Week seven news column: Eco-fridges, grenades and THURSDAY

It feels crazy to say that we are now entering the last week of Lent 2021 and that this is the penultimate news column of this term! But even though term has been winding down, news in Cambridge certainly hasn’t!

This week, a new SU body was elected and colleges and students celebrated both International Women’s Day and University Mental Health Day. But, as usual, that’s not all… from grenades to recreating the perfect Gardies, this week has been a busy one!

Unexploded grenade found in River Cam

This week an unexploded grenade was found in the River Cam by an unsuspecting magnet fisher along a stretch of the river that passes Trinity College.

Richard Leech was magnet fishing with his two children when he uncovered the grenade, which was missing both its safety pin and fuse.

Upon making the discovery, Richard lowered the grenade back into the river before informing a Trinity College porter who then contacted the police.

The reason the grenade was in the river is unknown, but it was defused safely by bomb disposal at the scene.

Magdalene Feminist Library unearthed

Almost 50 books and pamphlets that formerly belonged to “the first English feminist”, Mary Astell, have been found in Magdalene College library.

Astell is best known for campaigning for more equality in education among men and women and the 47 texts contain annotations that show how she engaged with politics, religion and philosophy.

Before the texts turned up in Cambridge, it had previously been thought that they were left to Magdalene College, Oxford … yet another reason that Cambridge is better.

Pembroke installs new sculpture on student accommodation building

This week, Pembroke College unveiled a new sculpture mounted onto one of the walls of a student accommodation block.

The sculpture, “Crown of Thorns”, was donated by an alumnus of the college that has donated sculptures in the past.

Jesus College asks students to maximise fridge efficiency

In an email sent out to students this week, Jesus College suggested that students should attempt to “maximise fridge efficiency and save food waste” in order to reduce their individual carbon footprint.

The email advises students to keep their fridges “up to five degrees Celsius”, adding that “every single step forward would help to protect the environment.”

Many students of the college found the request rather bizarre, especially since Jesus has not committed to a full divestment from fossil fuels.

One first year student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Tab Cambridge: “I think it’s nice that the college are trying their best to help us to minimise our own carbon footprints, but I do think it would be more worthwhile if they focused on their own, and, obviously, committing to a full divestment would be one of the best ways to go about this.”

Murray Edwards tops turnout table in SU elections

Murray Edwards College pipped Peterhouse to the post this week in the competition for the highest turnout in the SU elections.

Murray Edwards had a turnout of 45.8 per cent, with Peterhouse slightly behind with 45.4 per cent, meaning just a handful of votes were between the two colleges.

The college with the highest turnout was promised a voucher worth £100 to spend on plants for their JCR.

St John’s reminds us… it’s THURSDAY!

This week St. John’s College felt the need to remind us the day of their week, tweeting “today is THURSDAY”. I guess St John’s appreciates that the dreariness of week seven makes it difficult to tell Mondays from Thursdays, and honestly, I’m here for it – we should definitely have daily updates from now on.

However, of course, the tweet eventually caused some confusion when the hours ticked over to Friday, meaning the college had to retweet a clarification confirming that Friday was, of course, no longer Thursday. I guess having academic rigour doesn’t cover being able to read the date on a tweet, but who am I to judge?

Peterhouse students stung by delayed bar charges

A number of students at Peterhouse were left feeling stung this week after some bar charges from the last academic year were carried forward onto their Lent term 2021 bills.

Money that had been spent in the bar in Lent 2020 before the eruption of the coronavirus pandemic that was not charged at the time, was carried forward and instead added onto this term’s bills due to the sudden closure of the bar in March 2020.

The charges students faced ranged from £30 to £200 and one second year student, who wishes to remain anonymous, had their charge initially placed onto their Upay account, turning their balance negative, before it was transferred to their college bill.

They told the Tab Cambridge: “Logging on to see my Upay account in the minus was a bit distressing […] but I guess if there’s going to be any reason for me to be in debt to college, I’m glad it’s because of my seshing tendencies. Bring on the bar reopening!” I personally, could not agree more.

CamSoc and MOB Kitchen hold Gardies inspired cook-along

CamSoc and MOB Kitchen have announced this week that they are joining forces to host a virtual gardies-inspired cook-along so we can recreate our favourite post-night out snacks.

One of the event hosts told the Tab Cambridge: “This cook-along is part of MOB’s mission to help students cook great food as quickly as possible.

“There’ll be fantastic options for meat-eaters and vegans alike, and only a hob is required. So get your mob together, and get ready for a delicious meal!”

I feel like I’m the only weirdo that gets chips and gravy from Gardies instead of their fancy falafel dishes, but can you really beat a chips and gravy after drinking the colours of the rainbow in the form of VKs? I didn’t think so either.

The event is set to take place on 21st March from 6 pm. For those interested, here’s the Facebook event link.

Churchill student launches video chat platform, Cambridge Calls

Orasenkhoe Ogbeide, a student of Churchill College, has launched a new secure video chat platform, Cambridge Calls, that will “help restore some of the much needed social interaction” that students are currently missing out on.

Orasenkhoe told the Tab Cambridge: “Cambridge Calls is a secure and safe way to network and make friends within your university.”

The platform will work as a randomiser, randomly generating video calls between students. Orasenkhoe added; “We understand that meeting new people is an integral part of the university experience. That’s why we created this platform to help students interact with one another.”

So just to clarify, today is not Thursday and chips and gravy is definitely the best thing on the Gardies menu. See you next week for our final column of term!

Feature Image Credit: sadsid96 via Flickr (Creative Commons License)