The Onion

26 February 2007
Published by the
USSU Comms. Office. read
Issue Number 2 me
FREE
www.ussu.co.uk The University of Surrey Students’ Union Newsletter

In this 8
page edition USSU Celebrates National
STAND UP ‘07
IT’S THE ANNUAL USSU
Student Volunteering Week
As part of National Student Volunteering scheme will also have a stand. The V Project need to sign up to the speed dating session,
SABBATICAL ELECTIONS Week USSU is hosting a Volunteering Fayre can help you find an opportunity to suit so if you would like to reserve a place, or have
VOTING | PAGE 4 on Wednesday 28 February from 12pm- you, when ever you want & for any time any questions about the event, please contact
3.30pm in Rubix.The fayre will be followed by commitment. The V Project also offers Helen Jackson on the email bellow.
‘Volunteering Speed Dating’ from 3.30pm. students regular opportunity updates, a National Student Volunteering Week will
CANDIATE The Fayre is a showcase for a wide variety certificate to acknowledge the contribution also include a one day volunteering blitz at
MANIFESTOS INSIDE: of local community organisations each with to the community they have made & an Brooklands Museum on Saturday 3 March,
great voluntary opportunities for student invitation to the annual student awards. transport & lunch will be provided, roles
PRESIDENT | PAGE 5 volunteers. Following the Fayre there will be a include painting an indoor children’s education
If you are interested in gaining work ‘Volunteering Speed Dating’ session, for centre, painting outdoor areas, cleaning
VP SOCIETIES & experience, using or learning a skill, meeting students to speak to a representative vintage cars & planes. For more information
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT new people & making a real difference to a from the organisations (for 3 minutes per contact: h.jackson@surrey.ac.uk
| PAGE 6 local community organisation come along! representative!) & ask any questions about
The V project, staff & student volunteering the voluntary roles available. Participants will
VP EDUCATION
| PAGE 7

ng
VP WELFARE Week

i
Volunteering

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Stu den t presents…
March USSU

e
To Ma rk th

e
a y 4
| PAGE 7 Su nd

t
-
Mon 26th Feb

lu n
VP SPORTS & RECREATION

Vo
| PAGE 8

a y re
RON | PAGE 8

DO YOU
KNOW YOURSELF?
CAMPAIGN | PAGE 2

DON’T FORGET!
F
INTERNATIONAL
GALA NIGHT Wednesday 28 February @ RUBIX 12pm- 3.30pm
UNIVERSITY HALL (followed by volunteering ‘speed dating’ 3.30pm-4.15pm)
FRI MARCH 9TH, 7:30PM
ENTRANCE FEE A showcase featuring a wide variety of
DONATED TO CHARITY local community organisations
with fantastic opportunities for student volunteers
FIND OUT HOW YOU For more information on this event/ V Project, or to sign up
CAN GET A FREE USSU to the volunteering ‘speed dating’ section contact: h.jackson@surrey.ac.uk

AFFINITY CARD
| PAGE 4

INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION
MONDAY 5TH MARCH
RUBIX

BAG YOUR ONION EVERY MONTH IN BAREFACTS

Know Yourself
The Onion read
me
2 26 February 2007

Calling all students: Know Yourself campaign

WELCOME TO THE Know Yourself campaign for mental well-being. The campaign
starts on Sunday. We’re trying to make you feel good through activities which
you wouldn’t normally see on campus.

To apply to take part in a Know Yourself focus group, email Katherine.

jones@surrey.ac.uk A free lunch will be provided.
www.ussu.co.uk/knowyourself

Draw Yourself Competition

As part of Know Yourself, we will be running a self-portrait competition.

If you’ve got any artistic talent, or you just want to try your luck, this is the
competition for you.

A prize of £50 will be awarded to

the most original portrait.

What to do:

Get creative on paper (no bigger than A3 please), with whatever materials you
like. Even your lecture doodles will be accepted! Whatever you bring, make
sure you write your full name and email address on the back.
Bring your entry to the USSU activity centre where ALL of the pictures will
be on display.

contact : katherine.jones@surrey.ac.uk

Editorial Team Art as theraphy display

INFORMATION CO-ORDINATOR | LAURAN CARTER
| l.carter@surrey.ac.uk
WELFARE SUPPORT CO-ORDINATOR | KATHY JONES
| katherine.jones@surrey.ac.uk
ACADEMIC SUPPORT CO-ORDINATOR | PAUL COWARD
| p.coward@surrey.ac.uk
STUDENT ACTIVITIES MANAGER | AMY FAWCETT
| a.fawcett@surrey.ac.uk
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATOR | HELEN JACKSON
| h.jackson@surrey.ac.uk
UNION PRESIDENT | GREG SCOTT
| ussu.president@surrey.ac.uk
VP EDUCATION & WELFARE | GABBY SHOLK
| ussu.edwelfare@surrey.ac.uk
VP SOCIETIES & CULTURE | THAYANA DE PAULA
| ussu.societies@surrey.ac.uk
VP SPORTS & RECREATION | NICK ‘MANKIN’ SHORT
| ussu.sports@surrey.ac.uk
AS PART OF the Know Yourself campaign, the USSU is proud to present the art work of the ‘Extending Opportunity’ art
group. The art will be displayed from Monday the 26th to Wednesday the 28th in the Main Lecture Theatre Concourse.
Based locally to the campus, the group meets every Friday and is an essential centre where those who are suffering from
mental distress can meet and indulge their artistic
sides. For a few hours on a Friday afternoon they can
lose themselves in painting and drawing.
The exhibition is an excellent chance for students and
staff to discover the benefits and relieving aspects of
art when it’s used as a form of therapy. The artists
themselves have put together their comments on
where their work came from and how it has helped
their condition. A selection of pictures will appear in
the display, but you will be able to find all pictures on
www.ussu.co.uk/knowyourself
Maybe the art will inspire you to enter our draw
yourself competition!
 Miscellaneous
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The Onion
26 February 2007 3

Festival of Faiths Opens Minds, Builds

Community, Addresses Critical Issues
BY SARAH TALCOTT
INTER-FAITH EDUCATION OFFICER
UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
The Festival of Faiths, an initiative of the Inter Faith Education
Programme, organized in partnership with the Chaplaincy,
University of Surrey Students’ Union, the Interfaith Society, religious
student societies and People & Planet, took place from February
19th – 23rd. It featured a lunchtime information exhibition with
stalls set up by different faith groups on campus and the wider
community, and evening panel discussions exploring critical issues
such as climate change, development, women’s roles in religion,
and religion and science.
What is a festival but a celebration of what is? It is the
union of seemingly disparate parts into the communion of an
integrated whole. We are all individuals, with different lives,
experiences, studies, interests and ideals. And yet we are also
all inter-connected, to the Earth and to each other, at the very
minimum by the mere fact that we depend on each other to
survive.
And then there are those few who say that we are also
connected to something greater than ourselves – a Source
of life, being, intelligence – something that is quite difficult to
put into words though many have tried and call It by different
names.
In exploring this nebulous area of “faith” I am reminded
of a passage from one religious text that says “Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.” So… What is it that we hope for? And what is it that
we see when we shut our eyes and envision a world that is
less broken, more just, more peaceful, more whole?
I have seen a glimpse of such a world this week during the
first-ever Festival of Faiths on campus… In watching Hare
Krishnas offering prashad – food blessed with loving intention
– to 80 students and staff just happening to pass through
the Lecture Theatre Concourse during lunch. In seeing the
Christian Union serving free tea and coffee and sharing
a word or two of love and fellowship as well, to the same
passers-by. In seeing the Hindus mingling with the Buddhists,
who are rubbing shoulders with the Baha’is, who are laughing
with the Muslims, who are talking to the Christians… and
so on.
This Festival is also about creating the space in which to ask
hard questions, wrestle with issues and deal constructively
with our differences. Each evening, the Festival of Faiths
featured a panel discussion exploring a different critical
theme. Muslim, Catholic, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Sikh, Anglican,
Hindu, Pagan, Baptist, Baha’i, Jewish and Christian Scientist
speakers articulated through their own faith lenses the issues
of climate change, religious intolerance and persecution, the
need for greater equality between the sexes, the devastating
reality of the HIV pandemic, the plight of asylum-seekers,
and the need for greater social responsibility in all areas. And
they sought to answer the question, what is it that people
of faith in particular can do to make a difference – to help
end suffering, to promote peace, justice and healing, and to
re-connect communities divided by indifference, injustice and
intolerance?
The word religion comes from the Latin root “religare”
which literally means “to bind back together.” In essence, that
is what this Festival of Faiths is all about – the joy of bringing
us all together, to be present with and for each other, and
learning as we go the art of building inter-faith community. In
this broken world, I think it’s fair to say that we can use all the
binding and healing we can get!
For more information about the University’s ongoing Inter
Faith Education Programme, check out:
http://portal.surrey.ac.uk/chaplaincy/interfaith/
Or contact Sarah Talcott, Inter Faith Education Officer, at
01483-682754 or s.talcott@surrey.ac.uk.

FINAL YEAR Students, we need your help

Over 50% of the final year students at Surrey have already a chance for you to voice your views, it could also indirectly for you. And, of course, for any more information, please go
filled out the National Student Survey… Have you?? affect the strength of your degree in “the real world”. to the website above.

This is your chance to have your say about your university You will find brochures around campus entitled “I Love Surrey Thanks in advance for filling it out!
experience here at Surrey. Have you made the most of your (Although to be frank, there are a few things I’d change...)”
time here? What could the University do better? What do that will explain a bit more about the NSS and what it can do www.thestudentsurvey.com
they do well? This year, we’re looking for as many
students to complete the survey as we can get, and
for that, we need YOUR help…

The Students’ Union, in support of the University,

have proposed that if 80% of final years respond
to the survey, ALL FINAL YEARS will receive
a free Life Membership Affinity Card giving
them member access to Union events for
life once they graduate + giving them 10% discount
on their Graduation 2007 DVD.

The Survey can be found online at www.

thestudentsurvey.com/survey.asp. It should
take you no more than 5 minutes to complete and
it really can help to improve the life of students at
Surrey in years to come. This is YOUR chance to
let us know your views of Surrey, good and bad,
and your voice will be heard! But you had better
hurry, as the survey closes SOON.

The NSS ranks how universities around the

country compare to each other. So not only is this
Stand Up ‘07
The Onion read
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4 26 February 2007

The Onion tells you ‘how to vote’!

Single Transferable Vote
The Union uses the Single Transferable Vote
(STV) System in their elections. It can be
quite a confusing system if you have not come
across it before and even if you have you may
find the following guide useful.
Why do we use it?
Parliamentary Elections use the first past the post system,
which gives you one vote. The STV System allows each voter
the fullest freedom of choice between candidates and the
maximum use of their vote. In a first past the post election a
candidate is elected simply by coming top of the poll. Let us
look at a typical result in a Parliamentary Election
the majority of the electorate. of course some people deliberately spoil their ballot papers..
Single Transferable Vote At this stage once the entire ballot papers have been sorted
The ballot paper shown below gives the Returning Officer a into their piles the Returning Officer has to work out a quota.
message; This is simply the minimum number of voters a candidate
Homer Simpson 1 must gain to be sure of election. For single posts the quota
Ned Flanders 4 is quite easy, the successful candidate must gain a minimum
Krusty the Klown of 50 per cent plus one. So to use the example given above
Mr Burns 2 then 37,499 votes were cast, so the quota is 18,749 + 1 =
RON (ReOpen Noms) 3 18750. As can be seen Ned Flanders has not achieved that
amount of support - so the candidate will the least amount of
If you were to meet that votes is eliminated and their votes are allocated to the next
voter in the bar she might expressed preference. Mr Burns 8,000 votes are distributed
say; between the remaining candidates. So back to our example;

read
Homer Simpson 9,999 “…I would like to see Homer Simpson 9,999 + 3000 = 12,999
me
Ned Flanders 10,000 Homer Simpson elected Ned Flanders 10,000 + 500 = 10,500
Krusty the Klown 9,500 to this position, however Krusty the Klown 9,500 + 4,500 = 14,000
Mr. Burns 8,000 if he is out of the running Mr Burns 8,000 Eliminated.
then I would prefer
Flanders is first past the post and will represent that Mr Burns be elected. If he too is no longer available as a This gives us a new leader in Krusty the Klown. No-one has
constituency despite the fact that 27,499 did not want him candidate then none of the others really impress me and I yet got the quota that is required so again the candidate
to be their representative and chose other people. In effect would prefer that Nominations were opened up again... if that with the least number of votes is eliminated and that is Ned
their votes are wasted. is not going to be possible then I can live with Ned Flanders Flanders, who you will remember won under the first past
but under no circumstances do I want Krusty the Klown the post system.
In the Transferable Vote System each voter is asked to give an running things…”
order of personal preference. Using this method a candidate Homer Simpson 12,999 + 5,000 = 17,999
either has just enough to be elected or has too few votes Once all the completed ballot forms have been collected in, Ned Flanders Eliminated
and has to be eliminated. If this occurs their votes do not all the papers are sorted out into first preferences. During Krusty the Klown 14,000 + 5,500 = 19,500
go to waste but are redistributed to their next choice of this sorting process any incorrectly marked papers will come
candidate and so on. In this way a greater proportion of the to light and will be set aside as invalid. Such “invalid” votes So Krusty wins because he has exceeded the quota of 18,750.
total vote is used to elect the successful candidate(s) who usually occur because the voter has not made their intentions By using this system the supporters of Ned Flanders and Mr
should, therefore, be more likely to represent the views of clear, for example, they may have put two number ones, and Burns have still been able to influence the final outcome.

WHERE DO I VOTE?
Library
Tuesday 27th February 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 28th February 10am - 8pm
Thursday 1st March 10am - 8pm
Management School
Tuesday 27th February 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 28th February 10am - 8pm
Thursday 1st March 10am - 8pm

Lecture Theatre Concourse

Tuesday 27th February 10am - 8pm
Rubix
Tuesday 27th February 10am - 8pm
BE SURE TO MAKE THE
Wednesday 28th February 10am - 8pm
Thursday 1st March 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 28th February
10am - 8pm
CHOICE FOR THE FUTURE
10pm-12pm OF YOUR UNION!
Thursday 1st March 10am - 8pm

The Positions
President
VP Societies & Individual Development
VP Education
VP Welfare
VP Sports & Recreation

For more information:

www.ussu.co.uk/
And click “Democracy & Governance”,
“Elections”, then “Stand Up ‘07”

read
me
The Onion
26 February 2007
ALEX COLLINS
BIG AL 4 PRESIDENT
Alex Collins? Are you shi**ing me...?
Hello, I’m Alex Collins, a final year Business Management student
and I am running for Students’ Union President. I am a friendly,
outgoing and committed leader, dedicated to making what I believe
in happen.
I have now spent nearly four years as a student at the University
of Surrey and it has been the best time of my life. I have been
involved in a lot of things, one of which was GU2 Radio where I
am a presenter and have also been responsible for the recruitment
and training of new presenters for the past two years. Even whilst
I was on my placement year in London, I showed my dedication
by travelling back to Guildford for weekly meetings and weekend
training sessions.
I have also had experience of the position of Academic Affairs
Officer and I was also an NUS Conference delegate putting the
concerns of the University of Surrey into the national scene.
Finally, I have been an active member of the Surrey Ski and
Snowboard Club, partaking in the previous 3 trips and often leading
from the front (socially not skiing!).
Less Talk, More Communication
For me the major part of being the Students’ Union President is to
represent you. Therefore, communication is vital and I will strive to
improve the communication links not only between the USSU and
students, but between the student body as a whole. Using GU2
Radio, Barefacts and the newly developed USSU Website, I will
aim to stimulate Interest, Interaction and Integration.
Why don’t I get 100% each year?
There is nothing that annoys me more than when I get a piece
of work back and all that is there is a mark, no comments, ticks
or Feedback! My next aim is to produce a standardised feedback
Manifestos
5
format for all coursework submissions. This will allow you to see
where you have gone wrong and ultimately how you can improve.
The next logical follow on from feedback for coursework is feedback
for exams and ultimately the returning of exam scripts to students.
I will aim to start the ball rolling on a national level with this issue to
enable students to receive the scripts back and again review and
improve for the future.
I need help!?!?
I have been an active member of the Management School, starting
as a Student Representative in my first year, before being voted
in as Chairman of the Student Committee for my 2nd year at Uni.
This was a great experience allowing me to show my leadership
potential and my passion for what I believe in whilst gaining an
understanding of the importance of having a link between us as
students and academic schools. The student reps are this link and
they play a vital role in making things that are affecting students
change. I want every school to have the full student rep system
which we have been promised for a while. This will enable the cross
school representation committee to happen, bringing together the
opinions and issues from student reps from all schools and for the
first time allowing us to get an understanding of what issues affect
all students.
Did I pay to watch this?
My manifesto is heavily based around education and communication;
however university is about the whole student experience. I firmly
believe we should have a venue that you should be proud of, I
want the Rubix to be a venue with acts that the students want. I will
aim to introduce methods that allow more interaction with students
when our entertainment is being decided.
Big Ideas, Big Changes, Big Al 4 President
Manifestos
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6 26 February 2007
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26 February 2007 7
Manifestos
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