Bangor University's Society of Investigative News

An open letter to Busin from Anonymous.

My time spent at Bangor University has been a great one; I’ve made friends for life; taken part in a whole load of activities, campaigned for things I truly believe in and felt like I might have made a difference far bigger than myself. Yet as voting day approaches I feel like there’s something really wrong with the 2012 Elections but then again maybe it’s just me.

I’m in a huge number of societies, so much in fact that sometimes I think they are more important for me than my academic life which is really strange. However I know that some that I’m in have been actively promoting ‘their’ favourite candidate to win the recent student elections. Firstly I know that purposely promoting a candidate on a society page does not reflect each of the student’s thoughts in that society. For example a big society could have over 200 members and not all of them would support the same person. Secondly it’s clear that the committees who are running the societies are pushing this and not even with the consent of all their members.

I’d like to know how this really reflects on members and if they think the same things I do in the sense that how can you be in a society which fully supports a candidate that you don’t? On social networking sites I’ve joined groups that I thought would help me make new friends only to find that they are being used as propaganda tools in such a way that the profile picture and description changes to meet the candidate’s needs. I’m not sure being a part of a group that backs one candidate over the other is the right thing to be a part of but at the same time people have said to me “This is the way it has always been.”

I ask you Busin, societies and the SU why are election rules bent and outdated in this way? I’ve read about other unions and how they have policies stating any society or group affiliated with the university is not allowed to actively back one candidate but instead must facilitate all of them. There’s even the shame of a woman like me from Cardiff University asking why student trustees (People who oversee key decisions and use their skills, knowledge and experience to make a positive difference to student lives) here at Bangor are allowed to publically slander and sometimes even intimidate candidates.

I would like to think that me or one other person could change this system but I realise I run the risk of being alienated by others in the process. I finish my email by saying is this really student politics? Is this the kind of thing I want to be involved with?

As the voting period for the SU Elections approaches it has been discovered that each candidate election team spends approximately 8 – 16 hours campaigning each day. T-shirts, posters, banners and leaflets have been distributed across Bangor in an effort for candidate voices and votes to be won.   

The hard work that each election team has undertaken is not only overshadowed by the threat of negative campaigning but apparent incidents of posters and promotional material being taken down; especially in Main Arts and other university buildings.

 Although this doesn’t seem to be happening to many people this has happened to some presidential candidates. Will Osborn who reported to Busin that some of his campaign posters had been taken down stated “because we have limited printing it can cause major problems if people run out.” According to the Sabbatical Elections rules 2012 all candidates must stick to a spending limit of £50 and a limit of 100 A3 posters, however there is nothing to say that these cannot be cut down into smaller sizes.

Heather Boyles a student studying French with Creative Writing revealed that “it might give a fairer advantage to all of the candidates, because it won’t be people voting for the one name they’ve seen everywhere (but) on the other hand, I’d imagine most students are lazy and not that bothered by the elections so with the posters up it should make the students more aware of the elections…”   

As posters are seemingly being removed others are being put up in controversial places that may give others an advantage. One such incident occurred on a Main Arts billboard when a smaller poster from an election candidate covered another’s information that was essential to their campaign. Single incidents like his may prove insignificant to a candidate’s overall publicity drive but it highlights tactics that others might be willing to use to gain those necessary votes.

Candidates’ Question Time marked the start of a bitter feud between students Tuesday night as members of campaign teams and students alike engaged in an exchange over Antony Butcher’s decision to focus on student issues rather than support for the living wage in Bangor University.

The explosion erupted halfway through Question Time after successful speeches were delivered and daring questions asked. However when the Presidential candidates were given “Do you personally support a Living Wage campaign and would you commit to securing a living wage for all Union and University staff, including casual staff?” there was silence before Butcher stepped up to the podium and answered “I think next year, the real focus for me is on students. I would rather focus on ringfencing spending on students than on staffing issues.”

The other two candidates in response revealed they supported the need for a living wage in the university yet Butcher’s answer thrust many on social networking sites to state clearly who they would be supporting. While not directly posted with #bangorqt that was one of the official Bangor Student Union tags many claimed who wouldn’t be supporting the living wage, who would be and why they should support them.  

Campaigners for Will Osborn’s campaign team such as Yousef Cisco and students like Jez Harvey retweeted a post by Jennifer Krase stating “@antonybutcher not keen on living wage for students working at the uni.” Yet Eddy Reynolds a student at Bangor disagreed with the negative campaigning and said “@yousefcisco He didn’t say living wages for student staff aren’t important. He is more adamantly focused on issues of ENTIRE student body.”

The tough Question Time for all candidates didn’t end there as Butcher was confronted over his appeal to postgrads regarding wage structure on the Postgraduate Students’ Forum by Harvey, who retaliated by saying “Supporting the Living Wage Campaign at Bangor Uni would probably help…” and asking what do students “think of the fact that only two of the three President candidates support the Living Wage Campaign at Bangor Uni - something that directly benefits Postgrads in Bangor?”

Antony Butcher later replied to this by saying “I never said that I was not supporting the living wage campaign, I said that it was not a top priority for me. In 30 hours of speaking  to students, not one has yet highlighted this as a key issue for them.”

These attacks while often common during any election period certainly do not come without a price as the Student Union Election Rules state a candidate or campaigner may not “intimidate any participant in the election” and may result in a warning, fine and banning from the rest of the campaign.

As Anthony DiMatteo reveals, the play “is a tragedy on the losing side of things, lamenting the demise of a political belief in man’s ability to govern himself more by reason than by force.” This near perfect summary was born out of Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet but has been equally adapted for SODA’s now modern great – Hamleta.

While plays before it showed how Shakespeare’s intricate language could wield and play on the power of love this modern adaption seeks to focus on the characters’ relationships through music. This extraordinary tragedy portrayed through the SODA cast proves that love can bloom like a rose but it can wilt through the misuse of power and self-destruction.

The 16-17th century play revived and modernised by Niamh-Elizabeth Reilly was set over 3 days with 4 showings performed by Team Extreme and Team Awesome. Started with the opening of Welcome To The Black Parade by the splendid ‘Is This Sabotage?’ we see the guards (Katie Sims, Danielle Jacob, Emily Hogarth, Faith Spencer, Emma Tiernan & Reserl Kusi-Mensah) and Hamleta (Hannah Cook & Kayleigh Mobley) approached by a beckoning ghost (Dominic Newman & Tom Mottram) who calls from the grave in his desire for revenge.

Yet it is Claudius (Benjamin Fitch & Bastien Boutonnet) who indicates a problem with Hamleta and uses her lover Ophelia (Beth Allcock & Natasha Raso) to spy and report back to him. However the king’s guilt shines through to the audience when Hamleta uses travelling actors to dance and mimic his actions on that fateful night. As lost love soon turns to hate and anger there is a turning point in the play when Hamleta kills Polonius (Tim Patten & Steven Turner) and the behaviour of the characters spiral out of control.

Even towards the end the sword fight between Laurena (Rachel Riviere & Eleri Dyer) and Hamleta sees one of the most intense scenes as revenge reaches a pivotal height. Claudius watches in horror as his beloved Gertrude (Lyndsey Waite & Menna Watkins) drinks a poisoned goblet while the truly loyal Harriet (Claire Massey & Georgia ‘Gigi’ Johnson) one of the last standing promises that she’ll tell the tail for years to come.

One of the main highlights of the play was Ophelia’s vivid portrayal of distress not only at the death of her father but the loss of Hamleta’s affection and both Beth Allcock & Natasha Raso’s performance of My Immortal had the audience asking for more. This kind of showpiece highlights not only the powerful complexity of the play but a kind of feeling that cannot be felt elsewhere. Numbers such as this and many more which have been individually adjusted to the Hamleta play give a certain sense of uniqueness.

Hamleta: A Rock Musical treads the fine line of despair while interweaving satisfying elements that give SODA’s production a path that none have dared to follow. The integration of creative compositions with credit to Musical Director Carol Ryan Young matched with the modern take on Hamlet indicates something that only SODA has probably ever achieved – a work of genius. Such a bold statement does not end there as people like Kate Yates, Jodie Williams, Brian Jones, Daniel Shenton and many others all worked with intricate detail to provide several days of a beautiful, funny and loving play.