The committee set up to review sports provision in Oxford has this week announced a near doubling of the funding for sports within the University.

It also proposes greater coordination between the University and colleges, which should save colleges money.

The funding increase would be achieved by an increase in the college levy. Colleges currently contribute £150,000 per year to sports facilities, but since 1966 this has fallen behind inflation. The report recommends that £30 million be raised to develop the sports facilities at Iffley road.

The report heavily criticised the current state of sports provision in Oxford. “Facilities for sport at Oxford are seriously inadequate for modern requirements in terms of quality, quantity and r

ange of activities covered.”

Oxford did not compare well with its peer universities in terms of sports provision. There was also concern on the over-provision for team sports at college level. The cost to individual colleges per game of team sport such as rugby can be up to £900.

While welcoming increased funding for sports in principle, OUSU has struck out at a part of the report which appears to suggest that if funding for the Iffley Road development cannot be met through donations and other fundraising, it should be covered by introducing a charge to all students.

The report states that the £30 million needed for the Iffley Road plans could be covered by borrowing the money. This would lead to £3 million per year interest, which could be covered by a charge of £150 per year to each student. A motion passed unanimously at OUSU Council on Wednesday opposed “the possibility of a regressive per capita levy on individual students of £150 per year for the next 30 years.”

Jonny Medland, OUSU VP for AcAff commented, “Broadly speaking the review has come back with excellent conclusions. There’s a definite need to improve sports facilities at Oxford… Sport is an integral part of student life at Oxford and anything which improves the student experience in this way is a good thing.”

His concerns lay with the principle of charging students for improvements to facilities. “Even if this is the worst-case scenario for funding the project, it’s important that we say now that the costs of the project shouldn’t be charged to students in this way.”

A spokesperson from Oxford University stated that, “The mention of tuition fees and a £150 levy within this report was illustrative of the maximum per capita cost of funding a new sports complex. It is there to give a sense of scale and context. It was certainly not a proposal.”

Oxford students are organising a book-burning protest over the contents of this year’s Oxford and Cambridge Careers Handbook.

The handbook, published jointly by the Oxford University Students’ Union (OUSU) and the Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU), carries adverts for careers in arms manufacture and tobacco companies. It includes a whole chapter on “Technology and Security” where students can discover how to get a job manufacturing missiles for MBDA and SELEX Galileo, as well as advertisements for British American Tobacco, and the Freemasons.

The handbook arrived in the college pigeon-holes of final year students last week.

The protesting students plan to burn a pile of the hefty 420-page books on Port Meadow next week in a dramatic and eye-catching demonstration against the focus on limited and traditional career paths. The organisers claim that “according to the Oxford and Cambridge careers guide your only job options are banking, arms, oil and freemasonry.” The banking section is the longest in the handbook, with 30 companies featured; the chapter on alternative careers features only five. There are no featured companies in the charitable sector.

Lewis Goodall, a student at St John’s College who set up the protest said, “The careers book is utterly skewed towards certain, altogether unpleasant industries. To look at the pages of the guide anyone would think our career options can only possibly involve corporate law, Shell and various arms companies. We want to protest to make the editors think twice about their content next year, and have a more diversified provision.”

Oxford students regularly receive invitations for drinks and dinner from banks, accountancy firms, and Magic Circle Law firms. Ben Lyons, a second year at St. Catherine’s College, commented, “OUSU should be making clear to us that we’ve got a bigger choice than KPMG vs. Freshfields when we graduate. While these careers are not to be disparaged, handbooks and careers fairs should be highlighting more socially useful professions.”

The inclusion of some of the companies in the handbook is even more controversial as it seems to conflict with OUSU’s socially responsible investment policy. OUSU has been lobbying the University to invest exclusively in ethically responsible companies. The handbook does not make it clear that all the companies featured paid to be included.

OUSU Environment and Ethics officer Daniel Lowe explained that the publication was produced by a contractor, with little input from the student body. He promised that next year’s handbook would be more diverse, saying “OUSU did not have the level of control desired in the production process, but we will ensure that members of the executive will have far more control from now on.”

Despite the support for the motivation behind the protester, there is scepticism that burning wads of chemically-loaded glossy paper is a good idea. Lyons said, “It’s not smart to go down such a historically loaded avenue as book-burning and it’s not environmentally responsible to burn thousands of sheets of glossy paper, even if the point they’re making is a good one.”

Lowe claimed the protest was pointless. “I see little point in a protest when those in charge have already recognised the problem and promised to do something about it. Port Meadow is a site of special scientific interest and the fragile ecosystem is likely to be badly damaged.” OUSU hold an annual “Beyond Profit” careers fair in Hilary term.

Under pressure from student-led activism, lecturers in Oxford and other universities across the country will be turning over their usual timetables next week to devote teaching time to climate change.

The plans are a way of raising awareness before the UN’s climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

Oxford University will be taking part in a national climate change awareness campaign initiated by the Campaign Against Climate Change, backed by the national University and College Union, over 50 top academics, 5 Oxford JCRs and OUSU’s Environment and Ethics Committee.

A series of lectures, talks and debates will be taking place throughout 8th week on the subject, including a debate:  “Is the University Doing Enough in the face of Climate Catastrophe”, a talk by eminent philosopher, John Broome on “The Ethics of Climate Change” and a lecture to be given by the head of Oxford’s Climate Dynamics department, Myles Allen.

Much of the week’s activity, however, will be focused on the 1st December, when lecturers from a number of departments around the University will turn over the content of their ordinary lectures to climate change.

Although negotiations are ongoing between Oxford Education against climate change, a pressure group of mostly undergraduate students, and departments across the University, lecturers in Physics, Earth Sciences, PPE and Philosophy have already committed to give over teaching time to the cause.

The Physics department has pledged to dedicate the last ten minutes of every lecture given in 8th week to discussion of climate change, while the Earth Sciences department has given a similar pledge.

Sophie Rimington-Pounder, a second year Physics student said, “I think it’s a good idea – it promotes a crucial aspect to today’s science, as long as it is more relevant to the scientific aspect of climate change and not completely politically charged.”

However, a Physics student from Magdalen was less supportive: “I think raising awareness is a good thing, but I’d be disappointed if it takes time away from actually teaching my course. I’m not sure whether talking for ten minutes to a group of people who don’t really want to be there is the best way of promoting any cause, even a worthwhile one.”

Political Theory and Utilitarianism lecturers have also agreed to devote time to the subject on the 1st and throughout the week, and various PPE lectures on the 1st are being modified with climate change in mind.

Mike Webb, a second year PPE student from Balliol will be attending the Political Theory lecture and argues that climate change poses many questions for the political theorist about the role of government. “Some of the world’s most eminent political philosophers, such as Michael Sandal, John Broome and Amartya Sen, are thinking and writing about these questions, so I for one am looking forward to hearing what Stuart White, the lecturer, has to say on the subject.”

Other departments involved include the International Development Department, which held a series of evening lectures this week including “Climate change refugees: What’s all the fuss about?” and will also be turning over its timetable on Tuesday 1st.

Jake Colman, a 3rd year Physics student at St. Peter’s involved in pressuring departments to take action explained the initiative, “These actions mark the beginning of a long-term campaign both to activate students in the struggle against climate change and to challenge the current conception of education as something decided upon from above…with Climate Change already thought to be killing about 300,000 people a year and rising fast, we currently face a threat to humanity itself. [The UN Climate Conference in] Copenhagen will not provide the answers we need. The solution doesn’t simply lie with our leaders, who are driven by economic and political interest – it lies with us.”

Another Oxford student involved, Amy Gilligan argued, “So far the responses to the impending catastrophe of climate change that are visible in the UK’s educational institutions are feeble. In subjects like Physics, Economics and Geography isolated courses on climate change are taught, but we lack the integration at every level, with every subject and at every age group that is necessary for the kind of widespread consciousness that we need.”

The week’s national activities will culminate in students around the country joining “The Wave” in London – set to be the largest climate change demonstration hitherto staged in the capital.

Lady Margaret Hall is introducing a variety of new measures to improve welfare facilities available to students.

This follows concerns that current mental health provision, both at the college and across the University, has not been reaching out to the most vulnerable, after the suicides of two students in the last year.

Karen Clarke, JCR Female Welfare Officer, said, “People involved with welfare throughout the college, from the JCR up to the top of the SCR, are concerned about certain members of the college becoming isolated and so we are generally seeking to make college life and all welfare facilities open to all.”

A new mentoring system has been put in place in order to help Freshers tackle t

heir work and a new academic feedback system has been introduced.

Clarke said the mentoring system should help “limit unnecessary stress” and the feedback system should prevent academic problems going unnoticed and “highlight to the college the areas that really need the most improvement.” However, she stresses that these are simply improvements to what is a “well-respected welfare system” already.

LMH is planning a series of anxiety support workshops, primarily targeted at finalists but open to anyone. Yoga classes, which were previously only available to the MCR, are now available for the JCR “as a means of relaxation but also as a form of welfare activity that would be more accessible for students with problems such as negative body image or disordered eating.”

Clarke added that LMH is further keen to encourage students to become involved in extracurricular activities.

The Welfare team are also promoting safer drinking amongst students. The Senior Tutor Dr Fiona Spensley would like to introduce non-alcoholic nights at the college bar and the JCR is organising a quiz on the effects of alcohol.

LMH is placing more emphasis on the college parent system and Clarke notes that many Freshers involved in the swine flu “buddy” system are now generally checking up on each other’s well-being.

Clarke added, “Overall, as a college we’ve been working incredibly hard to ensure that any necessary measures to ensure the welfare of students at LMH are put into place effectively. In high pressure environments like Oxford it’s far too easy for students to ‘get lost in the system’ and find that, for whatever reason, they feel insufficiently supported or don’t know where to turn.”

One LMH student commented, “I think welfare provisions in college are already good, but any changes or improvements are of course welcome.”

Students who feel depressed or anxious can contact their Welfare Officers, Peer Supporters or Nightline on 01865 270270 for support.