ANOTHER UNIDENTI-FIED homeless man hasbeen found inside studentaccommodation inDerwent College thisweek after a separate inci-dent just days before.

The man, found onTuesday night by resi-dents returning from anight out, was removedfrom campus by security.This comes after the firstman, Mickel Grabarczyk,who has regularly beenseen frequentingUniversity residentialareas, was removed fromUniversity property afterbeing found by two stu-dents on Sunday, shavingin a Derwent bathroom.

Grabarczyk, nick-named ‘Polish Mike’, whohas purportedly beenarrested twice and thrownoff campus several times,

has been gaining regularaccess to Derwent A Blockdespite codes to beingchanged on both Mondayand Tuesday mornings.

In an email sent toDerwent students onMonday evening, theCollege Provost, Dr RobAitken, warned students:“Mickel Grabarczyk, whois believed to have been inA Block in early Octoberand again on Sundaymorning and may beresponsible for food theftsin A Block kitchens, wasseen hanging around anentrance to A Block thisevening. It appears that aresident gave him the newcode to A Block. He maytherefore come into ABlock again tonight.”

The following morn-ing, an email was sent toresidents of Derwent A

Block by the DerwentCollege administrator,Chris Unwin, which said:“It appears that the sameintruder gained access toA Block yesterdayevening, after tail-gatingother students into theBlock.”

A member of DerwentCollege, who wishes toremain annonymous,described their confronta-tion with Grabarczyk onMonday evening: “I hadseen him before in theporter’s lodge, so we pre-sumed him a student. Heasked if the code hadchanged. We gave himsome random codes andaccidentally gave him thecorrect one.”

“He opened the door,by which stage we hadnoticed his accent and

started to question him.He made up a lie, sayingthat he had football practice and claimed that hewas from the other side ofYork. After questioning,he left but clearly knewthe code.”

Despite a few peoplefeeling comfortable inGrabarczyk’s presence,the situation has leftmany students upset andangry. “I am very frustrat-ed at the University’s lackof haste and commitmentto solving this problem.Changing the codes clear-ly does not work. One ofmy friends has been hav-ing nightmares about thisman; people are fright-ened for their safety,” saidour source.

He added: “I want toknow why we do not havekeycards like some of the

other colleges.”The University’s

Senior Press Officer,David Garner, comment-ed on the general situa-tion, stating that, “TheUniversity has dealt withtwo males who haverepeatedly trespassed onUniversity property. Theirdescriptions have beencirculated to all portersand security staff, andDerwent students havebeen alerted about thesetwo individuals. One ofthe men has been arrestedon several occasions, butis currently on bail await-ing a court appearance.The other has beenwarned that he risks com-mitting the criminaloffence of aggravated tres-pass should he return tocampus.”

Second homeless man found in Derwent

YUSU HAS comeunder fire after failing toaddress the ambiguousself-definition of racialbackground requirementsfor Racial EqualityOfficers, outlined in theirconstitution.

The YUSU constitu-tion states: “Candidatesfor Racial Equality Officermust be black by theNational Union ofStudents definition.”

Under National Unionof Students (NUS) guide-lines, ‘black’ is an all-encompassing definition,that includes African,Caribbean, Asian andMiddle Eastern students.

Many students at theUniversity of York haveclaimed to be outraged atYUSU’s decision to usethe obscure NUS defini-tion, feeling that it

detracts from their ownidentity. One black stu-dent, who wishes toremain anonymous, said:“I feel that this definitiondetracts from my identity.I get that the NUS has itsdefinition but why doesYork have to have thesame one?”

A first-year studentfrom another ethnicminority origin who,under the YUSU and NUSdefinition, is classed as‘black’, said: “I don’t likethat I am being put under‘black’; I’m not black.”

Questions have beenraised as to why, despite amyriad of complaints,YUSU have failed tochange the definition.

YUSU’s general feelingis that of difficulty in find-ing a widely acceptedalternative term for the

required racial back-ground of a RacialEquality Officer. Theterm, also used by theUniversity of Cambridge,is one that they feel is par-ticularly difficult toresolve and the currentdefinition is the bestoption that they know of.YUSU admitted that theterm has caused themproblems in the past.

When confrontedabout the issue, JasonRose, YUSU Campaign’sOfficer, claimed thatalthough YUSU hadapproached the matter inthe past, to create a newdefinition would mean thehuge effort of having to“constitutionalise what anethnic minority is”.

The use of the word‘black’ to describe stu-dents from non-black

backgrounds has oftenbeen seen as insensitive.

However, YUSU hasargued that there is noperfect description forsuch a wide range of dif-ferent, non-Caucasiangroups.

Rose continued to saythat the general consensustowards the effortinvolved in creating a newdefinition was: “Bollocksto it”.

Ben Humphrys, YUSUWelfare Officer, said: “Thecentral problem with con-stitutionally defining whofits under the remit of theracial equality officers isthat there is no commonwording for this whichdoesn’t have substantialdifficulties.”

Abrafi Kusi and DenizEkren, YUSU RacialEqualities Officers, said:

“We appreciate that theremay be some ambiguityand this wording is beingactively reviewed. We wel-come any alternative sug-gestions.”

The question ofchanging the definitionhas been raised before,both at York and otheruniversities, some ofwhich have proceeded tochange the definition intheir own constitution.

‘BME’ (Black andMinority Ethnic) hasoften been used as analternative term by otheruniversities such asOxford and UCL.However, the use of thiswording has also prompt-ed serious debates.

Racial Equality Officers ‘must be black’

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