Contents.

A note from the Chief Writer...

determination to cover the issues at the heart of theKeele experience. The big debate in this edition isover the recommendations for higher education fund-ing detailed in the recent Browne Report. Our writershave penned thoughts on this from a number of an-gles and perspectives; as ever, our intention is tostimulate discussion. Elsewhere, there are articles onsport, fashion, TV and much else besides; thereshould be something for everyone Remember that asa student Concourse is your publication and you cansubmit comments, ideas and articles at any time. Inthe meantime, enjoy the issue.

2 A Statement from The President.

4 An Idiots guide to the Browne Review.

6 Browne Report: Opinions.

8 Student Fashion: Make that money last!

10 When Fadi met Professor Nick Foskett.

12 In a Relationship with Facebook.

14 Mood:Nostalgic.

16 Bikes for Keele.

17 Keele and “Sustainable Communities”

20 Ask Fay.

21 Society Focus.

22 Procrastination on Demand/Audio Warfare!

24 Concourse Sports.

27 Concourse Player Profile.

Student Council

25h January22nd February

10th May

Union General Meeting

9th Novebmer8th February

8th March31st May

Entertainments

The Monsters Forest (30.10.10)WinterFest (11.12.10)

Dates for your diary...

Chief Editor

Fadi Dada

Deputy Editor

Brendan Rodgers

Sports Editor

Dan Casey

Chief Writers

Nicola HaleAndy Johnson

Writers

Alison Jane CarterAndy Irwin

Evelynne LamGwen Smith

Samuel FidlerKim Buttery

Michael E. Turner IIThomas NorrisNicola Hobbs

Frederike DamméJack Mills Davidson

Sam Higham

Proofreaders

Lauren MasonKim Buttery

Cartoonist

Liam Eddleston

THE CONCOURSE TEAM!

Hey, I'm Andy – one of the chiefwriters on Concourse this year.Allow me to welcome you to thispacked second issue; as you cansee, things have changed a lotthis year. We have a new struc-ture, a new look and a renewed

Cuts, fees, politics – to be quite honest I’m getting sick of all this moaning. Anyone would thinkwe were in some kind of crisis! I mean, calm down everyone, it’s just a few redundancies hereand there isn’t it? At the end of the day tough decisions have to be made and I don’t believe thatmost of us really care about our lecturers’ livelihoods in the first place. I’ve heard all kinds ofthings recently about job losses and course closures and ‘lack of resources’ but what does that alleven mean? If you really want a library book which they can’t stock anymore then you can alwaysjust go and buy the textbook yourself.

As for course closures, if not as many people apply for that subject then it must not be worthkeeping open in the first place. In fact, it’s probably for the best if less people do study humanitiesand social science degrees; they don’t tend to lead you into successful careers and what have youcome to university for if it’s not to further your career? On the other hand of course it’s not justthat there are too many people studying humanities; it’s that there are too many people studyingin higher education as a whole. It’s a fact that not all people can or should have a university ed-ucation and there has to be people willing to settle for non-graduate jobs whether they want toaccept it or not.

Then there’s that whole other ball game, the big talking point right now… tuition fees. Surely, ifstudents and their families aren’t willing to take on some extra debt to go to university they mustjust not want it enough. If you honestly are ‘Oxbridge’ or ‘Russell Group’ university material thenyou have to be prepared to reflect that by paying more than you may do at other universities.Furthermore, thank goodness someone has finally realised that if you didn’t achieve great UCASpoints you don’t deserve financial help at university. I’m not buying for a second all this talk ofso-called disadvantaged backgrounds having that large an affect on you’re A Levels or BTECs. Ifyou messed up then it’s your own fault I’m afraid, life simply isn’t always fair and you’ve missedyour chance to go into higher education.

Do you believe in anything I just said? I’m proud to say I don’t.Join the march.

“Surely, if students and their families aren’t willing to take on some extra debt to

go to university they must just not want it enough”

A STATEMENT FROM 

THE PRESIDENT

2

As it stands, the fees in England are capped at £3,290 and these have to be paid up front, usuallywithin a few months of enrolment. Already, this is a strain for many warranting us to take out astudent loan, either means or non-means tested, which must be paid back when we start earningmore than £15,000 a year. If the loan isn‟t repaid within 25 years, then it gets written off. Ac-cording to the Browne Report, fees are going to be completely uncapped. Each university wouldbe allowed to charge what they want for you to study there, but the fees would not have to bepaid up front.

There will be “means testing for access to loans for living cost”, and an annual loan of £3,725will be available to all of us (part-timers would also be eligible for loans for their fees). The re-payment threshold has also been raised to £21,000, where we would pay 9% of any income abovethis. If our income drops, then so do our payments; if we stop work, then do our payments alsoand any remaining balance after 30 years is written off.

What this does mean though is that there will be more competition for higher education. Univer-sities will not be controlled by the government as to how many students they can take in, so thiswill allow for growth, and from evidence this summer, we need more spaces. But in order formore spaces, the universities need more money to build the teaching and accommodation facil-ities. Just to settle you down after all that; the Browne Report is intending to start raising thefees by £1,000 a year from 2013, 2 or 3 years down the line. This means that those of you havestarted a 3 year course this year will most likely not see a massive change in tuition fees. Thenagain, those of you wishing to further your knowledge with a Masters Degree or PhD will for suresee a change in the way fees are dealt with.

So what does this mean for us at Keele? Well, we could see fees rise; however, Keele is committedto growing and in 2009 built another 150 seat lecture theatre in the Dorothy Hodgkin building.And as students of Keele University, you have a great history of activism behind you. If you feelstrongly enough about something, I‟m sure there‟s someone who shares this emotion. Do some-thing about it.

Before a sports match, you warm up; before sitting atest, you revise and before going out on the razz, youline your stomach. Akin to many of you, I know closeto absolutely nothing about the recent Browne Re-port on higher education. Scores of my peers aretalking about totally uncapped educations fees andno student loans being given; that only the wealthywill be able to attend university and places at the in-stitutions are being cut. Let‟s put some of these ru-mours to rest and establish a few home truths,however grim they may be.

“As students of Keele University, you have a great history of

activism behind you”

By Samuel Fiddler

4

Enourmous Debt: Just Something Students Have got to get used to?

In response to the recently released Browne Report, which proposes various changes to the university fundingsystem, students from all over the country are preparing to protest at the demonstration being held at HorseGuards Avenue in Central London on the 10th of November. The cuts outlined in the report will mean that thestudents of the future will have to shoulder an enormous debt after they graduate, although it should benoted that at this point the cuts proposed are only suggestions and not actual law. Paradoxically, the gener-ation that is proposing these cutbacks in university education are the same individuals who received theiruniversity experience free of charge. They were not expected to pay their tuition fees or their maintenanceloans back once they graduated and so the expectation for today‟s student to shell out thousands for theireducation is tinged with a hint of irony.

It seems essential that the demonstration scheduled for early November is supported to illustrate the wide-spread negative sentiment that surrounds the Browne Report and its lack of understanding of the impact itcould have on many potential students. The review proposes that there should be no limits on the tuitionfees charged by universities. There will be a levy placed on fees, whereby for every thousand pounds overthe £6,000 marker the government will claw back a specific percentage, in order to discourage universitiescharging over this. However despite the levy the report still means that tuition fees could double in compar-ison to what they are today.

This could deter many students from less wealthy backgrounds from making the transition to university dueto fear about the debt they will be in for the rest of their lives. The report, if implemented, could also serveto widen the gap between the more elite, wealthier universities such as Oxbridge and the other higher edu-cation institutions in the country. The more elite universities are likely to increase their fees in line with thedemand for places. Due to this demand always being great and because the standard intake of students areusually from middle class, wealthy families the places are almost definitely going to be filled regardless offees. On the downside, universities with a usual intake of students from not as well off backgrounds may re-ceive less enthusiasm surrounding places owing to financial worries. This could result in them receiving fewerstudents, less money and therefore be unable to compete with the quality of teaching and services universitiesreceiving millions in fees a year will be providing.

Understandably the government needs to make cuts, however the report raises questions as to whether theeducation sector is the best place to be drawing back. The report not only suggests students should pay morevia their fees; it also slashes the amount of funding the government assigns to each university. Therefore theuniversities could be receiving less income overall than they are currently and the removal of the cap onfees will simply be used by universities to try and make up the gap lost by the cutting of government subsi-dies.

If we burden our future students with massive debt and deter many from even undertaking a university ed-ucation are we not as a society lessening the breadth of talent and skills of our workforce? Would the taxationof society as a whole in order to fund universities not be a better option instead of raising fees astronomicallyso that students are unfairly targeted? If the demonstration in November allows these ideas to enter the gov-ernment's consciousness and encourage them to rethink the fairness of this proposal then surely it is an eventworth supporting.

By Alison Carter

6

The Demonstration - Why I’m Not Going...

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to get myself angry about the Browne report and what it meansfor those who will come to university in 2011, all bright-eyed and away from home for the first time. I‟m alsotrying to get worked-up about what it will mean for me and my friends as we start to pay back our little studentmortgages. The problem is I can‟t seem to get worked-up about it (bearing in mind I like getting on my soapbox,as many will verify). I just don‟t think it‟s a big ask to expect students to contribute more to their elite edu-cation. Because that is what this is, when we decide to come to university we make a life choice.

We decide that for three, four, maybe even five years we‟re going to enter into an elite system of educationso that we can open lots of doors to the future. We live in a country where we now expect the government toprovide everything. As a result public spending in this country is colossal when considered against how muchwe are borrowing. We are in debt up to the eyeballs because we want everything to be easy all of the time.Something has to give, and this time it‟s state-subsidised advanced education. Student funding and studentloans aren‟t going anywhere (and without them I couldn‟t afford to be here either), so the funding will still bethere. I‟m proud to pay for my education, it makes it all the more worthwhile and gives me the incentive towork hard (otherwise my money, not Mummy and Daddy‟s money I hasten to add, will be wasted).

There are other, in my opinion more important, issues than this on the agenda at the moment. I think that themajority of people will see us as a bunch of kids marching around London, most people probably won‟t evenknow the demonstration is going on. It will achieve absolutely nothing. The assumption upon coming to uni-versity is that if you work hard, engage, and take all the opportunities it has to offer then you‟ll be in line fora good career on the other side, and that‟s still a steal at twice the price.

By Andy Irwin

Taking Sides...

The Browne Review was bound to stir emotion, from the moment the review was announced; with speculationrife as to how severe the cuts would be, starting months before the actual publication of said review. Now re-leased, with the suggestion of no caps on tuition fees, the report has encountered strong opposition and equallystrong support from all areas of society. Indeed feelings have become so strong that the Keele Union GeneralMeeting reportedly turned into a political shouting match, over the simple proposition of KUSU providing busesfor those who wish to join the NUS protest against Lord Browne‟ s recommendations.

Similar situations have doubtlessly happened at other university UGMs and debates about the review and theNUS demonstration. It could almost be seen as a good thing, igniting political fever in a student population,too often stereotyped as being uninterested in anything other than getting drunk. Indeed the feelings it hasevoked in Keele students, seems somewhat nostalgic of the historically politicised and politically active natureof the university‟s past, with a strong sentiments from both the left and right leaning amongst Keele‟s studentpopulace.

However this political and ideological split that has occurred seems to be missing the point somewhat. Talk topeople on campus, ask them if they are going to the protest, they‟ll say yes or no. It seems students, or morerightly the politicised portion of the student body, have split either pro or con, left or right, demonstrating ornot. Here is the problem, by objecting totally to the Browne review, are we not missing the point of the NUSdemonstration. The NUS is not asking for complete opposition to the cuts but a fairer system to be introduced,as the president said: “any graduate contributions to universities should be determined by earnings in the realworld...not fixed prices based on average salaries” .

As members of society, current students, and friends or family of future students, we have to accept that thecurrent deficit and financial situation calls for changes in funding and budgeting across all walks of life. How-ever the clear anti or pro stance, which many seem to be taking over the matter, is too simple. To truly ensurethe government takes notice of the demonstration and students we need intelligent responses to the questionof changing university spending. If the demonstration turns into another UGM situation, a Tory versus Labourshouting match, then it will negate itself. People should not be demonstrating or opposing the demonstrationjust to take sides, but to genuinely engage with a problem.

By Tom Norris

7

Just because you see the ever aging popula-tion going into Cancer Research doesn’t meanits going to be a never ending pit of granniesknickers and old socks… charity shops aregold mines for the chunky winter jumpersthat are so in fashion right now! Not to men-tion their array of fair-trade jewellery suchas, bangles, pendants and rings, which add abright fashion forward edgy twist to any win-ter outfit. You‟ve got Oxfam, British HeartFoundation and Cancer Research in Newcas-tle, but if the cheap goodies aren‟t enoughto persuade you, the satisfaction that yourpennies go towards a worthwhile cause, isreason enough to raid the tucked away char-ities within Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Charity shops are your friends!

Another sneaky tit-bit to keep the bills low andthe bank balance high… or at least relativelyhigh, is a simple trick of actually keeping all thescraps of paper you collect from vendors on thestreet. Within the junk mail is often a heftyvoucher for 40% off on major brands such as NewLook and Peacocks, which is a dream when theprices spike for the end of the recession and theapproach of Christmas.

The last and probably most important off all thetips for this issue, is the application and use of theNUS Card! Not only is it a god send for gettingpounds off of your clothes shopping, but you can getbargains for Amazon, MacDonald‟s, Superdrug,Odeon, Game and much much more! It only costs apittance of £11 and ought to be a definite additionto your wallet for your years as a student.

As it turns out, embellishments from the '80s andcamel colours seen in the '60s are back in fashion.Seen primarily in high fashion brands such as Chloe,Stella McCartney and Balmain, they are the hottesttrends for the chilly winter ahead of us. So a tripback home to raid the attic and your mum and daddraws, could leave you looking very chic and freshthis Autumn and Winter. I did the very same thing andcame back with a chunky, white, 4 sizes too big win-ter jumper, perfect with black skinny jeans and apair of wellies, all you need for keeping warm andfashionable as the weather gets steadily worse!

There’s more than one reason to keep incontact with your parentals...

Deploy the other plastic...Don't underestimate “junk” mail...

Dealing with student finance can be a nightmare, but now that we actually have the dosh in our bank

accounts, what do we do with it? How do we make it last that bit longer, so that we aren‟t in the redat the end of freshers' week!? Making the pennies stretch can be difficult, especially when every week-

end you need a new outfit for the K2 lockdown or black and white formal. Never fear! The these few

cheap tricks could be the difference between an abundance of spare pounds and living off of spaghetti

for the next few months...

My advice for you whippersnappers is simple but a quick recap can't hurt. Just remember: charity shops

are a gold mine, plunder your mum’s old rags, don�t ditch the paper as vouchers are useful and lastly,

cherish the miracle that is the NUS card! You will make it to Christmas, don�t fret little ones!

By Nicola Hobbs

9

In the January of 2010 it was announced that Professor Nick Foskett would be taking over as the Vice Chancellorof Keele University following the retirement of Dame Janet Finch. He took up his new post in August and it waswith great intrigue that I went along to meet the man that has been charged with the steep task of guiding theuniversity through the tough economic climate facing our country today. With no idea what to expect, I nervouslysat in the waiting room contemplating how to approach this interview, so many questions, so many issues - it washard to decide where I should even begin... In the end, I ended up asking him about cake... Amongst other things...

First things first! Can you explain to us students, what exactly is a Vice Chancellor and what does one do?

“Basically, if the university were a normal business, I would be the CEO. I have total responsibility and account-ability for what happens here- especially financial decisions. Elsewhere in the world, (for example the US), theyhave a university ‘president’, schools have headmasters, FE colleges have Principles...‘Vice Chancellor’ is a prettyarchaic term, but it means the same thing.”

About you; how did you become the VC for Keele, and why Keele specifically?

“I’ve worked across all areas of the education sector; in schools, further education and higher education. ButI’ve been in Higher Education since 1987. I’ve got experience in both the academic and research aspects of theHE sector, but always had an interest in relationship between the theory and practicality of educational manage-ment. I enjoy being at the heart of the decision-making process, directing policy, and so on. I never started outin life at 23 thinking ‘I want to be a Vice Chancellor!’ – it was just a case of natural progression I suppose.

Why Keele? Keele represents alot of what I think is positive about the education system; the notion of communityand the focus on students... ...The size is great as well, you know, about 10,000 students, and the fantastic lo-cation. I totally support the vision for Keele. I was born and bred in Staffordshire, but I know I would have likedto come and work with Keele regardless.”

Professor Foskett speaking at the KUSU Annual General Meeting.

When Fadi met Professor Nick Foskett:

Keele Universities new Vice Chancellor!

10

You’ve been in office for six weeks. Are you planning to make changes?

“It’s an interesting moment to come into a job like this. Nobody knows what’s going to happen [to the futureof higher education] and alot of what we need to do will be shaped by the Comprehensive Spending Review andthe Browne Review, which are published in October. I suppose the difference in how we manage and respondto these documents is dependent on the percentage of government financial cuts for universities – for example25% will mean something different to 40%. The only thing that’s certain at the moment is that we will have torespond to these reviews. My top priority for Keele is to ensure long-term financial stability.

In terms of direction, I have a real commitment to getting the right balance between research and education,I think it’s core, we need to be getting research and education to work together, not too much of one and notenough of the other. Also, I think our research profile needs to be absolutely as good as it can be; and I’ll belooking at things like research grants, publishing papers, etc.

I’m also interested in looking at our education system, the curriculum and structure, I’m really committed toimproving the quality of education at Keele, with an appropriate focus on generic skills, employability, as wellas getting the right depth of knowledge within the subjects. As soon as possible, I’d like employers to say ‘Keelegraduates are fantastic’.

Thirdly, I’m interested in internationalisation. And yes, a part of that is growing numbers of international stu-dents, but definitely not at the expense of home students- I’m talking about overall growth. More than thatthough, the ideal is that Keele can become a place where every student has the opportunity to engage on aninternational level, be that a year abroad, a work experience placement, etc. “

So how are you planning on supporting these increased numbers of international students, and the other

projects focussing on internationalisation?

“I think we will need to look at the curriculum to ensure it is meeting the needs of all students, whether theyare home, EU or international. I think a key player in any international support strategy will be the socialsupport mechanisms, and actually the students and athletic unions are a big part of that- you are central to thecommunity aspect of Keele life. I think the core notion of a non-alcoholic space on the centre of campus, ratherthan on the peripheries, could go a long way into embracing the diversity not just with our international students,but our home students too.”

Moving on, Keele isn’t a sports university in that we don’t offer the opportunity to study sport academically,

but for many students sport is a major part of their university experience, and some have expressed dis-

satisfaction with what we currently offer. What is your stance on sport at Keele and are there any plans to

develop our current facilities?

“I see the leisure centre as part of a wider remit- it is one of many divisions of student facilities on campus.Personally I am a sports fan. We need them to be as good as we can be. We want to be a leading universityacross all areas, and if we feel that there are viable ways to improve the standard and experience, then we willstrive to. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to be able to sign blank cheques!”

So I guess a swimming pool is not on the horizon then?!

“It would be fantastic. Historically, we have tried it on numerous occasions but for one reason or another, stum-bled along the way. But, there are other options- we could perhaps look at what local businesses are offeringstudents and perhaps cater for them that way.”

You said you are a sports fan. Football or Rugby? Who do you support?

“Oh, I like soccer, cricket, athletics. I used to play squash up until two years ago when unfortunately my kneeprevented me. In terms of who I support, I suppose this could be quite a politically loaded question! The truthis that I’ve been brought up in Stoke on Trent and throughout my time here I actually supported both Stoke Cityand Port Vale- Stoke one week and Port Vale the next. My first love was Port Vale because that was the end ofthe city in which I lived. My Grandfather played for Stoke and my great grandfather played for Port Vale. I wishthem both well & I’m sure I’ll go to both teams’ games!”

11

Along the local theme... what do you have on your oatcake?

“Cheese. Cheese, has to be. One of my other passions is Pikelets. Kind of like a cross between a scotch pancakeand a muffin. You can have them savoury or sweet!”

A question from the drama society: if you were a kind of cake, which one would you be, and why?

“Cake? It would vary from day to day. Probably a chocolate fudge brownie; Solid, good fun! I’m sure yourreaders will interpret that to the nth degree!”

Alot of freshers are going to read this magazine. Give them a tip for their first year at Keele?

“Take advantage of all the opportunities that come along. Work comes first, obviously, but as the old clichégoes, you get out what you put in. Also doing something that has a longer term benefit- volunteering, work ex-perience, leadership roles in the SU- it’s a competitive job market, anything abouve your academic degree willhelp you when you graduate.”

Keele has a somewhat left-wing history. Lecturers say students have changed- they see themselves as con-

sumers now. What do you think?

“That’s the political direction of travel. If you look at the various governments we’ve had over the past 25years, it’s all been about marketisation. Changing the structure of education and university as it has, has meantthat students increasingly see themselves as buying a service, and as such, expect to have customer rights. Isuppose it depends on your own personal political bias as to how you interpret this. But as a university weneed to respect the demands that students put upon us.”

Finally, I ask most people I interview to give me their favourite quote?

VC: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” It means, basically,if you want to change the world, you have to do things differently!”

12

But what, really, is the attraction of social networking? In times where the whole world is concerned withissues of privacy and data protection, we happily expose ourselves out of free choice. This might be truefor everyone who has a virtual social life, however it is even truer for us students or to be precise forKeele students. It is safe to say that without a Facebook profile, students in Keele feel like they live insocial oblivion; and no one likes oblivion. Facebook has slowly become the social market place of the 21stcentury. Weare still the same people but all our whispering, gossiping, stalking and scandalising is nowsecured in a safe place called the World Wide Web. One could arguably say that university life has com-pletely changed since social networking became part of our degree programme. You can relive your uni-versity experience over and over again - good or bad, it is stored for eternity.

Of course, it has become easier for us to communicate with people. Friends, who are all over the countryand the world, family members in Australia or that hot Canadian guy you met whilst backpacking throughThailand, they are all are easy to talk to on a daily basis. However in our day-to-day life, social networkingcan also show its ugly face. How much information do we actually need? It often seems that we are pro-vided with an overload of facts and figures we do not really need to know. The ex-boyfriend who just up-loaded pictures of his trip to Paris which shows him with a different pretty French girl in every photo. Thefriend who is throwing an amazing party... but no matter how hard you look you can't seem to find anevent invitation. Social networking is supposed to ease our relationships with other people but one cannotshake off the impression that in many cases it complicates things even more.

What we see is not necessarily what we get. We keep forgetting that a Facebook profile is in many casesnot an accurate description of someone‟s character. We feel a constant temptation to create a person wewould like to be. Now, whenever we meet someone new, we judge him or her according to an artificiallycreated virtual life. We have become the generation of access-all-areas information but in reality remainto a large extent completely clueless. Maybe - and that might be psychology for dummies - Facebook hasprovided us again with that feeling of control. Control in a current climate where it is uncertain if we findthe right job or a job at all, the right partner and the perfect house. The problem is, we won‟t find thesethings on Facebook either. Even if the university experience, and for us personally the Keele experience,has changed since Facebook is on the agenda we should not forget that the real university life is not infront of a screen but in the Union, the Pig and Rat or even a lecture theatre. So even though Facebook isgreat and we can share all our funny and tragic moments with whoever we like, these moments are onlyunique because they happened and you were there not because you read it in someone‟s status. After all,I would not like to hear that we will be known as the generation who posts everything but has nothing tosay.

Ever heard of Mark Zuckerberg? No, well, he is probably the manwho has had the most impact on your social life in the last fewyears. In 2004, Harvard student Zuckerberg founded the social net-work site “thefacebook”. In the beginning, the network was acces-sible to Harvard students only but soon expanded to moreuniversities in the States and then arrived in the UK. Now, six yearslater, Facebook has 500 million users worldwide and Zuckerberg isthe youngest billionaire on the planet. Facebook's cultural pene-tration is reflected in the recent film The Social Network, whichdocuments the site's creation.

“We keep forgetting that a Facebook profile is in many cases not an accurate

description of someone‟s character”

“Moments are only unique because they happened and you were there notbecause you read it in someone‟s status”

By Frederike Dammé

14

Hello again Keele!

Last issue, we welcomed the Freshers- and I’m sure by now you’ve all learnt what we mean by “Freshers’week will teach you everything”! If you remember from the last issue, we discussed Apathy – and what itmeans for Keele today. For those who are not involved in our Students’ Union’s political side, I would liketo talk today about Keele and its history of activism- some of which may surprise you!

Although some may know Keele to be a dull and apathetic place, others have lived and breathed the passionof conviction to defend the peoples right to education or the opposite! To prove this, today I’m going toinform you of how Keele for a small period, became known to the whole of the UK as an institution thatprotested against educational cuts of 1981. The first year of a progressive decade – and the Conservativeswere in power much like today having to deal with an economic crisis. The Government has to make somevery unpopular decisions, and like today’s Coalition Government – they address the issue of education ex-penditure.

In 1981, however, there were some differences! Fresh in the people’s minds were the 1970s, punk rockand activism were still in the air- the people still thought they could make a difference. Whether theywere the liberal hippies, advocating world peace, environmentalism and free speech, or the conservativesconcerned with the economic recession, and a progressive future with Britain’s first female Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher at the helm; the time was ripe for the country to be full of opinion.

Those of you familiar to a Union General Meeting, you’ll know how the debates can get emotionally heated– especially from the opposing political factions. For those of you who don’t know the UGMs,

1981, was no different than today. However, this was a special meeting because at the end of this meeting;Keele had voted itself in direct opposition of the British Government, and started the process of a UnilateralDeclaration of Independence (in short, they became their own COUNTRY!) The Letter to the Prime Ministerwent like this:

I can promise you that there are students who will fight tooth and nail to make sure

that justice is ascertained within our Union.

“We always have been, deeply opposed

to cutbacks in education expenditure. We

feel therefore, that our trust in the

British Government, currently engaged in

implementing such odious cutbacks has

been most violently betrayed... It is our

belief that education is right and not a

privilege and should be freely available

to all. We are opposed to all measures,

which restrict access to education or un-

dermine its quality. We refuse to be sub-

jugated by such means, and therefore

declare our complete independence from

the rule of the British Government... We

declare ourselves; ‘The Free Republic of

Keele’ - KUSU, 1981”

By Brendan Rodgers

16

Ultimately, the Free Republic’s independence only lasted roughly a week, due to its inability to sustain

itself. However, in that period of time – a few amazing things happened. None other than the late

comic Spike Milligan was appointed Ambassador of Keele, a strict policing for entry to campus was

initiated – the passphrase being: “Sod off you commie bastard!”, and a motion (which was turned

down) to have female students be allowed frisked on random, just in case they were spies! Rumour

has it, that although Keele University could not for political reasons endorse the declaration – they

did support it, and the SPIRE department produced “Free Republic of Keele Passports”!

After looking into the Declaration, I met with Mr. John Easom, the Keele Alumni Officer, who informed

me that Keele “has always been like this”. Mr.Easom fondly waxed lyrical about the “strangeness of

Keele” and how as a campus, we have always attracted not just activist, but quirky people! He told

me, that although my article (originally planned to emphasize the historical Declaration of Independ-

ence) was of good intention – it would be better served to remind Keele students of some of our more

quirky- yet just as historical moments.

So, adhering to his advice, I looked into the Keele Oral History Project (spearheaded by John himself),

and found some amazing stories. One that struck me was the time that Keele students supposedly

levitated the Vice Chancellors building!

“There is a strong tradition of imaginative and creative student activity and protest at Keele. The turn

of the decades of the 1960s and 1970s was a particularly energetic time. Here we weave some very

carefully expurgated threads of music, protest and psychic power to recall those heady days....”- Oral

History Project

Supposedly, rumour circulated around Keele Campus by the Student’s Union as a form of Protest on

the 28th October, 1970.The Oral History Project (which includes statements from alumni to piece to-

gether Keele’s more interesting history) has a quote from alumni, Janet Dowling:

“When a large number of people had gathered outside and around the Vice Chancellor's house, the

Vice Chancellor’s wife came out and asked them what they were doing. When some one said that

they were levitating it, apparently she said something along the lines of "Alright dear, but put it back

when you have finished with it!" – Oral History Project Website.

Hilariously, the drama of Keele doesn’t stop there by a long shot, in 1970 “the incident on the lawns”

had roughly twenty Keele Students strip naked, and sunbathe in the summer sun. An extract from

the Scottish Daily Mail (20th June, 1970) goes into more detail!

“One of the students, aged 20, said: ‘We fancied a sunbathe so we took our clothes off. We believe

in freedom. I don’t really see what all the fuss is about.’ A university spokesman said: ‘They possibly

thought that their bodies were too beautiful for other people to be denied the sight of them.”

There are so many more stories- and I haven’t done any of them justice (they each deserve whole

articles to themselves –that tell of crazy antics and protests at Keele University, and most of which

were done with the co-operation of the Student’s Union. The days were different back then, and peo-

ple were happy to make spectacles of themselves to get their message across. Perhaps, with this

new surge in activism – Keele can observe its heritage once more. I for one, am totally up for a few

flash mobs or trying to levitate the chapel (not that I’d have the slightest clue how to manage it). Re-

member guys; we are all Keelites – and with that comes a certain responsibility to standing up for

what we believe in. Whether that is through nude protests, psychic levitations or stampeding towards

London!

I really wanted to quote everything they said, but it would be an excessive use of page space! If

you’re curious, you can find out all the awesome and crazy details at Keele.ac.uk/alumni/thekeeleo-

ralhistoryproject/

17

As you will all know Keele is one of the largest and most beautiful campuses in Europe boasting a 617-acre estate including woods, a lake and parkland. It's one of the most communal campuses around, ac-commodating over 3000 students. With this in mind Keele markets itself as a green campus, with asustainable ethos. Events such as 'green week' in February of last year, the new Keele sustainability hubbeing built, the implementation of recycling bins in halls of residence's kitchens and a union run by stu-dents for students are just some of the wonderful aspects of Keele's approach to caring for the communityand its environment

Having said this, more can be done. One of the best ways we can significantly reduce our carbon footprint,whilst saving those pennies to spend down the pub, rather than the fuel station, would be cycling as analternative to driving, or using buses and taxis. Cycling saves cash, keeps you fit and protects the envi-ronment. From what I gather, many student bike owners feel uncomfortable leaving their bikes in thesheds available as they are insecure - confirmed by reports of break ins last year – not to mention incon-venient for the majority of students as their nearest bike shed is some distance from their room and toosmall. These factors deter students from buying bikes or bringing an existing one from home. If a studentdoesn't wish to risk using a bike shed and leaves it in their room, they are subject to a fine as it is deemedas a 'safety hazard'. As a community Keele needs to encourage cycling, and to do this it first needs to beable to accommodate bicycles. Cycling rather than driving would make Keele less crowded, noisy and pol-luted and save people time searching for parking spaces. Futhermore, it is proven that regular exercisekeeps people energized and happy, thus cycling could improve the mental well being of the Keele studentcommunity and the atmosphere.

What I and other students would like to see is a secure, spacious and conveniently located bike shed at-tached to every block on campus, or at least very close to the block, able to accommodate 20% or moreof the students bikes within each block. I am currently speaking with members of Keele, including the En-vironmental Manager and the union about these issues.

Please would any fellow student who has a bike on campus, wishes to bring or purchase one and em-pathizes with these concerns email me at jackmillsdavidson@hotmail.com letting me know who you are,in which halls of residence you live in and whether you have a bike. This will provide further backing formaking the case to keele for a more cycle friendly university.

Jack on his bike...

Bikes for Keele!By Jack Mills Davidson

18

Keele and “Sustainable Communities”

By Michael E. Turner II

Wassup Keele!

Quickly, without thinking... what do you admire most about our beloved Keele? Well to be honest - for me- there's no way I can choose, simply because there are so many things about Keele that should be com-mended. Only recently, I have added another entry on my list of things to love about Keele: its efforts todevelop a more sustainable and environmentally aware campus. Keele has a vision to become the “Ulti-mate Campus University for the 21st Century” and I just thought I'd let you know that we - the students -can help achieve this. How? Well at the risk of sounding too cliché, the 'Triple R' concept still applies today- Reduce, Re-use and Recycle!

These are just a few interesting facts that help us to realise that our everyday actions do affect our en-vironment. Making a difference can be as simple as turning off the lights when they aren't in use or avoidingleaking taps. So as students, we may not be from Keele, but for the duration of our time here, Keele isour home and will always be a part of us when we leave - so why not leave here knowing that we've doneour part? Not only will we be helping to make Keele the model university it strives to be, but also we'll beultimately helping our environment. On Friday 29th October, Keele will be holding an Environmental Sym-posium entitled 'Sustainable Communities'.

At the symposium, Keele will be showcasing some of its research in the area of environmental sustainabilityacross both the science and social science arenas. We will also be sharing some of our major developmentson campus such as the 'Keele Sustainability Hub Building' which will be located at the entrance to thecampus in the former Home Farm buildings. As a part of the symposium, Environmentalist Jonathon Porrittwill be coming to Keele University to deliver a public lecture at 2:45pm.

His lecture will carry the same name as the symposium - Sustainable Communities - and is open to anyoneinterested.

If thats you, register your attendance by contacting Shirley Courthold (s.p.courthold@epsam.keele.ac.uk,tel: 33175). Let's show our support! Let‟s make it a point to become more environmentally aware and si-multaneously help to make Keele a more sustainable community. I love Keele!

It takes roughly 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaperOver Christmas 2009, approximately 80km2 of wrapping paper ended up in UK

trash bins (that's enough to cover the area of Guernsey!)Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used over and over and over; no one knows ex-actly how long it takes for glass to break down, but glass made over 3,000 years ago

in the Middle East can still be found today.Just 1 recycled plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulbfor 3 hours.Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK (the equiv-

alent of around 15 million bottles per day).£36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year.

Aluminium cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 3 weeks

19

I followed some of your advice from the last edition of Concourse, and it

didn’t really help, why should we listen to you?

I fractured my finger last week playingrugby – it was the day before the exam, canI put in an EC form?

I need to transfer money from my Father’s accountoverseas into my UK account to pay for accommoda-tion fees, but I don’t want to pay charges/commissionif I can help it, what can I do?

Fay manages KUSU’s Independant Advice Unit(IAU) which provides FREE, confidential andimpartial advice on academic, personal and financial issues.

Drop in between 1-4pm to arrange an appoint-ment! You can find the IAU on the top floor ofthe students union.

Alternatively email your queries to:independent.advice.unit@keele.ac.ukIn this regular section we publish a selection ofthe frequent questions that Fay and her teamdeal with around the time of publication.

Well, I am sorry that it didn’t work out for you, however the questions and answers given here are only as aguide for others as nothing replaces individual advice, even you think they are the same, their circumstancesmay be very different from yours. Pop into the unit and we’ll sort you out.

You can go to postoffice.co.uk look in ‘finances’ underpayments and find ‘international payments’, here you willbe able to register your transfer requirements (bank de-tails etc) and transfer money in the UK or overseas andfrom overseas to the UK free of charge. You will need togive them personal details, etc to register. If you use thisservice and give them the branch code you will be showingyour support for your local post office at Keele, this is2122383. You should also talk to your bank about whatservices they provide and compare them with the Post Of-fice.

If you genuinely think that it has had an impacton your studies, and you can provide evidenceof what happened, then you should completean Extenuating Circumstance form, but if it justhurts a bit, then it probably won’t be upheld bythe EC committee.

People in Stoke keeping calling

me ‘dog’ what this about?

I think that you are probably mishear-ing them, it’s actually ‘duck’ which isa friendly expression, people in Stokecan also call the bus ‘buzz’ and tofood/packed lunch as ‘snap’. 20

I am a Fresher and I have moved into a house with people I don’t know, they are doing my head

in, I have tried talking to them and leaving notes on the fridge but it’s not working. I need to be

on placement every day and can’t cope with late nights every night of the week

I’ve got to come back to Keele to just do failed modules; I can’t believe I have to waste a

year doing this. I haven’t a clue what money I am going to get and I feel a bit lost

My landlord is a pervy old git and keeps letting himselfwhenever he feels like it and we are a house of all girls

The person I am sharing a campus room

with is shagging her boyfriend in the

bunk bed above me, it’s not pleasant –

what can I do?

This is a difficult one, as if you have moved into a house the chances are you have signed an agreementwhich is a contract between you and the landlord. There are a few things you can do: you can contact theStudent Mediation service, which is in the process of being able to mediate student to student, you can talkto your landlord, as it may be that they are able to help e.g. let you find someone to take over your room.If the other people in the house are on professional courses and are breaching codes of conduct then tech-nically this can be reported to their school, however if you are having problems like this, come and talk tothe Unit or to Student Support in the Walter Moberley building.

It is a difficult thing for students to deal with, especially if you have been through an appeal process and not

got the outcome you were looking for. If you just doing exams, you won’t normally get any funding for this;

if you are doing at least one module with attendance then you should receive some funding, though it depends

when you are attending, if it is only for one semester, then you will only get funding for that one semester.

This means that you are probably going to have to get a job, and try to fit your studies around it. You shouldn’t

have to pay council tax during this period, but the rules regarding this are complex, so if you get charged

during this period contact the Unit. We find that students in your situation are vulnerable to failing academ-

ically, so you must stay in touch with the University, engage with your departments, with the Centre for Learn-

ing and Student Support and make sure you are doing everything you can to stay on track to rejoin the main

programme next year.

There is legislation to protect you; your landlord has the legal right toenter your house at reasonable times of day for example to do repairsand to see how you are treating the place. They need to give you 24hours’ written notice. Ideally in the contract you have it should saywhat the arrangements are for access and procedures for getting re-pairs done, however it is not unusual for this to be missing, wrong orunclear. We can help negotiate with your landlord, as can the HousingStandards Officer at Newcastle Borough Council. However, if you aregenuinely worried about their conduct you also need to make a judge-ment about whether the police should be involved.

There are a number of groups who aren’t quite getting the whole ‘fresher’ thing, e.g. if you are on ahealth related course and have to get up at 6am to get ready for an early shift, however this doesn’t helpyou, particularly. In terms of finance, many of those at Keele who are here after leaving care don’t getthe entire financial help available, if you contact the Student Funding Office, (email or ring Helen andtell her you are a care leaver), there’s a generous bursary you could be entitled to. You could take ad-vantage of the opportunities to get out and meet more people, as friends can be as much of a support asfamily, check out opportunities to volunteer, or join societies, see Sonia Douz about sports opportunitieswhich aren’t competitive.

Nothing in this column reflects actual enquiries made in the Unit, we operate a strict policy on confiden-tiality, and nothing you say in the Unit will be repeated without your strict permission. Contacting Con-course with questions to ‘ask Fay’ assumes that you are happy for your question to printed.

You need to speak to your ResidentTutor or Resident Manager about thisas soon as possible, as this is not ac-ceptable behaviour and you shouldn’tbe subjected to this (assuming youare there at the time, if you are outit may be another matter...

My university experience so far is not like the people who I share the corridor with, they go home at the

weekend, they have parents to help pay for their room and shopping. I lived with foster parents before

in the past and feel a bit out of it. This isn’t my first time living independently, so the novelty isn’t there

for me.

20

As well as encouraging the skills of enthusiastic, experienced writers, Keele Writing wants to coax newcreative minds to come forward from all walks of Keele life, and embrace hidden talents. While not a so-ciety in the usual sense - you don't need to pay to become a member - Keele Writing offers participants achance to express themselves to a group of people who share their passion. All you need to do is join theirFacebook group and attend any event that you find interesting, whether it be poetry or prose.

The group organises open readings by a variety of published authors. Recently these have included thejournalist Jo Tatchell whose first book, Nabeel's Song, was nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize forNon-Fiction 2007; Gwendolen Riley whose book Joshua Spassky won the 2008 Somerset Maugham Award;and the Whitbread Award winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts who was twice shortlisted for the TSEliot Prize.

Meanwhile the society enjoyed an amazing opportunity when Keele played host to Carol Ann Duffy, whowas settling into her role as Poet Laureate when she appeared in March to read to a sold-out auditoriumin the Chancellor's Building. The Roy Fisher Prize for Poetry, endowed by Carol Ann Duffy, meanwhile is tobe run at Keele. It is funded by her for the ten years of her laureateship, and will allow any student toenter a pamphlet of their work, the prize being publication. The deadline should be mid-November, butkeep a look out on the group's Facebook page for more news. Creative Writing tutors and published authorsJim Sheard and Joe Stretch are, rather fittingly, in charge, and always preparing new speakers and eventswhere you can read too. Working alongside the Creative Writing Society on Facebook, they hope to builda vibrant writing culture. As Jim Sheard says "once done once, it's easy" - joining and getting your workout there is not as daunting as you might have first thought.

By Gwen Smith

The advent of online TV-on-demand services has been a crushing blow in the 21st century student's fightagainst having to do any work. iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, even Demand Five – we salute you, even as we curseyour greedy consumption of our HallsNet download limits. Here's a few highlights that have kept my nosefrom the grindstone recently, and which I recommend to you, gentle readers, in the coming weeks.

By Andy Johnson

Now don't get me wrong – Ilove the Lord Sugar show. Butis it just me, or does this se-ries feature the most hateful,self-absorbed group of candi-dates ever? Oh well, this justmade the record-breakinglypoor result of the losing teamin week two even more deli-cious than it would otherwisehave been. With so manyheadstrong individuals throwntogether this time around, itwould seem that we are in fora particularly explosive series.Yes sir, these candidates aredynamite – and not of the kindLord Sugar is looking for, I sus-pect.

The Apprentice

If there's ever been an occasion to

make use of the fact that the

iPlayer's volume control goes up

to a Spinal Tap-esque eleven, it's

the Spooks theme tune. The spy

show is now in its ninth series,

and as ever there are thrills a-

plenty as MI5's alarmingly photo-

genic team sees off threats from

the Chinese government, ex-So-

viet terrorists, and ship-hijacking

bombers. Handily, the BBC have

put it all on series catch-up, so

you can quickly get abreast of the

action before you put in your ap-

plication to Thames House's grad-

uate scheme.

Spooks

Now let me reassure you that theBBC aren't funding this article; it'sjust that for my money (ha!) theBeeb just make better TV. Howeveruncool hospital drama and Casualtyspin-off Holby City may be, its year-round weekly format allow for someambitious storylines and 2010 hasbeen a good year, climaxing recentlywith the much-publicised murder ofa major character. And for you med-ical students – yes, it does count asrevision: preparing you for the ethi-cal dilemmas, social disintegrationand judicious backstabbing you'reapparently in for. Rather you thanme.

Holby City

What to do when a neighbour is going overboard with their loud music? Obviously Concourse doesn't con-done this kind of dastardly behaviour, but if we were to strike back in kind, what might be the best auralweapons to deploy...?

1) Arab on Radar – “#5” (from Soak the Saddle)2) Norma Jean – “Pretty Soon...” (from Bless the Martyr...)3) The Chariot – “Evolve” (from Wars and Rumours of Wars)4) Rolo Tomassi – “Fuck the Pleasantries, Let's Remix” (Remix) (from Rolo Tomassi)5) The Dillinger Escape Plan – “The Mullet Burden” (from Under the Running Board)6) Genghis Tron – “Board Up the House” (from Board Up the House)7) Gay for Johnny Depp – “F**king isn‟t Cheating” (from Manthology)8) Liars – “If You‟re a Wizard...” (from They Were Wrong...)9) Crystal Castles – “Xxzxcuzx” (from Crystal Castles)10) Big Black – “Bad Penny” (from Songs about F**cking)

By Tom Norris

21

It’s that time of year again; Keele sports men and women have all competed in their first competitive sportsmatches of the year representing us, Keele University. There may be some of you out there who are unawareof what all the fuss is about, and why the buzz word around the sports side of the campus is BUCS. It’s becauseall the teams have wet their lips with pre-season optimism for the exciting year that lies ahead for Team:Keele.

What is BUCS?

BUCS stands for British Universities and College Sports. BUCS is the administrative body responsible for or-ganising 50 inter-university sports within the UK. BUCS are also responsible for organising representativeteams for international competition in the World University Championships and the World University Games.BUCS is the largest sporting organisation in the world and there are over 80,000 students competing in thecontests annually.

There are 157 members of the BUCS scheme. All of the members compete against one another, but this hap-pens first on a regional level. Keele falls into the North West region, so there is regular competition againstteams in our region such as MMU Cheshire, Liverpool, Manchester, Chester and Bangor to name a handful ofthe 16 other institutions we compete against. Teams generally play in a league format, but there is also a re-gional knock out cup, which allows teams to be crowned Regional Champions and progress onto National Fi-nals.

Teams to look out for...

Last year, the Fencing team were very proud to claim the BUCS Northern Conference Cup in a thrilling victory,earning them BUCS Team of the Year 09/10 at the end of season Athletic Union Ball at Keele Hall. Not onlydid they win the Northern Conference Cup, but they also clinched promotion to Division 1 after their 100%record last season and now compete in the Northern Region rather than the North West Region. The core ofthe team from last year remains and they are very excited for their season ahead.

Fencing weren’t the only club to dramatically claim a rise in stature last year, with Men’s Football seeingtheir 1st and 2nd team claiming promotion in their BUCS leagues emphatically with class and composurewhich saw the club hit a high point in their history. Coach Keith Harrison claimed it was down to the strongeston the field performances he had seen in his 11 years with the club which had driven the teams to such suc-cess. The 1st Team has had a strong pre-season and is looking forward to testing itself at the new level of Di-vision 2 with quiet confidence of successive promotions.

BUCS 2010/11 Season Preview

24

Other teams to claim promotion include Men’s Squash, who managed a 75% win ratio last season after a stringof successful performances which has also seen them hit Division 2. Women’s Basketball also deserve a specialmention after they won Club of the Year 09/10 at the Presentation Ball for their exceptional off the fieldwork including a fantastically organised tournament that pulled in players of all levels to play. They alsogained promotion last season through some hard fought victories and are also competing in Division 2 thisyear.

Keele currently has over 50 teams competing in BUCS this year, and all have aspirations for promotion andfurther success. For the last two years Keele has finished 72nd nationally in the BUCS ranking table, Sports Development Officer at Keele, Mike Huss has confidently claimed that “Keele will break into the top60” after the work being done at the Athletic Union this year. This is taking into account “a major emphasison coaching for all teams this year, with the objective of helping students achieve their true sporting poten-tial”. Mike Huss also identified another key target for this coming season, to “send more individuals to nationalchampionships - for example Deputy AU President Emily Strickland will be entering the National Women’sSquash”.

Come down and watch the next set of BUCS fixtures at home on the 3rd November!

Every week the pitch side is dying out for dedicated Keele students to urge our teams on to victory! It isunanimous across all the clubs that more support would dramatically contribute to raising the game of allour athletes and make Keele an impenetrable fortress at home!

No longer can your excuse be that you don’t know when the fixtures are! The next set of home fixtures arealmost all in the prestigious BUCS knockout cup competition. Here are some key fixtures I’ve picked out foryou at home for the 1st Round…

Keele University Netball 1st vs. University of Central Lancashire 1st

BUCS Cup – 2pm, in the Leisure Centre.

The Netball team performed strongly in their opening home fixture, and will be fired up for their next homegame in the cup. Expect a strong performance from players out to prove a point. Especially suitable for thosewho want to be indoors and avoid the Keele frostbite!

Keele University Basketball Men’s 1st vs. University of Liverpool Men’s 1st

BUCS Cup – 4pm, in the Leisure Centre.

Basketball always has a fantastic atmosphere; the games are fast paced, seriously competitive and extremelyexciting (even for those brand new to the sport). Again, another indoor fixture to enjoy!

Keele University Men’s Football 2nd vs. Glyndwr University Men’s 1st

BUCS Cup – 2pm, on the grass pitches.

Fiery captain Riche Harrison will want blood, sweat and tears from his lads after their performance at homeon the opening day. This is the perfect opportunity to make up for it, and expect the team to be firing on allcylinders for this massive clash. Not to be missed.

I sincerely hope that I’ll be seeing some of you out on the pitches on Wednesday 3rd November cheering on

Team:Keele!

23

It was a cold day that played host to Keele 1st opening BUCS game of the season, and an icy wind whipped across thegrass as the two teams warmed up. The contrast in pre-match regime was stark with MMU being drilled hard by theircoach, and Keele, absent of a coach figure, with a much more free form training style. Although as the match progressedit was probably lucky for MMU that Keele weren’t as drilled.

First chance of the day fell to Keele, with Adam Dorontic whipping in a cross from the left which managed to miss every-one and zipped dangerously close to MMU’s right hand post. This was just a sign of things to come. The opening fifteenminutes consisted of a battle between Dorontic and MMU’s left back, with Dorontic coming out on top time after time,beating his opponent with both pace and skill. It was therefore no surprise that Dorontic was involved in the first realopportunity for Keele. After a series of shots peppering the MMU goal the ball fell to Dorontic just inside the 18 yard boxwith his shot taking a deflection off the goalkeeper and landing plumb on the line. Appeals are waved away by the ref.Time for video technology at Keele?

After a series of handball appeals being turned down for both teams the first free kick of the game fell to Keele on theleft hand side of the pitch about 40 yards out. As the ball was played in Mikey Hewitt rose above the rest with a salmonlick leap to place a clever flick on into Listowel Appiah’s path, who used a majestic flick over the keeper which landedjust short. Luckily Appiah was first to react and he slammed the ball into the empty net. 1-0 Keele. MMU were lookingvery quiet.

20 minutes in and Keele centre back Nick “Hatman” Jones shows his pedigree with a storming punt and run from defencewhich caught MMU dozing, and after a Usain Bolt like sprint Jones found himself in the opposing box crossing to JuniorRodrigue who sliced his shot just wide.

The match was almost over shadowed by an incident between Rodrigue and the MMU forward, who lashed out unprovokedat Rodrigue. This led to the conventional push shove dance that has become all too common place in modern football.The ref didn’t see the incident and the MMU forward escapes what should have been a certain red card. MMU manageto weather the Keele storm for the remaining 30 minutes of the half with shots coming from all angles but Keele unableto put away. MMU will have felt more than lucky to come in only one behind.

Half time seemed to rejuvenate MMU and they came out the much brighter in the second half, soaking up any Keeleattack and forming the own. MMU’s punted a innocuous looking ball into the box which isn’t dealt with well, perhapsmissing Jones height, and it eventually falls to an MMU striker to place into the net for an undeserved equaliser. If itwasn’t for a few smart saves by Bourke shortly after, Keele could have found themselves behind. Then, with 20 minutesto go, Keele were on the back foot making limited chances. Fortunately neither were MMU. It looked to be heading fora dull second half draw.

It would take a bit of magic to find a goal.

Three minutes to go, Keele pinged a ball into the box which was half cleared by the MMU defence but only as far as im-posing centre back Sonny Sloggett 25 yards out. He then almost nonchalantly placed a wonder strike which curled anddipped over the MMU keeper into the top right hand corner of the net. It was a goal any player would have been delightedwith and worthy of winning any football match, which it did, although Keele will feel it should have come a lot sooner.

After the game, Head Coach Keith Harrison said that “if Keele stick to what they do best, a short and sharp game plan,they will always be hard to control. With their never say die attitude and with courage and perseverance they will usuallycome out on top, as they did today. Teams last season branded our unique short passing style as unplayable and we willlook to continue in this form”.

2-1 Keele.

Keele University Men’s Football 1st vs. Manchester Metropolitan (MMU) 2nd

20th October 2010

By Sam Higham

26

Keele University Women’s Hockey 1st vs. University of Chester 1st

20th October 2010

By Stefanie Kent

25

The first BUCS League game of the season saw a large number of players new to the club making their com-petitive debut: Emma Bartlett, Ruth Hindle, Laura Hughes, Lauren ‘Polo’ Leaper, Mishka ‘Moo’ Mayers andLauren Roberts.

Some good pre-season friendlies, plus the Staffordshire League being well underway had already allowedplayers a chance to gel and after a first Staffordshire League win on Saturday 16th Oct the team was deter-mined to get the BUCS season off to a good start.

Chester started out much stronger than Keele for the first 15 minutes and duly went a goal up when the re-bound of a saved strike was scrambled over the goal line. Keele’s typical dominance at set plays shonethrough however when a well worked short corner was confidently struck by Sara Blackwell and swept homeby Emma Bartlett. This settled Keele’s nerves and they began to play themselves back into the game with acouple of intense battles taking place in central midfield with Emma Bartlett and at left back with LaurenRoberts. Towards the end of the first half several short corners in succession saw a sweet ‘top D’ strike fromSara Blackwell who smashed into the backboard. Keele go in 2-1 up at halftime.

Keele came out strong in the beginning of the second half, and with several opportunities – the most notablefrom Ruth Hindle who struck narrowly wide. Chester had some good possession and made some good attackingplay but strong defending from Lottie Bain and Sara Blackwell saw Keele hold firm. Lottie, much to heramazement and panic, and our amusement even managed to dribble the ball around a player and pass it off successfully before realising quite what she had done earning her ‘Dick of The Day’!

Several injuries to players caused some panic in the Keele team and Chester were able to capitalise on thiswith an unfortunate, and somewhat lucky, goal slipped past the outstretched foot of keeper Becky Walters. With less than five minutes to go striker Stefanie Kent was clean through on goal before being spectacularlytaken out by the Chester goalkeeper. Unfortunately Keele were unable to capitalise on the set piece in theaftermath and the final result remained 2-2.

With a strong performance from the side to build on for the rest of the season there are high hopes of pro-motion back to Division 2A this season, and the strong performances across the field are giving everyone abun-dance in confidence.

Special mention goes to Man of the Match captain Sara Blackwell for an absolutely sterling performance assweeper!

2-2 Draw.

Keele University Netball 1st team produced a promising first performanceof the season, but they were disappointed to narrowly lose 38-48 againstUniversity of Cumbria 1st team in their opening BUCS fixture of the sea-son. There is a feeling that the team will get stronger as the season pro-gresses. The Team Captain Kasia Skrakowski said “The team is lookingreally strong – I’m really happy with the team. We have two more trainingsessions before the next game and we have really high hopes for promo-tion this season”, she also said “I’m sure if we get the chance to playCumbria again we could definitely beat them.”

Despite the result, there is a defiant mood in the camp and the deter-mined performance today suggests their optimism isn’t misplaced.

38-48 Cumbria.

Keele University Women’s Netball 1st vs. University of Cumbria 1st

20th October 2010

By Dan Casey

Ok... A bit of an unusual choice (and I’ll prob-ably get A LOT of stick for it) But this videohad to go in purely because of the fact that wesee a COMPLETLEY different side of Katy Perry!Gone are the stupid outfits and and ridiculouschild like lyrics and instead what we get is aheart felt accoustic ballad of emotions - andwho knew she could play the guitar! Katy, youare much more attractive when you do stufflike this, please can we see more of it!

Thinking of You - Katy Perry

Cartoon by Liam Eddleston

KUSU SUDOKU!

Having played several different sports atcounty level Stefanie chose hockey as heruniversity sport and rapidly became asolid member of the club; picking up the2nd team Player of the Year as a fresher.

Last year she worked heavily behind thescenes and was rewarded with the ClubCaptain’s Award for her efforts.

Stefanie is also a key participant in the(in)famous Hockey Club Socials, and hasnever missed a social. Particularly thisyear she has been noticeable in the unionbecause she’s free and single and causinghavoc – man-eater!

Currently Top Scorer across all matchesshe has settled comfortably in her nowrole this season as Centre Forward in theFirst Team!

What was your highlight of the 2009/10 season?

Without a doubt Varsity – I scored a goal and notched Woman of the Match for my performance!There’s nothing better than beating Staffs...

If you could improve one thing about your sporting experience at university, what would it have

been?

The ability to represent the university in more than one sport competitively.

Does Keele University Hockey Club play at a high enough level to fulfil your ambition at univer-

sity, and do the resources – for example coaching, facilities and training equipment – reflect a

university with a winning, competitive mentality?

For now, seeming I’ve been coming back to fitness after a serious injury two years ago. I think how-ever that the team is only provided with one reasonable training time a week and that simply isn’tgood enough. The facilities need to be improved to allow other clubs, such as football, to train onanother surface to free up the astro turf pitch for teams that actually play on it – that would be theultimate solution. Two years ago we actually had two reasonable training times that were appropri-ately attended and this made a massive difference to our on the field results for obvious reasons.

Promotion? Or a season full of fun ahead?

Definitely promotion in the BUCS league for the First Team, we want to bounce straight back up.The restructuring of the Staffordshire League (that we play on a weekend) means that hopefully weshould be safely mid table.

QUESTIONS...

BIO...STEFANIE KENT

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