The first episode referred to an incident which took place after a bop earlier this term. In his email, the Dean stated, “apparently some female members of the JCR were virtually kidnapped one night a few weeks ago and essentially forced to go to a club in town when dressed in their nightclothes.”
There are allegations, however, that the seriousness of the incident may have been overstated. One LMH student took particular issue with the use of the phrase “virtually kidnapped”, saying, “It’s absurd to imply that somebody has been taken without their consent when nothing of the sort happened – it was just the usual banter.”
Abhishek Oswal, a first year medic at LMH, agreed, saying, “The situation has been blown out of proportion a bit, and nothing of note really happened. Obviously I don’t want people being kidnapped, but I think it was meant as a joke and should be taken as one.”
The second cause for concern raised by the Dean was the apparent compilation of lists by some students “of female members whom they found attractive”, and the placing of these lists “in the public domain.” JCR members were warned, “this is not acceptable, and could be viewed as harassment.”
Some students at the College disagreed with the Shields’ assessment. One male undergraduate told Cherwell, “It was just a bit of fun. They’re making more out of it than they need to.”
Rhiannon Sheridan, a second year Economics & Management student, was more balanced, commenting, “I understand that kind of thing causes offence, but we all talk about stuff like that. They should have been more discreet though and writing it down seems to make it worse.”
In response to allegations that these incidents were blown out of proportion, Shields told Cherwell, ‘I was just reporting what had been told to me. What the student body should be concerned about isn’t the precise wording of the email but the point that what happened put members of College in danger.’
At the end of his message to the college, Shields alluded to alcohol consumption as a reason that the College was falling short of “the general principle that consideration for others is always paramount”, telling students, “it is absolutely vital that members wake up to the fact that this culture of voluminous consumption is very damaging to the College.”
