Councillor Demands Gown Serve Town

A local councillor has called for “compulsory city service” for all University of Cambridge students in an attempt to get them out of their “privileged silos”.

Labour councillor George Owers – who completed his BA and Mphil at Cambridge and is now pursuing his Phd here – called for students to engage with volunteer services beyond the usual student groups in order to “serve their city”. He claimed that students of the University are disconnected from the local community.

Owers pulling off ‘busy and important’ whilst still having a good time.

In a motion to tackle the ‘Town-Gown divide’, the former CULC president said:

“It might not be a bad idea to introduce some kind of university-wide city service where people have to do compulsory community service, which would force them to look beyond the college they are in.”

It is not the first time that Owers has hit out at the University. In 2010 he challenged the University and other Russell Group members over higher education funding figures.

Owers further claimed that going beyond the Grafton Centre was like entering the ‘wilds of Borneo’ for Cambridge undergrads.

“So this one time, on my Gap Yahh…”

Many councillors did not agree with Owers’ claim that the students that do volunteer were not representative of the student body as a whole.

Cllr Rod Cantrill responded: “I think you are painting a picture of the University and the city which is not correct. Clearly we can do a lot more but the University do a lot to support key components of the city.”

On the subject of voluntary services Lib Dem Cllr Mike Pitt claimed he wanted to “facilitate” rather than “command and control”. Owers’ motion was amended by Lib Dems to remove references to a town-gown divide.

Further debate of the motion saw city councillors discussing the “tangible disparity” between students and the local non-academic community. One councillor claimed that people who deny the divide are “deluded”.

In other news, The Tab is still attempting to ascertain whether Owers spent his undergrad days slumming it in Revs or whether he was more of a “danger” Cindies man.

All information welcome.