An anti-welfare rep is to be
elected at Merton after the JCR unanimously passed a motion to institute the
position. A motion was submitted noting that “attendees at Merton bops always
get completely wasted,” and that “these hilarious individuals are often struck
down in their prime by over-zealous welfare reps.” The responsibilites of the new
anti-welfare rep will involve identifying “inebriated persons receiving undue
assistance from the welfare officers” and thwarting “the best efforts of the
welfare officers by supplying alcoholic drinks to the aforementioned individuals
in a responsible manner” and further ensuring “that these characters are lucid
and responsive during the inevitable afterparties they will volunteer to host.”
It is believed that such action will “aid and abet the creation of
unsubstantiated rumour to be disclosed in the Merton News.”Uproar followed the meeting,
however, as senior members of the JCR Committee realised that what had been
passed was a binding standing order amendment, which could possibly contravene
proctors’ orders. JCR President James Lamming said, “Information reached me
after the meeting meaning that what seemed like a harmless comedy motion had
more serious ramifications and safety implications than we first thought.” Ben Holroyd and Zander Khan, the
finalists at Merton who proposed the motion, said they were “leaving a legacy
for the college” and have a “prospective candidate in mind”. They see the
negativity of the JCR Committee as “a bit childish”, making the point that “back
home we survive perfectly well without welfare officers to take us home when we’re
wasted.” Ben Holroyd, last year’s Merton Entz rep, further added “Some of the
best nights I’ve had in Oxford
have been spent cuddling a loo.” One JCR Committee member, who did
not wish to be named, said he had not objected during the meeting as he feared
looking like “a miserable git”.The JCR President stated, “We’re
currently looking into [the motion] and will report back at the JCR meeting
next week.”Tanya Sanyal, Welfare Officer at
St Anne’s, expressed trepidation towards the motion, saying, “As a welfare rep
I feel slightly alarmed that Merton JCR are to instate an anti-welfare rep to
actively oppose the work that welfare does. But as long as it doesn’t seriously
undermine the work of the elected welfare officers, I suppose it’s really just
a joke position.”OUSU V-P Welfare, Aidan Randle-Conde
stated “Welfare Officers across Oxford
do a great deal of good work to improve the quality of life for students.
Creating an anti-welfare officer undermines the whole ethos of the welfare
networks that are in place.” He added that “coercive drinking is unacceptable
and to the detriment of student welfare.”ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

The President of Botswana’s visit
to the Oxford Union on Friday 14 October was interrupted by 25 protesters from
Survival International, some of whom were Oxford Union members.As President Mogae, an Oxford graduate in
Economics, arrived at the Union buildings, he was greeted by protesters asking
"Why are you persecuting the Bushmen?" The question referred to
people of a tribe, commonly known by westerners as Bushmen, that have been
asked to leave their land by the government of Botswana.Aliya Nanji, an undergraduate at
St Anne’s College who attended the event said, "Halfway through [the
question and answer session], one girl asked about a shooting of Bushmen, then
took off her jumper, along with another girl, and they were wearing t-shirts
saying ’Botswana
police shoot Bushmen’. Then they were asked to leave." She added that
"six or seven people were wearing [the t-shirts] later".Nanji felt that "the
President sounded a little upset towards the end" and accused the
protesters of giving completely one-sided arguments.The organization the protesters
were representing, Survival International, has accused Botswana of
ethnic cleansing and continues to accuse the government of forcing the Bushmen
to leave their lands. Dr Jeff Ramsay, Press Secretary to President Mogae,
stated, “We are used to this, we are always asked about the Barsawa (the native
term for Bushmen). At LSE in 2003 we had a similar incident, and the last time
[the President] came to Oxford.”Dr Ramsay went on to add that
Survival International “is accusing us of forcing [the Barsawa] out”, but he
informed Cherwell that all but 17 of the Bushmen “agreed to compensation
packages and moved out”. Dr Ramsay explained that the shooting the t-shirts
referred to was a “sad incident where rubber bulletswere fired at people trying to
enter Kalahari [a closed off region in Botswana]. One bullet hit a personin the jaw, but he survived and
is fine.”Survival International issued a
press release taking responsibility for the protests and saying the protesters
were “bundled out of the Oxford Union by burly security guards”. Chris Farmer, President of the
Oxford Union, defended the removal of protesters that asked controversialquestions, saying, “In a high
profile event, the Union hands over security matters to Special Branch and the
police…unfortunately we did not have any control over it.” Witnesses of the event say
everything took place in an orderly fashion, and that after the talk was over
the protesters were handing out CDs and leaflets.One Union member said, “The Union
is supposed to be a bastion of free speech; if people aren’t allowed to express
their opinions in a peaceful manner, then what is the point of holding a
debate?”Farmer said the event "was
all very peaceful and calm, and was a real success.” He reasserted the Union’s stance on freedom of speech and freedom of
belief, saying, "Everybody’s allowed to think what they want to
think." He added that the President "specifically picked people that
had come from the group [to ask questions]", showing his own support for
freedom of speech.In an article in The Independent,
the director of Survival International said of the event, “I’ve been a
campaigner since 1972 across the world, including in places like Colombia, not
known for their human rights, and never been manhandled like that before.”Farmer asserted that security
footage would be examined before taking the matter further. President Mogae was the first of
two heads of state addressing Oxford students
this week, the President of the Czech
Republic, Vaclav Klaus
visited the European Affairs Society on Tuesday.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

OUSU Council has passed
a motion condemning Coca Cola and resolv­ing to cease commercial relations and
all publicity with the company. It also resolves to lobby the NUS to cease its
contracts with Coca Cola.The
motion, proposed by OUSU President Emma Norris and seconded by Tom Dale, makes
a number of criticisms of Coca Cola’s practices. OUSU policy already states
that the company is "engaged in stealing and polluting farmers’ water
across India,
causing eco­nomic and ecological devastation to thousands of the poorest people
in the world."Allegations
concerning Coca Cola’s conduct in Colombia are also noted in the
motion. The Colombia Solidarity Campaign claims that nine Coca Cola employees
have been killed and many mistreated as a result of a “labour policy based on
terror [which] grants Coca Cola enormous profit increases.”NUS
Services Limited (NUSSL), the commercial wing of the NUS, holds four
multimillion pound contracts with Coca Cola. They provide over five million
litres of Coca Cola produced drinks to student union outlets around the UK. The OUSU
motion resolves to “send a representative to the 2006 NUSSL AGM, and mandate
them to support a complete boycott of the Coca Cola Corporation.” At the 2005
NUSSL AGM a motion proposing to cease some of the contracts was heavily
defeated.In
response to the defeat an emer­gency motion was brought to the NUS conference
in April, resolving to investigate the allegations against Coca Cola. If any
doubts about the company’s practices are found then the NUS “must” use its 25%
share­holding in NUSSL to recommend that contracts with Coca Cola are cut. A
spokeswoman for Coca Cola Great Britain said that the claims were unfounded.In
an article in The Guardian, she said, “We are listening to people’s concerns
and are aware of the mo­tion at the NUS conference. Whilst it is important that
people have the opportunity to discuss these sorts of issues, the specific
allegations aren’t true.”In
addition to lobbying the NUS, the successful OUSU mo­tion resolves “to refuse
publicity to Coca Cola, in our publications, at our events, and in our
building.” OUSU must now refuse any offers of direct commercial relations with
Coca Cola.Oxford students may not have heard the last of the debate on Coca Cola, as the OUSU motion also proposes “to
carry a quarter page ad in The Oxford Student newspaper on at least two
occasions before the end of TT06, supporting the boy­cott call and carrying
salient facts about Coca Cola with appropriate web links.”In
the past year the Coca Cola debate has been an issue in JCRs across the
University. Last term saw the complete ban of Coca Cola products from certain
JCR bars and common rooms, including Wadham, Balliol and St Hilda’s.Alice
Ramsay, Ecology Officer for St Hilda’s JCR, who proposed the ban motion there,
said, “If OUSU is backing the NUS campaign they are showing solidarity with the
colleges who have taken a stance against corporate irresponsibility.” Alternative
cola products sug­gested include Qibla Cola, which donates 10% of its profits
to char­ity and only costs an additional 0.7p. Qibla Cola has since been
withdrawn from bars and common rooms, having gone into receiver­ship last
month.Tom
Dale, who seconded the OUSU motion said “We can’t wait for capitalism to become
responsi­ble: we’re just going to have to get together to force it to do what
we want. The Coca Cola boycott is just one of a number of ways to achieve
this.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

A hoax e-mail warning of
HIV-positive needles being placed in cinema seats has caused panic across the
University as people anxiously forwarded the warning to friends. The e-mail, which exists in many
forms, states that cinema-goers sat on needles and found a note claiming “You
have been infected by HIV.” The e-mail then continues to warn that tests on
some of the victims have proved that they had indeed contracted the virus.
Students, believing it to be true, have forwarded it on to college and
departmental friends. The e-mail was also sent on the
official Biology mailing list, but a student who knew it was a hoax responded
immediately and warned people to delete it. A member of St Hilda’s JCR received
an e-mail and sent it to the Welfare Officer, Holly Ware, who then sent it out
to the JCR mailing list, believing it to be true. The next day, however, the IT
Officer found that the e-mail was a hoax, and a message was immediately sent
out to the JCR apologising for the panic it caused as well as stating that the
information was untrue. Ware said, “I could not take the risk that this warning
may have been false and felt it my duty as Welfare Officer to inform students
of any danger.” The e-mail exists in a variety of
forms, some versions stating that needles have been placed in the coin
collection compartments of phone boxes and cash machines.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

A book detailing bizarre
questions that have been asked at Oxbridge interviews has been produced by the
company Oxbridge Applications. Tell Me About a Banana…So You Want to Go to
Oxbridge? is comprised of questions collected from over 15,000 Oxbridge
applicants over the past five years. The book cites examples such as ‘What
is the most interesting thing about a squirrel?” addressed to a prospective
PPEist.Asma Nizami, an undergraduate
lawyer at Wadham College said, “I think, nowadays,
candidates are far more aware that they have a right to be interviewed fairly.”
One second year, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was “extremely
shocked” when she walked into her interview and was faced with an Oxford tutor on a space
hopper.Oxford Admissions and admissions tutors
throughout the University refuse to comment on whether such unconventional
interviews take place, querying the authenticity of some of the more extreme
questions from the book. For example, the book states that the question ‘If
ancient history was a shape, what shape would that be?’ had been posed to
candidates applying to read Ancient and Modern History. Professor
Howard-Johnston, an Ancient and Modern History lecturer from Corpus Christi College
said, when asked whether this would be a likely question, “I find it rather odd”
and that he was “surprised that someone could be asked that.” Professor
Howard-Johnston’s own answer to the question was that if ancient history was a
shape it would be like a “Loch Ness monster or a three-humped camel because the
humps would represent the Greek, Roman and Christian Empires.” Tutors also commented that even
though many questions sound unusual, they were a relevant method of assessment
when put in context. For instance, in reply to “What does George Bush have in
common with a monkey?” in a Human Sciences interview, a tutor suggested in an
article in The Times that “the candidate might talk about evolution or taxonomy.”When asked about its position
regarding the book, the University said, “We do not endorse any commercial operations
or publications offering advice or training on our admissions process, nor do
we guarantee the accuracy of any such company’s information.”ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

Oxford University has this week unveiled initial
design plans as part of the Masterplan for the Radcliffe Infirmary development
due to commence mid-2007.The project team is to maintain
and renovate the original Radcliffe Infirmary building, completed in 1770, but
replace the more recent surrounding development with new buildings.A spokesperson for Rafael Vinoly
Architects, who have been employed by the University for the project, said, “The
inspiration for the new development came from the surrounding environment. For
instance, the nearby observatory and the Oxford University Press building were
very important in our planning process.“We wanted to open the visual
avenues so that the original buildings could be appreciated as they deserved to
be. We also wanted to remove the later additions that were suffocating the
Radcliffe Infirmary and have it in its original garden position.”The new development is potentially
to house the Mathematics and Statistics departments and the Humanities faculties.The Radcliffe Infirmary site lies
between the Woodstock Road
and Walton Street
and is also bordered by Somerville and Green Colleges.The University has estimated that
it will need a surplus 100,000 sq m for functional estate over the next 20
years due to growth in educational and research activity. This need is to be
catered for principally by the Radcliffe Infirmary Site, which was purchased
from the NHS in March 2003.The University’s interest in the
Radcliffe Infirmary site for development dates back to the 1960s, when the
Holford Report on land requirements of the University identified the Radcliffe
Infirmary as the only sizeable developable land in the city centre, and stated
that the acquisition of it was of “primary importance”. A spokesperson for the project
team spoke of his satisfaction with the Masterplan’s progress: “I don’t think
anyone envisaged arriving at a universally agreed concept as rapidly as we have
done. 180 people have visited on the first day of the exhibition and the
feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”One student, who did not wish to
be named, said he had visited the exhibition on the day it was was opened. “I
think the plans look very impressive, but I am concerned that the location of
the new site is too far removed from the centre of the city. The majority of
the colleges are a good ten or 15 minutes walk from the Infirmary development.
It would be a shame if the new learning centre meant that the city lost its
vibrant atmosphere to North Oxford.”ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

Faeces and urine were found in St John’s
College table tennis room by cleaning staff last Friday morning.Puddles of urine were discovered on the floor of the room and human faeces was found in
a bin. A trail of faeces also lead out into the rest of the building. Dr
Carolyne Lar­rington, the college’s Senior Dean, described the actions as
“completely disgusting”.Larrington said that the college’s table tennis room was accessible via a fire exit door
that all college mem­bers have a key for. She said that there were no CCTV
cameras in that area of college and that the punishments for those responsible
would "depend on the other members of staff".The college’s decanal team are cur­rently conducting an investigation into the
matter. Larrington said they were “taking the incident very seriously” but she
added that she was “unable to comment” on any possible suspects.Harry
Kretchmer, JCR President, joined the Senior Dean in condemn­ing the action.
“It’s a disgusting thing to do,” he said. “The matter is being dealt with and
those who commit­ted the offences will probably be excluded from college if
caught.” A professional cleaning company was hired by the college to clean the
room. In an email sent to all mem­bers of St
John’s, Dr Larrington said this had incurred
“considerable cost to the college” ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

Cherwell has been nominated for Best
Student Newspaper of the Year at the NUS/Mirror National Journalism Awards.
Isis Magazine, which also is owned by Oxford Student Publications Limited, had
two writers shortlisted, Noor Kadhim for Student Feature Writer and Laura
Barnicoat for Student Fashion Journalist. The Oxford Student picked up two
nominations, Roger Waite for Student Reporter and Patrick Foster for Student
Investigative Journalism. The results will be announced at an awards ceremony
on Saturday 12th November in the Marriott Hotel, London. Cherwell is up against five other contenders.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

The Christ Church
based Christopher Tower Poetry competition has launched this year’s competition
with a major increase in prize money. The competition, for budding poets aged
16-18, is now offering a £3,000 first prize, with £1000 and £750 for those in
second and third position. The winner’s school will also receive £500. The
increase from last years £1500 top prize is “taking it up a gear” according to
Dr Peter McDonald, competition judge and Christ Church
tutor. The competition was launched at last week’s Cheltenham Literary
Festival. In previous years, the themes have included “Gravity” and “Early
Morning”, and Philip Pullman and Gillian
Clarke have been among the judges.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005

Oxford University is establishing a new
scholarship scheme for Chinese students. The project will run initially for two
years from 2006 and is aimed at doctoral candidates. Ten scholarships will be
awarded each year. The memorandum states that students will come from specific
universities in China,
and will work in agreed subject areas. Na Li, President of the University’s
Asia-Pacific Society, stated, “There is a lot of academic talent in China that
cannot find its way to Oxford because of the substantial fees involved, which
are usually above £20,000 a year. A move like this can only be good for the
University and cross country relations."ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005