Wednesday 9th July 2025
Blog Page 1342

Where have all the monsters gone?

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Reading reviews of Godzilla, it’s strange that one of the most frequently repeated criticisms is the lack of the hulking near-dinosaur himself. The apparent scarcity of the eponymous monster has been taken everywhere as an indictment of the film; people paid good money to see the whacking huge lizard smash stuff, so it’s only right if he’s on screen the whole time. But actually, what the director Gareth Edwards has done is to understand perfectly that monster movies are not really about the monsters at all. It’s all about the anticipation.

 Evidently, if you were expecting a lot of Godzilla, you clearly hadn’t seen the trailer. It strayed far from the Michael Bay school of thought that a trailer has to be an extended montage of stuff exploding and being crushed, or being crushed and then exploding. Instead, there were fleeting, teasing glimpses of the beast, vistas of abandoned cars, smouldering wreckages, ominously imposing footprints, and distant, echoing roars. What Edwards was doing was highlighting what it is that is great about the monster movie genre; rarely is the monster itself the most enjoyable part, instead focusing on the tension, the excitement and anticipation of the big reveal. 

If you look back at the catalogue of famous monster movies, they’re all about the buildup. Edwards is in fact partly copying the original Godzilla from 1954, which had equally little of the lizard himself. Although partly artistically motivated, it was largely reptile-free due to the cost of his scenes, even though back then it was just a man in a latex suit hitting cardboard models of skyscrapers. Nonetheless, it proved from early on in cinema’s history that less really was more when it came to monsters. 

Ridley Scott’s original Alien also had a trailer that featured none of the iconic xenomorphs themselves. And arguably the best bits of Alien, the ones that everyone remembers and rightly praises for their brilliant maintenance of tension, are the ones without the aliens. It’s all about the wailing, haunting emergency siren, the bleeps on the motion detectors in the vents, the screams and the unexpected shock of that scene. And what makes Alien so remarkable is that even with a science fiction creation as brilliant as H. R. Giger’s xenomorph, it is in their absence that the truly fantastic moments occur. 

If you need an example of when more really is not more, look no further than Guillermo Del Toro’s abortive Pacific Rim. Instead of following the example of monster movies past, Del Toro flipped the genre on its head, pointlessly having the monsters on screen most of the time. That is why Pacific Rim was dreadful – there was neither care not attention placed on the introduction of the monsters and so you just didn’t care. Watching a massive robot hit an alien giant with a cargo ship just isn’t entertaining if it’s done in an abrupt and thoughtless manner. I realize few people would label Pacific Rim a classic monster movie, but it is an example of a recent and extravagant failed attempt. 

All the great monster movies pride themselves on the tension and expectation. Jaws is fantastic because of its infamous use of sound and passing glimpses. Indeed, Jaws is not really about the giant shark at all rather than the omnipresent dread the shark represents. Cloverfield even based its entire premise around the importance of anticipation, using the Blair Witch-esque found footage formula to make the lack of monsters more realistic. Even in something like Jurassic Park, though probably closer to action film, that nail-bitingly brilliant scene in the kitchen with the raptors actually features very little dinosaur.  

That doesn’t mean the monsters are valueless. In fact, there’s probably nothing worse than a grand buildup only to be greeted with some mediocre, CGI jellyfish-lion hybrid. But the anticipation is what makes monster movies so unique and thrilling; breathlessly waiting to see, in all its glory, that monstrosity that has been thus far only indirectly present. So, don’t worry if your viewing of Godzilla is light on lizard action. Far from being a reason to criticise the film, it’s a sign that Edwards hasn’t forgotten what made monster movies great to begin with. 

Debate: Is Oxford’s collegiate system needless and outdated?

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YES

Tom Carter

Trinity! What a college. Enviable green lawns, beautiful buildings (for the most part) and (again for the most part) great people. What’s not to like? Indeed, from as early on as open days, we are peddled the myth that it doesn’t matter what college we get into, because as soon as we get there, we will love it and think that it is the best college, like, ever. In the scary world of big, bad Oxford, there is a lot to be said for colleges. They provide students with a much smaller and more manageable setting, enabling us to meet a whole range of peers from all academic disciplines and walks of life.

They give all students a support structure, both academic and pastoral, unlike students at other universities who sometimes feel stranded, and they give students a part of the university with which they can positively identify and belong. In short, they give students a home.

Sounds great, right? Not so fast. Much of what colleges supposedly achieve can be achieved without colleges and they are, in reality, a drawback of Oxford. Firstly, halls play very similar functions to colleges in the first years of many other universities. People make friends with people just as much because they live near them as because they are in the same college as them. This is borne out by the ridiculous extent to which staircase loyalty dominates colleges for at least the first part of the first year. Thus, the illusion that only colleges can help students make friends is patently untrue. Moreover, colleges could be seen as severely limiting your potential friendship group, as it is much harder to make friends outside college in Oxford than it is to make them outside halls in other universities.

Take Trinity for example. Here there are 86 freshers. Take away the scientists, the sporting meatheads and the recluses and I barely have 20 people who I could possibly be friends with. Whist this is a massive generalisation – I am sharing a room with a scientist next year and some athletes are surprisingly interesting– it does illustrate the limitations to making friends within college, especially when juxtaposed with the thousands of interesting people in the university as a whole.

What about the other claims for collegiate superiority? Take the idea that colleges provide a good support structure: a college is not required for this. One could just as easily have faculty appointed academic and personal tutors whilst student peer support could be provided on a halls level. Indeed, the college system can be actively damaging to your academic stress levels. For competition between colleges, especially over their ranking on the god- awful Norrington Table, can lead to colleges piling undue pressure on students to produce the academic goods. Merton, at least traditionally, illustrates this tendency perfectly.

There are plenty of other arguments for colleges being detrimental, such as the confused direction they set by adopting agendas distinct and different from that of the university as a whole, but space does not permit me to elucidate upon them. Colleges should carry some sort of health warning: not only do they hinder your social life but potentially your academic life as well.

 

NO

April Peake

It isn’t hard to imagine life at a university without the collegiate system. Flats aren’t that different from corridors or staircases and individual campuses are sort of like the colleges themselves. I’ve seen my friends at other universities nip downstairs to beg for help on their assignments, bang on their neighbours’ doors to announce pre-drinks, and get told off for staggering back to their rooms too noisily after a night out.

Imagining Oxford as a non-collegiate university, however, is impossible – and not simply because wherever you are in town you’re guaranteed to be at most a stone’s throw away from a college.

The collegiate system is the backbone of Oxbridge’s academic system too, providing the framework for the tutorial system. Tutorials are renowned for providing opportunities for students to discuss, argue and develop their own ideas under expert supervision and receive individual feedback on their work. Your tutors know you, your interests, and your writing style and can monitor your development minutely.

Tutorials and classes are of intrinsic academic value – and humanities students in particular would lose out if the format of their course changed to lectures and seminars. Writing down someone else’s thoughts in a lecture is certainly not as beneficial as receiving personally tailored support.

But while significant, the academic structure isn’t the sole or even the most important benefit of the collegiate system. Studying at Oxford can undoubtedly be an extremely stressful experience. But the collegiate system will support you every step of the way.

Being part of a college helps offset the natural ‘small fish, big pond’ fears that most freshers harbour when they first arrive at university. The work becomes less scary when you consider that you’ll be working with tutors who have hand selected you, deciding they want to work with
you for the next however many years. Instantly you become one of the five ‘chosen ones’, or one of twelve, rather than one of 3,198.

Entering a college, you become part of a ready-made community. You know that if you’re unsure of something your college mother is just in the next building, that if you have a problem with work, you can get help from the other people on your course that live across the corridor. The college system is a wonderful network for students, particularly if the centrally offered support isn’t right for you.

If you need to talk you have your college friends, parents, welfare reps, peer advisors, chaplain, nurse, subject tutors, personal tutor and senior tutor on site, ready to help you. These people are all there for you to reach out to, and to look out for you in times when you feel you can’t reach out, offering a range of support from social to academic. The collegiate system is one of the great strengths of Oxford – it may be old fashioned insofar as it is traditional but that by no means makes it outdated.

Men need to stop thinking of women as rewards

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The recent tragedy where college student Elliot Rodger, went on a shooting spree at the University of California, which left seven people dead including himself, has caused a media storm. We can’t know exactly why he did it, but this incident has drawn attention to cultural prob- lems far beyond this man’s misogynistic personal opinions.

According to his family, he was on the autistic spectrum, and he is being armchair-diagnosed with all kinds of mental disorders; for many commentators this illness has served to mitigate his women-hating blog posts and videos. However, as valid as noting his mental health may be, this case cannot be simply dismissed as an instance of where a ‘lunatic’ lost control.

Rodger may have been in a mental state where he was more receptive to extreme attitudes already present in society, and maybe mental illness fuelled his irrational thinking. There is an argument that he should have received better treatment and not been allowed a gun. Pointedly though, this is not the end of the debate, and we must consider the root cause of the opinions which drove the man to mass-murder.

Elliot Rodger was an individual with an inflated sense of entitlement, extreme views, and a strong violent streak. This first aspect has raised a lot of discussion, because a sense of entitlement to female attention, and the idea that there are, or should be, failsafe ways to get it, is common. He used to post on PUAHate, an online forum which rails against pick-up artists – those who discuss, or even make a living from, surefire ways of seducing women. On a forum, aimed at those ‘PUAs’, I was immediately shown an advert offer- ing me ten ‘FREE’ videos, including ‘How To Approach Any Woman With Zero Chance Of Rejection… This Works EVERY Time!’ and the unsettlingly titled ‘The Secret To Developing Emotional Addiction In Women (That Makes Them Loyal And Obedient)’. In light of this misogyny, PUAHate doesn’t seem such a bad idea – sadly though, members of this forum didn’t seem against the concept, just disillusioned by the failure of its techniques, viciously critical of each other, and overwhelmingly misogynistic. The issue for these self-titled ‘incels’ (involuntary celibates) is injustice; they believe that they should be entitled to sex, and that women are breaking some unsaid promise by not giving it to them.

This attitude can be traced back to our cultural tropes; we are all taught that a good heterosexual man is entitled to a woman. There are countless films, books, sitcoms, and more, where the hero saves the world, or just does good, and then by default gets the girl – she’s a prize awarded by the justice of the universe. Men are told, through media like this, that they are the active ones, and that if they are successful people, or fol- low certain measurable steps, they can have sex with a desirable woman. This illusion of control has the potential to cause frustrations and become very dangerous, especially when the illusion falls apart.

On a similar note, I have often heard men complain about the ‘hoops’ that they have to jump through in order to get female attention: Buy them a drink; make the first move; spend money on them. It’s ludicrous that there are culturally expected hoops to jump through, yes. What is just as ludicrous though, is the assumption that once you have jumped through these ridiculous hoops, you will then get female attention, and that if you don’t, the women are at fault. (“You did what you were meant to.”) It is the hoops that are wrong in this paradigm.

That being said the hoops have some appeal. We all want a set of
rules to follow to gain rewards. The problem is that a woman is not a reward. A woman is not a concept you can deserve. A woman is an individual. Every single human being is. We all have our own desires, our own personalities, and make our own decisions, none of which anyone else can or deserves to control, no matter how many hoops they jump through.

The very concept of ‘Pick-Up Artists’ suggests that women are a homogenous, predictable mass. This lie also underpins countless films, books, TV programmes, articles, pieces of advice. (Not all of which are aimed at men.) This lie is ridiculous, so why is it so prevalent? Perhaps because it’s easier to blame a single, bitchy mass for your rejection than to analyse the motives of an individual, or to accept that maybe you’re not such a nice character after all. Perhaps because it’s easier to feel angry and entitled than be afraid that there is no effective system and you’re not in control.

There are those who feel entitled to sex just by being a ‘nice guy’, because apparently kindness is not the default way to treat someone. Comments on his videos include “well girls, keep that in mind the next time you friend-zone somebody!” and “I don’t blame guns, I blame blondes for this one.” I’d like to think they’re joking.

Be it in Internet forums or everyday gossip, abusive tweets or pop songs, there are echoes of this sense of entitlement all around us. No, not all men have malicious, extreme views that lead to violence. It takes more than entitlement to actually shoot someone. But this sense of entitlement in itself is something we are all taught to believe, and it should be discussed and refuted more openly.

This idea that ‘nice guys’, or those who follow all of our culture’s horrendous ‘pre-scribed steps’, are entitled to sexual attention from those they desire needs to end, or people will continue to get hurt.

Students and residents unite in fossil fuel divestment rally

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Students and residents from across Oxford have today joined in a fossil fuel divestment rally, marching from Radcliffe Square to Bonn Square.

The initiative, spearheaded by campaigns Oxford University Fossil Free and the Fossil Free Oxfordshire Divestment Campaign, seeks to raise awareness about the importance of fossil fuel divestment as consultations with the University come to a close.

It brings together the work of a number of organisations including the OUSU Environment and Ethics campaign and the student-led organisation People & Planet, calling for full divestment from fossil fuels, as well as a full list of the University’s investments, which is currently unavailable.

The rally finished at Bonn Square, where a speech was made by Dr Brenda Boardman, co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre.

Cherwell spoke to Ellen Gibson, a St Hilda’s student who organised the rally. She said, “I think one of the most important aspects of divestment is the opportunity it provides for reinvestment, particularly in things such as clean energy, which could benefit so much for that kind of investment, and renewable sources. Currently, what’s holding them back from that being our source of energy isn’t their ability to provide power – it’s been proven that they can provide our power and that they can be a great source of energy for us – the problem is that there isn’t that investment and there isn’t that power to lobby governments to tell them that this is the kind of energy that we want to see.

She added, “The biggest thing that’s been happening recently is that the university opened a consultation about fossil fuel divestment which is due to close at the end of this term, so currently we’re building up a lot of momentum towards the end of that to send a real message of strength to the university before that consultation closes, so this isn’t really the last that you’re going to see of us over the next few weeks – there’ll be a lot more actions going on, so I feel like we’re building a lot of momentum.”

Michaela Collord, who co-organised the rally, told Cherwell, “The demo is something that’s important in an of itself, because it’s a way of showing that this is something people care about, and it’s also a way of telling the University, and also the city council, because we’re partnering with the Oxfordshire Fossil Fuel campaign, that this matters and that they, as prestigious institutions, can take this voice and make it that much louder.”

The University is currently involved in consultations with OUSU over divestment, while 19 JCRs and MCRs across the University have expressed support for fossil fuel divestment.

A university spokesman said in a statement, “Oxford University Student Union has asked the University to divest its endowment from holdings in companies involved in exploration for, or exploitation of, fossil fuels.

“In order to provide a fully considered response, a consultation has been launched to seek evidence and opinion from across the collegiate University. The University’s Socially Responsible Investment Review Committee will collect views and make a recommendation to the University Council in the autumn on what response to make to OUSU’s representation.”

 

Milestones: Isaac Levitan

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An autumnal grove of birch trees with slender white trunks and speckled orange leaves is interrupted by a meandering grey river, which softly reflects the hues of the bright sky above. Such is the effusive evocation of the Russian countryside in Isaak Levitan’s painting, Golden Autumn. Levitan, gave birth to a form of painting, known as the ‘landscape of mood’. ‘Landscape of mood’ spiritualizes the form and state of nature, using it as an expression of the human condition. Levitan’s landscapes are fleeting representations of a forest clearing, a cottage, a river, a country path, haystacks. 

Hushed, almost melancholic contemplations of pastoral settings were his characteristic style. With only a couple of exceptions in his prolific life work, Levitan did not depict urban landscapes, and his paintings are normally devoid of human presence. Despite few humans appear in these works, his paintings invariably reflect the prism of humanity and are often referred to as ‘psychological’ or ‘philosophical’. 

Some also have political undercurrents. In one of his most famous pieces, Vladimirka, he paints the road down which people who had been exiled made their way to the distant Siberia. It is a lonely and deserted track seemingly leading nowhere and the pale grey of the sky conveys the dejection and desolation of the scene. Though only a depiction of a landscape, this painting was a controversial indictment of the government’s decision to send political prisoners down this godforsaken path. Levitan’s method was often not dissimilar to that of the Impressionists, but while their emphasis was on the optical, his was on the naturalistic. The works created toward the end of his life reflect his influence by the emerging Modernist movement. For example, the painting Stormy Day, which portrays a green slope leading up to a cluster of cottages, overshadowed by a menacing grey cloud, shows his departure from strictly realist depictions toward more abstract and emotive expression. In many ways, Levitan’s work is the visual counterpart to Chekhov’s literary compositions. 

There are hints of Levitan in Chekhov’s snapshots of quotidian existence and his elegies to the Russian countryside, most notably in his short stories. Both of these artists have a simple understated style, which nevertheless conveys great emotional depth. 

Levitan’s life was a series of tragedies: his mother died when he was fifteen and two years later he was orphaned. 

As Jews they were confined to living in the Pale of Settlement, Levitan himself exiled from Moscow because he was an “unbaptized Jew”. He died at the age of thirty-nine of a severe heart-related disease. Some critics believe these misfortunes had an impact on Levitan’s evolution as an artist. The restricted environs of the Pale meant that he often depicted vast expanses and epic panoramas. Towards the end of his short life, his works increasingly contained light, a sign of his internal peace and tranquillity. 

Top 3… Climbs

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Touching the Void (1998)

Joe Simpson

Joe Simpson’s 1988 book describes his and Simon Yates’ ascent of the Siula Grande. The most famous part of the book describes the moment when Simpson slipped off an ice cliff and broke his right leg. Yates was forced to cut the rope, sending Simpson plummeting into the darkness. Having survived the fall, Simpson was then forced to climb down further into the crevasse in order to escape. In 2003, a successful documentary was made of the same name.

Everest (2013)

Public Service Broadcasting

An eclectic mix of instruments, electronic influences and audio samples from old public service broadcasts make up all of PSB’s music. This song is littered with samples of people talking about climbing in clipped British accents, including a guest appearance from George Mallory asking, “Why should a man climb Everest? Because it is there.” Coldly grandiose, the instrumentation on this track combines brilliantly to form a vision of the magnificent Peak 15, the highest mountain in the world.

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The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his epic Batman trilogy has been called out for its plot-holes. But one cannot deny that The Dark Knight Rises is, if nothing else, an incredible spectacle. Memorably, Bruce Wayne finds himself imprisoned in a Very Deep Pit, and must climb out, something only ever achieved once by his nemesis, Bane. His attempts to climb the wall of the pit are deeply affecting. Each time he misses the crucial final leap, we feel his pain as the harness nearly breaks his back.

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Green and pleasant lands

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If you think of a ‘stereotypical’ painting, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a lush countryside scene – probably the sort of picture we all loved drawing as children. And even if this were not the case, it cannot be denied that landscape, whether of a natural scene or an urban setting, has always constituted the starting point for the production of art. 

Over the centuries, painters have approached the subject in all sorts of ways. I had the chance to reflect on art’s figurative conception of landscape when I went to the Italian exhibition ‘Verso Monet’ (‘Towards Monet’) over Easter. In the exhibition, the paintings were organized chronologically, to give the visitor a clear, albeit schematic, idea of the evolution of the role of landscape in painting. Such divisions are the very sort of thing that annoy a historian, and inevitably raise doubt and debate. However, as artificial as it may be, such classification is precisely what allows us to chart the general trend of depiction of landscape over the centuries. 

Let us start our (quick) tour with the 17th century. Back then, the typical scene was intimately related to mythology. Paintings like those by Claude Lorrain, for instance, generally derive their subject from the Classical tradition, set in a fascinating landscape. Interestingly enough, on occasion the painter tends to give more importance to the background than to the characters, who sometimes seem too small to be significant. It looks like at this stage landscape is already influencing and charming artists, who end up neglecting the mythological tale and its human characters in order to focus on nature. However, the landscape is stereotyped and somewhat detached from reality. 

In the 18th century, with the Enlightenment and the triumph of science, the most important artistic movement was Vedutism, namely the depiction of urban scenes (‘vedute’), painted in the fi nest detail. One of the most famous examples of this artistic trend is Canaletto, a Venetian painter who specialized in ‘vedute’ of his birthplace. The main aspect of his art is realism, and the goal to render the landscape as close to reality as possible. In order to do so, he uses the ‘camera obscura’, an optical device that projects an image onto a screen. In this way, Canaletto was able to produce painting that (quite literally) mirrored reality.

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In the 19th century, Romanticism started to spread in Europe, and with it a completely different conception of landscape. The world of interiority acquires more and more importance and, accordingly, landscape is perceived not so much as a place to investigate scientifically, but as a source of emotions of all kinds. The tempests of Turner, for instance, focus on the terrifying and shocking aspects of nature: the aim of his paintings is to instil awe and fear. On the other hand, if we consider an example taken from poetry, we see that nature can produce completely different emotions. The daffodils of Wordsworth, for instance, give him bliss and happiness; the feeling of joy is also to be found in the beautiful landscape to which the daffodils belong: “beside the lake, beneath the trees”, “stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay”.

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A significant revolution was brought about in the later 19th century by Impressionism. To put it rather simply, Monet changes the way we see and experience landscape. He is interested in the impression of the moment, and his brush-strokes are directed at capturing the light, the atmosphere, the sensations he is feeling right at the time he is painting. 

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Monet’s aim was to portray his own impressions arising from nature, but paradoxically, he paints indoors. The famous concept of painting ‘en plein air’ is in fact a lie: impressionist painters would make a rapid sketch of the landscape, specifying the colours and shadows they wanted to include, and then go to their studios to put everything on a canvas. The whole process makes a lot of sense: if one stayed outdoors to finish one’s painting, one wouldn’t be able to capture the magic of the moment. Monet is interested in what nature can give him in a unique instance. The importance of conveying the ‘impression of the moment’ adds a reflection on time to two-dimensional figurative art. Going beyond mythology, realism, and emotions, it constitutes one of the greatest innovations in the history of art. 

So what are the rules then?

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Across the University, rules and regulations bite students when they least expect it. This is C+’s run through of some of the major laws which govern our student lives.

At New College, “The Dean may impose penalties which may include the recovery of the cost of repairs to College property; discretionary fines of up to £390 per offence; and the giving of compensatory assistance to College Staff. The Dean may also deprive Junior Members of the opportunity to reside in College.” New College is also staunch about one fact, that, “Financial hardship is not grounds for appeal against the imposition of a disciplinary fine.”

Magdalen takes care to remind students of the fact that they can withdraw college residence from students. “Junior members are reminded that living in College premises is a privilege which can be removed with immediate effect as a consequence of uncivilised and/or anti-social activity.”

At Teddy Hall, the College makes clear that any rules they do impose are for the students’ own good. “We aim to enforce only such regulations as are necessary to keep the College a secure, safe and pleasant environment in which all its members may live and study without undue disturbance. The Dean prefers to do this informally in the first instance, relying on your goodwill, but some formal regulations are desirable, firstly to inform you in more detail of the sorts of behaviour which do cause concern, and secondly to act as a reference point for stronger disciplinary action if this becomes necessary. ”

Christ Church’s rules explain exactly how much power the arbiters of law have. “The Junior Censor is empowered to levy fines up to £500 and to limit the use of College facilities including the deprivation of rooms in College. If, on investigation, the Junior Censor considers that a case might warrant the imposition of a more serious sanction (the levying of a fine in excess of £500), rustication (temporary suspension) or sending down (permanent expulsion) the matter will be referred by the Junior Censor in writing to a Disciplinary Panel.”

Elsewhere, Exeter College reminds its students that they are, well, students. A section of its ‘Red Book’ of regulations states, “The College is, first and foremost, an academic institution concerned with higher learning. All College members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is commensurate with this, and is respectful of the role and reputation of the College in the wider University and City communities. The Sub-Rector, Junior Dean and Assistant Junior Dean may apply fines, rustication and/or other sanctions on those bringing the College into disrepute by their conduct either inside or outside of College.”

What about the University’s central regulations then? The first item on the University’s ‘Code of Discipline’ is telling. “No member of the University shall in a university context intentionally or recklessly disrupt or attempt to disrupt teaching or study or research or the administrative, sporting, social, cultural, or other activities of the University.” Luckily for C+ though, no-one can “disrupt freedom of speech” either.

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(The bigger the word, the more frequent it’s occurrence in our survey of 213 students.) 

Fines: Where does the money go?

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Money taken in fines is redistributed in varying ways in different colleges.

Some, such as Exeter, put the money recouped towards student hardship funds. Wadham, Mansfield, Pembroke, St. Hugh’s, and Harris Manchester all also put fined money towards student support – although with each college there is often a small amount of money set aside for administration costs.

Exeter, for example, feel that, “£30 is deemed as a reasonable administration charge for having to continually chase students to pay their battels.”
Other colleges, such as Merton, donate the proceeds of fines towards JCR nominated charities – an approach mirrored by the University’s Proctors who vote at the end of each academic year on a charity to donate to. Often the charity chosen has a connection to students.

Colleges such as St. Hilda’s and New put money towards “general academic purposes”.

Largely, fines for overdue library fines or other library indiscretions are reinvested into library infrastructure.

For example, all of the £7,728 and £4,462 raised through Library fines by Exeter and New Colleges respectively is streamed directly back to the two college’s libraries to assist with library purchases.

The Universiy’s policy on reinvesting library fines is similar, fines remain “within the libraries but is not directly allocated to any particular purpose.”

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JCR Reps are split over fines

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Experience of fining varies hugely between colleges. Whilst most issue monetary fines, others prefer to punish students by non-financial methods. There is also much discrepancy between colleges in how often fines are imposed, their value, and what behaviour is deemed punishable. Students on the wrong side of this have expressed their resentment to C+.

A few colleges do not exact financial fines. Balliol JCR President, Dan Turner, told C+ that, “The punishment regime in Balliol generally is very soft and liberal. Rule-breaking would be treated more as a pastoral issue than a punitive one. People don’t really get fined, and the worst punishment you could expect would be a ban from the bar.”

In contrast, colleges such as University College only issue financial fines. JCR President Abigail Reeves commented, “Fines, if issued, are financial… Community service is not issued as a punishment, but if individuals create too much mess they are strongly encouraged to clean up after themselves. The main form of punishment is being sent to see the Dean, discipline issues rarely go further than this.”

Keble is a college where fines were in the news last Michaelmas after a crackdown on “Keble Blinds” drinks. However, JCR President Tomas Ford told C+ that “the Dean will often make the first fine delayed, so you only pay it if you do actually re-offend”, and noted no recent controversies about Keble’s policy.

Whilst many individual respondents to the C+ survey were critical towards their college’s fining policy, JCR representatives contacted by C+ did not note any particular controversies or larger problems with the college’s stance. Although one individual at New College labelled its attitude to fining “ridiculous”, New College JCR President Kath Nicholls commented, “The JCR on the whole doesn’t seem to have particularly strong opinions either way on the subject of fines. No-one has approached me to suggest I look into the fines system at New College… A fairly small number of students receive fines, and I believe that the College would waive a fine if the student were in any kind of financial difficulty.”

Fabian Apel, Magdalen JCR President, said, “I am not aware of any recent controversies; it is rare that people feel that they have been treated unfairly, although there have been occasional cases of people feeling their fines were too high.”

Abigail Reeves, the University College JCR President, suggested the introduction of “some form of cap, to ensure that people can’t be caught off guard and also to make sure individuals are given the opportunity to speak to college about the reasonableness of the fine issued”.

As such, JCR Reps are split over the effectiveness of fining, and the debate will continue, although it appears that the University will not change their policy any time soon.