Alex Harries's diary

I've just come back from Ravelin Park, where SADO Ben Norman and RAG bods Jenny Leggott and Sarah Blatchford have been bedding down for the night with only cardboard, damp sleeping bags and tarpaulins (err, and each other...) for warmth.

No, they're not trying to recreate a summer picnic atmosphere - not at this time of year, anyway. The event is the University-organised "Sleepout", which has been planned to raise awareness for the homeless population of Portsmouth.

There were around 25 bods milling around when I left, including three Purple Door staff (one of which is Alice Hickman, the University's Volunteer and Work Experience Officer and Ben Norman's oppo, who I may have met before...), two security guards, and a full tea urn.

It looks like the choice spot for the night will be under a pair of large tarpaulins which have been erected between two trees in a loose-but-functional impersonation of a giant tent. The area surrounding the shelter was intertwined with the string holding the shelter up, leaving the whole area slightly resembling a giant spider's lair... Ewww, spiders...

Hopefully everyone will have a fun - if chilly - night and get some sleep into the bargain. This kind of event is good (as long as it serves its purpose to raise awareness for the homeless, naturally) and it would be great to see the University collaborating with the Union more often to publicise such events. Pugwash News is always available to help, of course.

Ms Blatchford has my camera at the moment, so once it's back I'll get some photos online. In the meantime, look out for pics and even (possibly) some footage on BBC South Today and in the Times Higher Education supplement - when the Uni want to promote something, they don't 'arf go for it... :o)

Find out more on the University's website.

The Freshers' Ball line-up - happening on Saturday 20th October - was announced today and I have to say that, with its diverse and slightly eclectic line-up, I'm actually pretty excited about the night. (Sorry for the little plug, but I'm only saying it 'cos I think it's true...!)

The main Freshers' Ball headline act is a Scissor Sisterz tribute band which, having listened to the tunes on their website, should make for a brilliantly messy one in Lux, while CO2 is being themed in a Bhangra style, with Eastern sounds, visuals and even some Eastern flavour in the form of special cocktails. In five years of being here at the Union, I don't think I've ever know such a random and eclectic event take place, and that alone should make it one of the most fun nights of the year. Brucie Bonus: £15 is nothing to pay for a ticket to the best way to end your first few freshers weeks! (Check out the Freshers' Ball event listing for more info if you've got a minute free).

It's been a while since I've written anything here, and that's mainly thanks to spending a ridiculous amount of time on the launch of our new student newspaper, Pugwash News/Purple Wednesdays, which was swiftly followed by the traumatic workload associated with the fun of Freshers' Fayre. Since then, for the last few days I've been running around putting all our archived Pugwash content onto the iMacs so the bods who get involved in meeja this year have plenty of material to refer to - we've got Pugwashes going back to 1997, and I even found a dusty old copy of the Portsmouth Student Guide from '79 down the back of a filing cabinet - random...

I think the newspaper has been an amazing success: we printed 3,000 copies of the 12-page Pugwash News/Purple Wednesdays, and in the space of 48 hours at Freshers' Fayre and around campus, almost 2,700 copies were handed out to students. Despite having a huge range of content I want more, so every other sentence I've been uttering for the last few days has been about recruiting more people to help with the paper, and to get more ideas and content for it (interested? mediaofficer@upsu.net!).

Freshers' Fayre, while I remember, was really good - more than 200 people signed up to Pugwash! Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the people who got to see me being gaffer-taped to a tent pole. Many videos and photos were taken and, since self-embarrassment is something I'm so good at,  I'll put them online as soon as we can edit them down.

We've also taken on two new pixel munkis, and UPEL (the trading bods who run the bars) have also been spending some time on their Social:Life section: Tom Worman (aka the Union's photographer) and Nathan Sweeney (a bars supervisor in a former life), to take up some of the workload on the website now I've got less time free to push pixels around. Mind you, I never did that much hard work really, so it's not like they're going to find it particularly hard or anything... ;o)

I should mention the Sabb team a bit, since I'm supposed to be promoting their work and all that: loads of students signed up at Freshers' Fayre to take part in clubs, societies and the Union's support and training groups, including STAND, RAG and About 321 more words in this entry