The Oxford Union is in serious financial jeopardy following a backlog of financial mismanagement and a loss of sponsorship.

The accounts of the Oxford Union have shown that were membership or sponsorship to fall, the Society would have insufficient funds to cover its costs for a year.

A backlog of missed targets has resulted in the financial difficulties. In the year leading up to June 2007, the Society lost 18,000. Last year saw only 16,000 of the £20,000 target being raised.

In 2003, its losses totalled £100,000.
One Union spokesperson attributed the losses to “unforeseen maintenance costs”.

However, they are part of a wider problem that the Union faces in getting sponsorship to help fund its yearly expenditure, which in 2007 was over £687,000.
Several committee members have blamed the termly changeover of Treasurer for leading to a purely short-term focus to the Union finances.

Current Treasurer James Langman criticised the “lack of long-term planning on the part of past treasurers”, whilst an anonymous member of the Union has stated that treasurers have purely used the position of Treasurer as a necessary step in the career in the Union.

One committee member said of Roche, who raised less than £1,000 in sponsorship during his time in office and fell well short of the Hilary target of £8,000, that he “didn’t give two figs about the finances, he just wanted to be President”.

Union sponsorship is usually arranged by each Treasurer on a termly basis, and there is currently no on-going sponsorship that might secure the Union finances long term.

The Union’s Bursar, Lindsey Warne, admitted that the situation was not ideal, stating that “in a perfect world, sponsorship would be on-going but most has just been for a term or two”.

Langman, who has so far raised £8,150 in his term and thus exceeded the Hilary target of £8000, has nevertheless expressed fears about the Union’s long-term financial security, stating that “It is one of the things we are quite worried about”.

Warne stated that “it is harder now to find sponsors, when it has already been increasingly difficult over the last few years due to competition”.

Langman reiterated this, adding that the recession had “massively” affected this term’s drive for funding and that attracting sponsors had become “very tough”.
He stated that sponsorship this term had been secured “substantially due to personal contacts”.

He added that competition with other University societies had contributed to the difficulties, saying, “the treasurers in the future are going to have to work harder than treasurer have worked in the past few years, particularly because of the competition that we are facing with other societies. Law Soc, in particular, now attracts more sponsors.”

Due to a backlog of financial failings, the Union’s reserves would be unable to cover its costs if membership and sponsorship were both to fall significantly or if continued to lose money as in 2003.

The Union only owns about one third of its buildings, the rest being owned by the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust (OLDUT), a charitable organisation set up in the 1970’s to ensure that the buildings would be saved even if the Oxford Union Society went bankrupt.

OLDUT now sporadically offers grants to the society to help with its running, and in 2005, they paid for building works in the Union library.

Langman stated that the trust is essential to the financial health of the Union, stating that the this year, “there was a small surplus, but only due to a grant from OLDUT”.

However, as it is a charitable trust, OLDUT will only give the Union money for projects that coincide with its objectives, for example the upkeep of the library. They do not fund social events.

Lindsey Warne said that “we are doing everything we can to make sure that the Union doesn’t lose money again”.

Langman explained that the Union has set up an alumni scheme to get donations from ex-presidents, which he stated “should hopefully raise some money”, despite a previous bursar’s destruction of about ten year’s worth of records meaning that the society is “losing out on quite a few people”.

Langman has also had plans approved to form a business team that will operate in a similar way to that of OUSU. He plans to recruit a team of Union members who will work to raise sponsorship over the Easter holiday.

The volunteers will receive commission on any funds that they raise that exceed £20,000.

The Society has also been forced to increase its membership fees, which have risen from £168 to £178 in two years.

The Access Scheme, which is supposed to offer students receiving a full maintenance grant a reduced membership under £100, has been pushed up to £99.

Some students have expressed anger at the rise, suggesting that increased fees would deter future members.
James Maclaine, a Union member and graduate of Lady Margaret Hall college said,

“if I could start my time at Oxford again, I wouldn’t join the Union. I spent so much money on membership and I just didn’t go enough to make it worth it. I bet if membership goes up any more, fewer and fewer people will join”.

Two firms involved in Oxford University’s animal testing laboratory withdrew from the project after an aggressive and threatening campaign by animal activists, a court heard today.

Oxford University Vice-Chancellor John Hood, speaking at the trial of animal rights activist Mel Broughton, told the jury that the then contractor Montpelier had suffered damage to “various assets of the company.” He said that members of animal rights group SPEAK were encouraged to carry out attacks and the company “felt they could no longer fulfil their obligations” as a result of the intimidation.

Broughton, who the prosecution say is the spokesperson for SPEAK, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court in connection with arson attacks to university property in 2006 and 2007.

He is charged on the two counts of conspiracy to commit arson and being in possession of an article with intent to destroy University property.

He denies both charges, relating to a fire that caused £13,000 worth of damage to Queen’s College sports pavilion in November 2006 and explosive devices discovered in the grounds of Templeton College in February 2007.

The head groundsman at Templeton College, told the court that he found the devices under an area of portacabins on the college site.

He had been informed earlier that morning by a colleague that a notice had been posted on the website Bite Back, run by the Animal Liberation Front, mentioning that an attack on the Oxford college was being planned.

He later discovered what seemed to be petrol bombs underneath the portacabins. He called the police, who summoned an army bomb disposal unit to secure the area.

The prosecution say that Broughton’s DNA was found on the incendiary devices planted in the 37 acre site and that sparklers used to construct the fuses of the device were found in the bathroom of his Northampton house.

The prosecution added that whilst they “respected his right to hold a firm opinion” on the matter of animal testing, they had “no respect for those who resort to terror and intimidation” to make their views known.

Broughton has a previous conviction for being in possession of an incendiary device to be planted in the name of animal rights.

A crowd of protesters surrounded the BBC Oxford Studios to express their anger at the broadcaster’s refusal to air an aid appeal for Gaza.

More than 100 demonstrators gathered on Sunday night, followed by a smaller protest the next day. Protesters, both students and locals, chanted “BBC, shame on you!” and waved banners reading “Bloody Biased Corporation.”

The BBC has declined to broadcast an appeal by Disasters Emergency Committee to raise money for injured or homeless people in Gaza as they believe it will compromise the impartiality of their reporting.

Amy Gilligan, a student at Exeter College, said she had joined the protest as part of a wider demonstration against the BBC, “people in London today were standing outside of the BBC studios burning their TV licences because people aren’t willing to put up with the… unwillingness to aid a humanitarian cause any more.”

She accused the broadcaster of “bias broadcasting of the conflict.” She added, “so much more air time is given to the Israeli side of the story.”

A spokesperson for the BBC said, “the BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.”

Protest organiser, Tony Richardson of the Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign (OPSC), said that there were “quite a few students present” at the protest. He said, “the local PSC works quite closely with students… We were all together outside the Bodleian arguing the same thing.”

Dominic Williams from St. Catherine’s college said that the protest in Oxford would “make people think about the campaign.” He said that it was important that the BBC showed the appeal because “lots of people watch the BBC and it would raise a lot of money.”

He stressed that it was “a humanitarian appeal” because “people in Gaza need aid.”

He argued that in an effort to show an equal representation of the conflict, the BBC had not properly emphasised the plight of people living in Gaza.

Russell Ingis, a postgrad at St. Hughes, said “we all feel that this decision represents a total failure of compassion and a total lack of humanity.”

The police were present but said they were not expecting any violence.

A major fire broke out at Hertford College accommodation in the early hours of Tuesday morning, causing considerable damage to college property, and forcing the emergency evacuation of nearly 100 students.

The blaze is thought to have originated at around 4.15am in a waste bin on the public right of way between The Head of the River pub and the Geoffrey Warnock House accommodation on St Aldate’s.

The fire soon spread to the outside of Warnock House, at which stage the emergency services were alerted.
Police began evacuating students from the smoke-filled building, moving them to temporary shelter at the College’s Graduate Centre building on the other side of Folly Bridge.

By the time three fire engines arrived, the fire had broken the windows of the first and second floors.

A nearby gas main that ran under the bins was ruptured by the heat of the blaze. A specialist team from the Gas Board was called to shut off the supply immediately in order to prevent an explosion.

Students were allowed back into the building at 7.45am.
John Nixon, Incident Commander for Oxfordshire Fire Service, said that it was fortunate that the students were alerted by the building’s smoke alarms and able to evacuate the building so quickly.

He said, “this particular incident is an example of what potentially could have been a serious fire, if the county council’s Fire and Rescue Service had not attended so promptly.”

Police originally expressed suspicions that the fire had started as a result of an arson attack, but they have now ruled out the possibility of the fire being started deliberately.

Sergeant Russel Simpson from Oxford CID said, “we are now satisfied that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the cause of the fire at the property and that the fire was not started deliberately.

“Four student rooms have been damaged by the fire and the students have been moved to a house on Banbury Road on a temporary basis.

One fourth year who lives in the damaged accommodation said, “the police were suspicious of arson but no one saw any one hanging around” and added she believed the fire had most likely been caused by a cigarette butt that had been thrown into the waste bin before being properly extinguished.

Hertord student, Josef Sadowski alerted the emergency services after seeing that “One of the big wheely bins was on fire and the other was beginning to catch light” below his bedroom window.

He explained that by the time he had called dialed 999, his room was “thick with smoke”. He went on to stress the danger of the College’s frequent “false alarms” that mean that “people don’t always respond”, adding that we had to “make it clear that this was not a drill”.

Various members of the College authorities and the student body have praised the actions of the emergency services.

Simon Lloyd, the College Bursar, stressed how much more serious the incident could have been, and thanked the emergency services for responding so quickly. He said, “the college is grateful for the quick response of the emergency services as this incident could have been more serious”.

William Hartshorn, Hertford’s JCR president, reiterated the college’s gratitude to the emergency services and extended thanks to the members of the college who quickly raised the alarm.

He added that the JCR was working to avoid any unnecessary disruption to the student body caused by the forced relocation.