Over 150 colleagues attended Kent Hospitality’s Showcase Event on Wednesday 2 November. This event was held to raise awareness of the wide range of services provided by Kent Hospitality and Kent Conferences and Events.

On-the-day we had a range of information stands including: – catering outlets, student accommodation, KentOne Card and Canterbury and Medway Conference services.  The event was a great success and proved to be the perfect opportunity for colleagues to talk to the hospitality and event teams who run the services, as well as being able to sample some of the new menu items introduced this term.

Many congratulations to the members of staff who won a prize in our draw!

• Steph Harris – A night’s stay at Beverley Farmhouse
• Deborah Sowrey – A meal for two at the Beagle Restaurant
• Kate Buchan – A meal for two at Dolche Vita
• Orla Garratt – A meal for two at Mungo’s
• Janice Tuite – A meal for two at Hut8
• Julie Martin – Coffee for two at Create Café
• Alice Heggie – Two free fruit smoothies at K-bar

Kent Hospitality would like to remind all attendees that you can use the promo code SHOWCASE16 for discounted B&B bookings during the spring and summer vacation 2017. You can make your booking by visiting our website.

Dr Paul March-Russell, Specialist Associate Lecturer in Comparative Literature, is co-organising a conference entitled ‘2017: A Clarke Odyssey’ with Dr Andrew M Butler from Canterbury Christ Church University to be held on Saturday 9 December 2017.

The conference will mark the centenary of Arthur C Clarke, who was one of the most important British science-fiction writers of the 20th century, and whose credentials included novelist, short-story writer, scriptwriter, science populariser, fan, presenter of documentaries on the paranormal, proposer of the uses of the geosynchronous orbit and philanthropist.

The keynote speakers will be science-fiction author Stephen Baxter and Dr Sarah Dillon (University of Cambridge).

The conference organisers are currently seeking abstracts for 20-minute papers. Topics may include:

• any of Clarke’s publications
• influences on Clarke
• Clarke’s influence on others
• the Second World War
• Sri Lanka/Ceylon
• the Cold War
• adaptations to film, television, radio and comic books 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Rendezvous with Rama, Trapped in Space, etc.
• collaborations
• I. and computers
• alien encounters and first contact
• astronomy, space and space travel
• Big Dumb Objects
• the destiny of life and mind in the universe
• the far future
• futurology
• politics
• religion, the transcendent and the paranormal
• science and scientists
• world government
• Young Adult fiction
• the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for achievements in space and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation awards.

Please submit 400-word abstracts and a 100-word biography to Dr March-Russell and Dr Butler by 30 July 2017.

Further details will be available from https://2017aclarkeodyssey.wordpress.com/

The University Campus Garden has stumbled along for several years now, originally starting as a student idea that won 3rd prize in a Mad Ideas student competition (which paid for fencing materials and tools).

At times students have taken it on and put considerable time and energy into it, at other times it has fallen into disrepair. More recently, there was an attempt to bring it into the student welfare agenda, renaming it the Oasis Garden, but student engagement was, once again, insufficient to achieve the critical mass necessary to gain the required momentum. Now it is such a sorry state that the Estates Department has, quite understandably, posited the idea of removing the eyesore and putting it back to turf.

As the person who has had some degree of continuous contact with the garden since its inception, I am convinced that the best way to guarantee its future will be to reconstitute it as staff allotments (the original use of the area). In this format, a section can be allocated for student use, looked after in their absence, and students will have the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of the staff allotment holders.

I am convening a meeting at lunchtime (12.00-13.00 in the Swingland Room, Marlowe Building) on Wednesday 30 November for staff interested in taking on an allotment. Subsequently there would be a meeting at the garden to decide on next steps and workgroups to get stuck in (the original rabbit-proof fencing is missing in places and probably all needs replacing). I have also been approached by some 1st year undergraduates who want to start a student gardening society.

If you are interested do please come to the meeting, or email me.
Dr Ian Bride i.g.bride@kent.ac.uk

On Thursday 24 November, Let’s Play will be hosting another UV Sports Night at the Medway Park.

For just £1.00 you can attend any of the UV sports sessions (please see the full list of events below.)  Spaces are limited, so make sure you book on to the sessions you want to attend today!

We look forward to seeing you there and remember, wear your neon or white!
UV Sports Night Facebook event: http://ow.ly/iCmt306jhZ6

UV SPORTS
Zumba: 6-7pm
Table Tennis: 6-6.45pm
Football: 6-6.45pm
Badminton: 7-7.45pm
Netball: 7-7.45pm
Basketball: 8-9pm

The University will host its annual Foundation Day Lecture on 17 November 2016. The lecture, titled ‘Don’t Dumb Down; Smarten Up’ will be delivered by Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra.

The lecture will focus on how can we better understand the ideas that mould us in order to make choices and take decisions about how we want to live and how we want our societies to function? This is more important now more than ever as we try to make sense of the unfolding global turmoil around us.

Contrary to the view that dumbing down is the only way to go, Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4, argues that smart, intelligent, more challenging content us the way to reach and capture bigger audiences.

Gwyneth Williams has been Controller of Radio 4 and 4 Extra since 2010. Before that, she was Director of the World Service in English, Editor of the BBC Reith Lectures for many years and Head of BBC Radio Current Affairs. She started her career at the BBC writing current affairs talks for the World Service and then worked at the Overseas Development Institute before returning to the BBC. She has published two books, one, co-authored, on Southern Africa and another on Third World political organisations.

The lecture will take place in the Woolf Lecture Theatre on Canterbury campus from 18.30.
Admission is free and open to all.