Graduation 2012

Our timeCardiff

Contents4-5. Chapter One

A look at the early years 2009-10

6-7. Chapter TwoReflecting on the middle years 2010-11

8-9. Chapter ThreeFond memories of the final days 2011-12

12-13. Chapter FourA timeline of world events

14-15. Chapter FiveCardiff in pictures

16-17. Chapter SixThe Cardiff Campus Awards 2012

20-21. Chapter SevenThe biggest names in Cardiff alumni

& Some of your lasting memories

22-23. Chapter EightDid you do?

& The Honor Roll

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The road has been long, hard and unrelenting. There have probably been times

when you’ve stared out of that library window, gazing into the abyss of loom-

ing examinations and deadlines. You might have even considered giving up.

Well you didn’t, you made it, and you can now proudly boast to be a Cardiff

University’ graduate and part of their esteemed alumni.

The Students’ Union has put this booklet together to offer one last surge of

nostalgia, along with our fi nal farewell. Whether it was your fi rst night in

halls, the memorable tutorial where you had neglected to do the work or those

result night’s celebrations, we’ve all had some fond memories along the way.

Hold on to these memories as they may aid you in the diffi culties that the real

world will throw up.

Have a cracking graduation, enjoy yourself and make the folks proud!

You made it!

Cardiff Students’ UnionSincerely, your friends at

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Chapter One:The early years 2009 - 2010

You may just remember the uproar in the rugby community after gair rhydd revealed what re-ally goes on during their initiation ceremonies… The Engineering (ENGIN) rugby team came under fire in December 2009 after it was ru-

moured that some of their players had contracted food poisoning following their initiation ceremo-ny. Despite ENGIN fiercely denying these accusations, a gair rhydd investigation uncovered photo evidence of various degrees of inappropriate behaviour. Some photos showed players licking milk from a muddy playing field, whilst others depicted food being inserted into the boys’ anuses. It was alleged that this food was then force-fed to Freshers. The outrage continued on gairrhydd.com, as members of the team staunchly defended their initia-tion antics. The team claimed that the alleged food poisoning came from a meal that some members had eaten in the Trevithick refectory, but further investigation from gair rhydd found that this was not the case. ENGIN rugby maintained their view that sports teams are entitled to do as they please, however, in the wake of the media attention on initiation ceremonies around the country (such as Northumbria below), the story called into question how far some teams are willing to go.

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The gair rhydd revealed the truth about how Sab-batical Offi cers’ spend the Union’s money.In November 2009, gair rhydd obtained the ex-penses list of the 2008/09 Sabbatical Team and found that several dubious claims were made during their period in offi ce. It emerged that the Sabbatical Team had fi led various questionable claims over the year, including spending an extor-tionate £7,507 of the Union’s budget on food and drink.Members of the Sabbatical Team were also given certain privileges which cost the Union money. These included guest tickets for various Union events and a VIP bar at the Summer Ball, at which guests enjoyed £97 worth of free drinks. This caused the following Sabbatical Team to launch a review into expenses, and at year end, they had managed to reduce their expenditure by 50% com-pared to the previous team, a fi gure which has continued to drop in recent years.

Overcrowding in libraries became a big issue during the exam period. Students working in the Julian Hodge 24-hour computer room (the only 24-hour library at the time) complained of severe overcrowding during the exam period. Reports emerged of students having to queue throughout the day in order to have access to the library facilities, whilst others were forced to move out into the corridors and the Julian Hodge cafe to do their work due to the shortage of space and computers. More recently changes in library opening hours, which began with a trial but is now standard across University libraries, have increased the opening hours and reduced the overcroweding which was commonplace a few years ago.

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review into expenses, and at year end, they had managed to reduce their expenditure by 50% com-pared to the previous team, a fi gure which has continued to drop in recent years.

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Chapter Two:The middle years 2010 - 2011

Student tuition fees were a big issue during 2010, and were reported heavily by gair rhydd as the whole debate unfolded. Following the publishing of the Browne report a Students’ Union Emergency Members Meeting was called, where students voted to pass a motion to fight

against increased tuition fees and cuts to higher education. What followed was a student movement of direct action in London and Cardiff to demonstrate against higher University tuition fees. Students travelled to London to take part in the NUS and UCU demo, and gair rhydd were able to provide a first-hand account of the violence that tainted the event.gair rhydd was also present when Cardiff students occupied a lecture theatre in the main University building as part of a national day of action against cuts. They were the only press allowed inside the occupied lecture theatre, and were able to provide in-depth analysis of the occupation through interviews, twitter and video coverage.Now as we stand on the brink of the introduction of higher fees the effects on university are still unclear and will likely take many years to be fully analysed. The Students’ Union have spent most of this year fighting for better facilities and resources for all students, many of whom will arrive next year paying £9,000-a-year for their degrees, rather than opposing the political changes directly.

More direct action looks set to happen in 2012-13 as NUS start to plan action in London to maintain pressure on politicians and universi-ties in the new fee system.

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In October gair rhydd for the fi rst time revealed the shocking losses made by the 2010 Summer Ball prompting the Students’ Union to evaluate the event. They were able to exclusively reveal that the initial plans for the 2011 Summer Ball were cancelled due to the previous year’s event making record losses of £58,775. Following this announcement, the Students’ Union then began planning for a new end of term event, which came in the form of the May Ball. This was a jointly organised event by the Students’ Union and the University. However, much controversy surrounded the date of the event: placed on the eve of the spring examination period. In June, gair rhydd was given access to the fi gures from the May Ball event, and reported on a second year of losses amounting to £30,000. The concept of the Summer Ball was scrapped and a new event was built from the ground up for the future known as the Dusk Til Dawn Ball, it’s intention merely to break even, but in fact managed to turn a modest profi t.

A shocking story from last year were the reports of students be-ing charged for extra tuition in the Business School (CarBS). A gair rhydd investigation re-vealed that two tutors were ad-vertising their services online, promising to give students in-side knowledge of how exam pa-pers were marked. The Business School was led to re-think their policy on extra tuition for CarBS students fol-lowing the response to the ar-ticle which in gair rhydd and the subsequent debate on gairrhydd.com.

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This is the final year for our current Vice-Chancellor (VC), Dr David Grant, who will soon be leaving Cardiff University. This did not, however, hold him above criticism, as gair rhydd managed to reveal that the University were paying a shocking £18,000 on a painting of the

departing VC. This, on the back of a new £765,000 house purchased for the incoming VC Professor Colin Riordan, makes it a very expensive changing of the guard.

Many of you may still have fond memories of your first year accommodation, whether you were in Talybont or Senghennydd Court. The landscape of University halls are always chang-ing and this year saw significant developments at Talybont with the refurbishment of Talybont Social with its new social space, and the planned development of the new Talybont Gate hall of accommodation to be built at the furthest end of the Talybont site next year. However not all the changes were positive, residents at Univer-sity Halls saw the closure of their bar and the continuing decay of sports facilities at the site. Following a gair rhydd exposé of residents who came to University Halls based on the facilities that it was advertised to include (a bar and sports facilities), the University held a consultation period which concluded with plans to knock down the current bar and redevelop it into a new social space for students next year.

Chapter Three:The final years 2010 - 2011

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The year ended in sporting success as Cardiff took a double-win at Varsity, by not only winning the shield but also by beating Swansea in the rugby for the first time in three years. Some 15,662 Cardiff and Swansea students crowded into the Millen-nium Stadium to see the thrilling rugby conclusion of the day, making it the biggest Varsity ever. With Varsity planned to remain in Cardiff for the next two years, the annual event looks only to continue growing in size and competition with Swansea.

With previous end of year events having lost some £90,000 in two years, the pressure for a profitable (or break even!) end of year event was higher than ever this year. Following a brief flirt with the con-cept of the May Ball and subsequent unsuccessful one-day sale for the event, plans were scrapped and a new event was built. The Dusk Til Dawn Ball took the shape of an all-night event held at the Students’ Union complete with breakfast for those who could make it through till the morning. An undoubted success as the sell-out event saw tickets fetching upwards of £40 for resale on Fa-cebook in the days leading up to the event. These developments have surely seen a fresh start for end of year events at Cardiff University, and hope-fully a night that students will see as a befitting sign-off from Cardiff.

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A Timeline of world events2009

2010

January 3rd – Israeli-Palestinian conflict (After more than a week of intense air strikes, Israeli troops crossed the border into Gaza, launch-ing a ground war against the militant Palestinian group)

April 26th – Swine flu epidemic (by this point over 103 people dead in Mexico as world prepares for much worse)

June 25th – Michael Jackson dies (lifelong musician, pop singer, and superstar, dies at age 50 before he can start his ‘This Is It’ tour)

August 16th – Susan Boyle appears on X-Factor (Susan Boyle does her fa-mous X-Factor audition of ‘Les Miser-ables,’ launching her into worldwide fame)

November 24th – Opening of the Chilcot Enquiry (Enquiry begins to establish the nature of the UK’s in-volvement in Iraq and the grounds for doing so)

December 18th – Avatar released (‘Avatar’ by James Cameron of ‘Titan-ic’ fame is released and becomes the biggest grossing film in history mak-ing over $2 billion world wide)

Winter 2009 – Coldest winter for 31 years (snow sweeps the nation as tem-peratures drop to -22.3C in places.) April – Apple Launches the iPad (A

new generation of tablet computer, by the end of 2010 14.8 million have been sold, representing 75% of the tablet computer market)

April 14th – Ash cloud halts Europe (Ash from eruptions beneath Eyjaf-jallajökull disrupt flights across Eu-rope)

November 10th – 52,000 students march (Student from across the coun-try march in London to protest fee increases and university budget cuts. Media focus their attention on the oc-cupation of Milbank Tower, which is damaged by the protestors. 352 Car-diff students attended)

October 13th – Chilean miners res-cued! (33 miners trapped for more than 2 months in Chile rescued, all are safe)

December 9th – £9000 fees (the Co-alition government votes to raise the maximum tuition fee threshold to £9000 for 2012-13, 323 votes to 302)

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2011

2012

January 14th – Beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’ (Tunisian government falls af-ter months of protests, demonstrating to other countries and notably Egypt that they can do the same)

February 11th – The Egyptian Revo-lution succeeds! (Arab spring sweeps into Egypt and after huge demonstra-tions in Tahrir square, President Hos-ni Mubarak resigns)

March 11th – A Dark day for Japan (A 9.1-magnitude earthquake and subse-quent tsunami hit the east of Japan, killing over 15,000 and leaving anoth-er 8,000 missing)

April 29th – A Royal Celebration (an estimated 2 billion people tune in for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton) May 1st – Osama bin Laden killed

(President Obama announces that the head of Al-Qaeda has been killed dur-ing a military operation, many sus-pect the ‘kill order’ was given)

October 5th – Steve Jobs dies (The Co-founder and former Chief Execu-tive of Apple who brought us the iPod, iPhone, iPad and so much more suc-cumbs to pancreatic cancer, fans and supporters around the world hold vig-ils at Apple stores around the world)

February 11th - Whitney Houston dies aged 48 (Substance abuse put an end to one of the greatest musicians of all time)

May 18th - Facebook floats on the US stock market (The social networking site with over 900 million users float-ed at $100 bn. Share valuations how-ever dropped upon floatation, with many critics stating the valuation had been over-optimistic)

July 4th - God particle found? (Scien-tists state they are 99.999% sure that they have captured the elusive ‘God particle’ that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the uni-verse together)

June 2nd - 5th - The Diamond Jubi-lee of Queen Elizabeth II (A historic event which marked 60 years of the Queens reign)

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Best hangover haunt

Best late night food

Easy. Cafe 37. It’s nearly impossible to get a seat in there on a Sunday morn-ing, it’s that popular. With a cafe 37 breakfast you feel that you’re get-ting the filthy fry-up that your body so desperately needs, but without the uber grease of a Ramones.

This was perhaps the most fiercely contested category. Many of you will have changed allegiances over the years, whether it was Family Fish bar or a stint with T&As, however our true love has been and will always be Mama Mia’s chicken house. Meal Deal 3: 5 chicken strips, chips & a drink – what more could you ever want?

Best sandwich houseCathays is littered with these things, and is one of the key reasons for our ever dwindling student loans. We’re torn here because most of us have re-mained loyal to one throughout our time. Having collected feedback how-ever, no account rivals that of Kappa-cuino’s moist brownies, superb double filled baguettes and salad bowls filled to the brim. Everyone has their own sandwich haunt, but Kappacuino’s has done the students of Cardiff proud.

The Cardiff Campus Awards ‘12We break down the winners of the coveted campus awards, rating the very best student places in Cardiff.

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I know I know, we work in the SU and the Taf is in the SU, but we’re going to have to give this award to the Taf. The place was struggling last year, however the introduction of £1.49 pints, 3D-TV, live music and club in-centives has sparked the most suc-cessful year the Taf has ever seen.

Best Pub

Best date venueHaving researched this thoroughly we can quite honestly say that you fellas don’t really bother with dates do you? And the ones that do, stop taking girls to curry houses! The winner of this category in a slight-ly quirky fashion is that of Milgi Lounge over on City Road due to its cracking cocktails and the chance to converse in a yurt.

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Best road to live onA mere drunken stumble back from town, with kebab central on your doorstep. Salisbury Road offers amenities for all walks of life wheth-er you’re a fresh-faced second year or a hardened PHd veteran.

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Huw Edwards – BAFTA award-winning journalist, presenter and newsreader. Huw graduated with a First-Class honours degree in French from University College, Cardiff, in 1983.

Dame Mary Lesley Perkins – Co-founder of Specsavers and was reported in 2011 to be worth £1.15 billion. Nathan Cleverly – Welsh pro-fessional boxer and current WBO light heavyweight world cham-pion. He graduated with a BSc in Mathematics from Cardiff Uni-versity in 2010.

Adrian Chiles – British televi-sion and radio presenter who cur-rently works for ITV presenting football coverage. Chiles studied journalism at Cardiff.

General Sir David Julian Rich-ards – Having graduated from University College, Cardiff, in 1974 with a degree in Interna-tional relations, Sir David is the current Chief of Defence staff, the professional head of the Brit-ish armed forces.

Ricky Martin – recent winner of The Apprentice 2012, Ricky landed the prestigious prize of a partnership with Lord Alan Sug-ar along with an investment of up to £250,000.

Joining the AlumniAs you will shortly be joining the long list of Cardiff Alumni we look back at some of the big names who you will be joining.

“

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Celebrating my 21st birthday in Cardiff with all of my friends from uni and reading their cards and realising what amazing people I have met whilst being at Cardiff- Flick Rew

“Being part of the American Football team that went to the National championships in Leeds and beat Hull 20-0 in the final. It was a great feeling of achievement for a well established but niche sport - James Fooks

“Standing side by side with Cardiff fans in the Millennium stadium on Varsity match day, cheering the rugby team on and re-minding Swansea fans that they are the best of the clearing students!- Kieran Gandhi

“My fondest memories just come from the people I met during my time at Car-diff, whether they’re now close friends or people I met once, as they all contributed to the memories I’ll take away with me and the person I have become at the end of it all.- Charlie Taylor

“Drunken night walks with housemates to feed the swans at Roath lake after nights at the pub! - Cath Mackintosh

Cardiff: Your lasting memory?

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Cardiff is a great city and three years isn’t really enough time to enjoy all it has to offer, so here are our top 6 things to come back to Cardiff for.

Did you do?

1. Winter WonderlandCardiff at it’s most beautiful. Lit up with glowing blue lights, the sounds of ice skating in the air and groups huddled round drinking mulled wine.

2. Millenium StadiumNamed the seventh sporting wonder of the world, the Millenium Stadium certainly holds its title well. With a capacity of nearly 75,000 it doesn’t mat-ter if you’re watching Varsity or the Cardiff Blues, surely this is the venue you want to be at.

3. Cardiff CastleA place best visited during one of the many events run throughout the year. While on any normal day the Castle is somewhat sparse in its offerings, come to the Great British Cheese Festival or one of the many reenactments they perform and fi nd a Castle transformed.

4. Cardiff BayA stunning vista with a number of fi ne dinning establishments. However venture beyond the confi nes of the touristy hub of restaurants and you will discover the circular walk around the barrage. Certainly a considerable walk (around 6 miles in total), however along the way you will not only see parts of the bay you’ve never seen before, but you will also learn about Captain Scott of the Terra Nova who in 1910 set off from Cardiff Bay on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole.

5. Castell CochBest enjoyed by foot (or bike) along the Taf Trail. Take a leisurly walk down the river until you arrive at a picturesque Castle on the hillside.

6. Roath LakeUnless you lived at University Halls you may have never come across Roath Park and its Lake, but it truely is a gem to behold. Hire a rowing boat for a very reasonable price and go scare some swans for the day.

Cardiff is a great city and three years isn’t really enough time to enjoy

Did you do?

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Cardiff Students’ Union

The Honor Roll 2012

Edited by Oliver SmithPhotography by Nick Matthew

With thanks to Nick and Sarah Halpin

A Cardiff Student Media Publication.

The Students’ Union Honour Roll is a unique award that recognises one student who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution throughout their time at Uni-versity, to enhancing the lives of other Cardiff students and members of the local community whilst overcoming significant challenges in order to do so. There were a number of nominations of very a high calibre, which shows the dedication that many Cardiff students have to their extracurricular activities. The nominees were shortlisted by a panel comprised of elected officers of the Stu-dents’ Union and then the eventual winner was selected by an independent exter-nal trustee of the Union.

It was a very tough decision, but Rachel’s work in student welfare has been out-standing. She is the founder of ‘Student-Run Self-Help (SRSH) Cardiff ’ and has also been the coordinator of the Cardiff Mental Wealth Society. She has worked tirelessly, whilst overcoming significant personal challenges, to put on events, such as, amongst others, ‘Self-Harm Awareness Day’ and ‘Eating Disorder Aware-ness Week’ in order to improve the wellbeing of Cardiff students.Her dedication and passion for improving the lives of students and those in the community is obvious to anyone who meets her.

The Honour Roll 2012 has been awarded to Rachel Egan.