Welcome Week (or Fresher’s Week as it was previously known) is truly an ‘interesting’ time. Nothing feels more freeing and yet more degrading than cooking your first bowl of tomato pasta in halls, only to realise that you’ve forgotten the onions and the garlic and maybe (just maybe) you can’t actually cook. Surely there must be some kind of support for navigating this, as well as the complex social dynamics of having to play ‘Ring of Fire’ with a group of people you’ve only just met. So for this month’s Concrete Archive, I thought that we could take a trip back to 1995 and have a little look at whether their ‘Freshers’ Guide’ holds up today.  

The guide starts with what might be referred to as quite a ‘sassy’ little introduction (so all the first-years know that Concrete is definitely very cool), where the writer succeeds in playfully insulting UEA. In all honesty, it really is quite funny, with standout lines being, ‘the campus is constructed entirely from unappealing concrete blocks thus resembling an open-plan prison’ and ‘there are always people who go around joining everything, including the Nude Archaeologists Society.’ It then proceeds to remark on the unspoken rules for conversation in Fresher’s Week, with some of them sounding a little like conversations you might overhear at Unio today. Concrete claims, ‘Don’t say: ‘I’m very impressed with the LCR disco — such interesting people and fantastic music!’ Do say: ‘This LCR thing is crap’ (but still turn up every single week of the year).’  

Fortunately, the guide isn’t just full of witty quips, with it going on to offer some pretty useful advice about settling into life on campus. It suggests that ‘establishing a good relationship with your cleaner will make life in residences run a lot more smoothly’ and that you shouldn’t ‘leave your clothes in the [washing] machine then disappear to the pub for hours because angry people will dump them on the floor.’   

However, if we were to look at what no longer remains relevant, the most obvious feature would be the range of advertisements aimed at new students. One particularly amusing one is for ‘Trads Pizza’, which claims to sell garlic bread, baked potatoes, coleslaw and gateaux. 

I have to say that I wasn’t aware that gateaux was such a student favourite in the 90s, but maybe if I could find one for £1.50, it too might become a staple part of my diet… 

The guide finishes with a bit of shameless self-promotion, with a whole page dedicated to Concrete’s five-year history and how exactly you could get involved. ‘If you’re interested in joining Concrete’ they state, ‘visit our stall at Soc Mart’.  

Maybe some things never change, because if you want to learn more about Concrete this week- come and see us at the Societies Fair! (although today you can just as easily send us a message on Instagram ;)) With that in mind, I’ll end on a sweet note and echo what was written 28 years ago and remains just as vital in what we do today, 

‘Don’t forget- Concrete is written by UEA students, for UEA students, therefore we need you!’ 

Photo Credit: Fiona Hill/Concrete

Issue 62- Editor: James Curtis