Students have expressed outrage at the Oxford University Conservative Association’s affiliation with a senior figure in a controversial anti-abortion group running in the upcoming elections to Oxford City Council.

Mark Bhagwandin, who is running as the Conservative candidate for Headington Hill and Northway this May, is a senior officer in the Thames Valley branch of the controversial pro-life campaign group LIFE.

LIFE has been accused of providing misleading advice to pregnant women. Sexual health charity Brook condemned LIFE after counsellors allegedly told an undercover reporter that abortions increased the risk of breast cancer. Last term, LIFE made Oxford news when Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East, reported their adverts on Oxford busses to the Advertising Standards Agency for “giving the unrealistic impression that LIFE is offering impartial counselling.”

OUCA members have campaigned alongside Bhagwandin on several occasions over the past year. Most recently, OUCA tweeted a photo of students, including four committee members, canvassing with Bhagwandin in Headington this March, along with the caption, “We were out spreading the Conservative message in Oxford this morning.”

Alice Nutting, a contributor to the Oxford feminist magazine Cuntry Living, told Cherwell, “It is unfortunate, although hardly surprising, that OUCA is openly endorsing an outspoken anti-choice campaigner. LIFE has a track record of providing dangerously misleading information, such as leaflets claiming that 85 per cent of abortions are carried out using vacuum aspiration and that the woman has to dispose of the foetus herself.”

Oxford University Labour Club have strongly condemned OUCA’s association with Bhagwandin. OULC Women’s Officer Rebecca Grant told Cherwell, “It is deeply worrying that someone so involved in fighting against women’s basic reproductive rights is even permitted to stand for election on behalf of the Conservative Party. I am shocked that OUCA is campaigning for a candidate who is associated with LIFE, especially given the very serious allegations about the organisation’s deceitful imposition of their agenda on the most vulnerable women.”

Helena Dollimore, former Co-Chair of OULC, observed, “It’s worrying that OUCA are choosing to spend their time campaigning for a pro-life candidate who works for a highly controversial pro-life charity. Women who find themselves pregnant unexpectedly need impartial help and support, not politicians who oppose their right to choose. When the majority of students are pro-choice but OUCA are heavily supporting a pro-life candidate, it’s no wonder the Conservatives have a problem with women.”

Responding on behalf of LIFE, Bhagwandin, who is also chairman of the Oxford East Conservative Association, told Cherwell, “My role in LIFE and in the Conservative Party, are separate and distinct. It is absolutely presumptuous for Labour students to try to dictate to political candidates what groups they should or shouldn’t be associated with. LIFE has already responded extensively to the criticisms by Education for Choice, of its service. It has a proud history of providing professional counselling and practical support and housing to pregnant homeless women.”

He continued, “Maybe while the Labour activists are it, they can criticise their own Labour MP Andrew Smith who visited the LIFE house in Oxford only a few weeks ago and was very positive about it, even promising to help. They can also point a finger at Labour MP Jim Dobbin who spoke at a LIFE conference about the wonderful work being done by LIFE.”

OUCA President James Heywood commented, “OUCA is a branch of the Conservative Party. As such we campaign for the Party, not individual candidates. We don’t have our own separate policy agenda, and frankly any society which is part of a political party but has such a separate platform cannot view itself as a serious branch of that party. OUCA is not in the business of pointless grandstanding; our focus is always winning votes for the Party, wherever we can. I would also point out that the Party does not take a specific stance on abortion anyway. It is a ‘free vote’ issue.”

The Cowley Road Passion Play, a religious event re-enacting the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, was cancelled last week after a council mix-up.

An officer of the city council refused to sanction the event because he thought it was a live sex show.

Damian Feeney, director of the play, commented in his blog post, Chinese Whispers, “It’s an object lesson to everyone in the way in which the media plays chinese whispers with facts, choosing the most salacious half-truth and magnifying it until the original story is unrecognisable.”

In its report of the story the Daily Mail used the headline, “Gormless Labour council bans Good Friday Passion of the Christ play because they thought it was a live SEX show”.

The play was cancelled because a council officer told the organisers that some parts of the play may need a license to be performed and at that time it was too late to procure one.

He did not realise that it was a religious event and as such did not need a license.

The play was cancelled before the misunderstanding could be resolved.

The organisers of the Cowley Road Passion Play told Cherwell, “An unfortunate mistake from a council officer doing his best to help us meant that the Passion Play was cancelled this year. We are naturally disappointed, but look forward to working with the council to bring the play back to the streets of East Oxford in 2016.”

Oxford City Councillor and United Reform Church pastor Dick Wolff said, “Unfortunately, one of the city council’s licensing officers didn’t recognise that a Passion play on Good Friday was a religious event. I think he thought it was a sex show, so he said it may be committing an offence. This is a case of the system tripping over its own shoe laces.”

A spokeswoman from the Oxford City Council added that the application to the council arrived, “Too late, with limited information to enable the event to take place.”

Passion Plays, performed on Good Friday around the world, re-enact of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a way of celebrating the holiday. The Cowley Road Passion Play was first performed in 2012 without a license.
Councillor Tony Brett, chair of the licensing committee, said, “It pains me greatly to see this activity cancelled.

“The Jesus I know and live by is one whose ministry was radical and disruptive and the Cowley Road Passion play is / was a fantastic example of that.”

The council official responsible, Julian Alison, has since apologised, admitting that he didn’t know a passion play was a religious event.

A recent survey by Student Beans has found that 80% of students spend over 3 hours a day procrastinating, with Candy Crush revealed as the top app for time-wasting. Sitcom The Big Bang Theory also headed the leader board as the most-watched TV programme whilst procrastinating.

With finals, end-of-year exams, and dissertation deadlines looming, browsing the Internet was named the main distraction by 39% of students. Facebook was, unsurprisingly, the most popular website but Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat were close behind in the top 5 most distracting apps. 94% of those surveyed said they would even resort to cleaning their room instead of working.

Cherwell found that Oxford students are getting inventive with their procrastination. From Harry Potter marathons to developing a “sudden and irrational passion for baking”, every time-wasting avenue has been explored.

Charlotte Smyth, a computer scientist from Oriel has been to greater lengths to procrastinate than most. She said, “I ran so far from work this holiday that I ended up entering a 5km charity run.”

One history undergraduate from Wadham remarked, “When you’ve done every single quiz on Buzzfeed and know exactly what potato, cookie and Disney character you are, then you’ve spent too much time procrastinating.”

According to the study, boys are bigger culprits than girls with 21% spending over 7 hours a day procrastinating compared to 16% of girls.

The survey found that 39% of students do procrastinate more during the final term of university when there are exams, final coursework due or thesis deadlines. Michael Tefula, author of Student Procrastination: Seize the Day and Get More Work Done said, “Deadlines determine what procrastination is and what it isn’t. When the workload increases, we turn to ordinary activities to avoid doing the work that is required of us. This is why cleaning your room is more bearable (and perhaps even enjoyable) in the final term than in the first.”

The survey was carried out online; Student Beans questioned 923 university students in March 2014.

James Read, editor of Student Beans advised students, “Split huge tasks into small goals that can be rewarded with breaks If all else fails, block yourself from websites and turn off your phone!”

Magdalen’s temporary library, which will serve the library needs of Magdalen students while the permanent library undergoes renovation, is proving disruptive as the new term begins.

The temporary library is set to serve as the college library until the permanent new library re-opens in 2016. As it is not yet ready for use, however, students have been struggling to secure library space.

An email sent to Magdalen students by Christine Ferdinand, a Fellow Librarian at the college, said, “You may want to find somewhere else to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning and possibly until next week when the St Swithun’s Library opens.

“If you are working in the New Library on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday please be prepared to remove your things from your oak desk, while the Maintenance team remove it and replace it with a trestle table. They will work as quickly as they can. Our goal is to get the St Swithun’s Library open as soon as possible and the Maintenance team are helping us do that.”

However, she also stressed that Magdalen was working as hard as possible to ensure the problems with the library would be resolved as quickly as possible.
A further document sent to all Magdalen undergraduates advised students to,

“1. Plan to move into the temporary library.2. Plan to work in the current New Library building until the last minute. 3. Plan to work elsewhere, such as in another library or in your room. 4. A combination of the first options.”

Students have expressed disappointment at the college’s handling of the situation. “Normally it’s hard to find and share books on the reading list of a module that the whole university do, and without access to the Magdalen Library, this will make it even harder this weekend,” said one Historian.

A Magdalen second year, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “ I appreciate them giving us a substitute, but I feel they could have done better than the undersized and understocked plaster-cast wedding marquee.”

A second year medical student, with exams early this term that count towards her final qualification, said, “All the reference books are gone, many of which we don’t have borrow-able copies of.

“The St. Swithun’s library looks like someone tried (and failed) to get the Great British Bake Off going in Oxford – not quite fitting with the beautiful 15th century architecture, I’d say. And surely that marquee isn’t going to be big enough? Think of the damage it’s doing to the grass…

“Overall though, if the new library is built according to plan and isn’t delayed again, the end result should be quite spectacular — probably one of the best designed and most aesthetically pleasing college libraries in Oxford.”

When contacted by Cherwell, Ms Ferdinand detailed the flaws of the existing building and explained the renovations, commenting, “The current library’s roof leaks every time it rains; the builders of the St Swithuns library guarantee that will not happen. We cannot control the heat in the current library — the boiler is either off or on, and when it’s on it can be stifling hot; we actually have thermostat controlled heating in the temporary library. Lighting is very poor in the current library; it is up to standard in the St Swithun’s Library. Additionally, there are few ethernet points in the current library; there are plenty in the St Swithuns Library.”

Another student told Cherwell, “They’ve been very open about how the temporary arrangements will work, and have welcomed suggestions at every turn for how to make it all work better.

“Sure, it’d be nice not to have to put up with the two or more years of inconvenience that these arrangements will necessarily cause, but the College desperately needs more space for people to work and for books, and it’s not immediately clear to me how to guarantee that with less disruption than what we’re going through now, failing the sudden appearance of a massive multi-million-pound donation to fund the parallel construction of an entirely new library.”

Magdalen’s library renovations are set to enlarge the current library, providing more work spaces for the college’s expanding student population. The plans include a “library outside the library”, an outdoor seating space with wi-fi in the college’s Longwall Quad, and twice as many reading spaces as in the current library.

For the next two years, students will use the temporary library, which has only 45 reading spaces and 3000 books. The majority of the college’s books will be kept in the university’s main Book Storage Facility in Swindon.

The librarian stressed that the college were doing their best to minimise disruption, telling Cherwell, “I have liaised with other college librarians in our vicinity about allowing our students easier access to their collections during this transitional time.”

An all-student referendum will be held in 4th week of Trinity regarding OUSU’s affiliation with the National Union of Students (NUS). The referendum will ask voters the following question: “OUSU is currently affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS). Should it continue to be affiliated: yes or no?”

Nominations to lead the campaign for either side will open on Sunday 27th April at 12pm (first week) with elections for these campaign meetings to be held the following day.

OUSU’s Returning Officer, Alexander Walker, issued a directive on the OUSU website earlier this month concerning the referendum. While all student members of OUSU can go to the briefing meetings to vote, only those who wish to support the ‘Yes’ campaign may go to the ‘Yes’ briefing, and only those who wish to support the ‘No’ campaign may go to the ‘No’ briefing.

Only the Returning Officer and his deputies may attend both meetings. Both will take place at the OUSU building, with the ‘Yes’ meeting happening at 10am and the ‘No’ meeting at midday.

Tom Rutland, the current OUSU President, plans to run to lead the ‘Yes’ campaign. It is not yet known who intends to run to lead the ‘No’ campaign.

“Oxford students benefit greatly by being part of NUS,” Rutland commented. “Affiliation allows us to influence NUS policy, ensure that we have a national union fighting for students’ interests and take advantage of the incredible array of discounts the NUS Extra Card provides.

“Disaffiliating from NUS would cost Oxford students money, it would isolate us from the national student movement, and it would weaken both unions”.

The NUS are currently producing a tailor-made report on the private letting industry and the state of student housing in Oxford in an attempt to help OUSU target accommodation problems experienced by Oxford students.

Student campaigner Nathan Akehurst told Cherwell, “NUS has a range of problems with democracy and careerism. It is not a visible presence in OUSU students’ lives beyond the Extra card. However, NUS does do a huge amount of important work, lobbying and campaigning on a national level in a way OUSU couldn’t. It would be foolish and irresponsible to give up our place in the national student movement.”

Not all universities are affiliated with NUS, however, as Jack J. Matthews points out. He thinks it does no harm to the perceptions of potential students, commenting, “Southampton and Imperial continue to be top destinations for students despite being independent from NUS.”

Akehurst disagreed. “Given the amount of bad press Oxford gets, and with the disaffiliation charge led by the political right, NUS disaffiliation would create potentially inaccurate stories about perceived Oxbridge arrogance.”

All students registered within the university will be able to vote, regardless of their college’s own affiliation with OUSU.

Teddy Hall students were needed to escort a duck and her ducklings back to the river after they appeared in a college pond.

Margery Infield, who led the rescue operation, said, “Catching the ducklings was pretty tricky (they are surprisingly agile), but the worst part was trying to entice the very angry mother to follow us down to the river. She went berserk — unsurprising given we’d caught 13 of her children and put them in a shoebox – and chased us confusedly down the High Street, nearly getting run over!

“Fortunately, disaster was averted (no duck on the dinner menu that evening) and all the ducklings were reunited with their mum in Christ Church Meadows. It was an eggsellent result!”

This is the second year of duck drama at Teddy Hall – last year, a duck led her ducklings into the college basement, and once again had to be restored to the river by a team of students.

The ducks were unavailable for comment.