12 fearless students from St Edmund Hall will brave the infamous “Tough Guy” competition this Sunday.

With claims to being the most physically demanding assault course in the world, eight students will be joining 6,900 other competitors from over 25 countries who will head to Stratfordshire to battle it out for the title of “Tough Guy of the Year”.

“Tough Guy” has seen the death of two competitors and participants are required to sign an “official death warrant” acknowledging the threat to their lives as they battle to win the ultimate badge of machismo.

The race involves running through high-pressure hoses and barbed wire fences, jumping over fire-pits, wading through ice-cold, murky lakes and sewage pipes and running through fields of stinging nettles amongst other feats of bravado.

Only a third of competitors complete the race each year but according to Billy Wilson, organiser of the race, no one as ever completed the challenge as per all his regulations.

Adam Jordan, a Blues Hockey player at Teddy Hall, will lead a team of 12 Oxford students as well as his brother Michael Jordan. He has undertaken the challenge twice before.

“Second time round I was taken off the course by paramedics with hypothermia, so for me it’s a revenge attempt,” he said. “I thought I’d drag a few others along with me to give it a shot.”

“We’re not doing it to prove our manhood. We do have one person running with a heart condition, but he is built like an ox and has a mind of steel so I’m confident he’ll do well.

“The main risks for us are broken bones. The assault course offers some decent heights and with water involved in the course it becomes slippery, people break or dislocate legs and arms all the time but you’re unlikely to die from this: the main danger for us is hypothermia.”

Maria Higson, a third year at Teddy Hall, commented, “I originally had no intention whatsoever of doing ‘Tough Guy’, as it sounds like my idea of absolute hell. But when my friend Adam suggested it to me he used those fatal words ‘it’s for charity’.”

Women like Maria make up just one in ten of competitors undertaking Tough Guy. “I think Tough Guy is designed for people who just want a challenge to see how far they can physically push themselves… The women are pretty determined however, and there is definite competition!”

The Teddy Hallers have been training hard since last term in order to complete the assault-course challenge. They also did a sponsored ice bath in the College’s front quad.

Jordan said, “We have done long runs, circuit training with sand bags, tyres and jerry cans full of water, and most importantly cold water training: wading through the shallows of the punting river and swimming the width of the main river even when ice was building up at the edge!”

Higson commented, “I don’t think any of us are thinking about winning… getting to the finishing line would be a huge achievement!”

Alex Michie, a friend of the group registered his support. “I think it’s a really admirable endeavour. They are putting in considerable time and effort into training. I hope they all do well and enjoy it and raise lots of money for the RNLI, which is a very worthy cause.”

James Appleton, an ex-Cambridge student, won the title in 2009.

American rock musician Courtney Love treated members of the Oxford University Conservative Association to a lively visit last Sunday.

By the end of the night the celebrity had not only joined the Association, but was also elected as the group’s first ‘Non-Executive Officer for Rock and Roll’.

Students departing from the evening’s Union debate were surprised to find Love in the Goodman Library. “I thought some people were going to faint,” said Trinity PPEist Joseph Gold-Ochsner.

The event covered many topics. During a discussion of foreign policy, Love claimed that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has made romantic overtures to her and offered to try and exercise leverage over his oil export policy on behalf of Britain and the US.

Love was in possession of a walking stick which she claimed to have once belonged to Sir Winston Churchill. As the event got underway Love stipulated that whoever intended to speak should be in possession of the item.

Joe Cooke, OUCA President-Elect, said that despite incessant lobbying for Love to donate the cane to the society, “she insisted that it was for P Diddy’s birthday.”

Adi Balachander, a History student at St Anne’s, sat next to Love throughout most of the night. “I found her to be a very friendly person. She was quite happy to find so many young people interested in politics,” he said.

The celebrity was said to have been interested in the “Tory culture” and the differences between American and British conservatives.

Love’s visit also attested to her career in rock and roll. As the meeting came to a close Love commended everyone in attendance to climb onto tables and sing the theme tune from ‘Dad’s Army’, also accompanying the young conservatives in their renditions of ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘God Save the Queen’. After the event Love accompanied students to the King’s Arms.

Joe Cooke does not believe any one in attendance will forget the night soon. He told Cherwell, “I was shocked to find a rock star in our midst.”

OUCA President Henry Evans was notified earlier in the day by the Union that Love wished to attend OUCA’s weekly ‘Port and Policy’ event. The celebrity was reportedly in Oxford visiting a friend, enjoying a day of pheasant shooting and looking for property in Oxfordshire.

Love spoke at the Oxford Union last year. Her talk focussed on relationships and spirituality.

A former chef at Worcester College was sentenced to 10 months in prison last Friday, after an ‘unprovoked attack’ on a homosexual couple.

According to evidence presented to Oxford Crown Court, Ashton Soloman-Cameron, 19, was caught on CCTV in the midst of a violent drunken outburst after mistakenly believing that businessmen Scott and Jason Davenport had racially insulted him.

In the CCTV footage shown to the Court, Soloman-Cameron punches and stamps on Scott Davenport repeatedly, causing him to suffer cuts, bruises and two chipped teeth.

Jason Davenport is undergoing physiotherapy for a fractured ankle. Witnesses reported seeing Solomon-Cameron walk away from the scene of the attack, after being called by his girlfriend.

Soloman-Cameron pleaded guilty to counts of GBH and ABH and was sentenced to 10 months in a young offender’s institution, half of which will be spent in custody.

The victims were on their way to meet a friend in Oxford in the early hours of October 10th. Rachel Drakes, lawyer for the prosecution, told the court, ‘Jason Davenport called to Scott, referring to him as ‘black man’ as he was wearing a black coat.

‘The defendant inferred it as a racial insult. Both Messrs Davenports were conciliatory and offered to shake his hand, but he punched one of them, Jason, who falls to the ground.’

The 19-year-old has previous convictions as a juvenile for battery and public order offences. He had been working as a chef at Worcester College since September, joining on a one-year contract which was extended to a permanent one.

Defending her client, Lucy Tapper remarked, ‘It’s a horrible, horrible incident and nobody would be more prepared to admit that than Soloman-Cameron, but it does come out of character.’

She added, ‘It’s surprising, perhaps, seeing that degree of unprovoked violence from somebody who doesn’t have a violent nature’, and described Soloman-Cameron as ‘quiet, polite and clearly hard-working’.

Whilst some students at Worcester were reluctant to comment on the case, the Food & Bar Rep, George Pidgeon commented, ‘I think the general consensus of the JCR committee is that although this is obviously an unfortunate incident, it is clearly a one-off, and one which we hope will not recur in the future.

‘We were not aware of previous convictions, however I personally do not feel that we really should have been.

‘The JCR does not run the recruitment process, the college does, and it is one that seems generally to work very well.’

However some Worcester students expressed their surprise that someone working for their college has been convicted for such an offence.

On sentencing Soloman-Cameron, Judge Patrick Eccles said, ‘You are bringing misery and shame upon yourself, and you have brought hardship to your family and, more importantly, the victims.

‘You have affected the future of the two victims in a serious way. It was a very nasty attack.’

Detective Constable Iain Spencer, who investigated the incident, said, ‘These two men…were attacked for no apparent reason by the offender who was highly intoxicated.

‘I hope this sentence demonstrates that drunken, loutish, behaviour will not be tolerated in the city.’

When contacted by Cherwell, Worcester’s Catering Manager, Stuart McAllister, said, ‘With reference to any staff and personnel matters we decline to comment.’

Financial statements released by the University have revealed that, last year, Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton received a salary package worth £382,000.

The figure, which includes salary and pension, is 17% higher than what his predecessor, Dr John Hood, received in 2009.

It also emerged that a senior University administrator was paid almost £600,000, and that over 70 Oxford University employees earn a higher basic salary than the Prime Minister.

The news comes just weeks after MPs voted to raise the cap on tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 and as universities face 40% in cuts to their government funding.

In a statement the University Press Office defended the rise, saying that “Oxford is one of the great universities of the world and makes a major contribution to the economic prosperity of the UK and the UK’s position in the world, as well as to tackling global challenges through its research.

“It must remain globally competitive and its Vice-Chancellor’s remuneration needs to reflect that.”

James Butler of the Oxford Education Campaign said that he was struck by arguments about global competitiveness.

He said, “It feeds the idea that universities should be modelled under the logic of competition. The University, in its public statements, has been committed against the marketisation of education, but this is not reflected in the way it remunerates its administrative staff.”

He added that “It’s telling that we’re paying our administrators more than those who carry out the day to day functions of education.”

An investigation by the Daily Telegraph showed that salaries of top UK university staff rose by an average of 8%.

However, not all university leaders have followed suit. Last year, the Vice-Chancellor of University College London, Professor Malcolm Grant, took a 10% cut in his salary.

He took this cut in his salary to “symbolise” the University’s “determination to come through a deep recession without sacrificing our reputation for high quality research”.

A spokesperson from Oxford University Press Office highlighted that Hamilton does not receive the highest Vice-Chancellor salary in the UK, “despite the fact that according to every national league table in 2010, Oxford was the number one university in the country”.

Some are questioning whether the increase in the salary of the Vice-Chancellor is, in fact, justified. The university topped all the UK national league tables this year and the Times and the Guardian have placed it in the number one spot consistently since 2007. Oxford also achieved its highest ever THES world ranking, joint second, back in 2007, under the previous Vice-Chancellor.

The annual financial statements also show that the Director of Oxford University Endowment Management Limited (OUEM) is the highest paid university administrator in the UK.

Sandra Robertson was paid almost £600,000 last year, though her salary comes directly from revenues generated by the OUEM.

A spokesperson pointed out that “Investing in good fund managers more than pays for itself: consider the fact that even just a one percentage point difference in investment performance can mean a difference of several million pounds every year for the University.

“Good investment management is more important than ever at a time of uncertain funding for higher education.”

Political Theory postgraduate student Alex Canfor-Dumas blasted the top level salaries as “fundamentally unjust”. He argued that “To anyone who doesn’t believe in a market free-for-all, these sums of money are absolutely outrageous. At a time when millions are seeing their real incomes fall, we risk seeing a tiny elite stretch ever further ahead, undermining the sense of solidarity that binds society together.”

However, third year PPE student Henry Curr said that, although inequality in general is a problem, the singling out of highly paid individuals is wrong. He commented, “I’m sick of these witch hunts into how much people earn. The idea that cutting one person’s salary would be enough to keep tuition fees down is ludicrous.”

Last year, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Higher Education Minister David Willetts wrote to every university and college head telling them that they expected universities to apply the same “restraint to all aspects of pay and bonuses” as their department for business, innovation and skills was applying.

Cable reflected that, “There is clearly salary escalation at the top level that bears no relation to the underlying economics of the country.”

This idea resonated with St Hilda’s student Robin Driver, who commented, “I guess I can kind of appreciate the argument that we need to be attracting the talent. But it seems a highly insensitive move at a time when students are still reeling from the increase on the fees cap”.

Philip Walker, spokesperson for the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said, ‘”It is for each university’s governing body to determine, through its remuneration committee, the pay and other benefits of its vice-chancellor or principal.

“The governing body is the employer, and so must decide – and be prepared to justify – what is appropriate in each case, taking account of all the circumstances of the institution and the individual.”

The possibility of booking a ‘freak show’ for the St Peter’s Ball has caused consternation among the College’s students.

The ball committee is divided over whether the entertainment of the so-called ‘Circus of Horrors’, which features acts including a dwarf known as ‘Demon Dan’, and ‘Mongolian Laughing Boy’, who receives shocks in an electric chair, would be appropriate for the event.

A number of students at St Peter’s were shocked to hear about the plans, and one branded them “morally questionable”.

The ball committee were quick to deny that the performance was a freak show, despite being described on the company website as “The stupendous Carnival of the Bizarre with Doctor Haze and his Freak Show”.

Stephen Dunne, one of the ball committee presidents, emphasised that the act was as yet unconfirmed and said, “They are a professional unit, for whom the members choose to work.” He conceded that “you could argue against the ethics of the act”, but that the members “do not ‘humiliate’ themselves during the show”.

Some of the acts have been seen as too “gruesome or macabre” to be featured. Roger Sibley, a representative of Carters Entertainment Limited, who help put on the shows, told Cherwell that dwarf Demon Dan’s talents include “stapling playing cards to his face” and “pulling a hoover around with a part of his body that’s not his hands”.

He commented, “That’s one for the adult audience”.

Natalie Fox, St Peter’s other ball president, said that the committee were free to choose who would perform. She explained, “We’ve decided against some of the worst ones, like this guy who can put kebab skewers through his cheeks.”

Fox admitted that, “Some people are unsure about whether they would want to watch it”.

Tegan McLeod, an English student at St Peter’s, said, “For me the idea seems voyeuristic and exploitative. It’s exhibiting human oddities for a profit.

“Though some may argue it’s a performance art, I think it’s really hard to deny that this type of show is a form of social discrimination.”
Nonetheless, the committee currently intend to go ahead and book the Dr Haze’s group for the ball.

Dunne defended the decision, saying the College would only book “people who do not self harm or who would not cause any lasting emotional damage to the audience.

“They provide a massive spectacle, a great talking point, and are something that will make the St Peter’s Ball truly different to all other balls.”

St John’s College has been forced to cancel its next bop this Saturday, as porters have refused to police the event following the post-collections celebrations which got out of hand.

After significant disruption at the 0th Week bop, students at St John’s received an email from their Entz Reps last week informing them that “It appears unlikely that the next Bop will occur as scheduled”.
On Wednesday of this week, an email confirmed that they had “no option but to cancel the bop”.

The cancellation of the next bop comes after post-collections enjoyment deteriorated into raucous behaviour at the ‘Naughty Noughties’-themed event, which took place on Saturday of 0th Week.

The Entz Reps reported “disruption and aggressive behaviour”, with glass-paned fire alarms being activated three times in the early hours.
Other students tampered with fire alarms and smoke detectors in their rooms.

It was suggested that the blame could lie with students from outside the college. Members of St John’s JCR were warned that if this was the case, the person who invited the outsiders to the bop would be held responsible for their actions around college.

The porters, responsible for the prevention of danger, “were treated rudely and disrespectfully by several students as they went about doing their job” and are now unwilling to provide the coverage required for the next bop.

The Tommy White Quad, where most of the disturbances took place, is home to a large number of freshers and some second year students.

It is understood that the disruption was generated by a minority. Students have expressed their irritation and disappointment that the next bop is to be cancelled.

One student at St John’s said, “It just struck me as immature that people were messing around with important fire safety equipment and perhaps more importantly, annoying the porters who are actually a really well-liked group of people.

“Maybe the bop being cancelled, or at least the threat of it, will be enough to make people think twice before letting their drunkenness go too far in the future.”

Entertainment Reps Alex Winchester and Naomi Nettleship said that they were “disappointed to hear about the disturbances”. They said that the 4th Week bop was due to go ahead, but only on a “probationary basis”.

JCR President David Messling supported the efforts being made by the Entz Team. He said, “Our JCR Entz Officers are doing a great job in ensuring the best possible outcome”.

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin, is to see “its biggest restoration since the late 19th century”, made possible by a £3.4 million grant awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The church, situated on the High Street and backing onto Radcliffe Square, was historically the centre of the University and is still the location of formal University Christian worship.
Revd Dr William Beaver, Associate Priest of the Church said the restoration “will be a landmark in the history of this Church and Oxford University.”
The Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Stuart McLeod, commented, “This inspirational and important project showcases our heritage at its very best, by providing the local community and visitors with a special look into the past.”
The church’s Vicar, Revd Canon Brian Mountford expressed his delight at the funding, adding, “It comes after long and careful consultation with local people, national bodies, and professional advisers as to what is best for this iconic Oxford building.

“In the process we have been helped to think about widening our educational outreach as well as the conservation of the fabric.”
The church, which offers panoramic views from the tallest of Oxford’s famous spires, is a major tourist attraction, with 300,000 people visiting the site last year alone.

Revd Beaver said he wants the church to become “the first stop on the tourist trial with a hologram exhibition about the history of the University, the town and the church…and restoring the church to its former glory.”

Many students are members of the church, which is also home to a choir consisting both of students and other local singers.

St Mary’s hosts University Services which this term include a choral evensong sung by the combined choirs of eleven colleges in fifth week and a university sermon by the writer Philip Pullman the following week.

The church boasts a rich historical heritage and was the centre of the University in medieval times. The Old Congregation House, built adjoining it in the early fourteenth century, served as the location for the University’s first library.

St Mary’s counts John Henry Newman, who later famously converted to Catholicism, among its former clergy and was also the site for the trial of the Oxford Martyrs in 1555 and in different circumstances, the founding of OXFAM in 1942.

Revd Beaver noted that some of the damage which has accumulated over more than seven hundred years of the present building’s history would be left as it is, saying, “We decided not to repair the bullet holes left by Cromwell’s troops on the façade of the University Church – they are too much a part of Oxford’s history!”