The porn mogul responsible for magazines such as ‘Hustler’ and ‘Barely Legal’ is to speak at the Oxford Union.

However, the inclusion of Larry Flynt in the society’s Hilary termcard has caused controversy. Women’s groups have previously accused Mr Flynt of exploitation.

His eponymous publishing house produces hardcore pornography and adult films, in addition to operating a chain of strip clubs.

The choice of Flynt also comes after accusations that the Union was “dumbing down” its choice of speakers and relying too heavily on celebrities – at the expense of intellectual heavyweights. The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Winston Churchill have previously visited the society.

One female first year student said, “we’re sending out the wrong message by inviting a sexist, exploitative person. He’s a symbol that women should stand against.”

But OUSU Vice President for Women, Rachel Cummings, refused to comment on Mr. Flynt’s invitation, citing her organisation’s ties to the Union.
President of the Oxford Union, Charlie Holt, defended the decision to invite Flynt, saying that he “has led a fascinating life, and one that the Union believes will be of interest to its members.”

“Whatever your views on the questions of pornography, public decency laws and censorship, the talk should be an interesting one.”

This view was supported by Union member Ross Evans, who argued that “it’s fair to give anyone a chance to speak at the Union and to give them the chance to support their views.”

Flynt has always courted publicity for his enterprises and as a campaigner for freedom of speech.

He recently applied to the U.S. government for financial aid to bailout the pornography industry during the credit crunch and hired a Sarah Palin look-alike for a pornographic film entitled Who’s Nailin’ Palin. His battles against censorship were dramatised in the Hollywood film The People vs. Larry Flynt.

He was first prosecuted on obscenity and organized crime charges in 1976 by a local anti-pornography committee. He was sentenced to seven to 25 years, although only served six days as the sentence was overturned on a technicality. He has recently sued his two nephews, Jimmy and Dustin Flynt, for producing what he considers inferior pornography and threatening to damage his reputation.

The shared student house of Nouri Verghese, the Oxford Union’s treasurer-elect, was broken into and burgled over the Christmas vacation.

The students returned in the new year to find the locks of their St Clements’ house had been broken. They entered to see that bicycles, clothes and televisions were missing. The stolen goods were worth an estimated £3000-4000. There have been no police charges for the burglary.

Last week one of the house’s windows was smashed in, and a few days later Verghese claims to have seen a man stalking around outside the property before leaving.

Verghese said he was “understandably feeling pretty pissed off.”
78 burglaries of shared accommodations in the Oxford area were reported to the Thames Valley Police over the winter vacation period.

Verghese advised other students living-out to “make sure all locks are good. If they’re not, change them or get your landlord to change them.”

A crime prevention adviser for the police service suggested that all students “take high-value goods home with them at the end of term.”

He also highlighted the importance of insurance for all properties, and recommended students to read over the terms of their policy.

“Most insurance companies specify that you must have a lock on your bedroom door, even if you are in a shared house.”

Student houses are widely believed to be more at risk of burglary than other properties, with one Home Office Report claiming that one in ten students in the UK had had their house broken into, and another that one in three students are at some point a victim of crime. “It’s no surprise…Students own more expensive goods per head than the rest of the population,” said the report.

Cabinet minister Geoff Hoon admitted last Saturday that he used a private tutoring company to help his teenage daughter’s Oxbridge application.

The Transport Secretary and former Minister of Defence confirmed that he took his daughter to a presentation by Oxbridge Applications, a private company which charges up to £3000 for the coaching of an individual student. He would not comment on whether he had paid for tuition.

Oxbridge Applications claims that applicants who receive its help are almost twice as likely to be offered a place at Oxford or Cambridge. Families who pay the £3000 charge give their child a 47% chance of admissions success, compared to the average of 26%, according to the company’s website.

Mr Hoon attended an ‘Interview Preparation Day’ along with his daughter, held at a private school in the West Midlands.

Hoon’s decision came to media attention when the father of another applicant noticed him at the meeting and wrote on the political website Guido Fawkes.

“‘As I waited for my son in the foyer, I was surprised to see Geoff Hoon sitting a couple of seats away from me. Labour Minister gives offspring an unfair advantage in applying to top university? Surely not!” He wrote.

The minister’s daughter attended a comprehensive school in Nottingham, and is currently on a gap year. Hoon himself was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, after having attended an private school on a scholarship.

Tories are now accusing the government of double standards following Gordon Brown’s proposed laws to increase social mobility and stop middle-class parents giving their children an ‘unfair advantage’ in education and the workplace.

“Time and time again we see double standards from Ministers. They want to change the rules to make it tougher for everyone else while enjoying all the perks for themselves and their families,” said Tory spokesman Chris Grayling.

New Labour has a history of MPs paying for their children’s education or tuition. In 2003 it was revealed that MP Diane Abbot had sent her son to a £10000-a-year private school, a decision she later described as ‘indefensible”, while in 2007 ex-education minister Ruth Kelly admitted enrolling her child in a £15000-a-year prep school.

Oxford University has revealed that it has lost more than £100 million as a result of the global economic recession. Over the course of the past year, investments in the University have fallen from £689 million to £593 million.

The University’s financial statement was published on the 12th January. It covered the period July 2007-July 2008 and exposed what the University has described as a “relatively modest decline” of 5.1 percent, from £688.6m to £653.5m.

However, an additional note covering the period up to October 2008 was also included “in order to meet interest in the impact of the more recent global financial downturn”. This note shows that the decline from July 2007 to October 2008 is much larger. It has fallen 14 percent, to £592.5m.

These figures do not cover the losses sustained by the individual colleges, or the £30 million in savings that have remained frozen in Icelandic bank accounts since the Icelandic banking collapse last October.

It is as of yet uncertain whether this will be returned to the University. A spokesperson commented that, “We’re still looking into whether that is lost money or not”

However, a University statement stressed the need to “put the drop in context” and compare it to the losses sustained by the rest of Britain’s equity market.

They said, “to put the drop in context, the average UK equity market fall from its peak has been in the order of 40%. Endowment returns account just 4.5% of the University’s overall income, so Oxford is much less exposed than many institutions to falls in equity markets.”

Another spokesperson also stressed the need to remember that Oxford has revealed more information than many other institutions. He said: “If Oxford is going to be compared to other institutions, it is necessary to remember that we have actually given out more information than a lot of universities. Most have only produced financial statements that end earlier in the year, whereas ours goes up to October.

“For example, if you compare our losses against what Cambridge lost, they have lost something in the region of 80 million over the period from July 2007-July 2008. We have lost slightly more than that but over a longer period.”

These setbacks come after Oxford embarked on a massive campaign for funding last year. This aimed to raise £1.25 billion to help the University compete with wealthy American rivals.

Among the projects university administrators hoped to fund were the development of the old Radcliffe Infirmary site and new buildings for the Bodleian.

At the time, University Vice-Chancellor John Hood stressed the importance of the drive for funding. He told his team that they “must significantly increase the University’s endowment.”

The University was unable to offer precise amount of money raised to date, but a spokesman claimed that the campaign was “still going well”. However, he declined to predict the effects that the economic downturn might have on the campaign’s future.

Research funding may be another victim of the credit crunch. A University statement declared that, “we are also alert to the fact that over the longer term the global downturn may well affect Oxford’s other sources of income, such as external research funding. Again, we will be monitoring the situation closely.”
As a result of the economic and funding downturn a push for an increase in the tuition fees may be made.

Last October, Oxford Vice-Chancellor John Hood stated that the “grave deficit” in the University’s accounts meant that a rise in top-up fees is “inevitable” if the quality of an Oxford education is to be maintained.

He was supported by Malcolm Grant, chairman of the Russell Group, who expressed support for the removal of the £3,000 cap on tuition top-up fees after a review in three years time.

The Government is about to begin reviewing whether the cap on student fees should be lifted to enable universities to charge “US-style” fees of up to £20,000 a year.

Huge dispariites between colleges for rewards for firsts in Mods and Prelims have been revealed.

St. John’s, Oxford’s wealthiest college, pays out £300 per annum to its scholars, whereas St Peter’s provides them with a mere £100 one-off payment.
Yet College wealth seems to bear little correlation to the generosity of prelim pay-outs. Harris Manchester and Pembroke – two of Oxford’s poorest colleges – give £150 and £300 each year respectively, whereas the far richer Magdalen hands out a comparable £200 annually. Regent’s Park, also one of Oxford’s less well-endowed, awards £250 per annum.

One English student from St Anne’s College said, “It just doens’t seem fair, i worked really hard and I get hardly anything compared to my friends at Christ Church.”

But more contentious, however, is the practice to let students with a First at Mods or Prelims go straight to the top of the second year room ballot. Merton, Christ Church and St Hilda’s all use this system.

Kirsty Smith, a maths student from Magdalen said on this, “while it’s not fair, that’s how Oxford works.” She added, “I don’t like that system. your room is such a massive part of your life, it’s your only living space”

Another student, Victoria Schindler, a fourth year classicist from St Hilda’s said, “No, I don’t think that’s fair. They should do that randomly. I don’t think that academic achievement should be rewarded in that way. It’s ridiculous – lots more people put in a lot more work for a 2:1.

The system is liable to cause resentment. It was definitely one of the reasons why I didn’t live in college in 3rd year”.

On being asked if rewards for Mods could influence people applying, a fourth year from Corpus said, “I don’t think people apply thinking they’re going to get a First in Mods.

“As for room ballots, it just leads to bad feeling. If its done on luck, people just say ‘oh well, tough times’ but if it’s done on academic achievement ,it leads to bad feeling between different groups of people.”

One student at St Anne’s College, where this is not the case with room ballots, commented that this custom breeds insecurity and paranoia. They said it means that one’s room becomes a “physical symbol” of what their college thinks of them. Thus if one ‘under-achieves’ a room serves to remind students what they might then see as a ‘failure’ on their part.

Other perks for scholars, for example at St. Anne’s and St. Peter’s College, include a yearly Scholar’s Dinner to celebrate their students’ achievements. Magdalen Scholars are even invited to eat venison culled from their own deer herd. Harris Manchester and Regent’s Park both lack such a tradition, as their smaller size means that only a handful would be eligible to attend. St Hugh’s includes free vacation residence and LMH asks their students to sign their names in a special Distinction holders book.

Brasenose college is facing thousands of pounds of damage after a fresher caused her ceiling to collapse, destroying two high-street shops and the room below.

The first year student returned from the Brasenose Christmas bop at Frevd’s and passed out in her bath with the tap running.

The bathroom was flooded to such an extent that the ceiling collapsed into a student’s room below her and the flooding then spread to the shops below.
The girl in question declined to comment.

One student, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out that it was lucky that no one had been hurt, as the girl who lives in the room below “wasn’t in the room at the time.”

The student explained how she heard of the chaos surrounding the flooding. “The ceiling was filled with water,” she said. “It flooded her bathroom.” She added that “there was structural damage to the room” below.

As a result of the flood, the high street shop Viyella, directly below the Brasenose accommodation, has been “closed until further notice” according to a sign in its window. Despite the fact that the Viyella company had been taken into administration, the Oxford branch was not due to cease trading yet.

A spokesperson for Viyella declined to comment on the flooding situation due to staffing shortgaes and administrative problems.

Dr. Giles Wiggs, the Dean of Brasenose college refused to comment on whether or not the student in question would be punished, stating that the college “cannot comment on individual cases.”

However, Brasenose’s “Blue Book,” which outlines the college’s disciplinary procedures, notes that the student must explain the circumstances of the event to the college authorities and that “if they are found to be responsible”, students must “meet the costs of making good to the satisfaction of the Domestic Bursar.”

Brasenose’s domestic bursar, Mel Parrott, was unable to comment on the exact cost of the flooding or confirm whether Brasenose’s insurance would cover the damage.

He said, “Brasenose college is insured against any damage. However, we are not aware of the full cost of the flooding. In terms of payment, we’re still under discussions with the owners of the shop and the insurance company.”

Brasenose’s JCR President Arvind Singhal declined to comment, saying, “those are matters which aren’t the JCR’s concern.”

Another member of the JCR committee, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that there had been extensive damage to the building and the shops below.