Recent events at Keele have reignited discussion over the question of safety on campus and what can be done about it. The assault of a student and then the tragic death of a David Whitlock, have made everyone on campus more aware about security and keeping safe whilst living and studying here. Students have already been airing their views and Facebook has also sprung into action with a page being set up containing many views on how the university should be tackling safety on campus.

The question about security around campus is what would actually be effective. There have been many calls by students that lighting on campus in certain areas needs improvement. This cannot be argued with. There are some areas of campus which are lit to a greater extent than others. The walk from the campus to Hawthorns is one area where the university have vastly improved lighting since I arrived in Keele nearly four years ago. On the other hand, there are other areas which do not fare so well. Some students have stated that the walk to Barnes and from the sports centre and Hollycross are not lit well enough. More lighting would certainly make students feel more secure in their environment and provide less “shady” places where suspicious figures could lurk.

There have also been calls for more CCTV to be present on campus. I have no idea exactly how many cameras there are on campus, but I am led to believe that the network is quite extensive, however, probably the highest CCTV concentration is in the academic areas, due to the threat of theft and break-ins in the science blocks. The problem with installing CCTV on campus, as deterrent or as a measure to find criminals, is the very nature of Keele. Since the campus is quite spread out, with many small pathways leading to buildings, it probably would be near impossible to provide complete comprehensive coverage of all the campus. The costs would also be astronomical and there would be the issue of personal privacy in halls of residence where cameras could point directly into the room of a student. There have also been recent reports in the media as to the effectiveness of CCTV in cutting crime.

Another measure raised is the role of security. Some have called for there to be an increase in security patrols around campus, especially on foot. An increase in a security presence is nearly always a deterrent to crime and the knowledge that security are never far away perhaps would allay people’s fears.

I feel that as a collective community, though, that we could each do a bit to look out for each other. You can have lights, cameras and the all infrastructure you want, but unfortunately crime will raise its ugly head in one way or another. If you leave on a night out in a group, make sure you all get back safely, or know where you are going at the end of the night and who with. Make sure no one is left alone. Admittedly, this is easier said than done. After a night of one-too-many drinks at the union people do drift off and to “say do not go out alone at night” for many is an impossibility. If you find yourself alone, it’s wise not to take unnecessary risks. Stay to the main paths if you are walking alone, see if the safety bus is running or, if you have the funds, consider calling a taxi.

However it is probably important to stress that Keele is still a safe campus. I feel much safer here than I would do than if I was at an inner city university. Attacks are thankfully a rare occurrence, and we should not feel scared of living here. I feel that the whole community needs to work together closely. Security needs to engage with the students more than at present, perhaps on a more personal basis, perhaps where students actively recognise by face and name those who help keep us safe. The university, the union, CFM and the student body themselves should all work closer to identify areas of improvement, but at the same time, we should all look out for each other, and where there is suspicious behaviour, call security and let them know, so they can investigate. Prevention is better than cure.

With the Copenhagen summit on the horizon, climate change and the environment is hot news, as it has been for several years. There is a great deal of evidence in its favour, but there are also those who disagree, claiming it to be a big conspiracy.

I am not going to go into the debates for or against or state my opinions on which side I agree with here in this post, I want to make a point about the world and the environment which I think transcends this.

Regardless of whether we face a ‘climate catastrophe’ or not, whether the polar ice-cap will melt or not, whether the global temperature changes are caused by man or not, I feel there is something missed in all these arguments. Why can we not just change because we know what we do is damaging the planet in other ways. Here are the facts. Eventually we will run out of coal, oil, gas, FACT. So why not try NOW and invest in renewables? Why not try and stop choking up our cities and causing deforestation by re-cycling, by intelligent planning and sustainable agriculture? We know the resources are finite, lets invest in technologies which will reduce our demand on carbon fuels.

It strikes me as awful that we know we are causing death and destruction, yet people will not budge and do something about it. They will not do anything because they are sceptics about global warming. Regardless, after the progress the human race has made, can we not acknowledge that many of our actions cause irreparable damage to the environment in other ways that global warming. Animals die, ecosystems are wiped out.

It’s time for action: Copenhagen better work.

Make a pledge for 2010 – 10:10. Reduce your carbon emissions by 10% during that year, and keep them going down. http://www.1010uk.org/

Listen at www.kuberadio.com and join the Facebook group

Cheers!

Famous users of Twitter, such as Stephen Fry have denounced her homophobic statements.  The brilliant Charlie Brooker has then provided a breakdown and analysis of this on the Guardian website. Excellently written, he proves this to be an absolutely awful article by the columnist in question, and full of apparent homophobic undertones.

It also seems as though that the Press Complaints Commission has been over-run by complaints too.

The views of homophobia alluded to by this columnist are awful. The Daily Mail has seemingly hit a nerve with me for a while with its views which I tend not to agree with. The article in question is just sickening, particularly considering its publishing date. The guy has only been dead for five days and his funeral is tomorrow. If this piece was to be released at all, today was definitely not the day to do it.

We have also seen the way that the social networking world works. A lot of condemnation of this column. Stephen Fry has said that

Ms Moir Speaks out:“In what is clearly a heavily orchestrated internet campaign

But really can she say this? How can it be heavily orchestrated. It is pure disgust at some outdated, wrong views. The Daily Mail may claim to be bastion of good society and almost the savior from a “Britain that has gone to the dogs”, but to by today’s events, it appears to be an outdated, backwards, homophobic publication. The sub-editor/editor who allowed this to published should be ashamed of themselves.

The first challenge was to Student Scrabble. Basically create words using people, take pictures of the event and submit them to Facebook. Keele decided to have a go, and basically we have kind of blow the competition out of the water.

Yearbook mastermind Mark “Sparky” organised today two words for us to spell “antidisestablishmentarianism” and “Keele University is Number 1!

Here are the results

Higher res images at http://i37.tinypic.com/2ito2hg.jpg and http://i38.tinypic.com/246nc6c.jpg

Photos are courtesy of Mark “Sparky” Holtz and theyearbookpeople

I think that this shows just what a community spirit Keele has. How it’s students have pride in the establishment which they attend. This was only organised from Monday onwards and even though only a small event really, it really does make me proud to be part of such a great place.

day 1

So what will my blog be about? To be honest anything that hits me as interesting to write about. I intend for this blog to a cross over between personal events in my life, to me commenting on things happening in the world, to commenting on a particular song, film or tv show I think is brilliant, or totally dreadful!

Keep visiting back very soon, I am sure I will have plenty of opportunity to procrastinate this year!

and finally

If you can think of a good name for my blog please leave a comment!

aide