A second-year historian at Wadham has started a Facebook-based betting ring, allowing students to gamble on the outcome of the college’s upcoming Student Union presidential elections.

Peter Wright started a Facebook group called “Honest Pete’s Bookies – BetWright” calling group members to place bets on who they think will win. Yet according to one former SU President, the betting system threatens to manipulate the election in favour of candidates with high odds, as students who have bet on them are likely to also give them their vote.

“This year’s race for the SU Presidency looks to be the most hotly contested in recent memory,” advertises the group, “and to add to the fun we’re taking bets on all candidates for the most important position in Wadham politics.”

Wright said he came up with the idea of this group while he and his friends were “idling in armchairs over tea and pipes, discussing the upcoming SU election. “Following the hilarity that was the London mayoral election, we decided that offering bets on candidates for SU President might be an effective way of not only stimulating interest in the election, but adding a little amusement to our own jaded lives,” he said.

There are seven candidates rumoured to be running for the SU election next week. Activity on the group began with the first post, in which starting odds were given on 4 May, and was soon followed by revised odds and updates on candidacy dropouts.

On 5 May, Elena Lynch went from joint to outright favourite, nudging ahead of main rival Will McCullum with odds of 5 – 4.
The webpage has since expanded to include details of candidate endorsement by current Wadham student politicians, updated reports and analysis of election momentum.

Some candidates have even bet on themselves: one update reads, “Ciaran bets £1 on himself – the Jebb campaign juggernaut lumbers into action.” Jebb, whose odds are currently 25 – 1, has used the group for self-promotion, writing on the group wall, “I’d like to be the first candidate to use this opportunity for shameless self-promotion. Vote for me, and I promise free jelly for all Wadhamites!”

Jebb is listed as a ‘Rank outsider’, with another presidential candidate Stuart Mason, listed as ‘Dark horse’ officer of the group.
“I think that the group has had a positive impact in getting people to talk about the merits of the various candidates and combat voter apathy” Mason stated.

He continued, “I haven’t placed any bets myself because I prefer to let my experience and candidacy to speak for itself. May the best candidate win.”

Stuart Mason: 10-1 Nick Coxon: 5-2 Hume Howe: 5-1

Former SU President Ben Jasper claimed that ‘BetWright’ was an “old syndicate betting trick.” Jasper wrote on the group wall, “Used in Thailand in its elections. High odds on the candidates you want to win, most bet on those, it ‘locks’ them into voting for the candidate. Makes everyone money, (apart from Pete) and changes the results of elections. Sure to have an interesting impact.”

SU presidential candidate and first year PPEist Nick Coxon is not worried about ‘BetWright’ manipulating elections. He said, “I think it’s a really interesting thing to be doing. It gets people interested and to pay attention to what’s going on with the Students’ Union.

“The more people get involved, the more people will be interested in SU politics and elections, and the better voter outcome the election will see.” Coxon said he most likely will not be placing a bet, as he “hates to play by chance.” He went on, “I’m confident that people of Wadham will make the right choice.”

Another candidate, Hume Howe, spoke out about the betting. He said, “Pete’s goal, as with any bookies, is to make money to throw a house party. “Gambling is a very bad bad thing that inhibits intellectual growth. We live in an era of monetary unrest, gambling promotes widening the gap between the upper and working class. My regime will include efforts to close this gap by educating micromanagment.”

Wadham SU hustings will be held 14 May, and the elections on 15 May. Run and financed independently of the Wadham SU, ‘BetWright’ allows members to gamble on their candidate of choice by requesting a betting slip. The minimum bet is £1 and according to Wright, who is solely responsible for the set-up, “bets are not confirmed until you have a slip.”

‘BetWright’ offers insurance for an extra £1 and permits betters reclaim of stake if their candidate drops out. Wright has claimed that “Any profit will go to funding a massive party.”

Oxford students have been warned against the dangers of taking unlicensed minicabs following news that two sex attacks have taken place in taxis in seven weeks.

Thames Valley Police have launched the “Get Home Safely” initiative to encourage students to plan their journey home from nights out. Last Friday and Saturday night police staff handed out taxi-shaped leaflets in the city centre with comprehensive instructions in order to raise awareness.

The leaflets advise that the safest way of getting a taxi home is to save a number of a reputable firm on mobiles, and to hire a private car. They advise never to get into a private cab that has not been ordered, and go on to tell students to check the Hackney plates on the back of a black cab after it’s been flagged.

The first of the two attacks took place on 14 March, when a 17-year-old girl got in a black cab at Gloucester Green and asked to be taken to Jericho. As the driver reached the destination he sped off to an unknown location and forced her to perform a sexual act.
The second assault occurred on the 27 April when a 20-year-old man got in a car, which he believed to be a taxi, on Botley Road. He was taken to the Redbridge Park and Ride, where he was sexually assaulted.

Toby Shergold, a spokesperson from the Oxford branch of the Thames Valley Police, claimed that this issue is “very important for Oxford students.” He urged, “It is very important for [students] to look out for one another, especially after they’ve had a few drinks.”

Sally Gowland, an Oxford criminology student, agreed that the recent attacks highlight the necessity for a raised awareness. She stated, “The number of sex attacks and rapes in Oxford and the surrounding area is highly worrying. The recent attacks have shown that there needs to be greater awareness of the issues around sexual violence and female safety both within the public and private spheres.”

Sally added, “Women should be able to live in a world free from sexual violence and this is what organisations such as Rape Crisis England and Wales work hard to achieve.” However, the recent attacks have highlighted that men are also at risk of such attacks.

The Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre offers a confidential helpline for survivors of sexual abuse, and is contactable on 01865 726 295.

John Hood has encouraged British school teachers to dispel prejudices among pupils as to what studying at Oxford is like.

In an article published in the Daily Telegraph, Hood discussed the efficacy of Oxford’s admissions service and expressed concerns about the proportion of state-school and independent-school educated pupils who are given places at Britain’s top universities.

He placed particular focus on the current drive to diversify the social and educational backgrounds of candidates applying to Oxbridge, saying, “the wider challenge is about much more than Oxford and a handful of peer institutions; … further real progress [in encouraging state-educated applicants] will require some bigger shifts of attitude and approach. True equality of higher-education opportunity is a vast socio-economic project stretching back towards birth.”

He also defended Oxford’s admissions policy but added, “the idea that everything would be fine if a few of our top universities ‘sorted themselves out’ on access and admissions is absurd.”

The Vice Chancellor suggested that one way of promoting a realistic and demystified image of Oxford among students at a grassroots level might be to invite school teachers to experience life at the University.

“At school, the educational aspirations of young people are made and unmade. We are looking at mixing regional events for teachers with the possibility of time here in Oxford for those who want to experience the institution and its academic community for themselves. More needs to be done to harness the power of mentoring which can do so much to transform aspiration,” he said.

James Lamming, Vice-President of Oxford University Access and Academic Affairs, maintains that there is still some problem persuading state school applicants to think of Oxford as a viable option and admits that Oxford is still an institution beset by mistaken belief and false impression.

Lamming said, “in Hilary term, the Sutton Trust published a report that provided evidence about misconceptions many teachers had about Oxford and Cambridge that was leading them to provide inaccurate advice to their students. Lower than expected numbers of state school students apply because of myths that put them off Oxford. Bad advice that propagates out-of-date or simply false myths about Oxford unsurprisingly puts students off applying.”

Max Haimendorf, Biology graduate from St Hugh’s, has been involved in mentoring students since he joined the independent charity, Teach First, shortly after leaving Oxford in 2002. He echoed Lamming’s point of view saying that the attitude in some schools is that “our kids wouldn’t fit in in Oxford.”

Haimendorf claims that the Teach First program, which encourages top graduates to work in a challenging secondary school for at least two years, is effective at tackling the issue of creating relationships between schools and universities.

“In order to educate young people as to what Oxford is about it is necessary to combine various strands. Both parents and teachers need to be involved. In some communities it is very hard for parents to know how to help their children get in to university. It is not because they don’t want the best for their kids; it is just outside the realms of their experience,” he said.

He added, “our role was to inspire people to think about Oxford in a different way. As recent graduates and closer in age to the students, Teach First teachers have a unique position to influence pupils. We were there not as replacements to the existing university guidance, but as much needed additional support.”

The drive of both the Teach First and the Access program is, as Hood stated in his article, “to bring in [to Oxford] the brightest and the best.”

Lamming added, “if we can tackle the prejudices and misconceptions, we should attract more talented applications. Oxford wants the very best students; there is no conspiracy designed to keep certain applicants out of our dreaming spires.”

New College has become mired in controversy following allegations of fraud and vote-rigging in the recent JCR presidential elections.

It has been alleged that forged signatures and misuse of proxy votes have affected the election’s outcome. The results of the elections, held on Monday, have been discarded and re-polling is to occur today.

This follows the discovery that proxy votes had been submitted after the 9am deadline, with some votes alleged to be fraudulent with intention of influencing the winner of the election.

New College JCR constitution dictates that proxy votes, balloted by students voting on behalf of others, are to be submitted in writing before 9am on the day of the election.

Returning officer David Snower has admitted in a JCR email that he failed to implement the constitution. He said, “As returning officer I take full responsibility for not clarifying the rules concerning proxy votes to the people on the ballot box.”

The results were announced at 10.30pm on Monday night with Matthew Ranger emerging as the President-Elect, with 92 votes, and Stephen McGlynn coming a close second with 88 votes. However, allegations of fraudulent voting shortly followed these results.

One member of the New College JCR, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “It seems the fraudsters cast a significant amount of proxy votes on behalf of people who didn’t intend to vote. This occurred on the actual day of the election, which is not allowed under our constitution… Soon after the results were announced in the bar on Monday, people started claiming to have rigged the election.”

In an email to the JCR, Snower explained the decision to re-poll: “As no voting slips are marked, it was impossible to ascertain which of these invalid votes went to which candidates. Therefore the only way to ensure that the result is fair is to have a re-poll.” In the same email Snower claimed that the votes were purely from “people on their year abroad and others who couldn’t attend the ballot box.”

The current New College JCR President, Ben Karlin, said, “The situation is unfortunate for all concerned, but given the circumstances the fairest possible outcome has been reached and I wish the candidates the best of luck on Friday.”

The JCR email encourages “everyone to vote in exactly the same manner in which they voted on Monday.”

Photo: Richard Lowkes

Two female members of Corpus Christi MCR were aggressively pursued on Friday night by a man demanding sex in the latest of a series of similar incidents in East Oxford.

The incident occurred at 2am on Saturday morning when a man pursued students Courtney Cox and Francesca Richards on their way back to college from the Cowley area. The man, described as black and around 5’4 in a grey hoodie and jeans, demanded a threesome, persistently telling them to get into his car, and followed the students right up to Corpus’ Liddell Gate before being deterred when he realised they were phoning the police.

A police statement on Wednesday revealed that there were two further related incidents over the weekend. On Thursday at 4am and Monday at 11pm other women were similarly accosted by men in the Iffley area, this time on Percy Street.

Another Corpus graduate, Katie Musgrave, described the regularity of the dangers women face around Oxford, describing how she has been accosted on several occasions in her time at the University. “One time on Magdalen Bridge a sketchy man passing me by kicked my bag of groceries, splitting it open, and he walked on.

“Another time, when running on the tow path, I was lunged at by an aggressively drunk vagrant who was harassing people as they passed him. Finally, when passing by the bus shelter on Iffley Road one night, I was screamed at by a couple of drunk teenagers who were hiding in there, behind the adverts, apparently for the purpose of scaring people,” she said.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Elkins has called for students to come forward, saying, “We would like to hear from anyone else who has been approached by a man in the area. It may have seemed like a trivial incident at the time, but you could have important information for us.

“Until we trace the man, or men, involved and speak to him about his motives, we would advise local women to take care late at night or very early in the morning.”

Cox seemed shaken by the incident, describing being pursued and harassed as “frightening – not only at the time it happens, but beyond it as well. “Could it happen again? What if he hadn’t gone away when we called the cops? What if he had followed us into the Liddell Complex? […] What if he had a weapon?

“There’s a sense in which your safety has been violated, and you wake up to the reality that your neighbourhood is not as safe as it seemed.”

Beyond this individual example, the most worrying aspect of the incident is its perceived regularity. Asking other Corpus students about their experiences, Cox described how alarmingly common such harassment seems to be, and how a culture of acceptance has emerged.

“The response to this incident has largely been a variation on the theme of ‘Well, I hate to admit it, but you’re not the first’, instead of ‘What can we do to make it safer?’

“It hasn’t happened to me before, but the impression I have is that it does occur fairly frequently, probably more than is on record, since it would appear through conversations with other students that there’s also a problem of under-reporting.

“So yes, I am worried. I don’t feel as though there really are the resources in place to deal with this sort of occurrence.”

Along with urging vigilance, police have repeated their usual safety advice that students walk home with friends or take a licensed taxi if they are alone. Meanwhile, OUSU have urged students to look after one another, using the Safety Bus and attack alarms to keep safe.
OUSU’s Welfare Rep Louise Randall stated, “We recommend that students never walk home alone, that they use the OUSU/PBSU Safety Bus wherever possible, and they should consider carrying an attack alarm, available from your welfare officers or direct from OUSU for £1.60.

“If you’re heading out clubbing this week and need to get home late at night, remember you can use the OUSU/OBSU Safety Bus. This service, provided in conjunction with Oxford Brookes Students’ Union, is there to make sure you get home safely. It will pick you up from any location within the Oxford Ring road and take you home for a donation of only £1. To call the bus, just ring 07714 445 050 between 9pm and 3am Monday – Saturday and 9pm – 1am on Sunday.”

Yet despite this, Cox does not feel secure against further trouble. “Truth be told, Oxford is not a safe city. The safety schemes in place from the University and Colleges are inadequate (and those that do exist inadequately publicised), particularly when compared to other institutions of like calibre. It’s really disappointing.”

For any students who would like to get in touch with the police concerning this, Det Sgt Elkins can be contacted via the Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505. If you don’t want to talk to police and don’t want to leave your name, call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Photo: Olivier Lazarus

Colleges are giving away close to £150,000 a year in travel grants but have no way of monitoring how the money is being used.

A Cherwell investigation has revealed that colleges are failing to check how recipients are using the funds, and in many cases, students are not being required to provide ticket receipts or reports on their return. This has lead to many students taking their grants and using them for leisure, rather than for academic purposes.

Some students have admitted to keeping money intended for travel for academic study, or using it to go clubbing, or even to buy drugs.

One student, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted that he’d used money intended for a visit to a Middle Eastern archive to go to the Exit Festival in Serbia.

He said, “I knew college wouldn’t check up so I said I wanted to do some research in Turkey, but really I just went to Exit music festival and then travelled round for a bit.”

The undergraduate also admitted that he used some of the travel grant money to buy drugs. Another student, a graduate, invented a conference in Hawaii and instead used the money to visit the country and go surfing.

Most colleges give out around £5,000 a year in travel grants. Merton distributes £5,000 annually, while Wadham makes almost £7,500 available. In total, almost £150,000 is available every year from Oxford colleges and University travel grants.

A second year from Pembroke said that the system was being abused by some students. She said, “I know of one linguist who applied for funding to travel throughout Europe. They never went, however, and simply kept the money.”

She added that she didn’t see the problem as one that was “widespread” but that whilst there were some students who were honest about their travel grants, “the college has no way of checking to see if people are effectively stealing from them.”
Furthermore, where students have been honest about possible misuses of their grant, college authorities have displayed a lack of concern.

Rosy Gibson, a second year History of Art student at Christ Church, was awarded £150. She was told, “You must write a report or the money will be taken back from you,” but on her return, the college failed to contact her when she did not meet the requirement.

This lack of concern for the use of college money appears to be part of a trend across the University, with multiple students confessing to lying in order to get bankrolled by College to go abroad.

Caitlin O’Keeffe, a student at Wadham, claimed £200 for a trip to Edinburgh in order to perform there with comic group The Oxford Revue. She said, “I expected to get an email from the college the following term, asking for a report or even receipts, but I heard nothing.”

A second year at Exeter identified students studying modern languages as “finding it particularly easy to get small grants of between £100 and £200.” Under the pretext of going to the country which speaks the language they’re studying, the student suggested that they “do whatever they like – there is no suggestion of accountability.”

The same student also spoke about a woman from his college who cancelled a grammar course in Europe after receiving a small travel award. Although she approached the college authorities over the possibility of returning the money, she was told that she could keep it.

However, all the colleges contacted were keen to stress that they did monitor how students spent the money. Jane Nelson, the Censor’s Administrator at Christ Church, said: “On return, [students] must provide receipts to prove how the money has been spent… we always ask for tickets, or ticket receipts at least.”

Yet when Christ Church were confronted with the examples of students who had wasted their travel grant money, they admitted that “it may be that on occasion some applications have not been followed up.” Exeter’s Academic Administrator, Joan Himpson, declined to give details of any requirements that are made of its students, either before or after the grants are made.

At University level, the Oxford Society, the official alumni organisation, is responsible for granting individual travel awards. A spokesperson for the University Press Office said, “To be eligible, students have to prove that they are travelling independently and need to demonstrate that their trip will help their personal development.” They continued, “Applicants have to provide a report after the trip about what they did and what they achieved.”

Yet in a letter from his local branch of the Oxford University Society, one second year historian was simply told that he “may write a report for presentation at the branch’s annual general meeting.” No receipts or tickets were required.
Cathy Spinage, Head of the Benefits and Services department of Oxford University, said, “If students started to abuse [funding] it would undermine the whole system, and the Society might have to consider withdrawing the money from the travel award scheme.”