by Delaney Chambers & Hannah Shaddock

The issue raised in our front page story is about the University as a local employer, but also refers to a wider problem being discussed across the country: work, pay, and fairness. It’s an issue that may not affect all of us yet, but it certainly will.

In this edition, you’ll see quite a bit of discussion regarding this topic. In the Business section, you’ll find a story covering the Workfare program, an initiative in which work-seekers on welfare are given jobs… and aren’t paid for them.

In the Comment section, the big debate revolves around whether interns should be paid. Our front-page story shows that even an institution as close to home as Durham University doesn’t pay all of its employees enough to live on.

This issue is clearly at the forefront of student attention, and consequently is at the forefront of our minds. Both of us have applied for master’s degrees for next year, and will need a great deal of work experience – probably unpaid – to obtain jobs in our fields.

We’re sure we’re not the only ones in this situation, and this makes it all the more vital for us to increase awareness of the importance of fair pay, whether it’s for interns or the local community.

We, along with all students, have a duty as members of the University to be vigilant about the effects of living-wage pay on the community.
If we care about the universal problem of fair pay, then we should do what we can to see it implemented by the institution which we are members of.

Just as the University and the city of Durham provide a service to us, we’d like to think we at Palatinate provides a service to students.

And, in the same way students contribute to the local economy and to the University as a living, thriving centre of academia, students contribute to this, their paper.

We depend entirely on students and members of the University community to help make Palatinate what it is.

We receive a few e-mails asking us to cover or publicise an event ior game, or to promote a society. However, we receive far more comments asking why we didn’t include something. The answer to this is usually fairly simple: we didn’t know about it.

Although our News team and our section editors do their best, our editorial board is made up of just fifty-odd students attempting to represent 15,000.
Inevitably there are areas of the student body that we are not a part of and activities that we are not involved in in and will not know about, unless we are told.

If you think you’ve heard of a vital story that needs covering, or would simply like us to report on a successful event organised by your society, there is no easier way to get it published than to tell us.

And, if you think you can do a better job at representing an active and diverse student body, take a look at the vacancies advertised below, and keep an eye out for more coming over the holidays.

We can’t recommend getting involved enough; we’ve enjoyed our time at Palatinate a great deal, and as sad as we are that this is our last issue, we are  very much looking forward to seeing what our successors have in store.

Representing you has been a privilege, and we’ve done our best to make sure the newspaper fulfils its purpose: representing student needs and raising awareness of issues within the student body and the University.