The Editor of Oxford Today has been told that his job is under review.

Some members of the magazine’s editorial board now claim that the move comes as part of a drive to force the publication to take a more ‘corporate’ line.

Oxford Today is a termly magazine published by the University.

Members of the Editorial Advisory Board discussed the possibility of resigning to express their anger that the decision to review Editor Greg Neale’s position was taken without their consent.

The magazine covers all aspects of the life at Oxford and its colleges, as well as historical features about the University and its alumni. It is distributed to around 150,000 alumni worldwide.

Several members of the Advisory Board have expressed the opinion that the review is part of a wider scheme that would force the magazine to take a more corporate line, and become a platform for the University.

Traditionally it is an independent “Prospect style” magazine.

Neale has said he would not allow the alumni magazine to become a “puppet of the University”.

One member of the Editorial Advisory Board, who wished to remain anonymous, told Cherwell, “The editorial independence of Oxford Today is now on the line.

“The very members of the Editorial Advisory Board charged with protecting [Oxford Today‘s] freedom and determining its content are being told to look the other way while faceless people on shadowy committees all determine a new publisher, a new editor and a new direction for the magazine.”

In an uncharacteristically heated meeting last Tuesday, the majority of the 14-strong Editorial Advisory Board expressed their anger at Jeremy Harris, the University’s Director of Public Affairs. Harris, along with the Oxford Today Strategic Board, took the decision to review Neale’s position as Editor.

At one point Harris, rejecting any idea of censorship, reportedly pounded the table with his fists.

A member of the Board told Cherwell that immediately following this meeting, many of the Editorial Advisory Board held “an informal discussion” where “they agreed to consider their positions”.

Oxford University’s Chancellor, Lord Patten, shares the Board’s concern for the editorial independence of Oxford Today. At the Open Forum for alumni in September 2008, he said that “the last thing we want is some sort of North Korea Times.”

However, the University denies that the decision to review the editorship is a question of journalistic independence.

In a letter sent to the Board on 25th January, Harris said that the decision to select a new editor was necessary because of a “contractual arrangement” whereby the editor was employed by the publishers.

The current publishers, Wiley-Blackwell, will not be renewing their contract when it expires in the summer.

A University spokesperson said, “a new publisher is currently being appointed and in due course they will participate, as in the past, in the selection process of the editor, with whom they will sign a new freelance contract.

“This will again be by an open and competitive process, in which the present editor is of course fully in a position to take part.”

Many observers question the procedural necessity of asking Neale to competitively reapply for his job. One Board member suggested that the University was using the circumstances over the new publishing contract as “an excuse to oust Greg.”

There is, however, no evidence behind this claim, which Harris and the University have denied.

A senior member of the Editorial Advisory Board said, “Greg Neale has been an excellent Editor of Oxford Today. Many of the members of the Board strongly support him staying on as Editor.”

Many individuals on the Editorial Advisory Board feel that it is their responsibility to appoint an Editor, and are puzzled as to why the decision to review Neale’s position as Editor has been made elsewhere. The decision was taken by the Oxford Today Strategic Board.

Mary Dejevsky, Chief Editorial Writer at The Independent and member of the Editorial Advisory Board, said that during the meeting she “probed the question of what the Editorial Board was for.”

In a large online readership survey last year, 92% of readers endorsed Neale’s performance as editor of Oxford Today.

The main complaint to emerge from the survey was that the magazine was not independent enough from the University. Ten percent of respondents urged Oxford Today to become “less formal” and more “controversial”.

Neale has been editor of Oxford Today since Michaelmas 2007. Neale will be Editor of next term’s magazine, however the future of his position as Editor remains uncertain.

An inquest began this week into the death of Toby Rundle, an LMH student who was found hanged in his room last October.

The inquest heard that the night before his death, Rundle had been drinking at the college bar with some friends, before going to the Oxford nightclub, Escape. Upon returning to college, he went to the room of Clement Knox, a fellow LMH student and friend of Rundle’s, which he refused to leave. Knox told the inquest that Rundle was “being quite mischievous”, lying in his bed pretending to be asleep.

Knox explained that he dragged Rundle out of his room at about 2.30am, and that he was apologetic when he realised he had annoyed his friend. Knox found Rundle’s body later that afternoon, when other students became suspicious that they had not seen him that day.

Rundles’s father told Oxford Coroner’s Court that his son’s death had come “out of the blue”. The death occurred just a week before the conclusion of the inquest into the death of another LMH student, John Ddungu, who passed away in February 2009.

Mr. Rundle explained that he and his son had discussed the suicide of Ddungu, telling the inquest, “[Toby] said that having seen the damage to the other boy’s family, that was the last thing he would ever contemplate.”

A post-mortem showed that Rundle had over two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol driving limit in his blood stream and that he had died of asphyxiation. There were no traces of drugs found in his body.

Rundle, from Somerset, was in his final year at Oxford, reading English and Classics. He came to national attention in June 2007, when he sold a first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, for £7,200 at an auction. He used the money to pay his university fees.

The University counseling service has been offering extra support this year for LMH students.

A fire broke out in the Chemistry department in the early hours of Friday morning.

Security staff spotted the fire at around 4am on Friday 12th April. The fire brigade were immediately called, who quickly brought the blaze under control.

One staff member was given “precautionary medical checks” but no one was hurt in the fire.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, though a spokesman for the University said, “there are no indications of criminal activity and there was no risk to the public.”

The laboratory concerned was damaged but the fire did not spread further.

Conservative Shadow Minister Tim Loughton said that children’s welfare issues such as the Baby P debate were too “dull and gory” to discuss at an Oxford Conservative Association dinner.

When approached by a Daily Mirror journalist for comment, the MP claimed that the Cherwell reporter present had been drunk and misquoted him.

However, others present have confirmed that the student journalist had not drunk any alcohol, and the reporter stands by the quotations in their article.

The article (‘OCA: Now we care and share’, 5 March) reported a speech given by Loughton, currently Shadow Minister for Children, at a Conservative Association event.

The dinner, which had been advertised as a launch of the Oxford Conservative Association’s new policy document on social inequality and mobility, was held at the exclusive Landsdowne private member’s club in London.

Before the speech Loughton said that discussing child issues such as Baby P would be “too dull and gory for this time of night,” and instead spoke about a Channel Four documentary he had recently participated in, in which members of parliament were sent to live in problem-area estates.

He described one residence in the Birmingham estate he was assigned to as “a complete crap hole”.

When contacted by the national newspaper’s political correspondent for a comment on what was said, Loughton denied these claims and said he believed the journalist present had been drunk.

“She was quite pissed and must have been mistaken,” Loughton told the correspondent. The newspaper subsequently dropped the story.

However, a guest at the dinner who has no ties to the Oxford Conservative Association, said, “I spoke to [the reporter] at dinner and we had a conversation about how she does not drink wine. I can confirm that she did not drink anything at all.

“In fact at the end of the meal, when we were splitting the bill, she raised the point again that she had not drunk wine and so did not wish to be charged for it. All guests were party to this conversation,” they said.

Camilla Turner, who covered the story, said “I have comprehensive notes of what was said, and was not drunk, as has been shown. If Loughton’s office really had a problem with it, it seems to me they would have complained when the article first went up on the Cherwell website a couple of weeks ago.”

When Loughton’s office was contacted by Cherwell for a comment, it said that “Tim gave no approval for any quotes.”

“As Tim did not make those remarks he has nothing to retract,” a spokesperson from his office said.

Loughton hit headlines on Thursday for arguing that children should be prosecuted for having sex under the age of sixteen.

James Kingston has been elected President of the Oxford Union for Michelmas term.

Kingston, who held the position of Librarian this term and Treasurer in Michelmas 2009, gained 669 votes, beating Ash Sanga’s 521.

The Librarian’s seat will be filled next term by Will Chamberlain of Lincoln College, who was voted in with 739 votes. Secretary was won by Zara McGlone of Trinity, while the position of Treasuer-elect will go to Poppy Simister of Christchurch. 

Standing Committee for Trinity Term will consist of, in order of votes, Hasan Ali, Jack Sennett, Jocky McLean, Ben Ruddle and Ben Lewy.