TRADING FREEDOMS – THE OFFICE FOR STUDENTS PROPOSALS

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academics, Cardiff University, censorship, clampdown, debate, establishment, freedom, freedom of choice, freedom of speech, germaine greer, government, HEFCE, higher education, jo johnson, mainstream media, no platforming, office for students, power, regulation, rights, safe spaces, safeguarding, student politics, student power, students, students' unions, transphobia, universities.

by Robyn Banks

CW: mentions transphobia

‘Universities must bring back freedom of speech!’ That was the premise of various headlines surrounding Jo Johnson’s announcement last week of proposed powers for the Office for Students (OfS). One of those proposals is that universities and student unions that don’t conform to Johnson and the OfS’ concept of ‘freedom of speech’ could receive sanctions in the form of fines. While the powers of OfS are still only at the consultation stage, this announcement gives us a rather concerning insight into the plans and aims that Johnson has for the newly formed office.

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic work, academics, access, alternative facts, capitalists, career, Chris Hanretty, City AM, commentary, education, elitism, experts, free market, GE17, general election, graduates, HE policy, higher education, historians, hyperbole, hypocrisy, inequality, Institute of Economic Affairs, jeremy corbyn, King's College London, Labour, left wing, marketisation, Michael Gove, no platforming, Oxford University, policy, private universities, privatisation, research, right wing, safe spaces, sensationalism, socialism, student debt, Taxpayers' Alliance, The Telegraph, Times Higher Education, Tom Welsh, Tories, tuition fees, u-turn, UEA, uk, universities, voters.

by Robyn Banks

In the midst of right-wing confusion about Jeremy Corbyn’s continuing support amongst the young, following a supposed u-turn on his flagship policy to scrap student debt, Tom Welsh of the Telegraph has unveiled a new thesis: the left will continue its resurgence so long as too many go to university*. His argument is as ridiculous as the title makes it sound, and his article is full of claims that are absurd, patronising and completely unsupported.

YOUNG GERMANS AND URBAN GLORIFICATION

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged AAVE, appropriation, art, ball, berlin, bigot, Brexit, City, commodification, demand, drag, exoticism, fetish, fetishisation, gender, gentrification, germany, globalisation, housing, housing crisis, identity, intersectionality, landlord, lease, lgbtQ+, liberalism, london, neocolonialism, QTBPOC, queer, race, racism, rent, renting, safe spaces, self-congratulatory, spaces, urban, West, young, Zoopla.

by Candice Nembhard

In recent years the discussion of gentrification and globalisation has become almost unavoidable – and for the most part, these terms have now been resigned as popular buzzwords in pseudo-intellectual conversations. As glib as this may sound, I shall do my best to explain.

While many a piece has been written on this subject, this is in fact not my primary focus. My intention is not to deny the lived and consequential reality of western mobilisation, but rather look towards the supporters and benefactors of this growing socio-economic practice. In particular, a generation of young people who are forgoing academic careers in favour of acquired/inherited wealth and personal development. More specifically, I will focus on my experience in post-Brexit Germany.Continue Reading

THE RADICAL NOTION THAT WE ARE PEOPLE: 5 REASONS TO HAVE HOPE FOR 2017

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged 2016, 2017, art, arthoe, bbz london, berries, cultural appropriation, diversity, fashion, Gal-dem, good news, homophobia, LGBT+, music, non collective, safe spaces, sexism.

by Candice Nembhard

From terror attacks to constitutional changes, there is no doubt that 2016 will go on record for being an insanely dismal year. To paraphrase Ginsberg’s Howl, ‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by bigotry, fear and greed’ (or something like that).

However, despite certain adversities and geopolitical setbacks, much was gained by the likes of small yet vocal communities campaigning for drastic change. With the help of social media and public platforms, we have seen a burgeoning of new safe spaces for women of colour, nonbinary folk and creatives alike. It goes without saying that their good and honest work should not go unnoticed, nor should it be underrepresented.

SAFE SPACES, HUMAN KINDNESS AND THE RE-CREATION OF ADULTHOOD

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged academia, censorship, free speech, liberalism, liberty, Perspectives, safe spaces, student, trigger warnings, universities, university.

By Rowan Gavin

Several months since the safe spaces debate reached the public eye, I’m sure most of you are by now overly familiar with the arguments being made on both sides. Likely you have had the misfortune of hearing someone say that, instead of attempting to exercise some control about when and how they are exposed to traumatic material, students should just ‘man up’ and ‘soldier through it’ like a certain group of people did ‘back in the day’. Recently, I heard academic John Gray on BBC radio 4’s ‘A Point of View’ making his case against safe spaces, and noticed a worrying number of parallels between his apparently sophisticated arguments and those that start with the command to ‘grow a pair’. I hope that deconstructing Gray’s 9-minute monologue can reveal a bit about how these kinds of substanceless arguments and the prejudices that motivate them attempt to veil themselves with legitimacy.

BLACK STUDENTS’ CONFERENCE 2016

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #NUSBlack16, aadam muse, Africans, Afro Caribbeans, black activism, black history month, black student, black student conference, blackness, BME, BSC, delegates, disabled, malia bouattia, mental health, NUS, NUS BSC, oppression, political blackness, racism, representation, safe spaces, student unions, twitter, UUEAS, working class.

by Julian Ignacio Canlas

On May 28-29^th, the Black Students Conference happened in Bradford, where black student delegates across the country congregated together in the conference hall of Bradford Hotel.

We listened to BME activists and journalists discuss about their own experience of oppression, institutional racism, and the hard, arduous path that led to Malia Bouattia’s victory as the first black female president-elect of the NUS. This included renowned journalist Gary Younge, who delved upon the progression of black activism and condemned the forms of racism existing in right and leftwing media. Younge later received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

We went through rounds of motions and amendments. We voted for our new committee members, including the Black Students Officer, now Aadam Muse. Most contentiously, we debated about political blackness and its relevancy or outdatedness within the movement’s campaign structure.Continue Reading

NO PLATFORM AND THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE STUDENT VOICE

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged british politics, censorship, feminism, feminist, free speech, freedom of speech, germaine greer, julie bindel, Kate Smurthwaite, LGBT+, no platform, NUS, Peter Tatchell, politics, safe spaces, student, student union, students, transgender, transphobia.

by Cherry Somersby

NUS’ ‘No-Platform’ policy is the refusal to allow ‘racists or fascists’ to speak at NUS events or alongside NUS representatives. Bearing in mind that this policy is often conflated with attempts by individual Students’ Unions to ban certain speakers from their campuses, it has been dubbed by many as an attack on free speech, and further confirmation that the ‘intolerant student left’ have become more concerned with hiding in their progressive echo-chambers than with serious, healthy debate.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FUCKING STUDENT BUBBLE

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged douglas carswell, germaine greer, liberation, Nigel Farage, Perspectives, politics, safe spaces, student, trigger warnings, UEA, universities.

by Robyn Banks

Once upon a time, a man named Tony Blair looked in to a mirror, turned out the lights and repeated ‘Education, education, education’. Little did he know at the time that this event would herald the eventual downfall of civilisation through the birth of a whole new kind of student totally unlike the hardy and privileged students of old. If you come on to UEA campus at night you’ll see these new students, sleeping peacefully in their incubated pods in the library and the lecture halls, wrapped in blankets of bubble wrap and trigger warnings. They’re a bit like adults, these students, but not quite. They’re certainly adult enough to have a tabloid smear campaign waged against them, but, unlike other adults, these students have never seen the outside world.

safe spaces

TRADING FREEDOMS – THE OFFICE FOR STUDENTS PROPOSALS

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

YOUNG GERMANS AND URBAN GLORIFICATION

THE RADICAL NOTION THAT WE ARE PEOPLE: 5 REASONS TO HAVE HOPE FOR 2017

SAFE SPACES, HUMAN KINDNESS AND THE RE-CREATION OF ADULTHOOD

BLACK STUDENTS’ CONFERENCE 2016

NO PLATFORM AND THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE STUDENT VOICE

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FUCKING STUDENT BUBBLE

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