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Day: 9 March 2016

Three sexual attacks in city centre believed to be by the same culprit

Following three attacks on young women in Manchester’s city centre since the end of January, police have sent out a warning, urging women around the area to be wary when walking late and to avoid being alone.

The three women were alone in the early hours of the morning on each separate occasion and were thought to have been attacked by the same man, described as: Asian, late 20s to early 30s, clean shaven, carrying a ‘Blacks’ umbrella, and wearing jeans and a dark blue coat.

The first attack occurred on January 30th around 3.30am along Oxford Road during which a 19-year-old woman was approached by the man who sexually assaulted her before continuing to follow her to Whitworth Street before attempting another attack. Thankfully, she managed to escape.

The second attack took place on Saturday February 6th at around 4am and involved a 22-year-old woman who was assaulted twice before escaping. The incident occurred as she was walking along Kent Road West and the attacker fled immediately after.

On Wednesday March 2nd around 4.20am, as a 21-year-old woman waited for a taxi on Oldham Street. She was approached and assaulted by a man of a similar description.

A similar assault took place on Feburary 14th on Minshull Street between 1.50am and 2.05am before the man walked off towards Canal Street. However, this is thought to have no relation to the other attacks around it and this attacker is still being searched for.

Images of the suspect, believed to be responsible for all three attacks, were released two weeks ago and Greater Manchester Police’s Detective Constable Steve Lowton explained that the images had been shown “in the hope that somebody may recognise this man and be able to assist with our investigation”.

Until more news of the whereabouts of this suspect is brought forward, women around Manchester are pressed to be extra cautious; to stay in groups when out at night and to travel only with licensed transport.

Jess Lishak women’s officer for the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union told The Mancunion: “It’s really disappointing to see the police reverting to victim blaming again, telling women to ‘not walk alone at night’ in order to somehow prevent themselves being sexually assaulted. Perhaps Greater Manchester Police should concentrate on policing criminals and catching the man they believe is responsible for these sexual assaults rather than policing women’s behaviour. But more than that, these ‘safety tips’ aren’t viable. Women don’t have the option to be accompanied everywhere we go, unless GMP are suggesting that they’ll foot the bill for this. These “safety tips” don’t protect us from over 90% of rapes that are committed by perpetrators who we’ve known, trusted and often even loved.

It’s statements like this from the police which create the culture where victims of sexual violence are more likely to suffer in silence than tell the police due to a fear of not being believed, that they’ll be blamed and are unlikely to see justice”.

Are celebrities ruining Sport Relief?

Don’t worry, you are not about to read a scathing attack of Sport Relief and the fantastic work that they do for charity. Last year Sport Relief made around £52 million, with 50 per cent of the money raised by the public for Sport Relief going towards transforming lives in the UK.

The formation of Sport Relief was a fantastic idea, using something that almost everyone in the country likes in some capacity, for a good cause—similar to the fantastic work that Comic Relief and Children in Need do. These kind of fundraisers use celebrities in order to gain more exposure: People are more interested in Simon from Blue doing hopscotch than Simon from the Co-op, as sad as that may sound. Everyone gets a nice Friday night watching the show, Sport Relief make a ton of money for a great cause, and these celebrities get a little bit more exposure—what could be better?

Well, the problem with this is that it is slowly crossing the boundary of glorifying certain celebrities instead of the fundraiser itself. Last year saw Eddie Izzard run 43 marathons in 52 days for the charity. You’d be heartless to not to respect what Izzard did, and it will have definitely inspired people up and down the country to get involved with Sport Relief in some capacity and donate to save lives. Fantastic. Rosy. Joyful.

However, it cannot be escaped that Eddie Izzard’s career, just before doing these marathons for Sport Relief, was in a trough. Izzard had been big in comedy for decades, however he’s fallen behind new comedians in the last five years—Eddie Izzard needed Sport Relief just as much as Sport Relief needed him. Izzard was on every news channel for two weeks, had his own show on BBC following his exploits up and down the country, and since then has been stapled on the TV yet again like it’s the 1990s all over again. It must be said that at this point, I’m actually quite a fan of Eddie Izzard.

Of course, Izzard could have got his name back into the limelight by doing some outrageous stunt, whereas this was beneficial for everybody involved. It’s not with Izzard where the problem lies, it’s with how these events are becoming more focused on the promotion of the individual instead of the fundraising. All this month we’ve seen in the press C-list celebrities doing great things for charity, and it has become more about boosting the careers of minor celebrities instead of the larger celebrities actually doing something important for charity.

This is a plea to other celebrities to get involved while Sport Relief needs them, instead of their career needing Sport Relief.

UoM supports campaign to save endangered amphibian

Thursday the 3rd of March marked World Wildlife Day 2016. This was a day of celebrating wild animals and plants, and also aimed at raising awareness of endangered species. With some help, the University of Manchester have commenced a campaign to help save one of the world’s rarest and most unusual frogs from extinction.

Last year, a tiny frog had a big impact on nine-year-old Lucy Marland when she visited the Manchester Museum. After seeing a Lemur Leaf Frog (Agalychnis Lemur) in the museum’s vivarium, and discovering that there are only a few hundred of them left in the world, Lucy decided that she wanted to help to save them from extinction.

Backed by the University of Manchester, the global campaign has now been launched, with an aim to educate primary school children about the endangered amphibian and its threats to extinction in its natural rainforest habitat.

The efforts are focused in the UK, Sweden (where Nordens Ark, Europe’s largest conservation organisation exists, Nordens Ark) and the Guayacan region of Costa Rica (where the frog still survives in the wild).

The materials for the education part of the Lemur Leaf Frog project have been called ‘Learning with Lucy’. At present, three short videos featuring Lucy have been produced—as well as worksheets designed for classroom lessons to be incorporated into primary school education.

By teaching children of the threats to this species and making people more aware of the conservation status of these animals, it is hoped that people—particularly those in the Guayacan region—will take more care of their natural surroundings and spare more thought into how their actions will impact the wildlife around them.

Alongside the Manchester Museum and the University of Manchester, Sir David Attenborough and the Ambassador of Costa Rica also back the campaign. Earlier this year, His Excellency Enrique Castillo Barrantes, the Costa Rican ambassador to Great Britain, visited the University of Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences to celebrate the project. Although the faculty and Costa Rica already have a good relationship, as the second year Tropical Ecosystems field course runs there every year, this visit was incredibly important for enhancing this relationship.

By strengthening the connection that the university has with Costa Rica, this will in turn strengthen the campaign to save the Lemur Leaf frog, therefore making the conservation of the endangered amphibian all the more likely.

Professor Richard Preziosi, head of the Environmental Research Group in the Faculty of Life Sciences, conducts research on saving endangered frogs and commented on the importance of such campaigns. He told The Mancunion: “Apart from the fact that frogs are fascinating creatures, they provide important benefits to humans and to ecosystems. Frogs have been the source of important chemicals used in medicine and some consume disease carrying pests like mosquitoes.

“Frogs are also very important in ecosystems because of the central role they play in food chains as both a predator and as prey. Plus, they are one of the few animals that work against the flow of nutrients constantly being washed into rivers and ponds. Tadpoles develop on those nutrients in ponds and then come out to live on the land.”

For more information about the campaign, please visit: http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/communityresources/schools/learningwithlucy/

University to create new park on campus

Today the University of Manchester has unveiled plans to turn Brunswick Street into a park—to be named Brunswick Park.

As part of the university’s £1 billion campus masterplan and concurrently with the Cross City bus corridor works by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), the road will be blocked off to traffic and it will be replaced with an area of green public realm.

The park will sit in the heart of campus between the Simon and Williamson buildings. The removal of traffic will improve safety for students and other pedestrians alike; currently the crossing is uncontrolled and is particularly busy as lectures come to a close every ten-minutes-to-the-hour.

One third year student told The Mancunion: “I think it’s a great idea to replace this hazardous crossing with a nice green area, to juxtapose the grey university buildings and busy Oxford Road with some peace and quiet. I think campus sorely needs a touch of environment.”

Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities at the University of Manchester said: “The University is transforming the campus through its £1 billion Campus Masterplan and that includes a commitment to environmental sustainability by improving our green spaces and public realm.”

The area will be extensively landscaped and will feature pedestrian paths, cycle lanes, wildflower areas, trees, and benches. It comes as preparation begins on works to turn the Oxford Road into a bus, bicycle, and hackney carriage only road during the day time.

The entire street will be converted and plans show a large circular area in outside the Zochonis, Roscoe, and Simon buildings, which leads to the Oxford Road along a wide paved area.

“Improved pathways” will be provided between Oxford Road and Upper Brook Street for pedestrians and cyclists, which aim to form “an important gateway to the campus,” according to the University of Manchester’s plans.

These pathways come as TfGM gets ready to revolutionise transport along Oxford Road, widening pavements and planting trees to create a boulevard feel along the ‘Corridor’, in addition to the introduction of ‘Dutch style’ cycle lanes, which will go behind bus stops. The plans hope to increase the speed, reliability, and safety of using public transport, cycling, and walking along the Oxford Road.

Hampson added: “These proposals form a centrepiece of our vision and will create a heart of the University campus for staff, students, visitors and the local community to enjoy”

Sitting between the open area outside University Place and the small areas of greenery in front of the Williamson and Simon buildings, the park will also be used for large-scale campus events such as graduation, with plans drawn up for a central space to accommodate these.

Consultation with Manchester City Council has already taken place with community base consultations planned imminently.

Subject to planning, work is expected to begin on the Brunswick Park scheme later in 2016.

University of Sheffield forces the eviction of protesting students

The Free University of Sheffield movement has been occupying the Richard Roberts Auditorium for over a week to demonstrate against “the current assault on higher education”. Shemina Davis, Sheffield’s Media Relations Manager, confirmed to The Mancunion that the university has in fact taken out a possession order against the protesting students.

Christy McMorrow, the Students’ Union President, appeared in court yesterday to represent the protesters. He said that some academic staff members supported the movement and that the demonstrators did not intend to disrupt teaching.

Reports indicate that the protesting students received an email from the University of Sheffield management on Thursday, 3 March stating that: “We would much prefer it if the occupation could be brought to a swift conclusion.” Judge Robinson was later quoted as saying that students have a “free and democratic right” to protest against the quality of higher education. However, since the University of Sheffield is the rightful owner of the Auditorium, Robinson would be willing to grant the university’s possession order.

In their press release, a spokesperson from the University of Sheffield said: “As a university, we fully support freedom of speech and the right of students to express their views peacefully and within the law. The university recognises the commitment of the occupiers to peaceful protest, however cannot condone occupation of a building that could cause disruption to our staff and students.”

The demonstrators have conducted general meetings to discuss their concerns about access and quality of higher education. Their aim is to protest peacefully for “an education that is free and fair.” Outlining their intentions to occupy the auditorium on campus, the students stated: “In recent years, we’ve seen the complete separation of the public from our ‘public’ education system.”

“In this era of marketisation, we’re seeing students treated as consumers – to be passive recipients of information for the sake of employability—rather than producers of knowledge.” The protesters claim that student fears of debt and competitive job markets have jeopardized the “reciprocal engagement between academic and student which should underpin learning in the university.”

The University of Sheffield management, the students claim, is not seeking to provide students with an education, but are instead higher education’s “plunderers.” By commencing legal action against the protestors, the Free University Sheffield Movement claims that the university management is only confirming their concerns about the quality of higher education nowadays.

During their occupation of the auditorium, the Free University of Sheffield movement delineated their four main objectives. Firstly, protesters advocate the university active resistance against the reforms of the higher education green paper.

Secondly, they are demanding regular open forums between the vice-chancellor and students and for the University of Sheffield management to “publicly pledge non-compliance” with the government’s PREVENT programme which they deem “racist and Islamophobic.” Finally, the students want to see an end to “unfair casualised teaching contracts.”

A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield responded to these demands, saying: “the university understands that the increasing marketisation of higher education is rightly an issue very close to the hearts of many of its staff and students and along with universities across the country, we have outlined these concerns in detail as part of our response to the government’s Green Paper on Higher Education.”

During their occupation, the students have directed further complaints against management stating that they have been forced to occupy the auditorium in “freezing” conditions. After having asked management about the heating, the students received a response stating that the heating had been turned off as management had never received an official booking for the auditorium.

The protesters expressed their resentment against management’s hypocrisy stating their confusion that the university is “content to let us freeze” even though “excessive security provisions” were ordered for the students’ safety.

As part of the campaign, the students organised rallies, a poetry night, stand-up comedy performances, and also hosted a gig-night with special guests such as Grace Petrie—an activist and folk singer-songwriter. Additionally, the demonstrators have reached out to management on multiple occasions asking them to join them in a series of workshops set to take place in the week where the students’ objectives will be discussed in detail.

The demonstrators have yet to receive a response. McMorrow is hopeful, however, that talks between the protesters and university management will take place after the case is finished in order to discuss the students’ demands further.