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.”

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, visited Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities on Wednesday, to hear about Oxford research into commercial applications which benefit the economy, health and the environment.

During his visit, he saw the development of next-generation solar cells. Oxford scientists are currently experimenting with a variety of surfaces and materials to allow the delivery of affordable solar power at the scale of many terawatts.

Cable was also shown how engineers and medics have created a OrganOx device (pictured) that can keep organs alive outside the body, using blood at normal body temperatures. The OrganOx technology allows livers to be preserved for up to three days, which is more than three times longer than is possible by conventional cold storage, meaning that more organs will now be available for transplants.

Cable said, “Oxford University is a powerhouse of science and research covering a wide range of academic disciplines. Today I saw how it is also bridging the gap between the lab and the marketplace by turning its leading expertise into cutting edge new products.”

In the evening, Cable addressed an audience of 100 students at Lady Margaret Hall College for an event co-hosted by Oxford University Liberal Democrats and LMH’s PPE Society, the Daisy Circle. The talk and discussion was centred on governing under coalition and austerity.

Cable defended the coalition government’s existence, stating, “The economy helps explain the current political system.”

He continued, “Instead of talking in abstract, I’ll try to relate that to the experiences of young people and the prospects you have. One of the big underlying shifts in Britain has been a shift from young to old. My generation has become extremely wealthy, not through the result of doing anything very much but simply because of who we are and where we are in relation to the young. There has been an enormous transfer of wealth through the property market. For young people, the average age at which it is possible to buy a house is 35 across the UK.

“The job market has changed, certainly. My generation looked forward to stable employment, rising increments every year, secure and substantial pensions; all that has gone, almost.”

After the talk, Cable was questioned about relations between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in government. Cable argued, “The British system in many ways has considerable advantages over the American system,” but noted the ideological differences between the parties.

He stated, “Britain is a highly unequal country in income and wealth; the Conservatives would, I think, be fairly relaxed about that but we are not relaxed about it.”

Cable claimed, “We’ve had what Marx would call a ‘crisis of capitalism’. But both the Right and the Left are in denial about it. The right are in denial about it because, well, they would be, wouldn’t they? The left are in denial about it because it was on their watch. Neither of them are dealing with the issue. It’s our job to make it clear that they are both wrong.”

One first year student told Cherwell after the talk, “He has made me remember why I study PPE.”

However, not all were as receptive to Cable’s visit. Hours before Cable was scheduled to speak at LMH, a Facebook event calling for an emergency demonstration outside the college was created. The organiser, Nathan Akehurst, told Cherwell, “Vince Cable colludes in a government which is destroying higher education as we know it. University applications are falling, students are being saddled with a lifetime of debt whilst courses are closing, jobs are being cut and education privatised.

“This is why we do not feel he is welcome at institutions that value academia and will protest the presence of coalition ministers when they visit.

“Whilst we did not protest at LMH in the end because of some logistical issues, activists made their presence felt to him at Brookes earlier, not without sympathy from many staff.”

A flashmob was held in Bonn Square on Thursday afternoon, as part of the One Billion Rising campaign.

The flashmob involved around 50 participants performing a choreographed dance to ‘Break the Chain’, the campaign’s official song.

One Billion Rising is organised by ‘V-Day’, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. The movement claims that “One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.” The flashmob in Oxford was part of thousands of One Billion Rising events across the world to mark the campaign’s 15th anniversary, including marches in Afghanistan, poetry readings in Somalia, and a debate in the British parliament on Thursday.

Lily Wonham, the Keble dancesport captain who helped to organise the event, told Cherwell, “It was absolutely fantastic! The sun shined and everyone was really energetic. The crowd caught the spirit and began to join in, which was wonderful. I had a big smile on my face throughout, as did everyone else.”

One third-year English student from Brasenose College who watched the flashmob commented, “There was a huge crowd, it filled up the square. Everyone involved was really enthusiastic but the audience was a little more mixed: some were getting really into it, but others were more confused and sceptical.”

Figures scheduled to speak after the flashmob were Imam Monawar Hussain, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and founder of The Oxford Foundation, and Jenny Lewis, a poet and member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. In addition, In the Pink, an Oxford all-female a cappella group were also scheduled to perform.

Organiser Sarah Apetrei, a student at Keble, explained, “I decided to organise this event after being deeply distressed by the news from Delhi, Ohio, and more recently Mexico and Oxford (Operation Bullfinch), but also moved and overwhelmed by the demonstration of solidarity in India.

“I started to realise that this was part of something much bigger, a groundswell of protest against deeply embedded cultures in which women and girls are routinely raped, exploited, trafficked and silenced.”

She continued, “We regard dance as an appropriate response, because it celebrates the freedom and dignity of women in their own bodies, and rather than marching or ranting expresses our conviction that violence can only be overcome by love and beauty. That is why we are rising on Valentine’s Day: we are rising for love, compassion and justice.”

Suzanne Holsombach, OUSU Vice President for Women commented, “I think the One Billion Rising is a fun, interactive awareness raising event. It gets people moving, acting, and talking about violence against women and that is a conversation our society needs to have.”

New College JCR voted last week to change the way student rooms are allocated across all year groups. The motion was proposed by JCR Housing and Facilities Office Nick Howley, after he noticed a discrepancy between the final admission figures and the number of rooms available.

The JCR motion noted, “Accommodation for third-years is undergoing a rapid decline to the point of being wiped out by 2014. In two years, accommodation for fourth years may not be guaranteed. Next year the number of third-year rooms will be 12, significantly less than expected and far less than previous years.”

Room shortages have forced students to live out in their third year despite having thought that accommodation would be provided by the college. The motion further noted, “It is of the upmost importance that there are some rooms available for the third years that need them, whether simply for welfare reasons, because there is nobody to live with, or because living out would be an incredibly uncomfortable situation for them, which would dramatically affect their well being, and ultimately their academic performance.”

The motion prescribed several changes to the balloting system, although full implementation has proved difficult owing to lack of accommodation. Because of the disparity in the quality of randomly assigned rooms, the motion called for first-year rooms to be graded, and for freshers to pick their second year rooms through this system. An increase in demand for rooms by other years with higher priority has meant that the number of rooms potentially available to third years is steadily decreasing.

The motion observed that “a number of second-years have had to look for private accommodation at short notice, after everybody else had sorted it and having been led to believe by college that they would have rooms, which means that many have missed their opportunity to live out with the people they want.”

The JCR declared its support for reformation, stating “It is unacceptable to continue to advertise on the New College website and other promotional material that fourth year rooms are guaranteed, and that some third year rooms are available.”

Howley told Cherwell he had instigated “talks with the college to look into getting more accommodation – something they don’t seem opposed to, which is a good start. I think it’ll be something that can be effectively campaigned for and that’s the direction the JCR will be moving in. There are now just a couple of students who still don’t have a room guaranteed by college next year. I am very doubtful that college will fail to find them accommodation; in the worst case scenario a room will be found in another college.”

Students struggling to find accommodation were directed to the Oxford Student Pad website. When asked about the problems at New College, a spokesperson for Oxford University stated, “Providing accommodation for students is a priority for the collegiate University and we are building to meet this need.”

The Warden of New College, Sir Curtis Price, said “The College is very much aware of the increasing pressures on accommodation, for both undergraduates and graduates, and we are acting on various fronts to try to resolve these pressures as quickly as possible. We are also working closely with the JCR to refine the room balloting system.”

Howley added, “My aspiration at the moment isn’t going on holiday, or getting a great job, or winning the lottery. It’s the thought of a college organisation making several concurrent leasing deals with middle-aged landlords.”