Oxford tutor Dr Stewart Wood has this week joined the group of politicians and advisors involved in the Gordon Brown bullying allegations.

Wood, who works as Brown’s chief foreign policy advisor, explained an altercation with Gordon Brown to journalist Suzie Mackenzie. “[Brown] was in a really bad mood,” he said. “He walked up the stairs. And I leant forward and he went, “Outta my way!” And did that [Dr Wood makes a sweeping gesture with his arm] “Get outta my way!” Then he walked off…He

‘s never punched me. He did push me aside.”

Suzie Mackenzie, a journalist in regular correspondence with Wood, released details of a recorded conversation the two had concerning the Prime Minister. This was despite having an understanding with Wood that he would be made aware of what information she was releasing.

Wood, also a Politics tutor at Magdalen College, had been working closely with Mackenzie over the past few years as she conducted extensive research for her character study on Gordon Brown.

Describing their interviews, the journalist said, “We meet regularly, always with a tape on, and I should say here that our understanding has always been that I would not reveal what he has said without discussing things with him first.”

Mackenzie disclosed the discussion of Gordon Brown’s outbursts to The Mail on Sunday, which published an article detailing the conversation last weekend.

The allegations against the Prime Minister of abusive behaviour towards his staff first emerged in political journalist Andrew Rawnsley’s book The End of the Party. Published on the 1st of March, it charts the decline of New Labour and the relationships between the key party figures.

Mackenzie raised the subject of Brown’s allegedly abusive behaviour with Wood over a lunch-time interview at popular Westminster restaurant The Cinnamon Club on 14th January.

The journalist felt driven to publish this information after hearing Brown categorically state that he had “never, never hit anybody” or shoved them, during an interview on 28th February on Channel 4 News.

She was so incensed by his denial that she published Wood’s statements to contradict what she felt was a falsehood from the Prime Minister.

Mackenzie said, “I believe that what is being revealed here is a matter of public interest, that the time has come for transparency and honesty – most particularly in the run-up to an election.”

The journalist acknowledged the moral ambiguity of releasing details of a conversation which was agreed as off the record. “Some people will find what I have done unconscionable. I accept this,” she said.

Dr Wood responded to the media frenzy with the following statement, “Allegations that Gordon struck or punched me are totally wrong. As I recall, he was in a hurry that day, and barged past me . . . but he didn’t shove me. It did annoy me at the time, but it was an isolated incident”.

The Mail on Sunday, which published Wood’s comments, has not responded to requests for a statement.

John Radcliffe Hospital has suspended paediatric cardiac surgery while it investigates the deaths of four children who underwent heart operations there in recent months.

The deaths have all occurred in the past four months.

In a statement, the hospital said, “The families of children awaiting cardiac surgery are being contacted and we will be placing those patients who need to be seen urgently with other hospitals. We are reviewing each of these patients to ensure that they are not put at risk by any delay in their treatment.”

They further stated that the children had been “very sick”.
An external review will be carried out to see if there are any common factors linking the deaths.

Those requiring urgent treatment have been transferred to other hospitals.
The John Radcliffe Hospital carries out about 100 heart operations on children every year.

Beth Evans, OUSU VP-Elect for Graduates, received 24% RON (Re-Open Nominations) votes in Thursday’s by-election.

This is the largest percentage of RON votes of any OUSU candidate in the past three years.

Forty people voted RON, while 129 voted for Beth Evans, who ran unopposed.
The online by-election was held because nobody came forward to run for the position last term.

The turnout of 160 from a potential electorate of 8,101 graduates was higher than usual in an OUSU by-election.

New College’s pet kitten Otis has been returned home after being discovered in Cowley on Tuesday night.

The cat, whose disappearance was reported two weeks ago in Cherwell, is said to have been “unscathed but confused” when found by RSPCA workers.

Zoe Norridge, Fellow in African and Comparative Literature, who oversees the welfare of the College pet, has thanked everyone who helped in the search for Otis.

“Thank you for all the messages, help with putting up posters, late night walks around the University Club pitches calling out his name and so on.”

Otis, who had disappeared on Monday 8th February, is now said to be “purring and curled up on the sofa” . Norridge said, “We’ll keep Otis in for a week or so but look out for him around college towards the end of term!”

Magdalen students suffering at the hands of an anonymous prankster have appointed a member of the JCR to protect them.

Matthew Shribman, a third-year Chemist, has been appointed as the college Sheriff, in order to catch the person behind the mystery persona of ‘John the Porter’.

The JCR motion granting him this position passed unanimously last Sunday.
The JCR was also mandated to provide the Sheriff with a badge, and to ask Dr Ralph Walker, Vice-President of the college, to present it to him.

The motion notes, “Someone in the college has created the fictional character of ‘John the Porter’ and has pulled stunts such as: (a) Calling numerous room phones, and telling undergraduates that they have to urgently report to the Porters Lodge to see John the Porter. The undergraduates in question arrived to find that John the Porter does not exist. (b) Turning furniture upside down in undergraduate rooms and leaving ominous notes such as ‘John the Porter is watching you’.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Shribman outlined the situation. “John the Porter is prolific. People have been affected in Magdalen, New College and Christ Church; he is growing ever more existentially portly and, though I’m doing my best, I cannot keep up.”
He further noted, “I am an experienced solver of idealistic college-based mysteries and a prolific vigilante.”

The motion noted that Shribman “would make an excellent Sheriff in solving this mystery.”

Shribman said, “The JCR voted unanimously in my favour, throwing all of their weight behind my bid to become Sheriff. This is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. I believe that the title of Sheriff will help me to speed up my investigations, especially at the more administrative end of things.

“Everybody takes Sheriffs seriously. There’s no namby-pamby with the Sheriff,” he said.

Confusion reigns over the identity of John the Porter. A number of members of college apparently believe that Shribman himself is the mysterious joker. However, the sheriff insists that those who know the culprit’s true identity are working to keep it under wraps.

“Not everyone is happy about my new appointment,” he said. “On Tuesday, just before noon, Hattie Huston, Lincoln College, attempted to crush me between the moving stacks in the Magdalen College library, stalling my investigation… of the stacks.”
Harry Maltby, a second year PPEist at Magdalen, confirmed that there was real fear surrounding this episode. “This John the Porter is no myth. Every time the phone rings I am terrified that it might be him. I am glad that college is talking the threat seriously in the appointment of the Sheriff. We students can now rest assured that something is being done.”

One Magdalen student however, who asked to be described as “a friend of John the Porter” said that Shribman would be ineffective, claiming that “John don’t fear no Sheriff.”

Tom Meakin, JCR President, was happy to see the motion pass, commenting, “I think it’s great that every once and a while colleges can take a step back and not take themselves too seriously. I wish Matthew every luck in his quest to pin down this elusive villain.”

Shribman declared that he “will retain the title of Sheriff until The Land Before Time is brought out on DVD.”

Brasenose is to change its lesbian and gay JCR representation in the week following accusations of ripping down posters advertising queer issues around college.

The JCR  voted to make the position of LGBT rep an official subset of Welfare on Sunday, but decided that the role will still remain a non-Committee position.

The representative will be a part of the welfare team but not eligible to attend Committee meetings.

This has triggered a wider debate as to the level of LGBT provisions in different colleges and suspected homophobia in Oxford.

The motion was passed at a General Meeting last Sunday, but with several amendments to the original proposal.

In the run up to the Brasenose JCR meeting, posters put up by Fflorens Gamberton, Brasenose’s current LGBT rep, appeared to have been torn down.
But Pip Reeve, one of the college’s Welfare reps, said that she did not think the poster-tampering was indicative of homophobia.

“I do not believe that there was any discrimination against LGBT members prior to the motion in Brasenose,” she said. “For this reason I do not believe that the poster tampering was in anyway deliberate.”

The new LGBT rep will be selected by the Welfare reps and current LGBT reps in Michaelmas Term when other JCR positions are decided.

But the role will still not be a committee position, and the rep will not have access to the JCR mailing list.

Fflorens Gamberton, the current LGBT rep, proposed the motion and noted her gratitude for the JCR passing the motion.

But she also said, “It is one small step for Brasenose, not a giant leap for general Oxonian LGBT Representation.

“In a perfect world, there would be no minority representation of any kind, because the institutionalized inequality which exists throughout our society would no longer affect the lives of students here.”

She added, “I personally know people at three or four different colleges who have spent their entire undergraduate time in the closet because of the perceived backlash they would face if they came out.”

Gamberton pointed to the “‘laddish’ sports culture” where homophobia can erupt.

Grace Weaver, LGBT rep at Corpus Christi agreed with this. “The most pressing of these [unresolved issues] is the homophobic “banter” that occurs frequently, especially in sports clubs”.

LGBT representation varies from college to college, but most JCRs have a non-Exec LGBT representative.

Jesus and Somerville are among a small number of colleges who instead have a JCR Diversities Rep to represent a range of minority students in the JCR, including LGBT, international students and disabled students.

But Weaver argued the case for a single LGBT rep. “You know that an LGBT rep is going to have had some experience dealing with specifically LGBT issues,” she said. “It is much easier for a person to be helpful in this area if they have gone through similar experiences themselves.”

Ahnaf Abdul, the Equal Opportunities and LGBT Rep at Merton disagreed, and said that one general Equalities rep could work, as long as there is “at least one openly LGBT peer supporter in each college.”

Abdul added, “I feel Oxford is fairly tolerant, though not necessarily friendly to or educated about queer issues.”

I self-rusticated early last year, following a fairly lengthy period of depression. I had already taken a year out partway through my first year and this was due to be a second, but I decided fairly early on that I did not wish to return to college.
I found the tutors at Balliol to be very helpful for the most part, and I thought the college generally did well at balancing the academic and pastoral support I needed. However, I think this may have largely been due to the general excellence of the history tutors, rather than any official policy of Balliol. I can only imagine how hard it would be for someone in my situation faced with less sympathetic or able tutors.
I would agree with the quoted student that tutors may not be aware of any problems going on. In my case, it could often be up to me to report a problem which would obviously be a tremendous difficulty for many, and could well lead them to merely be regarded as shirking their work.
There are other elements I would criticise about how I was treated. There often seemed to be a degree of punishment, even when college was generally sympathetic – you are dissuaded from returning to college during years out and at one point I was even told that I would be “letting Balliol down” if I didn’t do the requisite work for a class. Clearly a more consistent university-wide policy would prevent at least some of these problems occurring, and hopefully would mark a shift in attitude away from apparently blaming the student for their problems.
The amount of support really depends on how much the tutor is willing and able to give. And, in my experience, the onus was very much on me to sort out any extra help I might have needed. Also very little thought seemed to be given to the fact that I might have enormous problems when it came to my prelims, especially as some modules I had not studied for over a year, and had struggled with at the time anyway. That definitely led to more stress and possibilities for mental health relapses.
I do not doubt that many tutors and officials want to help students, and indeed do so, but so much more can be done, especially if students actually have some idea of what to expect when they are struggling with mental health problems. At times I had no idea if Tutorial Board was going to send me down or not, and the waiting for the result was truly horrible. Still, I am glad for all the help I did receive and glad that this issue is being discussed more.

Oxford students who are medically unfit to study are receiving inconsistent levels of support across colleges, an investigation by Cherwell shows this week. Freedom of Information act requests were sent to every college for the numbers of students taking time out of their courses for non-academic reasons.

An University-estimated average of six hundred and eighty undergraduate and post graduate students suspend their studies each year for non-disciplinary reasons, such as mental wellbeing.

Statistics obtained by Cherwell, however, indicate notable discrepancies in the attitudes of Colleges towards students who wish to intermit, or suspend, their course.

Averages calculated from University records of students who have intermitted over the past five years reveal great differences between Colleges. While at some it is usual for only two or three students to take time out, others averaged as high as fifteen students intermitting per year.

Both St Hilda’s College and New College have an undergraduate intake of four hundred and twenty students, yet in the past five academic years a total of sixty-one students temporarily withdrew from St Hilda’s, compared to twenty-seven undergraduates at New College.

These findings come as the University’s ‘Fitness to Study’ panel has announced that it is now considering the establishment of a body responsible for adjudicating between student and Colleges in cases where there is disagreement as to a student’s wellbeing and potential need to intermit.
All Colleges questioned by Cherwell stated that they had no ‘policy’ regarding the criteria required to intermit but that cases were treated on an individual basis.

Lucinda Rumsey, Senior Tutor at Mansfield College explained, “We treat all students on an individual level, looking at them on a case by case basis.”
She added, “we would never let students have time out simply because they couldn’t manage the work load – that would not be fair to other students.”

The lack of protocol can be bewildering to students, and results show disparities between Colleges regarding the circumstances under which undergraduates are allowed to suspend their academic studies.

Commenting on the University’s current approach to intermissions Dani Quinn, Welfare Officer for OUSU, said that “there can be confusion or difficulty for students who wish to appeal the College’s decision. It is usually the decision of one member of the SCR, and little is stated about where the student should go next.”

In addition to a lack of clarity regarding the options available to undergraduates, busy academic staff can fall short of meeting the pastoral needs of their students, particularly when there are problems relating to an individual’s mental health.

A second-year student who has now returned to the University after intermitting commented that her tutors were completely unaware that she had any mental health problems right up until they were informed she had suspended study.
She said that, when notified that she was intermitting “[they] replied that they had ‘no idea’ this had been going on, despite the fact that I hadn’t been handing in essays, was turning up to tutorials obviously unprepared, and so on.”

She said, “I think perhaps they were at a bit of a loss as how best to support me.”

Undergraduates who had been successful in taking time out from their degree were content that Colleges had been fully supportive of their decision and described receiving help with financial matters.

Yet many commented that they were less satisfied with the levels of assistance available upon their return to College.

Academic support in particular was highlighted as an area in which Colleges were failing to accommodate students. Undergraduates who had previously spent time away from University stressed that it was vital that they were able to carry out preparatory study prior to resuming their place in college, yet many students experienced difficulties even in accessing academic resources.

Students often found College authorities uncooperative, with one undergraduate recalling their experience of asking to return early to University. “I asked just so I could use the libraries and so on – I come from a small country town with essentially no usable library facilities”, but she explained “it was college policy that I couldn’t come back before the prearranged time.”

An undergraduate who has recently resumed his studies after recovering from illness emphasised that there can be little support for students needing to catch-up with studies, “I had some difficulty contacting busy tutors and obtaining material for the Michaelmas term when I was away, to the point that I decided to come up to Oxford midway through term to speak to them directly.

“In one of the disciplines I am still very far behind and the onus to catch up seems to be entirely on me. On the other hand, in another subject my tutor has been fantastic in giving me catch up tutorials.”

Statistics suggest that the likelihood of students withdrawing completely from University after having intermitted fluctuates across the collegiate system. A sample from the past five academic years indicates that over thirty per cent of students intermitting at Christ Church subsequently withdrew from their studies altogether.

This compares with three per cent of students at New College and eight per cent of undergraduates at Jesus or St Hugh’s who left the University completely after having undergone a period of voluntary suspension. University wide figures indicate that around eighty-eight per cent of the students who intermit will return to complete their studies.