Students in "national day of action" over police violence on campus

College students protesting in London. Photograph: Rachel Megawhat/Demotix/Corbis

Above a thousand college students took to the streets in central London on Wednesday, even though other people protested close to the United kingdom towards the police presence on campus.

Tensions in between students and the police have grown in the previous couple of months following officers had been caught on camera attempting to recruit college students to spy on activists in Cambridge.

On what was labelled a “national day of action”, many protesters also wanted to make a stand towards the privatisation of university jobs and amenities, the reduced spend and bad problems of workers and the death of Mark Duggan.

The demonstration at the University of London Union started out with a largely peaceful ambiance. Clowns and a samba band amused the crowds and there was no evident police presence.

Later on, college students broke via closed gates into an region alongside the University of London Senate developing in Bloomsbury, with shouts of “cops out, students in”.

For the duration of the protest, demonstrators also set a bin on fire, attacked a police automobile, let off flares and chanted: “College students and employees – unite and fight”, and “No justice, no peace, fuck the police”.

Michael Chessum, of the Nationwide Association towards Cuts and Fees, mentioned: “There is something brewing on a national degree, which we have not seen in a amount of years.

“As effectively as police presence on campus, we’re protesting against workers’ struggles, campus democracy, and we have a generalised anti-privatisation message.”

The protest moved through Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner and Holborn. Numerous took to Twitter to demonstrate their help making use of the hashtag #copsoffcampus.

Students, academics and university employees from close to the nation travelled to the capital to get portion in the demonstration, as effectively as setting up equivalent rallies across the nation.

Nadine El-Enany, law lecturer at Birkbeck, mentioned: “Workers are here to display their solidarity with students and to show that our fight is the very same fight.

“College students assistance us on the picket lines when we’ve been on strike just before in recent weeks, so we’re here to help college students who are brutalised by police. I think the fight is going to carry on.”

Isobel Urquhart, a Cambridge academic, said: “There looks to be more knowing of the wants for personnel and students to mix and there is more work now to involve employees employees.”

Pupil union officers from Bristol also took part in the protest and wore Christmas outfits and brandished festive banners in a bid to highlight peaceful protest.

Ellie Williams, of Bristol students union, stated: “We’re wearing our Christmas jumpers and Christmas hats since there seems to be an ambiance all around protesting that is very angry, masculine and aggressive and we needed to challenge that.”

Ben Glinecki, a Cambridge graduate who attended the protest, explained: “The police have provoked this. Their heavy-handed tactics have brought a lot more folks out onto the streets.”

The protest comes just a day right after Sussex University unexpectedly lifted its ban on five college students – recognized as the ‘Farthing Five’, after the university’s vice-chancellor – who had taken element in protests.

Adriano Marotta, a single of the students who was suspended, was at the protest. He mentioned: “We want our voices to be heard. We really feel like the police are attempting to silence student groups.”

Students in "national day of action" over police violence on campus

London students attend "cops off campus" demonstration - video

Student protesters take part in a mass demonstration at the University of London on Wednesday, against police presence on university campuses. The demonstration is the most current in a string of pupil protests. Above the past number of months, students have campaigned towards the privatisation of university jobs and amenities, the reduced shell out and poor situations of workers and the recurrent presence of police on campus

London students attend "cops off campus" demonstration - video

Five students at Sussex Uni banned from campus for "peaceful protest"

College students at Sussex University have been suspended for taking component in strike action. Photograph: Occupy Sussex

5 students have been suspended from Sussex University and banned from going on to campus. The choice has sparked an online petition, reaching 3,216 signatories at the time of writing, criticism from MPs on Twitter, and a planned protest at 1pm on Thursday afternoon.

In a letter sent to suspended pupil Michael Segalov, the vice-chancellor, Michael Farthing explains that “reviews have been brought to my interest that connect [these college students] with the recent occupation of the third floor of Bramber House”. He says these actions involved “disruptive and intimidating behaviour” on 3 December.

The suspended college students, now getting labelled the Farthing Five on Twitter, consist of Adraino Marotta, who is chair of the postgraduate association, Hichem Maafi, ethical and environmental officer, Lewis Nielsen and Michael Segalov.

The suspension, which was sent by e mail on Wednesday evening, has brought on outrage between students. On Facebook, 472 men and women have explained they will attend a protest on Thursday afternoon on a Facebook group.

John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, has supported the online petition, tweeting: “I have signed petition and tweeted it. I will be tabling early day movement in parliament in morning to help you.”

Michael Segalov says: “I’ve been sent an email explaining that I’ve been excluded from campus. I wasn’t on campus on 3 December, and I’m not positive which component of my cinema, pub and homework session was intimidating but I would be interested to uncover out.

“I never understand what I have personally carried out. And I never recognize what’s going on, because we haven’t been offered any kind of evidence.

“We have a campaign at Sussex which is ongoing and involves thousands of men and women – I’m one of people men and women and I am very vocal. It appears like they’ve picked out five students whom they wanted to make an instance of.”

Adraino Marotta says: “I’ve been suspended for protesting against privatisation on campus. I believe it is outragous and ironic that they reply to criticisms and demands for more democracy by suspending college students. I can truthfully say I did not assume this, or in any way see it coming.

“I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday in which I’m due to uncover out regardless of whether I have diabetes or not. I emailed Michael Farthing to get permission to go to the medical doctor and have had no response.

“If I go, I face becoming physically eliminated by safety because I’ve been banned from going anyplace on campus. That isn’t going to just imply review facilities – but from physicians, dentists and psychological services also.

“It truly is indicative of a concern that runs along strands of university management that they chose to suspended three student representatives.”

The Sussex students’ union has condemned the suspensions: “The students’ union believes that improper processes have been followed, and unjust reasons have been provided for the vice-chancellor’s actions.

“The students’ union firmly believes in the proper of college students to peacefully protest against practices they deem unfair, and condemns the intimidation of college students undertaking peaceful protest action by university management.”

John Duffy, registrar and secretary at the University of Sussex, says: “We have suspended and excluded from campus a number of students who, in the view of the University, were actively organising or top these unlawful occupations and connected occasions.

“We believe we had no other choice but to act to make it clear that actions that significantly disrupt our campus local community will carry consequences.

“We have excluded these college students to safeguard the interests of all of the students, employees and site visitors who are entitled to use the campus without fear of intimidation and serious disruption.

“All college students who attend the University of Sussex have given an undertaking to respect its principles and statutes and the University is below a duty to ensure those principles are properly enforced.”

Five students at Sussex Uni banned from campus for "peaceful protest"

Campus given all-clear after lockdown

A tip regarding plans for a shooting on Yale’s campus Monday brought SWAT teams to the University and forced a 5-hour-plus lockdown, which ended only when New Haven and Yale Police Department officials stated they could be assured that the threat had either passed or in no way existed.

At 9:48 a.m. on Monday, the NHPD received a call from an anonymous guy who mentioned that his roommate had a gun and was headed to the University’s campus with plans to shoot individuals, in accordance to NHPD spokesman David Hartman. Hartman mentioned that authorities have been not in a position to extract additional information from the caller, who hung up just seconds soon after putting the get in touch with from a phone booth in the 300 block on Columbus Avenue. At 10:50 AM, the Yale Alert Method mandated a campus-broad lockdown via email, telephone phone and text message to students, faculty and staff. Updates continued all through the day.

“Confirmed report of individual with a gun on/close to Previous Campus,” said a Yale Alert text message sent to the University local community at eleven:02 a.m. “SHELTER IN Spot. This is NOT a check.”

NHPD and YPD officers have been joined on campus by 4 SWAT teams and agents from federal law enforcement companies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To facilitate the investigative sweep of campus, main city streets had been shut down, specifically close to the intersection of Elm and School Streets, Early reports indicated that a gunman may be located in or near Battell Chapel, which is found at that intersection.

Police conducted a series of room-to-space searches, which started in Calhoun College at around 1:45 p.m. NHPD Chief Dean Esserman mentioned that searches would carry on in all Outdated Campus rooms ahead of a definite conclusion on the matter could be reached. No injuries or gunfire had been reported at any level all through the day, and the lockdown was lifted in all campus regions at four:5o p.m.

“Once we have geared up, we really do not just gear down,” Esserman said at a press conference before the University had ended the lockdown. “That is why we’re going back [to Previous Campus] to keep the course. We have a quite robust operations strategy the place we are going space to room… right up until we make sure that we are content.”

As officers from the NHPD and YPD were initially dispatched to the scene, a Yale employee reported seeing a guy strolling around campus with a rifle. That this second tip came in following the University lockdown had started out appeared to legitimize the 1st telephone phone obtained by police in the morning. Esserman later exposed, even so, that the witness might have mistaken an armed police officer for a gunman.

However the investigation has not been officially closed, a lack of concrete leads given that the early morning has led Esserman to conclude that there is a probability that the phone phone received at the beginning of the day was disingenuous, he explained.

University Vice President Linda Lorimer sent an email to all University faculty, workers and students to overview the day’s occasions.

“The mixed police forces combed the region and have located no suspicious individual,” Lorimer mentioned in the electronic mail. “However, the police are taking nothing for granted. They are operating to track down who manufactured the very first (anonymous) cellphone call… if it was a prank contact that began this chain of occasions, the authorities intend to prosecute the person to the fullest extent of the law.”

The episode unraveled on a relatively empty campus, as several college students have vacated their dorms with the commence of  the November recess this weekend. People that remained on campus, nonetheless, had been forced to get precautionary measures as element of the lockdown. Some residential college masters emailed students advising them on how to deal with the enhanced police force and threat of a prospective gunman by telling them to lock their rooms and refuse entry to any individual, even these identifying themselves as police.

When the prepare to search area by space was announced, YPD Chief Ronnell Higgins sent an e mail to college students notifying them of the process that would stick to. Instructions had been also delivered more than the Yale Alert technique.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Police will be carrying out a room to space search commencing with the residential school regions,” Higgins stated in the e mail. “When they knock on your door, a Yale Police Officer will slip their Yale ID below the door. Please cooperate.”

Despite the mass influx of heavily armed officers, individuals current stated the scene on campus was comparatively secure. Rob O’Gara ’16 explained that college students about his suite in Saybrook have been “very calm,” as the lockdown unfolded.

Calhoun University in specific was the site of a huge SWAT crew hard work —  a huge, armored truck was stationed outsides its gates on Elm Street, and students had been evacuated from their rooms to the school dining hall as in-room searches took place. Even now, the emphasis of the investigation stays on the initial telephone contact that set the day into movement.

“You really do not just stroll away… no matter how lengthy it takes,” Esserman mentioned. “We are going to locate who [created the mobile phone phone] and we’re going to place handcuffs on who did this.”

Press conferences had been held in the lobby of the Shubert Theater on University Street.

Campus given all-clear after lockdown

Yale University on lockdown after reports of gunman on campus

Yale’s emergency management website stated men and women should phone 911 with any data. Photograph: Alamy

Yale University was in lockdown on Monday morning after “confirmed reviews” of a man with a gun on campus.

Students and workers have been ordered to shelter in spot at ten.17am following a get in touch with was manufactured to New Haven police reporting a man or woman on campus with a gun.

Yale’s emergency management site later stated the report had been “confirmed” and said police were on the scene and “actively browsing for any gunman”.

Television footage showed emergency automobiles outside campus.

“There are confirmed reports of a particular person with a gun on campus on the Outdated Campus. The shelter-in-spot/lockdown continues,” a publish mentioned on Yale’s emergency management web site.

“Teams from Yale police, New Haven and the state police are on the scene and are actively seeking for any gunman.”

The message explained people must call 911 with any info.

Yale’s Twitter account also posted the warnings, requesting that individuals shelter in location.

Karen Peart, spokeswoman for Yale’s office of public affairs and communications, advised the Guardian at twelve.06pm that “lockdown is even now in area”.

“There are confirmed reports of a guy with a gun on outdated campus,” Peart mentioned.

An additional staff member at the office confirmed the lockdown. She advised the Guardian she had not heard any gunshots. She mentioned she could not comment more on the incident.

Photographs on social media showed armed officers on the scene. A reporter for the neighborhood information channel WFSB3 tweeted a picture of an agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on the scene.

Yale University on lockdown after reports of gunman on campus

Gunman confirmed on campus

This is a creating story. Examine back for updates. 

Reviews of a gunman on campus were confirmed close to Outdated Campus, the place freshmen dorms are housed, by means of text update close to 11 am. Announcements have been broadcast in dorm rooms and sightings of police and the SWAT staff have been reported outdoors Outdated Campus.

NHPD Lieutenant Jeff Hoffman confirms no shootings, no injuries.

Rob O’Gara ’16, explained that police are concentrated on Elm Street amongst Saybrook, Berkeley and Outdated Campus. O’Gara said that, for the past twenty minutes, police have been yelling at every other to “get cover” and at an individual else — likely the gunman — to pull back. The standoff has continued because, and officers witnessed close to Saybrook are reported to be carrying rifles.

Maria Bouffard, Director of Emergency Management confirmed that NHPD and YPD officers have been brought to the scene. Bouffard said that updates will carry on to be posted on the University’s official emergency services web site as they are received

At 10:20 am, the Yale emergency alert technique sent out cellphone calls and text messages to students notifying them of reviews of a guy with a gun on campus. The messages indicated that an anonymous tip to the New Haven Police Department had been manufactured from a mobile phone booth on Columbus Avenue.

The messages advised college students to continue to be in area. The University’s PA technique, which is utilized to announce other emergency scenarios like fires, has not been employed. Updates will be posted on the official University website.

Numerous college students have left campus for Thanksgiving break, but people interviewed from campus said that they have not noticed anything at all unusual other than the alert messages. Cops were not witnessed all around Pierson or Calhoun colleges as of 10:37 AM.

A 10:50 am text update to college students stated the shelter was nevertheless in area.

11:fifty five a.m. a text update confirmed that the shelter in area and lock-down remain in impact.

Gunman confirmed on campus

Campus rallies for Philippines

Since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines nearly two weeks ago, members of the Yale community have mobilized to plan and implement a variety of relief efforts for the nearly 13 million people affected by the storm.

Students, faculty, administrators and local residents are conducting a series of fundraising and awareness efforts this week, including online giving campaigns, a T-shirt sale, a benefit concert, a dinner and a candlelight vigil.

Secretary and Vice President for Student Life Kimberly Goff-Crews ’83 LAW ’86 said donations to the Yale Relief Fund, which collects money for disaster relief on behalf of the University, have increased since University President Peter Salovey sent one of his “Notes from Woodbridge Hall” emails Monday morning addressing Typhoon Haiyan, and donations now total nearly $ 20,000. In addition, student groups such as Kasama — Yale’s student Filipino club — are working on philanthropic endeavors.

“Many of our students, faculty and staff have close ties to the Philippines,” Goff-Crews wrote in an email to Yale community last week. “Our focus now is on immediate relief.”

On Thursday, Kasama will host a benefit concert in Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall that will feature a variety of student groups and performances. The goal is to both raise money and educate community members about the disaster, Kasama Co-President Ulysses Isidro ’15 said.

The name for the event — Bagong Araw — means “a new day” in Filipino, he said.

Following the series of performances, which will include The Baker’s Dozen, Just Add Water, Mixed Company, Out of the Blue and others, Yale University Chaplain Sharon Kugler will lead a candlelit vigil.

Kasama aims to raise roughly $ 15,000, said Christopher Marnell ’14, a member of Kasama who is involved in planning the event. The group has already raised $ 4,600 through online crowdsourcing efforts, he said, adding that corporate sponsors — many of whom are Kasama alumni — have agreed to match donations up to $ 5,000.

All funds raised by Kasama will go to AmeriCare, a nonprofit organization which is helping to provide emergency medical supplies to the Philippines, Marnell said.

Christopher Dee ’15, whose family is currently in the Philippines, said that the willingness of people in the Philippines to help each other during this difficult time comes from the concept of “Bayanihan,” which he said means “the idea of a collective nation.” Dee said he hopes to promote a similar sense of altruism at Yale through the Kasama benefit concert.

Of the four students interviewed working toward relief efforts, all stated that they were impressed with the degree of support the Yale administration has offered.

In his email to the Yale community on Monday morning, Salovey referenced his time studying in the Philippines and said Yale needs to unite as a community to aid our “neighbors, whether in New Haven or halfway around the globe.”

“The administration has been phenomenal,” Dee said. “The ‘That’s Why I Chose Yale’ video has materialized before my eyes.”

On Thursday, the Asian Network at Yale will host a fundraiser at the restaurant Bentara on Orange Street. There will be opportunities to donate as well as a presentation on local community efforts to assist with typhoon relief, Goff-Crews wrote in an email to the News.

AIESEC Yale will also be selling T-shirts for the Yale-Harvard Game in which buyers will have the option to pay $ 5 extra toward Typhoon Haiyan relief.

The University has set up its own website to solicit donations, which allows individuals to donate using credit cards, Goff-Crews told the News. Donations specified as “Philippines Relief” in the “purpose of payment” section will go to the American Red Cross, AmeriCares and Mercy Corps.

Despite these philanthropic endeavors, the difficulty of the disaster continues to weigh on community members intimately affected by the storm.

“It is very personal. Not all [Yale students] have heard back from their families” said Marnell, who was unable to contact his family for two days after the storm. He said it was difficult for Filipino students to plan fundraisers when there is still so much uncertainty in their personal lives.

Next semester, Kasama plans to hold another fundraiser to help with the rebuilding effort and may host a panel discussion on the disaster, Marnell said.

Typhoon Haiyan is the second-deadliest Philippine typhoon on record. Nearly 4,000 people have been reported dead.

Campus rallies for Philippines

Hook-up apps like Tinder have killed romance on campus

Is enjoy on campus what it utilized to be, or have apps like Tinder killed the mood? Photograph: Alamy

My mother and father met at Manchester University in the launderette. There are plenty of other stories from couples of their generation who found one yet another in the distinctive social circumstances that are only to be identified at university. But dating apps like Tinder and Grindr have altered the way we consider about relationships.

Just lately GQ hailed Tinder as “the hottest dating app going”. For these unfamiliar with this new phenomenon, it performs by letting end users scroll by means of images of possible hook-ups according to their location, swiping away the ones who depart them feeling uninspired right up until they attain a photograph that catches their consideration.

If each consumers accept one particular an additional they can move on to chat. The tagline for Tinder is “discover out who likes you in your location” and everything rests on the impression that your photograph leaves. It does not leave much space for truly obtaining to know somebody.

Emma Jacobs, a final 12 months psychology pupil from Leeds says: “I never have time for commitment this yr, but I indulge in Tinder when I want a distraction from what ever it is I am functioning on.”

Was existence much more romantic when our parents and grandparents have been at uni? My grandma is always asking me if there is “an individual unique” on the scene. It can make me consider that for folks my grandma’s age, locating a lengthy term spouse at uni was considerably more typical than for students right now.

Possibly some students commence uni with concepts of finding a boyfriend or girlfirend, but the actuality is that many of us go by way of our research with not so much as a date. Numerous of the relationships that have survived uni have actually been the ones that started in the course of sixth kind.

A good friend of mine, who has been with her boyfriend since they have been 18 and came to university with him, says: “Occasionally I worry that we met too early in life, there are even now a lot of things that I want to do.”

A lot of college students have no thought what their potential is going to hold following graduation, and preparing a severe partnership when you may well be going back to dwell with your mothers and fathers or moving to dwell in a cold bedsit is perhaps not the best scenario.

Are you even searching for a serious romantic relationship at uni?

Sam King, a 2nd 12 months student from Newcastle says: “I wouldn’t mind a romantic relationship if I met the appropriate person, but for now I’m pleased to make the most of what there is on provide.”

You may possibly consider that uni is the time for having exciting and not pondering about commitment, but some college students regret not meeting a partner.

Recent medicine graduate, Ali Hussein says: “I do want that I had met a person at uni simply because it was a significantly a lot more laid-back atmosphere when it came to obtaining to know individuals. Operate doesn’t enable significantly scope when it comes to that, which is why I feel dating sites have turn out to be so common amongst youthful pros in current years.”

Although you won’t catch me on Tinder, I am not against dating apps altogether. For many people they perform, and give access to what they are hunting for.

But being the romantic that I am, I still feel that the most surprising things come about in the most sudden moments – even in the nearby laundrette.

Hook-up apps like Tinder have killed romance on campus

Notre Dame Campus Ministry to host Mozart festival at conclusion of Year of Faith

Notre Dame Folk Choir

The University of Notre Dame Office of Campus Ministry will host a special musical celebration at 8 p.m. Nov. 22 (Friday) in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to honor the conclusion of the globally Yr of Faith. The Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, Folk Choir and Women’s Liturgical Choir will every single perform an personal piece of sacred music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before coming together to sing the Mozart Coronation Mass with orchestra.

“This 12 months of Faith has been an opportunity for us to focus our faith and deepen our relationships with Jesus Christ,” mentioned Rev. James King, C.S.C., director of Campus Ministry. “Specifically, the 12 months of Faith served as a call for us to pray more difficult, listen more intently and reside with hearts open to God. This concert is an opportunity for us to celebrate our faith and acknowledge our relationships with Christ and the Church.”

The Year of Faith started on Oct. 11, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and will finish on Nov. 24 (Sunday), which coincides with the Solemnity of Christ the King and the end of the Church 12 months.

The Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, Folk Choir and Women’s Liturgical Choir are all housed within Campus Ministry. The Liturgical Choir, underneath the direction of Andrew McShane, provides music for the Sunday 10 a.m. Masses in the Basilica and for Sunday Vespers. It also provides musical leadership at a range of University liturgies at Notre Dame.

Beneath the path of Steve Warner, the Folk Choir offers music for the Sunday 11:45 a.m. Mass in the Basilica and for numerous University occasions. This ensemble is composed of 60 musicians who use four-element vocal harmony accompanied by strings, flute, guitar, harp, organ, conga and bodhran (Irish drum).

The Women’s Liturgical Choir, under the course of Daniel Bayless, offers music for the Saturday 5 p.m. Vigil Liturgy in the Basilica and can be heard at other special University liturgies. For more details about the Basilica Choirs, please go to campusministry.nd.edu.

Notre Dame Campus Ministry to host Mozart festival at conclusion of Year of Faith