Davies on Sex, Science and Profit

If you weren’t aware, our own director moonlights as a book critic in his spare time. And according to the Guardian, Davies is something of a pugilist when it comes to his reviews. His latest target, Terence Kealey of the University of Buckingham, gets socked for lacking self-discipline in his latest book, Sex, Science and Profits.

Writing in the Times Higher Education supplement, Davies criticizes Kealey for his provocative title, saying that “in fact, there is rather more about science and profit than about the other thing.” Kealey’s book, which Davies dismisses as a ‘polemic’, is about the value of private investment in education, particularly in scientific research. The poor Vice Chancellor even receives an unfortunate literary insult, being likened to Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

You’d think that the director could lay off, although maybe he is still smarting from being shown up by other university leaders online – Kealey, on the other hand, doesn’t even register. Pick on someone your own size, Howard!

Comms Candidates on the SU Website

At the poorly advertised hustings event yesterday, the three Comms candidates weighed in on the pathetic Students Union website (we’ve made our feelings on the site pretty clear in the past). The three all agreed that it needed to be improved, although bizarrely Gaby said that she wouldn’t make it a priority. I say bizarrely because the website should be the most powerful way to communicate with students, as well as a means to foster greater community within the school and even get more students involved in the Students Union.

Instead of imposing upon the Beaver to publish a summary of upcoming motions at the UGM, why not post them in a highly visible part of the website? As it is, the motions are contained within the order papers that are posted in a document format (in other words, you have to download and open the file to read the motions, instead of reading them right there on the website), as well as posted on a Facebook group with a paltry 120 members (although to be fair that’s probably equal to the number of people who attend non-Israel related UGMs).

Speaking of Facebook, only one candidate – Dan – mentioned it as a useful means of communicating with students about the SU. Considering that there are 19,000 members of the LSE network on Facebook, and multiple groups within the network with more than 1,000 members, this is a medium that a Comms officer can’t afford to ignore, even if it means venturing outside the SU fiefdom.

To give some credit to all the candidates, they all suggested that they would have words with OnCampus, who are responsible for the construction and layout of the SU website (although not for populating it with information and content). Abz went a step further and suggested that if OnCampus couldn’t provide what is required, then he would end the contract with them and find an alternative. Dan, meanwhile, said that he would not commit to breaking the contract with them, but would expect changes to come and for the website to turn a profit via relevant ads. Gaby said that she wanted to further integrate the Media Group’s content with the SU website, potentially starting a turf battle over their separate websites and independence (although in the case of the Beaver, maybe this would mean that they update it at least once a term).

The candidates reiterated some of their points in follow-up interviews posted on the SU election website.