The most viewed articles of 2018
Presented in order, here is the Honi content that went viral this year
Popular USyd lecturer removed without explanation
by Lamya Rahman and Lena Wang
“In his last recorded lecture in Week 12, Chan cryptically admitted he was not sure whether he’d be able to teach for much longer. ‘I can’t explain entirely why, I’ll just tell you there’s some really evil people running around.’”
Nine days in North Korea
by Jay Tharappel
“What follows is not an academic account that takes into consideration every aspect of the country, but simply what I saw in a thousand words.”
‘Vote No’ protestor elected as undergraduate Senate Fellow
by Liam Donohoe and Lamya Rahman
“Tamer received approximately 1,800 votes, defeating 23 other candidates, a particularly large candidature. This was a significant margin of victory, with the second ranked candidate, Patrick Hendy, receiving 661 votes.”
International House to be demolished
by Janek Drevikovsky
“International House residents feel they have been left in the dark about the demolition and the details of the move.”
WTF Is Going On at The University of Wollongong?
by Nick Harriott, Pranay Jha and Andrew Rickert
“‘Welcome to stupol. Welcome–you know–it’s always fun. This is the classic backroom dealing you hear about on Q&A and, fucking, the news and shit all the fucking time.’”
How a suburb disappears
by Jamie Weiss
“In fact, Macdonaldtown, the suburb, hasn’t existed for over a century. Sometimes, suburbs just disappear. But Macdonaldtown didn’t ‘just disappear’—and its tiny station remains, the last relic of a slice of Sydney with a truly gruesome past.”
B.A. ‘n Bougie: USyd’s social scene is classist
by Ellie Wilson
“USyd’s embrace of bourgeois culture—ironically or not—excludes people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, in the process perpetuating the view that USyd isn’t a place for them.”
Subtle Asian Traits has taken over my life
by Alison Xiao
“Scrolling through Facebook memes is nothing out of the ordinary. But this online group is different. It shows you things you thought were bizarrely unique to your own upbringing, and makes you realise thousands of other kids had the same experience.”
24-hour party people
by Justin Handisurya and Alex MacIntyre
“Every pill swallowed, every “yeah the boys” uttered, every transgression committed — each and every one of these epitomises the sordid experience.”
Panda’s Jacky He will be 2019 SRC president
by Honi Soit
“Jacky (Yisheng) He will be the SRC president for 2019, dominating at the polls with 1789 of the primary vote.”
ACAR Honi: In defence of transracialism
by Kida Lin
“Nevertheless, my argument in this piece is conditional: namely, I argue that if transracial individuals exist, we ought to embrace transracial identity.”
Censoring Western Sydney: when to use ‘youse’
by Lamya Rahman
“We subtly code switch all the time. The way we talk to our family is different from our boss, for example. But for USyd students from Western Sydney, code switching can begin to demarcate parts of their lives.”
A right, racist, royal mess
by Jocelin Chan
“What are the implications of a woman of colour marrying into a system which has, for the past half-millennium, racialised, exploited, and dispossessed people of colour?”
AUJS slams autonomous Honi Soit editions
by Lamya Rahman
“the organisation criticises the cover of Women’s Honi Soit for showcasing an image of Arab Ba’ath Party member Hamida Mustafa al-Tahir, who in 1985 committed a suicide bombing in an Israeli military base in Lebanon.”
College Boys Pledge to Try Really, Really Hard Not to Rape Anyone This OWeek
by Nick Harriott
“‘We’re going to try our best,’ said St. Andrews Senior Student Tipp Richdad. ‘When we saw the results of the review last year we were like, man, that looks really bad for us.’”
Repselect cancelled after meeting room flooded
by Honi Soit
“It is understood that Campus Security believes the fire alarm was deliberately activated or the sprinklers were tampered with.”
The Marauder’s Map of USyd
by Jess Zlotnick
“L is the creator of USyd’s very own Marauder’s Map: a handmade map containing only first-hand information about the best hidden and inaccessible rooftops on campus.”
No food on campus: Conservatorium students ask for more
by Lamya Rahman
“Yet the absence of viable food and beverage services appears to be a part of a trend of solutions that have worked against the interests of students on satellite campuses.”
Is Sydney Law School too harsh on its students?
by Lamya Rahman
“The first things I learnt about being a student at Sydney Law School were (a) ‘you’re going to cry’ (b) closed book exams (c) ‘Taste is horrible but we all pretend we like it’ and (d) ‘did you know we have more closed book exams than any other law school?’”
“Dave Sharma Should Have Just Run as an Independent, Like We Do,” say USyd Young Libs
by Nick Harriott
“‘Look, in the end voters are savvy. You can’t convince them you’re not a heterosexual cis white male—trust me I’ve tried. But with a cunning strategy and a little luck, you can convince them you’re not a Liberal, and sometimes that’s close enough.’”
Check out the other Best of 2018 lists here.