An investigation by the Financial Times into the ongoing dispute between the governing body of Christ Church and the Dean, The Very Reverend Martyn Percy, criticizes both parties heavily.
Although details of the affair have been hard to come by, the report goes into detail and contains extensive comment from members of the collegeโs administration and academic body, largely anonymous, as well as figures from other colleges.
The investigation argues that the crisis which has swept Christ Church over the past year began with the Deanโs request for a salary rise, including a threat to adjust his availability and skip a fundraising tour to the United States.
According to the investigation, the Dean is perceived to be part of the โdwindling talent poolโ within the Church, and โa low-key figure compared to the distinguished academics and civil servants who headed many other collegesโ by fellows.
For his part, Percy cast himself as overworked and underappreciated. He said in an email that the college has a โculture of unpleasantnessโ and that โI have not received the smallest hint โ not even a single sentence โ of gratitude for my workโ.
When Percyโs predecessor as Dean, Christopher Lewis, was asked whether he felt overworked in the role, he said, โNo. You were busy.โ
The investigation contains details about the current environment within college. It reports academics breaking down in tears over the dispute, the Dean refusing to attend meetings with certain people present, and clerical staff watching who sits with who at dinner as a way of determining loyalties.
One anonymous source said: โI go around hoping I wonโt meet some people… If I meet them, we stare straight ahead so we donโt look at one another.โ
The investigation concurs with the recent complaint made by former Conservative minister Jonathan Aitken to the Charity Commission which criticised the college for spending up to ยฃ2 mil- lion on the case.
The dean himself is reported to have spent ยฃ400,000 of his own money on his defence.
Mr Aitken was critical of the attempt to withhold details of the dispute from the public, telling Cherwell, โLike many members of the Christ Church Alumni Association, I regard it as a scandal of governance that the full Govern- ing Body of the College has been refused sight of a full, unredacted copy of the Tribunalโs findings and reasons for clearing the Dean of all charges.โ
โThe notion that a small cabal of anti-Dean Dons can censor the Tribunalโs report is an attempt at self-serving protection for themselves because they are severely criticised in the Appendices of the report.”
โIt would be morally pusillanimous to go along with the cabalโs redaction attempt.โ
The Charity Commission replied with a statement of their own, saying, โWe can confirm that we told the trustees of Christ Church to undertake a review of the charityโs governance.โ
โIt is good practice for all charities to undertake such a review from time to time. We will not be involved in the review directly, but we expect the trustees to report to us on its outcome.โ
Christ Church gave Cherwell a statement in response, which said, โAll at Christ Church are focused on the work of the College and Cathedral and are committed to its future success. As part of this, Christ Church is currently embarking on an independent review of its governance arrangements, and we will be working closely with the Charity Commission during this process.โ
โWe are aware that numerous inaccurate and misleading comments have been made in recent weeks, but unfortunately we are not in a position to address these at this time as it would be inappropriate to comment before the independent review has concluded.โ