Controversy over Catz bar headgear ban

Serious equal
opportunities concerns have been raised over the announce­ment of a blanket ban
on wearing headgear at St Catz’s JCR bar.The
new rule was communicated to students in an e-mail sent out by Peter Eleveld,
the college’s domestic man­ager. In it he said, “have been asked to inform you
that there is now a JCR Bar policy that NO HeadGear will be worn whilst you are
being served at the Bar.” The reason he gives is, “As licensees we must be
absolutely certain that we are able to identify those that we actually serve.”Crucially,
students who have to wear ’headgear’ for religious reasons will be included in
the ban as well; they will have to ask permission to be exempted. It
is, however, unclear how the policy will be applied to guests to the bar from
outside the college if they have not had prior approval to purchase drinks. OUSU
VP (Welfare & Equal Op­portunities), Aidan Randle-Conde, said,
"refusing to offer services to students and staff who wish to wear a
headscarf or burqa is discriminatory and irresponsible. St Catherine’s col­lege
should seriously reconsider their policy of who they can and cannot serve in
their bar. whilst am not in a position to give legal advice, the College may
find itself in violation of the race relations amendment 2000 which states that
public authorities have a responsibility to ’promote equality of opportunity
and good relations between persons of different racial groups’.”Eleveld
defended the new policy stating, "believe the ban is necessary for the Jcr
bar because it is after all a busy bar, we do get lots of guests, and incidents
do occur from time to time.” Arzoo
Ahmed, VP (sisters) of Isoc said, “The security concerns of the College relating
to the bar are under­standable. However, the action that has been taken in the
form of a ban of headgear isn’t practical enough and should be given serious
thought. The implementation of an indiscriminate ban would be worrying as
students wearing headgear for religious reasons from outside the College would
be unable to get clearing beforehand and would therefore be refused service. I would
urge those involved to carefully consider the implications of such a
prohibition.”Rosalie
Hooke, St Catz Equal Opportunities rep, said, “the past week an e-mail
circulated to the JCR introduced a new rule concerning bar regulations. Major
concerns over the content and implementation of the new rule caused the JCR
committee to report the matter to the college authorities. An internal official
investi­gation has since been launched and we await the results of this.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005