An Oxford Union tribunal carried out at the end of last term found President-Elect Chris Farmer not guilty on seven claims of electoral malpractice. The complaints were brought forward by Vlad Bermant, the opposing candidate for President in the Hilary Term 2005 elections.
The tribunal did not find any conclusive proof to uphold Bermant’s accusations that Farmer had made deliberately misleading statements in his presidential manifesto.
Its findings also dismissed Bermant’s allegations of innocent interference, brought againstCherwell and the Oxford Gossip website.
The tribunal also concluded that Union ex-Librarian Matthew Richardson was not guilty of deliberate publication of confidential correspondence between Bermant and potential guest speakers.
The members of the tribunal did find many aspects of the evidence put before them “disturbing”, drawing attention to the nature of current manifestos and of the Oxford Gossip website.
It stated, “We are concerned with what seems to be the current practice of stating in the manifesto famous people that it is intended will come to the society in the future” and went on to recommend changes in the Rules, calling the present system “so vague and ambiguous as to people’s actual real experience as to be worthless.”
With regard to the Oxford Gossip website, the tribunal concluded that “if there were a close election, there is a very real danger that behaviour on Oxford Gossip could interfere sufficiently in such an election to constitute innocent interference.” The report went on to recommend that the President and the Returning Officer should try to enter into discussions with the website.
The tribunal unanimously agreed that Bermant’s intentions were “not frivolous” and that none of the allegations were brought out of malice. Bermant himself did not agree to comment.
Current Union President Richard Tydeman said, “It is obviously extremely frustrating that the Union continues to be tarnished by these kinds of proceedings, and I will be taking the Tribunal’s recommendations into account when proposing some of my own amendments to the electoral rules later on this term.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

St John’s first year Engineer Azim Ansari continues to remain in the country, despite the expiration of his official deadline for voluntary return to Afghanistan. The Home Office gave the refugee and his brother Wali until 19 March 2005 to leave England or face deportation, following the failure of their own appeal against the government’s decision not to grant them leave to remain in the country.
The Ansaris have been prevented from being sent back by the intervention of local Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris. Harris has promised the brothers to put a motion through Parliament in support of their case. The Home Office is unlikely to deport the refugee while his MP’s appeals on his behalf are still being considered.
Emma Jones, a key figure in the ‘Keep Azim in Oxford’ Campaign, said, “Only the direct intervention of Des Browne or Charles Clarke will grant Azim and Wali a further period of exceptional leave to remain.”
Should Harris’ attempt to gather Parliamentary support fail, Azim’s only viable option would be to apply for a student or marriage visa either from New Delhi or Dubai. His marriage to Becky Didlick in November does not grant him the right to remain in the country. St John’s College has already offered to pay the £15,000 international student fees for which Azim would be liable.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

A second inquest has been opened into the death of Leo Blockley, a member of Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club who drowned in the Spanish River Ebro during a training session in 2000. The inquest was applied for by John Pollard, the same coroner who recorded a verdict of “accidental death” following the initial inquest.
The decision was announced by Lord Justice Maurice Key on 2 March this year.
Consent from all parties was gained after new ‘credible evidence’ concerning safety issues was discovered. Blockley was a graduate in Mathematics from Cambridge, and had been studying for a masters in Applied Statistics at Lincoln College, Oxford.
Blockley, 21 from Ashton-under- Lyne in Manchester, disappeared after his boat capsized during a training session on the River Ebro at Amposta near Barcelona on 29 December 2000. He had been rowing in a group of two coxed eights when both boats were flooded after being hit by sudden gusts of wind of 50mph. The 17 other squad members were rescued from the water.
Following Blockley’s death, his parents founded the Leo Blockley Memorial Campaign, which campaigns for safer rowing boats with the ability to withstand swamping or sinking. Stephen and Jane Blockley have paid particular attention to the buoyancy of boats used by rowers, putting pressure on rowing authorities to set higher standards.
Following the announcement of the second inquest Jane Blockley said to the Daily Telegraph, “We are relieved,” and Stephen Blockley added, “We want the truth to be told and we would like lessons to be learned.” In a joint statement the couple stated on the Memorial Campaign website, “This process has taken over a year to reach this far, and this has been a particularly difficult time for us. We do not relish the idea of going through another inquest, and no doubt neither does anyone else involved. However, as Leo’s family, we must bear witness for him, and ensure he receives the justice he is entitled to. We also firmly believe that the sport of rowing will benefit from the coroner’s examination of the many safety issues involved.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

On Monday afternoon a 22-year old woman was involved in an accident with a Stagecoach bus on High Street, bringing the City Centre to a standstill.
The accident occurred at 12.55pm involving a pedestrian and a bus operating on Route 1 between Blackbird Leys and the City Centre. The woman became trapped under the bus and was eventually freed by fire crews. She was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with pelvic injuries and her condition is thought to be stable and non-life threatening.
The bus company was not able to comment as the situation was being investigated by the police. Adam Rideout, a spokesperson for Stagecoach, did confirm that the company was conducting an internal investigation of the incident.
The route is popular with students. The bus services which run along the Cowley Road into the centre of Oxford are run by Stagecoach and the Oxford Bus Company.
Cowley Road has the highest reported accident rate of any street in Oxfordshire and a crash occurs statistically once every two weeks. More cyclists use the road than any other in the South East of England – more than 3,000 between 7am and 7pm every day.
Oxfordshire County Council have responded by implementing road safety improvements to the Cowley Road which begun on 4 April 2005 and are expected to continue until November.
The improvements, include a 20mph speed limit accompanied by signs which flash if drivers exceed this speed, three paved areas, sixteen road crossings, 40 new trees, one hundred new cycle parking spaces, 13 new benches and designated parking and loading bays. The changes are expected to cost in excess of £2m.
The scheme is the result of a large scale consultative exercise with the community and road users. The exercise was carried out by East Oxford Action and more than 2,000 people contributed ideas. The final scheme was displayed last June and the County Council claims that “the overwhelming majority of respondents supported it.” Celia Jones, from the Environment and Economy and Transport Planning Department said that the following the works, Cowley Road would be “smoother, safer and more attractive for many years.”
Sid Phelps, a Green Party Oxford Town Councillor, described the works as a “model road safety experiment” and attributed the impetus for the project and the drive for funding it to his fellow Green Councillor Craig Simmons.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

The Presidents of the Oxford University Jewish Society have condemned the National Union of Students (NUS) for its “failure to confront anti-Semitism”.
The Annual NUS Conference held on 5, 6 and 7 April 2005 ended in the resignation of three Jewish officers.
Luciana Berger, Mitch Simmons and Johnny Warren all handed in their resignation after considering the NUS’ failure to act quickly in censoring and banning the anti- Semitic literature that was being distributed at the conference by the General Union of Palestine Students.
The NUS has also been accused of ignoring a dossier prepared by the Union of Jewish Students on incidents of anti-Semitism at Sussex University and allowing a motion to strip Berger of her role as NUS Convenor of the Anti-Racism Campaign, while ignoring the statement made in an open forum at the SOAS Union, “I won’t say whether it’s a good or a bad thing to burn down a synagogue, but I can see it’s a rational act.”
Gabriel Doctor and Abigail Don sent an email to all members of the society urging students to mandate their JCR Presidents to write letters of condemnation to the NUS.
“If you’re concerned by all this, we encourage you to do something about it,” they wrote. “This is not just activism for the sake of it – many of your colleges will be directly affiliated to NUS, and so this affects you, directly.
“If your JCR is an NUS-affiliate, you can table a motion in the next meeting, mandating your President to write a letter of condemnation or censure; or if you think it’s worth it, propose a motion of disaffiliation.”
Doctor said, “I find it very worrying that an organisation supposed to represent all students, at its own conference pays scant regard to anti-Semitism. Freedom of speech is one thing, blatant and hurful lies another.”
John Blake, President of OUSU, said, “It is very sad and upsetting when anyone decides to resign on any grounds of discrimination.” Blake, who was at the NUS Conference, said that there was “a much larger delegation from the Islamic Society”.
“In the NUS passions run very highly. The nature of student politics lets people to speak more freely without fear of damaging their careers.”
Kat Fletcher, President of the NUS, maintains that the Union has the principles of equality, diversity and democracy at its core, and said that the ssues brought up at the conference would be looked into. Action on this issue will have to wait until next Sunday at the earliest.
Triona Gilbin, President of Balliol JCR, said, “We haven’t discussed this at at GM but if I was mandated I would act.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

Rumours regarding the future of the Radcliffe Camera have recently been circulated in the national press.
There were suggestions that the Lower Reading Room could be turned into a cafeteria, while the Upper Reading Room might be equipped with screens to stream videos of the “Oxford Experience” to tourists.
Ronald Milne, Acting Director of OULS, was not available for comment but in a letter to the Daily Telegraph he said, “No one should give any credence to the suggestions that the University would give up the Radcliffe Camera or change its use to embrace inappropriate multimedia presentations reminiscent of a theme park.”
In another letter to the Times Higher Education Supplement, Milne said the suggestions were “so far from describing the situation accurately that I can only hope it was intended as an April fool”.
Oxford University Library Services denied the rumours. “No decisions have yet been made concerning the future use of the Radcliffe Camera. There are no plans under consideration to turn it into a visitors’ centre.”
Linsey Cole, OUSU Vice President (Access and Academic Affairs) said, “The Radcliffe Camera rumours arose because of plans to move the books to a large warehouse at Osney Mead, where the books can be stored more efficiently.”
A University spokesperson suggested the rumour could have originated from “worried staff who were speculating over the impending library review.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

College JCRs are to sell their own crested sweatshirts, polo shirts, tshirts and jackets by the start of next academic year.
The move was proposed by Oxford Limited, a company owned by the University, who currently supply merchanise to the University Shop on the High Street. The University does not profit from these sales, as the majority of crests are not trademarked and can be used freely by independent companies.
Oxford Limited intends to offer colleges the opportunity to sell the items directly through the JCRs at competitive prices.
Mike Davies, Managing Director of Oxford Limited, proposed the move, and said he was concerned about the sweatshop manufacturing of some of the unofficial University and College products sold in Oxford.
The current plans are a result of talks between Oxford Limited and OUSU’s Ethics Committee. The production of the merchandise abides by a fair labour policy set by the International Federation of Alternative Trade.
Davies proposed the move to the Presidents’ Committee, the representative body of all JCR Presidents, on 25 February 2005.
The majority of JCR Presidents showed an interest in the scheme, which will allow JCRs to make profit from the merchandise for the first time.
Davies said, “We are all part of the same community. This is about keeping the money in the community, whether it be to help fund the academic departments or support the student body.”
OUSU helped to develope discussions between Davies and the Presidents’ Committee, and the terms of OUSU’s involvement in the venture are to be negotiated in a meeting of the committee this Friday.
Daniel Finley, Managing Director of Oxford Student Services Limited (OSSL), the business arm of OUSU, said, “We have been working with JCRs to introduce this range to the student population.
“We will be producing a catalogue, advertising the service inThe Oxford Student, in our Freshers’ Guide and our other publications, as well as developing a website and an online ordering service.
“We are committed to providing the best possible value for our students.”
Oxford Limited’s supplier, Brandco, has promised to give 10% royalties to Oxford Limited for the right to call themselves the University’s official supplier. Davies says that this sum is to go to the University chest, and will help cover Oxford Limited’s costs.
Alan Strickland, JCR President of Merton College, said of the plans, “I think any scheme that raises money for the JCR and brings down prices for students is a good thing, especially when the money made can be spent on Entz or Welfare.”
The University is currently branching out into retail. All items bearing the University of Oxford’s official trademarked logo, the belted arms, are made under licence.
Oxford Limited has also licensed designs taken from the Libraries, Museums, and Archives of the University, which have been used to sell products ranging from toys to garden tools.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

Professor Oliver Lyne, a tutor in Classics and fellow of Balliol, has died aged 60. His erudite but engaging books on Latin poetry reflected his scholarly prowess, while his jovial personality and approachability won him the affection of students as well as colleagues.
Continuing the tradition of Benjamin Jowett, the nineteenth century Master of Balliol, Professor Lyne placed great emphasis on tutorials and it was in these, as well as in informal settings such as dinner at his house, that his students gained affection and respect for him. Current Balliol Classics student Kate Tolley described him as “a considerate man, with the best interests of his students at heart, [who] was willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure they were happy academically.”
His reputation spread beyond his tutorial rooms, however. In a student poll taken to determine the best tutor in College, Lyne came top by a large majority. His unostentatious manner and his sense of humour endeared to him to those with whom he came in contact, and as a lecturer he was lively and interesting.
He saw many of his students enter careers in Classics. Dr Matthew Leigh, a former pupil of Professor Lyne and now a fellow of St Anne’s College, called him “the most wonderful tutor and truly adored by his pupils.”
Professor Jasper Griffin, his colleague in Balliol Classics over many years, said, “He was a very keen teacher, both as a popular lecturer and as a highly successful tutor.”
His work was particularly notable for the uncovering of subversive messages in Latin literature and the greater heart of darkness in the Roman world that these reflected. In Further Voices in Vergil’s Aeneid (1987), he found in the most pro-Roman of poems subtle but defiantly rebellious themes, which no scholar to date had unearthed. He made Classicists think again about the orthodoxy in Vergilian studies, opening up new lines of thought. His work was adventurous in subject, consonant with his open mind, but never less than authoritative, founded on close readings and rigorous investigation.
This did not mean at all that he lacked the gentle touch needed for appreciation of the lighter elements of Latin poetry or the humanity to understand the emotional overtones of his subject. On the contrary: his work on Latin erotic poetry, emerging as The Latin Love Poets (1980), was as influential as his work on Vergil, but it never lost sight of the romance, passion and laughter so important to it.
Professor Lyne attended Highgate School, then became a scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge. Before his appointment at Balliol in 1971, he was a research fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of Churchill College. He became a Professor of Classical Languages and Literature after three decades in Oxford, in 2001.
Under Professor Lyne, Professor Jasper Griffin and Dr. Oswyn Murray, Balliol became, in the words of The Daily Telegraph, “the most famous and successful classical school in the English-speaking world.” With the death of Professor Lyne and the recent retirements of Professor Griffin and Dr Murray, a great era not only in Balliol Classics but in Classics for the University has ended.
Oliver Lyne suffered a cerebral haemorrhage at his holiday home in the Marche, Italy, where he spent much of his free time, practising his Italian. He is survived by his wife Linda, their son and daughter.
Balliol will be remembering Oliver Lyne on Saturday 21 May in Hall at 2.15pm. All are welcome.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

A Trinity college graduate student succeeded in her complaint against the North Oxford Property Services (NOPS), after a room in her rented flat failed to meet safety regulations and was declared “unfit for human habitation” by the City Council. Chantelle Staynings was forced to move out of the property after she tripped over one of the raised floorboards, the existence of which had been previously ignored by NOPS. The property listing was consequently changed from being a threebedroom to a two-bedroom flat.
Staynings had been renting 82 The Heyes, Gloucester Green, for £1040 per month with two flatmates – Trinity finalist Sarojini McKenna and another Trinity graduate who wished to remain unnamed. Following months of complaints to NOPS and an assessment of the property by the City Council, the students eventually received monetary compensation for the unusable third room, as well as for other costs accrued from various repair problems.
The tenants first brought their concerns to the attention of NOPS in July 2004. Their letter pointed out that “the oven billowed acrid black smoke for several months” and that it “still sets off the fire alarm every time we use it”. Other complaints included the lengthy and delayed repair of a faulty sink.
NOPS company secretary David Wilding said that, as a rule, company agents “respond very quickly” to concerns and delegate repairs to subcontractors. “We make the assumption that the job has been done properly,” he said. The company also refused to compensate for the students’ travel expenses when they temporarily relocated.
When the students threatened to publicise their complaints against NOPS in the press, a letter was sent by the company’s agent Sally Franklin offering them a “compensatory fee” of £100, “on the basis that you refrain from persisting in your continued threat to release details of this incident.” The students turned down the offer and spoke toCherwell at length, requesting their quotes be kept off the record.
The students first asked for monetary compensation of the month’s rent after a leak from the washing machine buckled the floorboards, making them feel unsafe about living in the flat. A letter to NOPS on 19 January showed that after she tripped over one of the floorboards, Staynings moved out of the flat. Following weeks of negotiations with the company, she received her security deposit and, as of 1 March, no longer had to pay rent for the property.
Despite this, Wilding continued to stand by the claim that the flat was “never uninhabitable”. “I’ve never seen a parquet floor buckle so much that you can’t live on it,” he said.
In March the tenants called in Anne McMahon, a Senior Environmental Health Officer for Oxford City Council, to assess the state of the apartment. Upon visiting it, she found “grounds for unfitness for human habitation” in Staynings’ bedroom, as shown in a letter to NOPS dated 21 March.
According to regulations, openings in inhabitable rooms must be at least one-tenth of the floor area for lighting, one-twentieth of the floor area for ventilation and the room must have a minimum area of 70 square feet. The room in question failed to meet all of these requirements, making it legally uninhabitable for anyone over the age of ten, according to the Housing Act of 1985 and DOE Circular 1796.
Staynings had previously seen the main areas of the flat and all three flatmates “visited several times”, according to a letter sent to NOPS and signed by the prospective tenants. Prior to this, the flat was let for at least three years and NOPS said that they had had no complaints from previous tenants.
Contrary to the aforementioned letter, McKenna insists that she had not seen the property before agreeing to the lease, since it was unavailable on the NOPS open day of property viewing in January 2004. “It was a great location and because it was rented as a three-person flat by NOPS, I assumed it would be alright,” she said.
The original letting agent, Sue Phillips, has now left NOPS to work for Top Lettings and will take charge of letting the property in the future.ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005

Guest dinners in Christ Church were banned indefinitely by college authorities and disciplinary action was taken against two students, following rowdy behaviour at a dinner last term. Second years Gareth Jones and Patrick Timmis were fined a total of £150 each, as well as being threatened with the loss of their college accommodation, after accusations of their involvement were made by JCR President Jo Lee Morrison.
The behaviour reported during the guest dinner included urinating in the kitchen lobby, vomiting in the toilets, drunken speeches, swearing and simulating sex on the high table. The hall staff were upset by the general conduct observed during the dinner. One of the difficulties now facing the JCR is finding kitchen staff who would be willing to work at future guest dinners at Christ Church. Morrison outlined the JCR’s position, saying, “We are disappointed that it had to come to a stage where guest dinners were cancelled, but we understand the action of the college authorities.”
In an email sent out to the JCR mailing list, Morrison named Jones and Timmis as the “worst culprits” for the behaviour that evening. They were subsequently fined £100 each by the Junior Censor, Edwin Simpson.
The JCR Food Rep Charlie Barrow said, “It should have been blindingly obvious that there were going to be consequences for those people’s actions. It’s just tragic that everyone else has to live with them too.”
At the end of term bop the pair approached Morrison to find out why they had been named in her email. Although Jones and Timmis maintain that they were not aggressive in their treatment of Morrison, they were removed from the bop by the porters, following the JCR President’s complaints. Timmis said, “We confronted Jo because we felt fairly aggrieved, rather than complaining through the proper channels.”
They were then threatened with further disciplinary action, namely the loss of college accommodation for the following term. “We received an email from the junior censor saying it was very unlikely that we’d be allowed to live in college. We were really shocked,” said Timmis.
Regarding the allegation that they had urinated and vomited everywhere during the guest dinner, Jones said, “It was nothing to do with us.” Timmis went on to say that it was “completely and utterly untrue. All we did was to piggy back to high table.” Both students felt they had been unfairly treated, but emphasised that they do not want to aggravate the college authorities.
Last Tuesday Timmis and Jones were informed that they would be allowed to continue living in college this term. Following their behaviour towards Morrison at the bop, however, both students have been charged with an additional £50 fine. Timmis and Jones dispute the college’s decision to do this on the grounds that they were simply questioning someone’s actions.
An undergraduate observer at the bop, who wishes to remain unnamed, said that Jones and Timmis had “trapped Jo, who was working at the bar, behind tables”. He added, “They were very close to her and Patrick especially was shouting fairly vitriolic verbal abuse and being threatening in his stance and body language. Jo was very upset and crying after the two had been taken away.”
Morrison said that she did not want to comment about the details of the event, except to say, “I am satisfied that my complaint has been investigated thoroughly and resolved. I just want to forget it ever happened.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005