National Student Stories: record deals and goose safety

A brand new feature by Cecily Morgan deals with seat-hogging in the Edinburgh library, pay cuts, a Sony record deal and popular safety talk about geese. 

The University of Edinburgh has introduced a new system to tackle the problem of seat-hoggers in the library.

During exam season, when the library is packed, students who leave their desk for an extended period of time will receive a notice reminding them that reserving a seat is forbidden, due to the overcrowded nature of the library at this time of year.

First-year History student Sam Savelli believes that Warwick should introduce a similar system due to the difficulty that desk-hoggers cause in the library.

He commented: “It is really frustrating searching for study space in the library and not being able to find any because lots of places are unoccupied, but have bags and work left out, reserving space for long periods. It’s particularly hard to find space if you don’t want to work on one of the quiet floors or if you want to work in a group.”

Loughborough University student Kishan Bodalia has signed a record deal with Sony Music and the Ministry of Sound. His remix of Italian DJ duo NDPC’s track “Daylight” is set to be released globally.

Kirshan, a fourth-year Medical student, is a recognised BBC Music artist and has already performed at Tomorrowland, the celebrated EDM festival in Belgium. He is also set to headline Birmingham’s Vale Festival in June.

In an interview with The Tab, Kirshan stated: “Releasing a track on Sony is a huge opportunity and it’s very exciting.”

“As a young producer this is a huge step for me and it is amazing to have this kind of support to push through and grow.”

University College London (UCL) students organised a protest against cleaners’ pay cuts, which took place last 21 April. The university’s trustees decided to reduce the cleaners’ working hours by an hour a day – which would result in a 30 percent reduction in their wages.

In addition, 500 students signed a petition against the cuts, organised by the campaign group Justice for Cleaners, which called for the UCL’s trustees to respect their cleaners’ rights and well-being.

Students at other London universities such as King’s College London and London School of Economics are also campaigning against “exploitation and unfair treatment” of their cleaning staff.

The Facebook page “University of York Memes” hosted a Goose Safety Talk last Friday 5 May. Almost 10,000 people responded to the event page, which stated: “A lot of students in universities with a large population of geese spend their higher education careers living in fear of the cruel waterfowl.”

“Goose safety experts have offered to hold a talk on how to keep yourself out of danger around these birds. They’ll be covering the most secure methods on staying safe around Canada geese, domestic geese and even greylag geese.”

Unfortunately, however, the event page later announced that Bernie Sanders had been critically wounded in a goose attack and that as such the event had to be cancelled. It added that their initial post had reached over 500,000 people.