A wave of homophobia has spread across Africa recently. This new problem has caught the attention of the Western press when the body of a supposedly gay Senegalese was dragged from his grave only a few hours after being buried, in order to be thrown in front of his elderly parents’ home.

Though campaigning for the election had been going on unofficially long before the election date was set, April 21st marked the beginning of the campaign on campus, as 8W1.1 hosted a debate between representatives of the major parties standing in Bath. The proceedings began with a short speech by each candidate Tory Fabian Richter’s was notable for not mentioning students once; he asserted that “Don has been fighting the Conservatives for years”, at which the incumbent finished his sentence: “and winning”.

Following a year of delays, Sudan’s first elections for 24 years were held this April. President Omar al-Bashir won with a 68% majority, continuing his Presidency, which stretches back to 1989 when he took the reins of Sudan with a bloodless coup. Many felt that the elections were merely a way of propping an illegitimate government, a feeling confirmed when al-Bashir’s two major competitors dropped out of the elections and videos of ballot rigging popped up on YouTube.

Concerns have been raised over the accountability of Sabbs after the planned ‘Student Forum’ was cancelled. These meetings, which the Sabbs are meant to hold twice a year, provide students a rare opportunity to voice their opinions on the performance of the Union and their elected officers. The cancellation was met with little resistance by students, many of whom are unlikely to have heard of it, as it was not widely publicised.

Following a request from the University, the Foreign Languages Centre is reviewing the provision of free language courses, which are currently available to all. Bath is the only university in the country to offer this. Monika De Lemos, Acting Manager of the FLC, told impact that “we will not be making a recommendation to introduce charges but are considering some restrictions on, for example, the number of classes students can take free of charge”.

A planned live music event has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Tiffany Page was due to appear as part of an event known as ‘Ulive’, but student interest failed to reach expected levels, and it became known that the event may be cancelled. This provoked students to protest in the traditional way: by creating a group on a certain social networking website. The write-up said: “So we're faced with a depressingly familiar situation. The SU tries to organise an event with a recognised musician coming to Bath and poor ticket sales mean its [sic] likely to be cancelled.