Trinity College’s hall is hosting an art exhibition which showcases
work by one of Oxford University’s first ever Aboriginal Australian students.

The exhibition by DPhil student Christian Thompson is the first to be held in the college’s Hall for 450 years. His paintings will temporarily replace portraits of alumni including Cardinal John Newman and two British Prime Ministers.

Thompson told Cherwell, “The exhibition in the Trinity Dining Hall is a survey show of my work spanning the last 13 years. It’s an amazing honour and massive vote of confidence that Trinity believe in my work in this way; a touching gesture and an opportunity to share my work with my college and the broader Oxford community.”

He continued, “I am one of the first Aboriginal Australian students to ever be accepted into the University in its 900-year history, and the first artist to hang his works in place of the formal portraits in 450 years of Trinity’s history. It is a generous way to celebrate these landmark historical moments.”

Thompson, 34, arrived at Trinity in 2010 as the inaugural Charlie Perkins scholar, and graduates this year with a doctorate in Fine Art. He has had
seven solo exhibitions since 2002, and won the 2007 Australian Postgraduate Award.

He stated, “My art is the space between my conscious and unconscious world. I delve into both realms and what I retrieve manifests itself in my work.”

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The exhibition was organised by Trinity’s Estates Bursar Kevin Knott, after Thompson’s successful exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum last year. College fellows voted unanimously to allow the hall to be used. 

Knott said, “As well as studying for his DPhil in Fine Art, Christian is a very successful contemporary artist. The College decided that it would like to show its support for him and, at the same time, to ring in the changes by showing his works here in Hall. Unsurprisingly, the student and public response has been mixed, but personally I think that they fit in very well and am pleased that Trinity’s governing body agreed to this break with tradition.”

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The decision to take down alumni portraits has been criticised by some
Trinitarians. JCR President Andrew Butler said, “Naturally the move to put Christian’s work in Hall has been controversial, yet in many ways this is its greatest attraction because it allows us to view a very traditional space in a new light. From the perspective of the undergraduates, opinion has been mixed but I feel that having something different to chat about and appreciate at dinner has been widely appreciated.”

MCR President Anna Regoutz agreed. “To replace the traditional portraits has shown what a great exhibition space our Hall can be. In my opinion, and I think most postgraduates would agree with me, we would love to see exhibitions like this happen more often.”

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Most undergraduates also responded positively to the exhibition. Crawford Jamieson, a first-year theologian at Trinity, commented, “It’s not my normal cup of tea, but there’s an interesting juxtaposition between Thompson’s artwork and Trinity’s architecture.”

Joel Scott-Hughes, a student at Ruskin School of Art, argued, “It’s important to keep things different, and expose people to as many styles as possible. Traditional portraiture is only considered superior because we live in a western society – it’s good to challenge people’s conceptions of what portraits should look like.”

Thompson’s exhibition costs £2 and runs until 8th February.

Worcester College has recently voted in favour of a motion to make a Russian dwarf pet hamster, named Luka, an honorary member of their JCR.

The motion was passed with thirty-four votes in favour and six against and was proposed by second year student and owner of Luka the hamster, Angus Barry.

Barry explained his reasons for proposing the motion, telling Cherwell, “As soon as I brought Luka back to Worcester I had a steady stream of people coming to visit him and before Facebook took down his profile (which Luka still maintains is the fault of an ‘evil bourgeoisie of  cats’) he had 123 facebook friends, many of whom were Worcester students.

“I thought it was silly for him to be such a large part of college life and not be an official part of it.  So I had a look through our JCR constitution and found a clause which allowed non humans to become honorary members.”

The motion read,  ‘This JCR notes that: Hamsters are incredibly cute’ and that ‘Adopting a hamster would therefore be beneficial to the happiness and general well-being of the members of the JCR.’

It continued, ‘Angus Barry, member of the JCR, is in possession of a young Russian Dwarf hamster (called Luka) that is in need of adoption.  Luka is already well loved by many JCR members’ and noted that, ‘Luka’s personality fits well with the spirit of the College.  He is adventurous, enjoys cuddles and likes grapes’.

Luka’s personal hero is Abrahamster Lincoln and he enjoys moving cotton wool around his house, scratching his nose and going on adventures

As an honorary member, Luka will not be able to run for election but there is nothing to prevent him from attending and voting in JCR meetings, although Barry explained that, “he often has difficulty following proceedings as English is his third language after Hamster and Russian.”

Luka plans on continuing to make the college happy through his cute appearance and hopes to propose a motion demanding hamster-sized portions in Formal Hall.

Members of the Queen’s College JCR have unanimously voted in favour of the ‘Ball for All’ motion this week.

The motion seeks to support any Queen’s student struggling financially as a result of the expense of buying a ticket for the college’s ball this Trinity term.

JCR President Jane Cahill told Cherwell, “The proposal came about because I thought it was important to recognise that ball tickets do not represent the same financial commitment for everyone, and the Ball Committee agreed that if anyone were to face financial hardship [after buying a ticket], they’d be happy to help out with that.”

Stephanie Jackson, JCR Social Secretary and Ball Marketing Director, added, “The ‘Ball for All’ motion has been designed in order to aid Queen’s students who, as a result of attending the Ball, might suffer slight financial hardship.

“We realise that £120 might be a greater sacrifice for some students than for others, but we are determined to give everyone the opportunity to participate in what is going to be the most important event at Queen’s for the next three years.”

A £250 donation has already been made to the college’s JCR Hardship Fund by the Ball Committee itself, with funds having been drawn from the profits of the college’s previous Ball.

The ‘Ball for All’ motion itself pledged that the JCR would equal the amount already donated, bringing the current total to £500. There are also high hopes that the college will agree to add more money to this fund.

Cahill continued, “I will be lobbying the college this week; I’m fairly hopeful of success but it very much depends on their approach. Even so, I think a £500 pot is a nice one to start with, and represents an appropriate commitment from the students.”

The motion is concerned mainly with retrospective welfare provision, rather than with any kind of ticket drive for the Ball itself

As one Ball Committee member pointed out, “Since we’ve sold out of tickets already, the grant kind of works as a ‘get money back on your ballot’, which might help some people with managing their living costs for the rest of the year, but (this is an important point) it’s not going to make anyone buy more tickets or suddenly choose to buy a ticket now (since, obviously, they won’t be able to as the tickets are already sold out).

“Basically the grant and the JCR/Ball Committee’s decision to contribute money for it isn’t a profit incentive for Queen’s in an attempt to get more students to buy tickets, but it is recognising that the Ball is an important event for Queen’s students and, although it is an optional event, it is one that we hope that everyone who wishes will be able to go to.”

Welfare Rep Maria Newsome added, “I’m excited to extend the excellent work of our Hardship Fund to the Queen’s Ball, continuing our efforts to make Queen’s an inclusive and affordable place to both study and socialise.”

Although the Ball has now sold out, those who might have been swayed by the possibility of such a provision are still able to join the waiting list and file their claim once they do have their ticket.

Money will be allocated to students on a case-by-case basis. Members of the college will be able to file a claim to an ad hoc committee, comprising the JCR President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Welfare Reps. Depending on the outcome the student might be awarded anything between £20 and £50.

Money remaining from the fund will be kept as welfare for the 2016 Ball.

Stephanie Jackson clarified, “If any money is not spent, it will roll over to the next Ball, thus starting a tradition in Queen’s of helping students attend what should be one of the most special nights of their entire college life. The Ball Committee and current JCR Exec are proud to have worked together in order to start this tradition, and hope it carries on for many years.”

Students across Oxford are experiencing virus-like symptoms which have been linked to the Mansfield College Ball, which took place last Saturday.

Mansfield Ball President Anna Ploszajski said, “We have had reports from a minority of students of virus-like effects like vomiting and diarrhoea.”

The college’s main site Junior Dean Claire Palmer emailed students on Monday, stating, “We have had a number of reports today regarding students (Main Site and Off-site) feeling unwell with a suspected virus.”

On Tuesday, a further email was sent around students by Palmer, saying, “Since the email below was sent last night, the College has been in contact with the Environmental Health and Public Health Authorities. Environmental Health has requested that all students who have experienced symptoms in the last few days contact their GPs so that samples can be taken (and the guilty organisms readily identified).”

The Ball President told Cherwell, “There have been allegations of food poisoning. It appears to be the seafood bar that has come under questioning.”

She stressed however that the causes of the illness remain unclear, saying, “Mansfield College are carrying out a full investigation into the possible cause of the illness and until the investigation is complete, I am unable to offer a suggestion as to what has brought on the symptoms.”

She suggested that the seafood bar may not have been responsible for subsequent illnesses, saying, “Some people who got ill ate at the seafood bar, but others who got ill didn’t eat there.”

She added, “This unfortunate incident should not, and will not, belittle the achievement of what has been the culmination of almost two years of preparation. The event has consistently been trumpeted as unquestionably the most successful ball in Mansfield’s history.”

One Mansfield student told Cherwell, “At the moment there is no confirmation of this being food poisoning as a result of the ball or if people have just caught a virus from each other. I don’t think it is as straightforward as ‘food poisoning at the ball’ because as someone who was there and enjoyed (with all of my friends) all the food on offer there, neither I nor any of my friends or anyone I have spoken with have contracted this lurgy.”

Another noted, “A lot of college are ill; no one’s really sure what the mystery lurgy is, although it striking so soon after the ball seems to indicate there’s some causal link. A lot of people have Norovirus-y symptoms, so we think it could be that someone came to the ball carrying it. Now people seem to be catching it off housemates/people in the same accommodation block.”

The Queen’s College Welfare Officer Mark Holmes has confirmed that students at his College are suffering from the same illness. He told Cherwell on Tuesday, “A number of students from Queen’s have come down with sickness and diarrhoea since Saturday evening, with most recovering by now…As far as I am aware all the students who are ill were part of the group who attended Mansfield Ball.”

Students at St Anne’s are also claiming that they are suffering from food poisoning. One St Anne’s student, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “In St Anne’s there have been at least a dozen cases that I know of, but there’s likely to be more.

“I don’t think anyone has been hospitalised but everyone who has had it has been pretty much bed ridden for a day. I fully intend to be chasing Mansfield up for a full refund if I can get it. I believe our JCR President has sent an email on our behalf and I’ll be interested to see what Mansfield Ball committee come back with.”

St Anne’s JCR president Oscar Boyd sent an email to the Mansfield Ball Committee, alerting them to illness within the College. He stated, “Following a splendid ball, I’m sorry to inform you that there has been a bout of food poisoning at St Anne’s with numerous people who attended the ball severely affected. While I know this is not the fault of anyone on your committee, those affected have been confined to their beds due to sickness since yesterday afternoon and have been inconvenienced as a result. I hope you will be able to talk to your suppliers and offer some compensation to all those affected.

“Again, I’m sorry to have to contact you like this after what was otherwise a fantastic ball, but it is a serious matter and should be dealt with appropriately.”

Physicist Tiber Karadag told Cherwell, “My symptoms kicked in at around 2am on Monday, so roughly 24 hours after the ball. I think the symptoms definitely point towards food poisoning. I don’t think it is the Norovirus, as people who I spent Sunday evening with would be showing symptoms by now.”

Karadag concluded, “I think the least the Mansfield Ball Committee could do is to cover the cost of toilet paper used in college the past few days!”

Third-year Mansfield lawyer David Lukic had a positive experience at the Atlantis-themed ball. He told Cherwell, “Although our crew were seemingly made seasick from a mysterious illness, the treasures that we plundered from the lost city made the adventure a success. YARR!”

Mansfield student Thomas Adlam pointed out that not everyone who ate at the seafood bar has fallen victim to the bug, saying, “I ate at least a dozen oysters and was completely fine. In fact the only thing I consumed all night beside one hog roast burger at the start was seafood. I feel 100%.”