A strike which would have disrupted rail services through Oxford on Sunday has been called off.

 

Depot staff at First Great Western (FGW), which run the majority of trains from Oxford station, had voted by a three-to-one margin to strike over pay and working hours.

However, the action was called off after a deal was struck with FGW’s management.

  

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, explained the reasons for the dispute and congratulated his members on their unity.

 

"The vast majority of FGW engineering and cleaning staff were still being paid the flat hourly rate for their overtime, rather than the time-and-a-quarter enjoyed by other FGW staff, including train-crew and station staff," he said.

 

"Due to the steadfastness of members at FGW, these inequalities have been removed."

 

 

Leading Catholic figures including the Pope’s UK representative have entered the last minute fight to save Greyfriars Permanent Private Hall.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop, Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham have backed efforts to keep the PPH open with just weeks left before the 800-year-old friary is due to close to students.

A group of fellows, led by Penny Cookson, Greyfriars’ Academic Administrator, circulated a document on Tuesday called ‘An urgent plea for Greyfriars Hall’ to members of the Capuchin Order and leading Catholic newspapers.

It calls upon the Capuchin friars who own the Hall not to surrender the PPH’s licence at the end of June.

The Capuchin Governing Body of Greyfriars is accused of consistently refusing to respond to questions about alternatives to closure not just from fellows and lecturers but also from “the Holy See, the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and the Archbishop of Birmingham.”

The fellows claim that the Nuncio and Archbishop, along with Cardinal Walter Kasper, “expressed their strong disapproval at the possibility of Greyfriars closing and are totally supportive of the action we are taking to try to retain the licence and keep the Hall going” at a reception in Oxford on May 5.

The Governing Body, which has ultimate control over Greyfriars, is also accused of going back on a promise made in March 2007 to “cooperate with the fellows during the transition should they wish to carry on the Hall outside the Friary.”

Cookson and two other fellows set out plans in the letter to take in a new cohort of students in October 2009, with lecturers and fellows running the PPH. The Capuchins would retain the license for the Hall, but the document states that the fellows “would assume total financial responsibility for Greyfriars Hall.

This would thus release the Capuchin Province so that they could devote their time and resources exclusively to their ministry.”

A former Warden of Greyfriars, Revd Dr Tom Weinandy, who trebled student numbers during the 1990s, has agreed to head a new Governing Body that would oversee a revived Greyfriars.

The battle over the future of Greyfriars has been ongoing since the Capuchins publically announced they were to close the Hall last October, citing a lack of money and a shortage of friars. Arrangements were made to move current students to Regent’s Park, another PPH, and for the Hall to continue as a friary.

Since then, a number of plans to keep Greyfriars open to students have been drafted by Cookson and the group of fellows, but the Governing Body has continued with its plans to close at the end of June.
Barry Hudd, Communications Officer for the Capuchin Order, said that the original decision of the Order stood, and that the plans to continue Greyfriars were infeasible.

“We wanted to close Greyfriars and we are at liberty to do so,” he said. Referring to the plans for the fellows to completely take over running of the Hall, he stated that “we would not be allowed to enter into trusteeship of something we didn’t have total control over.”

He recognised that the fellows were able to approach the University with plans to obtain a license for a new college, but said that the current licence “is in termination and beyond the point of no return.”
Hudd said that when closure was being discussed in March 2007, the University had ruled out the possibility of a staggered closure over 3-4 years because the Hall would be left with unacceptably few students.

They had also said that ‘mothballing’ the licence so that plans could be made to resume teaching was also not possible.

He added, “I can assure you that the University wanted it closed as quickly as possible.”

He sought to downplay the significance of the closure, saying, “We’re not talking about the closure of Oxford University. It’s 20 students.”

The Apostolic Nuncio declined to comment, but the Archbishop of Birmingham has publically backed the plans to retain Greyfriars’ licence and secure a future for the PPH. In a statement, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols said, “I am anxious that every avenue be explored for continuing the use of Greyfriars’ licence, granted by Oxford University in 1957. I hope this can be done in a thorough manner before the date on which the licence is to be surrendered.”

The Archbishop has also written to Greyfriars’ Governing Body several times to arrange meetings with fellows to discuss the continuation of the PPH.

When asked why he thought the Governing Body was surrendering the licence, Peter Jennings, the Archbishop’s spokesman, said, “I wish we knew.”

Hudd responded to the Archbishop by saying, “whilst we understand their sentiments, they have not been privy to the wider picture which has been the subject of months of discussion and negotiation between the Capuchins and the University.”

Several leaders of the student body have also backed the final effort to keep Greyfriars open. Ellaine Gelman, JCR President from 2006-2007, wrote an open letter to the UK newspaper The Catholic Herald, saying that “my college of choice is closing and I am not going to watch it happen in silence.

“Papal Nuncio was quoted as saying ‘it was madness to close Greyfriars’, and I agree,” Gelman continued.

“Despite all of the given explanations, I simply can not understand why somebody would want to close an Oxford college that has provided a home and a place of study to so many students.”

The current President, Jonathan Hamal, said he was looking forward to moving to Regent’s Park and was thankful for their cooperation, but also agreed that “there’s a definite support for continuing Greyfriars in some shape or form, and for finding out why the Hall closed in the first place, the reasons for which remain slightly ambiguous.”

Sheridan Taylor, the current MCR President, said that the transition would be difficult. “It think lots of the students are pleased they are staying together, but moving from Greyfriars is a tremendous loss. Greyfriars is a special place. Losing the relationship with the friars will be hard,” she concluded.

Oxford University Press have said that they have no current plans to produce new print editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Juliet Evans, press representative of the OED, confirmed that work has begun on the next edition. This massive undertaking will be the first-ever revision of the entire work and is likely to take at least a decade.

A combination of the large amount of time required to revise the dictionary and the popularity of its online form have contributed to the University Press’s decision not to publish a new printed version in the near future.

Dr. Charlotte Brewer, a fellow of Hertford College, and expert on the OED, confirmed: “They started in 2000 in the middle of the alphabet with ‘M’, and after eight years they have reached part-way through the letter ‘Q’ – so it would be a bit premature to print just this slice of the alphabet.”

Extensive investment in OED online means that new additions and re-writings of the text are published immediately on the internet. Dr. Brewer  argued that  the OED’s expansion on the web “has immeasurably enriched the variety of data it deals with, especially since many historical texts are now available in this form.”

However the online updates have come under some criticism. Evans said, “This vast quantity of material has made life more complicated for OED, since it has enormously expanded their work-load – and new resources keep on coming online.”

Evans commented that, “A new print edition is hardly feasible until we have finished revising the text, which will take at least ten more years. However, we will consider any form of publication, including print, which will meet readers’ needs at the time.”

Dr. Brewer added, “There are lots of advantages to consulting OED online, since it is much quicker to look up a series of words, to cross-refer between words, and to interrogate the contents of the dictionary analytically.”

Since March 2000 there have been 33 quartely releases of new and revised material.

OUP also publishes the full OED on CD-ROM, and offers many other dictionaries of English in print and electronic forms, including the Shorter and Concise OEDs, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The dictionary has been in print continuously since its first publication in 1888. The current edition (first published in 20 volumes in 1989) continues to sell well.

The incoming Master of University College has has criticised the provision of library services in Oxford in a new report.

Sir Ivor Crewe compared the Bodleian’s services unfavourably with those at other universities such as Cambridge and LSE.

Crewe’s report, delivered to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), criticised “the combination of closed access (73% of the main collection) and very slow fetching times,”

A spokesperson for the University defended the library provisions, but admitted that the Bodleian suffers from a lack of funding. They said, “The Bodleian Library is widely agreed to be a world class library.

However, it does face significant funding challenges and we are active in raising money for the Library.”

Crewe has refused to elaborate on the data within the report, but referred to the figures for stack request speeds as indicative of his criticism.

In Cambridge, a stack request will take, on average, just 18 minutes, but in Oxford, the time can be anything between 114 minutes and three days for off-site books.

The University of London’s Senate House library and Manchester’s university library also far outperformed the Bodleian in this respect: average request times are just 25 and 20 minutes respectively.

The report also criticsed the percentage of Bodleian books available on open stacks. Oxford has about 2.4 million items on open stacks, about 27% of the total. While this is comparable to Cambridge, where the figure was 30%, other research libraries such as those of SOAS and UCL kept their entire collection on open stacks.

However, students have had mixed reactions to the report.

One first year historian from Hertford defended the Bod, saying that she thought, “two hours is pretty quick” for a stack request. But she added that she found it inconvenient that stack requests are limited to three per student.

Ally Paget, a classics student, also defended the speed of the Bodleian’s stack request service.

She said, “it is more important that there are enough staff in the Lower Reserve and the Bod itself to help you, rather than all of them being underground.”

Other students have complained about the opening hours of the libraries in Oxford. Both the Bodleian and Faculty libraries are closed on Sundays and are open only for a limited time on Saturdays.

In contrast, LSE’s British Library of Economic and Political Science is open 24 hours for the summer term, Crewe’s report states, and none of the research libraries it detailed had Saturday hours as short as Oxford’s.

Mike Heaney, the executive secretary of Oxford University Library Services (OULS), refused to comment on the report, saying that a press release would be ready soon.

Last November, Oxford City Council rejected the Bodleian’s plans to build a book depository at Osney Mead.

The depository would have been near the centre of the city and had a capacity of up to eight million volumes. Currently, the Bodleian is forced to use expensive, inaccessible storage space outside the city.

The council refused the plans because they claimed the depository would, “impact detrimentally on the historic views of, and across, the City skyline” and because it would form an “unacceptable and overlarge intrusion into the landscape.”

Oxford University has appealed against the council’s decision to veto the Bod’s plans. The case will be heard this July.

The university refused to comment on whether the rejection of the depository plan was detrimental to Oxford’s status as a world research centre, saying, that, as the council was yet to make a decision, “we will not be commenting on things related to [it]”.

Failed Union Presidential candidate Krishna Omkar has had his membership suspended for two terms for bringing a ‘frivolous’ and ‘malicious’ complaint over a poll he initiated.

The punishment, and a fine of £150, were handed down at a tribunal on Monday after Omkar accused a number of Union officials of improper conduct in a members’ poll.

The poll, held last week, was an attempt by Omkar to change electoral rules. Had it been successful, it would have allowed the ex-Treasurer to run for President again.

Current Union President Ben Tansey said, “Mr Omkar’s allegations against Mr Waldegrave, Mr Tryl and the Returning Officer were found to be on all accounts frivolous and not substantiated by any evidence, and the account against Mr Tryl in addition to being frivolous was also deemed to be malicious by the findings of the tribunal.”

Krishna Omkar’s complaint alleged that the actions of Waldegrave, Tryl and the Returning Officer resulted in a “badly conducted poll.”

“The Returning Officer admitted there were more votes in the box than there were voters, and there was clear first-hand testimony that some voters’ names had been struck off the roll without their having voted (which they discovered when they tried to vote)” he said.

Omkar added, “The other fact that this throws up is the blatant, in-your-face hypocrisy of Union politics. I was disqualified and banned for having a slate and a slate meeting – a slate meeting at which all six current officers of the Union were present.”

He also alleged that the use of slates in Union elections is a common practice.

“Emily [Partington, ex-Union President] admitted to having a slate when she was asked at the King and Country debate last term,” he said.

“Two weeks ago, Leo Marcus Wan and Charlie Holt admitted in Standing Committee to being on Josh Roche’s slate in last term’s election. Ed Waldegrave and Charlie Holt are both openly putting slates together for this term’s election. Yet all these people have constantly vilified me and told me that I deserved what I got. The point is that I have tried to change the rules, which are unfair – but I have been opposed by people who constantly break them, but do not want to change them as doing so would require an admission of guilt,” Omkar added.

He suggested that he has been made a scapegoat by Union opponents, saying, “I’m not the cheat. I’m not the bad guy. I’ve been made into one.”

The case originally came to light when a Union member went to vote in the poll and found that his name had already been crossed off the balloting list despite his not having voted. Krishna Omkar also claimed that some votes could not be accounted for and that this raised his suspicions as to whether the poll had been fixed, hence the subsequent tribunal.

Tom Glasspool, Returning Officer at the Oxford Union, said “Krishna originally brought allegations of malpractice against Waldegrave and Tryl, and of interference against the then Extraordinary Returning Officer during the poll. All of these were found to be either not guilty, or that there was no charge to answer.”

Initiating tribunals in the Union are extremely costly and can take many hours to conduct. It is alleged that the 18-hour tribunal on Monday cost the Union up to £1,000.

In an account of the proceedings Tom Glasspool said, “The tribunal began at 10am, ran until 5pm when Mr Omkar was excused due to a pressing dinner engagement which he said he absolutely could not miss. The panel allowed him to attend this. The tribunal then re-convened at 10pm, running until 7am. This meant that the panel of 3 stayed at the Randolph for 2 nights each rather than just one at the Union’s expense.

“A lot of people’s time and the Union’s money have gone into conducting tribunal proceedings which were deemed to be either malicious or frivolous, so once again infer from that what you will” he added.

Current President Ben Tansey commented, “There was very little evidence of malpractice […] given the chance to consider it [the change in ruling] there has been a concrete ‘no’ from Union members.”

Union member Rhiannon Ward commented, “It is a shame it ended so unpleasantly and even went to polling and a tribunal. He [Krishna] will be missed.”

Although Krishna is suspended for 2 terms from the date of the tribunal, until 4th week of Hilary 2009, he will be able to continue to be an ordinary member once the suspension has ended.

Union member Catherine Clark commented, “the worst thing is, he won’t get into the PT for free any more.”

Shoddy extension work, disregard for planning regulations, DIY electrics and slug infestations have caused students living out of college-owned accommodation to speak out against their living and study environments.

In some cases, landlords have ignored complaints of students or have attempted to placate them through promises of action, but have never resolved the problems.

A large number of students believe their landlords’ failure to act is based on the assumption that students do not care – or know – enough of their rights as tenants to “kick up a fuss.”

One second year mathematician described the state of his property – a Victorian terrace in Cowley – as “almost laughable, if we didn’t have to live in it.”

The building, which is listed as fit for human habitation on two stories only, possesses a damp, mouldy basement beneath the two externally visible floors, which is used for parties by its current occupants.

The student said, “a representative of the council visited the property last week. He asked me a number of questions, including how many floors we live on, whether our smoke alarms functioned, and who our estate agents were.

“He told me he was asking because ‘a lot of student houses in the area are not registered for habitation on the three stories they actually comprise’.”

Most Cowley Road properties feature a first floor bathroom, but in a large number of student houses this is situated at the back of the house, meaning there is no access to it other than through the kitchen, creating a sanitary minefield when toilet users return to the main living area.

The problem is not confined to the relatively cheap accommodation off the Cowley Road. In the pricey area of Jericho, four LMH students, who pay £420 per person per month to rent their three-storey terraced property, described their discomfort at having to access the bathroom through their narrow galley kitchen.

One of the students said, “The walls are paper-thin. It’s horrible when people want to use the loo when one of us is cooking; it really puts you off your food.

“And from what I can see, the waste water pipe runs right next to the mains supply for the kitchen tap. If there was to be some kind of leak, one of us could get seriously ill”.

Another living-out student in the second year, who did not want to be named, described modernisation work on his property as “patently unsafe”.

“New RSJ lintels [supporting masonry above windows and doors] have been inserted with only a centimetre or two overlap. Any erosion of brickwork would cause the whole structure to collapse.”

He continued, “all the electrics in the house were put in by our current landlord. Half the wall sockets don’t supply power when we plug appliances in, and a few make intermittent buzzing noises, even when switched off.”

A letting company were asked about a passage in the student’s tenancy agreement that requires “all electrical work carried out at the Premises [to be] carried out by an electrical contractor who is a member of an approved scheme under the Part P (Electrical Safety) Regulations 2003.”

They replied, “all our student properties must comply with the HMOs [the 2006 regulations governing Houses in Multiple Occupancy]. If they did not comply, we would not act as agents on them.”

In addition, fire safety regulations in numerous student properties have been poorly observed. Any building over two stories that is approved for rental as a house of multiple occupancy is required by law to have certain fire doors with self-closing devices.

None of the students contacted lived in accommodation that featured fire doors.

Even in the case of a loft conversion on Bullingdon Road, for which a fire door is required to be installed in order to protect the stairwell and maintain a fire escape route, students said that the self-closing mechanism had been cut to make everyday access easier.

In a house on Magdalen Road, students described their struggle to get their managing agents to deal with a ground floor slug infestation. A second year Wadhamite said, “I woke up one morning to find slug trails all over my jeans, which I had left on the floor. Since then they’ve been pestering us almost every night, but the agents haven’t been round. They told us to put slug pellets down, which haven’t worked, and now they tell us there’s nothing more we can do.”

A student on an adjoining street suffered the same problem. “I didn’t complain to my landlord, though. I thought he would laugh at it, considering that my other housemates were having far worse problems.
“One had a huge patch of mould along one wall when we first moved in, and the agents had to bring in a dehumidifier. It can’t be healthy.”

Slugs are not the only pests affecting students in the area. A group of six students living on Cowley’s Percy Street spoke of a spiders’ nest beneath their house, which was only destroyed after repeated complaints to the landlord.

In the same house, a leak from a first floor bathroom left a second year English student without a bed. “The man who owns the house seemed fairly sympathetic,” her housemate said, “but he didn’t come round to fix the shower, or stop the leak, for two days after we had complained. And as for the bed – he just told her to let it dry. She’s had to find somewhere else to sleep for the past few days.”

The housemate added, “the situation hasn’t really been resolved. The landlord told us that unless we dry ourselves completely before leaving the shower unit, the leak might re-occur. And the shower behaves pretty oddly – no tap in the house works when it’s on.”

In the less student-heavy district of Botley, a fourth year medic claimed that his landlord was blaming him and his housemates after amateur DIY caused a leak from an upstairs bathroom.

“The bath was oddly installed at a distance from the wall, and in the gap was a sloping row of tiles that we naturally leant on when getting into the bath, since the wall was far away.”

“The tiles were unfortunately not waterproofed, nor designed to take the weight of a person. However, we were not alerted to any of this by the landlord.

“Despite this, he has asked us to pay for damages caused by water seeping through the cracked tiles into the downstairs living area. We are still in negotiations.”

Another Oxford estate agent which owns an extensive portfolio of student properties, said that they were unable to comment.