your profile, like a reverse storyboard of drunkenness in which your state vis-ibly deteriorates from right to left. Or such as presumptuously telling you at which event you befriended someone, like an arrogant stalker.

But the curious thing that annoys me most is the habit that Facebook has adopted of reminding us of ‘mem-orable’ status updates. Status updates that happened long ago, in the past.

Now, when we want to see an event, or a group, a status that Facebook has deemed ‘memorable’ will hover in our peripheral vision like an irritating, fecal-smeared fly. I don’t even care about some of the statuses in my news feed in the present (though admittedly this doesn’t stop me checking it every fifteen minutes…).

I find this, Facebook’s most annoy-ing of all its ever-expanding annoying habits, really, really depressing. Do you remember this inconsequential thing you said in the past, about something in the past? Well I do, because I am Facebook, and I remember every tiny

little comment, and I will force-feed you from my bottomless trough of pointless memories, so that when you are twenty, you will be reminded, against your will, of a status that some kid from school wrote when you were

sixteen about Jenson Button’s tyre trac-tion in the Moroccan Grand Prix warm up lap of 2006.

No, Facebook, that is not memora-ble. There is something about seeing the status ‘just joint won the pub quiz… Woo’, that drains the soul, when you know that this trivial, meager piece of nothing happened over a year ago. Adfljka;”lfdfd&ulafsdk. Sorry. That was my head hitting the keyboard having just read a stale, rotting carcass of an eight month old frape about one of my friends putting a sausage up their bum, which Facebook dragged in front of my eyes like a

dog dragging a dead mouse into your room and dropping it on your bed as though it has done you a great service. Thanks FB, but no thanks.

Come to think of it, I don’t want to see a frape about one of my friends

putting a sausage up their bum, ever.

But this is what we get when we crawl back to the tyrannical king of social network sites.

Inane little nothings, mostly from people we don’t really want to lis-

ten to that much. So why do we use it every day? Maybe it would be better just to speak to people, face-to-face, like before. Ahhh, does anyone remember what it was like before…?

At this point, I should come clean. I have a disgusting and unthinkable confession to make. I’ve only actually had a Facebook account for a little less than a year. I was one of the last to hold out. And before that, there was no Myspace account, no Bebo, no MSN. ‘But…what? No Facebook? Did you not have any friends?’ But slowly over the past year, I have become, like everyone else, somewhat an addict of the site. And Twitter. And Skype.

Although at least the last one preserves the prehistoric human dignity of actually seeing a person’s face when speaking to them. I have also forgotten what it was like before.

This mass Facebook addiction was particularly evident during the exam period, when Facebook flourished as a procrastination oasis, where we were pulled back to our news feed, as bits of scrap metal to a giant, evil magnet. There was no better way to avoid revis-ing than to eat up those holy little red numbers in the top lefthand corner of the screen. The site’s evil magnet power during this crucial part of the year was so threatening that one of my friends decided to give up Facebook for the exam period, having her password changed secretly by a trusted helper, so that she was completely cut off from her account. And afterwards, she said that when she finally went back to it, she found that she hadn’t actually missed it as much as she’d thought. Maybe there is hope.

Having said that, during the course of writing this, I genuinely just received an update, on my mobile phone, from a follower on Twitter, talking about the joyful feeling of ‘unfriending’ someone on Facebook. Oh, the irony.



The royal wedding appears to signify the British monarchy’s resurgence after two decades of blows to its integrity

“The British monarchy is here to stay for a long time”

“In exams it flourished as a procrastination oasis”

Comment

And here we are, at the end of an-other year in Durham. Freshers are lamenting moving onto do-

ing work that actually “counts”, second years are consoling themselves with “at least this year was only worth 40%” and a new batch of graduands (the quirky name for undergraduates who have finished their courses but don’t have their degrees just yet) are ready to go out into the “real” world and leave the bubble which has been their home for the last three or four years.

This eager little army, clutching their 2:1s, to London, or abroad, or to the welcoming arms of KPMG, Ernst&Young, or the other familiar names that have been hovering in the wings of careers fairs and sponsored events since arriving in Durham. If not the “promised land” of Pricewa-terhouseCoopers, then the green meadows of a law conversion, or the Elysian fields of a PGCE seem favour-able options. For a lucky few, there lies the prospect of a second shot at medicine, whilst others can take the increasingly popular “Kate Middle-ton route” – work for Mummy and Daddy’s company and if that doesn’t work out, marry Prince Charming. To all of these, and more, I say “good luck”, followed swiftly by, “remember me when you make your first million”.

Other graduands are boldly em-barking on Masters degrees, PhDs, or a second crack at Oxbridge to become the academics, lecturers and top researchers of the future. No one would have thought it looking back at the drunken photographs of a dimly remembered Freshers’ Week in Au-

tumn 2007 or 2008, but that drunken loon at the back wearing far too much neon body paint could be the person to find a cure for cancer, Or, they could just be lusting after another year as a student, or satisfying their academic urges before heading off into the Great Graduate Job Hunt. Whatever their planned study, or motives, again, I say “good luck and farewell”.

Another brave group is happily setting out on ambitious travel plans, or having some time out to think over how they wish to spend the rest of their lives. And, kudos to them for having the guts to schedule some free time after an incredible seventeen (or more) years in education, to reassess their priorities and contemplate what exactly it is they want to do. Sometimes choosing to schedule some time to “find yourself” can be just as daunting post-graduation as diving headlong into a job.

Yet, there is another phenomenon hitting the graduands of Durham this June (and I’m not talking about the infamous ‘goldrush’). I refer to whole hearted “Graduation Denial”. Many graduands seem totally shocked by the prospect of leaving Durham and are denying leaving the bubble altogether. Symptoms include refusal to talk about the summer (and beyond), or sudden-ly contemplating a Masters when one has never previously been mentioned. The realisation that one must suddenly become a “grown up” seems to have floored many and stupefied the rest.

There are a whole host of idealess soon-to-be graduates, grieving for three years that have flown by all too quickly, with what seems like pre-cious little to show for it. They rush around in the last three weeks of term, mourning their lack of work experi-ence, extra-curriculars, or some other suitable evidence to show that the last three/four years have been spent doing

something more productive than stalk-ing Facebook or getting drunk in Klute

For this group, I am stuck half way between sympathy and being very annoyed. Sorry to be as subtle as a brick through a window, but, it’s no use crying over wasted opportunities now. Bear with me whilst I climb on my soap box: life is what you make of it and if you thought all of those all-day lie-ins watching Countdown were not going to matter, then you may be feel-ing a little sheepish around about now.

I will however, try to offer some en-couragement. If the last three weeks of

term have been punctuated by restless nights about a graduation ceremony which has crept up on your blindside, then it’s time to stop worrying and start taking control of your life – if you don’t then no one else will. Think you’ve done the wrong degree? Seize the day and study some more in a subject that suits you. Daunting? Yes. Easy? Definitely not. But, better to act whilst you are still young enough to make a difference than spending the next forty years or so doing something you hate. Lacking work experience? Then write to that company you’ve dreamed of

working for, or grab a Yellow Pages and start finding useful contacts. Lusting af-ter a dream job? Well, somebody has to do those “unattainable jobs”, and there is absolutely no reason why that person couldn’t be you. (Granted, being a pop-superstar maybe tricky if aren’t the best singer, but look at Jedward, they seem to have made it!)

Embrace what seems like the impossible, only then will you find the limits of what you can do. So, to the graduates of June 2011, we made it! Congratulations and good luck for the next step on the journey of life.

Michael Sanguinetti must still be biting his tongue as he watches the actions that he

catalysed unfold. This Toronto Police-man instructed female students at Osgoode Hall law school that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”, unleash-ing a debate about rape that has global significance and inspiring protests that started with 3,000 women in Toronto under the banner of the original “Slut-Walk”, but that has spread as far afield as Melbourne and Delhi and become enthralled in controversy in the media.

The danger of these comments is that they are already embedded in judicial systems. Estimates state that of the 2,000 women who are raped every week in Britain 95% of cases are not reported, with a conviction rate of only 6%. This is linked to jurors basing their verdicts on what the defendant’s lawyer can argue about a woman’s choice of clothing, alcohol consumption and past sexual history. In these cases the responsibility of a rape is being shared

by victim and perpetrator - a responsi-bility that cannot, by the definition of rape being against consent, be shared.

In a recent survey of London stu-dents 17% of students said that women dressed in “sexy clothing” were at least partially responsible if they were raped.

As has been widely publicised, some women have chosen to dress provoca-tively on SlutWalks to prove the point that clothing choices do not entitle a man to rape them; their outfits are a visual statement that their consent to sex is an inalienable right and not a conditional one.

However, the media, in particular female commentators, have largely criticised this method of activism, ar-guing that rape is of course wrong, as is blaming the victims, but that stripping to “slutty” clothing to seek attention for this point establishes that women have to “get their kit off” to be heard, defin-ing and celebrating women in a solely sexual manner.

Conversely, when I joined the London SlutWalk, the crowd was not exclusively young, female, or stupid. To patronise this perceived ignorance of SlutWalkers to grasp the feminist cause is simply ludicrous. Signs such as “the virgin-whore dichotomy is getting old” appreciated the tone of the protest, which was exceedingly based

on the inclusiveness of all women, angry at being labelled in certain ways because of their gender. A divergence of opinions is extremely symptomatic of the history of feminism and yet to protest was to engage in, at the least, a single message about seeking justice: “Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no.”

Debates about the sexualisation of women should look to how the most widely read newspaper in the UK

puts a topless woman on the kitchen table every day or into the sexualised culture of music videos. SlutWalk and our generation of feminists should not be blamed for the implications of the recent Bailey Report because some women chose to use sexual shock tactics to raise awareness. They used this tactic, not because it was the only way to be heard, but because it directly addressed Sanguinetti’s comments.

Moreover, the reporting has been largely selective and omitted looking beyond the first bra on the horizon. The photographers focussed on the scantily-clad SlutWalkers while the protest really consisted of a diverse

range of outfits, a splattering of men and, for the most part, normally dressed women from students to ladies well into their 50s.

The emotional poignancy of the protest has, unfortunately, largely been ignored by the papers. Some women chose to wear the normal clothing they were raped in or pyjamas to represent rape that happens within the home.

Signs around me read “I was ap-proached for rape at work in THIS dress” held by a woman in work-ap-propriate clothing, placards stated “in solidarity with all women hotel-work-ers” and a middle-aged woman quietly cried into her friend’s shoulder. It was apparent to many who didn’t have editorial space to fill that the cause was much more painful for some protest-ers than any pain the media criticism could inflict.

In the toilets of a near by pub a woman removing her basque advised me about the best way to remove the lipstick “slut” from my face. In her thick American accent she proclaimed that “it was important to occur” and that today “we had occurred”.

We had chosen different outfits but equally made the same point, critical to feminism as it pivots on the most basic principle of equality that there is – the rule of equal protection under the law. If even one juror questions his/her own assumptions about blame in rape cases then the “sluts” have taken a step forward and not backwards.

My clothes are never my consent Michelle Wisson

JAM

ES GU

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The bursting of the graduand bubbleAlexandraBottomer


Comment www.palatinate.org.uk

Many graduates slip in to the stereotypical Durham norm of heading south to London and the “promisied land”

Should women “avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised”?

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It would be appropriate to begin with a brief obituary. “After a long

and debilitating illness we say farewell to our much loved friend Durham Democracy.

Mr D. Democracy was much loved in name but known personally by few. Nevertheless, he will be sorely missed by those who knew him in his younger, vibrant years when he strode proudly through the streets of Durham. A small family ceremony will take place. Mr Democracy is survived by twin daugh-ters, Protest and Participation.”

And here is where the problem aris-es. Whimsical obituaries may be the literary play-thing of idealess comment writers, but accuracy is important. Did he snuff it after the pitiful protest against tuition fee rises? Did he kick the bucket during the DSU Presiden-tial election backlash? Or maybe there was no final hurrah, not even a “kiss me Hardy,” only a cough, a splutter and

a final ignominious twitch. Whatever your dramatic inclinations may be, there is much evidence to say that this academic year finally saw the death of democracy across the student body. But wipe your eyes and let the hearse driver read his newspaper a little longer because all is not what it seems.

Firstly, the cause of death. The coro-ner’s report makes it clear that apathy was the cause of death. Not exactly a far fetched analysis. The symptoms were prevalent around the anti-tuition fee rise demonstration, a muted affair with barely a hundred Durham University students present. To cap things off the atmospheric music blasting out was not “The Internationale” or even the more neutral “Flight of the Valkyries,” but a selection of lounge music for the students to wave their banners in time to. Apathy is an affliction that we all suffer from, but it was a welcome paradox that the drunken creature who struggled to get out of bed in the morn-ing would willingly brave the cold to rant about the evils of Thatcher or the Vietnam War. Not anymore.

Secondly, the time of death. A plau-sible estimation would be last Febru-ary’s controversial DSU elections. Not

only did they suffer from low turnout, (only a quarter of students voted in the DSU presidential election), but al-legations were made that the President elect mobilised more electoral funds along with several underhand tactics. A typically restrained motion of censure was passed by the DSU in March but the damage was already done.

But now it’s time, not for Holmes and Watson to enter, but Perspective and Realism to take centre stage. As unsavoury as many may find the DSU they are simply victims of the same scam. Democracy is alive. It’s elemen-tary my dear Realism, the solution to this death has been staring us in the face the whole time: democracy never died.

Sure there have been instances that would make anyone wonder if political activism has gone out of fashion but, simply put, democracy has a new iden-tity. The classic fake nose and glasses have been swapped for Facebook and Google. Students no longer have to get their hands dirty with placards and banners when you can mobilise ten times as many dissenting voices with a click and clatter of keys. Just like the twitter-ites continued the fight against

undemocratic super-injunctions, the student activists of the future will hone their skills on social networking sites.

Look at the online campaign against 38 week lets. The Facebook lobby group is not held back by the political sensitivity required of DSU figure-heads. Instead, the group can vent the wrath of the student body without restriction.

Even if there is no street demonstra-tion, the mobilisation and organisation

of so

many voices is equally impressive. It would be an exaggeration to claim that the University’s tactical retreat over 38 week lets was completely down to the online campaign, but it is a sign of things to come.

I started this article with a rather gloomy obituary reporting the death of a valuable friend to us all. I would like to end it with another feature of older newspapers. “Today was born a healthy baby girl to the parents Par-

ticipation and Future, residents of Durham. They named her in honour of the mother’s beloved but recently deceased father, Democracy.”

There are many stereotypes of Spaniards. They are generally perceived as a vertically-chal-

lenged, slightly greasy, sangria-swigging bunch, who party too much and work too little, famed for their inefficiency and disorganisation. During a year spent in Madrid, though I abhor stere-otypes, I have found at least some of these perceptions to be true. They are generally rather short; botellón, the art of drinking cheap alcohol outside in parks/on the street, is practically a national sport; and you do NOT mess with the siesta. It is sacred, like grandma’s cooking or bull-fighting.

The inefficiency too is painfully true. Anything official will require at least two phone calls, five forms and trips to three separate offices at different ends of the city, which will all be open for about eight hours a week.

However, this caricatured external perception of Spaniards may be be-ing blown apart thanks to a series of protests taking place all over Spain in a movement that has been dubbed ‘The Spanish Revolution’.

It all began just over a month ago on the 15th May when tens of thou-sands of young people took to the streets of sixty Spanish cities in an anti-government protest. The protests were organised via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter by a citizen organisation called ‘Real Democracy Now!’

Taking to the streets one week before important autonomous and municipal elections, protesters, who did not affiliate themselves with any political party, called for radical change

within Spanish politics. The Spanish political system is such

that all power is more or less distribut-ed between two main political parties: the PSOE, the socialist party, and the Partido Popular (PP), the right-wing party.

The PSOE, who currently hold majority power in government, have been blamed for Spain’s descent into its current financially-crippled state, whilst the PP has a reputation for representing only the wealthy.

What started out as a peaceful afternoon protest on May 15th, soon turned into an overnight sit-in in the Puerta del Sol main square in Madrid, and has now become an encampment which is still going three weeks after the initial protest. Today the surpris-ingly organised encampment boasts a canteen, a crèche, bathrooms, a library, a construction site and it even has its own legal team.

At the encampment’s peak over 60,000 protestors, dubbed ‘los indig-nados’ (the outraged), were filling the square each night to peacefully express their indignation towards the govern-

ment, and now, though attendance has decreased to a core 300 or so protes-tors, the encampment has an impres-sive infrastructure of committees and commissions who gather several times a day to discuss logistics, communica-tions and to prepare a list of demands to submit to the government.

Since the initial camp was estab-lished in Madrid on May 15th similar camps have since sprung up in cities all

over Spain and even internationally. This movement is being led prima-

rily by young people, and top of their list of demands is for action to be taken to reduce unemployment amongst the under 25s, which currently stands at almost 50%, the highest youth unem-ployment rate in Europe. Protestors are also calling for the reversal of privatisa-tion of the healthcare and education systems, for a separation of the church from the state and for restoration of workers’ rights.

Comparisons have been drawn by many between events in Spain and the Arab Spring protests. It is true that both movements were organised primarily by the medium of social networks, both have gathered large

numbers of citizens together to take part in continuous calls for democracy and both are being maintained by citi-zen committees set up to organize and maintain the camps. However, Spanish protestors have been quick to deny any such links, pointing out that Spain, un-like Egypt, is already a democracy, and that the Spanish protests have been generally peaceful, whilst violent and destructive clashes have taken place in Egypt between protestors and police.

The autonomous and municipal elections have come and gone, seeing the PP wrestle power from the PSOE in almost every area of Spain, but for many the results mean only a change from one unsatisfactory government to another.

Whilst the efforts of the indignados may not have resulted in the revolu-tion they were hoping for, they have certainly gone a long way in changing the world’s perception of Spain. Such organised and sustained political action has long been absent here, one could assume because the dictatorship under which Spain was governed between 1939-1975 raised several generations who lived in a society where there was no right to free speech.

With the rise of the indignados this political action drought has ended: the fiesta-siesta stereotype is being replaced with a new perception of the Spanish as a serious, politically-minded population that isn’t afraid to fight for democracy and justice.

MatthewLee

DFB

ARR

ERO

“Over 60,000 protestors were filling the square each night”

SarahJohnson

Foreign Report


Commentwww.palatinate.org.uk

The Spanish revolution is challenging traditional politicsA report from Madrid gives an insight into the recent activism, transforming the way the world looks at Spain

The Spanish protests have been compared to events in the Arab spring due to their social networking and organisation

An obituary to student democracy at Durham Matthew Lee discusses whether Durham faces endemic student apathy or a changing democratic dynamic

JULI

AN

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SON

Durham News

Sport Cricketers off to Lords, College Festival of Sport, BUCS table


Durham Sportwww.palatinate.org.uk

PETER VICKERS

Exams are over, the weather is getting (slightly) sunnier and it’s time to get that summer body back! Now being a student myself, I know how hard it can be to find the time and even funds to pay for gyms, supplements and food. So here are a few top tips to get you fit over the upcoming summer months.

If fat loss is your aim, the first thing you should change is your diet. Often during term time we make quick and

poor decisions and end up consuming food with high levels of saturated fat (cheap frozen food, ready meals and fast food). Now we have more time, aim to prepare healthy meals.

To lose weight, eat more. Yes you read correctly! When your body has a constant intake of high quality, low fat foods, your basal metabolic rate increases and you burn more calories - even when you are sitting on Twitter! Aim for 5 small meals a day and only 2-3 hours between servings to increase

your metabolic rate. The best time to exercise is when you

wake up. At this time of the day, before your first meal, any energy used will be derived from fat stores instead of utilis-ing the food you have eaten. So wake up, get your trainers on, and pound that pavement to burn fat before you even start your day. Make sure you have plenty to eat before you go to sleep to generate enough energy for your morn-ing jog. Keep the exercise intensity low; only work at about 50-60% of your full

capacity. If building muscle is your aim, it’s

time to bulk up that daily food intake and lower reps while increasing weights. Try to find a gym with a good student price and low contract length. Split your week into body parts e.g. chest on Mondays, arms on Tuesdays. This way you can train each muscle group to the best of your ability while keeping gym sessions relatively short.

No matter what your aim for this summer holiday, always remember that

the correct diet is the first and most crucial step in training. Try not to skip meals and focus on eating high quality food rather than wasting what’s left of your student loan on the latest ‘super supplement’, such as weight gain pow-der or diet pills.

Adam Henderson is a Durham Univer-sity Sport student and a level 3 qualified personal trainer.

Follow him on Twitter @hendafitness for more of his health and exercise advice.

Festival of sport overview: some good, some bad

Keeping yourself in shape over the summer break

A slow start and some wayward fast-bowling ensured that Dur-ham UCCE were outclassed by

their professional neighbours Durham CCC in a charity T20 cricket match at the Racecourse.

The students reached 151-4 after skipper Tom Westley elected to bat first and top scored himself with 46 off 39 balls, while Jamie Atkinson and Luke Blackaby forced a respectable to-tal through some big hitting and quick running in the final overs. But what looked to be a competitive total was swiftly revealed to be of only minimal significance as Coetzer (81* off 58) and Jennings (54 off 47) shared a stand of 140 for the second wicket, making the win with four balls to spare nothing more than a formality.

The University’s innings began in a

farcical fashion more akin to the Hock-ey vs. Rugby support act of List A beer cricket. A front-foot no-ball meant the first legitimate delivery of the match would be a free hit. The delivery that followed was a bouncer, but one so far above opener Greg Smith’s head that only a batsmen handily equipped with a small trampoline, or perhaps a pogo stick, would have had any chance at lay-ing bat on ball. The umpire, clearly as-suming that not having such equipment was an oversight for which the batsman was responsible, chose to ignore the rules and denied any knowledge that the ball had passed over Smith’s head.

Smith was soon the first wicket to fall, caught at mid-wicket on a mis-timed hoik off Raine, the pick of Dur-ham County’s bowlers. Smith’s dis-missal brought Westley to the crease to partner Durandt, a stand that lasted just over 10 overs for 82 well worked runs. Perhaps one of the highlights of the day was Westley reverse-sweeping for 4 three times in four balls, having al-ready deposited the same bowler in the river with a sweetly timed slog sweep. At this stage the students looked set for an imposing total, but four superb overs from seventeen year-old Josh Bousfield (4-0-14-0) in the middle of the innings, in which no boundaries were scored, removed all momentum. Durandt (31 off 36) and Westley then fell in consec-utive overs, Durandt to a superb diving catch in the deep, leaving the score at

98-3 with 6 overs remaining. Atkinson and Blackaby then scored quickly for the remainder of the innings, including a huge six from Atkinson into the trees.

After hitting 14 off the final over, the momentum was with the students, and they made the perfect start when opener Mark Stoneman was caught at point off the first ball of the innings. Unfortunately, this was the best it got. Durham County’s Kyle Coetzer was untroubled by any of the student bowl-ers and reached his 50 off 26 balls in only the sixth over. Coetzer, a Scotland international, took advantage of some poor Durham bowling in the power-play overs, hitting ten 4’s and a 6 in a disdainfully aggressive innings. By the halfway point the County side were 105-1 and the match was effectively over. Needing less than a run a ball, the County batsmen milked the spinners in no hurry whatsoever, completing the victory with 4 balls to spare.

Barring the weather, which was de-terminedly antisocial in its approach, this was a hugely successful event with a large amount of money being raised for the Sport in Action Zambia founda-tion.

Durham UCCE: 151-4 (20.0 overs)Westley 46, Atkinson 32; Raine 2-23

Durham CCC: 152-3 (19.2 overs)Coetzer 81*, Jennings 54

Durham County won by 7 wickets

Hugh Anderson-Elliott

Charity T20 a great success

118 The runs scored in boundaries alone by both teams combined

The college festival of sport was graced with both excellent spirit and excellent weather, which resulted in a terrific day being had by all taking part. From 6-a-side football to Ultimate Frisbee, and Mixed Lacrosse to Basketball, the colleges of Durham were treated to a feast of sport and the fantastic effort put in on the organisational side paid off with smoothly operated, hard-fought competition.

Grey College’s male rugby team deserve special mention for setting up an all-Grey final in the rugby 7’s, despite the festival being held the day after their college ball, whilst Collingwood ran away with both the women’s 7’s title and the netball.

If there is a slight problem to be had with the festival of sport, it was the track events. With no more than three competitors in any male event and no more than four in any female event, it is fair to say that partici-pation was low. Supporting attendance was even lower with even tumbleweed refusing to spectate.

Closer inspection of the entry forms re-vealed that there were numerous entries who didn’t show up on the day, but even still, a maximum of only eight competitors ever signed up to any single open-invita-tional race.

The question must be raised: why is this? At school, wasn’t sports day the highlight of the sporting calendar? So why is no one interested in competing on the track any-more?

With the range of sport being provided through the college system, it is surpris-ing that each college does not have its own sports day/athletics event from which champions are made, who can then go on to represent their college at the festival of sport against the other respective champi-ons. Wouldn’t that be a great sporting occa-sion? The fastest 100m runners from every college lining up against one another, each being cheered on by an army of passionate collegiate followers would surely be a day to remember.

Maybe this is an idealistic vision but it is definitely an opportunity missed.

Peter Vickers

Adam Henderson

PETER VICKERSPATRICK FLETCH

ER

Although it was a particularly gloomy day, the T20 spirit prevailed at the Racecourse, complete with music and a raffle

After such a fantastic season for Team Durham, the Palatinate Dinner and Awards Ceremony

was one of the most anticipated in his-tory.

With no fewer than five teams secur-ing Premier League trophies and four Championship trophies, many of the University Sports Clubs felt that they could stake a fair claim for winning ‘Team of the Year’, but this year it was the turn of the Rugby club. A perfect season saw the Rugby club claim both the Northern Premier and the BUCS cup, with a cavalier string of perform-ances that took them all the way to Twickenham where they dramatically clinched their double.

In an interesting development, the award for ‘Sportsman of the Year’ was shared by hockey scholar Dan Coultas and cricketer Chris Jones, with their performances deemed equally out-standing.

Coultas has been a rock at the heart of the defence of the hockey team for three seasons now, and his calm de-fending combined with a lethal drag flick helped the Hockey team secure their first ever Northern Premier title.

Coultas continued to score important goals in the knockout phases but the team eventually came unstuck in the Championship final against Loughbor-ough, losing 2-1 despite a valiant fight back.

Jones was a late contender for the award but his impressive displays at the top of the Durham batting order made him impossible to overlook. Jones’ 251* against Oxford is the highest ever score by any cricketer in the MCC Uni-versity Championship, which was then remarkably followed by another double hundred in the same week. Overall, the fresher has scored 1053 runs at an aver-age of 61.94, and is key to a successful future for Durham cricket.

The award for ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ went to Tennis no.1 seed, Iva Sa-ric. Saric, of Croatian background, also coaches the Women’s Tennis club, as well as playing and leading the team to League and Championship success with destructive performances. All this is despite playing portions of the sea-son with injury. Saric was practically untouchable on the Women’s circuit, which was proven when she went on to win the Individual tournament, whilst also finishing second in the doubles, playing with fellow coach Lucy Scott.

The unsung heroes of Team Durham also received their just reward for their

tireless efforts in less celebrated areas of sport.

The award for ‘Volunteer of the Year’ went to third-year Sport student Sarah Harding, whose outreach community work over the year has assisted people with disadvantages, disabilities and also young Olympians. Harding is now pre-paring herself for the rigours of spend-ing the summer in Zambia as part of the University contingent supporting char-itable organisation ‘Sport in Action’.

Tom Illingworth of Van Mildert col-lege picked up the award for ‘Official of the Year’ after a season of high praise

refereeing football matches. Illing-worth’s attitude has been described as a refreshing example to young officials.

The evening also involved all of Dur-ham’s talented and hard-working sport stars being presented with Palatinates and Half-Palatinates, representing their commitment and achievements to and within university sport.

These awards are notoriously diffi-cult to achieve, as opposed to Oxbridge Blues (which are awarded to all who compete in a Varsity match), so all on the list should be commended for earn-ing their colours.

Durham NewsNews Durham

Loulou RowlandsEngland- Lacrosse

Daniel CoultasScotland-Hockey

Adam WilliamsWales u21- Hockey

Sophie CloughWales u21- Hockey

Angus WilsonEngland- Rifles

Samuel HatfieldGreat Britain u24- Triathlon

Matthew FletcherGreat Britain u21- Canoe

Duncan FinnieScotland u20- Rugby

Josh BeaumontEnglish Counties u20- Rugby

Mike McTernanIreland- Lacrosse

Seren WatersKenya- Cricket

Jamie AtkinsonHong Kong- Cricket

Matt RossiterGreat Britain u23- Rowing

Jamie WatsonGreat Britain u23- Rowing

Jenny ArnoldGreat Britain u 23- Rowing


Durham Sport www.palatinate.org.uk

Palatinate dinner goes down a treat

Peter Vickers

LULU

TRASK

Team of the Year- Men’s Rugby

Volunteer of the Year- Sarah Harding

Sportswoman of the Year- Iva Saric

Sportsman of the Year - Dan Coultas & Chris Jones

Official of the Year - Tom Illingworth

Honorary Life MembershipsAchieved by international represen-

tation whilst at university, honorary

life membership of Team Durham

is the highest honour available to a

student athlete

Durham’s standout student athletes are honoured at “the Oscars of Durham sport”.

Divas going from strength to strengthLulu Trask

On Saturday 14th May, the Durham University Cheerleading Squad com-peted in the BCA North East Classic Regionals, held in the Metro Radio Arena. The competition saw cheerlead-ers of all ages, including a squad solely comprised of cheerleaders’ parents! The Durham Saints American Football team, whom the Durham Divas regu-larly cheer for, came along to support their cheerleaders in their last competi-tion of the year.

The squad entered four divisions, the first of which was Trio, in which three

cheerleaders showcase their best jumps and dance. Laura Hillary, Claire Finch and Lucy Clarke performed a fantastic routine, proudly winning them a 4th place trophy.

Next up was Group Stunt Level 2, entered by Lulu Trask, Sarah Lewis, Claire Finch, Laura Shirreffs and Har-riet Yates. This routine involved the girls’ demonstration of their best and most difficult stunts, and they pulled off a routine they began only two weeks beforehand, and out of one of the larg-est divisions of the day, the girls came home with another 4th place trophy.

This was followed by Group Stunt Level 3, a more difficult division, in which Emily Ward, Emily Grant, Kris-tina Rodney, Dayna Platts and Tessa Coates hit every stunt to perfection and performed the neatest routine of the day. The girls were crowned BCA North East Classic Regional Champi-ons!

Finally, the division that everyone was waiting for: Co-ed Level 3 Cheer, a two-and-a-half-minute routine, jam-packed with explosive stunts, gymnas-tics, jumps and dance, Bring It On-style! The squad had entered a higher and more challenging division than ever before, and everyone was feeling the pressure, but they executed the most difficult routine of their history, hit-ting stunts that for the past three years they had been unable to master, and the gymnastic ability was higher than any-thing ever seen before from the squad.

Unfortunately, the squad was given a safety infraction, losing them 10 points, normally putting a squad into last place. The squad waited apprehensively, but roars of cheer and delight came from the squad and their supporters as they were announced BCA North East Classic, Co-ed Level 3 runners up! The squad returned to Durham with four trophies, doubling the number of tro-phies they had won in the past year.

It’s been a challenging year for the

University Cheerleaders, with the ma-jority of the squad new to cheerleading, but all worked incredibly hard and end-ed the year with a total of eight trophies. These trophies represent a year of, quite literally, blood, sweat and tears, and most of all, they represent the squad’s ability to rise above the many challeng-es they faced, and end the year as one of the most successful squads within university cheerleading.

8 The number of trophies won by Durham Divas this year

“It has been a year of, quite literally, blood sweat and tears”

The Divas show off their moves in the Metro Arena, winning four trophies

Durham’s cricketers continued Team Durham’s amazing sea-son last week by qualifying for

the Championship final, to be played at Lords on June 27th. In their final two-day match of the season against Lough-borough, they earned enough points to ensure that Durham will be represent-ed at the home of cricket.

Durham went into the final match of the season in second place, with only five points separating the top three teams. Once more, as it has been all season, Durham’s batsmen dominated the opposition. Having bowled Lough-

borough out for 293 and earning maxi-mum bowling points in the process, the top order put yet another bowling attack to the sword, reaching 303-3 de-clared and ensuring a comfortable first innings victory. Jones and Westley were

in the runs again but it was Durandt who stole the plaudits, hitting yet an-other century.

Loughborough were then inserted and Durham took the vital fifth wicket late in the day, earning the crucial two

points that ensured qualification for the final, at the expense of either Cardiff or Cambridge.

The batting this season has been tru-ly remarkable, with two players break-ing the all-time record for number of runs in a season. Fresher Chris Jones, and Luke Durandt formed one of - if not the - most effective opening part-nership in University cricket history, both scoring over a thousand runs in the process. Although it was Jones who picked up the award for Sportsman of the Year (for full coverage see page 18) for breaking the record first, Durandt has now surpassed that record with his century last week, finishing the regular season a mere eleven runs ahead with

1064 runs to Jones’s 1053. The num-bers are something to behold. Jones: 1053 runs at an average of 61.94, Du-randt: 1064 at an average of 54.30. In addition, Jones’ average in the Centre of Excellence two-day games is a stag-gering 160.25, largely due to the two spectacular double centuries against Oxford and Cambridge. With Greg Smith having what would in any other year have been a standout season, and skipper Westley also adding runs, Dur-ham’s batsmen have been one of the sporting revelations of the year. In the words of Director of Sport Peter War-burton, “Twickenham in April and Lords in June! It doesn’t get much bet-ter than that!”

Durham’s cricketers will represent the university at Lords in the Championship final.First Twickenham, now LordsDurham News

FLICKR ID: M

R ATROCITY


Durham Sportwww.palatinate.org.uk

Sponsorship deal deemed too ‘wicked’

Westley shines against Sri Lanka

Durham University Cricket captain Tom Westley showed his class this week by making 99 for Essex against Sri Lanka in a tour match at Chelms-ford.

With Essex struggling on 24-3, Westley was joined at the crease by international star Ryan ten Does-chate in a partnership of 195. West-ley then fell one run short of a cen-tury, the only real blemish on an otherwise superb innings, in which he hit seventeen fours and scored at a rollicking strike rate of 68.75 (a good deal swifter than Alastair Cook’s 45.89).

He eventually fell to the bowling of Dilhara Fernando, the same bowler who did for Cook, Broad and Mor-gan in the last test at Lords.

Westley in action for England U19s

Durham University Rugby Football Club have been prohibited from en-tering the European Universities 7s competition which they qualified for by winning BUCS sevens here in Britain.

Durham completed their perfect season by defeating UWIC in a sec-ond national final a few days after their historic Twickenham triumph.

The prize is a place at the Europe-an Universities 7s tournament, but the boys have been ordered to forfeit this honour.

The team has tried to fund their costs independently and have man-aged to attract attention from two betting companies and an alcoholic drinks brand, intending to launch their new purple coloured alco-pop, but university management have blocked this.

Many have rightly pointed out the peculiarity of this decision after Pa-latinate revealed that the university received a £125,000 donation from British American Tobacco for the Chancellor’s Afghan Appeal. This difference has thus been eyed with suspicion by some, and frustration by many others.

Comment: Tom Clarke

2117 The total runs scored by Dur-ham’s opening partnership

The men’s hockey team have been one of many succesful teams this year, boosting the University’s ranking

Team Durham celebrate brilliant seasonTeam Durham looks set to equal their best BUCS ranking this season. They currently rank in 4th place in the over-all table, which would tie the current record achieved in 2007-8. Five teams finished top of their respective North-ern Premiership, and four went on to lift the trophy after the knockout stages.

The men’s Rugby, Lacrosse, Hockey and Basketball teams all finished top of their premierships, with the Rugby Club producing the first unbeaten sea-son in their history. In addition, the women’s tennis team finished a fine sea-son in first place. In the knockout stages Women’s tennis were again victorious, as were the men’s lacrosse, men’s rugby at Twickenham, and women’s lacrosse.

The real strength of Durham sport

this year was shown by the number of near misses that did not result in headline-grabbing last-minute victo-ries. Men’s hockey finished yet another strong season in the final, women’s basketball won the third and fourth play-off, and both women’s hockey and men’s tennis reached the semi-finals. The Women’s basketball team deserves particular praise for winning the North 1A division, meaning that they will

compete in the Northern Premiership next season - an achievement replicated by the men’s tennis team.

Speaking to Palatinate a few months ago, Team Durham Director Peter War-burton stated that Durham’s long-term goal was to be in the top three consist-ently. While that has not quite been achieved this year, on the evidence of this season it will not be long before that goal becomes a reality.

Daniel Johnson

1 Loughborough 4890.5

2 Birmingham 2830.5

3 Leeds Met 2739

4 Durham 26575 Bath 2373

6 Edinburgh 2209.5

7 Nottingham 2144.5

8 Exeter 2020

9 Manchester 1990.5

10 Oxford 1717

BUCS rankings

Lords, ‘the home of cricket’, will be graced by the presence of the Palatinates again later this month, as Durham University compete in the MCCU Championship final

“The team has tried to fund their costs independently”

Hugh Anderson-Elliott

TOM

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It is not just Palatinate TV putting Durham students on the screen.Next season, at least 10 Durham

Wildcats matches will be shown live on Sky Sports after they were granted a franchise to the top tier of British Bas-ketball, the BBL; in doing so, they attain professional status.

And with the official launch of the Durham Wildcats Sporting Club taking place on the 24th June – in conjunction with one of its partners, The Tony Blair Foundation – further plans are afoot for elite teams in netball, women’s football and volleyball, from grass roots-level upward.

Durham Wildcats Basketball Club is the university’s partner basketball club, and was formed in 2005. They have quickly developed into one of the most formidable amateur sides on the circuit. Initially placed in The English Basketball league (EBL) Division Four North, and playing their home games at Spennymoor Leisure Centre, the team moved to Newton Aycliffe in 2007-2008 and the following season they were promoted to EBL Division Three.

Following a further promotion in 2009, last year saw the club complete a magnificent Division Two treble, top-ping the league in addition to wins in the Patrons Cup final (96-70 against Westminster Warriors) and the Play-Offs (70-67 against Northumbria).

And although the club enjoyed mixed fortunes in 2010-11, finishing 7th in the highest non-professional league (EB1), the exciting announce-ment that they are to play their bas-ketball in the equivalent of the English Football Premiership, has far-reaching repercussions not just for the Wildcats, but for the prestige of basketball in Dur-ham.

BBL Chairman Paul Blake wel-comed the Wildcats to the league and seemed optimistic about their chances.

“We are delighted to welcome the Durham Wildcats to the BBL. Their community ethos aligns perfectly to the BBL’s own strategy, and they have all

the key ingredients to build a successful BBL franchise.”

Durham University has been a signif-icant partner for the Wildcats, and this news means that the University will be able to attract high profile student bas-ketball players and become a centre of excellence in the sport. Up to ninety percent of the Wildcats’ first team is comprised of Durham students past and present, and their success means that the University will be able to attract superb athletes from both the UK and overseas.

The club is based at the Durham County Council Sport and Leisure Offices, and is working alongside the council to further community sport and offer a broad programme of activi-ties. Quentin Sloper, one of the direc-tors of the Sporting Club, praised the work of its partners, and knows that the links the club has with the university must remain strong in order to deter-mine future success.

“Sport in County Durham is built on successful partnerships and we are no different. Durham County Council, Durham University and the County Sport Partnership have all played sig-nificant roles in getting the club this far”, he said.

“We are determined to deliver a rounded product that the County can be proud of.”

The home venue that the Wildcats Basketball club have established will be particularly crucial in attracting overall support for the project. The Newton Aycliffe Arena is located just 20 min-utes from Durham City and holds up to 1,000 spectators. It should be an intimi-dating place to travel to for other BBL sides if the Wildcats can generate the fanbase they are hoping for.

Negotiations are currently under-way with travel companies to arrange cheap and convenient travel to games for student supporters, and a large stu-dent following is undoubtedly the aim. “Looking at the fixture list, around 18 of our games will fall in term time, so it is hoped that the students will get behind the team”, Sloper added.

The Wildcats will play 45 BBL games next season and the venture could well be a sign of the future prosperity of the sports club. Basketball at Durham has been strong in recent years, with the Men storming the BUCS Northern Premier Division and winning 9 out of 10 games. The women also performed impressively, narrowly missing out in the Championship knockout semi-final to UWIC.

News Durham

Durham Wildcats’ Paul Elderkin dunks, something many students will hope to see more of next year

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Back Page www.palatinate.org.uk

Sport Inside: Cricketers off to Lords, BUCS rankings, award winners

Tom Ryder

Wildcats turn pro

Partner club to join British Basketball League next season .

“We are determined to deliver a rounded product the county can be proud of ”

palatinate issue 730

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