Saturday 11th October 2025
Blog Page 825

The enduring legacy of Cherwell’s founding father

Ethan Croft
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The enduring legacy of Cherwell’s founding father

The journalist Robin Esser died last week. I admit that his name has only floated into my orbit in recent months. He was one of many British writers and editors who cut their teeth in student journalism before moving on to national careers.

But the more I think of Esser, the more prescient his story seems. Whilst studying at Oxford in the fifties, Esser stumbled upon a relatively niche publication called ‘The Cherwell’. Back then, it was a high falutin literary magazine founded a few decades earlier in 1920. This posh rag’s main claim to fame was publishing the juvenilia of one Wystan Hugh Auden, alumnus of Christ Church College.

Esser was a little dissatisfied with this, having come to Oxford with his childhood ambition a career in hard journalism still intact. Along with some friends, he re-founded the old magazine as a new student newspaper, Cherwell.

The new print would be based on the small local paper that young Robin had set up and run out of his school bag at a boys grammar in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

His first post at Oxford’s modish new paper was as Cherwell’s first real News Editor. In that role he set the precedent of long hours and high standards that still demands near total dedication from our news team today.

Esser’s journalistic philosophy, which he carried with him through his eventful life, was relatively simple. Any newspaper under his editorship would primarily fulfil its obligation to entertain the reading public, whilst also keeping a check on “the hypocrisy of those in power.”

After his graduation, from both Oxford and Cherwell, Esser went on to become a fixture of Britain’s tabloid papers, and eventually became editor-in-chief of the Sunday Express during the dying days of the Thatcher ministry.

Embarking on such a career, he no doubt attracted acrimony and sneers from many of his Wadhamite university friends. Never mind that Esser founded the Daily Mail’s first dedicated weekly arts supplement, the fact he pursued his belief in popular journalism through tabloid news was crime enough for his confrères, with their broadsheet pretences.

Of course, in the story of Robin Esser’s career we see parallels with current attitudes to journalism at Oxford. The modern successors of Esser’s uppity peers now mock Cherwell as the new Daily Mail.

Our affront to their sensibilities seems to have been merely reporting on events that they wanted kept quiet, whether that be in regards to college football or University Challenge. More broadly, this term we have broken exclusive stories week upon week, about the biggest societies in Oxford, and the potential misdeeds of the University itself.

Yet in some fit of cognitive dissonance, Oxfeud contributors have insisted on calling the Cherwell staff ‘careerist snakes’ and the like. If it were the case that we were simply trying to flesh out our CVs, why does so much effort go into exclusive reporting? Why don’t we simply take a leaf out of the comparatively thinner archive books of other student newspapers, and rewrite the news reporting of other journalists? It’s because we follow the example set by the modern founder of Cherwell, Robin Esser.

He dared to think that student journalism could be more than an outlet for cliché ridden teenage fiction and soft reviews of rubbish plays (or club nights). He thought that Cherwell could be a popular breaking news source, rather than a barely mentioned magazine. Thanks to Robin Esser’s example, more people are reading this newspaper than ever before.

Love Oxland semi-final

Lucy Zhu and Martha Raymer
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Love Oxland semi-final

Lucy Zhu

Third Year, PPE

Lincoln

Having already met Martha, I knew this date was going to be great. The time flew by and I can’t really remember what we even talked about, because I was having such a lovely time. I will say that I did not handle the restaurant not knowing we had been booked in very well and I definitely got vibes that she was not impressed by my blind panic at being in a vaguely adult situation. It was another lovely date, and the walk back into town was a very sweet (if cold) end to the evening, even if she wasn’t impressed by my college library, which did cause some tension. The weirdest part of the whole thing did not occur during the date, but later in the Park End queue where her friends tried to take a picture of me to send to Martha. Queuing for Park End is already horrifying enough…

What was your first impression? Better equipped for cold than me

Any awkward moments? The waiters staring at us

Third date? We’re going to the same screening of Moonlight, does that count?

Martha Raymer

First Year, History

Worcester

To get our free tapas, we had to fully expose the fact that we were there on a date. I would be mad at Cherwell for making us suffer through the knowing looks given by the waiters, but we soon decided that free food meant we were obliged to order the most expensive things on the menu. Thanks Cherwell. My date with Lucy, however, was thoroughly lovely – aside from Lucy’s bike not surviving the night. I’m also glad my aesthetic “Jane Austen vibe” is finally being appreciated. I only began to experience Lucy’s self-confessed murder-y vibes the moment I didn’t provide a shining review of Lincoln College library: it just can’t compete with Worcester’s lake! However, I’m keeping her abandonment of any morals unpublished: what happens at Kazbar stays at Kazbar.

What was your first impression? Outrageously beautiful bicycle

Any awkward moments? Maybe the waiters

Third date? Will there be free food?

Revealed: how a private school elite still dominates Oxford’s student life

Felix Pope
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Revealed: how a private school elite still dominates Oxford’s student life

Influential positions across Oxford University’s public life are still held disproportionately by students educated at private schools, a Cherwell investigation has revealed.

According to the most recent data made available by Oxford, 59% of all offers made to students studying in the UK went to state school applicants. Yet at Oxford, under half of the significant elected roles within student politics examined were held by students educated in the state sector.

The disparity is most obvious at the Oxford Union, where 76% of elected officials – from the President down to Secretary’s Committee – were privately educated. Of the 14 most senior roles (Standing Committee and above) just one was held by a former state comprehensive pupil – President Chris Zabilowicz.

Within college politics the gap was less pronounced, with 52% of JCR Presidents having attended a fee paying school. Similarly, there was a 50/50 split between state and private across the senior editorial teams of Cherwell and The Oxford Student.

Student party politics, by contrast, appears to show a remarkable lack of of private school alumni when the two largest political societies are examined. Oxford University Labour Club’s elected positions were dominated by state comprehensive and grammar school educated students.

Oxford University Conservative Association was the only body for which too little data could be found to draw any meaningful conclusions, with most elected members choosing not to reveal their former school on social media.

Of the 69 significant figures selected, Cherwell was able to gather data on the school attended by 67. In virtually all cases claims made on Facebook and LinkedIn, or statements made by the school, were used to identify where they had previously studied.

The data does represent a marked improvement from 2010, the last time an investigation into Oxford’s privately educated elite was conducted. Cherwell found then that almost 60% of JCR Presidents, 70% of University-wide society Presidents, and 80% of elected Union members were privately educated. At the time 55% of those admitted to the University came from state schools, with under 45% from independent schools.

The figures will likely not be happy reading for University bosses seeking to change Oxford’s public image in the wake of David Lammy MP’s criticism of Oxbridge colleges as “fiefdoms of entrenched privilege”.

Data obtained by Lammy through Freedom of Information requests established that in 2015 Oxford made 82% of its offers to children from the two top social backgrounds. More offers were made to students from Eton than to students on free meals from across the entire country.

Class Act, an Oxford SU campaign set up to represent the interests of students of working class, low income, first generation, and state comprehensive backgrounds at Oxford, told Cherwell: “Representation of Class Act students within student organisations at the university is vital.

“The dominance of students with privileged educational or income backgrounds in many of these organisations can be seen both as a reflection of the isolation Class Act students face at the university and as a reason why this isolation continues to exist.”

We were better off without Oxfeud

Alexander Curtis
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We were better off without Oxfeud

Oscar Wilde once wrote, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” I think it is fair to say that these lines succinctly summarise the core issue with Oxfeud. In polite conversation, the hurtful and nasty is almost always absent. Reasonable disagreement is ideally addressed out in the open, in the spoken form, in person. After all, exactly how many of us can remember at least one keyboard rant of some description or another? Having anonymity (though probably only to some extent) in publishing our hurtful comments about others definitely doesn’t reduce the harm which is caused to their subjects upon reading them, and probably doesn’t reduce the likely regret that the author has for what was written all that much.

More fundamentally, how much time do we realistically have to spend on making petty negative judgements about our peers, never mind expressing them publicly in writing, online? Oxford is such a busy place, in which even the most efficient amongst us, in addition to the most ‘fulfilled’, regret not having pursued particular pathways and explored individual facets of being.

This eternal frustration is especially evident in the community of this University, where so many of us can be characterised at least somewhat by a palpable sense of ambition.

In view of this, it seems to be a great shame that any time at all is wasted by any of us on an endeavour as inherently unfavourable and unproductive as general nastiness. Yes, many of us are prone to needlessly speaking ill of others from time to time, myself included.

However, that doesn’t mean that we should be encouraging and facilitating bad behaviour, in either the active sense, or even in the passive. Indeed, it is very difficult to see what good can come to either individuals or society at any level through the enabling of such behaviour, which Oxfeud so obviously provided a medium for.

It is apparently rather clear why we should be pleased that Oxfeud has been taken down from Facebook. Upon examining the issues involved with the page, it is difficult to draw any conclusion other than that which states that its removal will make Oxford a less imperfect, happier, and all round more harmonious place.

All-weather warriors

The Secret College Footballer
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All-weather warriors

“But can they do it on a windy night in Stoke?” The perennial question is asked of Europe’s most luxurious of players. However, given that many of them ply their trade in our college football leagues, a more pertinent question might be whether they can do it on a grim afternoon in Oxford? Though it may not share Stoke’s renown for miserable weather, Oxford can occasionally conjure up a bad spell,which can present a whole different challenge for college footballers on top of the game itself. With little protection from the elements on open playing fields, players have no choice but to battle through the adversity. To borrow from theatrical terminology, the show must go on, and college football being the greatest show on earth, there isn’t a lot that can stop it.

This being Britain, sometimes it rains. Most of the time, the pitches can take it, but on the odd occasion we get a shower of biblical proportions, which even the obsessively manicured playing surfaces of the Premier League would struggle to withstand. Indeed, so-called professionals might call off the match in such circumstances, but college footballers are made of decidedly sterner stuff: Ryan Shawcross, eat your heart out. It’ll clear up in a minute, someone declares as you squint through the haze, trying to figure out which sodden silhouette is which. Spare a thought for the keeper, who has one hell of a job on his hands trying to see the ball, let alone catch it. The wisdom holds that wet conditions favour the attacker, but it’s difficult to string passes together when the ball, and the players, are skidding all over the place. As for defenders, slide tackles become more slide and less tackle when the surface is positively soaking.

When the final whistle has blown and you’ve trudged back into the changing rooms, the weather can really dampen the atmosphere, even if you managed to get a result. The captain’s joke about not needing to wash the kit this week falls on deaf ears as their teammates peel off their saturated shirts. The post-match beer doesn’t quite taste the same when infused with the rainwater dripping off your face. It hardly seems worth changing back into something dry, only for you to get drenched all over again on the walk home.

But same time next week? Oh, and the Cuppers game this weekend? Of course, rain or shine. These are no fair-weather footballers. This is college football. The only thing worse than having to play in abhorrent conditions is having to not play.

Players crave their weekly fix of football, and though they may end up getting beaten by their opponents, they certainly won’t countenance being beaten by the elements. College football can sometimes push players to the limits of human endurance, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.

The All Souls scholarship shows progress, but is a token gesture

Priya Vempali
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The All Souls scholarship shows progress, but is a token gesture

It’s hard to forget that the buildings in which you stand were built off the backs of racial subjugations and slavery. The endless portraits of white meant that occupy our colleges further emphasise that most blatant point – Oxford wasn’t made for people like me. And yet, every now and then, we hear stories such as the one coming out of All Souls College about its ‘heroic’ attempts to redress their slave-built legacy through an annual scholarship scheme, which would fund graduates from Caribbean countries to study at Oxford, in addition to providing a five-year grant for a higher education college in Barbados. Seems great, right? Indeed, it is a step in the right direction, but given all that needs to be done in order to make Oxford a truly diverse, egalitarian institution, this move is little more than a token gesture.

Ever since last June, when student protests brought to attention the college’s colonial legacy, eyes have been on All Souls to see how they would distinguish themselves from their humiliating title of ‘All Slaves College’. The college’s library, opened in 1751 and de- signed by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, still bears the name of Christopher Codrington, a former fellow of the college and slave owner/sugar plantation magnate who gifted the college £10,000 in his will. For context, this sum would be worth around £1.5 million in today’s money. So for a college which is still benefitting from the financial rewards of the slave trade, it was necessary that they do something to abstract themselves from their colonial legacy by providing some (very visible) gesture to get the campaigners off their backs.

The scholarship provides them with the perfect solution: they get to retain the library’s name and its marble statue of Codrington, while seeming to acknowledge the bitter roots of their ever-increasing fortune.

As Shreya Lakhani of Common Ground notes, “the people we celebrate are reflections of our past but also expressions of our present day values.” All Souls’ failure to remove the Codrington statue and change the library’s name is indicative of an institution which defends its backwards customs and practices as a simple continuation of its tradition and heritage, all the while attempting to extricate itself from the growing controversy.

It is hard not to draw a parallel between this and the politically-charged debate around the Cecil Rhodes statue in Oriel College, which still remains after much public controversy. Rhodes, a British imperialist and architect of apartheid within the Cape Colony (now South Africa), created the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship programme which is awarded to full-time postgraduates of the University, although it was initially intended for “young colonists” to continue the British imperial legacy. Just like in the case of the Rhodes statue, arguments for the renaming of the Codrington library and the removal of the Codrington statue to a more suitable location (such as a museum) have been repeatedly shot down by critics who claim that this would be an erasure of history. Their arguments fail to see that the removal of a statue from a place of glorification and academic excellence to a more historically-sensitive setting is the least we can do to combat the institution’s colonial legacy, which to this day continues to make BME students highly uncomfortable.

The appalling lack of diversity within the University as a whole serves to emphasise the issue. Oxford needs to fundamentally address issues of racial diversity and academic white-washing. Although many colleges have great access schemes which aim to at- tract applicants from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, the University could be doing a lot more to tackle the racial diversification of the institution through changes to the admissions process (such as centralised, rather than college-based, undergraduate admissions).

Furthermore, certain curricular within the University need to be addressed for their lack of BME-inclusivitity – in particular the humanities need to seriously redress the balance when it comes to what they teach. Rather than having an almost entirely Eurocentric approach to history, for example, a greater focus on those countries which Britain has historically- subjugated would provide students with a more well-rounded understanding of both UK history and the wider world. Scholarship programmes make good newspaper titles, but actually attempting to diversify Oxford and its curricula is what will enable change.

I am not trying to say that we haven’t made any progress – things are much better than they were 30 years ago, and continue to improve daily. But as advocates for a more inclusive and equal university, we ought to be wary of simply commending colleges into complacency for their token gestures.

Moreover, we have to see universal policy change rather than individual recompenses from certain colleges, in order to create a culturally-sensitive and diverse student body within every part of this university. We need to con- tinue to scrutinise the institutions which, to this day, rest on their imperial legacies, because without being challenged, nothing will ever change.

Confessions of a Drama Queen 6: Things get worse, again

Katie Sayer
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Confessions of a Drama Queen 6: Things get worse, again

I write this diary, locked in my darkened bedroom, with only the torch light on my phone for company, and some Itsu that I had Deliverood to me to wane off the starvation.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I have had to go into hiding following the traumatic embarrassment of the Little Shop of Horrors read-through. So far this has mostly entailed asking my scout not to clean my room, only showering when I know all the scientists have already left for labs, and sitting with the curtains shut so that everybody thinks I’m out.

You see, I am currently dying of shame, at having been talent scouted to play… A CARNIVOROUS POT PLANT. Yes, dear reader. You heard me correctly. The face the producer spied across Cornmarket last week was not, as it transpires, the face she wanted to cast as Audrey, the young and enchanting female lead in her musical. Oh no. Her conception of my face as “just what I’ve been looking for” was based on the idea of me playing a venus fly trap from outer space, with a whopping zero lines and a cardboard box as a base.

As if to add further insult to injury, I have been rejected by the props team for Sweet Charity, on the basis that “I like charity shopping” doesn’t form a strong enough application. Apparently people actually want to work back- stage. Who knew?

These times we live in are dark, mostly because if I turn the light on then people might know that I’m in. I have only one hope left for my stage career, and that is that the tragedy of my life can at least be turned into a stand-up routine.

Consequently, I’ve booked an audition for The Oxford Revue next Tuesday. It can’t be that hard to be a female comedian. I’m sure the industry is really very evenly gendered. Wish me luck!

Under Milk Wood preview – ‘Creative and interesting but overly dramatic’

Zad El Bacha
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Under Milk Wood preview – ‘Creative and interesting but overly dramatic’

When I first arrived to Brasenose chapel to watch the technical rehearsal of Under Milk Wood, I glimpsed a solemn looking woman, in a solemn looking white dress, standing at the entrance. I quickly closed the door, thinking I must have stumbled upon a church service. I hadn’t. The moment I realised it was a play was hilarious and confusing, two excellent qualities that Under Milk Wood definitely has. Its strength – as well as its greatest weaknesses – lies in this absurd solemnity, amplified by the grand appearance of the chapel in which it is performed.

The performance is a bit disorienting, in a way that can be exploited for artistic impact. I was only shown a few scenes, since I dared not enter for a while, and they were enough to suggest that the production would make exciting use of the space. The audience stands or sits in the pews, like they would if they were attending a service. The play happens in different parts of the chapel, with actors springing out of the crowd with their daily woes, or getting married on the platform on the second floor, or having fights in the doorway and by the altar.

This means that an audience member, in any given position, will have limited visibility of the show. This staging emphasises the fragmented nature of the plot: the story of a whole Welsh village, the lives of everyone who inhabits it. If you lived in a village, surely you wouldn’t get a full view of all your neighbour’s lives, and the play replicates this perfectly.

I was impressed with the creative naturalism of the staging, and disappointed that it was undermined by an over-dramatic, staged kind of acting. Everyone speaks as if they are reciting a solemn Shakespeare monologue, loudly, grandly declaring the minutiae of their lives. This could make it difficult to distinguish the characters from each other, and makes it hard to emphasise with them on a human level.

It does however make for some brilliant humour, and I can say I experienced a moment of most delightful comedy when one of the characters grandly spoke to two men about them blowing their nose. I appreciated the deliberate nature of this solemnity, shown in the excellent consistency of all the actors in maintaining the tone, and in the simple and solemn period costumes. At times it was indeed effective, both for humour and for impressiveness. But often it felt distant and hollow, and left the viewer yearning for a greater variety of tones, which can better express the intimate moments of the character’s lives, as well as highlight the grandness when it is necessary. But the play may indeed have grown in humanity when watched in its entirety.

Overall, this is a creative and interesting production. It’s let down by an overly dramatic attitude which does not allow the actors to engage with the text on a more human level, but  it experiments with conceptual and staging ideas in ways that deserve much praise.

Oxford 54th in university league table… for ethical performance

Henry Straughan
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Oxford 54th in university league table… for ethical performance

Oxford has performed poorly in a league table that ranks universities on their ethical and environmental performance.

‘The People & Planet University League Table’ uses a range of measures to rank universities, including: ethical investment, carbon reduction, workers rights, waste and recycling, energy sources, and education for sustainable development.

Oxford came 54th out of 154 UK universities, up from 115th in 2015. It performed particularly badly on measures of carbon reduction, workers rights, education on sustainable development, and its ethical investment policy.

The table comes a week after a Guardian report showed that Oxford and many of its colleges have secretly invested tens of millions of pounds in offshore funds supporting the gas and coal industry.

Cambridge, which was also implicated in the Guardian report, came below Oxford at 58, an improvement from 113th two years ago. Oxford Climate Justice Campaign told Cherwell: “In a world facing climate catastrophe, an institution like Oxford must prove its commitment to preserving the future in order to remain relevant.

“The assessment released this week by People and Planet may be one of the only university ranking systems that matters much in the near future.

“It certainly will be one of the only measures that will matter to future students of Oxford, if Oxford survives the economic and geological crisis it is helping to create.

“We are grateful for the thorough analysis, and we hope Oxford leadership accesses and reads the report in full.”

The Climate Justice Campaign highlighted three areas where Oxford underperformed compared to other universities and called on the University to improve its commitment to environmental practices. A spokesperson told Cherwell: “Oxford needs to commit to a comprehensive… ethical investment strategy by divesting from all fossil fuels in its direct and indirect investments.

“It should look to one of its own departments – the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment – for new sustainable investment opportunities.

“Oxford must actively encourage education for sustainable development in all of its departments, not just those specializing in environmental concerns.

“The future of our globe and the responsibility of global citizenship should be a task of concern for every mind entering the walls of this institution.

“Oxford must hire sufficient human resources to see its sustainability goals through.

“Perhaps, if Oxford is unwilling to cut ties with its major donors from the fossil fuel industry, then it could redirect some of the funding from Shell and BP to hire enough experts and sustainability scholars to help us compete in next year’s university sustainability report.”

As a whole, universities performed better than a decade ago when the league table was first published. In 2007 only five universities were recycling more than half their waste. The number is now 85. Manchester Metropolitan University topped this year’s table, ahead of Gloucester and Nottingham Trent. LSE came top out of Russell Group universities.

Five minutes with: Lucy Hayes

Cherwell Stage
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Five minutes with: Lucy Hayes

Could you tell us a bit about how you got involved with drama at Oxford?
I was trying to convince my friend to produce a play for me, so I took her to an OUDS producing workshop. From that, I was asked to produce a show at the Playhouse. I had no idea what a producer really did, but I knew I’d be stupid not to.

What’s your happiest memory of Oxford drama?
They’ve all been pretty happy! I actually don’t think I have any bad memories of doing drama at Oxford at all.

Have you ever had any complete production nightmares?
I did turn up to the get-in of my first show at the Burton Taylor Studio thinking that I could, with no experience, rig, focus, and program all of the lights myself, and very quickly realised I was out of my depth. Luckily, we managed to get someone else in within an hour who actually knew what they were doing so it was all fine.

What’s your favourite play?
I’m very indecisive, but maybe Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. Or maybe King Lear.

How would you want to stage it in Oxford?
I don’t think I could ever stage either of them! I feel they should stay sacred.

Who is your hero in the theatre world?
Probably my dad: he built a theatre from scratch, which is now a really successful and incredibly unique venue. He’s a bit of a maverick, and he never takes no for an answer. The council tried to shut him down on his opening night, and he told them they should come back in the morning, because there wasn’t any way they were stopping him from opening his show. He’s taught me most of what I know about theatre, and I aspire to be that audacious one day.

Do you have any advice for freshers who might want to get involved with drama?
If you’re an actor, just keep auditioning, and if you do, you will get cast in something. If you want to be involved but aren’t sure how, try anything! Respond to a TAFF call, or email the producer of a project you like the sound of. It’s scary, but people love it when people but themselves out there, and it will get you far.

Are you working on any exciting projects at the moment?
I’m directing my last show, Hedda, at the Oxford Playhouse in 6th week of Hilary term. It’s a modern adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler by Lucy Kirkwood, stripping the play of the polite society of Victorian bourgeoisie and plunging it into to a world of crisis and Oxford academics. Next year is the centenary of female suffrage, so it’s the perfect time to stage it – the question of how far society has truly come in creating space for women is more important than ever! We are really excited to be part of the Playhouse’s VOTE season, celebrating female-driven narratives for this anniversary.

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