There are so many philosophical discussions about freedom, that is would be easy to fill a page with them. But that would bore me shitless, and most of you probably

wouldn't read it. Besides, there are plenty of great articles discussing real freedom - or lack of it - in today's society, further on in this edition. Read them instead.

But I would like to have a rant about free stuff. Free as in libre, not free as in gratis. That is, free as in free will, not free as in free beer. I've already had my rant about the Open Source Movement, which you can read further in to the magazine, but there are plenty of other aspects of freedom that interest me.

One especially relevant concept is that of free - libre - education (gratis education is another topic). It's one of the things that I haven't been thinking about all that much, but two things recently have sparked a renewal of interest. Firstly, I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (especially green mars), and secondly, Jack Thieme, your student's association president filled me in on some dodgy dealing going on in the Uni.

Let me start out with a basic history of the university. The early Middle east, two and a half millennia ago, was the first region come up with the idea of an open education system. Plato's academy continued this concept, and was accessible to all (unless you were a female, a slave, a foreigner, or otherwise sub-human), with the aim of furthering philosophic, mathematic and scientific studies, for the benefit of all of society. The middle ages brought the university to Europe with many current European universities dating back to that time, and a similar thing happened in Asia. Universities slowly followed the expansive imperialism of the Renaissance and now cover the globe, and are generally open to all (although not every where, especially if you're female, you're a slave, or an odd-coloured minority, or otherwise sub human).

One of the greatest advantages that the open university system has had over more rigid schooling systems is that students are able to choose from the many subject to study, thus giving them the greatest freedom in following the path of their choice. Student can achieve great things in areas they choose to excel in, and this allows them to give more back to their communities, and society in general.

It gets kind of hard when the administration of the university decides that giving student these options is just too difficult. That's what's happening at the moment. The first sign of this is that the University admin has decided to stop timetabling for double degrees. This basically means if you're doing a double degree, you're pretty much stuffed if you want to do 40 or more units per semester, as you're sure to have numerous clashes among your cross-faculty tutorials and lectures. But if you're doing a double degree you've probably already realised that

The Uni has given any reason for these actions, so we're left to guess that either: a) The Uni is getting lazy and profit hungry, and doesn't actually care about giving Students a chance at a decent education; or b) The effects of The Knife are being felt, and last year's staff cuts mean that current staff are over stretched, reducing the University's capability to function as a modern day education institution.

Either way, NUSA, the Newcastle University Students' Association, is planning to fight this decision, and reverse it. If you've been affected by the timetable troubles, and would like help us repeal the move, or you just want to get representation, come in to NUSA. We have resources, if you have the time.

I'd also like to apologise for the chauvinistic Fanny's ad in the last issue, a couple of my feminist friends pointed out that it was quite offensive. Unfortunately, it was one of the first ads we could get for that edition, which was possibly going to go over budget. Not much of an excuse, I'll admit, but I'll promise to try act in a less economic rationalist frame of mind in the future.

Cheers

Ned Haughton

Media-Officer, 2006.