Over 80 students and members of the public gathered outside the Clarendon Building on Monday to campaign against the millions that Oxford invests in arms companies.

The protest, organised by Oxford Anti War Action, Oxford University Palestine Society, and Oxford Stop the War, was taking place ahead of a meeting of the University’s Socially Responsible Investment Committee on Thursday. The organisers hope that pressure from students and members of the public will discourage the Committee from allowing further investment in companies such as BAE, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Amy Gilligan, who took part in the protest stated, “The Socially Responsible Investment Committee has been finally set up after intense pressure from students, and I’m hopeful that this will finally lead to the University divesting from arms companies. However, even setting up the committee has taken two years, so I think it is important that students don’t let the University drag its heels on this issue, and that we show the University that we will not stop campaigning until they no longer invest in arms companies.”

Ashley Inglis, a campaigner speaking at the rally, called on the University to commit to more ethical investment. “If our University is that short of money, we’d rather we wrote out essays with chalk and sold off a few fine manuscripts, than it make a single bloody pound from investing in war crimes.”

The University has declined to comment at this time. The decisions made at its meeting will not be released until the minutes are published in Hilary.

In addition to the University’s investments, individual colleges invest over £100,000 in arms companies. Russell Inglis, a graduate at St Hugh’s, warned, “This is just the start of the campaign. If we are successful with the University, we can then go on to campaign against other college’s investments.” Ingris argued the way our funds were being used was “unacceptable”.

Cetta Mainwaring, one of the organisers, stated, “These companies are… linked to the death and destruction seen in wars from Gaza to Iraq to Afghanistan. Besides being ethically dubious, these investments are not compatible with the University’s own Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Policy which was passed in 2008.

There is concern that the University needs its current investment programme to maintain sufficient funding. However Russell Ingris pointed out, “There are many other alternatives open to the university, including investing in ethical funds or getting funding from the super wealthy alumni. Investing in arms should not be an option.”

Ben West, OUSU Environment & Ethics Officer Elect, agrees that the University should look to other options for investment. “Given its well-publicised financial worries, you’d think that the University would be a little more forward-looking about where it invests its money. $120bn was spent globally on renewable technologies like wind and solar last year, up by 60%. And yet rather than ensuring that Oxford is well placed to take advantage of the new green economy, the University, as so often, seems to be stuck in the past.

“Oxford can and should do better. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we don’t want to see the University trashing its long-term-future for the sake of a quick buck or two.”

Magdalen College JCR voted to rename itself Gryffindor in a JCR meeting last Sunday. It will be referred to as such in “all official documents”. JCR President Laurence Mills has also been mandated to contact the JCR Presidents of Christ Church, St. Hugh’s and Merton informing that they should rename their common rooms Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw respectively.

The move has created a great deal of interest outside Oxford, and has even made international new. On Wednesday, Mills had an interview with Danish radio station P3 Forside. It has also featured in The Daily Telegraph and on the BBC News website.

The motion, which was passed in the JCR’s General Meeting with only six votes in opposition, was proposed by a Magdalen t

hird-year. It noted that, “Magdalen College embodies the values of courage, daring, nerve and chivalry”, the characteristics of the Gryffindor house in Harry Potter novels.

The proposer said, “We found the resemblance between Hufflepuff and St Hugh’s to be particularly strong – they are, as the motion reads, ‘particularly good finders’. The amount of ‘pure wizarding blood’ at Christ Church is overwhelming, and our only conclusion was that they should be called Slytherin.”

The responses from the other colleges named in the motion have shown that the spirit of Hogwarts extends beyond Magdalen.

Christ Church has embraced the concept of being Slytherin; Evelyn Ashton-Griffiths, the JCR President, commented that, “Christ Church doesn’t deign to acknowledge the fancies of those mere Mudbloods. Forming much of the inspiration and some of the actual film set for Hogwarts, we are satisfied that others have finally recognised our superiority.”

There was also some suggestion that a motion accepting the name change of their JCR would be put forward at the JCR General Meeting on Sunday, but so far this remains unconfirmed.

St Hugh’s and Merton have also welcomed their new names, and the proposal has created a great deal of discussion in the colleges.

Third year St Hugh’s medic, Michael Allum, said “Though I’m not sure of the specific allocation of the house, we’re sure no muggles.”

St Hugh’s JCR President further commented that. “Some have suggested that an emergency meeting be called to ratify such a name change while others feel that such a move might for some reason undermine our credibility with college.”

However, the selection of Merton as Ravenclaw has caused some controversy, especially as they did not top the Norrington Table last year.

St. John’s JCR President Jason Keen expressed his outrage at Merton being chosen over St. John’s, stating, “Ravenclaw is famous for being the cleverest house, so to recognise Merton just flies in the face of fact. We’d also argue that members of Ravenclaw are marginally more fun than the students who attend the college placed 2nd on the Norrington Table, which makes us a much better candidate for renaming.”

He added, “I will be sending a Howler to Gryffindor about this immediately. If they do want to call themselves the bravest, then they should admit they’ve made a mistake.”

Matthew Shribman, the third year who originally raised the idea of Magdalen becoming Gryffindor during his JCR presidential bid last week, commented, “It’s not a question of whether we should rename to Gryffindor, it’s whether we should accept that we are

Gryffindor.”

During the debate on the motion, several amendments were suggested. One would have mandated the JCR President to write to the college President, Professor David Clary, asking if he would change his name to Albus Dumbledore.

Only one speech was made in opposition, and this was to suggest that the motion be changed to mandate the purchase of a sorting hat.

However, the opposition was withdrawn when a friendly amendment was added to the motion, stating that a sorting hat should be purchased. Matt Bilton, who proposed the amendment commented, “I think most of the JCR present agreed that a sorting hat was definitely necessary.”

Suggestions that this could become part of the admissions process across the University of Oxford were rejected on the grounds that it could be difficult to implement.

JCR President Lawrence Mills has been seeking to calm the hype over the name-change. “This motion was a bit of light-hearted fun. We definitely aren’t changing our name.”

However, Tom Meakin, President-Elect, has not spoken out against the motion, and commented, “Magdalen does after all look a little bit like Hogwarts, and not to put any noses out of joint, but my Vice-President does look a little bit like Hagrid.”

Ash Sangha has resigned from the post of Treasurer-Elect at the Oxford Union after missing three Standing and three Consultative Committee meetings.

Although the Treasurer-Elect was at first allowed to retain his position within the society due to a technicality over what were believed to be incorrectly called meetings, it has since emerged that the meetings were properly called. Sangha therefore has no choice but to resign.

During the Emergency Standing Committee held earlier this week it also emerged that Sangha was unsure why he missed the meetings. Although at first he claimed that his absence was due to illness, Stuart Cullen, President-Elect, produced an apologetic text message from Ash from that day claiming that he was busy dealing with JCR business.

Sangha then claimed that he had another defence, namely that while the Secretary had sent out details for all three of the committees in the appropriate manner, on one occasion there was no time given for the meeting he subsequently missed. James Dray, the President of the Oxford Union, was then asked to decide whether the absence of this detail was enough to render the committee meeting invalid.

Dray confirmed, “It is indeed unfortunate that Mr Sangha has had to resign, and he has done an enormous amount for the society, but in line with the rules I had no choice but to act in the way as I did.”

Ash was disappointed about his dismissal. He said, “I suppose it’s inevitable that people will look for political motivations behind the accusations. To be honest, I think it’s more important for officers to concentrate on running the Union then to speculate on their political futures.

“Faced with the choice between delivering the best deal for members or fulfilling some of the more arbitrary requirements of being an officer I think it makes sense to prioritise members.

If that means missing the odd meeting because you’re helping to look after speakers or getting in a van to help deliver publicity materials for the membership drive then you’ve got to ask what’s the best for members. I’m convinced that I made the right choice.”

A member of Standing Committee commented, “Turning up to Union committees is the basic requirement of a Union officer. Failing to turn up is a violation of one’s duty and is simply wrong. He was obviously very, very incompetent.”

Charlie Holt, the society’s ex-President, has defended Ash. He said, “I am deeply uncomfortable with the way Ash was dismissed on Monday for failing to attend the requisite number of committee meetings. ‘The rules are the rules’ is a favourite retort of the returning officers, but this trivial rule – a rule which carries a grossly disproportionate penalty – seems to be applied in an increasingly selective and arbitrary way.”

David Thomas, currently on Standing Committee, will be assuming the role of Treasurer-Elect next term. It was offered to him after current Secretary Lou Stoppard and Standing Committee’s Dharmesh Nayee both rejected the position.

David Thomas will also feature on the ballot for the Librarian, despite requests to be removed from the ballot. He has spoken at length about the situation during yesterday’s hustings.

Scientists from Oxford University and George Mason University in Virginia are aiming to use human talent to match up images of colliding galaxies in the hope of finding the best models.

The Galaxy Zoo Mergers site will allow the study of what astronomers call “galactic mergers”. Examining them may explain why the universe has such a mix of galaxy types.
The team behind the site believe that the human eye is more useful than computers for the task of matching up images of real mergers with randomly-selected images of simulated mergers.

“These collisions take millions of years to unfold and so all we get from the Universe is a single snapshot of each one. By producing simulations, we will be able to

watch each cosmic car crash unfold in the computer,” said Anthony Holincheck, a graduate student at George Mason University and member of the team behind the site.

“Whilst we’re challenging the 250,000 existing users of the original Galaxy Zoo site to take part in this new project, anyone is welcome to join in – you don’t have to be an expert, in fact our evidence shows that not being an expert actually makes you better at this sort of task,” said George Mason astronomer John Wallin.

Two drug users were found outside University College accommodation last Sunday afternoon.

Concerned students have immediately informed the police and the porters, but the two men fled the scene before the University Security services or the police arrived.

Needles and other drug paraphernalia were left lying around by the entrance.

At between 5 and 6pm last Sunday night, two men walked into Logic Lane and sat in the entrance of Durham Buildings, a student accommodation block. They proceeded to prepare and take the drugs in the entrance, as puzzled Univ students looked on.

Tim Fowler, the second year medic who called the police described how the men “sat preparing the drugs for around five minutes” before proceeding to inject themselves with what onlookers assumed to be heroin. At this point Fowler called the police for the first time. He commented “it is a relatively narrow entrance, people could have got past but nobody really wanted to.”

Fowler added “They were there for another thirty-five minutes and I phoned them [the police] again, but still nobody came.”

During this time, it is understood that the college porters were also contacted by several students. The porters then passed on the message to the University Security services, who are used for the protection of many of the University buildings. Representatives arrived approximately twenty minutes after the drug users had left, which was around an hour after the phone calls were made to the porters.

One student commented, “The police said it wasn’t an emergency, and gave us a non-emergency number to call…I normally feel very secure at Univ, especially as the Logic Lane gates are shut quite soon after it gets dark.”

The Thames Valley Police later arrived at the scene, but were unable to locate the men as they didn’t know what the men looked like.

Alice Heath, JCR President said, “Security is definitely not a general problem at Univ – we have keypads on every external and internal door, the gates to Logic Lane are locked at 7pm and our porters are extremely vigilant and trusted by everyone in college. I’ve never had anyone report any worries about security at Univ.”

A student is pioneering what is believed to be Oxford’s first pop-up restaurant. Lara Tyrrell, an MPhil student at Merton, launched the idea in an attempt to make as much money as possible from a starting budget of £1.

A pop-up restaurant is one that appears to have been set up out of nowhere, and disappears as quickly as it arrives. Often established in people’s homes, Tyrrell has located hers in Merton MCR, holding two events, one last Sunday, and a grand closing, to be held on Saturday.

Another reason for setting up the restaurant was to promote the value of using local produce. “The main point of this is to show to students that there are better food options in Oxford [than the supermarkets].

“Even if you bought the exact same list of items in the Covered Market as at Sainsbury’s, your carbon footprint would decrease dramatically.”

As with many such restaurants, guests pay an amount they deem appropriate. Last Sunday, Tyrrell raised £155.

Xchanging PLC, a global business re-invention company, is to become the first title sponsor of the 156th annual Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race next April.

The new event logo, visible along the Putney-Mortlake course, will feature Xchanging’s brand. The Race has been drawing increasing audience figures, with 153 countries screening the event in 2009.

The 2010 Xchanging Boat Race commences at 16.30 BST on Saturday, 3rd April.

Enterprising students have been putting their skills to the test in an ice cream selling competition.

As part of the Oxford Entrepreneurs’ “OxPrentice” series, competitors in the G&D’s Challenge were asked to come up with a flavour of ice cream and pitch it to a panel of experts. At the end of 6th week, the best two flavours were made, and the ice cream that sold the most was declared the winner.

The two teams went head to head with flavours “Jaffaholic”, made of jaffa cake chunks soaked in cointreau, and a festive ice cream which contained chunks of gingerbread and white chocolate.

Thirteen tubs of each ice cream were produced and distributed to the three G&D’s shops around Oxford. The ice cream went on sale at noon on Friday of 6th, and the winner was the flavour which sold out first, or which had sold the most by midnight on Monday. Both teams were given a budget of £200 for ingredients and £100 for marketing.

The winning flavour was Jaffaholic, which triumphed by a margin of just half a tub.

Ushma Soneji, Hertford College, from the Jaffaholic team said, “We came up with the idea because we wanted something that hadn’t been done before, but would work well with the other flavours available at G&D’s so it could realistically become a long term regular flavour.”

Suzanne Winder, a Hertford graduate, and also on the winning team said, “We had the brainstorming on Wednesday when the idea was chosen, the ice cream was made on Thursday while we got our strategy together (fitted around work), it went on sale Friday lunchtime and I spent most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday entirely focussed on telling everyone about my flavour and letting them taste it. We weren’t really warned about how quick the challenge would be, we just had to get on with it.”

Tom Corcoran, manager of the St. Aldate’s G&D’s, said, “One of the things we were looking for in the competition was that they had to be able to source local ingredients. It was partly because that’s what we prefer to do wherever possible, but also it ensures for us that if the competition was running on Wednesday, as it was, we could guarantee that we could have the ice cream on sale on Friday.

“We could literally go to the same places that they’d sourced the products giving us the prices, everything we needed to know, so it made it very straightforward for us to then go out and make their flavour as they wanted it to appear.”

Hayato Maedo, OxPrentice director, commented, “I’m delighted with the event. We managed to hold a really cool event, the companies were pleased with the outcome, the feedback from the participants was (I think) the best we’ve ever had (averaging in the region of 9 out of 10) and what’s more, one of the winning teams managed to get onto BBC Oxford radio to talk about their flavour.”

Corcoran added, “We were very impressed with the quality of the flavour ideas they came up with and they were quite diverse. Both of the two finalists flavours were fantastic and we promised that we would repeat the winning flavour throughout the course of the year anyway but in actual fact I would be very keen to produce both of the flavours and they will probably be a flavour on and off throughout the year and probably for a few years to come as well.”

Other entrants included Super G, an energy ice cream which was targeted at sports teams and gym enthusiasts, and Banoffee Crunch and Nostalgic Nana, an ice cream based on the banana flavoured sweets from the 1980s.

The panel of experts was made up of managers from G&D’s, the marketing firm Purple Frog, and a marketing representative from Nestle.

Jordan Poulton, President of the Oxford Entrepreneurs, explained the motivation behind

the competition, “We want to help people learn business skills by testing themselves in a risk-free environment. They don’t have to invest any money, only some time, and they get the chance to prove their abilities in real life entrepreneurial scenarios. We have a number of events lined up for the year, and we also have an iPhone App under development at the moment from the previous OxPrentice challenge.”