Students at St Hugh’s have expressed shock at comments made in a survey by their fellow students, which included “comparing flying the rainbow flag to flying a Nazi swastika flag”.

The survey was set up by the JCR President to gauge students’ opinions on whether the college should fly the rainbow flag for a few days during Queer History Month. A slim majority of students voted against flying the flag, with 50.2% of respondents opposed to the idea.

Sara Polakova, JCR President at St Hugh’s, expressed concern at comments made by a minority of respondents. In a message to the JCR she said, “Amongst the general comments in the survey I was, sadly, confronted with a few aggressive, negative and frankly quite worrying remarks.

“Comparing flying the rainbow flag to flying a Nazi Swastika flag and calling my and the committee’s efforts ‘disgraceful’ and ‘stupid’ is, in my view, not very appropriate for a 21st century Oxford student at what is supposed to be the most welcoming college in Oxford.”

Polakova stressed that these comments did not reflect the college as a whole, saying, “The survey was anonymous and I am not sure I even want to find out who made these comments; I just want to make it absolutely clear that these few individuals are NOT representative of the JCR, or indeed of St Hugh’s. We pride ourselves in being one of the most accepting and progressive colleges, and our history reflects that.”

Polakova added that most of the opposition to flying the flag was sensibly expressed. She told Cherwell, “95% of the comments were very reasonable, arguing that the floodgate argument and desire for neutrality from the College’s perspective is valid, and that instead we should put up the rainbow flag in the JCR only, leaving the flagpole dedicated only to the College and Union flag.”

Several St Hugh’s students expressed shock and surprise at the controversial comments. Second year English student Sarah Frontiera described them as “horrifying and truly disheartening”. She added, “To liken the LGBTQ flag to a swastika is ironic, given that Nazis executed gays in the holocaust, and I think it’s in very poor taste.”

Third year Archaeology and Anthropology student Lauri Saksa said, “I just don’t see the link there: it’s a pretty weird and extreme comparison. I would definitely be for flying the Rainbow Flag.”

Ollie Persey, the St Hugh’s JCR Male Welfare Rep., suggested that the JCR should move on from the issue of flying the LGBTQ flag. He commented, “There are other plans in place to promote LGBTQ issues, and ensure that this reputation doesn’t stick.”

The wider LGBTQ community in Oxford echoed the concern shown by St Hugh’s students. Simone Webb, incoming President of Oxford University’s LGBTQ Society, said, “While I haven’t myself read comments in the survey, I’m shocked and appalled to hear that students have compared the rainbow flag to the Nazi’s swastika flag – that sounds like a deliberately provocative and deeply offensive and hurtful comparison, especially as LGBTQ people were among the Nazis’ victims.

“While there are perhaps arguments against flying the rainbow flag (for instance, the argument that the college flag should be the only flag to be flown), it sounds from these comments as if bigotry has motivated the objections. A political movement such as Nazism is not comparable to a flag in support of LGBTQ rights.”

Corpus Christi’s annual tortoise fair took place this Sunday, raising £1048 for charity. The appropriately named ‘Zoom!’, from Worcester College, took first place in the tortoise race with a speedy performance which the race organiser claimed “may well challenge for an all-time record”.

Zoom! was followed by the Brasenose tortoise, Mr T, and Corpus’ Oldham came third. In a nail-biting conclusion, Univ’s Percy led slightly, but was undone as he turned away just inches from the finish lettuce.

Richard Carwardine, President of Corpus Christi and judge for the day, said, “Obviously it was something of a disappointment that the Corpus tortoises didn’t come in first and second as we had been training them to do. I have some doubts whether the drug testing regime was quite as severe as it should have been – I think one or two may have slipped through the net.”

All money raised was donated to Reprieve, a charity dedicated to protecting prisoners’ human rights.

Oxford University’s multi-million pound annual list of donors has revealed that two of the University’s major donors have been respectively accused of bribery and convicted of violating insider trading laws.

Three 2009 diplomatic cables from the then US Ambassador to Uganda, Jerry P. Lanier, released by WikiLeaks in 2010, contained allegations by rival British firm Tullow Oil that Italian industrial company Eni SpA had bribed senior Ugandan government officials.

Eni made a multi-million pound contribution to Oxford’s Saïd Business School in the 2009/10 University year. The record of donors who had given above £100,000 to the University in this period lists Eni as a donor who has given £1,000,000 – £9,999,999 to the University.

The cables Lanier sent to Washington DC claimed that Eni had bribed then-Security Minister Amama Mbabazi and then-Energy Minister Hilary Onek to favour Eni over Tullow Oil in the sale of recently discovered oil assets in the country. One of the cables read, “Tullow Oil claims senior Ugandan government officials were ‘compensated’ to support the sale of a partner/rival firm’s exploration and production rights to Italian oil company ENI.”

Lanier also said, “If Tullow’s allegations are true – and we believe they are – then this is a critical moment for Uganda’s nascent oil sector.” Onek is currently Minister for Internal Affairs. Mbabazi, the incumbent Ugandan Prime Minister, has been previously implicated in other corruption scandals. Both the two ministers and Eni SpA have denied all allegations.

A spokesperson for Eni SpA said, “We do not have anything to add to our position, which as we say we have already publicly expressed. With regard to our support for academia, Eni supports academic research at various different Universities around the world, including Oxford where our support is for scholarships, research and executive training initiatives.”

Meanwhile, George Soros, the famed investor and philanthropist, donated $5 million (around £3.2 million pounds) to the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), opened in April 2012 by Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton. Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School said that INET@Oxford will address “some of the greatest economic challenges we face.”

In 1989 the French stockmarket watchdog, Commission des Opérations de Bourse, concluded that George Soros had not violated insider trading laws, after he purchased a large amount of shares in Société Générale, a French banking group, just before its sale. The insider trading laws were amended in 1990 to include third parties, and Soros was convicted in 2002, the only one out of the three on trial.

The judges also ordered Soros to pay back the €2.2 million profits he had obtained from the share purchases and the following sale. The fine was reduced to €940,000 after a 2007 decision by France’s Supreme Court.

Following his conviction, Soros made several appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, basing his case in part on his claim that the law had been amended specifically because of him, and was thus unfair. The ECHR rejected all of his appeals, with the latest decision made in March of this year.

Michael Vachon, Advisor to the Chairman at Soros Fund Management (SFM), told Cherwell, “With respect to the Société Générale case, Mr Soros continues to maintain that he engaged in no insider trading.” Ron Soffer, his lawyer said, “The investigation started in 1989. The appeals trial occurred in 2004. How can you call witnesses and ask them about what happened in 1988?”

Soros has donated more than $8 billion (just over £5 billion) over the past 30 years to promote democracy, foster free speech, improve education and fight poverty around the world. He also recently declared that he would be donating $27.4 million over the next five years to the Millennium Villages program, a United Nations project based in Africa that aims to alleviate poverty.

Corpus Christi College’s £1 million auditorium was wholly funded by a donation from Saudi-Austrian businessman Sheikh Mohammed bin Issa al Jaber. Mr al Jaber is a UNESCO special envoy, and has backed female education in Saudi Arabia. His personal foundation, the MBI Foundation, has pioneered a scholarship programme that enables Israeli and Palestinian students to study together.

The MBI al Jaber Building was opened in 2009. In recognition of his gift, al Jaber was awarded an honorary fellowship by the college. Presenting the accolade, the University’s Chancellor, Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes, praised al Jaber as, “a man of the highest distinction in business and educational philanthropy”.

Other recent large donations include the £75m donation by Russian-born US citizen Leonard Blavatnik in 2010 towards the new Blavatnik School of Government, and £26m this year from Mica Ertegun, the widow of the founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun, to support postgraduate humanities scholarships.

In 2008, the University ran the risk of losing one of their most prominent donors after refusing to accept a £1 million, four tonne, ten foot monument of Conservative MP George Cooke, from Israeli multi-millionaire Zvi Meitar. The Times reported that the tycoon was threatening to withdraw his support after the University rejected his offer.

When vetting donations, the University takes into account donors who might be seen to have a “tarnished reputation”. Their policy states, “The University will consider gifts from that donor if the behaviour which led to the donor’s reputation being tarnished has clearly ceased.” The guidelines also include more specific regulations. For instance, donations from those “actively working in the tobacco industry” will not be accepted.

The University declined to comment when contacted by Cherwell.

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Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests made by Cherwell also revealed that during 2009-2011 there were 517 total donations made to the University over the amount of £10,000. 83 out of these donations were made wholly or partly to the Ashmolean Museum. This is over 16% of all donations made to the University.

Meanwhile, 74 out of the 517 donations made to the University were for the Bodleian libraries. In particular, donations were directed to the Bodleian Law Library. Most of the donations were directed towards a specific faculty (again the Faculty of Law achieved over 30 donations) and the larger donations towards larger institutions such as the Saïd Business School (there were three donations over £1 million made to the School).

However, some more specific donations were directed towards “the archiving of the Tolkien papers both at the Bodleian Libraries”, “for the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum” and “for the acquisition of the Kafka Letters to Ottla Archive at the Bodleian Libraries”.

Overall, the University has received 162 donations that are each over £100,000 in value. Donations of this size must first be approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations (CRD), which, amongst other guidelines, ensures that donors have a good reputation and wholly genuine motivations. 356 donations of less of £100,000 each were accepted outside of CRD scrutiny.

In the majority of cases, the University has been hugely successful in attracting philanthropic aid. Oxford Thinking, the University’s fundraising campaign passed its initial target of £1.25 billion earlier this year, having currently raised £1.3 billion. Established in May 2004, this is the shortest time taken by a European univer- sity to reach such a target. 36% of this total came from previous alumni, with some of the most prominent donations emerging from those with no previous affiliation with the University.

Individual colleges are also capable of attracting similar sums. Cherwell reviewed the amount of money donated to Oxford colleges over the past three years and discovered that out of the college responses Christ Church received the highest amount in donations with an average of £1,278,500 donations a year. Balliol came a close second with an average of £1,125,500 a year and University College was third with an average of £1,027,750.

St John’s received a surprisingly low amount of donations, only receiving £188,250 on average over the past three years considering that their financial endowment in 2010 was valued at £313,319,000. Donations of over £10,000 to Jesus College increased from 17 in 2008/9 to 31 in 2009/10.

Christ Church JCR President Oluwatosin Oyetunji commented, “We have a very strong Alumni relations office, and I am glad to see positive results. I suppose people enjoy their time at Christ Church and are happy to donate after they leave.”

Correction: This article has been amended to accurately reflect the philanthropic work of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Cherwell apologises for any distress caused to Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber and the Trustees of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation by the original version of this article.

Post exam celebrations are being scrutinised by the University after allegations of assault on two members of staff following morning exams on Tuesday.

Students have been warned to ensure that they behave in an appropriate fashion upon leaving Examination Schools, after increased concern from the University over public order.

A letter from the Proctors forwarded to all members of Balliol JCR read, “We write to inform you of an incident which occurred in Merton Street yesterday (5 June 2012) after the examinations in the Examination Schools finished at lunchtime. Two members of our staff were injured by an out-of-control man thought to be a student who was ‘celebrating’ with one of the Finalists.

“Those injured were a Proctors’ Officer (who sustained bruises and abrasions to his hand, which is today so swollen that he cannot use it) and an Assistant Proctors’ Officer (who sustained a black eye and bruised ribs and who has today been sent home from work).

“Many of you will know the latter, who is a long-standing and loyal member of staff. The man in question ignored instructions to stop what he was doing and ran away from the scene. The Proctors are currently investigating this case, which may become a matter for the Police.”

In forwarding the email, Douglas Dupree, the Balliol College Dean, added, “As anyone who has found themselves on the wrong side of University discipline knows, the Proctors take very seriously inappropriate behaviour (and behaviour against the University rules) by fellow students greeting those finishing exams. This incident will no doubt underline the sobriety by which any infractions are evaluated. The Master joins me in wanting to bring this to your attention.”

The police have downplayed their involvement, stressing that this was a matter that would be dealt with by the University independently. A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police commented, “Police were called by university staff at 1.35pm on Tuesday, who asked if police had CCTV of a man who allegedly had pushed past two proctors at the university. The CCTV cameras had not recorded any footage of the incident.

“The Proctors were not injured and the member of staff reporting the matter said he did not want it formally reported to the police, but that the university would be dealing with the student themselves. There is no further police involvement.”

News of the incident has been met with mixed response among students. Whilst many feel that the celebrations are a harmless Oxford tradition, some have condemned the “rowdy” nature of them. First year lawyer John Huxley said, “Trashing is a nice tradition, but if it boils over into violence, then it’s gone too far.”

However, others have criticised the University for being “too harsh” on students celebrating the end of finals. One student commented, “Finalists deserve to have a few minutes of fun straight after they’ve finished.

“Of course I don’t condone violence, but exuberance is understandable, and sometimes it’s harmless fun that’s punished. But I don’t agree with the use of eggs. That’s just not cool.”