Colleges Deny "Rent Conspiracy"

A number of JCR Presidents believe that an inter-collegiate conspiracy is to blame for soaring student accommodation costs across Oxford University. Suspicions were raised after JCRs at several colleges reported a lack of negotiation and insubstantial reasoning for large increases in rents. One anonymous JCR President is convinced that “collaboration between bursars has occurred”, adding that “it is a strange coincidence that all colleges seem to be making large adjustments at the same time.” He further questioned whether market shocks could be responsible for “excessively affecting such a range of colleges with varying endowment interests”. In response to greater charges for accommodation and food at Lady Margaret Hall, JCR President Euan Fitzpatrick claims to be “pissed off that junior members of the college have been left out of discussions.” He too believes that “ten or twelve colleges have got together to agree on large rent rises and are now playing off each other for justification.” Students at LMH are equally incensed by the college’s lack of consultation and are considering policies of non-participation and possible rent strikes if their voices remain unheard. Susan Marshall, Chair of the Domestic Bursars’ Committee, denies that any official command increase rents had been issued, saying that discussion has been limited to discussions between individual bursars “in general terms.” However this conflicts with reports from insiders on the Bursars’ Committee, who assert that they received overall recommendations to charge more for accommodation. The Hon Michael Beloff ’s attribution of Trinity’s increases to “the war in Iraq, concerns about terrorism and now SARS” has furthered fuelled student indignation. St Catherine’s undergraduate Laurence Parker Bowen claims the “real reasons are straightforward – to secure long term economic survival,” and accuses the University of “quietly abandoning its economic principles in favour of the chequebook.” This week, Roberto Montanari, JCR President of Somerville, hit out against his College’s “unsubstantiated and seemingly arbitrary” decision to raise room costs by ten percent. Although Professor Roger Van Noorden of Hertford calculates a general guideline for acceptable college rent rises each year, Somerville Governing Body is purported to have called his indications of 4.52% “outdated and irrelevant.” Balliol JCR has admitted that it too is “in trouble with rents” after students reacted angrily to the fact that they are facing large increases based on the performance of endowments and world markets. Although current students will not be substantially affected, new students from 2004 must expect extra costs of 27 to percent. Other colleges announced rents rises at JCR meetings on Sunday and many others are still in the middle difficult negotiations with apparently intransigent governing bodies.ARCHIVE: 3rd Week TT 2003