NEWS COLUMN: your weekly rundown

C/N- Discussion about sexual assault

Cambridge admits it has a 'significant problem with sexual misconduct'

Between May 2017 and 31 January 2018, 173 reports of sexual violence have been received through the universities anonymous reporting tool. Vice Chancellor Professor Graham Virgo counts this 'as a metric of success' as it shows 'victims have confidence in our promise that these figures will be used to judge the nature and scale of sexual misconduct affecting students and staff, and to act on it accordingly.' The anonymous platform, and the 'Breaking the Silence' campaign are thought to have contributed to the second highest spike of reports in the universities history. The high numbers highlight a culture of sexual violence prevalent in Cambridge, and in society at large.

The 'Breaking the Silence' campaign has been congratulated

Cambridge inaccessible

New access figures have shown that although there has been an increase in the rates of undergraduates coming from state schools to Cambridge, the figure is still only at 62.6%. Considering the majority of the population go to state schools, it's not looking to good for Cambridge's access efforts.

Sadly that's not where inequality in Cambridge ends with the city being identified as the least equal city in the U.K for the second year in a row. The top 6% of earners in the city earn 19% of the total income earned by residents and the bottom 20% of people take home just 2% of the cities income.

Raising the flag for LGBT+ month

In happier news, more Cambridge institutions than ever before flew the flag for LGBT+ history month. From the UL to Homerton the flag was proudly flying. However Trinity Hall, St John's, Clare, Emma, Queens', Clare Hall and Trinity failed to fly the flag on their main flag poles.

To further celebrate the start of the month, the UL held a pop up exhibition called 'Queering the UL' which displayed global LGBT+ related materials from the eleventh to twenty-first century.

The LGBT+ flag was raised across the university

Suffragette Posters

In more news from the UL, to mark the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote a rare collection of suffragette posters went up on display. The exhibition opened on the 3rd and will remain open for six weeks.

In further celebration of the centenary, a blue plaque commemorating the suffragette Millicent Fawcett, who founded Newnham College, was unveiled on February 6th.

Lectures, walks, film screenings and panel discussions have been and are being held in the near future to celebrate.

Waterstones Winner

Pam Smy, a lecturer at Cambridge School of Art, has been shortlisted for this year's Older Fiction category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for her book Thornhill. The winner will be announced 22nd March but we wish her luck! Smy has said on the nomination 'I'm stunned, over the moon and feel incredibly privileged'

May Ball madness

With the mad dash for May Ball tickets having begun it's no surprise that the celebratory week has come under controversy. Trinity May Ball, once more, had come under fire for not paying set-up and clear-up workers, but paying them with the 'privilege' of one day experiencing the ball. What's more, last years workers are not happy since the prices have been hiked up to £410 per pair!

Trinity is still doing better than Tit Hall. After last week's controversy about cultural appropriation, things have gotten as bad as possible for the June event. Due to a lack of sales, the event has been cancelled, but the committee promise a triumphant return in 2019…provided people actually want to go.

It really can't get worse for the committee

In more May Ball news, CUSU has passed a motion to make May Balls sustainable. The extravagant events involve huge amounts of food waste and CUSU will no longer tolerate it. So, at least there might be some progress in the problems surrounding May week.