The Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre has received a £10,000 grant from the Lottery, enabling it to resume group meetings and continue providing services to residents of Oxford.

The award winning support service was set up as a pilot scheme last year. The group aimed to provide support for the victims of the 500 sexual offences, including 111 rapes, reported to the Oxfordshire police in 2011-12. Phone lines allow for completely anonymous calls between a few minutes or up to an hour long. Specially trained volunteers provide support that is “non-directive” and “non-judgemental”, meaning that no views will be imposed on the caller, whose decisions will be respected.

Women are offered the opportunity to meet up with others who have had similar experiences. Oxford University RAG and Oxford Brookes RAG both provided financial support in July. Fundraising activities including a bungee jump, RAG Ball, dodgeball tournament, drinks events and charity formals, all contributed towards the donation. Manager Natalie Brook said, “The generosity of students is hugely appreciated.

OSARCC relies on the support of individuals and local businesses to ensure specialist services for survivors of sexual violence are maintained”One female Oxford student, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke about her experience of rape in College. “It can be quite a subtle thing, you can agree to make out but that doesn’t mean anything more, consent can be given but can then be taken away. Sometimes the other person just doesn’t give you the time or chance to voice your opposition, or you feel an obligation after being bought drinks or spending time with them.”

She added, “Many women have an image of rape as only what happens down a dark alleyway with a stranger, this isn’t the case, especially not in student life.”Speaking about the Lottery grant, Brook said, “Specialist services for female survivors of sexual violence are rare and underfunded in Oxfordshire, despite the number of people accessing our services increasing year on year, so we are delighted to announce a continuation of the service for the next year.”

OUSU Women’s Officer, Suzanne Holsomback said, “OSARCC is important to OUSU and Oxford Students because Natalie Brook and Lisa Ward, OSARCC’s Service Manager and Volunteer Coordinator, provide expertise and wisdom in thinking through how to end sexual violence in the university. In addition, Lisa co-facilitated two Sexual Consent Facilitators Training sessions with me before Michaelmas Term. Most importantly, OSARCC provides exceptional support to students and supporters of students who are experiencing the effects of sexual violence.”

Volunteers undergo specialised training and are involved for at least 18 months. Confidentiality is emphasised. For example, the organisation’s website features a guide to clearing web browsing history and additionally an ‘escape to Google’ button to maintain discretion.

Another female student told Cherwell, “Anonymity is crucial. I’ve had experiences when I’ve been terrified to name names, there’s a disproportionate burden of proof on the victim. People should be able to say something occurred without going into any more detail than they want to go into. I’ve never felt able to talk to College about the events or how they continue to affect me.

The Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre has received a £10,000 grant from the Lottery, enabling it to resume group meetings and continue providing services to residents of Oxford.The award winning support service was set up as a pilot scheme last year.

The group aimed to provide support for the victims of the 500 sexual offences, including 111 rapes, reported to the Oxfordshire police in 2011-12. Phone lines allow for completely anonymous calls between a few minutes or up to an hour long. Specially trained volunteers provide support that is “non-directive” and “non-judgemental”, meaning that no views will be imposed on the caller, whose decisions will be respected. Women are offered the opportunity to meet up with others who have had similar experiences.

Oxford University RAG and Oxford Brookes RAG both provided financial support in July. Fundraising activities including a bungee jump, RAG Ball, dodgeball tournament, drinks events and charity formals, all contributed towards the donation. Manager Natalie Brook said, “The generosity of students is hugely appreciated. OSARCC relies on the support of individuals and local businesses to ensure specialist services for survivors of sexual violence are maintained” 

One female Oxford student, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke about her experience of rape in College. “It can be quite a subtle thing, you can agree to make out but that doesn’t mean anything more, consent can be given but can then be taken away. Sometimes the other person just doesn’t give you the time or chance to voice your opposition, or you feel an obligation after being bought drinks or spending time with them.”

She added, “Many women have an image of rape as only what happens down a dark alleyway with a stranger, this isn’t the case, especially not in student life.”

Speaking about the Lottery grant, Brook said, “Specialist services for female survivors of sexual violence are rare and underfunded in Oxfordshire, despite the number of people accessing our services increasing year on year, so we are delighted to announce a continuation of the service for the next year.”

OUSU Women’s Officer, Suzanne Holsomback said, “OSARCC is important to OUSU and Oxford Students because Natalie Brook and Lisa Ward, OSARCC’s Service Manager and Volunteer Coordinator, provide expertise and wisdom in thinking through how to end sexual violence in the university. In addition, Lisa co-facilitated two Sexual Consent Facilitators Training sessions with me before Michaelmas Term. Most importantly, OSARCC provides exceptional support to students and supporters of students who are experiencing the effects of sexual violence.”

Volunteers undergo specialised training and are involved for at least 18 months. Confidentiality is emphasised. For example, the organisation’s website features a guide to clearing web browsing history and additionally an ‘escape to Google’ button to maintain discretion.

Another female student told Cherwell, “Anonymity is crucial. I’ve had experiences when I’ve been terrified to name names, there’s a disproportionate burden of proof on the victim. People should be able to say something occurred without going into any more detail than they want to go into. I’ve never felt able to talk to College about the events or how they continue to affect me.

The Christ Church Regatta may be cancelled due to dangerous river conditions. Recent heavy rainfalls led to extended periods when the river was out-of-bounds to rowers. As Christ Church Regatta is an event specifically for novices, lack of training on the water could also prevent rowers from gaining crucial experience before the event.

The Regatta is due to take place from Wednesday to Sunday of 7th Week. The river has been “red-flagged” since Sunday, although this term has seen the flag conditions change regularly. This has seriously disrupted training schedules. 

A red flag, issued by the Oxford University Rowing Club, prohibits any crews from taking to the river. The flags relate to the speed of the river flow, based mainly on the number open at the Iffley and Hinksey Weirs. 

Some rowers have also linked the high water levels to the construction of a dam at Otley Mill, claiming that the locks had to remain open to accomodate this development.

Tom Preston, Secretary of the St John’s Boat Club, told Cherwell, “the problem is that the ground around Oxford, and especially upstream, is saturated from a summer of rain. So any rain we do get quite rapidly pushes the water levels and the flag up. I think it’s too early to say whether it will be cancelled either way but any heavy rain will make it more likely.”

A statement by the Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club urged Boat Clubs not to give up, saying. “With water levels on the Isis increasingly unpredictable it’s important to give your novices (and senior squads) as many chances to race as possible. 

They added, ‘Don’t let the weather rob your freshers of any racing this term – in the past decade Christ Church has been wholly or partially cancelled on at least 4 occasions, while Nephthys Regatta has gone ahead in full every time.”

Joe Larvin, Captain of Boats at St John’s, told Cherwell “If Christ Church is cancelled that would be a real shame. John’s novices have replaced all the sessions they are missing on the water with ergs so have work just as hard, if not harder, then all the other years so they really deserve a chance to race.”

“The only positive is that hopefully lots of them won’t want to stop rowing after this term as they’ll want to get a taste of racing and take part in torpids. This will increase the competition for seats in M1 and M2 but I really do hope that they can get some form of racing this term.”

Former St John’s cox Will Todman, commented, “Competitions are the most exciting thing about rowing and if fewer people take it up as a result of this, then that is a real shame for Oxford rowing.”

An OUSU motion, which suggested the acronym LGBTQ should henceforward be referred to by OUSU as BGLQT, failed to pass. The motion, proposed by Merton student Martin Lester in 3rd week stated that “Sexualities, just as gender and nationality options, should be alphabetically ordered.”

The motion noted that “People of all sexualities are equal in rights, and not limited to ‘heterosexual’ and homosexual’”. It continued, “In a variety of material produced by OUSU, including its website and the Fresher’s Guide 2012, there are references to ‘LGBTQ’. The alphabetical ordering of ‘LGBTQ’ is ‘BGLQT’. OUSU material should present sexualities in alphabetical order.

The motion resolved “To support such a change in material produced by OUSU”, and “To mandate the Vice-President (Welfare & Equal Opportunities) and LGBTQ Officer to effect such a change.’

At the meeting, Lester drew attention to the fact that, in the previous council, a motion had been passed to support a change in the University’s online postgraduate application forms that would switch gender options “male” and “female” over, as “Gender, just as nationality options, should be alphabetically ordered.’

He argued that, at present, the LGBTQ ordering of sexualities was “not consistent” with this, and that it was “hypocritical” to ask the University to change the ordering on its forms without addressing the order of LGBTQ. 

However, OUSU LGBTQ rep Jess Pumphrey asked, “Have you spoken to anyone in the LGBTQ movement about this?” One student present at the meeting added, “Have you considered that changing the order makes it look like the word ‘bigot’?”

Pumphrey continued, “I have spoken to the LGBTQ community and they’re saying this is silly: we didn’t ask for this. The ordering is not arbitrary, it signifies the whole community as a solid banner.”

Lester disagreed, saying, “I think it’s humourous to claim that the term is standardised. If we’re serious about consistency then we must be consistent in gender ordering.” Pumphrey added, “There’s a difference between the ordering of LGBTQ and the ordering of options on a form. LGBTQ is a solid thing, it’s an acronym.” The motion then failed to pass.

Pumphrey, not commenting in their role as OUSU LGBTQ rep, later told Cherwell, “I opposed this motion on behalf of the LGBTQ community. “LGBTQ” is not an arbitrary jumble of letters – it is an identifiable brand that students, especially new students, will look for in its current form. It is a quite different matter from form options, where “female or male” and “male or female” are equally clear, and both have the same meaning.”

Andrew Hall, LGBTQ rep at St Anne’s and Secretary of LGBTQsoc, commented, “As LGBTQ is such an established term used by all relevant charities and organisations – it makes absolutely no sense to change the acronym.” Edward Nickell, equalities representative at Exeter College, agreed, adding, “plus, it just rolls off the tongue better.’

Members of the Oxford University Royal Navy Unit have been supporting the Royal British Legion by selling poppies in Oxford along with other volunteers. 

The unit visited Oxford railway station on Thursday to collect money for the Legion’s Poppy Appeal.

The Unit, which drills every Thursday during term time, is made up of 51 students from Oxford University, Oxford Brookes and Reading University. It has been going since 1994, and is based in Falklands House on Oxpens Road.

Sub Lt. Patrick Vickers, who took part, told Cherwell “I believe we sold in the region of 1000 poppies. How much we raised is unconfirmed but I am hoping for between £1500 and £2000.

“There was a huge drive this year to have members of the armed forces selling poppies throughout London. We decided that it made more sense for us to sell poppies in Oxford as it made better use of our resources and we were able to promote Remembrance Day in our own city.

“I was very pleased with the Unit’s efforts, all working together as a team to help one another out and maintain a continuous 12 hour watch. I was able to have a minimum of two personnel collecting throughout the day and at the peak times, at least six.”

Each year approximately 45 million poppies are distributed to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

The organization, which was founded in 1921, provides life-long care and support to serving members of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force, reservists, veterans of all ages and their families.