Students of the college have been found by night-porters to be able to access the scaffolding from their rooms, without setting off the alarms on the lowest level of the construction.

These alarms are in place to stop poeple gaining access to the college buildings from the street. However, the college has organised for the rest of the scaffolding to be alarmed so that anyone attempting to mount the scaffolding from higher up will trigger the alarm and summon a porter.

The email from Douglas Dupree states that, “Once the alarm is in place the College will have to react seriously to anyone who violates this notice (and consider this email as due notice) that the scaffolding is OFF LIMITS. So be warned, for your own safety sake. Stay off the scaffolding. It is dangerous.”

However, a lot of students are annoyed about the presence of the scaffolding, which is causing much inconvenience to those living in the building. A third-year at Balliol who declined to be named said, “We were told there would be issues with light and noise (which are actually worse than was stated), but nobody warned me that I would open my curtains and frequently have several men see me in my underwear. I have to decide between feeling comfortable in my room or having the curtains open and being able to actually see what I’m doing.”

St Antony’s annual HalloQueen bop has attracted criticism from its own LGBTQA community, provoking allegations about anti-sexual assault awareness.

Last week, St. Antony’s LGBTQA and Men’s Officer hosted Queer Pride/Queer Rage, a festival of discussion panels, films, and lectures on LGBTQ issues. The event fell the week before HalloQueen, a popular drag-themed bop that took place on Saturday 2nd November.

In a welcome speech on the first night of Queer Pride/Queer Rage, the LGBTQA officer stated, “Queer Pride/Queer Rage started as a response to HalloQueen, as a protest to the lack of organizing initiative to include trans voices, as a resistance to the gender binary that the event enforces, and a party that rides of the back of queer history without acknowledge or respecting this history.”

He cited transgender people and those who do not identify as male or female as potential targets of discrimination or harassment at a drag-related event organised for the student body as a whole.

He alleged that the HalloQueen student organisers and the St Antony’s GCR executive avoided consulting him or the LGBT Society in the planning of an event related to issues that face the LGBTQ community. He emphasised the need for inclusivity, and stressed that he felt St Antony’s was too focused on planning the party to address LGBTQ concerns.

“Queerphobia and transphobia is not question about logistics, but a question of survival,” the LGBTQA Officer said. He added that he did not attend the bop last year, finding it upsetting and unrepresentative of his community.

According to its corresponding Facebook event, over two hundred people attended Queer Pride/Queer Rage. Discussions ranged from the history of queer sexuality to BDSM, featuring speakers including artists, sex workers, Oxford academics, filmmakers, and activists.

At HalloQueen, there was one instance of sexual harassment, which resulted in the perpetrator being ejected from the bop. The college recently introduced a Safer Spaces policy that condemns sexual harassment, including that related to sex and sexual orientation.

GCR President Emma Lecavalier stated that this process had been delayed for several months by the St Antony’s VP Welfare position being vacant, but that the college ensured the Safer Spaces policy was in place for this year’s HalloQueen.

As part of the Safer Spaces initiative, Lecavalier told Cherwell that five members of a Welfare Team were on duty at HalloQueen this year to patrol for harassment and assist partygoers who felt unsafe.

She said, “We are very proud of the work that everyone did for this bop ensuring the indiscriminate safety of every single person present at the bop. Some of the volunteers even went so far as to accompany people home, call their parents, wake up wardens, and take other measures to ensure their complete safe return home.”

A former St Antony’s student who has attended HalloQueen the past two years stated, “On Halloween, we traditionally dress up as monsters. It’s therefore possible that people would interpret HalloQueen as trivialising trans issues. But it’s never felt like an unsafe environment to me.”

On Friday 25 October, the college hosted the ‘Great Pink College Bake Off’ as part of a coffee morning in the Monson Room. There were three competition categories: best dressed, best cake and ‘guess the number of sweets in the jar.’ The event managed to raise £422.29 for Breast Cancer Campaign and occurred as part of a ‘Wear It Pink Day’ campaign.

‘Wear It Pink Day’ is a nationwide charity initiative to raise money for Breast Cancer Research where people dress in pink and host fundraising events.

Sammi Rosser, who came second in the baking competition, said, “The atmosphere at the event was lovely with students and staff coming together to have a cuppa and ogle the amazing spread of pink puds.”

A particularly fortunate member of staff was Elaine Kemp, the ICY Technical Services Officer, who won the competition to guess the number of sweets in the jar. She told Cherwell, “My teenage children were very impressed that I won the ‘guess the number of sweets in the jar competition… the sweets disappeared very fast!”

The Vice President of the Lady Margaret Hall JCR said that the strength of the event lay in getting MCR and college staff involved as well as students.

The success of the event fits perfectly with the college motto ‘I always remember my duty’ as well as the college values of community, fairness and equality. Indeed LMH’s celebration of ‘Wear It Pink Day’ fits more broadly into their wider charity initiative.

The HR manager Jenni Collins, who organizes charitable events at the college, said, “In practical terms this means LMH piggy-backing on local and national charity days by holding events in the College such as coffee morning, cake sales and quizzes.”

Jenni explained how she asks the students at the college what sort of events they would like to host in order to raise money for good causes. With people reporting that the cakes were absolutely delicious, Jenni pointed out that, “Including an element of personal incentive is important for any charity initiative in the workplace.”

A researcher from the University of Oxford has been awarded £50,000 in prize money for his work on a device that uses the revolutionary technology of augmented reality to help blind people ‘see.’

Dr Stephen Hicks, a research associate at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, has been working on the ‘smart-glasses’ and other related technologies for the past five years.  

The Royal Society recently bestowed on him the 2013 Brian Mercer Award for Innovation, which is designed to bridge the funding gap between scientific research and venture capital investment.

When completed, the device will use two miniscule cameras, an infrared projector and advanced computer software to recognise nearby objects and project them onto the lenses. The lenses then act like a personalised movie-screen for the wearer, who can see a ‘highlight-reel’ of objects in front of them.

Speaking to Cherwell, Dr Hicks said, “This is the beginning of a golden-age for computerised vision. We are seeing smart recognition technology in everything from cameras to smartphones to self-driving cars. It’s entirely possible that at some point in the future this technology could be improved to the point where severely vision impaired individuals would be able to read signs or even large-print books.”

A spokesperson for the Royal Society said, “Dr Hicks’ work is truly inspirational; his invention has the potential to transform the lives of many and he is a worthy recipient of the Brian Mercer Award.”

One third-year Hertford biologist said, “This truly is an exciting time to be alive.”

Eight bottles of cava were stolen from a St Hugh’s charity event last Friday.
The bottles, which were meant to be used for the champagne reception of their RAG ball, had been stored in the JCR committee room, which was left unlocked.

Charities and Communities rep, Amy Ertan, who organised the event, told Cherwell, “It is very unfortunate that our champagne was stolen, and we hope to recover the lost cava soon. However it should not be forgotten that in spite of this, the Casino Royale Ball was a roaring success and this should not detract from that.”

One St Hugh’s student, Rebecca Davies, told Cherwell, “I think that the whole committee was shocked by what happened, because the bottles were taken from the JCR committee room, where nobody would really expect for them to be stored.”

Another student agreed, stating, “I think this is pretty low, especially considering that the bottles which were stolen were meant to be for a champagne reception for the St Hugh’s RAG ball, so whoever stole them were effectively stealing from a charitable cause.”

In other news, St Hugh’s has enforced a blanket ban on students bringing their own bottle to formal, following an incident last Tuesday where an unnamed individual vomited in hall. The college has offered to supply wine at a price of around £8, and a cheaper option between £6.50 and £7.

A statement from the St Hugh’s JCR committee said, “I would like to point out that this is not an ideal situation, and the response to this problem is not one that I, or the rest of the JCR committee, agree with. We are hoping that this change of policy can be reviewed in the near future, and we can come to a more agreeable solution for all, but for now this is the only option.”

A number of St Hugh’s students have expressed their discontent at the new measures. One third year commented, “I don’t feel its entirely fair. College authorities seem to have taken this action in response to one incident of vomit following formal this term, and one other in Trinity. These are isolated incidents, in my opinion.”

Another St Hugh’s undergraduate said, “I think this goes against a tradition at St Hugh’s of being laid back and informal. We don’t wear gowns to formal, and we can walk on the grass in the gardens, I don’t see why we should scrap BYOB if the vast majority of people play by the rules.”

All JCR motions at Corpus Christi will from now on have to have an identified proposer and seconder, as it was felt that anonymous motions were redundant and potentially harmful.

At last week’s JCR meeting, a motion was proposed to make anonymous motions easier to submit.

This drew clear opposition and an amendment was drawn up proposing the abolition of anonymous motions altogether. This amendment passed unopposed and a full proposal was written.

The new proposal read that “anonymous motions were recently introduced into the JCR Constitution and they have had limited use”. Worries that anonymous motions could be undemocratic were the driving force behind the proposal. It was feared that an anonymous motion could allow someone who was not a member of the Corpus JCR body to submit any kind of motion, leaving members only to trust that it came from someone within the JCR. Amendments proposed to any such anonymous motions would also have to be relied upon to be friendly.

Anonymous motions had been used only once since their introduction. It was felt that the potential harm they could cause outweighed their benefits.
One of the obvious advantages of an anonymous JCR motion would be that, in the case of a sensitive issue, a motion could be submitted without the proposer’s identity being revealed.

However, it was raised at the meeting that there were ways around this problem. As Corpus JCR Vice-President Harry Begg pointed out, “There are still other vehicles with which people are able to put forward motions, for example through our welfare team who could act as proxy proposers and seconders.”

Begg also said that he hoped that anyone who felt passionate enough to propose a motion, would feel secure enough to publicly support it, if only by proxy telling Cherwell, “I would question if there could ever be a motion which would find support in the JCR where the person proposing was not comfortable appearing in public to support the spirit and content of that proposition.”

Gayatri Parthasarathy and Abigail Burman, the proposer and seconder, were unavailable for comment.

Although there were no objections, JCR member Nam Phuong Dinh had some misgivings about an outright ban, “I didn’t object to the motion at the meeting but I feel uneasy somehow. However, it seems like abolishing anonymous motions would get rid of more problems than it would create harm. Basically, I can’t think of why not.”

Plans for the construction of a divisive new £75m building in the heart of Jericho are now well and truly under way after the bid by David Freud, the owner of Freud bar on Walton street, to halt the project was rejected by a judicial review.

Despite Mr Freud’s claims that the project breached planning rules, the decision to approve the Blavatnik School of Government building was passed on the 15th of August by Mr Justice Ouseley.

The controversy was partly caused by the building’s design. The plans of Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron, who also designed the Tate Modern, show the structure as 22.5m-high, which would rise above a number of the city’s historic buildings. This, however, goes contrary to the council’s guideline that no building within 1,200m of Carfax is able to be taller than 18.2m.

This objection was declared void by Mr Justice Ouseley, who ruled that the authorities were free to disregard aspects of policies in suitable circumstances.
In previous comments Mr Freud has made it clear that he is of the opinion that the Oxford skyline is a “heritage asset” and that he was opposed to it being filled with a “drum full of light.”

The other issue raised by Mr Freud was that there may be members of the councils deciding body for whom private interests have swayed their decision. On this point also Mr Justice Ouseley was strongly opposed. Writing in his reasons for rejection he says, “There is no evidence that any of the councillors had disclosable pecuniary interests and that there is “no evidence of any unfairness in the conduct of committee.”

One of the councillors on the committee, Colin Cook, who is also chief technician at the university’s medical sciences’ teaching centre told Cherwell, “After the initial refusal of permission for judicial review on the basis of the written representations, I was not surprised that the decision at the subsequent hearing remained the same.”

On the building’s controversial design he commented “I believe it will be a positive addition to the eclectic mix of architectural styles in the city.”
The approval of planning has also come as a great relief to the Blavatnik School of Government, which is part of the University of Oxford, and was founded with a £75m donation from American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.

A spokeswoman from the Blavatnik School of Government commented, “We are very pleased that the judge has upheld the planning committee’s decision to give approval for our building. We are excited about our prospective move to Walton Street in autumn 2015, and look forward to continued engagement with the local community as our building work progresses.

“As the new home for the Blavatnik School, this building will be an exciting space in which students, researchers, policy makers and visitors can exchange knowledge and ideas on how to make public policy better and improve the quality of government around the world. At any given time, the building will accommodate up to 550 people.

“With a dynamic programme of events, conferences and seminars, many of which will convene experts from all sectors of society and be open to students across Oxford and the general public, it will be a space that invites engagement with the wider world, as well as the local community.”

No one from Freud was available to comment.

The new gowns, which are only to be worn by holders of an Undergraduate Master’s degree and at their graduation ceremony – but not by those currently studying – are to be comparable to graduate Master’s gowns. They will consist of a laced gown of the same pattern as the MSt type, and a silk hood lined with sand fabric in the same shape as the MA hood.

Senior Proctor Professor Jonathan Mallinson told Cherwell, “Undergraduate Master’s degree courses include a fourth year of study which is closer to that of Masters’ level work; it is therefore appropriate that the gown should be distinguished from the ordinary BA gown”.

He continued, “The design of the gown echoes that of the MSt which is perhaps the nearest equivalent to the final level of the undergraduate Masters.”

The decision to adopt the new gowns, announced last Thursday, came after the vice-chancellor and proctors agreed upon the new design. The new arrangements will come into effect in January 2014, and will apply to holders of the MBiochem, MChem, MCompSci, MEarthSci, MMaths and MPhys degrees, as well as joint subject equivalents, and future degrees of the same status.

One exasperated MPhys student told Cherwell, “I thought this would be something like a Scholars’ gown. That’s disappointing to say the least”.

However, one Hertford chemist said, “I am glad that the extra year of study on our Masters course will be recognised in this way. It’s nice that the extra work that we will do is going to be acknowledged, even if we won’t be getting new gowns to wear around college”.

The Executive Board of Oxford City Council is considering a set of proposals to substantially revamp the city’s historic Covered Market. The proposals, included in a ninety-page report compiled by consultancy firm The Retail Group, include the installation of rooftop eateries, a major renovation of the Market Street side of the Market, and a thirty-two percent expansion of retail space through the construction of first-floor shop and restaurant facilities, all at a potential cost of £4 million.

The Council, which owns the Covered Market, commissioned the report in the hopes of finding ways to attract more customers to the site, where foot traffic and sales have fallen noticeably over the course of the last decade. Colin Cook, a Labour councillor in charge of City Development on the city’s Executive Board, wrote in the Oxford Mail that the Council “want[s] to make the place sustainable, vibrant and profitable into the long term, both for the traders and for the city council.”

In formulating its plans, The Retail Group took inspiration from successful “destination” markets like Brixton’s Village Market. One area of opportunity they highlight is improving the Market’s prepared food and beverage offering. “If you look at other successful markets, they all have restaurants and cafés playing an anchor role,” Paul Frater, the director of the The Retail Group, told Cherwll. “The food in the Covered Market is lagging 20 years behind.”

“Where you do have high-quality food that targets the student market, for example Alpha Bar, sales are very high,” Frater said, in reference to the Market’s popular salad bar. “That shows me that when it comes to food, the Market is punching under its weight.”

The firm sees another opportunity in the revitalisation of the Market Street entrance of the site, which it says currently “appears to be the service and delivery area” for the Market. The consultants propose that a new façade might be built along the Market Street entrance, and that the street might be pedestrianised between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM.

Reactions from the Market’s traders to the proposals have been mixed. While most said they were pleased that the Council was looking at ways to increase business, many appeared sceptical that the plans would actually be implemented.

“It’s not gonna happen” said a long-serving sales assistant at Nothing, a shop selling jumpers and jewellery. “How long have they been talking about redoing the Westgate centre? Probably since before you were born! We’d be delighted if it happened, of course, but I just don’t think it will.”

At Cardew’s Coffee and Tea, sales assistant Flynn Faudot-Boston also expressed doubt. “It would be great to get more customers coming through, but I can’t see the Council forking out £4 million. Where are they going to find that kind of money?” he wondered, before adding: “They probably get enough from parking tickets, actually.”

Nigel Ramsay, a local resident and regular customer at the Market who was buying tea at Cardew’s, advised caution. “I fear this may be another example of the City Council’s nasty habit of putting short-term concerns over income ahead of the long-term interests of residents.” he said. “If these plans will mean more fly-by-night, here-one-day-gone-the-next clothing shops in the Market, I’d rather they weren’t implemented.” Sarah Browne, a florist at The Garden, said she feared that a major renovation, paired with rent increases, might threaten the Market’s independent spirit. “If you make the Market newer and glossier, I worry that only a glossier, more high-rent type of shop will be able to move in here. The rents are already too high as it is. I don’t want to see chains moving in.”

Daniel Greenwood, a third-year biochemist at Magdalen who often shops at the Covered Market, also emphasised the importance of maintaining the Market’s atmosphere. “Oxford is very lucky to have such a unique market,” he said. “It is great to hear that the council are putting serious thoughts into its future, though it is essential that any expansion plans favour the kinds of quirky independent businesses that make the place so special.”

The Council are presently seeking public comments on the proposals. A consultation page on the Council’s website will be open for input from the public until 29 November. Councillor Cook invited Oxford students specifically to give their views on the Market’s future, telling Cherwell, “any input from students would be very welcome.”

Two Oxford University researchers, Dr Anna-Lora Wainwright and Dr Hannah Sullivan, have been awarded the Philip Leverhulme award for exceptional work. They were awarded £70,000 as recognition of their contributions to their fields of study.  

Dr Wainwright is of the School of Geography and the Environment and the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies. She is a fellow of St. Cross College in Oxford and is a University Lecture in the Human Geography of China. She has recently published a book about the effects of cancer on those living in rural China, Fighting for Breath: Living Morally and Dying of Cancer in a Chinese Village.

Dr Sullivan is one of three tutors in modern literature from 1780 to the present at New College and a lecturer of the English faculty. She research specialises in modernism, poetry and poetic form, and various questions in stylistics and textual criticism. Her research areas also include the revision of British and American modernism and literary style and form. Her first book, The Work of Revision, was published this summer.

The Philip Leverhulme awards are awarded to younger academics in a range of disciplines. The Leverhulme Trust says of them that, “These Prizes, with a value of £70,000 each, are awarded to outstanding scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study, recognised at an international level, and where the expectation is that their greatest achievement is yet to come.”

Dr Sullivan said “I feel extremely lucky to be awarded this prize to work on an ambitious and experimental project that otherwise, I fear, would never have taken off. My new book is about free verse and English poetry’s break-up with the iambic pentameter. I’m interested in the evolution and ideological meaning of ‘freedom’ in form. Most English poems until the 20th century are in shared, repeated prosodic or rhyming forms, whereas most English poems today are in a form unique to that poem. I’ll be asking why.”

The prize of £70,000 is given over two or three years and can be used for a variety of projects. Dr Sullivan said “I am going to use some part of the prize to work on a non-semantic version of what my former colleague Franco Moretti calls ‘distant reading’. In other words, I’ll be working with a programmer and a large corpus to see if I can find out, for example, what the most common stanza form was in poems published in 1880, or what percentage of poems in 1910 used iambic pentameters.”

The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 by the will of William Hesketh Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers. The aim was to provide grants and scholarships for academics at every stage in their careers and to aid any research and education. The Trust currently distributes over £60 million a year. They award around 30 Philip Leverhulme awards every year. Professor Gordon Marshall Director of The Leverhulme Trust said of this year’s candidates “The standard of the nominated candidates was encouragingly high, and the prize-winners were judged by the panel to be truly outstanding in their fields, with records of proven achievement, as well as telling promise for the future.”

A Balliol 3rd year, Ragulan Vigneswaran, commented “I think it’s great that hard working Oxford scholars are being rewarded for doing research that is far out of the mainstream. The subjects which these winners are working in really show the diversity which Oxford has to offer. Hopefully other aspiring students will be inspired by this and continue Oxford’s great tradition of research that makes it one of the premier universities in the world.”