Irene Tracey is used to doing uncontroversial good. She has dedicated her remarkable career to studying pain, poring over MRI machines with the goal of understanding and preventing the phenomenon. She’s a fierce advocate for women in STEM, involved in several mentoring programmes. In January 2023, she went from Warden of Merton to Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, the first state-educated and second female one in the University’s history, and seemed set to continue her success. Initiatives like the Vice-Chancellor’s Colloquium and development of the Schwarzmann Centre for Humanities speak to her administrative abilities. But mere administration is not governance and, while not malevolent, Tracey has struggled to contend with the political burdens of her role. She has failed to rise to difficult moments, failed to steer the University to solve longstanding issues.
The Vice-Chancellor is the face of the University. This means responding to controversy, and Tracey has faced some unenviable issues in her short time. But difficulty does not absolve poor performance. When ‘gender-critical’ feminist Kathleen Stock’s planned address to the Oxford Union in June 2023 stirred a maelstrom of transphobic rhetoric, concerns over free speech, and protests, Tracey’s only response was a placid defence of Stock’s “right to come and speak”. Months later, she expressed regret at the handling of the situation, saying the University “should have done more” to support the trans community. Reassuringly, we were told “lessons were learned”, though no detail was given. More recently, cases of antisemitism and violence against students on campus were not addressed via formal meetings with the student groups that had reported these issues, most notably OA4P and JSoc, but blanket statements and emails from the University. Claiming to understand that “that many of you are hurting”, she refused to meet with Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P), a student protest group calling for Oxford to reform its finances and boycott Israel, saying that they were negotiating in bad faith. 17 members were arrested for attempting to perform a sit-in within her office, with Tracey condemning the action as violent. On the last day of Trinity, the University agreed to regular meetings. Whatever one’s opinion of OA4P, Tracey prioritised feuding with a student group over anything more than perfunctory gestures for Gaza. While it’s good Tracy has “asked [her] team to remain vigilant” to ensure ethical investments, and is “reaching out to prospective donors” to support Palestinian offer-holders, it’s just possible more could have been done. Between these two cases, a pattern emerges: words signal great concern, and little else happens. Measures are taken only when inoffensive. Tracey is always learning, rarely acting.
Perhaps, with a university-hostile government and American college presidents resigning over controversy, Tracey simply defaulted to whichever position would lead to the least criticism in the opinion pages of The Times. But perhaps this reveals a more fundamental problem. In some ways, it is a peculiarity to install academics into governance positions. Academia, particularly science, involves deep specialisation, engaging in careful inquiry for months, and refusing to conclude without a high degree of confidence. Once published, any implementation of their findings happens well downstream of them. By contrast, an executive like a Vice-Chancellor must generalise, weigh unclear trade-offs, navigate politics and scandal, and, often, act quickly and decisively. Uncontroversial good is hard to come by.
Tracey makes a point of calling herself the “ultimate insider”, and this is no exaggeration: postdoctoral stint at Harvard aside, Irene Tracey has been living, learning, or teaching in Oxford for her entire life. Perhaps this combination of academic caution and lifelong attachment to the University can explain her inaction in the face of immediate controversy and neglect of institutional issues. Upon her admission as Vice-Chancellor, Tracey claimed that staff pay and conditions were a “priority” for her, and boldly commissioned an independent analysis on the matter, of which we have heard nothing. Meanwhile, many staff members remain on casualised contracts, with Oxford continuing ill-fated litigation against two academics fighting to be recognised as full employees after 15 years of teaching. The investigation could have been paired with immediate relief for obvious issues.
College disparity was recently highlighted by the Student Union’s report. Tracey scarcely mentions the issue, let alone addresses it. When raised, she defers to the colleges. This is partly understandable – the university cannot unilaterally resolve the issue – but Tracey could use her influence and convening power to propose measures and pressure colleges. While respect for collegiate autonomy is important, colleges are unlikely to satisfactorily sort this out among themselves. Vice-Chancellors ought to be leaders. They ought to chart the course of the universities they govern, to address such fundamental ‘big picture’ issues, not shy away from them. Oxford is an unwieldy institution; it needs a central figure to set a vision. Take the Vice-Chancellor’s own colloquium, a praiseworthy programme designed to bring together the disparate academic branches of Oxford, using Tracey’s convening power. It would be nice to see a similar unitary approach used in more contentious issues. Tracey’s style is bureaucratic and diligent, but it manifests as impotency, not care, leaving the University without a strong helmsman to guide it.
Tracey has not held the post of Vice-Chancellor for long, and perhaps some of this meekness is a result – it’s understandable not to rock the boat soon after you take command of it. But she is well out of the stage in which she can be called new. Her instincts as an academic – to observe at length, to look for uncontroversial good, to reject partial solutions – are maladaptive as a leader. Her Oxford pedigree prevents her from effecting radical change and using her position to the fullest. In a more peaceful, untroubled time, we might praise her light touch. We are unlikely to be in peaceful, untroubled times again. With Oxford’s longtime Chancellor Chris Patten retiring, the Vice-Chancellor has to step up. So far, she hasn’t.
