The nominee for Oxford’s next Vice-Chancellor has been named as Professor Andrew Hamilton, the current Provost of Yale University.

Hamilton will become the 296th Vice-Chancellor when John Hood ends his five-year tenure in October 2009, if Congregation approves the decision made by the Nominating Committee.

He described the decision as “humbling” and “inspiring”.

Dons have suggested that there will be little opposition to the nomination and have largely welcomed the decision to back someone from an academic background – a departure from Hood’s nomination as a candidate with business credentials.

Hamilton is Benjamin Silliman Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale, in addition to his role as Provost. He has been recognised internationally for his academic achievements.

Nicholas Bamforth, a member of the University’s Council, said, “It is good to have a distinguished academic nominated for this post.”

A senior member of the University also approved the choice to opt for such a prominent academic. “I very much welcome the fact that Professor Hamilton is a distinguished academic as well as a successful University administrator,” he said.

However another professor has criticised the decision to ignore Oxford’s own candidates and again appoint a V-C from outside the University. He said, “He is clearly a man of ability in terms of academic stature, which is very different to Hood, but he has no connection with Oxford and this is quite clearly undesirable.”

He also claimed that the Nominating Committee, which is chaired by the Oxford Chancellor Lord Patten, was “determined to exclude” candidates from the University’s own academic body and to appoint an “outsider”. He claimed this marked a “continued and gratuitous support for Hood.”

He added that the nomination had been used for the ends of “internal politics”, with the consequence of ignoring candidates from within the University.

Despite this criticism the academic admitted that Congregation was unlikely to seriously challenge Hamilton’s appointment and that any likely opposition would be “small”.

Dons are now looking to the challenges Hamilton would face during his tenure and have suggested a number of key tasks he must tackle in order to lead the University to its future.

A senior academic said the new V-C would need to smooth over rifts between dons that have recently occurred. “His main task will be to heal the divisions on ‘Hoodism’ and ‘anti-Hoodism’ that has risen in the last few years,” he said.

Another member of the University expressed hope that Hamilton could adapt to the Oxford system and go ahead with reforms to the University.

“He comes here from North America where, unlike Oxford, the senior academic officers of universities are appointed rather than elected by their colleagues.

But he will surely have done his research by the time he arrives, and have understood that the most successful Vice-Chancellors have recognised that Oxford is much more like a partnership than like a business corporation, and have conducted themselves as ”primus inter pares” (first among equals) rather than Chief Executives.

“I hope he takes an open-minded look at Oxford and works with his colleagues to make the reforms that are urgently needed to increase the quality and value-for-money of the services provided by the administration,” he said.

Hamilton has been Provost of Yale since 2004 in which time he has lead a number of developments, including the acquisition of a new a 136-acre research campus.

Professor Hamilton announced the nomination in an email to colleagues at Yale on Tuesday. “I am enormously honoured and excited at the prospect of helping steward one of the great centres of scholarship in the world,” he wrote.

Hamilton is held in particularly high regard at Yale where both students and academics say he will be greatly missed.

The President of Yale, Richard Levin, said, “Andy Hamilton has led major initiatives to strengthen Yale in science, engineering, and medicine while at the same time enthusiastically supporting investments in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. He is a first-rate scholar, who is respected by his faculty colleagues as a wise academic leader.”

A comment on the website of Yale’s student newspaper, Yale Daily News, described Hamilton as “A great guy and a fantastic provost” and added, “Yale will certainly miss him.”

The Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten of Barnes, who chaired the Nominating Committee, said, “Andrew Hamilton’s remarkable combination of proven academic leadership and outstanding scholarly achievement makes him an exceptional choice to help guide us into the second decade of the twenty-first century.”

He added, “This is a particularly exciting time for Oxford and in Professor Hamilton we have someone with the experience and talent to help us take advantage of these opportunities.”

The current Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood, said, “I am delighted that Professor Hamilton has been nominated as the next Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, from Autumn 2009. I look forward very much to assisting him in any way I can to prepare for his new role.

“For my own part, I shall remain fully committed over the next sixteen months to the University it is my privilege to serve,” he added.

The Bod is to hold a ‘book amnesty’ next week to recover books inadvertently removed from reading rooms.

Students will be able to return books that they have taken from the Bodleian’s non-issuing libraries without incurring a penalty.

The amnesty will happen prior to the installation of new book detection systems at the entrance to the Upper Camera and Lower Camera reading rooms.

Most other libraries in Oxford have electronic tags that cause alarms to go off at the entrance if a person has taken a book out with them.

Vanessa Corrick, the Deputy Head of Reader Services for the Bodleian Library said, “An approximate figure for the number of open shelf books which go missing is 90 in the calendar year 2007.

“It is difficult to be precise about this figure since quite a few books are found when we do an annual check of the open shelf books during the Long Vacation i.e. they have been incorrectly shelved, or have even fallen down behind other books.”

She added, “This is a fairly small figure, although of course we don’t even like one book to go missing.”

English student Julie Jackson commented, “I have never taken any books, I usually photocopy the articles I need, but I can see why people would be tempted to take them.

The security is poor, especially in the Rad Cam, and when people have deadlines to meet all it would take is someone to run out of money on their photocopy card and because it is easy people take the books they need.

“The security is good for only letting in students, you have to show your Bod card but for taking out books, the person on the door asks you to open your bag and can’t possibly recognise every Bodleian book.”

Jackson said, “I know people who have taken books and have just said to the security that they were from another library.”

Corrick also emphasised that students who do return the books will not be recorded or penalised in anyway; “[…] we are not taking notes of who returns material. We would be grateful to have books returned whatever their state as our conservation staff may be able to carry out repairs.”

For those who are struggling to tell whether a book in their possession is from the Bodleian libraries, Corrick said, “There should be a stamp with ‘Bodleian’ on it on books, most likely on the reverse of the title page.”

The latest college accounts, obtained by OUSU under the Freedom of Information Act, show that spending on teaching and staff increased significantly in 2007.

Yet the University remains riven by financial inequality, with huge endowments allowing some colleges to supplement their income, giving them a major advantage over poorer institutions.

The accounts reveal that colleges spent £244 million in 2007, with over half going on staff costs. Their combined incomes totalled almost £8 million more than this, meaning that overall the colleges made a slight profit on 2006.

Over £125 million was spent on staff, a rise of over 7% since last year. Yet as colleges look to raise money from tourism, conference facilities and fund-raising, spending on academics is lower than that for other staff, such as caterers, managers and IT experts.

Overall, colleges have capitalised on hiring out their premises as conference facilities during vacations, making over £24 million.

Poorer, newer colleges with more modern rooms have been keen to take advantage of this new source of income, with St Anne’s and St Catherine’s making around £1.6 million a year.

Hertford and Keble do almost as well from conference income, but Christ Church makes the most, receiving almost £2 million.

Christ Church has also been the only college to make a significant amount of money from tourism, making around £800,000. No other college except Magdalen has be able to make more than a six figure sum for admission charges.

Christ Church and New have also tapped in to another lucrative form of income not available to other colleges, together making £3 million from their choir schools.

The biggest division between the colleges continues to be the size of their endowments. Most colleges take in around £2-5million in interest per year, some of the biggest earners being Magdalen, Jesus and Christ Church.

Tracts of agricultural land puts St Johns in a league of its own, bringing in £6 million a year on top of £5 million from financial assets. All Souls is funded almost entirely by endowment income, as it receives nothing from tuition fees.

While historic Oxford colleges are worth hundreds of millions of pounds, they are one of the biggest drains on college finances.

Almost £6 million was spent on maintaining premises in 2007, while tending gardens cost just over £2 million. Wear and tear of buildings means that their value depreciates over time, at an estimated cost of nearly £12 million last year.

Almost every pub in central Oxford has banned trashed students, while one pub is even refusing to serve anyone wearing a gown, as part of a new Pubwatch initiative.

The decision is aimed at reducing both the cost of cleaning up after trashing, and the disruption caused to residents.

Darren Kent, the chair of Pubwatch and landlord of the Turf, described the initiative which involves pub managers across the city.

He said, “together with the Proctors, we’ve decided to clamp down on trashing.”

“All [tourists] can see is flour and disgustingness…[students] have no reason to go as far as they do” he added.

Kent said that the proctors’ treatment of trashing had been hampered by stretched resources and “they asked us to help them with the clampdown.”

A recent email from the Proctors condemned food abuse and noted, “two people broke limbs last year by slipping on flour wet from champagne and eggs, including a woman who skidded and crashed on her bicycle in New College Lane.”

Other pub managers have supported the move. The manager of the Wheatsheaf said, “we don’t want people coming in covered in baked beans and cat food and getting it all over our furniture.”

The landlord of the Bear Inn added that his staff had to spend up to two hours jet-hosing down areas of the pub.

The King’s Arms has gone even further, banning any student with gowns and balloons from entering around exam time.

The manager of the King’s Arms denied that the measure was extreme. He said, “it’s a precaution against their [students’] behaviour.”

Students have reacted angrily to the new initiative, though they insist it will not deter trashings.

One student, who recently trashed a friend with a water pistol full of mayonnaise, cast doubt on the stringency of the Pubwatch ban.

“I got into the Turf covered in flour and I got egged in the Turf. They’re not going to turn away ten people just because one of them is covered in flour,” he said.

The student also denied that there was much evidence of a major clampdown by proctors. He said, “I’d be fairly deterred from [trashing] outside exam schools,” but claimed he managed to egg a friend undetected on High Street.

Students have also reported that exam locations further from the centre have “no proctor presence.”

A spokesperson for the Oxford emphasised that this was an initiative by pubs, not the University, but added, “the University is supportive of this.”

Nightsafe, which coordinates an initiative to reduce violence in Oxford, endorsed the move by Pubwatch.

The manager of Nightsafe said that Oxford is a “tourist town” and “[the tourists] don’t want to sit in flour and eggs.”

VIDEO: Finalists get trashed

Video by Rachel Fraser

The Bodleian library will hold an exhibition to celebrate the University’s treasures this summer.

It will include previously unseen objects, documents and artifacts including a 14th century bishop’s  mitre made of silk and pearls belonging to William of  Wykeham, the founder of New College;  an illuminated Psalter belonging to Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII; and Samuel Johnson’s gruel mug.

The exhibition will also honour benefactors like William Gray and Lord Nuffield.

‘Beyond the Work of One’ will begin on 24 May and runs to 1 November, in Catte Street.

The trial of well-known animal rights activist Mel Broughton has been postponed until Thursday 12 June.

Broughton, who was a founding member of the SPEAK organisation, faces charges of conspiracy to commit arson against property owned by the University of Oxford, possession of articles with intent to destroy or damage property and keeping an explosive substance with intent.

A jury for the trial is yet to be picked.

JCRs are debating this week whether OUSU should hold a referendum on who should vote in its minority reps.

Students have argued that it is undemocratic for OUSU to decide who should be allowed a say in selecting OUSU’s future LGBT and ethnic minority representatives.

However others have argued that the referendum would support universal voting, and that the majority would therefore eclipse that of minorities.

The controversy arose again in the Fifth Week Council meeting, and continued into an Extraordinary Council meeting on Friday of Sixth Week.

Tom Haynes, OUSU rep for St Catherine’s, is one of the students behind the recent campaign for a referendum.
Haynes took the issue to his JCR, proposing a motion “request[ing] that OUSU holds a referendum in Hilary 2009 to determine whether or not [restricted voting] should continue.”

Haynes claims he hoped to trigger a referendum by getting nine other JCRs to pass similar motions, and sent an email to all the other OUSU reps, urging them to agree that a “referendum was the best way forwards.”

He argues that no conclusion has been reached because JCRs have not been consulted, and that a referendum is “the most democratic” solution to the issue. He said it would enable discussion on “the most final way to resolve this long running dispute”.

However Merton’s OUSU rep, Joshua Monahan, initially agreed with Haynes, but has since declared, “I’m withdrawing my support.”

Monahan admitted that he backed Haynes “for the sole reason that I thought the issue was being wilfully ignored,” but now believes that debate has pushed this issue forward.

Joseph Edwards, OUSU rep for Jesus College, agreed with Monahan.  He said: “Referenda are not the only way, or even the best way, of ensuring that the voice of Oxford students is heard.”  He went on to say that it would be a waste of OUSU’s time and resources to hold the referendum.

Luke Tryl, former Union president, who is rumoured to be running for OUSU President, said: “We should have as many referendums as possible.” He pointed out that responsibilities in OUSU often overlap, and that even a position like Vice President for Women is responsible for pro-choice policy, which affects men also.

Haynes’ campaign for a referendum has been halted when, after consultation with other colleges, further issues were raised. He claims that OUSU have decided to “re-open our discussion…early on in Michaelmas.”

An Oxford restaurant has been taken over by a BBC reality series on entrepreneurs. Sahara, an eatery on Blue Boar Street in Oxford city centre, is one of eight diners that will be featured in Raymond Blanc’s ‘The Restaurant’.

The show sees couples attempting to impress the celebrity with their business skills. Couples have to complete a number of challenges, including cooking and serving meals, drawing up menus and attracting consumers.

The winning pair are then rewarded with a restaurant financially supported by Blanc.