Cherwell vs OxStu: Issue 6
Only two issues to go…
What did it for you this week?
OxStu: Cheaper teachers don’t teach as well; Poorer colleges can’t spend as much on teaching.
Cherwell: Boatie banter
Update: Apologies if you were expecting the full monty. Just amuse yourself with more Aldate fallout .
Oxide award winners
Best Male Presenter: Gui Wright of Indie Asphyxiation
Best Female Presenter: Hafsa Hassan of Breakfast with Hafsa
Best Newcomers: The Love Tape Show
Best Speech Show: The Manifesto
Best Specialist Show: Filter UK
Best Playlist Show: Dex’s Midday Runners
Best Duo Team: Sunday Lunch with Katie and Spence
Best Show Feature: Maiden Over for Cameron-oke
Best Interview: Alexia Kapranos and Fi Murphy of Oxide Overdrive
Best Newsreader: Olivia Mackintosh
Oxide Rep Award: Alexa Saller
Gold Award for Contributions to Oxide: Hilary Aked and Ewan Roxburgh of Key Notes
Peoples Choice Award: Plucked from Obscurity
Sri Lankan President visits
President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka visited Oxford on 13 May to address the Union.
The talk was received by a full Chamber with representatives from the Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese and Pakistani societies, and was given a standing ovation.
The president of Oxford’s Sri Lankan Society, Dilan Fernando of University College, joined the Master of the College in hosting President Rajapaksa for tea prior to his speech.
The President was elected in 2005 following a narrow victory for his Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
DVD launched to combat diabetes
An instructive DVD has been released in tandem with a new website by the Diabetes Research Network in the hopes of encouraging sufferers of diabetes to participate in clinical trials.
1 in 25 people in the UK are diabetic, even though it is not a widely discussed or understood disease.
This DVD, which contains multiple images of diabetic patients, is to be distributed in care centres across the UK in order to attract volunteers to aid the treatment of the disease.
Chelsea gunman’s ChCh funeral
The funeral of Mark Saunders took place at Christ Church last Friday. Saunders was killed by police after he started shooting at passers-by and his neighbours outside his Chelsea home in London on 8 May.
The funeral was led by Reverend Ralph Williamson. A eulogy was read by his widow and fellow Oxford alumnus, Elizabeth Clarke.
Saunders studied as an undergraduate at Christ Church and was accepted to the Bar in 1999.
Mummified infant on show
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, has loaned the mummified body of an 18-month old infant boy. It will be displayed in art exhibition, Unravelled, in London.
The mummy was unearthed in Egypt, 40 miles south-west of Cairo, in 1888 and has been in Oxford ever since.
The collection by Angela Palmer is full of extraordinary works of art inspired by the distressing nature of the boy’s death.
The exhibition includes a spectacular ink drawing on 111 sheets of glass.
China earthquake appeal launched
Six Oxford student societies have made a joint effort to raise relief funds for those affected by the earthquake in China on 12 May.
The Committee will send all donations to help purchase necessary teaching equipment for temporary schools. In the next three to six months they hope to have enough money to contribute towards the rebuilding of a school in Sichuan.
The group, called the Oxford University Sichuan Earthquake Fundraising Committe, comprises: the Oxford Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the Chinese Association, the Asia-Pacific Society, the Chinese Drama Society, ‘Oxbridge China’ and the PPE Society.
Guagua Bo, PPE undergraduate and current President of PPE Society, said, “As with any national disaster we feel very strongly for the people in China. Just looking at the earthquake pictures is very touching, in a time when there is so much hatred this disaster is bringing people together and bringing out their warmth.”
In the last week groups of students have taken to the streets of Oxford to collect money for this cause. Bo said, “We have already raised £15,000 just from street collections. It is nice to see that something like this can bring out a lot of emotions from people. One elderly lady walked past and just dropped £100 into the collection box.”
Charlie Guo, Vice-President of the Asia-Pacific Society, agreed, saying, “It is very touching seeing so much support from people; one guy I distinctly remember, he just took all his notes and coins out of his wallet without hesitation and put it into our donation box. I sincerely thank all that have helped and supported our action.”
Bo added, “Our financial support will never match some of donations from big banks, but we do want to do something concrete to express as much of our effort as possible.
“We want to set this up as a long running cause and since lots of schools have gone down and lots of peoples academic aspirations have been severely affected, we felt that this would be a suitable way for us to help.”
JCR presidential candidate fined
A candidate for the Christ Church JCR Presidency has been reprimanded by police while carrying out a ‘traditional’ theft from another college.
On Sunday evening, David James was given an on-the-spot £80 Penalty Notice Order and taken to the police station after successfully stealing a bench from Brasenose College.
He was caught after a Brasenose porter apprehended the Brasenose student who had let James in, and contacted the police.
The incident was reported at 9.25pm, by which time James had been seen “out of breath” back in Christ Church.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said, “Police were called at 9.25pm on Sunday 18 May following reports that a man had stolen a bench from Brasenose College. He was located and issued an £80 Fixed Penalty Notice for Disorder.”
It is claimed that the incentive for the theft was an “old tradition” that to be eligible for the Christ Church JCR Presidency, you need to steal something from another college.
The Dean of Christ Church, The Very Reverend Christopher Lewis, described the event as a “stupid prank.” He said that it was “foolish, but not quite a hanging offence” and added that the event had been dealt with.
A second year at Christ Church, who wished to remain anonymous, commented on the events. He said, “I think the whole event is unfortunate, as it perpetuates the view of Christ Church as a bunch of arrogant tossers in the eyes of the University.”
Rival candidate, Alan Rimmer, also commented. He said, “The current JCR President set both candidates the task of bringing back within half an hour something from another college.
“David’s was a rather impressive effort, though whilst the introduction of Brasenose’s garden furniture into the JCR and David’s subsequent departure to the Police station did much to liven up the meeting, I’m sure he’d agree with me that the contest will be won on more substantial matters.”
Following his return and Penalty Notice, David James then proceeded to participate in hustings, which had been delayed for him, and made jokes about the incident in his speech. However, he refused to comment on the event to us.
Before the elections were held, an anonymous voter at Christ Church said, “The senior tutors are definitely concerned about what happened.
“It raises the question of whether he should be allowed to run or not. I think [this event] may go in the other candidate’s favour as it delayed hustings and generally hasn’t done him [David James] any favours.”
The current JCR President Laura Ellis refused to comment on the issue.
Hustings closed on Thursday at 8pm. Results will be released later today.
Finals ‘gender gap’ leaves dons in the dark
For the first time the the ‘finals gap’ between male and female students in English has closed, but dons are little closer to discovering why men overall do better than women in their final degree class.
Dr. Jane Mellanby, retired professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology who co-authored a study in August 2000 that exposed the discrepancy, said that in Trinity 2007, “for the first time, there was no gender gap in this subject. This occurred because the men did less well than usual and not because the women did better.”
The study in 2000 found that the ‘gap’ appeared despite women having a greater ‘work ethic’, but wasn’t present in engineering, economics and management, biochemistry, physiological science and geography.
“At Oxford, overall, men obtain a higher proportion of firsts than women,” Dr. Mellanby continued. “Part of this difference is due to the fact that there are more men reading subjects that award a higher percentage of firsts (e.g. Chemistry).
“We do not have an answer as to why the gap exists in some subjects and not in others. It is frequently proposed that the reason that the gender gap is seen in subjects where presenting an argument is important is that men are more likely to produce a confident, ‘punchy’ style of argument and that this appeals to examiners,” she said.
“There is however no real evidence (from examination scripts) that this is true. One thing we have shown is that there is no difference in the attitude of male and female examiners to the criteria for awarding first class marks.”
The ‘finals gap’ is currently being scrutinised by the University’s Educational Policy and Standards Committee, but they have yet to reach any conclusions.
Sally Mapstone, Chair of the English Faculty says the Faculty has been undertaking research into the issue. “That work is ongoing and not completed, so it’s not possible, or indeed sensible, presently to offer comment as to what might be the reasons for possible underperformance by female candidates,” she said.
When asked, examiners said they could not usually tell the sex of a student from their exam scripts.
Simon Saunders, Fellow of Linacre and Lecturer in Philosophy of Science, said “it is not possible to tell… I haven’t the faintest idea why women do worse than men.”
Diane Purkiss, Fellow of English at Keble, also said that the performance gap was difficult to explain. “There is a known issue with levels of performance for many different groups, and we are working on it.
“My view as an examiner is that it rarely occurs to me to think about the sex of the student, or their name, college, race, or ethnicity.
I think it would be unfortunate if people felt there was a specifically feminine kind of writing – the notion seems very outdated,” she continued.
“All students who want to do well in English need to do a lot of work, and need to argue and take some intellectual risks,” Purkiss concluded.
English finalists have disputed Dr. Mellanby’s view, stating that the criteria for first class marks involved having a more “masculine” writing style.
“What our tutors said was, you basically have to be really cocky, and guys are better at that,” said Rose Wilkinson, a finalist at St Catherine’s. “They have told us, ‘You have to be willing to bullshit’ and girls are perhaps less willing to throw it to the winds than guys are.”
Wilkinson said an ideal first degree candidate will be a hybrid of the so-called ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ work styles. “You would have the work ethic for coursework, what girls have, and then have that risk-taking, bullshitting attitude that guys have.
A mixture of both masculine and feminine – where you can be hard-working in coursework but at the same time be imaginative in exams.”
Another St Catherine’s student, Katherine Rundell, added that, “If you’re going to get a first, you have to get that ‘Wow, look at me!’ effect. Examiners are looking for that spark when they’re marking for firsts and you have to be able to bullshit and take more risks to do that.”
English finalist Hannah Knight said there have been special revision lectures organised by the English Faculty, targeted for female English students, on “pretty much how to write in a masculine way.”
Male English finalists have said that girls are more conscientious in their coursework but lack the “risk-taking attitude” that men have.
“It seems girls revise badly; girls tend to look at every single book and laboriously go over their books of notes,” said Daniel Morgan. “But guys, they tend to select key essay questions and revise certain points rather than everything.”