Author: Marine Dessaux

The concept? Studies showed petting dogs helps to unwind from the stress of exams. Bangor University, taking this into account, decided to follow the recent trend of “canine calming rooms” . Universities such as Nottingham, Aberdeen, Central Lancashire and Bristol organised them in period of essays and exams and met great success. In Bangor as well, students are fond of dogs. On Facebook, 602 of them said they would participate and 519 were ‘interested’. And, the icing on the cake: having a relaxing time stroking dogs would help raising funds for Guide Dogs Cymru, an association that offer services to…

Organised by Bangor Indian Society (BIS), Holi Festival was a hit among Bangor students. Around 300 hundreds attended the “Holi Party” on Thursday 10th and, two days later, some of them seized the opportunity to celebrate it the traditional way by throwing colored powder in the air. Originally, Holi comes from Hinduism and its celebration started in India. It is praising the “true devotee” that was Prahlada, who resisted fire thanks to his faith, in opposition to Holika who turned into ashes. ‘Holi’ comes from ‘Holika’, who was a she-demon. In celebration of the victory of good over evil, people…

Love your clothes and Bangor University are organising several manifestations to promote clothing sustainability from 11-16 March. Workshops, clothes swapping, talks and masterclasses were set up to help reducing the amount of clothes thrown away- 350, 000 tonnes every year in the UK. Catrin Palfrey from Love Your Clothes, said: “Four out of every five adults have not worn some of their clothes in the last 12 months. We want to work with the people of Bangor to reduce the impact of clothing on the environment in a fun and engaging way by encouraging people to donate clothing, to buy…

The new Student Union Sabbatical team for the next academic year have been elected. The recent election saw a record breaking amount of candidates to run in an SU election, with a total of 21 candidates overall. The election also reached new heights beating the number of votes compared to last year with a huge 1,989 people voting. The voting saw the re-election of Becca Kent for VP Sport & Healthy Living, while the other sabbatical positions saw the election of all new members. Conor Savage was elected the new president with Matt Day as the VP Societies & Communities…

Last December, Wales welcomed 50 Syrian refugees, a small number in comparison with the 1.6 million who fled to Europe in 2015. Still, it shows that the crisis concerns everyone and that it actively shapes our society. The overwhelming number of people waiting at the borders of Turkey is a major challenge for the EU, and it is struggling to act consistently. Some countries such as Germany opened their borders, while others argue that the refugee influx should be curbed. The summer of 2015 saw the highest immigration influx in Europe since WWII as people fled Syria’s chaotic territory. The…

Officially launched the 29th of February, the campaign for the Student Union election is the most important one of student life. The two weeks before the votes are held represent the opportunity for students to question and get to know their future representatives. Elected for 2016/2017 academic year, they will be the decision makers of all important student life measures : from society management, to event organizing, to defending students’ right at university meetings… These two weeks will be intense. Competition will be great. However, become friends, remain friends. -Dylan Williams, Union Director A few days before the campaigning starts,…

The Wings and Wheels of Wolverhampton, Dawlish, Manchester, and Shoreham airplays have all been cancelled following the Shoreham crash that caused the death of 11 people last year in August. Due to the accident, the Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) had to review safety rules and many said they needed more time to adjust. Edward Hiller, managing director of landowners Mostyn Estates Ltd, which organises Llandudno air show said: “A number of factors have led us to this decision. The key one being the recently published CAA regulations following the accident at Shoreham last summer. We will need to review how…

The former “Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery” has moved across the road to be situated at the Bishop’s Palace in between Pontio and the Roman Cathedral. In the current fashion for splicing two names together, the name of the museum, “Storiel”, is made up of two Welsh words,“oriel” (welsh for art gallery) and “stori” (welsh for stories and denoting history and heritage). In order to be accessible by the greatest number of people the museum’s challenge was to stay free of charge but generate enough income to stay open. Changing buildings was essential to achieving this as it allowed the…

Gwynedd council recently announced the development of Bangor’s new leisure centre by company Liberty Properties Developments Ltd. Liberty made proposals that included a multi-screen cinema, five restaurants, a family pub and a Welsh produce shop with the possibility to add a Tourist Information Centre and a drive through coffee shop. Liberty Development Director EmyrWilliams said: “We are delighted to have been selected by [the] Welsh Government to promote a high quality destination [and] family leisure scheme, at Bryn Cegin. We believe this will act as a catalyst to “kick start” the Bryn Cegin employment site, but also to act as…

Sunday evening, Ffriddoedd village. Music resonates around one of the many building of the student accommodation. Students are staying in their  room but, as the singer begins to sing, some of them, out of curiosity, decide to leave their room to follow the sound and figure out what is going on. Surprisingly enough, they will end up in a small, over-crowded kitchen. In between the Christmassy decoration and the dishes laying around, there is a guy with his guitar only. The dozen of people seated are enthusiastically moving their heads as if they knew the song already. Some clap, some…

Inaugurated on the 17th of November, the Observatory on Human Rights of Children and Young People of Bangor University working in association with Swansea University, already published early research. After the survey said 3/4 of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) users had a bad experience with the service, Health and Social Services Minister, Mark Drakeford, asked how could it be improved. Observatory@Bangor and charity partners observed the findings; the main complaint was that the response from CAMHS was too slow and didn’t keep them safe, and gave their conclusion for the attention of the minister. The Observatory on…

Llandudno’s Christmas Market has doubled in size, compared to 2014, with 140 food, drink, craft, and bric-a-brac stalls. It has thus become one of the largest in Wales. This year’s Christmas fayre expanded it to Trinity Square in addition to the usual Madoc Street. From the 19th of November to the 22nd it is expected to have attracted more than 30,000 visitors. For £1.50, visitors could access about 140 stalls, which is 60 more than in Liverpool. The increasing quantity of stalls, however, made it less coherent, with stands from regular vegetable selling to bric-a-brac. Santa’s Grotto actually consisted of…

Noises, laughter, music. People were having fun, wearing traditional Indian clothes that strangely fit with the decoration of Powis Hall. A friend grabbed my arm: “Marine there have been shootings in Paris.” What? When? I was surprised but miles away from what was actually going on. I thought it couldn’t happen again so soon. We had our share of trouble with the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January. We did not quite realise the true situation, and stayed at the party a little longer, talking less, lost in thoughts. Still, we went home quite cheerfully and talked about the coming days,…

Last Friday’s attacks on Paris were so sudden and so violent that, for my part, all was mixed up in my head. Information was numerous and ever-changing. Figures of bombings and shooting kept increasing, not to talk about those of deaths. Then everything went really fast: a state of emergency was declared on the whole of France. In contrast with opinion piece you can find on this page, here is a factual sum up of the events. In the Stade de France, crowds were rather cheerful, as France was winning the football game against Germany. At 21:20 – Gate D…

A promised land. That was what St. Mary’s looked like in the projections. Still, in September, no photos of the site were on the internet. It could have been for the best or for the worst. The most skeptical were certainly right in thinking that it was not finished. The building was not even the main problem. Of course, the noise and presence of dozens of workers on site can be annoying, but the main issue was the state of the installations in the accommodations – for those whose buildings were finished. Some international students who arrived earlier than the…

Opening in February 2017, Wrexham Prison is already recruiting and offering graduate programs in diverse fields. The 65-acre prison with 2,106 offenders is a vast project. It requires all kinds of workers from builders, to nurses, to designers, to ecologists, to archeologists… a truly exciting opportunity for Bangor university students. “We want to create a community inside the prison”, says Simon Caron, project director of Lendlease, the company in charge of the construction, “and we have got a whole industry behind it, with locals representing 77% of the employees on site”. For design and technology students interested in work in…