Love your surveys

Just in case you are wondering if your eyes are being weird or not: they aren’t. This week is the closest we get to a Valentine’s issue, so I changed the colour of the top bit and the drop cap to red. How romantic.

Education and Student Experience

This was on last week’s front page and is still going on. It’s basically a chance for you to fill out text boxes on different aspects of Education and the Student Experience. It’s a great idea, and is open to all students and staff. Hopefully you all use it as an opportunity to give your thoughts/have a massive moan/write an entire essay in text speak (delete as appropriate). The best thing about this is that the Pro-Rector (Education) will be personally reading the recommendations. This means that you get to go straight to the source with what you think should be happening. Do you think podcasts are great or a waste of time? Do you think they are taking too long to implement and you just need to get a camera set up and whack them on YouTube, or do you want a slow phasing in? You’re being given the chance to have your say. I urge you with all my heart (oh, Valentine’s Day reference) to give your honest, frank opinions about everything. Also, don’t sugar coat anything. What’s the point on holding back? Better to be completely upfront as opposed to tip toeing around. Don’t be afraid to say what you think, as it’s all anonymous. If you think you have a great idea, put your name down in the comment box to bask in the glory.

Maybe you are apathetic and think that nothing will ever change. Well, this is your chance to test that theory. If you, and a lot of people you know, all put down similar suggestions and it’s ignored, you can then be satisfied that there was a preordained outcome and it was just a consultation for consultations sake with an already decided strategy. At least you’ll have learnt your lesson, and can know to never bother engaging again, keep your head down, get your degree and get out of here. Or, the other answer could be that your ideas are just terrible. Alternatively it could just be that loads of people thought something else and so that was acted upon. Either one. But you seem like a clever person so it wouldn’t be number two.

To summarise: fill out the survey! And give me a tenner. No? Okay, just fill out the survey then. Worth a shot.

Syrian students

The phrase no brainer comes to mind with this one. The government should just guarantee to help them out. Failing that, Imperial should waive the fees and allow them to continue. It’s max ten students and so wouldn’t cost that much. Plus, how much is one person’s safety worth? Just like that Mastercard advert, it’s priceless. What if that one person was you? Exactly, you’d be pretty sure you’re worth waiving the fees for. If someone complains that it’s unfair treatment to waive one person’s fees and not another’s, then ask them if they’d like to be kicked out of university and forcefully removed from the country due to something they have absolutely no control over.

Hopefully the government will step in and this situation will be resolved.

Get ready to be bombarded with free sweets

Or perhaps be the bombarder? Nominations are still open. If you’re considering running: talk to the current person, decide what you want to change and how, and then just click that “Stand” button.