In December 2009, we were asked to look at Carlisle from a "Resident - but tourist for a day" angle, and do a small documentary about what we found out for our Post-Modern Tourism module at the University of Cumbria.

This video was made by Conny Kaufmann and Lauren Moore.

Sorry for going on about my university, the University of Cumbria.

But this interview with my friend and course mate Stephen Graham made the front page of local newspaper News & Star today:

Cumbria university students claim they have been let down by lack of cash
By Thom Kennedy
Last updated at 13:34, Monday, 08 February 2010

Furious students from the University of Cumbria say they have been let down by a lack of investment in new facilities.

Plans to regenerate the city’s Viaduct Estate with a large £70m flagship university campus – including a theatre and arts centre for the city – have been put on hold because of financial problems.

That leaves students coming to Carlisle facing swingeing cuts to the university’s ambitious plans, including the dropping of some courses including law.

Final year journalism student Stephen Graham, 29, of Chatsworth Square in the city centre, said: “I started at the university in the first intake when it first formed, and over the three years the quality has degraded and I am glad to be leaving it now.

“Things like Brampton Road library closing have made it harder to study for my dissertation. It’s all very disappointing for students in Cumbria as they are going to have to travel away to go to university. It’s bad for the area.

“I feel really sorry for the next generation of students coming here. If I was going to stay on after I finish and do a Masters, I wouldn’t do it at the University of Cumbria. If it carries on the way it is, it’s going to implode.”
Steven Ramshay, of Kingstown Road, Carlisle is in his first year at the university, studying journalism. He said: “We were promised the library in Brampton Road, and we’ve been disappointed. I have been let down.
“It has turned out nearly the complete opposite of what I expected when I came to university. My sixth form college is better. The facilities available are very mediocre for a university.”

Recent MA graduate Kevin Murphy added: “They are reducing the facilities tremendously. Students will have signed up 12 months ago being promised a library and all these facilities, and now they are just reducing them.
“The library was a key part of the university as that’s where most of the research goes on.”

The Students’ Union launched a campaign last autumn to save the library when university bosses relocated it to Fusehill Street following a boost in student recruitment at the Brampton Road site.

Other students have expressed their anger at the university’s proposal to cut the law course next year, prompting a group of students to start a Facebook campaign to save the course. A plea to students reads: “The powers-that-be are proposing to axe the law degree at University of Cumbria after only two intakes of students.

“Why can’t we have a local university with prestigious degree courses like law in Carlisle? Why must we focus purely on agriculture, nursing or teaching? Why not have a wide range of courses to ensure local firms employ local people?”

Lecturers at the university’s Ambleside campus, which is set to be mothballed as a £2m cost-cutting measure, have refused to rule out strike action over the plans.

South Lakes MP Tim Farron, who is fighting to keep the Ambleside campus open amid the budget cuts, described a decision to allow outdoor studies students to continue using Ambleside as ‘a partial victory’.
However, he added: “I’m devastated for teacher training students who are still being asked to move, and for dozens of hard-working and long-suffering members of staff who may now face redundancy. Many who have given their life to the campus and to its generations of students face redundancy and an uncertain future.”

I just wanted to show you that it's not just me, who's complaining about the way this university handles things. But UoC is not the only university facing cuts. For more, read the article that was featured in The Guardian today!

Flood alerts have been issued for Carlisle and the county of Cumbria today, as the heavy rains, that have been hitting us since Monday, continue.

The Stoneyholme Golf Course is already under water, and warnings have been issued for all three of Carlisle's rivers: Eden, Petteril and Caldew. Rickerby Park, (above) is a swamp, but the cycle path and road were still passable today. The picture shows river Eden (top right corner shows its usual width) and Rickerby Park seen from the Eden Bridge on Scotland Road, looking towards Brampton.

After the severe floods of 2005, flood gates and flood warning systems have been installed along the shores of the rivers. Flood alerts have been issued to mostly residential areas in the vicinities of the rivers, including my street. Although we are right on the edge of the flood warning area, our house DID get flooded in 2005! And our daily route to university leads across Rickerby Park. Check the Environment Agency for a bigger map and advice!

A short story about growing up with mixed heritage has set UoC Creative Writing and Journalism graduate Rashid Adamson on the path of success. He talks to Conny Kaufmann about writing to promoting.

For the last few weeks, my boyfriend and I have been working on this idea: A new, independent student newspaper for the University of Cumbria. Why? Because the newspaper we've got, "The Informer", only comes out every 6 - 8 weeks which means that everything we write is old news by then. Also, Informer is the uni's official student newspaper, which means we can't really voice our opinions about the university - that would be considered anti-establishment.

So the idea of "Student Voice" was born. An independent, fortnightly newspaper/newsletter which covers all aspects of student life at UoC and is not afraid to put the students' real views and opinions across. The way I see it, all students have a right to know what is going on at their uni - after all they're paying good money to be there.

We're still working on layout at the moment, and need to find some stories. The paper will be an A4 paper, printed on both sides and folded in half, so that we'll have four A5 pages to work with. Though the launch edition will be free, I fear I might have to introduce a price of 5p or 10p per copy - just to cover the printing costs. That's the downside of being independent, I guess.

There will also be a website , which I am creating at the moment. The intention is to also offer classifieds on the website, for people looking for housemates, second-hand stuff or models for their final projects. Students will also be able to advertise their exhibitions, plays, record release parties and any other event, to get an even bigger audience. The site will be able to feature pictures and video, so people interested in broadcast are also welcome!

I want Student Voice to be a paper made by students for students. Filling the gap that Informer leaves after being published, and not just covering Student Union stuff like The Scene.

Please feel free to email any suggestions for stories, pictures, freshers' week anecdotes, etc. to me at student-voice@hotmail.co.uk

I am still looking for people who want to see their name in print as well, so feel free to drop me a line!

Well, mine definitely is not! The University of Cumbria in Carlisle will be relocating the Brampton Road library. Apparently, the books taken out the most will go to the library at Fusehill Street, while all the rest of the books will go into storage at Milbourne Street.

The library at Milbourne Street was purpose-built for the University of Central Lancashire, whos Business School campus in Carlisle has been integrated into UoC. However, once they closed the Business campus and transferred the students to Fusehill Street, they closed the library. Now they are closing the second. Students at Fusehill Street enjoy a wide-range of medical, teaching and sports books, but everyone else will have problems getting set text books or writing their dissertations.

Brampton Road library has to go because the Graphic Design department wants to expand, although they have quite a few big rooms to themselves. Journalism really only has the newsroom, which is too small to hold all the students in three years at once, and a broadcasting studio.

They should keep the library and just not take on more students than they can accommodate. The money should rather be spend on updating their catalogue, as some of the books date back to the 90s and students get marks taken off for referencing out-of-date books...

Going on a camping trip together is what my boyfriend and I had been talking about since March. Thursday night, we finally gave it a go.

Driving up to Caton near Lancaster, we stayed at a friend's house over night and had a couple of pints and a decent meal in the village pub. Early on Friday morning, we then set off towards our destination: The Lake District! I normally live in the only city in Cumbria (Carlisle), which is just north of the Lakes. Since I'd never been to the South Lakes before (Keswick and the North Lakes are just easier to reach from Carlisle), we decided to camp on the shore of Lake Windermere, taking the car ferry across to Hawkshead. The campsite we wanted to pitch our tent at was in Low Wray, just across the lake from Ambleside, and owned by the National Trust. We got there just before 10am and all we wanted was to put up the tent and then go and explore a little. Except we couldn't. "We can't book you in right now. Come back at 12." Erm... helloho?! We're here, and all we want is a bit of grass to put a tent over. It's not like you have to clean the room, put new sheets on the bed and refill the mini-bar! After all, it's just a FIELD you're offering!!


Anyway, we went for breakfast in Coniston and enjoyed views of a cloud-covered Old Man of Coniston (a fell - or hill, for all non-Cumbrians) just outside town. When we wanted to make our way back to the campsite (trying to get there early to get a good spot), we took the Mini back up the hilly, curvy, bumpy road. Or at least halfway up. All of a sudden, in the middle of the Lake District, we hit traffic. Turns out, the local bus service got stuck in a bend, because a holiday coach driver had taken his coach down the narrow road. Since each of them had a line of cars behind them, they couldn't reverse. The police had to be called and everyone had to turn around. That road is barely wide enough to let two Minis through tête-à-tête, let alone a bus and a coach. I think coaches should be banned from these country lanes. Park them in a village and take the local transport. Or hire a car and drive yourself instead of taking the coach....

Needless to say we got to the campsite an hour late.

Back at the camp, the good pitches were already taken. They offered us a pitch by the lake, in a forest, where it would be a bit more sheltered. However, taking the Mini over all the potholes on the not-so-well-maintained road (come on, National Trust can at least dish out some money for some gravel!) wasn't good for the car, and the suggested campsite was a swamp. The mud was inches deep and all the pitches either too close to other tents or on gradients... So we decided to ask them for a new pitch on "Vic's Meadow", because we just couldn't take the car up and down that road too often. We were told, there were two pitches left near the top of a hill. There were plenty of spaces left (as I said before: it's a FIELD!!!), but we weren't allowed to pitch on the flat bit. Instead, we finally pitched on muddy grass on a slope. Luckily, we had a ground sheet that was large enough to cover the entire tent, as it was raining yet again.

We spent the rest of the day in Bowness, sitting at the lake, eating ice cream and trying the local Bitter, before heading towards Ambleside to get some chips and sausages to take away. Sitting next to our tent on camping chairs we bought for the trip, most of our neighbouring campers were quite jealous of the fact that we'd drven 15 minutes and got ourselves hot meals. Later, we sat at the shore of the river, feeding a duck and watching Ambleside in the distance.

The night however, was not so great.

I have been camping before, in fact, I spent two months out of my gap year camping, but that was easily the worst night I spent in a tent so far. Because we were on a slope, I kept sliding down to the bottom of the tent and then had to crawl back up to my pillow - and this happened every five minutes. Furthermore, we were in the middle of a downpour, the walls of the tent got damp and then soaking wet, even though we had the ground sheet and the wind was flapping the sheet up and down. It wasn't as cold as I'd expected it to be, though. I can usually sleep through the noises. My real problem was the hard ground. I've got a bad back, and I usually remember to bring an air matress along, but I didn't this time. By the time I stopped tossing and turning to find a comfy position to sleep in, it was light outside again.

By that point, both my boyfriend and I had pretty much enough of the Cumbrian weather, and decided to head back home a day early. The plan was to stay another night, pack up in the morning at leave, but we decided we might as well just carry on home. After an eventful morning (more in a later post), we made our way to Haverthwaite at the bottom of Lake Windermere, to take the Steam Railway to Lakeside. From there, we went on a cruise, all the way to Ambleside. Half the people on the boat were part of a scout group and the North Fylde Rotary Club - once again coach tours that block the country roads. Stopping in Bowness, we finally managed to find nice seats indoors. On our way across the lake, we passed a few swimmers, who took part in a Windermere swimming race, swimming 15 miles from the bottom to the top in 14°C....

After a lovely meal in Ambleside, and a pint we both desperatly needed, we got back on the boat to continue our romantic cruise. Except that there were no dry seats anywhere, and we ended up standing on deck for 30 minutes. In Bowness, we once again found seats, when the scouts boarded again. One of the group's leaders came up to us, asking whether we'd mind having scouts sitting next to us. Replying that yes, we would mind, he left. 10 minutes later, he was back, commenting that the seats next to us were still free and whether he could put two scouts there. Once again, we said no. 10 minutes after that, he and another leader came back and just sat down. Maybe, instead of teaching boys how to pitch tents, they should teach their group leaders some manners! We told them we didn't want them to sit there, and after telling them no twice, they really should have gotten the message. One of the guys then suggested by making it better and wanted to bribe us with tea. My boyfriend turned around and told them that they could have the seats and we'd rather not sit with them since they are rude...I wouldn't have been that friendly! I hate it, when people don't respect the wishes of others!!! There were plenty of seats available, both inside and outside and there was no need to harass us and ruin a romantic day out! The two of us ended up sitting back out in the cold for another 30 minutes, while two old and ill-mannered scout leaders got to sit in a nice, dry and warm place. Which I don't think is fair. Especially, since we were the only ones they asked for seats... there were plenty of couples occupying tables... and they would have been closer to their age as well!

Glad to finally get away from Cumbria, we made our way back down to Southport. Luckily, the Mini's brakes work quite well, as we could well be dead by now. But more about that in a later post.

I loved the idea of going on a romantic camping trip in the Lake District with my boyfriend! He really made an effort, just to have it ruined by Cumbrian drivers, Cumbrian weather, and - judging from their behaviour - Cumbrian scout leaders!!!