Our generous sponsors Xchanging visited us at the Wallingford boathouse this weekend. Their staff, including the CEO, were impressed by our enthusiasm for business processing services thanks to Ben Harrison (Christ Church), who recited the entire Xchanging company brochure word for word. Xchanging is ably represented at our other social functions by Nick Brodie, former OUBC President, Boat Race winning cox and their newest recruit.
Cherwell has an excellent coverage of sports current affairs in Oxford and last week’s article “True Blues or Mercenaries?”, debating the merits of one-year Masters courses amongst rowers, is no exception. As the only writer at OUBC in the Oxford student media, I feel compelled to raise several points.
Let me remove any doubt. Each athlete has passed the same application process as any non-rower in his course. He is not given extra time to submit work nor exempted from attendance. Any missed classes are caught up during our own personal time – at hours when other students are sinking pints at the Turf or trawling Facebook. We have to complete an international-level rowing program and Oxford University degree in the same time most people take to do one of these. We are here as students first and athletes second.
To argue that having world-class athletes at our university tarnishes its reputation is illogical. Losing the boat race over and over wouldn’t be much good! Should we evict every college’s artist-in-residence or clergyman and accuse them of unnecessarily occupying a room, which ought to be given to a British undergraduate? Underneath these arguments is an unspoken assumption that athletic ability and academic intelligence are inversely proportional. This is false.
Oxford is an international university and the multicultural nature of the Boat Race is a reflection of the wider student community. We are proud to represent our university and ask for your passionate support.
Our first regatta is the Fours Head, held this Saturday (8th November) in London. The 4 ¼ mile race is on the championship course between Chiswick Bridge and Putney – this is the Boat Race course in reverse. The squad has been broken down into fours and it will be our first competition against Cambridge and hundreds of other crews from rowing clubs around Britain.
