Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Blog Page 1272

OUSU joins the march to adopt Free Education policy

Robert Walmsley
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OUSU joins the march to adopt Free Education policy

OUSU Council has voted to make Free Education part of OUSU’s policy on education funding, as well as to support the NUS’ campaign against fees and debt.

The motion, proposed by OUSU Disabled Students Officer James Elliott and seconded by OUSU Access and Admissions Officer Annie Teriba, passed on Wednesday night, with 46 in favour, 17 against and seven abstentions.

The vote comes with just 20 days to go until a national demonstration for Free Education planned for 19 November, in London. The demonstration organised by The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, The Young Greens and The Student Assembly Against Austerity, and backed by the National Executive Committee of the NUS, is intended to mark an “escalation” in opposition to tuition fees, 

The passing of the motion follows intense debate in JCRs on the issue over the weekend, with Trinity JCR mandating their representatives to vote for the motion by a single vote, after a vote of 19 in favour and 18 against, with two abstentions at their JCR meeting on Sun- day. A subsequent motion to donate £50 to subsidise travel to the protest failed after it did not acquire the two-thirds majority needed to pass, as required for financial motions in the Trinity JCR constitution.

However, the motion proved less controversial in other JCRs. Oriel JCR voted 33 to 10, with seven abstentions, in favour of supporting the Free Education motion, as did St Anne’s JCR by 30 votes to six, with 15 abstentions. The motions put forth in both JCRs, however, did not involve the donation of any funds to subsidise transportation to the demonstration.

Meanwhile, St John’s JCR voted against supporting the Free Education demonstration, but still decided to donate £75 towards transport to the demonstration.

The motion was opposed by OUSU Vice-President for Academic Affairs James Blythe. In a recent article for Cherwell, Blythe argued, “Tying OUSU to fighting for free higher education, is a policy that is, in my view, utterly unfeasible in the financial situation in which the UK currently finds itself and for the foreseeable future would leave student representatives unable to fight for real spending and tangible changes that could make an actual difference to students.”

He continued, “If we focus on free education, a battle the student movement, if we’re honest, lost 16 years ago, we will, in my view, look fiscally reckless and unaware of the political reality.”

OUSU Council had previously decided in its 1st Week meeting to provide £200 in funding for transportation to the demonstration, but decided to delay voting on whether to adopt Free Education as a policy, in order to give JCRs the opportunity to consult their members.

The motion claims not to affect the negotiating stance of OUSU’ executive in deliberations with the University on funding, bursaries or grants, but instead reflects OUSU’s intervention in ‘national policy-making’.

During the debate, the motion was ammended to remove any references to “German” or “Germany”, following a request by representatives from St Catherine’s JCR. Meanwhile, another proposed amendment calling for the motion to be changed from Free Education as a policy to “Free Education campaigns” was rejected with four votes in favour, six abstentions and 60 against, following claims that the amendment was contrary to the spirit of the motion.

OUSU President Louis Trup remarked, “Everyone at OUSU was really happy to see common rooms and OUSU Council engaged in a crucial debate that affects us all. Free education is now OUSU’s stance and all our elected officers are bound to it. OUSU will now join with other supporters of Free Education at a national level, most notably at the demonstration on the 19th November to which OUSU is subsidising transport.”

James Elliott said, “I’m delighted that OUSU has adopted free education as policy. The task is now for OUSU to mobilise the student body for the national campaign and get people to London on November the 19th.”

In all, 15 colleges voted to support the motion before OUSU Council commenced while St John’s, Jesus, Magdalen, Brasenose and Keble voted against it.

“We’re all stories, in the end”

Anna Zanetti
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“We’re all stories, in the end”

“Walk right in and clap if you believe in fairies.” This is not the jingle of a new Peter Pan — The Musical, but a sign on a door at the Story Museum. The most amazing thing is that when you walk in and clap your hands, something does happen.

The Story Museum is a registered charity active since 2003 which celebrates the power of literature, and most importantly, stories. The creed of the museum is that stories are not only for children, but for everyone. Stories can inspire, amaze, thrill, entertain, and instruct. And this is really the feeling you get from their current exhibition, ‘26 Characters’. The exhibition features twenty-six famous authors of children literature — including Michael Morpurgo, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett — dressed up as their favourite literary character and portrayed by photographer Cambridge Jones. For each of them, the museum has a room that displays the photograph and captures the character and the setting of the book; the visitors are (gently) thrown into a world of magic and stories. Part of the exhibition is also the Dressing-up Room. The room gives you the chance to decide which character from literature you would be, and to become him/her. Without being too much of a spoiler, I’ll just say that there is a Talking Throne involved as well. And if you think the whole thing sounds childish and not cool, I’ve seen teens having the time of their life in this room.

As one can detect, the Story Museum is like no other museum. Learning through stories is not done by looking at pictures or reading informative boards, as happens in other educational places. At the core of everything the Story Museum does is the idea of being a place in which people ‘experience’ things, not just ‘go and see’ them. So you can recline on comfortable cushions and be told the story of Hanuman by Jamila Gavin, or have a sit in Badger’s cosy study from Wind in the Willows, or enter the bed of Wendy, Johnny, and Michael from Peter Pan.

The way the exhibition approaches stories gives the visitor an immersive experience, in which objects, sounds, colours, lights, textures are all equally important in recreating the magic of literature.

We can learn from stories however old we are. Did you know that the Katherine Rundell, the youngest Fellow of All Souls, is (also) an author of children’s books? And that she would be a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are? And I doubt many of you will know who Bellerophon is…

The ‘26 Characters’ exhibition proves that it is possible to learn at all ages, and that indeed this can be done while having
a jolly good time. The Story Museum is a place for children and adults alike, as stories and fun are just for every-one.

Reviewing Gerhard Richter’s abstract art

Paul Ostwald
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Reviewing Gerhard Richter’s abstract art

As Gerhard Richter sets foot on the polished floor of Marian Goodman’s Gallery in Soho, London, his image shivers and eventually splinters. He has come to silently inaugurate his solo exhibition that will be open to the public until 20th December. The massive installation that marks the entrance into Richter’s abstract world is a construct of seven panes of glass. Entangled and just about seven meters high, this house of cards is a magnet to the crowd that has assembled to welcome the avant-gardist pioneer back in the country’s capital.

The image of grey paintings breaks in the panes. Spreading out on the white walls of the entrance hall, the grey paintings have been part of Richter’s oeuvre since the 1970s. One of them, laconically titled ‘double grey’, is trenched in manifold shades of grey. “Greyis no statement, it evokes neither feelings nor associations,” Richter wrote thirty years ago when he started painting in grey.

In stark contrast to the dazzling colours of Richter’s more recent work, they allude to the frigid atmosphere of the space. My personal guide to the more colourful second room has just turned nine. Konstantin, the son of Richter’s personal assistant, is familiar with the dignified gentleman and his art. “I like these more, they fit these rooms better,” he says pointing upwards. The series ‘Strip’ on the second floor is a convolute of streaks of colour. At a closer range, the contours blur. “If you look at them long enough your head starts to spin.”

But the paintings fascinate not merely due to their huge dimensions and exploding colours. Their deceiving simplicity and dynamism is a product of history. Taken from an old photograph, Richter amplifies a single snippet and mirrors it into its various shades. Then he reconnects the colours under yet another pane of glass. Nearly covering the complete wall, these paintings let reality slip for a moment. The beholder cannot get hold of their deceptive simplicity. The mind does not comprehend. “My pictures are more intelligent than me,” Richter acknowledges.

Sometimes, however, the colours break free and flee their precise boundaries. The series ‘Flow’ back on the ground floor bears witness to these moments. Mature and more discreet colours mark these enamel paintings on, yet again, glass pane. “I think at least one of them will break,” observes Konstantin from my left. The fragility and vulnerability to time and human beings is apparent in the artworks of Richter, who grew up amidst the turmoil of the Second World War. He evokes memories and provokes emotions among all beholders alike.

When in 2007 Richter was commissioned to design a new 115 square metre window for the 800 year old gothic Cologne Cathedral, he created a pattern of 11,000 chromatic squares. The following public dispute led to debates on the future of art and Catholic Church alike. Richter has become a sort of moral conscience for the modernised world. Many had therefore not expected the pre-eminent part of Modern Art to appear at his own exhibition tonight.

Wandering in through the main entrance, he appears more like the beholder than the artist. Squishing through the mingling groups of art specialists, he heads for the second floor of the Victorian-era warehouse. He absent-mindedly shakes a few hands; the days when the crowd made him feel terribly out of place are past. As his bodyguards channel a way through the fans, he finds shelter in the gallerist’s office.

“I don’t necessarily want to be recognised in public,” he admits. But after over fifty years in business, Richter knows about how iconic he and his works have become. When Eric Clapton sold Richter’s ‘AbstraktesBild’ (‘abstract painting’) for $34.7m in 2012, Richter had already become the world’s most expensive living artist. “These prices are lunatic and indecent,” Richter remarks. “On bad days I get the feeling that people don’t actually value the art. They pay millions in a telephone call for a picture they’ve never seen.” He is in a good mood today, although the swarm of wealthy collectors seems to dominate the group of art students. The familiar faces set him at ease. “One day we won’t need pictures anymore, we will just be happy,” Richter infamously remarked twenty years ago. For Richter that day has not yet come, twelve more exhibitions are scheduled for 2014/15. He is busy as ever working on new ideas, “I just love being in my atelier.”

Tonight, though, he is running late for a dinner with intimate friends and colleagues. Small groups have secluded into corners of the exhibition, phone calls are being made. Inaudibly, Gerhard Richter leaves the stage in disguise. Once again he salutes my young guide, before dispersing into London’s dark, anonymous night.

 

Preview: Jerusalem

Fergus Morgan
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Preview: Jerusalem

Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem offers an updated idyll of England, presenting a green and pleasant land in which promiscuity, alcoholism and drug addiction have replaced dragon-slaying and damsel-saving as the nation’s preferred pursuits.

The plot centres around Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, an aging drug addict living in a caravan in the woods next to a sleepy Wiltshire town. Hounded by upstanding citizens, plagued by eviction notices and accompanied by a gaggle of wastrel teenagers, Johnny’s quasi-bucolic life begins to unravel before him, with both hilarious and poignant consequences.

These may not seem like typical themes for Oxford drama, but Jerusalem is also laden with a coarse, naturalistic humour and, with a cast boasting such comedic talent as Will Hislop and Barney Fishwick, Director Will Felton evidently relishes the opportunity to stage the play at Keble’s O’Reilly Theatre in 4th Week.

“It’s a play that has in-built theatricality,” he tells me, when I ask why he chose Jerusalem, “and I love making theatre as live and theatrical as possible. There are scenes, like the opening one, which are pure spectacle and there is also a lot of theatricality in the ensemble scenes as well, with characters performing to each other, not just to the audience.”

The opening scene, a thumping rave sequence in front of Johnny’s caravwan, is described to me in detail. Felton is not wrong; his vision of the sequence is remarkably imaginative and, should it be pulled off as he wishes, will be a genuinely striking spectacle.

This theatricality of the tamer, dialogue-filled scenes is also evident in rehearsals I witness. Johnny, Ginger and Davey, played by Fishwick, Hislop and Tommy Simman respectively, take it in turns to ‘perform’, ruminating aloud on various themes to audible ribbing from other characters, who slouch around the edge of the space and thus create an arena in which these ‘performances’ take place. It is an effectively engaging device.

The play is also imbued with a naturalism that arises partly from Butterworth’s script and partly from an affected style that the cast have
been refining.

“Once everyone’s learnt their lines, that naturalism starts come through,” Simman tells me. “We’ve started to work off each other, ad-libbing insults and trying to react instinctively to the dialogue.

“It’s easier in the one-on-one scenes,” Fishwick interjects, “but with the ensemble scenes it is a lot harder. You have to stay awake and alert to react instinctively.”

A great deal of the play’s humour lies in this naturalism, in these unscripted asides and raucous exclamations, particularly as they are all spoken in a heavy West Country accent.

Central to the play is Fishwick’s Johnny, the forest-dwelling ‘English eccentric’ who is besieged on every side by conformists. He is a compellingly complex character who the audience is paradoxically able to sympathise with.

“I think the audience likes him because he is that classic release of the anti establishment figure we all secretly crave to be.” Fishwick continues, informing me, “That said, there is a brutal reality behind the endearing façade that becomes more obvious as the play goes on.

“He is a lonely middle-aged man who supplies teenagers with drink and drugs to preserve their company. He is the perfect hero of a modern-day fairytale where instead of slaying dragons, everyone just gets pissed and takes drugs.”

Review: The Pillowman

Bethan Roberts
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Review: The Pillowman

★★★☆☆
Three Stars

They said The Pillowman would be dark — they weren’t kidding. The outlook of the play is almost unremittingly bleak. The humour, of which there is either loads, or slim to none, depending entirely upon how ghoulish an individual you are, counters this only a little. Then again, with a play about child murders in a totalitarian state you can’t really expect much — or anything — in the way of sweetness and light.

The casting of the play is apt and effective. Claire Bowman gives an impressive performance as the flawed central character, retaining the audience’s interest even when Katurian does not have their sympathy. Dominic Applewhite and Jonathan Purkiss give nuanced performances as police officers Tupolski and Ariel, bookending the intensity of the play’s central scenes with comedy that remains dark enough not to jar with the overall tone. Featured prominently in the advertising of the play is its use of gender-blind casting. What was surprising about its implementation is how little (after a while) it seemed to matter that female actors were being addressed with male names and pronouns. The ease with which Bowman and D’Arcy’s excellent performances as “The Writer and his Brother” were accepted makes me wish wholeheartedly for more casting in this vein.

The realistic set of the interrogation room peels back fluidly to reveal a dark, wooded environment, a cutaway room jutting precariously into the dreamscape. There’s an appropriate element of ‘twisted fairy tale’ in this stage design — something unsettling that is difficult to pin down or explain without robbing it of its creepy charm. Staging steps up another notch with a cross formed of LED lights and also an ambitious and extremely effective take on one of Katurian’s characters.

Despite the high calibre of acting, and incredibly adept direction and conceptualisation of staging, there are some uncomfortable moments. There’s something that makes me squirm in my seat about listening to an audience of Oxonians sniggering at the way social and emotional norms are transgressed by Katurian’s brother, who has learning difficulties. Emma D’Arcy’s depiction of Michal’s learning difficulties is extremely impressive, but it’s hard to be certain to what extent the audience laugh simply because the lines are funny, or rather because Michal’s disability somehow causes the humour. The play’s toying with the trope of the despicable disabled individual is hardly cleverer or more nuanced than the equally overused endowment of similarly abled characters with near sainthood.

Disability as equivalent to evil is hardly new or original (Richard III anyone?) and this element of McDonagh’s play makes me more uncomfortable than I can adequately express. The Pillowman causes strong emotional responses in its audience, and I’m sure many of mine are highly subjective.

As the plot twists, turns, and doubles back on itself, so do responses to the characters, and even to the play itself. The act break is in a dangerous position plot-wise — I almost considered sneaking off in the interval to escape the darkness and disturbia. It’s not a feel good play.

For reasons I can’t fully explain without spoiling the plot (and possibly can’t explain full stop) I’m extremely glad I did stick around. This is not only because the standard of the production is incredible, but also because the play manages to pull off a feat I thought near impossible. It gestures towards some sort of meaning or purpose in the evitable sufferings of existence it depicts so vividly.

If you’ve got vast resources of emotional stamina, or a thirst for the macabre and gruesome, you’re bound to enjoy The Pillowman, and for anyone without these prerequisites — if you stick with it, I don’t think you’ll regret the experience.

St. John’s Equality Week

Niluka Kavanagh
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St. John’s Equality Week

http://youtu.be/hWLVW2qfUBc

 

£110 million cancer research centre for Headington

Ellen O'Neill
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£110 million cancer research centre for Headington

Oxford University announced yesterday that a Precision Cancer Medicine Institute is intended to open in 2017 or 2018, following a £35 million grant from the British government. The Institute intends to research making treatment less invasive and more personalized, focussing on patients with early-stage cancers that currently have poor prognosis, and techniques that currently have limited application in the UK.

The centre’s location is not certain, but is likely to be near the Churchill Hospital, where there is already an NHS cancer centre, or at the University’s Old Road Campus.

The grant, fromHigher Education Funding Council for England through its UK Research Partnership Investment Fund, is to be bolstered with £75 million of investment and support from partners including Cancer Research UK, University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute, and six healthcare firms.

It will be part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS trust, which includes the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals. The clinic will have a particular interest in Proton Therapy, in the news earlier this year with the story of Ashya King, a five year old boy with a brain tumour whose parents took him from hospital without medical consent to seek the treatment, which is presently only available in the UK for eye cancers.

It is one of several techniques the centre will trial, alongside genomics and molecular diagnostics, advanced cancer imaging, and new drugs. These would be carried out in early-stage patients, who would be referred from NHS doctors, alongside their current treatments, in weeks off prescribed treatments such as chemotherapy. Such methods are known as ‘widow-of-opportunity’ trials, and allow for comparison with the effectiveness of standard treatments. 

Professor Gillies McKenna, head of the Department of Oncology at Oxford University, said, “The Precision Cancer Medicine Institute aims to improve outcomes and increase cure rates for cancer patients. It will do this not only by making surgery and radiotherapy more precise and less invasive, but by designing new drug treatments that are more targeted and personalised to the characteristics of a patient’s particular tumour, and by using advanced imaging techniques to detect the earliest signs of response.

“Through the new institute we aim to undertake research that will help doctors get the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time.”

Jonathan Michael, Chief Executive of Oxford University Hospitals, welcomed the news, saying, “staff in the University and NHS departments of Oncology already work very closely on the delivery of high quality and technologically advanced treatments and trials for our patients in the NHS cancer centre on the Churchill site.

“This new centre is a fantastic opportunity for our patients and staff to take part in clinical trials of cutting edge treatments. The close proximity of the centre to the NHS cancer centre and established clinical links will ensure that patient care is seamless across the two institutions.”

Universities, Science and Cities minister Greg Clark visited the Old Road Campus last week, saying: “This is a paradigm shifting moment, we hope, for research around the world. […] We are leading the world in the research in an area that has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of cancer.” He added, “If people are cured of cancer then this saves the cost of treating them and managing the condition when they have it.” 

Meanwhile, Hertford student Florence Kettle commented, “it’s great to hear that Oxford is taking a such leading role in investigating more ways to combat this terrible illness”.

 

Wadham to host ‘Feminism in Theory & Action’ conference

Christian Amos
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Wadham to host ‘Feminism in Theory & Action’ conference

The ‘Feminism in Theory & Action conference’, aimed at providing a platform for discussion about the wider context of feminism and activism, will be held on Saturday 1st November at Wadham.

The conference is being organised by the Oxford Feminist Network, who on their website describe themselves as a “network for women (including cis and trans) identifying as feminist or pro-feminist and their allies from across Oxfordshire”.

The conference will include a range of activities, ranging from panel discussions to documentary screenings and workshops. The conference’s aims are to “bridge the gap between student feminism and the daily struggles of women outside of universities”, and the make up of the panels hopes to reflect this.

The conference’s panel discussions will include ‘Women and Mental Health’, ‘Ecofeminism’, and ‘Women & the Legal System’. The Keynote Speaker will be Selma James, who has become a household feminist name for her seminal ‘wages for housework’ demand.

Alongside panel discussions, the Conference will play host to a number of workshops and visual displays; the ice&fire theatre group will deliver a performance piece about asylum, and there will be a screening of the documentary Three Lives by Kate Millett.

Much of the focus of the conference will be on exploring the intersectionality of feminist issues, such as women seeking asylum, race and feminism, gendered homelessness, and trans health.

Niamh McIntyre, one of the event’s organisers, has echoed this by stating how the conference wants to emphasise “intersections of race, gender and class, and also to emphasize links between the struggles of different eras and different aspects of feminism.”

Charlotte Sykes, the head organiser, explained, “This event is an attempt to show our commitment to intersectionality: we have organised discussions around many of the areas we as a team are active in, and hope that by bringing them into conversation with each other throughout the day we can highlight the important links between oppressions.”

“We feel all great work has been done in highlighting the sexism and sexual violence rife at universities, privileging these stories above all others only reinforces the media’s blindness towards women who aren’t young or extremely privileged.”

With regards to the opportunities for building on feminist dialogue in Oxford, Charlotte Sykes told Cherwell that “there is a great deal of very fruitful discussion in Oxford feminist circles but we feel we need a stronger commitment to activism” and that she hoped “that the conference will inspire that in its attendees.”

Alice Nutting, a member of the Oxford feminist group Cuntry Living, similarly commented, “There’s always going to be room for more intersectional feminist dialogue at Oxford. The conference is going to cover a huge range of oft-neglected topics, from gendered homelessness to women and mental health; I think it’s going to be really inspiring for students and non-students alike to hear from such a wide range of passionate and knowledgeable speakers and take part in feminist discussion and activism.“

Student involvement includes the collective LadyGarden, a group of three second year students at the Ruskin, who have created a feminist art exhibition. In addition, a number of current and ex-student activists from various universities will be taking part in the panel discussions.

The conference will take place from 10:30 till 19:30 in Wadham College. Events will be running throughout the day, and there will be at least two events running simultaneously all day.

Registration is free, but the organisers ask that those who plan on attending register online beforehand. 

Additionally, the organisers ask that those who are able to donate do so, as the event will use crowdfunding to meet the speakers’ costs and keep the conference free to to attend.

 

Somervillian set to meet Pope after human trafficking work

Thea Slotover
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Somervillian set to meet Pope after human trafficking work

Somerville student Olivia Conroy has been nominated to take part in a symposium entitled ‘Young people against prostitution and human trafficking’, after her research into mapping human trafficking. The symposium will take place in the Vatican on 14th November, and she is also due to meet the Pope.

Conroy spent a week working for organization RENATE, the ‘Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation’ in Albania, during which she interviewed charity and social workers, police and government officials, members of RENATE and those at risk in the community on the topic of trafficking.

She spoke to Cherwell about the situation she found in Albania, commenting, “Human trafficking boomed in the 1990s when communism collapsed and many Albanians fled the country with their newly granted freedom to travel. Thousands of girls were taken in speedboats into Italy alone. This situation became so bad that there is now actually a law that bans anyone from using a speedboat.

“More recently, human trafficking from Albania is orientated towards other Western countries, with girls being taken out of Albania and into the UK, Germany and Switzerland. There is also a growing problem of people being internally trafficked, most commonly affecting children who are being taken to beg on the streets or work for gangs. Since this year Albania has been classed as both a destination country for traffickers as well as being a transit country from Eastern countries into the West.”

Conroy, a third-year biochemist, explained that before her trip she was “naïve” to the scale and complexity of human trafficking. She said, “Human trafficking is an incredibly complicated issue… It is impossible to come up with one solution. Although [the experience] gave me hope to see inspiring people working against such a formidable challenge, it also filled me with grief to get a glimpse of the scale of human trafficking and understand how embedded it is in all our lives. There is the misconception that trafficking only affects women from foreign countries forced into sex work.”

In admitting to having been unaware of the dangers posed by her trip, Conroy explained, “I was in quite a dangerous situation, apparently the traffickers would have been well aware of who I was and why I was there.

“There was a time when I was staying in Shkodër on my own in a vacant hotel, in one of the most dangerous towns in Albania run by gangs… I blazed into Albania thinking that I would be completely safe, but in reality it slowly crept in that I was dealing with incredibly dangerous people.”

Olivia added, “Trafficking is everywhere,” saying, “The UK is the most common destination of women taken from Albania… These traffickers are operating on our streets… We as a community can look out for the signs of trafficking and not make it so easy for them.”

The UK’s National Crime Agency has recently reported that the country saw a 22 per cent rise in the number of ‘potential victims of trafficking for exploitation’ in 2013 compared to 2012, affecting a total of almost 3,000 people, of which 600 were children.

Oxford is not immune to trafficking as in 2013 seven men were convicted of raping and trafficking six girls aged between 11 and 15, though since then a further 50 to 60 young women have since been identified as potential victims of the paedophile ring. The ring is thought to have been based around Cowley Road.

One student organization in Oxford campaigning against trafficking is Just Love. Hannah Coates, the organizer of the Just Love campaign’s recent anti-slavery protests in Oxford, commented, “The more people that know about trafficking, the better equipped we will be to protect victims and combat it.”

Earlier this month the campaign marked the National Anti-Slavery Day with a large flashmob march from Broad Street and Cornmarket, with the participants all wearing black t-shirts and duct tape handcuffs. The flashmob walked in silence to the beat of a drum in order to raise awareness of the issue. 

Just Love also cooperates with the Oxford Community Against Trafficking (OXCAT), a local community group founded in the wake of the Oxford ring being discovered.

Olivia plans to continue her work drawing awareness to Human Trafficking following her Vatican address. She explained that she will become part of the Global Freedom Network, an organisation of leaders from different faiths working to tackle slavery and human trafficking and will thus “be engaged in strategies and initiatives to prevent youth from becoming victims of modern slavery and human trafficking”.

Strong start for OUSU’s #VeggiePledge campaign

Tom Calver
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Strong start for OUSU’s #VeggiePledge campaign

OUSU’s #VeggiePledge campaign launched on Wednesday, aiming to encourage students to turn vegetarian or vegan for the month of November.

Pledgers are invited to take on their own tailor-made ‘Veggie Pledge’, which involves eating vegetarian or vegan food for at least one day a week over the next month, with some pledgers planning on going vegan for the entire month.

OUSU’s Environment and Ethics Officer Xavier Cohen told Cherwell, “We want to show that being veggie and vegan is not only doable, but enjoyable, whilst also highlighting the environmental benefits of consuming less meat and fewer animal products.

“#VeggiePledge is also an intercollegiate competition. The pledgers from the college with the most pledges will win a trip to The Gardeners Arms — Oxford’s veggie and vegan friendly pub — with £100 behind the bar.”

Prospective pledgers are required to post their name, college, and tailor-made pledge on the wall of the campaign’s Facebook group.

Cohen added, “#VeggiePledge is also a collective endeavour, and as such, we’re encouraging people to post photos and recipes. #VeggiePledge finally makes it acceptable to post pictures of food on social media again!”

After Cohen predicted that it would be “exploding on social media” on Wednesday, the total number of pledges made by the end of the day topped 150. Wadham, Balliol, and Worcester led the college charts early on.

The Facebook page also shared statistics about how much land, water and CO2 could be saved by avoiding meat for varying numbers of days per week, claiming that “going veggie” for one day a week saves 29 square-metres of land, 1,611 litres of water, and 8kg of CO2.

Balliol alumnus Marc Pacitti was, however, critical of the statistics presented by the campaign. He claimed, “The contributions to land use and pollution won’t be linear in participants or length of participation — it would probably be exponential with a wide base (due to sticky price type forces like contracts).

“There is no reason to think the programme will get anywhere off the bottom of the curve. The impact people will likely have is so marginal it equals zero. There is no way that they can give a figure that fits for each person who joins up in terms of how much good they do.

“Anyway, the best way to decrease meat production is to stop subsidising it. Perhaps people would be better off writing to their MEPs and asking them to remove subsidies for livestock from the Common Agricultural Policy.”

Cohen was quick to justify the campaign’s claims, informing Cherwell that the statistics are derived from academic papers.

However, he added that “levelling criticism here wilfully misses the point of #VeggiePledge”. He explained, “We are trying to encourage shifts in popular habits and societal views on the matters at hand. We know for a fact that vegetarianism and veganism are not only better for our planet environmentally than meat-eating, but are becoming increasingly necessary in fighting climate change.

“#VeggiePledge is a humble campaign aimed at increasing the rate of take-up of these lifestyles over time — just because it isn’t going to solve climate change alone, that’s no good reason not to support it.” 

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