"When I was a fresher..." Class of 2008

A wide selection of ageing Yorker contributors compiled a list of the biggest changes to occur at York in our three years.

There was no Facebook

This may be a shock to our current students, but back in the murky days of 2005 the way to talk to your housemates was in person. And the way to look at pictures? Upload them to your College website. Old School.

Efes was allowed on campus

And thus our first year house had a plentiful supply of pizza boxes, and we were on first-name terms with the delivery man.

An NUS card was free

We paid nothing. Sqaut. Zilch. None of this 'NUS Extra' thing in our day.

There was a Golden Duck

He was a duck. He was golden. He was called Trevor. He died. He is to be replaced. But Trevor will live on in our hearts forever.

There was no Vodka Revolution

It was a lesser known bar called Bar 38 which invariably had loud music - which wasn't very good - and cocktail offers (which were alright).

There were no bendy buses

That's right, we had normal buses, that were on time, were cheap and meant humorous conversations could be had with the driver.

Kebarbe-Q

Was the post Toffs/Ziggy's hang out. It was where Dixy Chicken now is.

Tru was called...Toffs

Whilst this is now common knowledge, it is sad to think that the freshers in October will only know it as 'Tru' (it's the Ikon/Diva thing all over again)

The old Toffs Dancefloor

We had a fully stocked campus

...of bridges

There was a weekly campus event called Revolver

It was the brainchild of Nat Thwaites-McGowan, the then Services and Finance Officer and Ents Officer Amy Woods. It moved around each college each week with a different theme.

Tuition fees

...were £1,135 a year. Fourth years are lucky enough to actually have free ones.

The lake had a fountain

...until it was shut down because of Health and Safety.

Students lived in their actual colleges

There was no Valcuin/Vames scenarios, oh no - if you were lucky enough to be named a James student, you lived there.

There was only one JJ's

It was in Halifax, which at that point had a bar, as did Langwith.

The AUT went on strike

This meant that lecturers were uncontactable, lectures were postponed and a real scare that finalists wouldn't graduate on time. It was averted just in time, but not before much anger on the part of students.

When campus had rebels...

Campus had rebels

Rebels tore out a gigantic AV onto the Alcuin lawn in the name of 'Alcuin Venom'.

Voting was by ballot box

I have fond memories of stumbling in to James JCRC to place my piece of paper in the box. This is one definite positive - voting numbers have increased.

Politics was back-biting

The 2006 Goodricke Chair Matt Burton complained of overriding YUSU power and demanded more freedom for colleges. Almost two years later, the then chairs accused him of overriding YUSU interference.

The library wasn't open until midnight

Slightly ironic now that a current UGM motion is asking for yet further opening hours.

Noticeboards were used

...to post information, results and general merriment by departments. Meaning that we actually had contact with them.

Things were open

Not only was every campus bar open every day, but so was each Porters Lodge. Two reasonably successful campaigns led to improvements to the original closures, the creatively named 'Save our Porters' and 'Save our Bars'.

We protested

We took part in big NUS Protests such as Admission:Impossible in 2006. (See Photo)

Our Sabbatical team was:

• President - Micky Armstrong
• Services Officer - Nat Thwaites-McGowan
• Education and Welfare Officer - Neil Barnes
• AU President - Nik Engineer
• Student Action Officer - Ben "Camel" Pickett
• RAG President - Jaimal Shah

Note the last two positions were sabbatical (now they're not) and these were the two who dressed up at the Welcome Talk as a Polar Bear and a Horse (for those who went).

And finally...

There was no Yorker

The Yorker was just a twinkle in two peoples' eyes at this point, and now look. So here's to you Dan Ashby and Nick Evans - you've made it into an article at last!

I was fine about leaving til I read this! Good times. Going to miss it big time. First years, make the most of it while you still can!! xx

Report Abuse

• Mon, 23rd Jun 2008 9:33am - Edited by the author

Man, I completely forgot about the fountain. I hope that one day it gets to the point where the lake's clean enough to turn it back on.

Good article though, it sad to know that as a fourth year next year I'll be one of the few people that remember things like 7 bars open 7 nights a week, and free NUS cards, although I am planning on proposing a motion to reintroduce the Democracy cards alongside Extra cards next year - it's completely ridiculous to expect people to pay for a student ID card (and for all of you nay-sayers who say a York card is good enough, there is a reasonably significant number of people like me who don't actually spend their whole degree in York - try using a York card in Oxford, when anything that's not a Bod card is looked upon with suspicion and distrust).

Good article though, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane

Report Abuse

• Mon, 23rd Jun 2008 10:06am - Edited by the author
• Mon, 23rd Jun 2008 10:20am - Edited by the author (less)

• Mon, 23rd Jun 2008 10:20am - Edited by the author (1 more)

Mmm... lovely, free tuition fees.

Some more that I remember (some for 2004 starters only):

• They used to have Playstations in the indie room at Toffs.
• The acts playing freshers' week included Shapeshifters, Javine, Cooper Temple Clause & Thirteen Senses.
• People used to use JJ's regularly.
• You could smoke inside clubs and bars, there weren't tedious attempts to cover up the smell of sweat.
• Everywhere stopped serving at 11 apart from the clubs which stopped by 2.
• The big out-of-town club, Ikon Diva was the place to go on a Monday night and they even laid on free buses from campus.
• No-one had heard of Heslington East.

Report Abuse

Oh Alcuin Venom, i still remember being us being dragged from our beds (hungover of course) by an angry Provost to demand an explanation from the quad of dreams!

For anyone in M L N Alcuin who else remembers Keith? and Keith'll get it, or the films of him playing people's guitars, spitting on the floor or making comments like your birds well fit!

Conversations over the in room phones was also fun and free. waking people up or telling them to quiet down when they'd brought a grot-bag back from Ziggys!

The block networks, Command and Conquer, Fifa 05, Football Manager - truly great ways to spend a degree.

Finally Tv-links before being shut down! Who needed a TV licence with that bad boy up and running!? Thousands of shows to ruin a degree and make hangover bearable.

Report Abuse

Firstly I'd like to say I love Si burns he is a legend.
Im a 2nd year and I remember some of this, the convos on in room phones, playstations in toffs, smoking in clubs and the fountain in the lake. ahhh nostalgia.

Report Abuse

• Mon, 23rd Jun 2008 12:19pm - Edited by the author

awww mitch, happy memories of starting in 2004, I remember fresh so well, shooting vodka with CTC (Good Times) but missing Mylo so my housemate could see javine (Bad Times)

Edge was called Kasbah

and oh, who remembers fibbers being a place when named resulted in blank expressions?

Report Abuse

#4 - would that be Keith the cleaner? The same Keith who was then ill with stress and left our blocks without a cleaner for 6 weeks of the final term? He was a bit of a legend.

Report Abuse

Man I remember playing that playstation in toffs, that was a LONG time ago..

Report Abuse

Chris i do mean that Keith! Can you guess which member of your flat i am?!?

Report Abuse

I would guess that you're the one who I shared a wall with, #9

Report Abuse

Correct me if I'm wrong, but fourth years pay tuition fees; either that or the Uni owes me a lot of money.

Report Abuse

I think it's income assessed Kit, unless you've been ticking the wrong boxes on the student loan forms...

Report Abuse

• Fri, 25th Jul 2008 9:51pm - Deleted by the author

L Block Alcuin Parties were the shit

Report Abuse

FACT.

Report Abuse

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment