UCL Pi Media
 |
Pi is the student magazine of UCL Union.
History
The publication was originally launched as a newspaper. In the aftermath of World War Two, there was strong popular support amongst college and UCL Union officials for some sort of community project that would bind together the rapidly expanding campus. Pi was conceived as a fortnightly news-sheet, written and published internally by UCL students.
The paper was extremely popular, even charging a small fee for each issue. Though the initial focus was on student politics, as the paper recruited a more diverse base of writers and journalists, new areas began to receive attention - sports became a prominently featured section, as well as academic discourse and regular interviews with London celebrities. Pi drew favourable comparisons with other heavyweight student newspapers, such as The Oxford Student and the LSE Beaver. British journalist and TV personality Jonathan Dimbleby was once the editor.
Today
The Pi Magazine of today bears little resemblence to its ancestor. Instead of a newspaper, there is a free glossy magazine which has a montly print-run of approximately 4000 copies. But the chief differences lie in content and editorial structure.
A typical issue of Pi Magazine contains a wide variety of sections of interest to UCL students, such as student news, an opinion section covering current student and general issues, and other popular sections such as arts, music and fashion.
Editorial structure
The magazine is put together by the members of its UCL Union society, and they elect a student editor each year, though the Media & Communications Officer (a position elected annually in elections open to all UCL students) of the union is ex-offico editor. The current student editor is Holly Falconer, the current Media & Communications Officer is Alex Walsh (with Alan Gardner set to succeed her in the 2005-6 academic year).
Criticism
Pi's current incarnation has yielded some criticism from some sections of the UCL student community.
Critics claim that an increasing number of high-quality student journalists have elected to write for London Student newspaper, the fortnightly publication of the University of London Union, instead of Pi. However, it is also thought that many are attracted to writing for London Student becasue of its wider student audience. Some critics also think that Pi should return to a newspaper format to ensure more news coverage. Most who write for the paper agree, however, that Pi offers a wider variety of journalism oppurtunities to its writers though the great number of sections one is able to write for.
The photo page or 'Scrapbook' at the rear of Pi Magazine has also been heavily criticised for its constant display of pictures of drunken students inside the Union's numerous bars, which it is alleged promote binge drinking and an unrepresentative, anti-intellectual image of UCL students. Most agree, however, that this page should be viewed with a pinch of irony, and it is often named as the page students turn to first.
Pi Magazine and UCL Union
There is some dissatisfaction at the level of control UCL Union has over the magazine. Whilst the publication claims to be a society and recruits members as normal, it regularly receives an annual grant in excess of £10,000 a far greater amount than other UCLU media societies such as Rare FM and BTV, and its chief editor is the elected Media & Communications (M&C) Officer (also a Sabbatical Executive Officer).
However, it is generally agreed that although this is a large amount of money it is justified by Pi's 50 + year history, and the services it offers to UCL societies, who are free to advertise in the magazine's 'Union Societies Page'. Other arguments for this kind of investment are its large membership numbers and the fact that it raises another £10,000 for itself annually through advertising.
The control of the magazine by the union has some supporters, and it is noted that a good M&C Officer has the scope to wield unprecedented power over the improvement of Pi's quality - the magazine was commended with runner-up position in the 2004 NUS-Daily Mirror student media awards, which has been attributed to the enthusiastic leadership of Andreas Von Maltzahn (M&C, 2003-4).