Thousands of students are being urged to help in the search for missing chef, Claudia Lawrence, who disappeared last Wednesday.

Students are being contacted through a heavy postering campaign around campus and through the networking site Facebook. It is believed that a student may have seen something important which could help in the search for Claudia, who normally works as a chef in the Roger Kirk centre.

YUSU President Tom Scott spoke about the shock that students have felt after the disappearance of Claudia. Scott is hopeful that student can be of some help with the investigation, pointing out that many students live along the route which Claudia normally took to and from campus. He believes it is possible that a student may have seen something significant on the morning of March 18th.

Scott extended the thoughts of the student body to Claudia and her family. He also spoke of the concern of students who knew her from meals eaten in the Roger Kirk Centre, where she is described as always “being there with a smile.”

YUSU has promised to ensure that posters go up all over campus, where they will be visible to students still working or staying over the Easter break. Students who have gone home will be contacted through Facebook where possible.

Any students with information are urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247.

The funeral of Dr Ron Weir, Derwent Provost and Senior Lecturer in Economic History, will take place on Friday the 27th of March at midday.

The funeral will be held at the Crematorium in Bishopsthorpe village just outside the city. The family of Dr Weir have said that any students will be welcome at the funeral and also at the reception, which will be held in the Derwent Dining Room at 1pm.

According with the wishes of Dr Weir the funeral will be a celebration, with food and drink available. There will be no need to dress in a funeral style.

Senior members of Derwent have announced that an additional memorial service will be held in the Summer Term to allow students who have gone home for the Easter holidays to attend, alongside family, friends and colleagues.

The collection in memory of Dr Weir will continue in the Derwent Porters’ Lodge, with any contributions going to the Save the Children Fund.

Any students wishing to attend the reception should contact Chris Unwin, Derwent College Administrator, on clu1@york.ac.uk.

The results of the vote following yesterday’s EGM motion reveal that the summer ball will not be moved to campus this year.

The single motion brought to the meeting, “to move the University of York Summer Ball and Graduation Dinner 2009 to campus”, failed by 260 votes, with 319 in favour of the motion and 579 against. 920 students voted, 22 of whom abstained.

The EGM was called after students voiced their criticisms over a decision made at Union Council to bring the ball to campus this year.

Following the result YUSU will reassess the venue for the ball this year, which has previously been held at York Racecourse. In a statement on the YUSU website Societies and Communications Officer Rory Shanks reassured students that “the Union is committed to making it a fantastic occasion.”

Eight out of nine of the UGM proposals put forward at Week 8’s UGM meeting have been passed.

The motions passed included the proposal to ‘tidy up’ the constitution, including the re-introduction of the York University Media chair, and to campaign to improve private letters such as Sinclair Properties in York, and to ratify committee minutes.

The only motion which failed to pass was the proposal to rename the student centre the ‘Matt Burton Dance Hall’, despite YUSU President Tom Scott, and Sports President Alex Lacy, both giving supporting speeches of the motion, with Lacy saying that Burton was the “quintessential YUSU officer”. The motion failed by 162 votes to 242.

Four of the proposals were championed by second-year student Jason Rose, including a motion for the Union to resolve to officially resist any governmental attempt at increasing the tuition fee cap.

Rose’s proposal that The Courtyard should be made more accessible to vegetarians should begin to take effect soon, with vegetarian options and details of ingredients being added to the menu. The Union will now campaign to get York students against government proposals to introduce national ID cards, as proposed by Ralph Buckle, and will strive to improve the University’s assessment and feedback policy, as proposed by Jonathan Krasner-Macleod.

Rose commented on the UGM success, stating that “it’s fantastic that we have so many forward-thinking policies”. He believes that the motions passed will “enable us to move forwards” on a number of crucial student issues. Finally rose admits that “it is a shame that Matt Burton doesn’t have his own Dance Hall” and assured that he expected the student centre to be renamed soon.

Chris Northwood, Nouse Technical Director, who seconded the motion to campaign against poor private sector accomodation, is hopeful that this action will force companies like Sinclair to stop treating students as “second class citizens”. Arguing for the motion he stated that “it feels as if Sinclair Properties don’t care about students”. Northwood hopes that YUSU is now in a position to “encourage landlords to bring their properties up to the minimum standard expected of them”.

The other motion to pass was Daniel Renwick’s controversial motion to give condemnation for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It passed by 245 votes to 216 against, with 66 abstaining.

Tim Ngwena leads the race for YUSU President according to a Nouse poll conducted last week.

Ngwena leads the popular vote by 27% according to an opinion poll conducted around campus on Friday and Saturday of last week. Out of all those surveyed who had decided on a candidate Ngwena held 57% of the vote, roughly 30% of the actual vote. Following Ngwena was Tom Langrish, with 30% of the decided vote, and 16% of the actual vote.

A large proportion of students, 47% of the total surveyed, are still undecided about who to vote for in the election, for which voting has already opened. The large proportion of students undecided means that there is no clear favourite, although poll results suggest that the race may be between Langrish and Ngwena.

Both Langrish and Ngwena are well known figures on campus. Langrish is renowned as a YUSU official, currently holding the position of YUSU Policy and Campaigns Officer, whilst Ngwena is particularly well known in more artistic circles as a graphics designer and this year’s Chair of Fusion.

The poll also revealed that candidates Charles Bushby and Grant Bradley sit much lower in public opinion, coming in at 12% and 1% respectively in the decided vote. Both candidates have highlighted that they are not well known and this will affect how well they do. Bradley in particular is hoping for a late surge at the end of this week.

The poor performances of Bradley and Bushby could be the result of the accusations of cheating which have surrounded both of their campaigns in the last week. Whilst Bradley was not charged, Bushby lost 5 hours from his campaigning. The hours which Bushby lost were on Friday afternoon, immediately before polling began.

Neither candidate campaigned over the weekend either, with Bradley returning home to work and Bushby believing that there were not enough students on campus to make it worthwhile. No presidential candidate has yet launched a large-scale campaign, preferring to stick to postering and college visits. All the candidates are still working through Facebook campaigns and Bradley has a personal website for campaigning purposes.

The poll, which surveyed 317 voters, surpassed the quoracy required for a YUSU UGM motion to be valid. The poll was carried out over two consecutive evenings.

Last year, a similar poll by Nouse predicted a win for Laura Payne, who eventually lost to current President Tom Scott. A similar poll conducted by The Yorker predicted a victory for Nadeem Kunwar, one of the website’s director.

Other YUSU positions have played host to more vocal and visible campaigns, with Democracy and Services candidate Lewis Bretts visible every day with sandwich boards and large cardboard signs. Similarly candidate David Sharp has written a campaign song, ‘Fix Up, Vote Sharp’. Student Activities candidate Rhianna Kinchin has also lauched a large campaign with supporters visible around the University with large red ‘K’s visible on their faces.

Races remain close for all other sabbatical positions, except for Academic Affairs, where Charlie Leyland is uncontested. The most contested positions currently include President, York Sport and Democracy and Services.

Voting is now open online at www.yusu.org/elections/

This years YUSU elections sees 48 candidates competing for the 23 positions available.

Competition is still very open for all sabbatical positions except Academic Affairs, where Charlie Leyland is uncontested. Grant Bradley, Charles Bushby, Tom Langrish and Tim Ngwena remain popular as the four candidates for President and compeition is still tight between Rhianna Kinchin, Ella-Grace Kirton and Rory Shanks for Student Activities.

After the withdrawal of ‘Viking’ Kath Mildon the race for York Sport President is tight between Gemma Johnson, Michael Leahy, Emily Scott and Michael Sneddon. Mildon has also withdrawn her candidacy for NUS Delegate, where 10 candidates compete for 7 positions.

The race for Welfare looks close between Jenny Coyle, Ben Humphrys and Matthew Pallas, particularly after a closely fought hustings. LGBT and RAG are the only part-time positions which are not uncontested. Although RAG was formerly a three-way battle, the withdrawal of Sarah Goss and Will Scobie has left Iszi Chew to compete with the pair of Helen Fry and Zoe Stones.

Despite suspicions there have not been any formal allegations of cheating so far this year. The only penalisation has been to presidential candidate Bushby, and was only intended to level the playing field after a mass message was sent.

Voting will be open until midnight on Friday. Vote online at www.yusu.org/elections/

YUSU are now considering moving the student centre to Langwith, rather than the new campus on Heslington East.

The idea was brought to Union Council by President Tom Scott, who pointed out that Langwith will be the centre of the campus.

This move is being considered after it has become clear that Langwith College will join Goodricke in moving to Hes East in the near future. YUSU have not yet confirmed the decision, and are still considering whether a move would involve a refurbishment of the current buildings, or a redesign of the entire site.

Presidential candidate Charles Bushby and his campaigners will be unable to campaign between 12pm and 5pm on Friday after a mass message endorsing the candidate was sent this morning.

Just after midnight this morning members of the Facebook group “York students against the disarmament protests taking place on campus” received an email which included a quote from Bushby and a link to his own group.

The message started saying that “one particular candidate has caught our attention.” It went on to finish with “I’m not suggesting every member of this group who stands up for what they believe in votes for this guy” but “if there’s something to swing your vote between two hard-to-decide-between candidates, then this should be paid attention to.”

Although this message was not sent by Bushby or one of his campaigners he is still held responsible, according to election rules.

Returning officer Tom Scott stated that as more than two hundred people received the message and email it broke the unions rules against mass emailing. The punishment given is intended to redress the advantage the candidate has gained, and is not intended to be punitive.

Speaking about the punishment Bushby stated that he was “disappointed that once again this news has been brought to my attention.” He commented that a lack of clear rules and regulations meant that “a lot of rule breaking is happening out on the campaign trail. It’s sad that once again this has caused me to be punished.” Finally he wishes that “next year the process is easier to follow for candidates.”

Presidential candidate Grant Bradley has breached election rules, discovered only minutes before he is due to speak at hustings.

Nouse can confirm that one of Grant’s posters has been discovered on the inside of a toilet door in Langwith. Candidates are banned from campaigning in toilets until the start of next week, and serious penalties are expected as a breach of this rule. It is not clear whether Grant was responsible for the postering, but rules stipulate that any postering, regardless of whether the candidate was responsible or not, is a breech of the rules for which the candidate will be penalised.

Last year saw candidates Laura Payne and Nadeem Kunwar penalised for similar offences, both losing a day of campaigning as a result.

Returning Officer Tom Scott refuses to comment until an official complaint is made and the situation has been reviewed.

Update: Tom Scott has issued a statement stating that he will not be immediately sanctioning Bradley or other candidates for relatively minor postering breaches, but will record the breaches.

As Rhianna Kinchin, Ella-Grace Kirton and Rory Shanks lined up to speak at hustings yesterday the combination of new and old faces made for some interesting presentations. Whilst the experience of Kinchin and Shanks was increasingly obvious, spectators were also impressed with the well presented new approach of Kirton.

Kinchin gave an emotional speech, centered around her experience in YUSU and JCRCs, experience which was unfortunately later topped by Shanks. Using emotive but largely redundant statements such as “I listen to students” and “YUSU is you and you are YUSU” she definitely impressed the audience, who cheered her off at the end. The use of Special K as a campaign prop belittled Kinchin’s efforts, but her presentation was good and she remains a strong candidate.

Kirton was a political outsider before hustings yesterday, where she proposed a swathe of ideas she described as “fresh”. Regardless of how similar these “fresh” ideas were to Kinchin and Shanks’ policies Kirton gave a good speech and explained herself clearly. Her inexperience did cause some problems in the question round, where her responses were a little less coherent and a little more panicked that YUSU veterans Kinchin and Shanks. Overall Kirton provides viable opposition to the YUSU clique.

Whilst Shanks definitely emerged on top after hustings, the competition is still very open. His quick and snappy responses to questions showed his experience, especially as he handled questions about projects which he had started. Whilst Shanks strengths were clear to all those in attendance, many will have left with the feeling that with his approach may be going stale, and something new is needed.

Although Shanks led the debate with his confidence and charm, his policies may not be as popular as the newer approach of Kinchin and Kirton.