Imperial College, rape culture and what to do about going to Picocon?

[major_clanger]

On Friday the newspaper of Imperial College Union, Felix, published a 'humour' piece. That article apparently never appeared in the online edition - which now leads with an apology for it - but you can see a picture of it here. As the Telegraph puts it,

Cook up Rohypnol to get laid, student paper jokes

I am disgusted with this, and I'm not alone, as this post and this post from my f-lists make clear. I will be writing not only to the ICU President but also to the Rector and the head of alumni relations to express my extreme displeasure and ask what measures are being taken to punish those responsible for this piece and to ensure that such material is never published in Felix again.

But I now have another problem. Next weekend is Picocon, the annual mini-convention of IC Science Fiction Society. My first Picocon was in 1987 and I was looking forward to my 25th anniversary of what was in fact my first convention and to meeting many of my friends there. But Picocon is held at Imperial College Union and the social side of it centres on the student bar at ICU.

I appreciate that ICSF, whilst part of ICU, cannot be held responsible for what Felix does. And the membership fee for Picocon will be spent in ways that benefit ICSF and its members (funding the guest, triciasullivan and buying books for the ISCF library) rather than going to ICU. But ICU will benefit from the use of the bar by attendees at Picocon. It doesn't seem right to me to take on ICU for its misconduct and then help boost its bar profits.

Looked at like that, the solution seems fairly clear. Having discussed the matter with darth_hamster, who shares my views, we will attend Picocon, albeit with rather uncomfortable feelings as to the venue. But we won't buy anything to eat or drink from ICU. We will either invite friends to join us in one of the local pubs (the Queen's Arms is a likely choice) or, if we are in the student bar at any point, we will drink only tap water.

Comments

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Has the Felix editor been sacked and barred from all roles within the SU? Has the author of the piece been sent down (drastic I know, but not insane in the circs)

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

In fairness, there needs to be due process and there has hardly been time for that yet. But I would like to hear from both ICU and Imperial College that such process has begun. This really isn't a matter that can be waved away via a half-hearted apology.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

ICU is barred, constitutionally, from punishing the Felix editor for editorial issues - rightly so IMHO given the number of times Felix has been a deserved thorn in the Union's side. However, the editor is not immune from the College disciplinary process. We shall see what happens.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I've just had what I thought would be a quick look through the ICU Constitution and have ended up reading half a dozen policies and codes of practice that it referred to. My quick summary of what seems to be the case is:

- The ICU President is the Felix Editor's line manager, but not in respect of matters of editorial freedom.
- Felix is governed by the Press Code of Conduct (which does not actually say much on this sort of thing, surprisingly).
- A Union General Meeting can call the Felix Editor to account.
- The ICU Court can discipline the Felix Editor.

The question, I would say, is whether priniting very offensive and quite possibly unlawful (see penguineggs' comment) is an 'editorial freedom' matter. The constitution clearly provides for the Editor to be held accountable, so implying that some content matters do not fall within the carve-out of 'editorial freedom'.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Interesting....

I suspect you've read more of that part of the constitution than just about anybody, because they don't have UGMs any more.

EGMs might still be possible, but there hasn't been a UGM for at least a decade. The Union's sovereign body now is Council ie. a bunch of hacks. All the effort we went to to stop that came to nothing in the long term.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Yes - what the constitution calls a General Meeting is clearly what used to be an EGM. But it's interesting to note that under Clause 10.4.3.b one of the powers of such a meeting is explicitly stated to be to call the Felix Editor to account.

But as you say, sad so see that General Meetings are now only called as an extraordinary measure.