Lancaster University

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{{Infobox_University |name = Lancaster University |image = Image:Lancaster university logo.png |motto = Patet omnibus veritas (Truth lies open to all)| established = 1964 |city= Lancaster |country= UK |campus= |staff= |chancellor = Sir Christian Bonington |vice_chancellor = Prof. Paul Wellings |students= Over 10,000 |free_label = |free = |type = public |affiliations= 1994 Group, AMBA, NWUA |website= www.lancs.ac.uk }} Lancaster University (originally created as the University of Lancaster) is a collegiate campus university in Lancaster, UK. The University has a good academic reputation, doing well in national league tables. It has an excellent sociology department which received a 6* rating in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It is also known for the excellent management school. The physics department has a global reputation for its research in low temperature physics and currently holds the record for the lowest maintainable temperature ever reached. Typical offers in most subjects are around BBB at A-level.

Contents

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History

One of a series of new British universities, Lancaster University admitted its first students in Arts subjects in 1964. The first Science students were admitted in 1965. A purpose-built site, three miles south of the city, at Bailrigg, near the villages of Ellel and Galgate was started in November 1965, with the first building completed a year later. Before the new site was progressively occupied, the University occupied various buildings in Lancaster and the surrounding area. The university library was in the Shringly and Hunt, staff offices and laboratories were in the old premises of Waring and Gillow. Student accommodation was mostly in Morecambe. Also, the Grand Theatre was used as a lecture theatre and other rooms in the St Leonard's area were used for teaching.

The logo of the University is based on the spire of the University Chaplaincy Centre and the University colours are 'Quaker Grey' (chose to reflect the Universities once strong links to the strong Quaker presence in the town and region) and red. [1]

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Colleges

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The University originally had two colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale (with Bowland being built first and Lonsdale a year after Bowland).

It has expanded greatly since then and now has 8 undergraduate colleges, which are all named after locations in the traditional county of Lancashire (though three are now considered to be part of the ceremonial county of Cumbria):

The University also has one post-graduate college:

The college buildings accommodate a number of academic departments, but are primarily social and accommodation facilities, each with its own bar and Junior Common Room. A selling-point of the University is that the colleges are more than mere halls of residence, offering a sense of community. Every student and member of staff is a member of a college.

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Campus

The campus is organised around a central walkway known as The Spine. This walkway down the middle of the campus from north to south and is covered all the way as protection from the frequent rainfall which dominates the Lancashire climate. For most of its length one is walking due north or south.

The campus is undergoing further expansion, now concentrating on rebuilding accommodation on the west side of campus, in Furness and Fylde colleges. Construction work in Alexandra Park (to the southwest of campus) has just been completed. The process has seen controversy, due to the rate of expansion, the increase in rents due to the new accommodation being en-suite, and the limited amount of new social space. The older accommodations usually consist of approximately 15 students sharing communal bathrooms and kitchens. The communal kitchens are often a source of social interaction, while the en-suite areas have fewer students per kitchen, and private bathrooms.

Facilities on campus include:

  • Food Outlets
    • a fish and chip shop
    • Pizzetta Republic
    • Mama Mia's cafe
    • Gregg's the baker
    • Diggles sandwich shop
    • Coffee shops in County (where Cartmel Bar used to be), Bowland, Grizedale, and Fylde colleges
    • Barker House Farm food court
    • Wibbly Wobblys Too (burger shop)
    • George's, a cafe in the Chaplaincy Centre
    • Cafe 21, a cafe in Infolab21
    • Hub Cafe, a cafe in the Management School
    • The Venue, a slightly upmarket cafe operated by the University itself
    • Wongs' Kitchen (a Chinese restaurant/takeaway in the George Fox building)
    • an Indian restaurant at the north end of campus
  • Banks
    • Barclays in Alexandra Square
    • NatWest bank in Alexandra Square
    • NatWest cash machine outside the Sports Centre

The University is also home to the Ruskin Library. See the Uni's own campus amenities page for more information.

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Student activities

There are many student-run clubs and societies on campus; these include:

  • Bailrigg FM, the student radio station
  • Scan, the student union's newspaper
  • Lancaster University Cinema, the student union's on-campus cinema

Various religious and cultural groups are catered for, as well as hobbies ranging from writing to dancing, and even anime and roleplaying.

Every summer the students take part in the Roses Tournament, a sports competition against the University of York. The venue of the event alternates each year between York and Lancaster. Otherwise, sporting activities are focused on inter-college competition rather than national leagues. The colleges compete for the Carter Shield and George Wyatt Cup, and in 2004 the Founder's Trophy was played for the first time between the University's two founding colleges, Bowland and Lonsdale.

LUSU, the Students' Union, owns a nightclub in Lancaster called The Sugar House. This is a major source of income for the Students' Union. They also have two shops on the campus and an administration building. However, there is no Students' Union entertainment complex on campus as other similar-sized campus universities tend to have.

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Chancellorship

The Chancellor of the university is Sir Chris Bonington, who took office in January 2005. He succeeds Princess Alexandra of Kent, who held the post for forty years from the University's inception, making her the longest serving Chancellor of any British university.

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Notable Professors

Norman Fairclough, a proponent of critical discourse analysis, is Professor of Language in Social Life. With Oxford University, Lancaster compiled the British National Corpus, a 100 million word collection of a range of spoken and written texts, in the 1990s. This is an important contribution to corpus linguistics.

Alan Dix is Professor in the Computing department. He is a world-leader in the field of Human-computer interaction.

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Notable alumni

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Chancellors Wharf

Chancellors Wharf is the name of the university's off-campus accommodation for students. It is organised into several buildings (blocks) by the canal within the city. The location is well liked by many students as it is near to The Water Witch pub, often voted as one of the best in the country. The location is also close to central bus routes, the local infirmary and the city centre. Residents are members of the various Colleges; Chancellors Wharf is itself only a hall of residence.

The blocks, each of which are named, are divided into flats that are numbered in a horizontal manner, i.e. Flats 1 - 9 are all first floor flats, while flats 20 - 29 are second floor flats. There are three floors per block and each flat houses 5 to 10 students and has available showers, baths and a kitchen as well as toilets. Most rooms have access to a small, shared balcony.

It has its own porters' lodge and is maintained by University staff. It is a favourite residence for many third years who may have had less than pleasing accommodation the previous year, as well as for groups of friends who wish to share a floor or flat together, something the university accommodates for.

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Controversy

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George Fox Six

These are six members of the local community, including University students, who were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service, for causing Aggravated Trespass during a corporate venturing meeting at the university in September 2004. Speakers at the conference were drawn from one of the largest sources of employment in the North West, BAE Systems, and other companies such as Shell.

It is not disputed that six protestors entered a lecture theatre in the university's George Fox building, rather than remaining outside. The protesters and their supporters say this was to hand out leaflets and engage delegates of the conference, a networking meeting for multinational corporations and the university, in conversation. The University says their aim was to aggressively disrupt the conference. Security and other members of the university staff removed the protestors from the lecture theatre whilst some of the audience talked with some of the protesters. The demonstration then continued outside, with their video showing them peacefully protesting for several minutes, followed by a sudden cut to one of the protesters being wrestled to the ground by a police officer.

Almost six months later, all six received a court summons for Aggravated Trespass. This is a criminal offence under the 1994 Criminal Justice Act and is defined as trespass 'with intent to intimidate, obstruct or disrupt'. This carries a maximum sentence of three months imprisonment. However, trespass itself is a civil offence, which means that the police needed the University to state that the protesters were trespassing in order for charges to be brought against the group.

On 30 September, 2005, the six were found guilty of Aggravated Trespass: specifically of intending to disrupt the conference and were ordered to each pay £300 costs and were given a 2 year conditional discharge.

The group lodged an appeal against the conviction which was heard at Preston Crown Court between Monday March 13, 2006 and Friday March 17, 2006. The result of the appeal was that the convictions were upheld by Judge Baker, with the group being ordered to pay an extra £300 in costs each, on top of the prior £300 ordered by the Magistrates court. The group now have 28 days in which to lodge an appeal in the High Court of England and Wales against the conviction, with grounds of 'Case stated'. Initial indications, according to the supporters group website, are that the group are seriously considering doing so.

It should be noted that many students support the GF6 and their actions, Many also feel that the GF6 are attempting to be Martyrs and generally causing problems in an unproductive mannor and should be prosecuted and punished for their actions.

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References

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External links

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