30 July, 2005

Hands off those students

An Alternative Freshers' Fair is to be held in Manchester this year as a response to the commercialism which has overwhelmed 'official' Freshers' Fairs in recent years.

I remember mine, in 1990, as the traditional type: a large room occupied by students' societies attempting to recruit members. Nowadays, the societies are still there, but to a lesser extent, and the focus of such events is on banks, insurance companies, mobile phone providers, national newspapers and other commercial organisations attempting to secure new students' as-yet unallocated money and tie them into the lifestyles they peddle. It's downright depressing, and I tend to recommend that my tutees don't even bother attending.

Manchester's alternative, as described by Indymedia, sounds sickeningly 'right-on' and community-orientated (ugh), but in principle it's an excellent idea. A better one would be for the original events to be reclaimed, with Universities and Student Unions specifically excluding commercial organisations, or at least splitting them off into a separate building/event.

[Via Spinneyhead]