Elsewhere at Warwick — Volume 47 Issue II

Articles in this section originally appeared in Volume 47, Issue II of The Boar, published Tuesday 29 October, 2024.

Houseplant sales wither

Among other staples of the start of term, students this month were tempted with an exotic array of miniature greenery at the annual houseplant pop-up sale.

Browsing the selections, The Boar spied shrubs including cheese plants, bonsai trees, and even tiny, spidery pineapple plants.

Yet perhaps the wonder has faded somewhat for other students: Ben, a Warwick alumnus whose family have run the pop-up sale for years, remarked that this year’s sale hasn’t been nearly as successful as previous iterations, something he attributed to there being less people on campus than usual.

Perhaps student priorities have shifted away from having a leafy, green co-dependent in their accommodations – but that certainly would be a shame.

Unshackled bears beware

Those at the University charged with overseeing Warwick’s rebrand ahead of its 60th anniversary will no doubt be hoping for a smoother transition than the last time this was tried.

Though it was long before the time of any current students, staff may recall the outcry that greeted the introduction of Warwick’s current two-triangle logo in 2015.

Back then, the innovative new design was slammed by students as child-like, embodying “an offshoot of the Weinstein Company”, and resembling “a logo for some mountaineering warehouse”.

Having cost some £80,000 to create, there was dismay at the amount spent, with one observer noting they “would have done this on MS Paint for less than a fiver”.

A petition started to cancel the rebrand ultimately spawned some 5,400 signatures, though the University was not swayed.

Notably, this campaign to terminate the new logo was started by Hiran Adhia, none other than The Boar’s Editor-in-Chief at the time.

Clearly moved by his marketing misadventure, Adhia has gone on to work in brand implementation for companies including H&M and Gillette. No aubergine triangles there, The Boar would assume.

Library rebrand leaves students seeing pink

Unshackled bears aren’t the only gamble being taken by Warwick this winter, as the start of term also saw the unveiling of a new ‘Forum’ outside Café Library.

The new space is in many ways an improvement on the old, with new seating, shrubbery, and herringbone tiling. Much to the puzzlement of students, however, the entire area is also coloured completely bright pink.

In a Boar survey, students have decisively rejected the design, with 81% of respondents deeming the space “awful”. One response wailed that the University had “gentrified the library smoking area”, whilst another mused that “it looks like the Uni took the Barbie trend and ran with it”.

Katie Todd, a second-year student, was blunter. Surveying the pink-plastered piazza, she declared to The Boar: “It looks like the Barbie movie s**t on the library.” Quite.