Monthly Archive for November, 2005

First event – a success

Published on 30 November 2005 in Student Union/Politics. 1 Comment

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.

Anyway enought of that, I’m rather tied and need to go to bed. But hat’s of to Shrenik, our VP (Entertainments) who organised the event – even though it was his birthday.

More “Good Stuff” to come…

Just to confirm a few things…

Published on 30 November 2005 in Journal. 1 Comment

People keep asking me these things so I thought I’d put up a quick post to confirm (or deny!):

  1. Yes, I am now a postgraduate student at University College London (UCL). I am reading for a masters on the Spacecraft Technology & Satellite Communications programme which is jointly offered by the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL, aka ‘Department of Space & Climate Physics).
  2. Yes, I have been elected as President of the Postgraduate Associaton at UCL Union. (No it is not a full-time job!) I have also been elected onto a number of committees…
  3. Yes, one of those committees is ULU Council, where I am now the honorary ‘Father of the House’.
  4. Yes, “my puppy”, is doing the same course at me at UCL and is also my Vice-President (Entertainments).
  5. No, I have no intention of doing another sabbatical year at either UCL or ULU. Seriously, no! I took a gap year before university, did a four year undergradute degree and spent two years on sabbatical as President of Imperial College Union. I’m now getting pretty old… So, there will not be another sabbatical year. Period. I’m at UCL first and foremost to study and to progress my (engineering) career.
  6. Yes, I know this web site needs updating. The WordPress migration *will* happen. Really. Yes, before hell freezes over (God-willing).

School bogs still need cleaning up

Published on 8 November 2005 in Rant. 0 Comments

I was amused to see an article on CBBC Newsround (no I don’t normally look at children’s websites – I followed an interestingly-titled link from the BBC News Education page) showing that 70% of children are put off using their school toilets.

When I was at school I couldn’t bear to use the toilets. Aside from being filthy the stench was just unbearable. I always used to ‘hold’ it in until I got home. Given my school was 1.5 hrs away by bus that did unfortunately mean that in the early days I did inevitably have one or two leaks before I got home… Since then my bladder has adapted such that I can quite happily go most of the day without visiting the toilet – though I’m not sure this is particularly good for my kidneys!

I appreciate that spending money on toilet hygiene is not as fashionable as reducing class sizes or buying text books but really I do think it is something important. It is shocking that we have such low levels of hygiene in our schools in a modern, civilised society.

Imperial management go bonkers

Published on 8 November 2005 in Student Union/Politics. 2 Comments

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.