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.”