A celebration held by Dutch students at University College has been condemned as “racially insensitive, and arguably racist” by prominent members of the MCR.

Both the Vice-President and Treasurer of University College’s MCR have condemned the celebration and attacked the “endemic apathy towards racism in the Oxford community.”

Micaela Owusu, the MCR treasurer, wrote an open letter to the college, condemning the “Zwarte Piet” celebration which was held in the college at the end of last November.

Owusu has stated that she saw two students in black face make-up sitting within a crowd of students to mark the Dutch holiday celebration.

Traditionally, the “Zwarte Piet” feast is held on the 5th of December in Holland and celebrates “Black Peter” as the companion of St. Nicholas. It has frequently involved “blacking up” in imitation of the character.

Owusu stated that as “one of a literal handful of black students at University College” she felt “extremely isolated and targeted in such a scenario.”

She went on to state that the issue was not one of political correctness but the fundamental question of what should be acceptable in college common spaces. She said, “beyond the morality of partaking in a racially insensitive (and arguably racist) celebration, I question why such an event is deemed suitable for a University common space.

“This is not a matter of political correctness, but a matter of fact that SEVERAL students felt unwelcome, uncomfortable, and/or discriminated against in our common room.”

The organisers of the event have since apologised to Owusu and other potentially offended parties. They stated that they “express their sincere apology for having been the sender of hurtful expressions”.

They explained that they “find an apology to be a very meaningful expression in itself, furthering awareness in both the sender and the recipient.”

In return, Owusu responded via email saying, “I do very much appreciate the strides that the Dutch society has made to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.”

She added though “these issues should never come to this point – a single student should not have to fight to demonstrate that she or he is also a face of the university.

“Ultimately, as I stated in my original emails, my reaction to the “incident” was really not so much about me, but about people who may not feel as comfortable as I do in pointing out the egregious nature of the incidents that are continually occurring in our university spaces.”

The Dutch students have also resolved to cease using make-up to depict “Black Peter” by wearing black make-up and will instead depict “whimsical characters of various rainbow colours”.

However, several students within University College have defended the actions of the Dutch Society and denied that such actions should be thought of as racist.

One student who defined himself as from an “ethnic minority” spoke out to support the celebration saying, “I don’t think this is an example of racism at all. It’s part of the national culture in Holland which is one of the most liberal countries. I’m an ethnic minority student and I’m completely fine with this.”

Jim O’Connell, a second year PPEist, called the event an “unfortunate cultural misunderstanding” and denied that the college was turning a blind eye to racist activities. He said, “I think it is an unfortunate cultural misunderstanding. There is certainly no institutional racism at Univ, and a few bad apples aside, no widespread culture of prejudice at the University”.

He also stated that a forum on the subject of political correctness organised by the college’s PPE Society will be held at the end of first week.

He explained, “we thought that in the wake of recent events it would be appropriate to start our Beverage Soc speaker series with a discussion forum on political correctness. I don’t think Univ is a racist college at all but I think it is important for us to have a mature debate about ourselves and ask the question: how far is too far?”

Oxford University has won the World Universities Debating Championships, held in Cork, Ireland. The team of two students beat 304 other competing teams to win the prestigious Sam Maguire trophy.

James Dray and Will Jones formed the ‘Oxford A’ team and beat others from Harvard, Melbourne and other internationally prestigious universities.

The motion they debated was “this house would ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy” and Oxford were in opposition. 15 minutes preparation time was given and each of the eight contenders had a seven minute speech. Oxford’s speeches were based on the argument that abortion can be self-defence and can prevent long term problems for mothers. Jones said, “the subject as was extremely sensitive and very close to the bone.” He noted, “there were no women in the final so it was eight men debating about abortion. I was personally very happy not arguing to ban abortion.”

The convener of the debate, Art Ward, said on the subject, “we obviously need a contentious issue that will divide a room for the basis of good debates. Everyone was happy to debate abortion and I think they did the subject justice.”

The final debate was held on 3rd January between four teams. Another Oxford team, the ‘Cs’ took part in the final, along with the Harvard As and Monash Bs. After a two hour deliberation, the judges voted in favour of Oxford 5-4. Jones said the final “was very very hard. The Australian team were a bit nasty but we got lucky. The two hour judging proves that this was by no means an easy victory.”

James Dray is studying for a doctorate in politics at Mansfield College. He said, “we are both very happy and also quite relieved. It was really close and the others did really well. The event itself was extremely stressful and scary.”

Will Jones studies politics at Balliol. He said of the competition, “I had forgotten just how exhausting and stressful debating is. But it was also very enjoyable in a masochistic way.

Ward said of the two debaters, “I saw them lose in the finals two years ago and now they have come back and proven their position as one of the better teams in the world. The guys are known on the circuit and are good characters. Other universities don’t want to face them in debates to a scary degree.”

The competition was held at University College Cork. It consisted of nine preliminary rounds over three days with 1,000 contestants from 40 countries. At times, 78 debates were running simultaneously. Each win accumulated points and the 32 highest ranked teams entered a knockout final. Jones said, “The event was phenomenally well organised and we are very grateful to University College.” Dray added, “the only issue we had was that Ireland was so cold.”

Both students are also the current European champions and saw this as their last competition. Dray noted, “I’m definitely going to the next one to watch it. I’ve also been invited to be deputy-chief adjudicator in the 2011 competition, but no, I’m not doing the debating again. This has been my last proper debate.” Jones agreed and added, “Instead, I’m going to continue coaching the Scottish national team and do more coaching in schools. I have had a wonderful experience doing this and have made some good friends.”

Oxford debating is run by a sub-committee of the Union. Its Chair of the Debating Selection Committee, Neil Dewar, coordinated the team. He said: “they have done very, very well. With the US, Canada, Australasia, East Europe and others involved in the competition there was a bigger pool of talent and lot more top end teams.” He added: “we are trying to get a trophy cabinet.” The two debaters were presented with a crystal trophy by the chief adjudicator.

Oxford has won the annual competition twice in a row now, winning last year’s final in Thailand. It is the second university ever to do this. Next year’s competition will take place at Koç University, Turkey.

Two Oxford students were among climate change activists who blockaded Stansted Airport during the early hours of the 8th December 2008. Lucie Kinchin, a second-year English student from Pembroke College, and Jonathan Leighton, a second-year Computer Scientist from St Anne’s College, took part in the protest against the government’s decision to allow the creation of a second runway at Stansted.

At 3am the 57 activists of the anti-aviation group Plane Stupid broke through the fence and onto the runway, which was closed for maintenance. According to one of the activists, Lily Kember, 21, the group used bolt cutters to cut their way through to 50 meters from the runway. They then chained themselves together on the runway and used security fencing in an attempt to create a “fort”. A spokeswoman said they planned to continue the blockade for as long as possible to prevent the runway from opening.

Although flights restarted at 8am, the protest caused the cancellation of numerous flights. Ryanair cancelled a total of 56 flights in and out of the airport. Passengers were told there was “limited availability” on all Ryanair flights for the next three days and that they should go home and re-book.

According to Plane Stupid, the disruption to flights would prevent “the release of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere”.

Jonathan Leighton justified the demonstration, arguing, “Stansted’s main business is in short-haul flights and these cause by far the most environmental damage per mile…and current government policy completely ignores the urgency of this issue.”

Lucie Kinchin said, “The decision on whether Heathrow will have a third runway is imminent, and it is moments like these in which people should be inspired to take action…Ours is the last generation capable of preventing catastrophic climate change, which is why I was a part of this action.”

However, the Society of British Aerospace Companies criticised the protest. Spokesman, Matthew Knowles, said: “These protesters are ignoring the reality around aviation and climate change. Flight numbers have increased at Stansted but noise nuisance around the airport has actually decreased and aircraft are 70% more fuel efficient than they were 50 years ago.”

Ryanair said it wanted an investigation “as to why the BAA Stansted security has once again failed to keep Stansted secure and open to the travelling public”.

However, Mark Davidson, a spokesman for Stansted Airport, refuted claims that the airport’s security was not adequate. He said Stansted’s fencing was acceptable for an airport. He added, “If there are any lessons to be learnt from this incident, we are more than happy to take them on.”

As for the protest itself, he said, “While we respect everyone’s right to protest, breaking the law is unacceptable and unnecessary. There are other different legal channels through which one can protest.”

Students have also disagreed with the way in which the protesters behaved. Ali Kyrke-Smith, a Worcester first-year, said, “Whilst I sympathise in part with their motives, I believe that such actions make their views look like those of extremists, marginalising people who might otherwise share them, and therefore I do not believe that such a protest is effective.”

A police spokesperson said 50 people were arrested for aggravated trespass, three for trying to enter a restricted area and four on conspiracy to commit a public nuisance.

Government announced plans for a National Internship Scheme to help graduates facing toughest job market in a generation.

John Denham, the Skills Secretary, said that the scheme would incorporate up to three months’ paid work experience. He revealed that four well-known companies, including Microsoft and Barclays, have agreed to take part.

While the internships will not pay a full salary, pay levels will be set slightly above the combined total that a student would earn in that time from a grant and a loan. This means that the interns’ income will not suffer.

The minister justified the scheme saying, “They [new graduates] will be a very big group. We can’t just leave people to fend for themselves.” He added that he hopes the placements will lead to permanent positions. He said, “At the end they will be more employable, and some of them will get jobs.”

The director of the Oxford University Careers Service, Jonathan Black, praised the scheme, “In general, it is a jolly good idea. It is better to be doing an internship rather than bar work. It is important to tackle long-term, young unemployment. It can blight an entire generation like in the 1980s.”

Similarly, students are positive about the government initiative. Anna Hill, a modern languages finalist at New College said, “The national intern scheme is a step in the right direction, as long as the participating graduates don’t get their hopes up too much about the possibility of permanent employment as a result.”

However, the scheme has not yet been confirmed. A Barclays spokesperson said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We are in on-going talks with the government. It is too early to sign anything yet. However, we look forward to exploring how any government initiative can be integrated with our own programmes.”

Some students think that the scheme will only help graduates in traditional ‘milkround’ industries. A St Anne’s finalist said, “I think people at Oxford are really split into two in terms of careers. Either they are into Law/Banks/Accountancies or they are really not.

I think this government programme will help people who want to go into these. I’m not really interested into going into these industries. I want to take a post-graduate course, but that decision hasn’t been affected by the credit crunch.”

In the ‘milkround’ industries, many gradates are facing a tough time. Paul Kavanagh, an Economics and Management finalist, despite a predicted first class degree has been rejected from several investment banking posts. He said, “From what I’ve experienced…everyone is finding getting a job in investment banking really difficult this year and given the number of applications to jobs being offered, unless you have had prior investment banking experience, such as an internship or close family connections in the industry…it’s really hard to secure a job, whereas any other year it would have been relatively easy.”

As a result, Kavanagh is applying for a Masters degree, even though it’s going to be a “financial struggle”. He admits, “The only reason I’m applying for a masters is because of the job situation. As I feel it’s better to do something constructive…rather than just wasting a year.”
Jonathan Black emphasizes that the competitive environment in the investment banking does not mean that the majority of undergraduates will be negatively affected.

He said, “There are clearly fewer jobs in the traditional sector. However, it is important to keep in mind that only 4% of our graduates go to work in investment banking. Only 100 students or so will have to think about different industries. For example, some retail companies have pockets expanding and will recruit for management.”

The consensus is that the credit crunch forces graduates to look beyond the financial industry. Another E&M finalist said, “I think now the economic crisis has made a lot of people look into other sectors or even post-grad study which they probably wouldn’t have considered before.”

Anna Hill added, “Despite so many negative effects, the credit crisis is certainly encouraging people to think of creative solutions and I think we could see an increase in entrepreneurship amongst graduates who are so often stereotyped as blissfully unaware of life outside of comfortable grad schemes.”