An Oxford academic and fundraiser has been told that she must pay her council tax after she withheld it in protest at the city’s waste collection scheme.

The District Judge enforced her liability to pay outstanding tax, but denied the Council’s request for legal costs or any penalty fee from the defendant.

Dr Frances Kennett had refused to pay a month’s tax as a protest against Oxford City Council’s introduction of a fortnightly rather than weekly waste collection, which she said has made her home a health risk. Dr Kennett, who lives in Jericho, claims that the rat problem caused by waste in her garden has forced her to spend money taking rubbish to the dump and making repairs to her house.

The Judge presiding over Dr Kennett’s case at the Magistrate’s Court on Friday expressed sympathy for Oxford’s widespread infestation issues, and linked them directly to the Council’s decision to reduce waste collection. He said he was obliged by law to insist on tax payments, but hoped that the Council would contact the Jericho resident to discuss their next steps before taking further action.

Dr Kennett said she was delighted by the ruling, and does not intend to pay the outstanding sum until she hears from councillors about their plans to resolve Oxford’s waste disposal issues. "I think my case is building pressure on the Council and increasing the chance of something happening. I think it’s incredibly positive," she said.

The move to reduce waste collection, headed by executive member Councillor Jean Fooks, was hailed at first as an attempt to increase recycling levels. "Faced with increasing charges for landfill waste, and fines if we exceeded our landfill allowance, we had no alternative," she said.

Eric Murray, head of the campaign ‘Collect Rubbish in Oxford Weekly’ (CROW) said that the refuse problem has moved from landfill sites to the streets of Oxford following the introduction of the scheme. "We have seen parts of our city turn into roadside rubbish dumps," he said. He commended Dr Kennett’s protest as "a very brave move".Her actions have also met with widespread support from residents of Osney and East Oxford, many of whom have experienced infestations of flies, maggots and rats since the Council’s decision was made nine months ago. Advice on avoiding smells and animals include putting animal carcasses in the freezer until collection day and sealing organic waste in newspaper and a plastic bag before putting it in a bin.

Plans to accommodate hundreds of additional graduate students to meet new University targets will be realised when Green and Templeton Colleges merge next year.

The new college, to open in October 2008, will be based at the Radcliffe Observatory site where Green College is currently located. Templeton College will cease to be situated at the Egrove Park campus in Kennington, south of Oxford.

Green Templeton will contain around 450 students and 80 fellows. The merger is designed to combine Green College’s focus on medical and life sciences with Templeton College’s strengths in management and business studies.

The Warden of Green College, Professor Mike Bundy, said that the move was part of the University’s plan to increase provision for graduates.

"The main benefit to Green College is that the new College will have greater capacity. In particular, it will be more able to respond effectively to the University’s new policy emphasising graduate studies and requiring higher levels of support for graduates," he said.

Green College, founded in 1979, contains 300 students and 50 fellows. Templeton College, originally ‘the Oxford Centre for Management Studies’, became a graduate college in 1995 and has 130 graduates and 30 fellows.

The new college will continue Templeton’s emphasis on management and maintain links with Oxford’s Said Business School. Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Templeton’s GCR President, said that these links would benefit graduates. "Green Templeton College would specialize in management and medicine and thus the students with an interest in management would continue to be a part of SBS.

"The Green College students would be benefiting by getting a chance to interact with more and more management professionals," she said.

Extensive consultation with students took place at both colleges throughout 2006, with authorities holding both formal and informal meetings for staff and students.

The merger was approved by the University Council and Vice-Chancellor John Hood.Professor Michael Earl, Dean of Templeton College, said in a press release, "Green Templeton will be well equipped to explore policy and define agendas in its professional specialisms. It will continue to bring practitioners, graduates and academics together, and to explore the interrelations between its major academic areas."

Three gay students were attacked outside the Coven II night club in the early hours of Saturday morning in what may have been a homophobic attack.

The male St Peter’s students, who wish to remain anonymous, were leaving the Coven II at 3am when a stranger head-butted and punched them in a seemingly unprovoked attack.

This attack, the victims claim, is the latest in a string of homophobic assaults to take place near the club.

A man approached the students from a group of people outside the nightclub. Without provocation, the man told one of the students, "You’ve got a fucking attitude problem." The student denied this, after which the man repeated the statement before headbutting him in the face.

"I went down to try and comfort him and get him back on his feet and then I turned around and my other friend was on the floor with blood pouring from his face," one of the victims said. "The guy grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘Do you want a piece of it?’ or something like that. It all just happened so quickly. He thumped me in the face."

The attacker was described as a tall white male with a shaven head and black hooded sweatshirt who was with a group of 4 to 8 friends. Following the attack, they fled the scene.

One of the attacker’s companions then turned back, apologised to the students and requested that the police not be involved.

After the group fled, bystanders offered assistance and called the police. An ambulance was later called for one of the students, who needed stitches. All three had facial and in one case dental injuries.

The attacker was not seen in the club itself, but was causing trouble to the club’s bouncers before the incident. The punched fourth-year said, "As we left, there was a guy outside who was obviously very drunk. He was picking a fight with the bouncers, being rude, and they were trying to send him away. The group of friends were definitely in the Coven but I didn’t see the man in there."

Police have since told the students that they are unlikely to find the attacker.
Violent attacks at Coven II, located in Oxpens Road near the Oxford Ice Rink, are reported to be common and occasionally homophobic in nature as the club hosts a gay night every Friday.

"Guys just wait outside and wait for gay men to leave," said one of the St Peter’s students. "The police are aware of this, but they seem uninterested and I’ve never seen any signs of enforcement."There were no police. They know the situation but they wait for the incident before they arrive. If you go down a main street in Oxford on a Friday night, there are police everywhere, but the Coven is totally unmonitored, and there’s no CCTV," he added.

Merton College remains top of the 2007 Norrington Table for the second year in a row, but the table continues to be criticised for its unfair scoring system.

The Norrington score, which determines the colleges’ rank order, is based on the finals performance of students at each college.

Rising colleges include Hertford at 9 (up from 17 in 2006), Pembroke at 10 (from 23), St Anne’s at 13 (from 22), Keble at 18 (from 26), and St Peter’s at 20 (from 27). Colleges that fell include Corpus Christi at 23 (down from 11) and Wadham at 17 (from 7).

Each college gains 5 points for a first class degree, 3 for a 2:1, 2 for a 2:2 and 1 for a third, with the total expressed as a percentage of the maximum score possible.

The table does not account for differences between subjects in the proportion of students gaining first class degrees, with more going to science than arts students. In Cambridge the equivalent to the Norrington, the Tompkins Table, is weighted to account for subject variations.

Professor David Clary, President of Magdalen College, suggested that colleges’ positions varied greatly from year to year. "Norrington scores of different colleges are very close and a change in the degree results of just a few undergraduates can provide a major difference in the position of a college in the table," he said.

The table does not take graduate results into account, which disadvantages colleges that focus on graduates. "It is noticeable that several colleges placed lower down the Norrington Table put emphasis on graduate study and the table only refers to undergraduate performance," Clary said.

OUSU Vice-President for Access and Academic Affairs, James Lamming said the Norrington had variable effects on colleges,"The Norrington Table could potentially have benefits if it encourages those colleges lower in the table to increase academic support; but there are potential negative effects if Colleges become only concerned with academic achievement, and exclude students from opportunities for personal development and diverse experience."

St Catherine’s JCR have called a rent strike in protest at the College raising battels charges without consulting students or the College’s Governing Body.

The JCR rent committee claims that the College failed to inform them that students’ rent would be increased by nearly £175 per year, and that they had repeatedly and deliberately ignored attempts to communicate with members of the JCR.

In an email to members of the JCR sent out last Friday, the rent committee condemned the College’s actions and urged students to withhold part of their rent payment for the coming term.

"We believe that the College has acted in a despicable manner in coming to these charges. The College have ignored our emails, and not even informed us of what the charges were going to be, let alone consulting us over them," it said.

The committee also suggested that this was deliberately intended, saying, "They have admitted that it was their plan to actively withhold information about these charges from us."

The strike was called with the backing of OUSU President Martin McCluskey, who said he supported the JCR "wholeheartedly". He also suggested that it was only the possibility of a rent strike which meant the College re-entered negotiations again this week.

"The threat of the rent strike had made the College come back to the table and engage with them [the JCR]. This is hopefully going to end positively," he said.Earlier this week the College reopened negotiations with the JCR. A spokesman for the rent committee said, "We hope to reach an agreement about a fair level for charges and to ultimately get a fair rent deal for students."

Have you noticed, thronging in quads and staring at architecture, groups of Malaysians that any sensible person would describe as ‘tourists’? And did you also notice that they were wearing academic dress, but not as we as Oxford students know it?

This is a branded age, where a single prestigious name becomes instantly recognisable, as does an equally lucrative opportunity for the unscrupulous. No students are unaware of how heavily the Oxford University brand is marketed in 2007, whether it be for clothes, books or on CVs. But what happens when the brand is usurped and used, in the words of Keble’s Domestic Bursar, to deliberately "mislead" all concerned?

The Oxford Centre for Leadership (OXCEL) is an unwanted bruise on the University’s shoulder. The company purports to having only been set up in the United Kingdom since April, but has been awarding ‘qualifications’ in Malaysia for far longer. The numerous Malaysian celebrities ‘awarded’ these have raised the company’s profile in the region, yet all the time exploiting the credibility of the University with which they claim to share a name, but not be affiliated with.

Naturally, OXCEL plays up to all the false perceptions that outsiders have of the University. By charging money for easily obtainable awards, the stupid and idle rich can buy themselves the sort of credentials usually only obtained by years of hard work. It takes only a few seminars, a quick trip to an Oxford college and dressing up in gowns and soft caps to become a great leader, if you would believe the information distributed by the Centre. The same is true of the equally unlikely ‘5-Day Millionaire MBA Programme’, warning that you will "be shocked at how simple and easy steps can be used to accelerate that incredible potential of yours to become a millionaire".

And at the heart of it all stands two men, the men behind both OXCEL and the ‘Oxford Business Club’, Saiful Bahri and Ernest Yeap. They claim that although they came up with the idea, they no longer have responsibility for the Club’s website as it was their students, doubtlessly inspired by those testing motivational sessions, who have since assumed power. It hardly seems remarkable that a Malaysian minister agreed to officially ‘launch’ their company last year.

The scandal is that the University has allowed such activity to go unnoticed in its own quads for so long. In the mad scramble for profit from companies and conferences, ethical concerns have been sidelined. It seems surreal that the University could passively encourage an organisation so detrimental to its own interests to hire out its accommodation and facilities, at the expense of its reputation at home and abroad. The University was only spurred to action after the government, in the form of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, referred the matter to it after months of ignorance about OXCEL’s activities.
But pleading ignorance, for a University that prides itself on its formidable intellectual reputation, is not good enough. Students, and OUSU in particular, must demand not only socially responsible investment from colleges for the long-term, but also socially responsible revenue for the short-term. For all our emphasis on where colleges’ money goes, few ask where it comes from originally and bursars, like any public figures, must be held to account. And yet they will sigh, and complain, and sulk, as the sad irony is that everyone is making money out of Oxford, except for Oxford itself.

Agatha Christie called herself a “perfect sausage machine”, but her approach to murder was positively schizophrenic compared to the tabloids’ formulaic techniques.

The perfect tabloid story drips in pathos and outrage. In the case of Lucy Braham’s murder, pathos was easily achieved by juxtaposing the contorted image of William Jaggs with the beaming smile of his innocent victim. Outrage, meanwhile, relies on the sound bites of relatives, particularly those comments that apportion blame.

So Harrow School came in for the greatest criticism when Braham’s father noted that “despite visible, spoken and written warnings about Jaggs’ behaviour…no action was ever taken”.

But Jason Braham also pointed the finger at the “despicable drugs fraternity at Oxford University”. The red tops ignored this, though, since drugs at university is as mundane a topic as pills in a pharmacy (until you reach the Cabinet, at least, and Jacqui Smith’s experiences with cannabis in Oxford were only really of public interest because her surname rhymes with “spliff”).

Those few columnists that didn’t ignore the “drugs fraternity” remark merely noted in passing that Oxford might somehow have failed Jaggs.

Uncharacteristically, they didn’t dig their teeth in because the lines are too blurred: a university is clearly more than a glorified boarding school, and yet for undergraduates it is far from a nine-to-five workplace. Nor is it a halfway house between school and work.

All but a handful of Oxford undergraduates have reached the age of majority and are legally responsible for their actions. But the moral responsibility of parents towards children does not end at the stroke of midnight on their eighteenth birthday. Which is lucky, because most workplaces do not feel the need to provide for the personal welfare needs of workers under the age of 22.

Why should the University or its colleges act any differently? Why should they worry about anything other than our academic welfare? It’s easy to argue that the intensity of an Oxford course (living and working in the same place) warrants greater provision of personal care.

But far from being helpful, the immaturity of this argument does none of us any favours. It ignores the unspeakable truth: that in many cases, students bring their academic difficulties upon themselves with excessive partying, drinking and drug use. And no college is going to make provision for these personal problems without wanting to tackle their origins. After all, prevention is better than cure… and more cost-effective.

Unfortunately, prevention means protective parenting as well as Orwellian measures unworthy of a fifteen-year-old. “Your essay this week was weak… and I notice that on Monday you returned to College thirteen minutes after the 9pm curfew.”

The consequences of a parental college run deeper: could we honestly expect the powers-that-be to take the views of a JCR seriously with such an asymmetric relationship in place? Scouts and gardeners would be more influential than undergraduates. They would have the power of employment law behind them; we would be subject to that curious law that makes parents always right.

Of course it is commendable that the door is left open for students who have genuine difficulty with their work; indeed, that even students such as Jaggs have a place held for them is reassuring. We are all human and the luxury of a second chance is very welcome.

However, we should resist colleges ever supervising the rehabilitation of those who have gone wrong for personal reasons; even acting in an advisory capacity, colleges must be kept in check. In crude terms, a college is generous to say “come back when you’ve sorted yourself out”, but it is taking liberties (quite literally) when it tries to do the “sorting” itself.

In this respect, Oriel’s tutors acted perfectly with Jaggs. But it is still possible to provide a reasonable level of care to students without compromising the relationship between college and student. This is where the role of the student union lies. Colleges and JCR welfare teams should be able to confidently refer beleaguered students to OUSU, whether for lack of publicity or effectiveness, this has not been the case.Effective student union welfare provision wouldn’t stop another Jaggs, but it would keep overzealous colleges at bay.

Endless newspaper reports link cannabis with suicides, murders and assaults. The headlines are dramatic: "Another cannabis teenager in knife killing: Boy on skunk butchered a grandmother"; "Get tough on skunk or more will die"; "Cannabis addiction soars as drug gets stronger"; and so on.

Is this a case of ‘moral panic’, or are concerns about the mental health effects, amid claims that cannabis is as much as 20 to 30 times stronger than in the past, justified? Did the reclassification of cannabis from Class B to C send out ‘the wrong message’ that it is safe, or at least less harmful than before?

Cannabis is a potentially harmful drug. A few years ago, I heard an advocate for cannabis legalisation claim that the worst that can happen if you smoke too much is fall asleep. Does anyone today believe such nonsense? The Independent on Sunday, which had campaigned for the drug to be decriminalised, doesn’t: it declared an about turn with the front page headline:
"Cannabis, an apology".

In July the Prime Minister announced a review of cannabis classification, the second since the drug was reclassified in January 2004. The Government’s expert advisory body, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), reviewed the evidence two years ago and recommended the status quo. But the Home Secretary, in her recent letter to the Chair of the ACMD, said, "There is real public concern…in particular the use of stronger forms of the drug, commonly known as skunk."

It was also reported in July that a new study, published in The Lancet, found that cannabis users are 40 percent more likely to develop a psychotic illness and that smoking just one joint a day could double the risk of schizophrenia. Surely compelling and persuasive evidence that the harmfulness of cannabis has been underestimated? Well, it would be if the reports accurately reflected what the authors of the study concluded. Echoing the findings of the ACMD in 2005, the study found a consistent association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms (sufficient to highlight the risks) but emphasised that an association does not establish causation.

Cannabis can worsen mental health problems or trigger relapse and may for a small proportion of the population trigger the onset of serious problems. But many people with mental health problems use cannabis to self-medicate, to relieve the symptoms of their condition or the effects of medication. Over 10 million adults (between ages 16 and 59) have used cannabis with around 3 million having done so in the past 12 months. The vast majority have not come to obvious harm, but quantifying those who do is fraught with difficulties. As yet, there is no evidence to confirm that the incidence of schizophrenia has increased in the last 30 years, despite a significant increase in cannabis use.

The cannabis market in the UK has changed substantially, which may explain why (not least among our politicians) there is the belief that the drug is ‘different’ from what it used to be and inevitably more potent. Ten years ago about 90 percent was imported, with cannabis resin (mostly from Morocco) dominating. Today up to 60 percent is grown here in the UK and sold in leaf or ‘herbal’ form. But not all ‘herbal’ cannabis is skunk (sinsemilla), indeed gangs responsible for many of the UK’s cannabis factories tend to use faster-growing, less potent plants. The average THC content (the main psychoactive constituent) of skunk has doubled over the last ten years or so and is on average twice as potent as resin: a worrying increase, but not of the magnitude some claim.

Cannabis is a harmful drug and reclassification did cause some confusion. But based on the overall harms caused, and compared with some other drugs (legal and illegal), it is not our greatest problem, yet it receives disproportionate media and political attention.

Since reclassification, levels of use have actually fallen, particularly among young people, although patterns of use can change. The latest review matters because it will test whether drug policy is proportionate and evidence-based, or driven (even in part) by media headlines and political considerations.

Martin Barnes is Chief
Executive of DrugScope

PERHAPS Oxford’s least-trumpeted asset is its ability to offer its students almost unparalleled opportunities to become involved in competitive sport whilst at university. Finding your own way through the maze that is Oxford sport can be daunting and difficult, however, so Cherwell has put together a brief, and hopefully informative, guide to explain sport underneath those dreaming spires.

University Sport

At the top of the Oxford sports pyramid are the university teams (referred to generally as the “Blues”), which compete in a range of sports from the traditional (rugby, netball) to the obscure (real tennis, fives). Blues sport generally requires a level of commitment that can leave little time for much else when work is also taken into account. The rewards, however, are worth it, especially if you are selected to play in a Varsity match against Cambridge. The Tabs, as the Light Blues are known in these parts, are the sworn enemy of every Oxonian, and the experience of defeating them in a Varsity fixture, no matter what the sport or level, is one that you’ll never forget.
Others, however, will tell you that it’s “all about the stash”, which Blues sportsmen and women are particularly fond of showing off everywhere from your 9am lecture to The Bridge. You simply cannot escape stash in Oxford as its students, for some mysterious reason, still really want to show off that Oxford University Trampoline Club hoodie that they “earned” in Michaelmas of their first year.
But Blues sport at its best is more than deserving of all that embroidered nylon. The rugby side draw large crowds as they take on Premiership sides with bold, running rugby. The netball girls will blow you away when you catch them in action and the rowers aren’t too bad either…

College Sport

For the slightly less gifted and the much less committed, inter-college sport offers a truly fantastic mix of leagues, rivalries and legends. Colleges range from the über-sporty (Teddy Hall, Catz) to places where balls and exercise are practically banned (Merton, Trinity).
The most popular sports have leagues that are keenly contested and reported and all sports have a Cuppers competition – essentially a knock-out tournament between the colleges.
College sport itself also offers many levels of participation – you’ll spend as much time playing alongside a Blue in the first XV as you do frustrated at the dropped catches of the quiet kid from biochemistry you spoke to once in fresher’s week. Most of all, however, you’ll drop to your knees and thank UCAS that you go to university in a town that must have the highest number of picturesque, well-maintained sports grounds in the world per head.
On the stash front, college kit is generally a bit cheaper and less dark blue than its university equivalent. It is still highly prized, however, especially cheap polo shirts from Primark that can be printed by those helpful chaps at Elmer Cotton.

Rowing

Rowing is an integral part of Oxford life, and you really should experience it in some way at least once if you get the chance. What you get from the Isis will depend on whether you’re an ultra-competitive, tireless monster, or someone who just wants to mess about on the river.
The first option is to jump right in this term, with 6am wake-ups, frostbite and discovering a mythical machine known as the “erg”. Training for college first and second boats is extremely serious, especially at the “Big Three” of Pembroke, Oriel and Magdalen. You’ll certainly make lots of friends very quickly but, unfortunately, they’ll all be rowers.
An alternative is to wait until Trinity term and catch crabs while the sun shines. Afternoon training, silly costumes and copious amounts of Pimm’s are the order of the day, and Summer Eights is an event not to be missed in the Oxford sporting calendar.