Roads, radio and requests

Issue #1326 [Jun 9th 2005]

Death in vain?

Yesterday was the cremation of Apijak ‘Joe’ Srivannavit, the Imperial postgraduate who was killed in an accident whilst cycling at the Queen’s Gate junction with Cromwell Road. Coming a couple of months after the death of a long-serving staff member, Thomas Sippel-Dau, on the same road, it’s a poignant time to think about road safety in the area.

There have long been concerns about the safety of Cromwell Road, for pedestrians as well as cyclists. Furthermore, there is an air quality monitoring station which shows it to be the most polluted road in London.

The Union is seeking to raise political awareness of the road safety and environment issues with the Cromwell Road. The issue is complicated because the main road is the responsibility of the Mayor and Transport for London whilst the adjacent roads come under the jurisdiction of the local councils. Nevertheless, the nature of recent events means that it is now a cause we must champion on behalf of the local community (of which we are a major component). Joe’s family have expressed their support for our campaign. To find out more, or to help, please visit www.union.ic.ac.uk/icbug.

Radio controversy

I know there are several controversial issues bubbling up that people want to talk to me about. I get a lot of email and it can be difficult for me to reply to each and every person who emails me about something. So I thought it might be worth drawing attention to the fact that you can phone in to Fireside, my radio show with Dave Edwards, the editor of Felix. We are on air every Thursday, 5-6pm on 999AM in Princes Gardens, 1134AM in Wye and at www.icradio.com.

Requests

I know that next week will be my last column after serving two years as your President. I expect to write about the future of the Union and Imperial as a whole, as well as what I have learnt in my six years as a student here. If there’s anything you think I should write about, then please email me (president@ic.ac.uk) to let me know. Alternatively email Felix as they are going to interview me.

Election time

Please don’t forget that we have election nominations open for Union Officers as well as the new Graduate Students’ Association. Nominations close on Monday 13 June and voting takes place online later that week.

ULU success

As I hope you are aware by now, Imperial students are members of the University of London Union (ULU) as well as ICU. ULU organise central campaigns and every other year or so one of them actually achieves something. This is one of those years.

From September 2005 all students will be able to use the University of London Library (ULL) in Senate House which has an extensive collection of humanities and social sciences texts. Up until now, only students from those Colleges which subscribed to the ULL could use it. That excluded Imperial as we didn’t subscribe since the ULL does not maintain any specialist science collections. Nevertheless, the ULL is valuable as study space for Imperial students who live in intercollegiate halls in the area. It is also incredibly valuable for anyone who wants access to a broader collection of humanities texts (especially those taking humanities for credit). Credit must go to ULU for this.

Mustafa Arif, Union President

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Re: Roads, radio and requests

Dear Felix, Sorry to be writing a comment unrelated to this article but as a first time registree it is not clear how to generate a discussion on a different issue (perhaps a blog might help if you do not yet have one). A number of us are wondering what on earth Margaret Thatcher is doing on our Centenary Poster (see front page of College web-site). We do not see the connection and consider it highly ironic that a person who did much to undermine university education in England should feature in our Centenary celebrations. In addition, it has been a long time since anyone played the cynical gender card in relation to her leadership. There are plenty of women of science, engineering and medicine who contributed greatly to human causes and should be represented. Most would agree that Ms. Thatcher was not one of them. Moreover, it would be an understatement to suggest that Margaret Thatcher was a highly controversial figure in British life. Whatever, ones views on politics it makes little sense to associate her with our 100 year celebrations. Indeed, there are many citizens that would be offended by her connection to our College. It is noted that a Google search connecting her to the College web-site reveals the following: "1979 - Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher was the longest-serving British Prime Minister since William Gladstone, and had the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early nineteenth century. She is also the only woman to have served as Prime Minister." This hardly justifies her most recognisable visage among those provided in our Centennial poster. Perhaps, if Felix agrees then we should move to have her image removed. After all, the Thatcherite years were hardly cause for celebration (in universities or otherwise), her values are not those to which most of us here aspire and there is no meritworthy connection between her, our past or our future. Perhaps this is only a minority view, but it is one that may justify careful consideration as particularly coercive, right wing conservatism should not be the domain of the idealism and aspirations of youth.

Zen Makuch

Re: Roads, radio and requests

Zen Makuch

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