Key stories from this week

Students reject Eddie’s investigation into Noah Carl Fellowship

Over a month since students and academics signed a petition for an investigation into the scholar’s academic history, St Edmund’s Combination Room has strongly criticised the composition of the college’s investigative panel into Noah Carl’s appointment. Citing a lack of independence from the board who originally appointed the Junior Research Fellow, students also criticised the lack of social science experts and people who identify as BME on the panel. CUSU Council has formally supported St Edmund’s CR in its criticism of the investigation. College administration stated that it “is following its internal procedures and will not comment while these are under way.”

Green Week in first blossom as protest season returns

The CUSU Ethical Affairs Committee, in collaboration with the CUSU BME Campaign, Cambridge Zero Carbon and others launched the University’s first ever ‘Green Week’ on Monday. Including a second-hand clothes boot sale, panel discussions on climate justice and a ‘vegan potluck’, organisers hope that the week will set “a precedent for continuing the conversation on climate justice.” It wasn’t all film-screenings and discussions however: Cambridge Zero Carbon staged a protest on Wednesday at the Department of Chemistry, where Emma Chapman, a chemist for BP, was holding a talk about energy efficiency as part of a scheme to promote women in STEM fields. The protesters claimed that “a truly intersectional feminism” was incompatible with climate justice.

Vinyl accused of legal accessibility requirements breach

CUSU’s Disabled Students’ Campaign (DSC) accused nightclub Vinyl, commonly known as ‘Life’, of breaching its legal responsibility to adequately accommodate disabled club-goers, after one student was unable to access the club due to the stairlift’s failure to hold the weight of her powerchair. Anna Ward, the student affected, said that she “should be allowed to enjoy [herself] the same as everyone else.” The club responded that installing a new lift “simply wasn’t possible” due to the limitations of the building.

Vigil held for Giulio Regeni

On Friday night, Cambridge students and residents gathered on King’s Parade to hold a vigil on the third anniversary of Cambridge student Giulio Regini’s disappearance. This has been the third time that Cambridge has gathered in the same spot on 25th January to demand justice for Giulio, an Italian PhD student studying at Girton who disappeared, and was later found dead, in 2016 when visiting Cairo. Speakers included the Amnesty Country Coordinator for Egypt and Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, who said that “Cambridge never gives up on its quest for truth.”

Varsity investigation reveals different college responses to new Prevent duties

Varsity’s Amy Batley wrote this week about how different colleges are responding to the Office for Students’ (OfS) data returns pertaining to Prevent. Since new guidelines were put in place last year, colleges must independently provide data on the number of their students using welfare services. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all but one college show that different colleges provided different aggregations of data, with some including all students in contact with tutors, and others providing information only on cases referred to Senior Tutors.

On a lighter note...

Construction begins on ‘Cavendish III’

No, it’s not a satellite, but the new laboratory, situated on the West Cambridge site, will provide the scene for future research on astrophysics. The £300m lab is due to be completed by 2022, and will provide university scientists with “a top-class facility” within which “the spirit of adventure and innovation will be fostered in the Cavendish tradition.” The main site will be named after Ray Dolby, who studied for a PhD in Physics at Cambridge in 1961 and went on to develop the eponymous video tape recorder.