Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Blog Page 445

Oxford colleges provide meals for the vulnerable

Isabella Colletta
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Oxford colleges provide meals for the vulnerable

A number of Oxford colleges have joined forces to assist with an Oxford Mutual Aid (OMA) project to make and deliver hot meals to the vulnerable in Oxfordshire.

University College announced they would be re-opening their kitchens on 1st May to help provide hot meals to restart the meals delivery service, in partnership with OMA, Dementia Oxfordshire, and AGE UK. The pilot scheme, named “The Kitchen Collective”, was launched by OMA following cuts to the home meals delivery service because of social distancing measures.

Since launching the scheme at the beginning of May, a small team of volunteers, including the University College Head and Sous Chef, have been working to continue to expand the programme. Between 6th May and 8th May, the number of meals provided as part of the initiative grew from 170 to 350 hot meals.

Image by Paul Moloney – University College

Jesus and Wadham College both announced recently that they would be supporting and up-scaling the project by providing University College, with further funding to continue meal production and to ensure the sustainability of the scheme. 

Angela Unsworth, University College Domestic Bursar, expressed in a statement to Cherwell that: “University College is pleased to be able to support vulnerable people in our wider community at such difficult times. We are grateful for the collaborative efforts of Wadham and Jesus Colleges in assisting us in doing so.”

Ruedi Baumann, Director of Accommodation, Catering & Conferences at Jesus College, explained the colleges’ decision to contribute to the project saying: “We were initially approached by OMA, who were asking colleges if they could support any of the wide range of projects they’re running to help vulnerable people during the pandemic. This initiative, instigated by Univ, is a wonderful way to collaborate with other colleges in order to support the community and one we are very happy to be a part of.”

France Lloyd, Domestic Bursar of Wadham College, further added that “Wadham was keen to help OMA after hearing about their pilot scheme. This initiative is a wonderful way to collaborate with other colleges in order to support our Oxford community.”

Meals are given to Dementia Oxfordshire and AGE UK home service users, including those suffering with dementia and the elderly, families who receive free school meals vouchers, and other food insecure people within the Oxfordshire community.

A spokesperson from OMA expressed the importance of the College’s support for the project, stating to Cherwell: “We are delighted to have had donations and other offers of help from many different colleges, including Christ Church, Wadham, St. Catherine’s, Jesus, Merton, St. Anne’s, and Univ.”

Pointing to the importance of the project, OMA said: “Given the uncertain times ahead, we must all work together to ensure that no one in our community is going hungry.

“The colleges play a unique role in city life, and it is wonderful to see such a clear and unequivocal show of support. Many Oxford Mutual Aid volunteers are students and post-grads, and we all think that the involvement of the colleges has helped cement the idea that we are all in this together.” 

Image Credits: Paul Moloney from University College

Trinity College chef shares recipes for students on Instagram

Florine Lips
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Trinity College chef shares recipes for students on Instagram

Trinity College’s Head Chef, Julian Smith, is helping students recreate their favourite college meals at home by uploading detailed recipes online. So far, eight recipes have been published on the college’s website and Instagram page, subject to request and popularity. 

The recipes consist of step-by-step instructions, complete with pictures showing every stage of the process. Recipes have included restaurant-standard dishes such as ratatouille bruschetta and crème brulée with sorbet.

Julian Smith said on the Trinity College website: “I have initially struggled but after three weeks of family isolation I have finally got some structure to my daily routine. On Sunday I plan the dinner menus for the coming week, incorporating at least two dishes to write up with pictures for our students.

“Around 6pm most days I will make preparations for dinner, this has now turned into the main event of the day! In our small family we have one gluten-free pescatarian, one lactose-intolerant vegetarian and an eleven month old baby – so just like a smaller version of Trinity!”

Students can request certain recipes they’d like to try, and find them under #CookingWithJules on the college’s Instagram page @trinitycollegeox. 

View this post on Instagram

Another request for a #CookingWithJules recipe, this time from Twitter asking for his delicious lemon posset!! @trinitychefjules LEMON POSSET WITH SHORTBREAD ** Ingredients *** For the posset — 650ml double cream — 150g caster sugar — Grated zest and 100g juice of unwaxed lemons For the butter shortbread — 255g plain flour, sifted — 170g salted butter, diced and kept cold — 125g caster sugar, plus extra to dust *** Method*** — Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/gas mark 3. Heat the cream and sugar to scalding point, not boiling, in a small saucepan. While still on the heat, whisk in the lemon zest and juice and bring to the boil for 30 seconds, whisking all the time. — Remove the pan from the heat and put to one side for the posset mixture to cool. When cool, pour into small (150ml) glasses, then refrigerate until set. This should take around 30 minutes. — To make the shortbread, whizz the flour, butter and caster sugar together in a food processor, until the mixture comes together. Alternatively you can do this with your hands by rubbing the mixture together between your fingertips and then lightly pressing it together to form a ball – don’t overwork the dough at this stage. Turn out on to a sheet of non-stick greaseproof paper and roll out to ½cm thick using a floured rolling pin. Using a 5cm round pastry cutter, cut out rounds of dough and carefully transfer to a baking sheet lined with more greaseproof paper. Sprinkle with some extra caster sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 10–15 minutes or until lightly golden. Once out of the oven allow the shortbread rounds to rest for 10 minutes. — Serve the posset chilled, accompanied by the shortbread. #recipes #recipe #homecooking #homebaking #recipeshare #shortbread #lemonposset #lockdown #lockdownlife #trinitycollegeoxford

A post shared by Trinity College, Oxford (@trinitycollegeox) on

Other college chefs are using similar methods to engage with students, such as Simon Robinson, Head of Catering Services at Hertford. In a video on the college’s YouTube channel, Robinson outlines his “Top Tips for a Hertford Dining Experience at Home”, which includes advice on meals, drinks, and after-dinner entertainment.

Image Credit: Julian Smith, @trinitycollegeox

Oxford Living Wage Campaign and UCU express concern over ‘paternalistic’ Hardship Fund

Christina Kirk
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Oxford Living Wage Campaign and UCU express concern over ‘paternalistic’ Hardship Fund

Oxford University’s Human Resources Department established a Staff COVID-19 Hardship Fund, intended to alleviate some of the financial stress brought upon its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The site explaining the details of the Fund, accessible on the HR webpage – notes that Department Heads of Administration and Finance should apply on behalf of individual employees. Applicants may write directly if they wish, but they must get a supplementary letter of support from the Head of Administration and Finance.

In the application, employees must include their name, employing department, grade and salary including length of service, income and expenditure details, and sufficient detail to support the application and whether financial hardship has been demonstrated. Oxford HR also recommends that applicants include “specific requirements” for financial assistance brought on by the pandemic.

The Oxford Living Wage Campaign told Cherwell: “This is yet another inadequate response to the current crisis from the university. It is an unnecessarily intrusive and bureaucratic process, and exposes Oxford’s typically paternalistic approach to its workers. We are concerned that this hardship fund will be much harder to access for those lower down the pay scale, and those who do not have cosy relationships with their heads of division. Oxford should not be turning the demonstration of hardship into a competition, and should not make financial support conditional upon workers disclosing the intricacies of their private spending. You do not rescind your right to a private life at the workplace door. We again repeat our demand that the university and all its colleges guarantee job and immigration security, with 100% pay (with a ‘hazard pay’ uplift to 125% for those unable to work from home) for all workers on all contract types during and after this crisis.”

In a statement given to Cherwell, a spokesperson for the University said: “The Hardship Fund was established to support the existing Littlemore Trust staff fund in recognition that the Covid-19 crisis may have a significant financial impact on some staff and their families. This is one of a number of measures the University has brought in to support the health and well-being of our staff.  

“The fund is aimed at helping staff and students who are experiencing financial issues which may be resolved through a grant or, occasionally for staff, an interest-free loan.

“As with all organisations and businesses, the economic implications of the Covid19 crisis will be significant for the University. All our work throughout this difficult period is being done in our usual collaborative way, in discussion with Divisions, Departments, the Colleges, the University Administrative Service and the Gardens Libraries and Museums.”

The Oxford Living Wage Campaign and the Oxford University & College Union have posted critical statements in recent weeks about the University’s responses to the impact of COVID-19 on employee welfare. For instance, the UCU has petitioned the University to pause redundancies and disciplinary procedures during the pandemic.

When asked about the Oxford Living Wage Campaign’s statement regarding the Staff COVID-19 Hardship Fund, Marina Lambrakis, co-Vice-President of the Oxford UCU said, on behalf of the Oxford UCU: “It is good to see the University recognise that staff are facing hardship and unprecedented challenges at the moment. This fund could be a step in the right direction – but it is currently not at all clear how it will work: how applications will be evaluated or by who, how much money is available, or how it will be allocated. Having to disclose a huge amount of very personal information through your seniors to a generic email address, with no transparency about who will have access to that data, is deeply concerning to us and to many of our members. The Living Wage campaign are right to call this intrusive and paternalistic. We already know of staff feeling unsafe and pressured to return to work, and the University refuses to pause redundancies and is ploughing ahead with business as usual. It’s hard to say how much of their communications we can take in good faith. 

“The Oxford UCU branch are currently looking into setting up an independent hardship fund for members who have been adversely affected by Covid-19, following the model of Warwick Anti-Casualisation. We shouldn’t have to be doing this, but staff at the University are being let down – and not just our members. We encourage anyone interested to get in touch on [email protected] if you are keen to get involved in some way – and remember, postgrads also get UCU membership for free.”

Image Credit to: Tetiana Shyshkina/@shyshkina/unsplash.com

University announces vaccine partnership

Catherine Dema
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University announces vaccine partnership

On 30 April, the University of Oxford announced a partnership with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for global development and distribution of the University’s potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection from SARS-CoV-2. The partnership aims to bring the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine to patients if the vaccine becomes distributable. The vaccine candidate is being trialled by the University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group. The coronavirus vaccine development began in January 2020.

If the University’s vaccine candidate is successful, AstraZeneca will be in charge of development, global manufacturing, and distribution of the vaccine. AstraZeneca will work to make the vaccine available in conjunction with global partners – with a focus on making the vaccine available and accessible to low- and medium-income countries. 

Both AstraZeneca and the University have agreed to operate on a not-for-profit basis during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oxford University announcement states: “Oxford University and its spin-out company Vaccitech, who jointly have the rights to the platform technology used to develop the vaccine candidate, will receive no royalties from the vaccine during the pandemic. Any royalties the University subsequently receives from the vaccine will be reinvested directly back into medical research, including a new Pandemic Preparedness and Vaccine Research Centre. The centre is being developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca.”

The partnership is to be the first of its kind since the government launched a dedicated Vaccines Taskforce – aimed at finding, testing and delivering a new coronavirus vaccine. It comes alongside £20 million in government funding for the University’s vaccine research and clinical trials.

In a comment to Cherwell, an AstraZeneca spokesperson said: “The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca have a longstanding relationship to advance research and scientific understanding of complex diseases. By partnering we want to combine Oxford’s world-class expertise in vaccinology with AstraZeneca’s global development, manufacturing and distribution capabilities. Our hope is that, by joining forces, we can accelerate the globalisation of a vaccine to combat the virus and protect people from the deadliest pandemic in a generation.”

The spokesperson continued: “As COVID-19 continues its grip on the world, the need for a vaccine to defeat the virus is urgent. The Jenner Institute proved in previous trials that the same vaccine platform had shown promise in early clinical trials. This means they have been able to develop the potential COVID-19 vaccine and advance to clinical trials more quickly. AstraZeneca will be working closely with the University, governments, health authorities and CMOs over the coming weeks and months to ensure we can accelerate the development and manufacturing as quickly as possible.”

The partnership aims to increase the speed with which the vaccine  – if successful – could reach patients worldwide. 

In AstraZeneca’s announcement, Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said: “Our partnership with AstraZeneca will be a major force in the struggle against pandemics for many years to come. We believe that together we will be in a strong position to start immunising against coronavirus once we have an effective approved vaccine. Sadly, the risk of new pandemics will always be with us and the new research centre will enhance the world’s preparedness and our speed of reaction the next time we face such a challenge.”

The partnership will prepare for future pandemics and attempt to increase the speed with which such challenges are addressed. By creating the framework for future development, the University and AstraZeneca hope to improve responses to future pandemics.

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said: “The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca have a longstanding relationship to advance basic research and we are hugely excited to be working with them on advancing a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 around the world. We are looking forward to working with the University of Oxford and innovative companies such as Vaccitech, as part of our new partnership.”  

Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, expressed her excitement about and approval of the AstraZeneca partnership. “Like my colleagues all across Oxford, I am deeply proud of the work of our extraordinarily talented team of academics in the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group. They represent the best tradition of research, teaching and contributing to the world around us, that has been the driving mission of the University of Oxford for centuries. Like people all across the country, we are wishing them success in developing an effective vaccine. If they are successful, our partnership with AstraZeneca will ensure that the British people and people across the world, especially in low and middle income countries, will be protected from this terrible virus as quickly as possible.”

Image Credit to: fernandozhiminaicela/Pixabay

Oxford provides online learning resources for school students

Lucy Tansley
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Oxford provides online learning resources for school students

Oxford University is providing resources to help children learn while schools are closed. The Department of Education is providing online home-schooling resources and Oxplore, a digital learning portal, has seen significantly increased traffic. 

Oxford’s Department of Education aims to “contribute to all phases of public education in the UK and internationally” with its research and services. It has collated a large selection of materials to help parents home-school their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Their website, which brings together over ninety links for helpful websites and learning tools, echoes efforts from around the university to provide support for those working from home. Balliol have created a set of similar resources and guides for educators to help them with online teaching, as well as advice for parents.

Oxford University Press has also created an online portal for those in all stages of education in lockdown, aiming to provide “expert advice, resources and tailored guidance to support children’s learning”. Its “Oxford Owl” service offers activities and material for teaching primary school age pupils in particular. 

Oxford University runs a digital outreach portal Oxplore, which offers an accessible look at “Big Questions” aimed at 11-18-year-olds through quizzes, exercises and activities. Questions include “Does a god exist?”, “Can war be a good thing?”, “Does it matter who you love?” and “Should healthcare be free?”. Although designed for use by young people, Oxplore has produced resources for parents hoping to engage their children in lockdown, and is running livestream events to discuss new topics. 

The University states that visits to the site had increased by 43% in the first weeks of lockdown, and that more than 8,900 of these visits were from first time users. Since the start of lockdown, more engagement has been noted from rural areas, and more remote regions, such as the Isle of Man. 

Dr Samina Khan, Oxford’s Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach, commented in a statement: “We want to target these resources in particular to those students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” to offer support and guidance whilst learning from home. 

In addition to its existing resources, Oxplore has adapted to the current climate by expanding their content. In a post on their outreach blog, Sarah Wilkin, Outreach Officer at Oxford University, wrote that “in the next few weeks, the Oxplore team will be posting mini-challenges for 11-18 year olds to complete using oxplore.org”, with the aim that these activities will “give students the opportunity to practise key skills used in university study such as building an argument, summarising information, and producing a creative response to a source.”

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Zoom library and Discord beer pong: Virtual college life takes form

Mark Robins
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Zoom library and Discord beer pong: Virtual college life takes form

Social distancing has not stopped students from continuing college life. Whilst buildings may be closed, Entz and welfare events have transitioned online this term. 

Exeter JCR has created a “Zoom library”, which students can join to study alongside each other. To recreate the library atmosphere, participants place their microphones on mute while working. Students wishing to have a break or chat with friends can join a breakout room, acting as a “virtual JCR”.

“At first the idea was a bit of fun,” said JCR President William Dobbs, “but then we thought having an online space where people could work alongside each other might make it more bearable.

“We planned on opening it only on weekday mornings, but it’s since taken off and it’s now open all day throughout the week. People come and go as they like and keep it on in the background while they work. It has only worked because everyone has responded so well and kept it busy.”

St Catherine’s Entz team has hosted social events on the video call application Discord. The platform allows users to join different ‘tables’, each with a small number of people, and switch between them, as they would do in the college bar. Different activities, including dancing, take place in each ‘table’.

For the first event, organisers encouraged students to wear fancy dress and make a cocktail from a suggested recipe. 

Entz Reps Laura and Benji told Cherwell: “We knew we wanted to carry on with Entz this term because it’s such a big part of Catz life. The Discord server worked really well, and people could chat and easily move between conversations like they do normally at Entz events.”

The event was Pride-themed and over 50 people attended. The Entz team gave out awards for best outfit and drink. They added: “The highlights would probably be the ‘dance floor’ room where music was playing pretty loud and there was also a virtual beer pong game going on in one room with people coming in and out. We are really excited for the next one.”

Meanwhile, University College Music Society has organised open-mic nights via Zoom.

“Open Mic Reps” Guy and Memoona said: “We’ve already had two which were very successful, family members have been getting involved and the reception has been great. We have people perform covers, original music, poetry, and stand-up comedy. We’ve actually had a turnout that’s better than some of the in-person events.

“The highlights have to be when people get their families involved. We’ve had someone perform a duet with their father on accordion, someone’s mother read out some poetry, and had a brother-sister singing duet.”

Several colleges are using video calls to continue welfare support during lockdown. This includes Mansfield College’s weekly welfare teas, run by Chaplain Sarah Farrow. 

“It’s a way to reconnect with the Mansfield community –   to remember that you are part of something bigger,” said Rev’d Farrow. “If you’re feeling ‘stuck’ – at home, in college or wherever you are –joining the online welfare tea is a good way to get outside of one’s own situation.”

Elizabeth Li, Junior Dean, added: “Our hope is the welfare teas will help students to continue to feel part of the Mansfield community even where they’re not here physically. It’s helpful for students to see that everyone is experiencing similar feelings and challenges.”

Mansfield has also produced an e-magazine called “Virtual Quad”. It gives information about where to find support and welfare tips from staff and students.

Image Credit to: Vadim Sherbakov/@madebyvadim/unsplash.com

Oxford, Reviewed

Sophia Cerullo
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Oxford, Reviewed

The Radcliffe Camera

The pièce de résistance, the joire de vivre, the petit filous, the jewel in Oxford’s mighty, mighty crown. You’ve posted the shit out of it on your story, WhatsApp’d pictures to your dad so he can say how proud of you he is again. You’ve coerced friends into making a ‘little detour’ on the way back from Bridge so you can make a profound speech about how lucky you are and that these are the best days of your lives.

Other than stalking someone you know will definitely be in there (trying to do a nonchalant lap of the upper camera is no mean feat), what else do you actually do in the Rad Cam? Get a book? Actually do your work? Your library companion appears to know every single person sat in there – ‘oh, you know, Neave from OxWib!’ You spend your time desperately needing the loo (you’ve decided to go up the windy stairs which means it’s a 40 minute walk to the nearest lav and quite frankly you can’t be arsed), staring over the shoulder of some really quite old gentleman working on some sort of research and wondering if that’s what you would end up looking like if you did a panic masters. 

Finally, is the variety in chair type quaint or extremely jarring? 

The Bodleian Library 

For the first few weeks (term… year) of your degree you think this is just the square bit, but actually when people refer to ‘The Bodleian’ they mean the rad cam as well. And the glink, apparently. 

The square bit (does it actually have a name? please let me know) tiptoes the line of enjoyable and incredibly stressful– you think you know the route to go for a wee/fill up your Chilly’s/find a friend, but when you turn the corner you are actually in somewhere completely different to where you thought you were. Only to be smirked at by a fourth year linguist, you surreptitiously dial your lost pal: ‘right so if you look forward you should see the Rad Cam. And you’re in the lower reading room?’ ‘Yeah obviously, I’m not stupid.’ You look out the window ahead of you to see the Weston Library and the lift door which says ‘upper reading room.’ You sack off this whole charade and head back to the Rad Cam; at least there you know vaguely where you’re going.  

The Bridge of Sighs

You mistakenly refer to Oxford’s masterpiece as the Bridge of Spies to a group of Year 12s on an access tour; they write on their feedback form, ‘Hertford was nice, but I didn’t get to meet Tom Hanks or Mark Rylance.’ Do people actually use the bridge? Or is it just fodder for Hertford’s admissions brochure? You’ve got a ball/matriculation pic there sure, but the angle required to get both you and the bridge in the image results in an unfortunate double chin. Upon smattering your facebook with the pictures you receive comments (and the odd direct message!) from Italian relatives accusing your university of stealing its architecture from Venice.

Christ Church Meadows

Really nice, summery. Bit of a schlep but quite good for welfare and Summer Eights, which is essentially a day of screaming louder and louder as you have more and more Pimm’s. Stumbling back towards college at 5pm, sunburnt and with red and blue face paint stinging your eyes, you spy Keble M1s who you recall were in the bid to win: ‘GO ON BOYS!! KEBLEEEEE! KEBLEEEEEE!’ Before breaking into a slurry rendition of ‘Angels’, you are met with the cox’s stony expression: ‘the race is over ladies.’ You hiccup though a smile and walk away, tail between your drunken legs.  

Jericho

Dubbed ‘Trendy Jericho’ by I imagine many, many groovy and hip youngsters. The threshold for trendy Jericho is probably Gail’s, or if needs must Taylor’s at the top of Little Clarendon Street. Upon entering Jericho you can adopt your Trendy Jericho walk, which is essentially a slow-placed, laid-back rhythmic saunter, a ‘sway’, letting your knee-length leather coat flap in the breeze. 

Probably will only enter if you have a GP appointment or going to bday drinkipoos at Freud (Freud’s? Frevd?), in which you spend a terrible amount on tiny little cocktails and humiliate yourself by over-enthusiastically throwing shapes to DFO whilst everyone else is making do with a subtle knee bend and one arm in the air.

The Ashmolean

You’re either a CAAH/ Arch & Anth student, or any humanities undergrad having your 2nd year crisis of intelligence. You need to be more cultured, take advantage of this wonderful university to happen to find yourself in. ‘I’m just going to take myself to the Ashmolean this afternoon’ you announce mid-sausage at Saturday brunch, only to receive confused looks and the odd giggle. 

After experiencing the ego-stroking thrill of flashing your Bod Card and getting in for free, you plug in some classical music (slash the soundtrack to Call Me By Your Name), and swan in, ready to have your cultural senses awakened. 15 minutes later you buy 2 postcards, one of a Raphael sketch the other of some very ornate, very niche Japanese sculpture, and head back to college via Najar’s to go and play table tennis in the JCR. 

Cornmarket 

As a mate, don’t bother. There’s the electric ‘Oxford hustle and bustle’ which comes to the fore at May Morning, and then there is the teeming fresh hell of Cornmarket Street. You should only have to look upon it at a safe distance, eg. when going to Tesco’s. 

Don’t get me wrong, nabbing a post-Parkers maccies is fine, but in the inky depths of night you are shielded from the atrocities of such a place. The following morning, deep in an inexplicably horrible hangover, you are carried in the swaying swarm from WHSmith to Pret a Manger, not knowing your arse from your elbow. 

Should only traverse when necessary, ie mid essay-crisis you want to be soothed by the unwavering constancy of Stand by Me, when you’re late for something down St Aldates, or need to nip to Westgate. But for the latter, surely, shirley, you could carve out a route down the high-street to avoid this claustrophobic hell hole? 

The Sheldonian 

Quite nice? I think? Quite a confusing shape. Will enter the actual building max 3 times: matriculation, graduation, and once for your friend’s first concert with OUO (‘Don’t worry, we’re only playing 4 symphonies’; thinking that a symphony is probably the length of your standard Ed Sheeran song you enthusiastically agree to show your support, only to sacrifice four hours of your Saturday night). Josh, you’re an extremely talented violinist and I very much enjoyed the performance. 

Uni Parks

Quite a useful one to have in your arsenal, especially for the northern Oxfordian. ‘Going for a welfare walk’ can be used to procrastinate, inadvertently ask someone on a date, or to go and stare at rugby boys for half an hour (obviously I’ve never done that). The space also seems to have its own unit of time: ‘how long will you be?’ ‘2 laps of uni parks’. 

Covered Market

The culinary Bodleian library, if you will: excellent and aesthetically-pleasing in theory, but in reality a panic-inducing nightmare. Structured like the final maze of the Triwizard tournament or similar. Stifled by ornate jewellers, ice cream shops and independent cafes, you try to remember the name and location of that exotic eatery to impress your friend from home before throwing in the towel and getting pesto pasta from Taylor’s (again).   

North Parade 

Again, fine. Quite a frosty response when you ask your friends from Magdalen if they want to meet there: ‘are you clinically insane?’ You take the college family to The Rose and Crown for adorable family drinks at the start of Hilary, but it’s only when you say to the kids, ‘get anything you want, it’s on us!’ you remember its 8 pounds for in all honesty quite a crap gin and tonic. But at least the outdoor bit with the lights looks nice. 

Broad Street/Catte Street Roundabout

You thought Cornmarket was bad. ‘Oh, a key location!’ you think, ‘The King’s Arms to the left of me, Blackwell’s to the right of me!’ But let me ask you this, have you ever felt safe, truly safe, traversing that roundabout? Your corporeal existence on earth is in the hands of either an unsettlingly clean BMW wanging round it at high speeds (when they were filming The Crown in Michaelmas you’re sure you saw Olivia Colman give you a little wave through a blacked out window), or an unruly cyclist, no helmet and riding his bike standing up to demonstrate a command of the road, calling you a fuckwit and screaming at you to get out the way. ‘It’s Oxford, not the Tour de France!’ you shout back in an attempt to disarm them, only to no avail: they’ve already got to the high street and you just get weird looks from passing tourists. Yet again you’ve risked your life to go to the library, but such is the dynamic Oxford lifestyle. I’m sure we’ll be back before long. 

You are not alone – What getting run over by a bus taught me about myself and Oxford

Elizabeth Bircham
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You are not alone – What getting run over by a bus taught me about myself and Oxford

It’s been an odd year for everyone. Few could have predicted that Hilary would end in such a dramatic fashion, and certainly not myself, for whom Michaelmas ended almost as spectacularly. I’ll set the scene; it was late November, and I was cycling over Magdalen Bridge when I was knocked off my bike by a double decker bus – a huge, purple, park and ride beast of a thing – and there was a delay of 2 seconds before I realised it had taken about half of my right foot with it. Minutes before I’d been worrying about whether I’d finish my reading in time to get to Fuzzy Ducks Friday, and now I was clutching my foot and screaming in the middle of the road like an extra in Casualty.

It felt less dramatic than it looked. As I was whisked off to the JR in an ambulance, I was still worrying about whether I’d make the Wadham Christmas dinner, assuming that they’d wrap me up in a cast and send me home that day. Don’t get me wrong – the pain was awful – but I’d never heard of a degloving injury (do NOT google if you’re eating), let alone what the recovery entailed. What it did entail, as I found out, was weeks in hospital, 3 surgeries to get my foot looking anything like a foot again and a Hilary spent almost entirely on crutches and going back and forwards to the JR (largely thanks to breaking 5 bones in my foot. Fun fact – around 75% of patients who break their heel are male. This is because they break under impact, something more likely when engaging in risky behaviour). As a friend so astutely noted, my mean-girls Santa costume of the bop before had been the perfect foreshadowing; my life and that of Regina George had never seen such communion, a feat for any plain and spotty teenager like myself.

“What it did entail, as I found out, was weeks in hospital, 3 surgeries to get my foot looking anything like a foot again and a Hilary spent almost entirely on crutches”

The NHS were amazing. College was amazing. Friends were amazing (although I appreciate the visibility of my difficulty was a privilege). My college provided me with academic taxis and a hardship bursary as I had been unable to work over the vac, and I promised myself never to doubt that I had friends again (doing otherwise would be an insult to the calories they burned hiking up Headington Hill). The NHS went above and beyond, even transferring me to another hospital to receive more expensive treatment that would save me from the worst of the disfigurement. I was also given a trauma psychologist that I can see, for free, for the rest of my life. Of course, the funding problem was never far away; I had to receive a blood transfusion because of the blood I lost waiting for surgery; I spent an extra week in hospital waiting for a bed to become available at the next, and the wait times in the fracture clinic were often upwards of two hours. It was very surreal watching those responsible be voted back in from my hospital bed. Despite this, the NHS remains just about effective in most emergencies like mine. When it works, it is our most precious asset – but it will reach a point, perhaps during this crisis, where it is not able to attend every life-threatening situation. We must defend it with everything we have.

A few things I learnt during this bizarre time:

Walking is incredibly convenient. This is particularly true in Oxford which is near impossible to navigate on crutches unless you shovel a load of money into Royal Cars (spoiler – I did). There were some frustrating moments – I was told the lift to my college library was down until summer; I realised that getting to the lift in the Bodleian required going down a flight of stairs (?!) and that the traffic problem around the JR can make it a 3 hour round trip from Iffley for a 20 minute appointment. I was exhausted, and I can’t begin to appreciate the stress of doing it full time – it was a reminder to stop passively tolerating the inaccessibility of Oxford just because it doesn’t (usually) affect me.

You do not have to justify how you feel. I was extremely fortunate that only my foot was crushed, and I likely avoided below-the-knee amputation by a matter of inches. This was not always a comfort.  In the beginning I felt trapped in a cycle of resenting the situation, reminding myself how lucky I was and then ruminating about what could have happened. I often felt guilty that I was so fortunate. I got myself out of these ruts by remembering that I had not lost sympathy for friends struggling with essays and job applications, so it was likewise unlikely that anyone would deny my right to be upset just because I was luckier than others. Furthermore, as Hilary wore on and the normal stresses of Oxford life returned, they did not feel less trivial just because of the trauma I’d experienced. Similarly, worrying about taking exams online or missing your friends during the pandemic does not mean that you are ignorant of those suffering more acutely; guilt is pointless if it is directed at things you are powerless to change.

And finally,

“I want to say thanks to anyone who has helped, from the strangers who rang the ambulance and sat with me until it came, to the friend who rescued me from a bop mosh pit when the response to  “Baby Shark” was just that bit too enthusiastic”

You are much stronger than you think you are. I wouldn’t have regarded myself as good at “coping” with things – I’m often found crying in the library over an essay – and it has been bizarre to have people commend me on my strength of character during this. I’ve wondered whether this is because people think they couldn’t have managed themselves. The truth is, you just do. You cope not because it’s inspirational or comment worthy, but because there’s no alternative and it eventually gets boring to do anything other than get on with your normal life, even if it does involve spending an entire night in Fever on crutches. Many of us may face difficult times ahead due to COVID-19. Whilst my experience is in no way comparable, and there is absolutely no shame in struggling to cope, you may find that your capacity to do so is far beyond what you expected.

Whilst “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” will never hit the same, my reign as Wadham’s Regina George is almost over. Jokes aside, I want to say thanks to anyone who has helped, from the strangers who rang the ambulance and sat with me until it came, to the friend who rescued me from a bop mosh pit when the response to  “Baby Shark” was just that bit too enthusiastic. I really am so grateful. And if you take one thing from this article, please cycle responsibly. For many students, cycling here is our first time using the road. Our lifestyles involve rushing around from A to B, and there is a culture of complacency towards wearing helmets. Remember that you are not invincible. What happened to me could happen to anyone, and it is so much better to be 10 minutes late than to be injured, or worse. My first thought when I got hit was “I’m not wearing a helmet” – please don’t let that be yours. Until we can ride the roads again, and after, keep safe.

Project Restart: A vital conversation

Joe Hyland Deeson
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Project Restart: A vital conversation

In the midst of a national crisis, and in a news climate dominated by daily updates of infection and mortality rates across the country and the world, the Premier League has stepped up discussions concerning the potential resolution of the current season, dubbed ‘Project Restart’. Several club chairmen have faced criticism in the media for their apparent focus on the financial, rather than human, implications of the current pandemic.

On the face of it, there are a number of issues. With the entire country focussed on a deadly pandemic, the thought that twenty Premier League clubs, with their twenty-five man squads, should be able to finish a season so that TV contracts can be fulfilled and the transfer market millions can resume seems at best optimistic, and at worst selfish. After all, these are the footballers that took so long to take a pay cut at the onset of the crisis, and even when they did it was only through voluntary donations to the ‘Players Together’ fund, just a fraction of their multi-million pound salaries. Reports of financial difficulties are given short shrift by the mainstream media, with many people finding it hard to sympathise with even some of the smaller Premier League clubs such as Burnley, with owner Mike Garlick last week confirming they faced a £50 million shortfall if the season were cancelled. The money that Manchester United, one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, will lose in advertising, TV and match day revenue is reportedly over £20 million less than the money they spent on transfers last summer alone.

Yet such arguments and comparisons of wealth completely miss the point of the need for ‘Project Restart’. No one is disputing that top tier football involves almost unfathomably large sums of money. Nor that Premier League footballers are generally very rich people. But the clubs are run as businesses by their owners, and like the majority of businesses around the world, are finding that they are not built to withstand the effects of a global pandemic. When Matt Hancock singled out footballers, he chose to ignore other high paid workers. There was no call for wider CEO pay cuts.

The financial implications of voiding the season are unthinkable. The Premier League pays around £3.3 billion in tax every year. It also helps to fund the Football League, as well as the entire football pyramid, right down to grassroots level. If the season is not finished, TV and sponsorship contracts cannot be fulfilled. And when the twenty Premier League clubs lose out, their players, fans and staff all lose out, and those that depend on their financial support lose out. Love them or loathe them, football clubs are deeply ingrained within the fabric of communities. Any threat to football clubs constitutes a threat to these communities.

The implications of ‘Project Restart’ are naturally concerning from a public health perspective, and this goes beyond the players themselves. The Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has been one of its most vocal advocates, but has emphasised that all arguments about venues and kick-off times are hypothetical until the government deems it safe. The ideas of resuming the season and continuing caution with regards to the virus are not mutually exclusive. This is especially important for Parish – Palace’s manager Roy Hodgson is 72, technically placing him in an ‘at risk’ category.

Parish also emphasised the difference between “trivialising” the current situation and “offering respite” from it, a reminder of the positive position that football can have as we begin to move forward collectively. In a nation where conversations at the dinner table have run dry, the slow reintroduction of one element of popular culture has the power to lift people when they need it most, and would almost certainly attract those who do not usually watch the sport. With the games played in empty stadia, this could all be done in line with current regulations. It offers respite without threatening large-scale social distancing. The resumption of some element of normality is a powerfully morale-boosting goal, whatever form it takes. Even those who dislike the sport can rekindle this feeling when it resumes.

‘Project Restart’ is littered with hurdles, but these are surmountable. Conversations about it are neither naïve nor dangerous; instead, they are representative of the wider choice between looking backwards, ridiculing the government and comparing ourselves to other nations, and looking to the future, whatever form it may take. No one should be made to feel guilty for choosing the latter.

Eyes Wide Open: How Stanley Kubrick saw humanity

David Alexander
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Eyes Wide Open: How Stanley Kubrick saw humanity

Deep in idyllic Hertfordshire, in the last quarter of the last century, there lived an uncompromising genius. The director Stanley Kubrick was a recluse of sorts, who largely limited social interaction to phone calls. He didn’t have much time for socialising: he was, after all, a workaholic and a technophile, and a believer that only by combining these statuses could he produce great art. 

Many disagreed, and still do, when looking back at Kubrick’s not-so-prodigious output (five films in his last thirty years of work). For his critics, Kubrick’s love of private tech-tinkering was an impediment to the emotional effectiveness of his work. It led only to ever-more carefully artificial stories. Indeed, it trapped the exuberant dynamism of living in the exquisitely manicured cage of the camera-frame.

So say the critics, anyhow. But I disagree with them. I like Kubrick’s work not because it’s ‘real’ – the critics are right, it’s not. It possesses something better than realness, or at least more interesting. It distils the human experience to the fundamental impulses which compromise its core, and pushes past those shallow real-life influences which normally obscure these.

Take Barry Lyndon. Kubrick’s tale of a young man’s opportunistic rise and fall through the social ranks of the 1750s has been regularly attacked for alleged emotional asphyxiation. The pace is decidedly slow, the dialogue laconic, the settings florid and orderly. But there are serious passions boiling away under the corsets. There’s impulsive, starry-eyed adolescent love. The weaselly, scurrying will to survive, too, as Lyndon deserts the various armies he fights for. And then, finally, the fall; the inexorable spiral from overindulgence to destitution. Big, universal themes, woven into a single narrative, as in life. 

And if the faces of the characters don’t show all this emotion? Well that’s the whole idea. 18th century Europe provides a society painfully restrained enough, in its social manners and hierarchies, to smash against the raw passions of the human spirit, and barely keep them under the surface. In that tension lies the drama. 

Kubrick does a similar thing with The Shining, a tale of a winter caretaker and his family trapped in a cursed hotel. Again, the human condition is pared down to its essential, self-perpetuating impulses. Unlike in other horror films, love is central. And this resolute love between mother and son endures all that the Overlook Hotel can throw at it, whether lifts erupting with blood, blow-jobbing bear-dogs or Jack “Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny” Nicholson. 

Much attention has been paid to Nicholson’s possessed caretaker – predictably, given he’s the biggest star. But really he’s as much a narrative device as anything. It’s the appropriation of his tormented mind by the hotel that shows the hotel’s terrifying power. With that established, we can appreciate how monumental it is that his wife and child escape. How deep, and how resourceful, is their love.

Kubrick engaged in a similar task with his biggest ever film, and maybe his most famous. This time he highlights the endless durability of the human condition not by honing in, but by zooming out. In fact, the story of 2001: A Space Odyssey, such as it is, is nothing less than a story of humanity itself, from bone-smashing, tool-inventing apes, to cosmic star children, led into omniscience via abstract neon acid-trip. Alright, so maybe for something so silly, it’s all done a bit po-facedly. But po-faced was how Kubrick looked when he was having fun.

And the vast scale was necessary to make the point. In fact, it was the point: the specifics of 2001 don’t actually matter much. Where humanity is shown to be going isn’t really important, nor is the all-powerful force implied to be pulling us there (a humming, brooding black obelisk; if you haven’t seen the film, don’t worry, those of us who have don’t understand it either). 

The point for Kubrick, though, is that we humans never sit still, not for a moment. We’re continually dissatisfied by the immediate reality in which we live. So, we experiment and tinker and fiddle until EUREKA! And then we start again because what about that other thing, and maybe if we just… We are the forward-looking animal Kubrick seems to say. 

So, I don’t buy the idea that Kubrick was ‘anti-human’. I think that the artist’s detached private life has been allowed to colour views of his art. Surely, we like our creatives to be immersed in the world, soaking it up, then splurging it out onscreen with maximum vitality? We’re not so keen on them hovering pretentiously above it, like 2001’s space baby in its metaphysical amniotic sack.

I actually think, though, that Kubrick’s seclusion gave him an outsider’s clarity. All the intricacies of a messy social life could be chopped off, and the world reduced to the universal narratives Kubrick quietly identified in the endless feast of media he consumed at home. He was the great observer; a bearded, bespectacled HAL 9000, with a resolutely human heart. 

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