One Word: Weak
THERE HAS BEEN much hilarity in UCL Union’s bars and cafes as students try to work out exactly what's being represented by One World Week's logo — the consensus usually being a student practising yoga, a lesbian couple, a woman in aburka and an amputee. All of society’s richness and variety neatly captured then.
A quick glance at the OWW programme raises the question of what exactly is happening especially for the event. A plea for participants was sent round to clubs and societies asking if anyone was doing anything that “would fit in with the aims of the week” — however tenuously, one can only assume. All the better if it could be parcelled up a bit sexily: ‘Naughty Nature: Birds Do it...’ was the offering from UCL Museums and Collections’ presenting an evening, um, looking around the zoology museum. Woop.
Societies hoping to get extra publicity for their events by having them included in OWW would have been rather disappointed. The Balls! Bloomsbury Theatre show was advertised on the wrong date, and the listing for Rare FM’s show on OWW failed to include the time.
Perhaps the real winner was UCL's PR department. The event provided a neat excuse for the Provost to give his usual speech on ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’ at UCL, and to show the Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching’s film “Global Citizenship and Leadership at UCL: Your Life, Your World, Your Future.”
So what was the point? “One World Week is about celebrating diversity and exploding myths so that we all get a chance to see the world through different eyes. The aim of the week is to offer insight and inspiration from the experiences of the UCL community related to themes of culture and religion, sexuality and gender, disability and the environment.” So who can explain the clichéd use of rap music to explore racism? And does a ‘latinolicious’ party with a tequila cash bar really explode the party myth of the South American continent and expose the huge problems in the region — street children, prevalent domestic violence and corrupt governments to name a few? Ay caramba!
Recognition is Rare
The exciting Annual Student Survey, which rates UCLU media and information services, is proving a bit confusing, especially for the newly billed 'Union service' which is Rare FM. The station has been lobbying for years for Union management to acknowledge the service it provides, more often than not being knocked back with a terse “nobody listens.” The inclusion of Pi on the list seems fair enough, given that the M&C Officer edits it, but Rare FM has always been told it’s a society and nothing more. Be careful what you wish for ~ it seems nobody warned Rare that their new title would mean they were up for judgement by the student body.
Agenda Bender
It seems the quorum disease at UCLU is contagious, with the Union’s Annual General Meeting forced to close, having achieved... absolutely nothing. The problem this time was a motion calling for UCL Union to enter into twinning arrangements with universities in Gaza and the West Bank.
Proposed by the Friends of Palestine, the whopping four-page motion gave a long list of the Israeli Government's negative actions in the occupied territories. The motion was meticuously sourced, quoting from the UN, the International Court of Justice (and, er, an article written by the proposer for London Student’s comment section).
Indeed, it was so focused on being factually accurate, it left out the important “This Union Believes” section. However, the proposers failed to understand that facts can be interpreted in different ways; Jewish Society felt the motion’s presentation was over-emotive. So how best to deal with it? Simple; prominent JSoc member Oliver Swerdlow ran in at the last minute, called for a quorum count (secure in the knowledge there weren't enough people in the room), and immediately left again.
But the farce goes far beyond that. The motion had been put in as an ‘Emergency Motion’, which meant it should have been dealt with at the end of the AGM under ‘Any Other Business’. Yet the proposers got it moved to the top of the agenda. Leaving aside the question of what effect a UCLU motion supporting Palestine would have (the Israeli government have been ignoring SOAS Union for years), the Palestine motion’s top-billing, meaning the inevitable quorum was called very early on, meant that nothing else was discussed. That's right, not the motion which actually concerns the running of the Students Union (formalising the Postgraduate Association in the Union’s constitution), nor the motion about the Provost's stance on lifting the cap on topup fees. Democracy in action at UCL again then, eh?
Give it a Rest
Students are notoriously gullible - or at least, that seems to be the view at UCLU HQ. The Union's Give it a Go scheme - “inspiration for your free time” - offers the exciting chance to, erm... paint some railings. Part of the February programme asks for volunteers to paint rails and doors on the outside of a Mornington Crescent community centre. Volunteering is always a nice thought, of course (especially for the CV), but closer to home Stage Crew are always looking for people willing to wield a paintbrush. Still, the event's main selling point? “Paint and brushes are provided.”