Crime in Cathays
At the start of the year gair rhydd reported the implentation of the new Student Police Initiative. This scheme was launched by third year student and Special Police Officer Sam Tappenden as a pilot scheme in association with the local police force. The scheme involved Special Police Officers patrolling the streets of Cathays and has proven successful in raising awareness among students about crime prevention.
The evening patrols focus on student housing in the early evening to deter would-be burglars, and as the night wears on they concentrate their work on the Students’ Union and the local pubs to ensure that students are safe after nights out.
In February we recieved positive news from Student Liason Officer PC Bob Keohane that crime was on the decrease in the Student areas of Cardiff. However, although crime was decreasing opportunistic burglaries were still occurring in Cathays. The key message the police have enforced throughout the year is that students need to be more vigilant and careful so as to remove the opportunity from the opportunistic thieves that prowl in the student areas.
Although Sam Tappenden graduates and leaves Cardiff this year, the Student Police Initiative will continue with the help and enthusiasm of volunteers who have engaged with the project this year.
As a final warning for students leaving things in houses over the summer, do ensure that you leave all doors and windows secured so that thieves cannot break in.
Student Council
A wide range of significant motions have been passed at Student Council this year, and gair rhydd has sought to fully explain and analyse the new policies, while providing space for Cardiff students to voice their views on them.
In November 2007, gair rhydd clarified the somewhat confusing situation with regard to the implementation of smoking areas in the Union in the wake of the smoking ban. Since those reports, the trial smoking areas on the balconies have now been established on a permanent basis.
Another major issue which Student Council has tackled is the ‘greening up’ of the Union. In March, gair rhydd News led with the story that two motions had been passed; one implementing a Domestic Air Travel Policy which precluded flights for matters of Student Union business, and the second requesting the Union President to lobby the Vice Chancellor to appoint a full-time environmental manager. This continues a trend in environmental improvements, where at this time last year gair rhydd reported on the University and the Union being granted Fairtrade status, and will hopefully be an ongoing campaign for years to come.
In more recent issues, gair rhydd highlighted the important role that Student Council plays at the Union in news and opinion pieces around the contentious renovation plans for the SU building. At the end of May, the newspaper reported on how a motion passed at the final Council of this academic year ensured that students would be given an opportunity to vote in a referendum before designs were finalised. This story received a substantial and intense reaction from students which featured in both the newspaper and on gair rhydd’s website. What this coverage most clearly demonstrated was the key role student media play in facilitating debate and acting as an intermediary between the Union Executive and the student populace.
Outside of Student Council several other forums for debate took place this year on issues concerning Faith and LGBT issues.
The Faith forum held in December saw students of faith and non-faith come together to call for a more definite statement in relation to religious belief from the University.
At the last Student Council of this session, Sally Airey (Societies, Postgraduate and International Officer) presented a draft policy on religion and belief from the University and opened up the policy for comment.
University News
Cardiff University has had an extremely successful year, and gair rhydd has been there to report it every step of the way, but ever ready for a ruthless investigation.
In November gair rhydd reported how Cardiff University joined the higher education elite, breaking into the top 100 universities in the world for the first time. A 42-place climb saw Cardiff take 99th place in the world rankings, and 19th in the UK. The news came after 37,000 applications for undergraduate courses made the university the eighth-most sought-after university in the UK.
gair rhydd also revealed that the remarkable achievement followed a year that saw significant investment from the university, including a new £21 million School of Optometry and a record level of new research funding with awards totalling more than £110 million.
The good news, and good news coverage continued with widespread exposure of a string of awards for Sir Martin Evans, a Professor of Mammalian Genetics at Cardiff University dubbed ‘the father of stem cell research’. Sir Martin was first awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize, then the Great Briton Award, and even appeared on Desert Island Discs. gair rhydd was unrelenting in its coverage of his successes.
January marked the start of Cardiff University’s celebration of its 125th year, revealed to an unknowing student audience by a front-page gair rhydd story detailing the year of dedicated celebrations planned.
And a superb year for the university and student reporting was capped by the news that Cardiff was ranked among the very best universities in the UK for international student satisfaction. An overall quality rating of 93% reflected extremely positive feedback from international students impressed with the Cardiff University experience.
Student Media Success
Student Media has enjoyed many successes this year.
After much anticipation CUTV launched in November 2007. The quality of shows that have been produced this year has been fantastic. CUTV Controller, Huw Thomas commented on the output: “We have seen a variety of different shows produced for CUTV this year. In our first year we have already established successful current affairs, sports and lifestyle programmes.”
In March, CUTV documented the events of the SU Elections. This coverage included two live broadcasts of the Hustings event and the election result.
Despite operating out of a tiny ‘broom cupboard’ this year, CUTV has set strong foundations for itself, and the future is certainly prosperous for the newest addition to Cardiff’s student media.
The launch of XFM South Wales in October had serious repurcussions on Xpress Radio this year. Because of licensing restrictions Xpress Radio were denied an FM license in the Autumn semester. But March was a double-whammy for Xpress as they secured both an FM and DAB Digital license. Students broadcast for a three-week period that ran until the Easter break.
Although disheartened by the lack of broadcast in autumn, Xpress Radio volunteers recognised the advantages of the spring broadcast: “We’ve had a lot more time to practice and perfect our shows now. The fact that we didn’t get the license in December just made everyone work really hard to produce the best output we could in March” commented one presenter.
During the broadcast, live shows were broadcast from some of the Go Global events that took place, including the International Music Festival.
Students from gair rhydd have also had their own individual successes this year. Ed Salter (Picture Editor) made his way into the final six in The Times Young Photographer of the Year Award. Columnist, Huw Davies, saw success at the MIND Awards last month, as he walked away with the title of MIND Student Journalist of the year for his feature on coping with OCD.
Changes in the SU
Structural and commercial changes to Cardiff University Students’ Union (CUSU) have been major stories in gair rhydd during 2008.
The decline in numbers attending Rubber Duck after Christmas resulted in the announcement that the once-popular night had to be cancelled in March.
CUSU Ents tried to entice students back with a string of offers but the final straw was when a Pub Golf themed night was forced to be cancelled at 9.30pm because “not enough tickets had been sold to give those who’d already bought their tickets a good night”.
Students who talked to gair rhydd put the low turnout down to the crowds being attracted to new clubs like Oceana and Revolution.
The night later relaunched as Spin in time for the end of term all dayer and also hosted the celebration party after Cardiff defeated Swansea in the annual Varsity tournament.
gair rhydd also reported on plans to create a new cafe bar in Junction bar and the Xpress Radio Lounge, also known as Buffers, to be used in the day when the nightclub is not open.
Junction, the entry point into Solus’ main room, will become a cafe with “an open-plan learning environment” and a glass topped balcony with outside seating in the areas which were used for nighttime smoking outside Solus this year.
The plans were presented to student council for approval and the development will go ahead over the summer holidays to be ready for freshers’ fortnight in October 2008.
But the biggest story to break about the Students’ Union this year was the proposed redevelopment plans for the whole Students’ Union building.
They saw the Taf, Games Room and CF10 going in a shake-up of the space used in the students’ union. The plans also added more space for societies, the Athletic Union and student media groups, a new gym on the fourth floor and, most controversially, new “social learning and network spaces”.
After being reported by gair rhydd and released on cardiffstudents.com the was a surge of comments on gairrhydd.com and a number of protest groups were set up on Facebook both for and against the plans including ‘Outrage at the new Cardiff SU plans’ which had more than 2,300 members a week after gair rhydd broke the story.
