A woman who has not yet been officially named was struck at 7.10am on Tuesday morning.

She was taken by ambulance to Morriston Hospital, but later died of her injuries.

South Wales Police are appealing for witnesses of the incident to come forward.

A force spokesperson said: “The collision happened on the southbound carriageway of Sketty Lane in the general direction of Mumbles Road when a female pedestrian was in collision with a silver coloured Seat Leon.”

“The driver of the car has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and is currently helping police with their enquiries.”

There will be music, speeches, and poems from the African Caribbean society at the front of Fulton House starting around 1.40pm on Monday.

The chaplaincy is also expected to read a short prayer as well.

Mandela was the first black president of South Africa and was a key activist in the anti-apartheid movement, spending over a quarter of a century in prison, most of which was in spent in the notorious Robben Island prison.

Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister said Mandela was a “great man” who had made racism “not just immoral but stupid”.

Barack Obama commented that he was “a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice”.

Prof Nigel Piercy (pictured) says the reforms brought in by himself and his deputy (and son), Prof Niall Piercy, will improve results and help grow the reputation of the school.

But teaching staff say the changes have been made without any consultation and that the atmosphere in the school is now “toxic”. Seven staff have handed in their notice since the changes were introduced.

In an interview with The Waterfront, Prof Nigel Piercy said there had been “a few tantrums along the way” but that the reforms were necessary because the school had “a lot of catching up to do”.

“We are not doing what we should do to be part of the global scholarly community, either in terms of teaching and global research,” he said.

“We need a situation where a graduate sits in front of a potential employer and the employer has heard of the school and knows what it stands for. We want our graduates to stand out from the crowd.
“So what we’ve done is we’ve put in seminars and tutorials on all programmes without option, as they have largely disappeared. There is a much bigger emphasis this year on small group teaching and more contact hours.
“There is a guarantee that these seminars will be taught by Swansea staff, not by PHD students, that’s a promise to the students.”

But some students are unhappy, complaining that they weren’t consulted on the changes made over the summer.

Economics students claim that the changes have devalued their degree with the shortening of the dissertation to a few thousand word essay.

One economics student, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “On this dissertation module, they’ve kind of told us funding had been cut for it, so we don’t have a dissertation tutor anymore. There’s just someone who we see as a group of 20 every five weeks at most? Doesn’t really give us much of a chance to get anything from it.
“Also, I went to the open day economics talk with my cousin, and they’ve cut down the economics courses offered. There used to be financial economics, economics BSc, economics BA etc and now they’ve just got economics BSc and PPE.
“People are quite concerned whether they are trying to push economics out of the department; which would be odd considering economics is one of the things the university isn’t actually too bad at.”

Mr Piercy said: “There was a fair amount of discussion mainly at an informal level with student groups. When you read the things people have said, it is chilling. And many of the things we have done hone in very specifically on those comments.”

“About waiting three months for the return of a piece of coursework. The guarantee now is the maximum of three weeks,” said Prof Piercy.

Staff have also been up in arms, especially over the dean’s proposals to move some staff to teaching-only roles.

A University and Colleges Union spokesman said: “At UCU meetings, staff described management style as ‘autocratic’. Many colleagues were visibly distressed and upset during these meetings. Among the many adjectives used to describe the atmosphere in the school was ‘toxic’.
“Members have complained of having to teach modules beyond their area of expertise and significantly increased teaching for some staff.
“UCU has expressed its concern to university management about the lack of consultation, about quality assurance with respect to programme changes, and about the system being used to determine staff workloads.
“UCU intervention has resulted in the removal of an explicit workload policy which favoured REF-submitted staff.
“We are disturbed to have learned that, over the last month, seven members of staff from the School of Management have handed in their resignations.
“We also understand that a number of other staff are considering leaving. Whilst anyone’s reason for leaving employment is confidential, we believe that it is no coincidence that these resignations come at this time.”

In fact the department is currently recruiting for almost a dozen senior lecturing positions.

When asked about staff who were disgruntled about the changes, Prof Piercy said: “If you see you don’t like what’s happening the honest thing to do is to say move on. No problem whatever with that.
“At a human level I’m very sympathetic… you get organisations where people get settled in their ways, then someone comes along and changes the rules.
“I know exactly what it feels like, but when we start to achieve the things we want, the improved status, better reputation. The experience is things settle down, especially when people start seeing the benefits.”

A Swansea University spokesman said: “The new dean, Professor Nigel Piercy, is implementing a programme of change at Swansea University School of Management, as part of the university’s strategic aim to be a top 30 UK university by 2017.
“We are also determined to drive forward our ambition to grow the School of Management, ready for its move to the new Bay Campus.”

Meanwhile, UCU is continuing to discuss the situation with university management: “We have received assurances that in the future there will be consultation with both staff and UCU on changes affecting teaching, and on other significant changes having an impact on members in the school.”

Students have already voted to reduce the number of full-time officers’ roles from seven to five.

The new officer roles will be decided through an independent report from the NUS. A survey by NUS gathered responses from Swansea University students in a short online poll and the results and recommendations were to be brought to the forum for the student vote.

A preliminary report from NUS was due to be discussed at the student forum on Friday 6th December, but the debate has been postponed until the January student forum.

The notice of polls, which is a requirement and the first step in the students’ union election process could be posted before the first student forum of 2014, to be held on Thursday 30th January.

This means that students may not have a chance to debate or vote on the five officer roles before they have been decided.
This week’s student forum will now discuss the QAA review, which is described as the “Ofsted for Universities” by students’ union president Zahid Raja.

There are fears that forum will be poorly attended, however, because of the time and place. The venue has been changed and the meeting will now take place in the council chambers at the abbey.

The day is also different, from the regular Tuesday or Thursday slot to a Friday evening.

The monthly student forums have been held in the refectory this year and mid-week to promote student engagement.

In addition, the promotion of the event has been criticised by students.

Josh Hale, MSc Psychological Research Methods student, said: “Although they’ve put a list of dates up for the year, I’ve seen no other advertising. I didn’t even know they moved it and as an active committee member of three societies I’d have expected to have found out or heard about it. It’s a nice venue and professional but can be intimidating to students who haven’t been there before.”

Some students have confirmed they won’t be attending the forum because Friday nights have work or social commitments.

The forum, which starts at 6pm, is on the same night as the most popular students’ union society event, the Hogwarts Yule Ball.
“I will be getting ready for the Yule Ball in the refectory that evening!” said Leigh Moss, president of the Hogwarts Society.
Suggestions for moving the forum to the Hive, the students’ union space for meetings and talks, were dismissed by students’ union president Zahid Raja.

Raja said: “The dates for student forums are set in the diary at the start of the year – this year, in the spirit of openness and transparency, I made a decision to publish these on the website at the start of the year. We haven’t changed the date or time for any of these meetings since their publication. The Hogwarts society required the Refectory and Cafe West for their Yule Ball. I saw fit to move the forum to another flat-floored space in the university.

“Currently, the only time students visit the abbey building is if they are facing an appeal / disciplinary / if they are attending a senior university meeting. Exposing this part of the university to students as somewhere where we can hold open public meetings and events will reduce the overwhelming feeling that student attending appeals / senior meetings / disciplinary often feel. I won’t make an apology for trying to open up more areas of the university to students.”

Pickets were manned by both staff and students as three unions, Unison, UCU and Unite, mounted the stoppage in protest over a 1% pay offer.

Lectures were cancelled, the refectory closed, car parks virtually empty and the campus all but deserted as students stayed away. The library also closed early.

“We are striking because our employers have only offered us 1% as a pay increase and that’s on top of a 13% cut in pay in real terms over the past four years,” said Simon Hoffman, branch president of UCU.

“The last time staff had a decent pay rise was the end of 2009,” added Stephen M Storey, branch secretary of Unison.

Strikers also pointed to the fact that staff were being offered 1% when Swansea University Vice Chancellor Richard B. Davies last year accepted a 20% pay rise – the biggest rise of any vice chancellor in Wales – taking his salary to £222,000.

Adrian Jenkins, branch secretary of Unite, said: “We are just looking for fair pay. Universities are not short of money. Senior staff like the vice chancellor are getting big pay rises yet we still have many staff like cleaners and porters earning less than the living wage.”

UCU, Unison and Unite are campaigning for all universities to pay a living wage to their workers.

“The employers’ representatives are relying on the fact that people are desperate to keep their jobs in a time of recession. They are saying that 1% is all they can afford but that’s nonsense. Most universities have cash reserves and there is a £1billion surplus in the higher education sector,” said Howard Moss, branch treasurer of UCU.

The National Union of Students (NUS) supports the three staff unions in believing that university staff should be properly supported.

Part-time and full-time officers from Swansea University’s student union were on the picket lines. The officers and volunteers helped out by making hot drinks for striking staff to keep their spirits high.

Christopher Whitty, ethics officer for the students’ union, said: “It was a decision taken by the executive board to fully support the strike.
“Staff are key to running the university, and if they feel like they are being treated unfairly, it will reflect in the student experience.
“The best lecturers are turning away from Wales due to low pay opportunities. These lecturers are heading elsewhere, such as universities in America where they would be paid a better wage.”

Not all students were in favour of the strike. James Taylor, a business student, said: “I have paid a substantial amount of money to come to university and because of their actions I am not getting what I have paid for. If uni was free then I would have no basis for complaint but all students pay substantial fees to attend and they are not getting the service paid for.”

Simon Hoffman, branch president of UCU, said: “We appreciate that taking this action causes disruption to students but we hope they understand the reason we are taking action. We have received messages of support from both the NUS and SUSU.”

Staff union members will continue their industrial action. Simon Hoffman said: “We hope the strike will have the effect of bringing the employers back to the negotiating table. The industrial action does not end here – universities rely on goodwill from staff to keep the university going but from tomorrow we will be working to contract.”

The one-day strike was the first national industrial action since 2006 and the first time that all three unions have gone on strike together.

A Swansea University spokesperson said: “The strike is part of a national pay dispute. Locally, the university has good relations with its recognised trade unions. The university has endeavoured to ensure that, as far as possible, disruption to students is kept to a minimum.”

#GUILTY has replaced ‘ILoveMondays’ as the Monday night students’ union sponsored night, but has concerned students over sexual implications and publicity.

A students’ union spokesperson, said: “In order to save union resources and reduce our economic risk we allowed Oceana and the Luminar Group to have creative control of the night.
“This follows a model that other universities currently use when working with external nightclubs.”

Concerns over #GUILTY stem from their ‘Addicted to Snapchat’ night on 21 October, where students were pictured holding up signs which said: “Slutdropping on the dancefloor #GUILTY”.

The sign is seen by some to be feeding into the ‘slutshaming culture’; that is becoming common at universities.

Rhiannon Sandy, a Masters student, said: “I don’t feel it’s right to encourage the idea of shaming people for what they do on nights out.
“Slutshaming promotes an unhealthy attitude that violence towards women is acceptable if they’ve done something to ‘deserve’ it, for instance wearing provocative outfits, acting in a certain way, taking up pole fitness. No one, male or female, deserves to be subject to violence. There’s a fine line between slutshaming being ‘banter’ and being potentially harmful.”

A students’ union spokesperson said: “When presented with the ‘Slutdrop’ sign, the union asked for it not to be used to coincide with our Zero Tolerance policy. This was agreed by all parties.”

However, the sign was circulated at the event, and the union attempted to rectify the mistake.

“The sign was sent as part of a package of branding and was mistakenly used. When we discovered the sign was in circulation, we recovered it and physically removed it. We apologise if anyone was offended by the contents.”

#GUILTY events have included a ‘Traffic Light Party’, where clubbers wore different coloured stickers to make their relationship status clear.

According to Oceana, red meant “I’m taken”’, orange means “Maybe baby” and green means “On the pull”.

Danielle Jo Morgan, a third year English Literature student, said: “I don’t know about Oceana but I disagree with the whole ‘slutshaming’ culture in general.
“I think it’s quite patronising and demeaning. I think that if a woman wants to express herself sexually, then I’m all for it but I think when outside parties take that sexuality and use it as a form of entertainment for others, it removes that sexual freedom and individuality and it’s no longer for herself.”

Oceana Swansea was asked for a comment on the matter, but failed to respond at time of publication.

•What do you think? Do #Guilty nights promote sexism? Email waterfrontnews@swansea-union.co.uk

After answering the door to a man claiming to be looking for a missing child, the 20-year-old man was assaulted and a gang of six men entered the property on Bryn Road, stealing cash and laptops.

Four suspect descriptions have been issued and the police are appealing for information.

One suspect is male, white, aged 23-24, 5ft 10ins in height, of medium build with stubble on his face and was wearing a black jacket and blue jeans.

The second suspect is male, black, 6ft 2ins in height, wearing a black jacket.

Another man wanted is of mixed race, aged in his 20s, of fat and stocky build with a thick half-inch beard below the chin, wearing a jumper. He spoke with a Caribbean accent.

And the final profile is that of a male, white, aged early 20s, who spoke with a local accent and wore a blue tracksuit.

Detective Inspector Darren George of Swansea CID said: “We believe that the victim has been mistakenly targeted and the suspects have attended the wrong address.

“It is clear they were looking for drugs or cash and have made off with property from the address including computer equipment and clothing.”

Around six men were seen running away from the scene along Bryn Road in the direction of Brynmill Lane.

Any witnesses or anyone with information about the incident should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Students living in the area are being warned to report any suspicious callers on 101 or in an emergency, 999.

Last Friday, business students were notified that: “The School of Management Steering Group has agreed to suspend all student activities within the School of Management on Thursday October 31st.”

The email also carried the warning: “it would be inappropriate to expect our students to cross the picket line.”

Student James Taylor complained directly to Dean Nigel Piercy: “As a paying ‘client’ of the School of Management the news of the upcoming strike action closing the school for the day and denying students contact hours that they have paid for in their tuition fees is grossly disappointing.”

Since September, the school have removed all references to students internally, renaming the ‘Student Support Office’, to the ‘Client Experience Office’

Taylor went on to ask how the university was going to: “compensate students for this loss of service which we have paid for.”

Newly appointed Management Dean Professor Nigel Piercy replied, agreeing with Taylor’s concerns and confirmed: “Teaching and other student-facing activities will continue on a normal basis.”

Dean Piercy went on in a staff email to clarify the situation: “Please accept my personal assurance that this is NOT the policy of the university or the School and this message was sent in error.”

What’s your opinion? Do you prefer being called a client or a student? Comment below.

The widespread flooding and hurricane force winds that were forecast for the Swansea area failed to materialise.

Some lectures were cancelled ahead of the storm and the university issued a warning to students to follow advice issued by the police and Met Office.

Meanwhile, student letting agency SAS warned its residents to make sure all windows and doors were secured, in a preemptive move to avoid preventable damage.

A tree closed a lane of Oystermouth Road eastbound for a short while on Sunday and was later cut down due to damage from high winds.

Some flooding and high winds affected the Cardiff and Newport areas, with the strongest gust of wind recorded at 44 mph at St Athan.

The storm has battered south east England, with the Met Office recording a gust of 99 mph on the Isle of Wight.

The St Jude storm comes just days after the 26th anniversary of Michael Fish’s infamous ‘no hurricane’ forecast, which later turned out to be the worst storm to hit the UK since 1703.

Last Thursday, The Waterfront revealed the trustee board’s letter that generated a massive student backlash.

The national Pole Fitness Society, representing over 300 instructors, has threatened to sue unless the trustee board reverses its decision.

A spokesman for the society said: “We must consider our own duty to our membership of 300-plus professional pole instructors and act according to their wishes.

“In the absence of any reply from the SUSU trustee board we are prepared for both legal and constitutional recourse.
“We sincerely hope that neither of these options become necessary.”

The trustee board originally banned the society, without any direct student input, because pole fitness was “linked to the sex industry”.

In their letter, the trustees said: “We should not be deaf to the very issue of pole fitness playing a part in upholding this raunch culture and objectification of women and girls and the impact of this on our female students.”

Instructor Dawn Roberts, who runs the classes for the pole fitness club, speaking to the Evening Post: “My class is and always has been about fitness. I have no relationship with the sex industry and none of the people I have trained have gone on to work in it.”

In response to this, the students’ union declined to give a fresh response, re-iterating its line: “The union are aware of the contents of the letter written by the PDC and are looking to discuss this and a number of other issues at our next student forum.”