The ‘Women’s Empowerment’ motion which sparked controversy in Jesus last week was defeated in an online referendum last Friday.

The motion would have mandated Jesus’ Female Welfare Officer to hold an annual event “related to the topic of empowering women”.

188 Jesus undergraduates cast their votes in the referendum, with 43.2% voting in favour and 56.8% voting against.

The motion was initially proposed in a JCR meeting on 14th May but was defeated after falling short of the two-thirds majority required for constitutional change with 61% of JCR members for and 39% against.

After JCR President Thomas Rutland was given a petition with 50 signatures, he called an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the issue.

Natasha Frost, a second year languages student, spoke in favour of the motion, followed by finalist Alexandra Bassett who spoke against on behalf of Danielle Zigner, the former JCR president.

Bassett suggested in her speech that the organisation of a Women’s Empowerment Event should be mandated to the recently created Equal Opportunities Committee rather than the Women’s Welfare Officer.

After the result, Bassett praised the running of the EGM. She said, “It was chaired spectacularly and with complete fairness by Rosie Colthorpe.

“Voting against this motion is in no way sexist but simply a matter of whether the role of our Welfare Officer should have a campaigning or a welfare emphasis.”

JCR President Thomas Rutland, who had initially proposed the motion, said there was “widespread support for running the event but not for codifying it into the constitution under the Women’s Welfare Rep role”. He added, “[Jesus JCR] will be running an event related to Women’s Empowerment either this term or next.”

Rutland claimed that the motion’s failure to pass “does not represent a sexist decision. The main source of disagreement was regarding where to place it within the constitution.”

Some students were disappointed at the defeat of the referendum. One wrote on Facebook, “We should all be very, very ashamed of this.”

In a separate post they said, “The suggestion that we should not make this constitutional because the female welfare rep might not be interested in gender equality is a staggering one.”

A six-foot statue of Venus di Milo mysteriously disappeared from the St Hugh’s Ball on 12th May.

JCR President, Sara Polakova told Cherwell, “While the Ball was a roaring success, the morning after was tragic: both hired statues, one of Venus di Milo and the other of a generic Greek hero (which we fittingly nicknamed Dave) were reported missing. Dave was luckily retrieved later that day in one of the Hugh’s rooms, dressed in a gown, mortarboard and sunglasses, and clutching a Carlsberg. However, cheeky Venus was still missing. There was no success for days. No letter from Venus, no trace of her armless torso anywhere.”

After frantic email correspondence with the other JCR Presidents, Venus di Milo was found a few days later at St Anne’s College. Polakova said, “a misunderstanding I’m sure. We were assured she got plenty of sleep and was fed regularly, which was a relief to us all.”

The statue has now has been returned to the Committee, who are said to be greatly relieved as they were facing a £400 fine if the statue was not retrieved.

This money was supposed to be invested into either the JCR or the Oxford Burma Alliance, an organisation with which St Hugh’s is closely affiliated.

Lucy Garrett, Vice-President of the Ball Committee, commented, “We are of course glad to have the statue back as we are now able to put more money towards our charity, the Oxford Burma Foundation, rather than wasting it as the result of some guests’ stupidity.”

The true identity of Venus’ kidnappers remains unknown. Maryellen Larkin, a visiting student at St Anne’s, was completely unaware of the fact that the statue had been found at her college commenting, “I have no idea how someone could have smuggled it out but it was fairly crowded.”

Lucy Fielding, a guest at the ball, said, “I was very impressed with the organisation of the event and security was extremely tight, so I can’t imagine how someone managed to steal the statue.”

Toby Huelin, a music student, said, “It’s really rather impressive that something so large could have found its way down to St Anne’s; I feel proud to be a Stanner.”

Polakova also expressed her amazement at the feat adding, “Next time, I would advise against bringing a statue home from a night out; they might not talk much and are easy to keep, but they’re simply not something an average Oxford student can afford. With Venus di Milo in particular, you’re definitely punching above your weight.”

A letter to Cherwell from the parents of Emilie Harris, a former Catz undergraduate who was killed in a cycle accident eight years ago, has detailed the charity work that continues to be carried out in her name.

Following her death in May 2004, a registered charity called ‘Emilie’s Charities’ was established, which now “supports projects involving underprivileged children and young adults in developing countries”.

In addition, her father, Martin Harris, has continued to complete a sponsored ‘Emilie’s trousers’ bike ride, a reference to a pair of trousers his daughter brought back from Bolivia in her gap year. Charity events in Harris’s home village and college have helped ensure that “that her light shines on”, the letter, signed by her parents, explained.

Cycle safety remains a source of concern in Oxford. Earlier this year, Botley Road was identified by safety group Sustrans as one of Britain’s accident hotspots.

Members of the public can read the personal journals of Queen Victoria online following work by experts at the Bodleian.

Researchers have put 43,000 pages from her 141 journals on a website for members of the public to examine.

The journals had only previously been accessible by formal request at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. The online collection was created to mark this year’s Diamond Jubilee. It has taken staff from the library eight months to produce.

Queen Victoria’s journals cover her 63 years on the throne, from her coronation and her marriage to Prince Albert to her Diamond Jubilee of 1897. She was noted for being a prolific writer who would record her thoughts daily.

Digital images have been taken of every page of the surviving volumes, along with photographs of the many illustrations within the pages.

Chinese parents are reportedly paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to education consultants in attempts to win their children places at top UK schools and universities.

The companies offer academic tuition and a “tailor-made service” designed to up the applicants’ chances.This also includes lessons in “Britishness”. Prospective students are taught about British culture, including rugby, how to talk about the weather and even how to understand a British sense of humour. There are reports that the students get taken to British-style pubs in China to watch rugby fixtures. Classes designed to boost pupils’ confidence for university interviews, such as drama classes, are also held.

A spokesperson from Oxford University stated, “Recruitment and selection of students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) is based purely on merit. Academic aptitude, not ‘Britishness,’ is the most important quality admissions tutors look for in any applicant”.

Oxford University is at the forefront of a new project to test the existence of the ‘Yeti’ and other cryptid hominid species.

Working in collaboration with Switzerland’s Lausanne Museum of Zoology, the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project intends to gather together organic remains as potential evidence, through anonymous donations from individuals and organisations, which will then be submitted to rigorous genetic analysis.

The existence or otherwise of the ‘yeti’, also known by the names ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘Sasquatch’ has been a subject of debate since Eric Shipton’s 1951 expedition to Everest, from which he returned with photographs of giant unidentifiable footprints in the snow. Despite numerous eye-witness accounts since then, the scientific community around the world has always been dubious as to the existence of such a creature.

Professor Bryan Sykes, of Wolfson College, is spearheading this most recent investigation in conjunction with Michel Sartori, Director of the Lausanne Museum of Zoology.

Sykes commented, “It’s an area that any serious academic ventures into with a great deal of trepidation. It’s full of eccentric and downright misleading reports.

‘Mainstream science remains unconvinced by these reports both through lack of testable evidence and the scope for fraudulent claims. However, recent advances in the techniques of genetic analysis of organic remains provide a mechanism for genus and species identification that is unbiased, unambiguous and impervious to falsification.”

Sykes added, “It is possible that a scientific examination of these neglected specimens could tell us more about how Neanderthals and other early hominids interacted and spread around the world.”

The reaction amongst Oxford students to the reseaerch has been mixed. Poppy Rimington-Pounder, a student at New, commented, “They’re hairy, white and big: a cross between men and polar bears. And they are real.”

Tom Hoskins, a first year at LMH, said, “To quote ‘The Logic Manual’: “A yeti features in Monsters, Inc. Monsters, Inc. is real. Therefore, Yetis are real.”

Not everyone, however, was so positive about the legendary monster. Physicist Aneesh Naik said, “I hate yetis, they’re abominable”, and refused to comment further.

An 82 year old woman has taken a diploma in Local English History from Oxford University.

Margaret Broadbent told the Continuing Education department, “In May 2009 I had to give up driving because of vision problems so I decided that I needed a new focus for my life. For the previous few years I had taken the Department’s weekly courses in various subjects, including Literature and History, and had always enjoyed them. I had often wondered about doing a Certificate or Diploma course, and I thought I’d give it a try. I was aged 80 when I applied to do the Undergraduate Diploma in English Local History.”

She said the main surprise she had experienced during the course had been the enormous amount of help she received because of her visual disability. Encouraged by her tutor, she went to see the Student Advisor at the start of her second year because she was aware of increasing visual difficulty and concerned that she might not be able to finish the course.

The Advisor told her to apply for a disability grant to purchase suitable equipment. She assisted Broadbent with filling in forms. To Broadbent’s surprise, her application was accepted by Student Finance England and, after assessment, she was provided with computer equipment to help with writing assignments and accessing online resources.

Broadbent said that she enjoyed the lectures and meeting other students, and found the tutorials very valuable. She also claimed that the library staff had been extraordinarily helpful and made her feel very privileged to be able to use the Bodleian and sit in the Radcliffe Camera. Broadbent found writing the assignments the most challenging, especially in her second year as both her vision and her memory had deteriorated slightly.

She said, “The course was very interesting and I’m really glad I did it. There’s a great deal of help available from all sides: the excellent tutor, the Student Advisor and the library staff. And Rewley House is a very friendly, welcoming place to study.”

http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/

Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am has been criticised for travelling to a climate change meeting in Oxford in a private helicopter.

The 37 year old pop star’s 286 mile round trip is estimated to have used about 72 gallons of fuel, emitting three quarters of a tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The judge on ‘The Voice’ tweeted pictures of his “hip.hop.copter” upon landing in Oxford University Parks.

The Black Eyed Peas star later spoke at the Radcliffe Observatory Weather Centre as a guest speaker alongside Dr Myles Allen, Professor of Geosystem Science at Oxford University’s School of Geography and Environment and the Department of Physics. The talk focused on the use of creative technology to understand climate change.

Will.i.am called for clarity during the hour long event, slamming public confusion over environmental issues.

The star argued, “[Climate change] should be the thing that we all should be worried and concerned about as humans on this planet – how we affect the planet, our consumption, and how we treat the place that we live in.’

“So you would think that it would be the most important thing. But it is confusing that it is not. If you ask a random person walking down the street how important climate change [is], they have been given five different versions of why it is not even an issue. That’s confusing. Who is causing the confusion and why isn’t it a priority?’

Will.i.am, who is Director of Creative Technology at Intel, came to Oxford to promote the computer giant’s ‘Progress Thru Processors’ initiative, which enables computer users to donate their processing power while their computers are idle. In talks with Dr Allen, the musician discussed ‘weatherathome’, an initiative examining the effects of climate change around the world.

Dr Allen defended Will.i.am against accusations of hypocrisy, praising the singer’s environmental knowledge. He said, “It was inspiring to see that Will was so enthusiastic and well informed about how we are trying to use computer technology to improve our understanding about our climate futures.”

“A better understanding of the problems is probably more important than whether Will flies a helicopter from London to Oxford.”

Will.i.am has previously voiced his support for environmental causes, encouraging the use of technology to slow climate change. In his 2009 song ‘Take our Planet Back’, he asked, “If we’re so technological / Why’re we still burnin’ oil? / Cause I got a car you plug into the wall.”

Vicky Clayton, New College’s Environment and Ethics Rep-Elect said, ‘Of course arriving in a helicopter (and tweeting pictures of the ‘hip.hop.copter’) does not send the right message at all and Will.i.am should practise what he preaches but it’s a shame that all that will be remembered about such a great discussion of the role of technology in climate change is a guest speaker’s hypocrisy.’

The star later flew to Taunton to carry the Olympic torch as it travels around Britain before the Games. He tweeted, ‘It’s nuts here in taurnton [sic]…so much excitement…’

A prominent Cambridge academic has expressed concern at changes being made to Oxford’s Bodleian Library once plans to merge the History Faculty Library with the Radcliffe Camera go ahead.

In a letter to The Times, Gillian R. Evans, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge, complained that greater student numbers in the Library will “destroy the old atmosphere” as they “listen to music, text, and chatter uninhibitedly”. She also claimed that students damage precious texts as laxer rules let in “chocolate brownies, hand cream, even burgers and chips”.

Professor Evans, who studied at Oxford and now lives in the city, was also alarmed at the speed of the move, protesting, “No consideration has been given to the balance between student and research needs.

“I have been watching people from management going around with tape measures just calculating shelf-space. It is disdainful to treat this as an issue about which there is no need to ask readers.”

Defending the plans, Oxford Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Walmsley and Bodley’s Librarian Dr Sarah Thomas responded, “We do not allow food and drink anywhere near manuscripts: anyone who somehow managed to sneak a “burger and chips” into the Bodleian would be stopped by staff before they could even remove the wrapper.”

However, Professor Evans claimed this was “simply not true”, telling Cherwell, “I am in the reading rooms almost every day, but there are no checks of incoming bags. Only outgoing bags in the Camera, which are not checked in the Bodleian.”

An ex-Bodleian librarian commented, “As a librarian, I can assure you that inappropriate library behaviour is actually a constant problem and often feels like a losing battle.”

Tiago Viula de Faria, a D.Phil. history candidate at St John’s, said, “Common sense rules simply must be followed — no chatting, no sticky fingers, no roller skating.”

Oxford University has confirmed that Burmese pro-democracy politician and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is to collect an honorary degree at the Encaenia ceremony on 20th June, during her first trip abroad in 24 years.

Suu Kyi was invited by Prime Minister David Cameron to visit her “beloved Oxford” when he travelled to Burma in April. In the joint press conference, responding to the PM’s invitation, Suu Kyi said, “Two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation, but sorry. Now I am able to say ‘perhaps’ and that is great progress.”

A spokesperson for the University said, “The University offered Aung San Suu Kyi an honorary doctorate in civil law in 1993, an award which is yet to be conferred for obvious reasons. We look forward to doing so as soon as she is able to visit Oxford.”

Suu Kyi has been unable to travel abroad until now due to being under house arrest for 15 of the past 22 years, and the fear that if she left Burma the military government would prevent her from returning. She even stayed in Burma when her husband Michael Aris, who died in 1999, was terminally ill with cancer.

A spokesperson for Number 10 Downing Street, told Cherwell that the visit is “testament to the progress being made in Burma, and the efforts of President Sein.” They confirmed that Suu Kyi will visit from 18th June for a week and will address both Houses of Parliament.She will also collect her Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on 16th June, which was received by her family on her behalf in 1991.

Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton said, ‘We are delighted that Daw Suu is finally able to return to the University and are looking forward greatly to what will be a very special occasion.’

Andrew Dilnot, Principal of St Hugh’s, where Suu Kyi studied PPE from 1964 to 1967 and is now an honorary fellow, told Cherwell, “We at St Hugh’s are delighted that the University expects to confer an honorary doctorate in civil law on Aung San Suu Kyi during her visit to the UK in June, and very excited by the prospect of welcoming her.”

Nora Godkin and Ebba Lekvall, co-Presidents of Oxford Burma Alliance, said, ‘It is our hope that [the visit of Daw Suu] will serve to make Oxford students, and the British general public, more interested in Burma issues.’