***ESSEX STUDENTS PLEASE PUT YOUR PRID IN YOUR NAME AND USE YOUR ESSEX EMAIL ADDRESS***

If you want to voice your concerns please forward this to the VP Services & Communication of Essex SU, Josh O’Connor (vpservices@essex.ac.uk) and Director of Marketing, Steve Haugh (smhaugh@essex.ac.uk).

Update: we were promised an EGM with VP Services & Communications, Josh O'Connor to discuss this proposed re-brand but clearly that will not happen now: http://therabbitnewspaper.com/new/

The Essex Media Guild is facing extinction without having the opportunity to show the potential in our brand new studios.

The University of Essex Students’ Union has decided to enforce a merger whereby all three media outlets – including our national award winning student newspaper, The Rabbit – to become merged into one name and heading: “Albert Media”.

There is significant discontent about the idea of the merger and the dictator tactics that have been employed by Students’ Union employees acting beyond their powers in areas outside of their jurisdiction. Several of the student staff media heads have voiced concerns over the issues and have either been laughed off or pushed aside with patronising notions that the new system is “Better for students” despite there being no consultation with the student body on any reasonable scale as to what their wishes would be. It is an outrage that experienced student media representatives have had their views so carelessly dismissed.

We are totally against the merger; the name “Albert” and the whole way this has unfolded before us. We did not sign up to this as media heads nor do we feel that we, the students, would be attracted to “Albert”. We signed up to SX:TV – a TV station recognised nationally and boasts the first ever live Derby Day broadcast. We signed up to Red Radio – one of the longest broadcasting student radio stations in history. We did not sign up to “Albert”. We signed up to The Rabbit newspaper who have gone on to win an award for their website in its first year. 

The University look forward to the next 50 years as a whole and we look forward to the exciting new chapter with student media but “Albert” is a backwards move and loses all progress we have made as a Media Guild; as student TV station and as a student Radio station.

The Students’ Union have said that we, the students, get confused with a different name for TV, Radio and Newspaper – we find this both patronising and not true.

Last year we received a substantial amount of funding from the university that our predecessors used to buy high quality equipment to improve the services of SX:TV, Red Radio and The Rabbit newspaper and have not contributed nor were they aware at the time that this was going to happen.

Our historical radio station will be off the air permanently. Our TV station, that boasts alumni that are heavily involved with the National Student TV Association and the first ever live Derby Day broadcast, will be offline for good. All for Albert media – something we did not sign up nor agree to.

Hence why we have designed this petition: we are asking you to sign this petition so we can make sure student media is at the heart of student life rather than a guinea pig experiment by the Students’ Union.

We have loads of plans for students to get involved with student media but that was the plan for our Media Guild. All of which is tarnished through this unfair re-branding.

This, to us, is our Essex Blades.

This, to us, is our Soc Guild.

And it is being taken away from us.

Please sign this petition so that we can make sure the word “student” means something in “student media”

Thank you.