An oxford NUS delegate has publicly criticised the National Union of Students for “preventing people from expressing their views” due to what he sees as an intolerance of right-wing opinions within the organisation.

Jack Matthews, who is also President of the Oxford University Conservative Association described his first experiences at the union in a blog post. He stated, “Within minutes of the meeting starting, one member began to speak of how NUS should build a bonfire, with the Lib Dems in the middle and the Tories on the top… I had somehow stumbled into the heart of an organisation where you could joke about the murder of someone along party lines, and the rest of the room wouldn’t bat an eyelid.” At a separate NUS event, Matthews claimed that “the vitriol was so great… [I] was effectively hounded out”.

He related OUSU’s similar antipathy when he first revealed he was a Tory, describing how “There was a clearly audible gasp from the members of OUSU Council. My first experience of student unions and the take home message was ‘you’re not that welcome’.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Matthews stressed, “This isn’t just about being a Conservative; it’s about being different. We have a situation where the environment of our “debates” is preventing people from expressing their views… while the rules that are in place at the NUS do not technically bar anyone from getting involved, there is a culture that puts off outsiders.”

Others have criticised the NUS on similar grounds. Reading University Student Union president Mark Kelleher told Cherwell of “Sitting next to a NUS full-time officer, an elected representative of all students in the UK, who started to sing the now infamous ‘build a bonfire’ chant.

“NUS are very big on… the principle that no course participant should be made to feel uncomfortable… However, from what I have witnessed, this only applies if you agree with their strong left-wing views.”

An NUS spokesperson commented, “NUS does not align itself to any particular political party. Our membership is made up of thousands of students with a broad spectrum of political views. This sometimes results in debates at conferences but all views are heard and received. We also operate an equal opportunities policy within NUS and throughout all of our events which extends to different political views.”

OUSU President Tom Rutland commented, “I have no time for people who sing songs about putting anybody on a bonfire, but my experience of working with NUS has been very positive. OUSU Council is comprised primarily of OUSU representatives and JCR/MCR Presidents, elected by individual common rooms – if there is a ‘political mainstream’ in OUSU, then it’s one that is both representative of and chosen by common rooms.”

Ed Nickell, former President of Exeter JCR and recently appointed NUS delegate for OUSU, was sceptical about the strength of ill-feeling towards Jack Matthews. He said, “In the face of discrimination on grounds of class, race, gender and sexuality – I’m not sure being a Tory is really such a tough one. This is a storm in a teacup. Maybe people have been rude to Jack, and that wasn’t very nice of them, but that doesn’t actually amount to censorship.”
The NUS is the UK’s largest confederation of student unions, including 95 per cent of all higher and further education unions.

The annual National NUS conference is where policies are voted on by elected delegates. Factions including Labour Students, Conservative Future and the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts usually contest elections.

The contract of an Oxford GP, who is responsible for a number of colleges, has been threatened by the NHS after he refused to co-operate with new data-sharing regulations.

Dr Gordon Gancz, who runs a surgery on King Edward street and is the college GP for Lincoln, Oriel, St. Catz, and Corpus Christi colleges, had objected to a new policy concerning patient data. According to the new scheme, all patient data is automatically shared on a central database and “patients will automatically be included unless they indicate to their practice that they wish to opt out”.

Dr Gancz, however, felt this contravened his patients’ right to privacy and consequently wrote on his website, “This practice takes its duties to safeguard patient confidentiality extremely seriously and so we have decided to assume (even though doing so may turn out to be illegal) that all of our patients wish to opt-out of this data extraction, until such time as you inform us that you wish to allow your data to be used in this way.”

The NHS responded with a letter saying, “We wish to discuss the remediation needed because you have published on your practice website information about the care data extraction indicating that you intend opting your patients out of the data extraction unless they contact you to opt in. This is contrary to NHS England’s requirement that patients will automatically be included unless they indicate to their practice that they wish to opt out.”

The letter went on to state that so long as the information remained on the website, he was in breach of his contract.

Dr Gancz has responded angrily to the “bullying” used by the NHS, telling Pulse magazine that the letter showed a “disregard for patients’ interests”. He went on to doubt the tenability of the NHS position, saying, “It will be interesting to see what power they have, if any, to stop one simply stating what is the case. People are being bulldozed into giving consent by default – that is on my website and it’s nothing but the truth – how can they tell me to take it off?”
Dr Gancz has also made specific reference to the impact that the changes will have on Oxford students, commenting, “How many of those students who have passed through Oxford University in the past would like details of their private lives made available to others? Exactly the same applies to every patient in the country.”

The NHS has responded by asserting that they wanted patients to understand the importance of the consequences of the data sharing changes. A spokeswoman told The Telegraph, “If a patient wishes to object to their information being used for purposes beyond their direct care they must do so autonomously, based on balanced, accurate information about how and why their information will be used,” she said. “It is not right for GP practices to make this decision on their patients’ behalf.

“Before today, we agreed with the BMA and RCGP that we would work with them to review cases of abnormal numbers of patient objections. However, this review will take place once extractions begin, not before.”

Keble JCR has voted to increase the number of BOPs they have per term by reducing the number of free drinks tokens.

The College currently hosts two BOPs a term, organised by the Entz team, with a budget of £500 per BOP but with this change the number will be increased to three.

Drawing attention to the number of BOPs hosted by other colleges, the motion states that “Catz, Wadham, St. Anne’s and Exeter have three or four BOPs per term, even Merton”. The “enjoyable and inclusive nature of college events” was also stressed along with the desire of “many members of college [to have] BOPs more frequently”.

The motion’s proposers, Rosie Peterson and Joel Hide, successfully argued that it would be more beneficial to the student body if, in return for the limiting of free drinks tokens, the college would enjoy an extra BOP each term.
Rosie Peterson, who proposed the motion, explained, “the aim of the motion was to increase the number of BOPs we have per term, as before we only had two which is less than quite a lot of other colleges get. Reducing the free drinks tickets was necessary in order to have more BOPs within the Entz budget. The motion did get passed, as members of the JCR seemed to agree that they would enjoy an extra BOP more than they enjoy one free drink token per BOP, and the dean has also expressed that he’s happy for us to have three BOPs a term”.

Joel Hide echoed these sentiments saying “Everyone loves BOPs, so we thought that it would be a good idea to reduce the number of drinks tokens available at each one, reducing the cost of each BOP so that we could afford to have three per term rather than just two. Drinks in our bar are pretty cheap anyway, so for everyone to have to pay for one more drink at the BOP isn’t really a big deal, and is definitely worth it to have more BOPs. Besides, if even Merton can have four BOPs per term, it’s shameful for a fun college like Keble to have just two!”

One student commented that “I’m really pleased this motion has passed and Keble can have more than two BOPs a term! They’re one of the best events in the termly calendar and I’m looking forward to having three now, they’re always really fun”.

Indeed Keble’s example has been keenly noticed by BOP lovers at other colleges. A first year classics student at Jesus commented, “I’m really jealous Keble are doing this. We only get two BOPs a term and I hope other colleges follow their example. BOPs are great fun and there’s free booze. What more could you want?!”

One Wadham student, however, saw a flaw in the plan, “As someone from a college where we have a BOP every other week, I think just having extra BOPs doesn’t necessarily make them better. We have so many that people stop turning up, which goes against the whole idea”

Some students were also confused with the change. One Exeter student commented, “I don’t understand how they are paying for the move; they have free drinks tokens?”

Rusticated students will soon have the right to use facilities and services provided by the university.

Charlotte Hendy, OUSU Vice-President for Welfare and Equal Opportunities, made the announcement last week. Exact details have yet to be confirmed, but it is believed that the new freedoms will become available in the near future.

Students taking a year out of their studies will now continue to enjoy the use of university facilities, except when their suspension is a result of a failure to pay the relevant university fees, or when the safety of members of the university is threatened. Previously, students who had taken a year out of their studies have had to make do with restricted access to Oxford-wide libraries, online resources, the Nexus email system, and all other services requiring a Bodleian reader’s card. The university was also often unclear as to which get retracted.

The new guidelines, which were a product of co-operation between the university and the student union, should also ensure that the rights of rusticated students are made clearer to them upon taking a break from their studies.

One undergraduate drew attention to the need for the changes by bemoaning the status quo, “How are rusticated students supposed to prepare for the exams they take once they return without the use of libraries? How are they supposed to communicate without Nexus?”

Another added, “Clarity is really important, students taking a year off already have enough to think about without having to decipher which libraries they can use”.

Charlotte Hendy’s statement concurred with this view, “Year after year, OUSU’s Student Advice Service supports students, who have taken a year out on medical grounds and are expected to sit penal collections on return. These students often have no access to libraries and struggle to achieve the often expected 2.1.”

In the future this should no longer be as much of an issue, Hendy added. “We are thrilled with these changes; it is a great result for Oxford students”.
Students who have experience of the convoluted rustication proceedure have greeted the news in a similarly enthusiastic fashion. A student wishing to remain anonymous said, “I’m delighted that Oxford University has decided to reverse its policy regarding access to facilities and services for suspended students. If you’re unwell, the whole point of suspending is to take some time to recover so that you can work and enjoy what Oxford has to offer when you return. It’s bizarre that so many suspended students have been expected to do this without access to counselling or libraries”.

Colleges, however, are not bound by the guidelines and allowing rusticated students to make use of their facilities will remain at the discretion of the individual colleges.

Since, Colleges are normally the first port of call for students with welfare issues, some have been unsettled by the lack of standardised policies.
However, Hendy assured students that “from here, we hope to encourage localised conversations within colleges on this issue” when pressed on the matter.

OUSU has a successful history in terms of improving the rights of struggling students. It has previously won the right for Prelims to be retaken, along with several other policies over the years. “I didn’t know it did all these things really”, said one student of OUSU. “But I’m glad it does, even if they seem to go on behind the scenes”.

Oxford is noted for its intense academic terms, and as such appears keen to make clear its dedication to providing welfare support to its students. According to official figures around 1.4% of the student population leave the university after starting a degree. The figure is much lower than the national average, however, perhaps due to the social acceptability of rustication. The university points to its extensive welfare spending as part of the reason why the numbers of people leaving are so low.

With some students though, there is a sense that the student body should not get complacent. “We shouldn’t delude ourselves though”, warned one Mertonian. “Each person that leaves the university because of illness – or for whatever else – is a massive loss to all of us. It’s great news that more is being done to make sure they all come back on an equal footing”.

Ooxford anti-violence groups have raised concerns about a new report on rape and sexual violence, which suggests that despite falling crime rates in the Thames Valley area, cases of dropped charges remain high.

The report, produced on behalf of the Rape Monitoring Group, found that the number of recorded rapes of both adults and children has risen steadily in England and Wales since 2008. In the Thames Valley, however, eight per cent of these cases are dropped without further investigation, compared to only two per cent of all victim based crimes. This practice of dismissing charges is commonly referred to as ‘no criming’.

Responding to the report, anti-violence responders and activists expressed worry about the lack of sexual violence awareness in Oxfordshire.
Natalie Brook of the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre (OSARCC), commented, “If justice is to be achieved for survivors of sexual violence, more must be done to build confidence that those who have experienced rape and sexual abuse will be believed and supported when they report.”

Specifically, she stressed the importance of providing Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, “who provide independent advocacy and practical support”. However, according to Brook, there are no Independent Sexual Violence Advisors in Oxfordshire, which may affect some victims’ unwillingness to report crimes.

Speaking to Cherwell, Sarah Pine, OUSU’s Vice President for Women, suggested that many cases get dismissed because “most instances of sexual violence happen in the home, and don’t fit within the structure of witnesses, etc. that the police want to force onto [sexual violence cases].”

Pine added that “the legal wording of ‘reasonable belief’ of consent, rather than belief beyond reasonable doubt, means that the police and rapists can use body language, consent being given on previous occasions, and the absence of a ‘no’ (rather than the presence of a ‘yes’) as reasons to argue that no offence was committed.”

In a national context, Oxfordshire’s “no criming” rates are relatively low. According to police data, the proportion of sexual violence cases that are dismissed is significantly higher in other regions. In Lincolnshire, 33 per cent of alleged rape cases are dropped.

The Rape Monitoring Group report itself notes that accurate data on rape and sexual violence is difficult to come by due to extremely low reporting rates by those who have experienced sexual violence, often because they fear that they will not be believed.

The report also states that the police work to prevent rape and wants to encourage more survivors to come forward and report rapes. “Improving the police’s ability to investigate, solve and prosecute cases of rape is dependent upon attending to, and improving, many elements of rape investigations,” it reads.

Aylon Cohen, also of Oxford’s It Happens Here Campaign, commented, “The problem goes far deeper than simply a culture of disbelief when it comes to sexual violence.”

According to Cohen, police often “investigate the victim instead of her rapist, accusing her of lying and wasting police time, and ultimately pressure her to retract and even prosecute her for perverting the course of justice.”

Cohen added that It Happens Here released a zine last year about sexual violence, which outlined several suggestions about how to better serve survivors in Oxford. Among them was the need to improve access to Sexual Assault Referral Centers (SARCs). Pine says that a SARC “is the only place where people can get immediate medical and forensic support without going to the police.” However, the nearest SARC is in Slough, an hour outside of Oxford. Pine believes that colleges should provide free taxis to and from Slough until there is an Oxford SARC.

Other suggestions include having colleges and departments establish better policies to respond to sexual violence, training for common room welfare and women’s officers, and mediation resolution training for those who want to reach an informal resolution.

According to Cohen, consent workshops can also help prevent sexual violence. However, he expressed concerns about Oxford’s wider culture of sexual safety.

“Events that encourage people to treat women as sexual objects, like college ‘beauty’ contests, over-sexualised crew dates, and sports teams’ initiations that degrade women not only create a student body that disrespects the boundaries of their peers, but also support a rape culture that normalises sexual violence,” Cohen said.

Oxford University’s Radcliffe Meteorological Station has announced that the rainfall in January was highest measured in any winter month since daily recording began in 1767.

The weather station recorded a total of 146.9mm of rainfall in January. This was not only three times greater than the average for the month, but was also the highest recorded rainfall for any winter month, beating the 143.3mm that fell nearly a hundred years ago, in December 1914.

There is no immediate end in sight for the wet weather. At the time of printing, there were still 130 flood alerts and warnings across Oxford and the rest of the South East region. This included a flood warning for the River Thames and its tributaries in Oxford, meaning that immediate preventative action was necessary. There was also a general flood alert for the Oxford area, which instructed residents to be prepared for possible flooding in the near future.

In response to the warnings, Dave Bedlington, flood risk manager at the Environment Agency told Cherwell, “We will continue to monitor the situation very closely as river and groundwater levels across the South East remain high and responsive, and standing water remains in some flood plains.”

Oxford residents and business owners are dreading a repeat of January’s flooding and the loss of custom it caused. Narinder Bhella, owner of the Green Gables Guest House in Abingdon Road, told the Oxford Mail, “Last time we had to cancel all the bookings we had because nobody could get in or out when the road closed. I believe we lost about £1,700 just from loss of advance bookings, but we likely lost more from other guests we would have also had during the week.”

One Oriel student noted, “Maybe it’s a result of climate change, but flooding across England has become a regular occurrence year on year, yet every year we seem to be surprised when it occurs. It’s all very well having an organised response but there need to be more preventative measures in the first place.”

Across the country, concerns have been raised that the Environment Agency did not dredge rivers as thoroughly as they should have done in the autumn. However, Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, told BBC Breakfast, “Virtually nothing that could have been done would have, I suspect, affected the inundation that we have experienced, simply because of the quantity of rain.”

Oxford MPs Andrew Smith and Nicola Blackwood have both voiced concerns in Parliament about the economic impact of the flooding in the Oxford area and the rising cost of house insurance premiums for regular flood victims.

Undeterred by bad weather, students affiliated with the Oxford Activist Network demonstrated in the centre of town yesterday in support of the ongoing staff strike.

Over twenty people, including student activists from Ruskin College, stood outside Carfax Tower with banners. After a brief discussion with two police officers, the students marched down Cornmarket Street.

Their protest followed that morning’s demonstration, which was organised by the UCU, where approximately eighty academics and staff members marched through central Oxford.

Oxford Activist Network organiser Nathan Akehurst (pictured) stressed the importance of visible protest not only to staff’s real term pay cuts, but also to wider student issues. He called the turnout “a general defence of higher education”, citing “privatisation of loans and ongoing cutbacks” as urgent incentives to demonstrate.

Balliol first year Xav Cohen had arrived at the student protest after spending some time at the UCU strike. He called the mood amongst strikers “positive”, and described a noisy scene with a picket line supported by trade union members from Unison and Unite. “They were wanting to fight,” he told Cherwell.

Oxford staff members have held strikes over the past three weeks to protest cuts to real wages. University staff across the country continue to strike for similar cuts, some with significant consequences – after universities including Queen Mary, Warwick, and Oxford Brookes have docked an entire day’s pay for strikes lasting only a few hours. Two weeks ago, Oxford University deducted two hours’ pay from striking academics’ wages.

MSc student Jaskiran Chohan joined protesters on Thursday. She stated, “I firmly believe that this government’s plan for austerity is very harmful and damaging to all public services, and students should be aware of that – selling off the student debt is one example of this. I think that these issues are intrinsically linked, hence supporting staff against their pay cuts.”

However, Chohan was critical of student engagement in supporting the strike; less than half of the number who RSVPed to Thursday’s demonstration on Facebook turned out at Carfax Tower.

“I feel like there’s an institutional blanket of quietness – it’s a deliberate attempt to scare people away,” she said.

Only half of second yearat University College will be able to live in next year due to refurbishment of college accommodation.

Second year students were previously able to stay in on-site accommodation. However, due to the need to refurbish Goodhart, an accommodation block on the main site normally occupied by first years, accommodation is no longer guaranteed for those entering their second year in October. Instead, half of the year will be living in college owned accommodation on Staverton Road in Summertown.

There are further worries that there will not be enough rooms in the annex, depending on the amount of third and fourth years that want to live there. University College has proposed negotiating some rooms in Balliol and Trinity’s annexes which are near to Stavertonia, or renting private houses and charging students college rates.

A Univ spokesperson said, “This is a one-year change that we have always anticipated and we have discussed extensively with JCR representatives, both last year and this year. We are making a long term commitment to improving the buildings on the site and these cannot be done during the period of the long-vacation. The college has guaranteed that all second year students will be accommodated in 2014-15.”

With half of second year having to live out, attention has turned to the room ballot, which will decide priority. Originally, second year classicists were to be given priority due to their examinations. However, JCR President Abigail Reeves explained that the proposal had been dropped after a First Year Rep expressed concerns.

A JCR meeting on the 2nd February determined that the students will ballot individually, with no subject preferences except for music students who require access to a piano.

Otamere Guobadia, a second year lawyer, stated, “I chaired the JCR meeting and it was incredibly civil. When it came down to it, pretty much everyone agreed on one thing – no one, bar the choral scholars and music students, who often need rooms with pianos, should get any sort of priority. There will be an individual, random ballot, and no one’s going to be living in a cardboard box (unless the spirit moves them) so while it’s far from an ideal situation, it’s been dealt with in the fairest way possible.”

Jacob Sack-Jones, a first year at Univ, told Cherwell, “I can’t really think of a way the college could get around the problem, because Goodheart does need refurbishing.

“On the other hand, it is quite frustrating that there’s a fairly large chance that we won’t be on main site next year. When I was at the open day, I was told that all first years and second years would have a place in college, if they wanted it. I didn’t find out (and I’m not sure anyone else did) about the situation until accepting my offer, which seems a little bit unfair, because it was one of the factors that helped me decide the college I would apply to.”

However, the College’s Domestic Bursar told Cherwell that only one parent responded to a letter sent to all potential Freshers in early January 2013 that explained the housing issue.

Many other colleges in Oxford require students to live out in private accommodation. One second-year told Cherwell, “All these old colleges think they own the place. At St Hilda’s we have to live out in private accommodation; it is not that bad or inconvenient.”

However, an English student at Exeter pointed out, “Like most second years, I had prelims in Ewart House in Summertown last year and it was a bloody long way away. Univ students might be better to take their chances dropping out of the housing ballot and trying to find accommodation closer to the centre of town.”

NekNominate, the controversial drinking craze, has polarised students around Oxford University over the last week.

Students who are “nominated” by their friends post a video to Facebook of themselves preparing and drinking an extreme concoction. This is often heavily alcoholic, or includes items of food and other unusual ingredients. They then “nominate” several friends to perform a similar challenge within 24 hours.

The craze is believed to have begun in Australia early last month, but has since become popular all over the world, fuelled by the popularity of the #neknominate hashtag. It has become more controversial since two men died in Ireland after completing a challenge. Public health organisations including Drinkaware have condemned the practice and have warned of the dangers of drinking excessively in a short space of time.

Some students consider this a harmless and enjoyable phenomenon. A first-year Chemist, whose NekNominate drink included beer, white wine, peanut butter and congealed fat retrieved from a communal kitchen sink, said, “I don’t think there’s much inherently harmful in the idea of NekNominate, it’s just that some people are inevitably going to take it too far, as is the case with most things.

“Personally I enjoyed doing my nomination, and the reaction it has got from some friends, as well as watching a lot of other NekNominates (of varying) quality.”

Nominees have faced varying degrees of pressure to drink. One first-year at Magdalen said, “The majority of college friends that I’ve seen nominated haven’t actually done it.” Others, however, have felt more social pressure. “It just looked like something people were posting for Facebook likes” said Ryan, a first-year medic. “I’m hoping it will die down soon so that I can repair my broken online image.”

The ubiquity of videos on social media is attracting disapproval from some. “Can people please stop Neknominating. It makes it very hard for me to still like you”, one New College third year has warned.

An Oxford papyrologist has discovered a fragment of papyrus containing two new poems about Sappho’s brothers and unrequited love in a private collection.

Dr Dirk Obbinik of Christ Church believes that these are Sappho’s poems due to a coherent style with her other work and the references to her family. Sappho, one of the few eminent female ancient Greek poets, is known for her innovations in lyrical style and her focus on the personal. Her lyrics detail love, yearning and loss. She is well-known for lesbianism due to her poems of adoration towards women. It is from Sappho that we get the terms “sapphic” and “lesbian”, which derive from her name and place of birth, Lesbos, respectively.

An Oriel Classics student, Patrick Penzo, commented on the discovery, “They allow us to add a piece to the puzzle which is Sappho, a most extraordinary and elusive figure. People sometimes too easily forget how extraordinarily fortunate we are to have the poetry of a woman living so long ago. It is a testament to female genius and a rare expression of female love. It is a beautiful sound in a world filled with the roaring of men. Discoveries such as the one by Dr Obbink add a few more pixels to that incomplete picture.”

Dr Armand D’Angour, a Fellow and Tutor of Classics at Jesus College said, “This papyrus find is hugely exciting, however it is also perplexing – classicists are wondering how it can have fallen into the hands of a private collector, and whether other papyri of this kind may come to light.”

Academics have also welcomed the news. Christopher Peller, the Regis Professor of Greek at Christ Church commented, “We’re used to admiring Sappho as the poet of passionate romantic love; but this is that other sort of love, family love, and it’s just as moving to see her as the worried big sister, concerned both for the risk-taking brother who is away and the younger one who just needs to ‘raise his head’ – whatever that may mean – and ‘be a man’.”