Elsewhere at Warwick — Volume 47 Issue IV

Articles in this section originally appeared in Volume 47, Issue IV of The Boar, published Tuesday 4 February, 2025.

A STAR is born

Warwick’s branch of student charity society STAR (Student Action For Refugees) has been lauded for its work supporting asylum seekers in the past year by being recognised as one of Big Issue’s Top 100 Changemakers for 2025. Having recognised two of the group’s members last year, the publication singled out the society for their work “building a welcoming environment for asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and within higher education”. Celebrating on Instagram, the group said they would “keep pushing for a more welcoming, inclusive world”.

The buffet that never was

The Warwick Arts Centre might best be known for providing a shortcut to the Social Sciences block from the Piazza, rather than for any of its outlets, which tend to fall on the pricey side of student budgeting. The arrival of dazzling new buffet chain Panda Mami to the Centre last summer didn’t immediately look set to change that — £18.99 per person! — but it did peak student interest regardless on a campus where the previous most exotic foodstuff was probably the sambuca in T-Bar. 

There was dismay, therefore, when a sign appeared outside the outlet this month declaring the new business ‘closed’ — or at least, there would have been had it ever opened in the first place. An Arts Centre employee told Elsewhere in October that the place would be opening in the ‘coming weeks’, and in November a notice taped to the doors invited passers-by to apply as waiting staff. Yet now the establishment has shuttered, and perhaps for good — the website’s advertised phone number appears to have been deregistered. 

Panda Mami’s Managing Director, Liu Kaixiang, likely won’t be too bothered: his company appointments page shows he has run an eclectic mix of 10 other businesses, ranging from the ‘UK–China United Football Development Company’, to ‘Nida Biotechnology’, to the ‘Marx & Engels International Humanities Exchange Association’, of which he is currently President. The mind boggles. 

Labour’s love lost

It’s been an illustrious month for society talks at Warwick — from former Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga at the WES, to political heavyweight Dominic Cummings at Speak Easy.

Warwick Labour got involved with the action too, with their annual address from local MP Zarah Sultana. The talk, as in previous years, attracted a bumper audience — yet Sultana could have been forgiven for thinking she’d turned up at one of the other events by mistake. Of everyone in the room, the MP was the only person there actually supportive of Labour, even despite her suspension from the party for the past six months. Questions fielded at her consisted largely of appeals for her to leave and start her own movement, or else join former leader Jeremy Corbyn’s independent group. For her part, Sultana rejected this categorically — yet having been refused re-entry into the party at a suspension hearing this month, one wonders where Warwick’s firebrand MP will go from here.