Oxford researchers Dr Miriam Moffat and Professor William Cookson have taken a dramatic step towards enhancing our understanding of asthma. The pair, and their team at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford have identified gene that predisposes the carrier asthma and atopy, a form of hypersensitivity that causes allergies. The discovery comes as a result of hard years of research, which has put the Oxford team in the select group of only a handful of organisations that have made similar discoveries. However, scientists are warning sufferers not to rush down to their GPs just yet. Professor Cookson the first to admit that the task translating the findings into treatments “will not be accomplished overnight.” The association of asthma with genes lessens the likelihood that weather conditions are to blame, which are for many are an unalterable reality of daily life.
ARCHIVE: 4th week TT 2003

Only a week after faulty electrics at Mansfield College caused a fire that left undergraduates without access to their computer room, the fire brigade were called out again, this time in response to a false alarm. The smell of smoke caused the main building to be evacuated, leaving students without facilities for several hours. Opinion amongst the students appeared to be angry as many finalists were hurried outside. A third year PPEist, Jonathan Lindley told Cherwell “This is a farce. We have enough on our plate without sirens going off.” The college is to look into its fire and safety provision before the beginning of next term.
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Keble MCR has published a report encouraging JCRs and MCRs to revise their financial relationship with the Oxford University Student Union while remaining affiliated to it. The Keble Common Room, which in the 1999-2000 academic year was disaffiliated from the Student Union, claims that dissatisfaction with “value for money” is rife amongst fellow student JCRs and MCRs. It points to a national survey it conducted that shows that OUSU is the only Student Union that charges subscription fees. In recent years a number of Common Rooms, including Oriel JCR, have disaffliated. However unlike many JCR and MCR debates on the value of OUSU, Keble MCR does not advocate disaffliation as the key. In cocompiler Andrew MacDonald’s words, they want to take the debate away from a “binary discussion” of “afflilation vs disaffliation.” It furthermore stresses the valuable work that OUSU does, pointing to its active and successful struggle over top-up fees as the current controversial issue. The compilers of the report, sent to OUSU and imminently to JCR and MCR OUSU representatives, hope that their statements will stimulate ’”constructive criticism” and an internal realignment of OUSUCommon Room relations.
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Oxford University should cut its ties with UK government to go private “loudly and proudly,” according to a senior research professor at the University, rather than continue reasoning and begging with the state sector. Concerned with the current financial situation of publicly funded institutions Nick Trefethen (the American head of the Numerical Analysis project and fellow at Balliol) advocated privatisation in latest edition of Oxford Magazine, the historic discussion forum of the University. Emphasising the necessary support required from alumni contributions, Professor Trefethen’s proposals would nonetheless require large student contributions, comparable to the £40 000 plus paid by undergraduates in the States. “We can embrace the reality that there is not a single state-run university, not one on earth, that Oxford and Cambridge are worried about” he wrote. “In our self-selected peer group, we are poorer than Yale, poorer than Princeton, and far, far poorer than Harvard or Stanford.” He believes that in order to remain great in the 21st Century the University has to lead public opinion away from its commitment to state funded education and place itself in fairer competition with the Ivy League. Professor Nick Trefethen joined Oxford in 1997 after distinguished work at Harvard and Stanford universities and now researches for the Universities Computer Laboratory. By going private Trefethen believes the University can end its attempt at “reasoning with parliament, begging the Higher Education Funding Council, entreating the UK to fund us better and control us less.” However Professor Trefethen’s proposals have received little credibility within the University. The University Press Office told Cherwell that the Oxford Magazine represents the views of Oxford academics only, “The University feels it has a future within the sector of state funding.” The Student Union showed a similar lack of concern with the article, President Will Straw labelled the proposals as “laughable.” He further questioned, “How does Trefethen propose to increase access and wider participation by unleashing market forces upon those considering applying to university?” By abandoning state funding Oxford would move alongside Britain’s only current private university, Buckingham. Its Vice- Chancellor Dr Terence Kealey commented that private institutions “are excellent not only because, by charging full fees, they are prosperous, but also, by being independent, they are not bound by government targets”. Undergraduates at Buckingham pay £40 320 for a two-year course qualification, but with grants being available for students from the Home Counties. Although the University is openly considering the movement the private sector, Trefethen’s comments have aroused concern among students. It is feared that removal of the cap for tuition from the level of £3000 currently proposed will facilitate an effective move to private funding with state’s backing.
ARCHIVE: 4th week TT 2003

An Oxford chemistry graduate planning to launch the first English language newspaper in Iraq for more than a decade. The Baghdad Bulletin, the brainchild of Ralph Hassall, 23, is due to be published next month, with around 5000 copies printed, and plans for an online version to attract international readers are well underway. A number of key academics, journalists, and politicians, Arab and Western alike, have been approached to contribute. Ralph intends the Bulletin to act as a forum for Iraqis to discuss the future their country. “I want to get Iraqis talking about what should happen the country now the war is over: what should the billions of dollars promised in aid be spent on? Who should spend it and how?” he said speaking from Jordan. Not everyone may be so convinced of the validity of such an enterprise. James Lazou, a Wadham student who played a prominent role in the Oxford Students Stop the War Group, expressed his concern about the project to Cherwell. “I find the concept of an English language newspaper being the forum for Iraqis to debate their future, very worrying, and a reflection of wider colonialist attitudes to the country.” Mr Hassall, who admits to being “a patriot,” has embarked on a potentially very lucrative path. As former City media analyst Celia Leaberry explained, if the future of Iraq is secured, a national newspaper will very likely bid to take over the Bulletin. If, however, violence should break out again in Iraq, the fate of the paper looks less certain.
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On Friday, as copies of this paper are arriving in your college, the deciding match for the title of the Oxford Universities Ultimate Frisbee Spring League will be underway between Linacre and Exeter–Hertford. Now approaching the end of its second year, the League has given 11 colleges and Brookes the opportunity to play one another in competitive Ultimate Frisbee matches through Hilary and into Trinity. And yes, I am talking about frisbees, those plastic discs you throw around in summer at the beach. Ultimate is an explosively fast team game in which each side aims to catch a frisbee in the other’s end zone, without dropping it on the way or moving while holding it. Most British unis have teams that compete in regional and national tournaments, but the game is particularly strong in Oxford with the University women’s team national champions, and the open team national runners- up. The league is split into two divisions, with one automatic promotion place for the winners of the 2nd and a play-off between the runners- up and second to bottom of the 1st. With most teams having only one match left to play, the champions and promotion positions remain open. At the top of the 1st, Linacre are favourites, having won their opening three matches. However, they must face the joint Exeter–Hertford team, who look strong with several members of the University team in their side, and would claim the title if they beat Linacre by several points. The surprise of the division is the poor showing of last season’s champions Somerville–New, who have lost all of their games, and face the possibility of relegation. In the 2nd and larger division, Balliol–Worcester look sure to win automatic promotion, having comprehensively demolished all opposition. The battle for second is much closer, with St. Anne’s and Pembroke playing this week in crucial match. Having lost only to Balliol-Worcester, St Anne’s can guarantee second with a win against the all-American Pembroke team, but with a better points difference, Pembroke would take it should they win.
ARCHIVE: 4th week TT 2003

An extraordinary thing happened in Oxford UCCE’s game against Hampshire. Oxford declared on the final afternoon, setting Hampshire a target and giving both sides a chance of victory. Even the most assiduous watchers of Oxford cricket couldn’t remember the last time Oxford had been in a position to set up a game. Hampshire needed 291 to win, at a rate of nearly six an over. They were 141 runs shy of their total, with six wickets and just under 17 overs remaining, when a downpour put pay to any further cricket. The premature end was perhaps a greater disappointment for Oxford than the county side. With the spinners, Michael Munday and Paul McMahon, bowling in tandem, Oxford were looked genuinely threatening. The chances are that Hampshire would have blocked the proverbial out of it the moment they sensed they could lose, but there was always the hope that a combination of luck and inspiration might have seen Oxford through to a victory. Munday and McMahon bowled excellently. Munday, a leg spinner in his first year at Corpus and contracted to Somerset, bowled his first over for 12 runs. His next eight went for just 21, while at the same time he picked up three wickets. With the addition of Jamie Dalrymple – currently unavailable due to finals Oxford will field a spin bowling attack in the Varsity Match better than that of many counties. Hampshire, missing most of their big names, were furious at the lateness of the declaration. In particular, veteran spinner Shaun Udal, perhaps made unusually tetchy by the plight of West Ham, waved for Oxford to leave the field. He felt that their decision to declare on the second day to give Oxford a chance of setting a total had been snubbed by Oxford declaring 30 runs too late, to set up an extremely unlikely run-chase. Had they known it was going to be a draw, they might have batted on in their first innings. But from the Oxford perspective, it was understandable that they wanted the extra safety of making Hampshire force the pace. Oxford’s position in this game was almost entirely due to excellent innings from Joe Sayers and Ed Cowan. The latter, a former Australian under-19 batsman, made 99 off 148 balls, as Oxford sought quick runs to set up the declaration. He fell to an excellent piece of bowling from Udal and a low bounce. Looking to push the ball into the leg-side for this century, Cowan played across a quicker ball and was lbw. After a rapid start, Sayer’s first innings century was altogether more sedate. He slowed considerably as he neared his 50 and then his 100. But it was not a worse innings for lacking a shot-a-ball. On a pitch with increasingly uneven bounce and against a lively Hampshire attack, it was just the sort of innings that an opener should play. By the time he was ninth out for 122, he had shepherded the Oxford score to 273 – a total the last pair increased by eight. Hampshire were posed few problems in their first innings. McMahon bowled well, as, at times, did Tom Mees. Former Oxford blue Will Kendal made a century and Lawrence Prittipaul, a distant cousin of West Indian batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, made an unbeaten half-century. With the dismissal of Kendal, Hampshire declared, 19 runs behind Oxford’s first innings total, to try to get a good finish. It almost worked.
ARCHIVE: 4th week TT 2003