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Newspaper of the students of the University of SurreyIssue 41 – Tuesday 7
th
February 2012
Interview with themasked dj JaguarSkills... (page 29)
T
he Democracy Committeeat the Students’ Union isconsidering a ban on membersof the Union being included informal Union communicationsduring the election for next
 year’s Sabbatical Ofcers, to
make the election fairer oncandidates with no prior workconnection to the Union.In its meeting on 31st
 January, Democracy Committee
members discussed the measure
(technically named purdah),
with some arguing that theban would be necessary to stopstudents gaining an unfaircampaigning advantage due tobeing already close to the Union.Ideas being circulatedwould mean that incumbentcandidates would hold a low
prole in literature publishedby the Union, and that existingcampaign material, includingvideos, posters – anything not
directly related to the electioncampaign – would be put on holdor would be kept under wrapsfor the period of the election.A preliminary proposalstates: “Election purdah iscommonly accepted bestpractice in all types of electionsthroughout the UnitedKingdom.”Some current Union
executive ofcers have hit backat the proposal however, withone anonymous Sabb saying,
“Some people on Exec feel likethey can’t do their job duringthis period. A hurdle is being
Home breaking carends revision early
A
student’s exam revision wasdisrupted when a car camecrashing into her room in the early
hours of Sunday, 22
nd
January.
At 1am, a second year chemical
engineering student at the
University had just nished herrevision when a silver Vauxhall,
Astra collided with the house on
Aldershot Road, Woodbridge Hill.
It is believed that the driver of 
the car, a woman in her twenties,
lost control. She also hit the walland a vehicle in the neighbouringdrive.She was rushed to Royal Surrey
County Hospital with serious head
injuries.
Ainhoa Noguera, who had just
been hanging her clothes on theradiator less than a minute beforethe incident said: “I was puttingmy jumper on when suddenly the
wall started falling apart, I started
screaming and it wouldn’t stop soI got out of my room in less than asecond and started screaming my
atmates name.
“I literally thought the housewas falling apart and would neverhave imagined that a car hadcrashed into my room.
“We started hearing noises
from outside and someone wasknocking really hard on our door –we were scared to answer it as wethought it was a burglar.”
“When we saw the car and allthe neighbours outside, we went
out and the neighbours said they
By Jyoti Rambhai, News Editor
Continued on page 2...
SPECIAL FEATURE
Accommodation and housing: the problems we allface
and 
how to deal with them – CENTRE PAGES
Union may censorExec team duringthe Spring election
By Jack White, Editor
completethesurvey
This was the scene on Aldershot Road after a young driver crashed through the wall of a Surrey student Ainhoa Noguera’s house.
Cont’d on page 6...
 
EDITORIAL2The Stag | 7
th
February 2012editor@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Letter from the Editor
Jack White – Editor
editor@thestagsurrey.co.uk
T
his year has alreadyproven to be a greatopportunity for the openingup of the Students’ Union tothe student body.
With an increasing number of ideas like online
polling taking hold as
the
popular way for students to
gain a stakehold in our Union, we are seeing a chance
for engagement by the Union of people like you that has
not arisen since the early 1990s, when highly politicised
unions were the norm.
Coming up over the next few weeks, we have theelection of next year’s primary Union ofcers – thePresident and Vice Presidents for Education, Welfare,
Societies & Individual Development and Sports &Recreation. It can hardly be overstated how much these
positions matter to the lives of Surrey’s 13,000 students –
even those who are not regular attendees of Union eventsand facilities.University provides us students with a place
unrivalled in its forgiveness, where we can challengeourselves to go one better than we have gone before, open
up new interests and forge the beginnings of amazingcareer paths. One of the ways you can get stuck in is bybecoming involved in the Students’ Union.So I urge each and every one of you to give seriousthought to running in this election. It is not necessary
to have been active in the Union before, although some
evidence of your commitment is always handy whentrying to convince an electorate of your credentials.
What candidates need most is drive to succeed, and
drive to improve the Union and the University in theirrepresentation and education of students respectively. If 
 you think you have something to offer, don’t mess about
feeling shy about it – realise you have something good andcultivate the strength and sense to tell other people!
Editor |
 Jack White
editor@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Editor-in-Chief |
Bakita Kasadhaussu.communications@ussu.co.uk
Deputy Editor (Design) |
Hollie Rowe-Roberts
design@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Design Team | Ellie Brodie, Paul A Richmond, Hannah Roberts-Owen, Joanna Zalis, Christina Morman
Deputy Editor (Marketing) |
Tom Gouldingmarketing@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Marketing Team | Shervin Hejazi, Imogen Jones and Eleanor Pearson
NewsNews Editor |
Jyoti Rambhainews@thestagsurrey.co.uk
News Team | Bethany Goss, Sophie Howard, Geoffrey Pullen, SophieSmith and David Williams
FeaturesFeatures Editor |
Nicole Vassellfeatures@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Features Team | Peter Bailey, Ellie Brodie, Dimitri Levantis, AmyMcGivern, Becky Powell, Jase Vickers
 and Sophie Vickery
Science and TechnologyScience and Technology Editor |
Nathanael Roomesciencetech@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Science and Technology Team | Lawrence Finn, Dave Holcombe,Shourya Khanna, Kate McAtamney, Melissa Raske, Alex Smith and Ruth
Smithers.
SocietiesSocieties Editor |
Vacantsocieties@thestagsurrey.co.ukSocieties Team | Vacant
ArtsDance and Theatre Editor |
Hannah Jelliman
dancetheatre@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Dance and Theatre Team | Emily Bourne, Sarah McDowell, BethHedges, Lucy Jarvis, Tiffany Stoneman and Lexi Sutton
Film Editor |
Tiffany Tucker
lm@thestagsurrey.co.ukFilm Team | Laura Howard, Caroline James, Kristie Marchant andChristina Maria Webb
Music Editor |
Sophia Fieldmusic@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Music Team | James Campbell, Liam Conroy, Dan Davidson, AmyMcGivern, Tanya Noronha
 and Elliot Tyres
Literature Editor |
Alexandra Wilks
literature@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Literature Team | Stephanie Davies, Tom Goulding, Candice Ritchie,Emily Smart, Emma Thomas and Sophie Vickery
SportsSports Editor |
Jordan Vinesports@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Sports Team | Douglas Elder, Arabella Gilby
 
and Sam Limbert
Copy Editors |
Megan Barnacle, Michaela Fulton, Emma Giles, CandiceRitchie and Louisa White
copyteam@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Webmaster |
Andrew Smithwebmaster@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Photo Editor |
Raisa Josephphoto@thestagsurrey.co.uk
The Stag
is a newspaper editorially dependent on and published bythe University of Surrey Students’ Union.The views expressed in the paper are those of the individualauthors and do not necessarily represent the views of the educational
team, the whole Students’ Union or the University of Surrey.Trinity Mirror (South)8 Tessa Road, Reading
RG1 8NS
The Stag
reserves the right to edit all submissions and the right todecide which articles are published.
The Stag apologises to Louisa White who was incorrectly named as Laura White in
21 adventures for your 21st 
in Issue 40.The University has asserted that the scene shown in the photograph gracing the
front cover of Issue 40 was not a break-in, as
The Stag
was informed, but the sceneof a particularly aggressive residents’ food ght. We apologise for this particularly
pointed mistake and again acknowledge the positive responses the University
made to questions regarding break-ins on campus.
The
Grapevine
S
ocieties Exec President, Rowan
Cole is rumoured to be thinkingabout resigning over an ongoing
feud with VP Societies, JakeWillis. The pair have diverging
opinions on the leadership of Societies Standing. Cole believesSoc Standing should do more toscrutinise societies policy comingfrom the Union.
A
ccording to sources,
the University has beenconsidering ending the practice
of guaranteeing all rst-year
students a place in Universityaccommodation. It is not yet clearwhether the threat has passed.
sabbaticalelections
2012
Looking to stand in the
Sabbacal Elecons?
You can submit your nominaon forms during
Monday 13th February - Friday 9th March
Posions Available:
President
VP Educaon
VP Welfare
VP Sociees and Individual DevelopmentVP Sports and Recreaon
For more informaon visit:
www.ussu.co.uk/yourvoice
Apologies and corrections
T
he Students’ Union may be inreceipt of some amputationtherapy to its Executive Team. Atthe next meeting of the Democracy
Committee, member Rowan Cole
is considering asking for thenumber of roles to be trimmed
down. Currently non-Sabbaticalmembers include: Union Chair,
Postgraduate Development
Ofcer, Communications Ofcer,Community Ofcer, Equality& Diversity Ofcer, Ethics &Environment Ofcer, Events &Trading Ofcer and InternationalStudents’ Development Ofcer.
Cole has also stated a desire for
a new VP Corporate Responsibility,
although he has not elaborated
on what this role would entail, or
which part of the budget would becut to fund such a position.
 
NEWS3The Stag | 7
th
February 2012
had already called the police. I wasstill shaking.”The crash was heard more thanten doors away and due to theaccident the road had to be closedoff.Surrey Fire and Rescue Serviceswere unable to remove the car fromthe building straight away and hadto wait for a structural engineer tocome and check that the house wasstable.
This left Miss Noguera and heratmates waiting for a good few
hours before being able to enter thehouse. Ainhoa said she phoned afriend and stayed with her whilstthey sorted out the house.
Miss Noguera also stated: “It
was a very long night... It took me
hours till I nally fell asleep.“And the next day, when I tried
to continue with revision as if 
nothing had happened, I found it
impossible because I still couldn’tbelieve what had happened andbecause of all the people that wereinside the house.
“My landlord was extremely
nice and felt very sorry about whathad happened.”
Landlord of the property atAldershot Road, William Aitken,who had been notied straightaway, told The Stag: “I couldn’t
believe what had actuallyhappened. I was on the phone tothe police and tenants during the
night, it was lucky that no-one was
seriously injured.“I came down the followingmorning and offered to put the
students in a hotel, as constructionwork began, but they said they’d
rather not. “The house has been in
construction since; however, Miss
Noguera will be unable to stay inher room until it is complete.The construction will involve
building a new wall, replacingthe damaged radiator, electrics,internet cables, tting in a newwindow, new guttering, a new fence
and driveway as well as decoratingand getting new furniture for theroom.It is due to be completed by 1February and up until then thetenants are not required to payrent.The accident has caused muchdisruption to the students living
in the Aldershot Road house,
especially in terms of keeping up
with revision for exams and Miss
Noguero has also been unable to sitan exam as a result.The driver of the car was lastheard to be in a critical condition.Surrey Police are asking anyonewho witnessed the collision orthe manner in which the driver
was driving prior to the incident,
to call Surrey Police CollisionInvestigation Unit on 01483 639922and quote the reference number:P/12/021277.
Student’s exam revision drives toa halt as car crashes into bedroom
...Continued from front page
Science heavyweightcomes to Stag Hill
P
rofessor, Sir Roger Penrose
comes to Surrey as the guest
speaker for the rst new annualLewis Elton Lecture.
It is not often that you get to
meet a scientic heavyweight –
perhaps it’s because they are arare breed or just a tad too busypondering the nature of theuniverse.Therefore it is not surprisingthat there seemed to be an auraof excitement around the scienceand maths departments sinceit was announced that Penrosewould be coming to Surrey.
This ‘buzz’ is quite justied.Sir Roger Penrose, knightedin 1994 for services to science,has received the Dirac, AlbertEinstein, and De Morgan medals.And, along with scienticsuperstar Stephen Hawking,
 jointly shared the Eddington
Medal and the Wolf Foundation
Prize for Physics.Penrose was also appointed
the Order of Merit in 2000 and
elected a fellow of the RoyalSociety in 1972.
Professor Roger is co-credited
with proving that stars collapse
to innitely dense singularities,
or black holes. So to a simplephysicist; this man is a livinglegend.
His latest brainwave is that
there was more than one Big Bangand that the universe expandsand collapses in cycles is cuttingedge physics; and will be thesubject of the lecture entitled:“Seeing through the Big Banginto another world”.The University of Surrey’s
Professor Jim Al–Khalili, who
regularly presents BBC science
documentaries, said: “His idea is
basically that the big bang wasn’tthe start of everything but justthe birth of our own phase of theUniverse in a hierarchy of bigbangs popping out of previousuniverses.“This is very exciting stuff.
He is one of the world’s greatest
living physicists and I am very
excited that our rst Lewis EltonLecture will be delivered by him.”
For more information andtickets contact the UniversityBox:
Ofceboxofce@surrey.ac.uk
By Alex Smith, News Team
T
he University of Surrey hascome under recent controversyas its annual wage bill has beenannounced to be over £83 million.The University has defendedthis by arguing that it mustcontinue to attract the bestacademics.
The total salary bill for the 2,531
staff employed by the university inGuildford came in at just over £83m
for the last nancial year.Those gures showed a snapshotof staff numbers in November, but
two months later this number roseagain by 66 people.Over 10 per cent of thosestaff members were paid more
than £50,000 per annum. This
information was released recentlyunder the Freedom of InformationAct.A spokesman for the Universityof Surrey said: “The entire annualwage bill for the university
does obviously reect the large
number of people employed by theuniversity from top academics toground staff.
“We are one of the largest
employers in the county and
currently employ 2,597 staff.
“The university aims to attractthe best academics and in orderto do this we must provide anattractive and appropriate salaryin line with a competitive marketplace.“All staff with more thantwo years’ service are eligible forredundancy provisions.”The University also claims thattheir wage bill is not dissimilarwhen compared with otherinstitutions of around the samesize.
Last spring, the university
announced it would be chargingthe maximum amount of tuitionfees from the next academic yearonwards.
At the time, Vice Chancellor,Professor Christopher Snowden,
said that the priority was to:“safeguard the quality of thestudent experience” in orderto maintain its high graduateemployability rates.Professor Snowden also
stated: “We are also committed
to ensuring that Surrey offers
signicant additional nancial
support to those students whomost need it so that admission tothe university is based on meritand not on the ability to afford ahigh quality education.”This news comes shortly afterthe University has raised its overall
University entry requirements,
rising to an average of AAB for mostsubjects (entry requirements upuntil recently were approximatelyABB.)
By Sophie Howard, News Team
University defends £83m wage bill
Olly Murs to headline at Guilfest
T
he X-factor’s Olly Murs
has been announced asthe headline act for this year’sGuilFest festival.
The festival, now in its 21
st
 year, was originally founded in
1992 by local Guildford businessman Tony Scott.Originally it was the GuildfordFestival of Folk and Blues; it has
evolved signicantly over the
 years to incorporate a variety of mainstream and popular music.Reality T.V. runner up Olly
Murs will be supported by Reggae
legend and rock and roll hall of fame inductee Jimmy Cliff.GuilFest runs between 13 to
15 July, in Guildford’s Stoke Park
and purporting to be “the UKsbest family friendly festival”.Eight stages will be used withover 200 artists performing livemusic throughout the weekend.
Whilst the nal line up for
this year’s event has yet to beannounced with previous yearspresenting an eclectic mix of genres ranging from space rockto dubstep to Peter Andre it islikely to be anything if not varied.
By David Williams, News Team
“I was putting my jumperon when suddenly thewall started falling apart,I started screaming andit wouldn’t stop...”
What do you think about this? Send yourthoughts to letters@thestagsurrey.co.uk
Surrey VC, Sir Christopher earns in theregion of £315,000 a year, according arecent information disclosure.
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