Opinion

This article first took shape in my mind when I was regaled with a fairly baffling anecdote regarding a couple of University of Bath students. A female fresher, who shall remain nameless, was sitting outside Parade with an acquaintance of mine, when a male walked past. After waving to the random male, she turned and uttered the immortal line “That’s rapey...(name removed), he tried to rape me”, then calmly returned to her drink. This anecdote led to a discussion between my acquaintance and I as to how common an occurrence rape might be in campus life, and how people react to it.

Choosing what to give up for Lent this week has proven a challenge to say the least. For girls the answer is simple. You can go with one of the run-of-the-mill regulars like chocolate, dairy and the classic ‘I promise to give up shopping’. Smart alecs will always say they are ‘giving up giving up stuff’ and to those freshers aiming to give up late night drinking, who are you kidding?

So, how many students at this university enjoy writing? How many have considered a career in journalism? And, how many are members of Impact? Well, I only know the answer to the final question; Impact has 63 members. That is 63 out of a University population of about 12,000. During my time at university I have always been surprised at how little interest students seem to take in contributing to their newspaper.

When going about my day at University I always try to be polite to my fellow students, to staff in the shops and to lecturers. I mean, let’s face it, most people at the University have enough to be worrying about without having to deal with rudeness as well. Hence I was rather shocked to receive a very aggressive email from a lecturer last week. It was sent to all the students enrolled on one of his modules (as well as all Politics with Economics students) as something of a warning.

Engagement in and esteem for sports, whether on a competitive level or as a recreational pastime, are things that often seem to be heavily lacking, both in individuals and society as a whole, with many people failing to get as much exercise as they should and with an increasing number of schools refusing to recognise 'winners' or achievement in sports - some even taking the extreme step of ceasing to hold events such as Sports Day altogether.

Even though I know they're no good for me, It's the risk I take for the chemistry, with the bad boys always catching my eye” = Alexandra Burke- Bad Boys

I have recently started reading the international bestseller “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, by the journalist Robert Fisk. It is both highly interesting and filled with Fisk’s usual level of wrath. While reflecting on some of the issues raised within the book, chiefly the arrogance with which Western powers have been known to treat international law, I was absent-mindedly browsing the BBC News website.

A few months ago, in the bygone days of Semester One, I got word from a couple of independent sources that certain actions by the University could be seen, from one perspective at least, as elitist and to the detriment of students and student groups. I and a couple of friends therefore went on a little investigation to see if we could find whether there was any truth in this, or not. At the very least, we wanted to ascertain what was happening and why.

Impact is mercifully free of shock journalism, retaining a common sense for which I can only be thankful, but all too often our most influential and widely followed news sources resort to scare tactics in order to compete with their rivals.

I believe that the answer is that they all have the ability to link the past to the future with no regard for the present. A new year began and I recalled memorable events of the past year: the inauguration of Obama, the plane landing on the Hudson, and then I thought forward to what might come in the future: the end of the stagnant Brown administration, the end of the Credit Crunch.