Mustafa Arif | مصطفی عارف » Student Union/Politics

URGENT: All who cycle in Camden: 19 June deadline for Huntley Street consultation

Mustafa Arif — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:57:23 +0000

Apologies for the impossibly short notice but the London Cycling Campaign has just sent out the following action alert. I encourage all who cycle in the UCL/Bloomsbury area to respond immediately. Deadline 19th June for letters and emails regarding a) Cycling contraflow in Huntley Street, Camden b) Cycle Hire docking station in Huntley St, Camden [...]

In memorium: Sharine Brown

Mustafa Arif — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:09:33 +0000

I was shocked to learn last week of the passing away of Ms Sharine Brown, lately Head of Residences at Imperial College, London. She had held that role for a number of years, including the duration of my tenure as President of Imperial College Union (2003-2005). We did not always see eye to eye – [...]

Demise of languages and humanities teaching at Imperial College

Mustafa Arif — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:43:55 +0000

Below is the full text of my letter to Felix, published 5 June 2009. (I would link to it but I think it was only published in their print edition.) Dear Editor, I was saddened to read in the Times Higher Education Supplement that Imperial is massively cutting back its provision of languages and humanities [...]

Go Andy Wilson for Swathling

Mustafa Arif — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:14:34 +0000

Andy Wilson is standing for election, to Southampton City Council in Swaythling Ward. Good luck to him. Andy was a fantastic two-term President at the Southampton University Students’ Union and all-round ‘good egg’. He is standing as the Labour Party candidate – if that puts you off please note that Andy is nevertheless a sound [...]

Simon Jenkins hits the nail on the head… almost!

Mustafa Arif — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 00:29:08 +0000

UCL have wasted no time in publishing Simon Jenkin's opinion piece, The Battle of Bloomsbury: "If I were UCL…" from yesterday's Guardian on the front page of their web site. The gist of the article is fairly succinctly surmised by the first eight words of his opening sentence: "The University of London is a pointless institution that has let Bloomsbury become steeped in squalor". As the second half of the sentence suggests, the article is not purely concerned with academia. This being Jenkins, the article focusses on the architectural neglect of Bloomsbury (something that I have become acutely aware of since I began studying here).

First event – a success

Mustafa Arif — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:54:37 +0000

Today (or rather, yesterday evening as it is now) we held the (re)launch event for the UCL Union Postgraduate Association. And it went rather well... Okay we never expected all 7,000 postgraduate UCL students to turn up. But over 200 did. And that's a start. What's more, there was a really good atmosphere with many students keen to help get invovled in building a postgraduate community. Of that 200 if only 50 become activists, go back to their departments and persuade 10 other people to get involved we're already up to 500. And that's the kind of level of involvment we need to build a coherent postgraduate community - with a network of academic postgraduate societies.

Imperial management go bonkers

Mustafa Arif — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:10:55 +0000

There really is no other explanation for this fascist drivel of a "dress code" that is now being imposed on staff and students at what was hitherto regarded as a world-leading university. Ironically, the Independent today published a piece about the now-criminalised "hoodies" becoming haute cautre.

I,Science nominated for national media awards

Mustafa Arif — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:17:17 +0000

This just in...

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Edwards
Sent: 19 September 2005 17:37
Subject: I Science nominated for national Student Media Award

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know that 'I Science' was today nominated for
Best Student Magazine in the Guardian Student Media Awards. Five UK
student magazines have been shortlisted, and the winner will be
announced in November.

Also, Imperial science communication student Zoe Corbyn was nominated
for Best Feature Writer for her work in Felix and I Science.

I Science was launched as a 'spin-off' from our student newspaper Felix

In the news again

Mustafa Arif — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:26:04 +0000

My last few days as President of Imperial College Union saw a flurry of media activity in the aftermath of the London bombings. First, the Guardian's Education supplement got all excited about universities allegedly being infested with Al-Qaeda brainwashers. Then Peter Taylor's documentary, "the new Al-Qaeda: jihad.com" was aired on prime time on the BBC. Apparently I featured on this for one minute explaining that actually universities aren't that infested with Al-Qaeda brianwashers. I say "apparently" because I didn't actually see the programme. I'd forgotten about it (my interview was filmed in March/April time) and it didn't click that this was the same documentary until people started sending me text messages to remind me that I needed a hair cut back then! I've heard mixed reports as to how I came across and how my words were used though it seems the programme did not portray Babar Ahmad in a very positive light. I shal reserve judgement until after I have seen a copy.

DoC Ummah

Mustafa Arif — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:42:02 +0000

A blast from the past... I received the following email today.

On 6/29/05, Omar Ahmed <omarahmed@mail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Salaams all! A rare opportunity to be reunited, through a website that took
> the mick over 4 years ago, and probably still holds well today?  :) 
> 
> http://www.mozster.com/doc_ummah/
> 
> Forward on to anyone who may have been missed insh'Allah.

The email above (and the DoC Ummah web page referenced) will make sense to you if you fulfil all of the following criteria: