[HDNG]CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' UNION:[EHDNG][PARA][GRPH]P4[EGRPH][STAT][BULL] 5 sabbatical [BULL] Turnout at last ballot: 32% [BULL] NUS member [PARA]Yes[ESTAT][PARA][ITAL]The colleges' JCRs have really plugged the gap that students' [PARA]unions usually fill and CUSU (which, to be fair is good at what it [PARA]does) is a bit of a stranded fish. Its facilities don't reflect [PARA]Cambridge's stature and, as far as most students are aware, [PARA]CUSU's activities are limited to the publication of various [PARA]handbooks [EITAL](Societies Guide, Diary, termly paper, Sex Guide and[PARA]Green Guide)[ITAL] [EITAL]weekly 'Wallpaper' for JCR noticeboards, [ITAL]and [PARA]lashings of political hackery. However, even the politics is limited,[PARA]because most students get all the politics they need through their [PARA]own JCR. But JCRs lack any party political element, and CUSU [PARA]provides that party atmosphere. On the quiet, CUSU does all [PARA]sorts of valiant representation and welfare work in the University, [EITAL][PARA]trains and advises JCR officers and co-ordinates more societies [PARA]than there are days in the academic year. Colleges affiliate to [PARA]CUSU and NUS if they choose to - look at the separate college [PARA]entries to check on individual arrangements.[HDNG]SU FACILITIES:[EHDNG][PARA]CUSU facilities include; cheap photocopier, fax, stationery, [PARA]condoms; minibus and video camera hire. Practically speaking, it[PARA]aims at providing for JCRs who then provide amenities for [PARA]individual students.[BOLD][HDNG]CLUBS (NON SPORTING):[EHDNG][EBOLD][PARA]Here's a list of Cambridge's special societies (not including the [PARA]academic ones, the 'standard' ones listed at the back of [PUSH]push[EPUSH], or [PARA]those based in colleges): ready, steady, oh my god...[PARA]Aartvark (life-drawing); Act-Ecology; AFS Returnees; Air [PARA]Squadron; Alternative SPS (odd); Amateur Dramatics; Amnesty [PARA]International; Anglo-Japanese; Anti-Bloodsports; Anti-Nazi League;[PARA]Astronomical; Backgammon; Baha'i; Ballet; Bangladesh; [PARA]Bankers; Beethoven; Black Caucus; Bone Marrow Campaign; [PARA]Brass Band; Bridge; British Medical Association; Buddhism and [PARA]Meditation; Bungy Jumping; Cambridge Forum; Cambridge Union [PARA]Society; Cambridge Union Society Boycott; Campaign against [PARA]Nestle; Campaign for Humane Teaching; Campus Children's [PARA]Holidays; Canadian; Canal (boating and barges); Caving; Change [PARA]Ringers (bells); Choice (access to HE); Chocolate; Christian [PARA]Graduate; Christian Musical; Christians in Science; Cobblers; [PARA]Cognitive Science; Comic (the paper variety not stand-up); [PARA]Community Church; Computer; Contact (helping the elderly); [PARA]Critical Justice (jurisprudence); C S Lewis (religion through the [PARA]writer's works); Cyprus; Decorating; Detective Fiction; Dionysian [PARA](love); Diplomacy (game); Dippers; Down to Earth; Dr Who; Duke [PARA]of Edinburgh Award; English Country Dance; English Speaking [PARA]Union; Environment Action; Esperanto; European Theatre Group [PARA](international touring company); Explorers and Travellers; Film [PARA]Unit; First Aid; Fisher Society (Catholic); Fitzwilliam Museum; [PARA]Footlights (comedy); Free (libertarian); French; French and [PARA]Saunders; Friends of the Earth; Gamelan (gongs); Garden [PARA]Project; German; Gilbert and Sullivan;Global Consciousness; Go [PARA](game); Greek; Grimsoc (professional Northerners); Holistic [PARA]Medicine; Hong Kong and China Affairs; Humanist; Imfundo [PARA](South African Educational Trust); India; Inner Temple (legal); Inter[PARA]Disciplinary Environment Group; International; Irish; Israel; Jews [PARA]and Christians; Jomsborg the New (fantasy); Jugglers; Kettle's [PARA]Yard (visual arts); Kukudd; Lady Margaret Players; Light [PARA]Entertainment; Link Africa; Linkline; Literary; Lysander Spooner [PARA](libertarian); Mah-Jong; Malaysia and Singapore; Marlowe [PARA]Dramatic (professional theatre and director); Massage; Matchbox [PARA]Peoples (don't ask); Mauritian; Men's Group; Methodist; Middle [PARA]East; Montiverdi Ensemble; Motorcycle ; Mummers; Mystical; [PARA]Natural History; NIMPH (Nothing In My Pigeon Hole); Nocturnal [PARA]Promotions (alternative); Norman Moore Centre (environmental [PARA]info); Norwegian; Opera; Operation Raleigh; Overlanders (rough [PARA]travel); Oxbridge Rejects; Oxfam; Pakistan; Palestine Solidarity; [PARA]Palestinian; Parkside Christian Fellowship; Pottery; Preston [PARA](drama); Pro-Choice; Progressive Jewish; Pro-Life (anti-abortion); [PARA]Psychical Research; Quakers; Quorum; Rabbit's Ears (origami); [PARA]Railway; Republic of China; Robert Hall (Baptist); Rock and Roll [PARA]Society; Role-playing; St John Ambulance; Save The Children's [PARA]Fund; Science Fiction; Scientists for Global responsibility; [PARA]Scottish; Scouts and Guides; Seres (Chinese magazine); Sheila [PARA]and Her Dog (relapse into childhood); Sheridan (drama); Shirley [PARA](arts and literature); Slavonic and East European; Space; Sri [PARA]Lanka; Strathsprey and Reel (Scottish dancing); Stretched [PARA]Drawers (art); Student Birders; Student Christian Council [PARA](network of Christian groups); Student Christian Movement [PARA](politics and Christianity); Support for the Homeless; Survival [PARA](tribal rights); Target Schools Campaign (state education access);[PARA]Third World First; Tibet Support; Tiddlywinks; Tolkien; Tory [PARA]Reform Group; Traffic Research; Transcendental Meditation; [PARA]Trinity Foot Bagels; Turf (horse-racing); Turkish; 20th Century [PARA]Christian Music; UNICEF; United Nations; Up Shit Creek Without [PARA]a Paddle (ignore exams); URC; Viva Cabaret; Virtue without [PARA]Terror (poetry); Welsh; Wine; Yoga; Young Europeans.[HDNG]OTHER ORGANISATIONS:[EHDNG][PARA][BOLD]Drama:[EBOLD] [ITAL]As previously mentioned, (see above) there is a thespian [PARA]epidemic at loose in Cambridge. It is second only to sport in the [PARA]number of degrees it swallows in its desire to consume every [PARA]waking hour of those who fall prey to its virus. It's hardly possible[PARA]to eat a meal without being asked to buy a theatre ticket for some[PARA]nude version of Shakespeare or a musical adaptation of Oedipus[PARA]Rex.[EITAL] Just like in the real world, to put on a show, students have to[PARA]grovel and scrounge for funding, usually from the 20 or so [PARA]theatre groups, which is more angels than most heavenly hosts [PARA]can boast. Opportunities, both treading on the boards and [PARA]backstage, are abundant and many perfectly ordinary freshers [PARA]go home to their parents at Xmas as fully fledged luvvies. MMWAAH![PARA][PARA][BOLD]Media:[EBOLD] The award-winning 'Varsity', is the first student [PARA]newspaper to have gone into full colour and now produces an [PARA]annual Year Book too. CUSU publishes 'Wallpaper', weekly. [PARA]There are endless magazines which rise and die, some surviving [PARA]longer than others. College magazines, which are usually no [PARA]more than crude gossipy muck-rakers, 'Spark' (Arts), 'Quorum' [PARA](Politics) and 'Corridor' (feminist) deserve a mention. Cambridge [PARA]University Radio broadcasts from Churchill to a very small area [PARA]although expansion is in the air waves.[PARA][PARA][BOLD]Cambridge Union Society:[EBOLD] The 2nd oldest university debating [PARA]society (after Oxford) and a right-wing stronghold. With a few [PARA]student facilities (bar, cafe, reading room, etc) [ITAL]the Union can lay [PARA]some claim to having scuppered CUSU. But the Union's on a [PARA]rocky road itself these days, not attracting speakers of quite the [PARA]same calibre any more and membership flagging (partly 'cos it [PARA]costs a packet to join)[EITAL]. [ITAL]The Cambridge Union Boycott Society [PARA]looks on, grinning[EITAL].[PARA][PARA][BOLD]Rag: [EBOLD]Colleges compete in raising money for the University's [PARA]charity Rag. With competition spurring them on, they raised a [PARA]total of รบ100,000 last year. [ITAL]A notch on the bedpost for the free [PARA]market?[EITAL][PARA][PARA][BOLD]Student Community Action:[EBOLD] You'll notice from the list above that [PARA]there's a number of Cambridge clubs with a conscience. Some [PARA]of these and other organisations - in all about 50 - do voluntary [PARA]work in all sectors of the community. [ITAL]Unlike at many universities,[PARA]this is not a public relations exercise to improve local feeling [PARA]towards students. That relationship is already fairly good, it's a [PARA]genuine and high profile attempt to do something about local [PARA]problems.[EITAL][PARA][PARA][BOLD]Music:[EBOLD] Cambridge offers the perfect chance to get together and [PARA]make sweet music, mostly of the classical variety with the [PARA]Chamber Orchestra (CUCO), the Music Society (CUMS) or in [PARA]any of the many college orchestras, choirs, etc. Contemporary [PARA]musicians, ie poppers and rockers, either form bands the usual [PARA]way or use the Musicians Directory to find each other. If they're [PARA]any good or know the student ents officer concerned or both, [PARA]student bands can reckon on a gig or 2 at college bops. Jazz is [PARA]also pretty big, [ITAL]but not like it was in the late fifties, daddio[EITAL]. And [PARA]the list goes on, opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, Christian singers, [PARA]brass bands, bells, gongs, guitars, nose flutes and so on and on [PARA]and...[HDNG]RELIGIOUS:[EHDNG][PARA][ITAL]Religion is fashionable at Cambridge and at some time, most [PARA]students either play the role of the converter or the convertible [PARA]and often both.[EITAL] It's not enough to say Anglican Christianity is the [PARA]norm (although it's true that most colleges have a CofE or [PARA]inter-denominational chapel and chaplain - Corpus Christi has a [PARA]mosque). Even this takes every form from incense swingers to [PARA]rockin' vicars. Every denomination of Christianity is here with [PARA]Catholics close behind the Anglicans in the spiritual charts and [PARA]virtually no religion unrepresented (including a few religious [PARA]orders started by students wanting to avoid poll tax). Try the [PARA]following for some communal God squadding: The Christian [PARA]Union (Anglican); the Fisher Society (Catholic); the Methodists; [PARA]the Islamic Society (linked to local mosque); not 1, but 2 Jewish [PARA]societies, Progressive and Orthodox (with a synagogue, rabbi [PARA]and kosher restaurant of their own) and so on. There are local [PARA]places of worship for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.[HDNG]PAID WORK:[EHDNG][PARA]It's actually against the University statutes (the 2,372 [PARA]commandments God forgot to give to Moses) to do a job during [PARA]term time and technically, students can be rusticated for it (ooh, [PARA]painful, madam). During vacations, the University can't stop them [PARA]but with far too many students for the number of local jobs, [PARA]circumstance can. The tourist trade offers the only hope.
