Common room presidents have discussed Oxford University’s strategic plan for 2013-18, questioning the university’s two new priorities of “global reach” and “interdisciplinarity.”

At a meeting of JCR and MCR Presidents on Tuesday, students debated whether the 2012 Draft Strategic Plan represented students’ interests.
OUSU President David J Townsend chaired the meeting, which presented the university’s goals for the next five years to common rooms.

Dr Sally Mapstone, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, claimed, “Academic freedom, independent research and the tutorial system still form the absolute bedrock of the university. The five year plan aims to deal with some of the particular problems facing this university.”

The Draft Strategic Plan was released in November 2012, and announced the university’s two focuses. The new first priority is “global reach,” aiming “to develop the university’s position as a global forum for intellectual engagement through the proactive communication of ideas generated at Oxford and through openness to new ideas generated elsewhere.”

The second is “networking, communication and interdisciplinarity,” The university hopes “To build on Oxford’s multiple disciplinary strengths and enable collaborations in new and developing areas. Many of today’s research questions cut across traditional departmental and divisional boundaries.”
The document is the result of a year’s collaboration between colleges, OUSU and the university.

The plan states, “The University of Oxford aims to lead the world in research and education, and to share its work on a national and global scale. We shall realise this vision by taking forward new and transformative approaches to research, teaching and engagement with society.”

But some common room presidents expressed scepticism over the plan’s priorities. Abdossalam Madkhali, Linacre College MCR President, argued, “Oxford needs to put more emphasis on retaining its academic excellence. Global reach is a top priority, but I’m not sure it should be number one. If we don’t have enough funding for students, the crème de la crème will go to other universities, and we will not be able to attain the global reach we aspire to.”

Christian Beck, MCR President at St Edmund Hall, stated, “Global reach comes as a natural repercussion of maintaining adequate funding and academic excellence: they are the less abstract components that can be affected to produce global reach.”

Mapstone defended the emphasis on global reach, saying, “We can’t get complacent. We’re not going to stay number one by focusing on internal affairs. Global reach is something we have to pay attention to.”
Most presidents supported the global focus, requesting more international exchange opportunities for students.

Nicole Sparkes, Merton JCR President, said, “If the university did something so that students didn’t have to organise it themselves, that would be very positive.”

The importance of ‘interdisciplinarity’ was also discussed. One JCR President studying PPE argued, “My course is already very broad. I’m worried I could leave with broad but very shallow knowledge.”

However, presidents agreed that faculties need to collaborate more. Margery Infield, JCR President at St Edmund Hall, stated, “In some cases when you’re doing joint schools, it can feel like no one tutor is taking care of you. It’s easy to feel like you’re falling through the gaps.”

Undergraduates’ responses to the university’s plans have been mixed. Caroline Rogers, an English student at St Hilda’s, commented, “I’m not sure I like the university’s new proposals. Draft Strategic Plan? More like Daft Strategic Plan!”

A spokesperson for the University commented, “The University’s draft plan has been put out for consultation among the Oxford community precisely to give University members the opportunity to feed in their views, and the new Strategic Plan will aim to reflect the priorities and goals of the collegiate University as a whole.”

Brasenose JCR has passed a motion to designate the bust of Paul Gladwell as an official mascot for its University Challenge team.

Ben Ralph, the team’s captain, proposed the motion, which claimed that “there is nothing more in the world that more embodies the spirit of our JCR more than the most revered Bust-of-Paul-Gladwell  (hereinafter ‘The Bust’).”

It went on to request that the team should “transport The Bust to Manchester,” where the first round was held on Friday, “where it shall proudly be placed in front of our team as our mascot.”

University Challenge encourages teams to bring college insignia, though typically this involves scarfs or jumpers.

The bust was made two years ago in honour of former JCR President Paul Gladwell. It cost £500, prompting Gladwell to later apologise for the bust as a “poor use of JCR money and not the best of ideas.”

Brasenose has not reached the televised rounds of the popular BBC show since 2003. Their first round will be televised early next month. Other team members include Josh Phillips, Turner Edwards, James Burt and Oliver Bubb-Humfryes.

One Brasenose PPEist said, “The bust represents everything that is strong and noble about our small but successful college. I have no doubt that the ‘fifth man’ effect will inspire the University Challenge team to great success.”

Balliol JCR have decided to follow through with a motion which is set to transform the way finalists’ rooms are priced. The ‘Dynamic Rent Banding’, which was proposed at the last JCR General Meeting, aims to ensure that the price of every room matches its value.

Currently, rooms are divided into seven ‘bands’ of prices which students can then choose through a balloting system. The new arrangement aims to price rooms according to their popularity among students. Therefore, rooms which are picked by students higher up on the ballot will have a greater premium that those rooms which are chosen last on the ballot.

The system was proposed after concerns that many students were paying too much for the quality of their room under the current system, particularly those at the bottom of the accommodation ballot. The new system hopes to match price and quality more effectively.

Thomas Wainford, Welfare Officer at Balliol, told Cherwell, “The current system places rooms in seven price bands according to their quality, but there is quite a large variation in quality within bands, the bands are not of equal spacing, and some rooms are clearly misbanded as the old banding was done on a fairly arbitrary basis by the accommodation manager and the Welfare and Housing Officers. The new system aims, over a number of years, to gradually change the price of rooms, so each room will have an individual price, moving up or down depending on the position is it chosen in the ballot, in order to accurately reflect its value.”

However, following its initial proposal, Balliol Philosophy Fellow Dr David Wallace expressed concerns that in the long run the system would mean that those rooms at the top and bottom of the ballot would increase in price while those in the middle bands would in fact decrease, to the detriment of students from lower income levels. Balliol JCR was provided with a series of graphs which illustrated Dr Wallace’s concerns.

However, a unanimous JCR vote this weekend ensured that the system will still be proposed by the student body to the College. 

Alex Bartram, Balliol JCR President, told Cherwell, “Balliol JCR on Sunday voted unanimously to implement a change to the way room prices are calculated for finalists in an effort to make the prices of rooms better match their value. It seriously considered a concern raised by a fellow, but the final decision reflected the belief of Balliol JCR that any undesirable outcome is firstly unlikely and secondly swiftly reversible.”

Bartram was keen to stress that the new system will be an “experiment”, and that the implementation of ‘Dynamic Rent Banding will therefore be monitored yearly in order to ensure that rooms are priced fairly according to their respective quality.

A student who wished to remain anonymous told Cherwell, “Most students were happy to vote to try out the new system, especially because the banding system we have now just doesn’t work, and our welfare officers explained that it would be difficult and time consuming to re-band every room in the college. I think as long as it’s monitored it could be a really good way to make sure the cost of the rooms reflect their value.”

This new proposal comes in the midst of negotiations with college regarding proposed rents increases of five per cent.

Following months of campaigning, Oxford City Council has resolved to negotiate with the University regarding the Castle Mill developments near Port Meadow. Despite previously giving the scheme planning permission, councillors have allegedly admitted that they do not like the appearance of the building.

Demonstrators from the Campaign to Protect Port Meadow from Oxford University (CPPMOU) have protested for months about the newly built flats, especially designed for University graduate accommodation. It is claimed that the building, particularly the top two storeys, has a ‘damaging’ impact on views of Port Meadows, and has angered many local residents and students.

This recent development follows an online petition, which has over 2,200 signatures, and a letter calling on Prince Charles to raise concerns during his visit last week.

Demonstrators are said to be pleased, and see this as a positive first step. Toby Porter, on behalf of the CPPMOU, said, “We welcome news that City Planners and the University have met, following Thursday’s instruction by Councillors to begin negotiations to ‘ameliorate the size and impact of the development’ on Roger Dudman Way. We feel that the reason these negotiations are now taking place is because of the huge public protest at the development.” 

He added, “I am not surprised by the decision. While the University is right to say that their planning permission is legal, it is in our eyes not legitimate – had the University’s planning consultant produced drawings showing the impact on the Meadow seen today, and their public been properly consulted, we do not believe planning permission would have been granted. One request we have made is that, before any final decision is reached, the community and campaign representatives will see precise computer-generated images of how proposed changes affect the view from Port Meadow.”

However, the proposed changes could potentially cost up to £1million, and it is as yet unclear who would be responsible for this bill. While both the University and the Council declined to comment on the matter, CPPMOU has stated, “An important factor is that since early September, when the scale of the building was revealed, there have been significant protests, including voices from senior figures within the University. Had they listened, this would have cost a fraction of the current estimate to put right. This sums up what we see as the University’s culpability – we don’t think anyone anticipated the impact the buildings would have on Port Meadow.”

A University spokesperson said, “We welcome the planning report’s finding that the University acted properly when securing planning permission for the Castle Mill student accommodation development. We are always happy to meet with planning officers and to hear what they have to say. A meeting on Friday was the first of what will probably be several conversations.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council said, “Our Head of City Development, Michael Crofton Briggs, has met the Director of Estates from Oxford University and started a constructive dialogue about the size and impact of the building following the West Area Planning Committee.

“Local and city wide groups were notified of the planning application and site notices were put up. However, it seems that a lot of people did not realise just how close to Port Meadow the development site was.

“A report fully explaining the process was discussed at the West Area Planning Committee.”

OUSU has delayed voting on a motion which calls for the NUS to boycott Israel as 18 common rooms are yet to decide their stance on the motion.

Voting was due to occur at the 5th week OUSU meeting. However, an amendment was suggested and passed, claiming that the motion’s “controversial” nature meant that Common Rooms needed more time to debate the issue. The original motion will now be debated and voted on in the 7th week OUSU meeting.

The motion states that “We [OUSU and the NUS] have a moral responsibility to fight injustice” and demands that Israel end its occupation of “all Arab lands.” It goes on to say “Palestinian civil society, including organisations in Gaza, has called for a campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.” These measures are described as “non-violent punitive”.

The motion was proposed by Emily Cousens of Wadham and originally seconded by Yulin Zhang of Wolfson College. However, in emails to OUSU reps, OUSU president David Townsend stated that the seconder dropped out after “reflecting on the issue and not being comfortable with it.” He also acknowledged the “potentially controversial” nature of the motion. 

The three resolutions of the proposed motion are to “Condemn violence and successive breaches of international law by both Israel and Palestine”; to join the BDS movement against Israel; and thirdly, to “Conduct research into Higher Education institutions’ contacts, relations, investment and commercial relationships that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement.”

This motion, if passed, will be presented as OUSU’s position at the next NUS conference and hence as being representative of the views of Oxford students. A motion has already been passed by Wadham SU for Wadham to officially join the BDS movement and to “Pressure the university to divest itself from and terminate any contracts with companies that are complicit with Israeli violations of international law.”

The BDS movement was set up in 2007, and is described on its website as a “global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.”

Eylon Aslan-Levy, a third-year PPEist at Brasenose, spoke against the motion in the OUSU meeting. He told Cherwell, “It is disturbing that OUSU is debating whether to join an academic and cultural boycott on Israel: that a university, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and truth, should blacklist the universities, cultural groups or civil society of any country, is an outrage.”

Ben Goldstein, a PPEist from Lincoln, stated, “Motions like this are highly divisive to JCRs, and alienate people (such as the hundreds of Israeli students and many Jews) from OUSU. BDS is a radical movement which will harm process towards a two-state solution; it implies the rejection of important Israeli academics and its intentions are radical in a way that the majority of Oxford students are not.”

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, endorsed by BDS, urges “colleagues in the international community” to “refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.”

In 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) voted a motion in favour of a boycott of Israeli lecturers and academic institutions who do not publicly dissociate themselves from Israel’s “apartheid policies, including the construction of the exclusion wall, and discriminatory educational practices.” Some academics described the academic boycott as being anti-semitic in effect.

Cousens defended her motion, claiming, “There is a history and a current appetite within NUS for constructive engagement to support human rights. Last year a Freedom for Palestine motion was passed and the boycott of Eden Springs and Veolia, two companies that are involved in the violation of the rights of Palestinians, means that this motion is the logical progression and so should command high levels of support. The investment in arms companies that supply Israel, such as BAE systems to name just one, is an example of Oxford University being implicated in the violation of human rights in Palestine and Israel.”

Debate at the meeting centred on how political OUSU should be. One side argued that delaying the vote would cause an “atmosphere of contention” in the university and that Oxford University should be a “depoliticised campus” with “freedom of thought.” The other side called this a “tyranny of silence” and compared backing the BDS movement to the boycott of the South African football team in the 1980s. James Norrie, a DPhil student at Wolfson, argued, “The apolitical argument is actually just a political – but right wing – position which seeks to validate and support the status quo.”

It was also mentioned that in May 2011, the then-president of the NUS, Aaron Porter personally denounced a previous motion to “strongly condemn Israel’s siege on Gaza and actively campaign for it to be lifted in accordance with international law.”

James Newton, who proposed the amendment to delay the vote said, “I’m really glad that the amendment went through this evening. Hopefully this will also be setting a precedent at OUSU that JCRs will be fully consulted on big issues like this.”

St John’s College JCR has recently decided to remove Obama from its list of honorary members.

Barack Obama was made an honorary member in 2008, when he was first voted in as President of the United States.

The motion, entitled “Obama ain’t no Gandalf”, noted that other honorary members were fictitious characters or those without a political purpose.

However, the motion argued that “Barack Obama as President of the United States represents a political party, power and system which may be contrary to that of many JCR members.” It further stated that “This JCR should be a depoliticised JCR, and has always held such a stance, because its members hold a broad spectrum of political opinions which it would be impossible to adequately represent.”

Within the motion, specific attention was drawn to Obama’s political policies. The motion reads, “Obama is a controversial political figure who personally sanctions extrajudicial targeted killings, presides over the inhumane treatment of prisoners both in the USA and abroad and has further eroded US civil liberties.”

Edward Love, a student at St John’s College who put forward the motion, told Cherwell, “Obama was made an honorary member of the JCR, along with Captain Jack Sparrow and Gandalf the Grey, in 2008, when ‘Obamania’ was sweeping the UK. This motion was formed off the back of increasing feeling within the JCR that the JCR should in fact be apolitical.

“The JCR at St John’s serves to provide welfare and support for its students and represent the views and stances of the student body as much as possible. By granting a political figure honorary membership, the JCR prevents itself from holding an apolitical stance and this could alienate those JCR members who are averse to the policies of the Obama administration.”

Michael Patefield, another member of the college who seconded the motion, further commented, “The motion was making a serious point. We felt that Barack Obama’s honorary membership of the JCR could be perceived to be an endorsement of him and his policies, and as the JCR represents people with a broad spectrum of political opinions, and some will find certain policies of his disagreeable, removing him was the right thing to do.”

Shaahin Pishbin, President of St John’s JCR, told Cherwell, “The honorary members list is meant to be a light-hearted addition to our constitution, honouring widely loved (mostly fictitious) people such as Gandalf, The Mr Men, the cast of Blake 7, and Najar who owns a falafel shop on St Giles just outside our college. When the motion to remove Barack Obama was brought to Sunday’s JCR meeting, most people felt that being such a contentious political figure, he was not suited to the list. One member felt that Obama should actually stay on the list, as the Obama of 2008 to whom it refers represents a fictional character embodying hope and change.”

One St John’s student disagreed with the argument that Obama’s member status was serious, saying, “I think it’s absurd that the motion to strip Obama of his honorary member status was passed. Perhaps arguments do exist that JCRs should be apolitical and so we shouldn’t be doling out honorary member status to every other political figure. Yet the motion to give Obama honorary membership was blatantly a joke in the first place, rather than some comment about American politics. The JCR is making a massive deal out of nothing. If anything, all that should be negated are endorsements of OUSU campaigns – that is, actual political statements.”

Other Oxford students agreed that JCRs should not be political. Emma Alexander, a student at Keble College, commented, “I personally think it’s a perfectly legitimate decision by St John’s. Although 85 per cent of the UK supported Obama over Romney in the recent elections, as I did, for a JCR to have him as an honorary member risks alienating the JCR members who do not approve of his policies or ideology.

“The fact that, painful though it may be to say, Obama is unlikely to make use of his privileges as an honorary JCR member, such as being able to play a few games of pool or waste away the hours on the quiz machine, underlines the unfortunate superfluousness of his membership.”

Other colleges have also granted celebrities honorary JCR membership, such as Tom Cruise and Kylie Minogue at Teddy Hall and Michael Palin at Exeter.

A series of thefts from communal fridges at Hertford College has led to third-year students proposing a motion for the JCR to take action against the culprit. The motion calls for additional security and harsh punishment of the criminal.

The proposers of the motion, Matt Jones and Hari Jackson, explained the details of their proposal, saying, “We have asked the JCR to allocate £250 pounds for the installation of the best possible security system, ideally featuring a combination of CCTV, motion detectors and (although we admit this is optimistic) a fingerprint-coded lock on the fridge.” 

He continued, “As for what was stolen, we are currently down half a chicken and bacon sandwich, a chicken triple and a Tesco ‘Everyday Value’ tikka masala (at least).  We appear to be dealing with a thief specialising in chicken-based carb dishes, as nothing else has been stolen from a fridge that had contained a large number of beers, smoked salmon and a Terry’s Chocolate Orange over the last two weeks.”

When asked about the identity of the thief, the pair revealed, “We haven’t ruled anyone out. We’re very keen on poetic justice, and as such if the thief is caught we would like to see them mandated by the JCR to eat an entire roast chicken during the duration of the next meeting.” They added, “We are greatly saddened by these events, as combined with the RONing debacle of two weeks ago it feels like Hertford is forgetting its true identity,” but added that “we are sure the JCR will do its utmost to stop this pillaging and approve our motion.”

It seems that chicken theft at Hertford is a long-standing problem. One second-year History student traced food thefts back to last year. She commented, “Someone took an entire pack  of chicken breasts from the fridge. It was tragic. I had an exciting chicken-based curry planned. Despite pleas and angry appeals for the chicken to be replaced, I never found the culprit.” However, she continued, “CCTV and motion sensors may be taking things a bit too far and creating a culture of fear and paranoia at Hertford. It is a sad day if we come to that.”

When asked about the food thefts motion, Hertford JCR President Hugh Baker told Cherwell, “I have no knowledge of any food thefts. We had a JCR meeting last Sunday, our next one is Sunday of 8th. There was no motion regarding food theft last Sunday, and there hasn’t been one submitted for next time.

There were fears of a new outbreak of mumps amongst the student population this week, with at least one confirmed case at Christ Church being recorded.

There have been two serious outbreaks of mumps in the last four years at the University, with a particularly bad spate of cases in 2010 which saw 45 students sent home to recover from the illness.

This has caused particular concern as mumps mostly affects older teenagers and young adults, in whom it can be a much more serious disease than in children. Extreme cases can have potential long-term effects such as deafness and meningitis. University students are particularly at risk because many who were born between 1988 and 1993 received one dose of the MMR vaccine, but not the ‘booster’ shot which became mandatory for those born in 1994 or later.

According to official University advice, “Mumps is a highly infectious, serious illness caused by a virus. The time from becoming infected to becoming unwell is around 14-21 days. People with the disease are most infectious just before they become unwell and for 5-10 days afterwards.

“Those students at particular risk are those entering university for the first time who have not received two doses of MMR and students of any age who have no history of MMR vaccination.

“Mumps usually starts with a fever and headache for a day or two. It then presents with swelling and soreness of the parotid salivary gland (located at the angle of the jaw, in front of the ears) and a flu like illness. Mumps can also cause swelling of the testicles or ovaries, ear infections and swelling of the pancreas.”

Rosie Gibson, a first-year historian at Hertford, expressed her concern, telling Cherwell, “As soon as I heard there was another case of mumps at the university, I was nervous. I can’t remember what vaccines I had when I was a kid, and with everyone living in close proximity to each other there’s no way of knowing who’s going to catch it, or how bad will be.”

Other students saw the bright side, however – Joe Day, a first-year biochemist, pointed out that “if it gets really bad, it might give me an excuse not to go to lectures. And if I do get it, then at least it means a week with no work to do.”

Any students who believe they may have mumps are advised to stay in their room and contact the college nurse or doctor.

A demonstration was staged by Oxford Communities Against Trafficking (OXCAT) last Saturday. Primarily concerned with raising awareness amongst the general public of the many issues surrounding the sex trafficking of young girls and women, the demonstration also sought to allow young volunteers a chance to engage with OXCAT’s campaign.

An OXCAT spokesperson said, “We are trying to do as much awareness-raising in the community as possible, targeted at different levels. Saturday was a small and low-key event for a few young people who wanted to know more about trafficking. The main aim was for those young people who wanted to learn about trafficking and wanted to get involved to do so.”

OXCAT have run a number of drives targeted at people throughout the community in order to raise awareness of these issues. In December 2012 they ran a free course specifically designed to raise awareness amongst registered taxi and private hire drivers. In October 2012 they ran the Child Catcher stunt, in which men dressed as the character of the Child Catcher from  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and walked enchained schoolchildren through the streets of Oxford. Their main efforts are now focused on the 2013 Anti-Slavery Day on 18th October.

The Queen’s College Equalities Rep Li Li Tan said, “In general I think campaigns like this are really necessary for raising awareness of issues in the wider world. Especially since I’ve encountered a fair number of people who are sceptical about why we would even need positions like the Equalities Rep, because cases of serious discrimination are not widespread within Oxford colleges.”

Suzanne Holsomback, OUSU Vice-President for Women, told Cherwell, “The Oxford Community Against Trafficking and Salvation Army’s demonstration on 9th March was a powerful statement about trafficking and modern day slavery. Trafficking happens in Oxford and we cannot turn a blind eye to this crime in our community. Bold campaigns such as this force people to see, hear, and know that trafficking is an issue.”

Sex trafficking is an issue which has come to light in Oxford through the Bullfinch trial, which started in mid-January. The trial has seen the prosecution of nine men on 78 separate charges of child rape, trafficking, and sexual exploitation of girls between the ages of 11 and 16.

Owing to high levels of rain and the flooding of the Isis, rowers across the university fear that  Torpids will be cancelled. In a statement, OURCS said they were unable to predict whether the event would go ahead. 

Michael Pontikos, OURCS Secretary, said, “Torpids has not been cancelled, and we are progressing in our preparations for running Torpids safely. Multiple contingencies are in place to allow racing in adverse stream conditions, with the final decisions made by the Senior Umpires. Weather and stream conditions are variable, and thus we are unable to accurately forecast what they will be 14 days in advance, so making predictions now would be futile.”

The Oriel Captain of Boats Maximilian Lau commented, “The possibility that one of the two main events of the year may be cancelled can be a pretty soul-destroying prospect. Our club is on the verge of feeling like a boot camp, training for a war that may never actually happen.”

If Torpids were to be held, performances are likely to lag behind previous years. According to Hertford Boat Club men’s captain Chris Jones, “Word on the tow path is that many colleges are secretly hoping of a reprieve for fear of being bumps bait, due to lack of water time and an inexperienced crew. It’s been frustrating to have a great group of keen novice rowers who think that this is what rowing is all about — lots of land training with a rare hastily thrown together water outing when the flag changes.”

Lau revealed, “Oriel has compensated by upping the social side as much as possible. We were on two crew dates a week at times, to keep the rowers keen.” Crispin Smith, the Univ Boat Club President, expressed worry that his rowers could be “catching crabs in Park End.”