Somerville College has set up a purpose built Skype room for the use of students and staff.

According to Mr. Chris Bamber, the IT Systems Manager at Somerville College, “the Skype room is a meeting room with the addition of a fixed LDC monitor on one wall, with a computer, HD camera, conference desktop microphone, wireless mouse and keyboard, desks, chairs and a [VOIP] phone.” The phone has hands free facilities.

As Mr. Bamber informed Cherwell, “any member of the College may book the room. [To book the room], they email the Bursary as per any other room booking”.

During the admissions period, from the December 5th to December 19th, the Skype room is being used for interviewing applicants, and so is completely booked. Whether an international applicant has a Skype interview or not depends on their subject choice and country of origin.

University regulations stipulate that any applicant applying for Medicine must be in Oxford for a face to face interview. If the candidate short-listed for an interview is a passport-holder from the European Economic Area (an EU country, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein) or from Switzerland, then they too must be present in Oxford for their interview. However, potential students from other parts of the world who cannot be in Oxford will be given a Skype interview, with no impact on the consideration their application is given.

On this subject Mr. Bamber said, “The College identified a need for a room with fixed equipment capable of hosting a Skype (or other video or audio conference) interview or meeting to provide a better experience during online interviews. It enables up to six people to see and be seen during an interview, which is important for formal interview panels. Having the dedicated space means that minimal IT support is needed to conduct a video meeting. Prior to this, IT services would provide and set up a laptop and projector for any such requests. The room has been in use since the start of this term and has been used for group meetings, job interviews by students and now in use for Admission interviews.”

Hannah Sharpe, a second year undergraduate from Somerville College, told Cherwell, “Personally, I know of the Skype room’s existence, but I’ve never used it myself, as the only Skyping I’ve ever really done is to family. I also don’t know anyone else who’s used it, but I can see that it could be useful for undergrads or grad students who are using Skype for an interview and want somewhere more formal and quiet to go than their rooms or the library. I think it’s a good idea to have a Skype room, although it could be a bit more advertised by the college to the students.”

Anyone in Oxford can use Skype on the University Network, so Somerville students are still able to use Skype outside of the Skype room.

The Skype room is located on the second floor of Maitland, in Somerville College. 

An anonymous second year undergraduate at Somerville commented, “Honestly I had no idea this room existed.” 

Outgoing Union President Mayank Banerjee’s controversial rules changes have been declared null by a tribunal, whilst Returning Officer Thomas Reynolds was cleared of interfering with Union elections.

Banerjee, whose term ends at midnight on Saturday, fought for the rules changes, which involved the legalising of campaigning, including slates, and the introduction of a Re-Open Nominations (RON) option. In a poll he conducted in 5th week, over 90 per cent of voters approved the rule changes. 

However, Returning Officer Thomas Reynolds, who ran the Union elections in a 7th week which saw Roberto Weeden-Sanz elected as President for Trinity 2015 after he ran unopposed, issued an interpretation which declared the rule changes invalid during the election. 

At the time, Reynolds stated that in changing the rules via poll, Banerjee’s own interpretation of the rules was “wrong”, adding that under the conditions of the President’s poll, “It is insupportable for me to run these Elections in a transparent and correct manner.” 

Reynolds issued the ballot papers for the election without a RON option on them, despite Banerjee insisting that the rule changes would be in place for the election.

Banerjee had originally claimed that if his rule changes were not in place for the election, he would resign. However, he told Cherwell that despite the tribunal’s decision that his rule changes were invalid, he would not be resigning in the few hours he had left of his tenure, also refusing to comment on the decision until after the tribunal’s report had been published.

Furthermore, candidates who campaigned in the 7th week elections will not face a tribunal, Cherwell understands, as the deadline has passed for this term — despite the fact that the tribunal’s decision suggests that candidates who campaigned broke Union rules. 

Although Reynolds was cleared of interfering with the election, the tribunal’s statement does not specifically state that his interpretation of the rules was correct. It is understood that they will release a new interpretation of the rules in due course.

Reynolds also refused to comment on the decision.

It remains to be seen whether incoming president Lisa Wehden, who could also not be reached, will attempt to push through the rule changes in her tenure next term.

Students at Baby Love on Tuesday 2 December witnessed a disturbance outside the club when two individuals were denied entry and allegedly verbally abused revellers.

An Oxford undergraduate who was at Baby Love during the incident said, “I saw a crowd of people outside and went to see what was going on. There were two police cars, and one man was handcuffed outside a car and speaking to a police officer. People who’d been outside told me that some men had come from nowhere, started calling everyone in the smoking area ‘faggots’ and lunging at people. With hindsight, it sounds mildly terrifying – at the time most of us were far too smashed to appreciate quite how risky the situation was.”

David Mark Dunning, a student at St Benet’s, commented, “I did witness a little of what went on at Baby Love on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning. I didn’t witness anything in the club but I did hear that there was an incident inside. However, as I was leaving the club I was redirected from the steps at the front of the club and told to leave down the disabled access ramp as just at the bottom of the steps there was parked a police car. The bouncers blocked the way, but I could see two police officers were there, and I watched as they arrested two homophobic people, at least one of which, I was told, had a knife. After having watched the police handcuff the homophobes, I then proceeded to leave with my boyfriend, via the ramp, because I wanted to avoid any possibility of danger.”

A spokesperson for Baby Love told Cherwell, “We are aware that 2 residents of Simon House tried to enter the bar and were refused entry by the security on the door. At present we cannot confirm what, (or if anything at all was said), and / or to whom.

“Baby Love is sensitive to the fact that Simon House is a long established hostel for the Homeless and other vulnerable people in Oxford. The management is clear that they do not support any antisocial behaviour of any kind from its residents. They are in the process of investigating the incident and are following their strict protocol that governs the behaviour of its residents.

“Baby Love is working with the management of Simon House and the Police on this matter.”

Baby Love Bar relocated to its current site at the Castle Tavern on Paradise Street earler this year.

James Blythe, another Oxford student, commented, “Enjoying the final Baby Love of term fuelled by wonderful LGBTQSoc drinks, I was shocked to encounter homophobic abuse raining down from a neighbouring property. The staff of Babylove were amazing and reacted swiftly, as did the police, but it’s a grim reminder of how much violence LGBTQ people routinely experience in 2014 and from which my privilege generally protects me.”

In response to the incident, Chris Pike, OUSU VP for Welfare and Equal Opportunities, commented, “It is very unpleasant to hear that LGBTQ students and locals had to endure this deeply unpleasant behaviour. I am pleased that action was taken quickly to combat the problem, and I hope that Baby Love will continue to act to prevent this behaviour around their venue in future. OUSU will continue to work for LGBTQ students as a community of our university as a top priority, and any students who have had individual problems as a result of their sexuality or gender should feel able to get advice and support from our Student Advice Service.”

Thames Valley Police were unavailable for comment.

OUSU has conducted a recount of votes from this term’s elections, following the revelation that people who had already graduated were able to log in and vote. The results of the election were unaffected by the recount.

According to a statement made by OUSU, five students who were ineligible to vote in the elections and who should not have been able to vote logged into OUSU’s website and cast their votes.

The statement, which was published on OUSU’s website and sent to all candidates in the 2014 elections, reads, “For the current academic year, OUSU and the University have put in place a new and more secure system for ensuring OUSU has access to up to date and secure data about its student members. This involves the provision of data to OUSU by the university via a third-party IT support company. In this instance there was an error in the data transfer that left out information about students that should have allowed OUSU to automatically exclude graduated students from the elections.

“As a result, five students ineligible to vote in this year’s OUSU elections had their votes registered and cast. Having identified this issue, OUSU has re-counted the votes for each post and we are able to confirm that none of the results have changed as a result.  

“The University and OUSU have already taken steps to ensure that this problem (which is particular to the election process only) will not arise in the future.”

In addition to publishing a statement, OUSU has removed its list of results and voting numbers from OUSU.org.

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Voting in this year’s elections was conducted on OUSU.org, after the original Mi-Voice system was abandoned. Mi-Voice was found to be unreliable after it was revealed that the result of last summer’s referendum on Oxford’s affiliation with NUS had been manipulated, and the referendum was declared void.

Earlier this term, a number of colleges were unhappy with OUSU’s handling of the situation, with one JCR Returning officer calling the fact that OUSU failed to keep JCRs up to date about the state of the voting system “chaotic and intolerable”.

Will Obeney, the first runner-up in the presidential election, tweeted his support for OUSU’s handling of the matter.

Delighted at fast response by @ousunews over issues with the statutory elections. http://t.co/UKV4NeAbbV

— Will Obeney (@WillObeney) December 5, 2014

Meanwhile, Becky Howe, the winning presidential candidate, commented, “It’s good to see that OUSU has responded very quickly to this unforeseeable problem, by conducting a recount, and investigating how to prevent such a situation from arising again.”

While most of the positions in this year’s race were unopposed, the election for Vice President (Access & Academic Affairs) was a close one. Greg Auger lost out to Cat Jones, despite winning almost 50 more first preference votes. In the end, the result was determined by second preference votes, though these numbers were not released.

Hundreds of students at Warwick gathered outside the University’s Senate House yesterday to express their anger about police response to student protests. Students also occupied a university space in order to have an open dialogue about the events on Wednesday 3 December.

On Wednesday a group of students at the University of Warwick staged a peaceful sit-in at Senate House as part of a national day of action in support of free education, called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.

Police have said that they were called to the University by security services after a member of staff was assaulted by a protester. Three men were later arrested – one on suspicion of assault, and two on suspicion of obstructing the police; they have since been bailed, but their bail conditions state that they are not allowed to return to campus. This version of events is contested by some of the students who were present; speaking to Channel 4 News, Callum Cant, a 20-year-old English student, said, “it’s utterly unbelievable to suggest that [a protester assaulted a member of staff]. It just wouldn’t fit with how the day panned out… It wasn’t really an occupation because we weren’t blocking anything. We spent 20 or 30 minutes talking with security. Then police cars turned up and security told us they were for us.”

Footage has emerged on social media showing police clashing with protesters; a police officer is seen wielding a can of CS spray, which was used on at least two students. West Midlands Police have confirmed that a taser gun was drawn, but not used on any protester.

West Midlands police have issued a statement in response to allegations of excessive use of force on student protesters stating, “During the incident a taser was drawn as a visible and audible warning to prevent a further disorder. CS Spray was also used by police during the protest when a group advanced on officers. Police officers and security staff from the university worked together to ensure everyone was safe.”

Coventry Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Claire Bell, said in the same statement, “We are aware of videos of the protest being circulated on social media sites. We expect the highest standards from all officers, and if any officer is found to have fallen below these standards, they will be thoroughly investigated.”

In a statement the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Nigel Thrift, said, “Let me be clear that the police were called solely to investigate the alleged assault on a member of staff and not in response to the protest on campus. When the police arrived our security team still endeavoured to get the individual alleged to have made the assault to fully identify himself before the police engaged directly with the protestors.

“Sadly that individual, and others present, would not co-operate with this request and the police were obliged to intervene directly. I, like many others, have been saddened by the images of what then occurred which saw police and students having to engage in and resolve an unnecessarily challenging situation which led on from the actions of one individual.”

There has been an angry response from many on and off campus to the incident. A change.org petition started by Warwick alumni demanding an unreserved apology to students who faced ‘police violence’, a review of the University’s policy on police liason, and a guarantee of assistance from Warwick University for students who want to make complaints or take legal action against the police, has gathered over 2000 signatures.

Yesterday around 100 students occupied the top floor of the Rootes builing on Warwick Campus and issued demands to both the University of Warwick management and to the West Midlands police. Demands included an apology from the West Midlands police and for the University of Warwick to release a statement about the incidents which occurred in which they declare their total support to Warwick students.

Speaking to Cherwell from inside the occupation, Hattie Craig, a student from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts who has been involved in organizing yesterday’s action, described the mood on campus, commenting, “The feeling on campus has been incredible. I was leafleting for the protest today but all the students were already aware and were pretty shocked and horrified at the way the police had dealt with the sit-in yesterday. It’s been great to see that there’s been a really strong response- there were over a thousand people out on campus today showing their support. Students thought that it was necessary to have a strong response to police brutality. We haven’t ever seen CS gas used at student protests in this country;  we couldn’t let this go unnoticed. A hundred of us are currently staging an occupation and we will shortly be issuing demands to both West Midlands police and the University.”

Amnesty International has also voiced its concerns about the events with its UK Arms Control Director, Oliver Sprage, saying, “Videos of the incident and accounts from several eyewitnesses raise serious concerns about whether the police acted heavy-handedly and seriously endangered people at the scene.

“We’re worried that West Midlands Police are becoming increasingly trigger-happy with Tasers.”

Protests in solidarity with Warwick students have also been held at campuses around the country, including at Lancaster, Manchester, London and Leeds.