Thursday, May 15, 2025
Blog Page 870

Former Varsity boxer Tony Abbott challenged to political boxing match

Imogen Runswick-Cole
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Former Varsity boxer Tony Abbott challenged to political boxing match

Reports have emerged that Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister of Australia, has been challenged to a charity boxing match by Queensland Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm in Brisbane this July.

Abbott dismissed rumours of the match as “fake news”, having apparently quickly rejected Chisholm’s offer to face him.

But it may have been a lucky escape for Chisholm. Abbott’s boxing skills have been tested before—in Oxford.

In 1982, Abbott filled in for the Oxford Varsity boxing team against Cambridge during his studies, despite never having competed before.

Abbott remained undefeated in his Oxford matches.

Oxford Merchandise continues to expand in India

Theo Davies-Lewis
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Oxford Merchandise continues to expand in India

Oxford Ltd., the University’s global brand licencing arm which runs Oxford Shops, is planning to expand its range of merchandise sold in India six years after it was launched in the country.

The company is likely to add five new brand licence partners this year to sell University of Oxford branded products in India, which the University earns a royalty from.

In India, Oxford’s brand licencing is managed by Bradford License India, a joint venture between USbased Bradford Licensing LLC and Franchise India Group. Currently, brand Oxford is marketed in India by three companies.

After meeting potential partners in India, Managing Director of Oxford Ltd, Chris Evans, told Live Mint: “To date, brand Oxford was restricted to apparel, school stationery and school bags.

“We are now planning to get into home furnishing, textile, hard furniture and educational toys. Considering the rapid growth of retail in India, we are looking at two new brand licences for educational products and stationery, and three to four for home furnishing.”

As well as these items, Oxford University also sells products like tea, chocolates and cookies under the brand name.

Mr. Evans added: “These products are also sold in India. But the division is managed from UK directly. “India is one of the key territories for brand Oxford. The opportunity is huge. At present, it is among the top six countries. There’s no reason why it should not be among the top two.”

However, most of the Oxford products that are sold in India are made in China. Evans excused this by pointing out that while the Oxford Ltd. controls the quality and authenticity of products, it does not control sourcing.

Evans did admit that China was on the company’s radar, though, commenting: “We are working on opening a few dozens of Oxford stationery stores in China over the next few months. We’ll look at India later.”

As well as this, Evans said Oxford stands for education and imparting knowledge and would like to emphasise these characteristics in his work: “Everything that we do has relevance to the University.”

Aditya Badaya, Core Team Member for Project Access India, welcomed the news: “Oxford is one of the most revered international universities in India, and I think this is a great move by the University to branch out!

“The number of Indians coming to Oxford has been increasing every year, and such outreach programs further cement the place of the university in attracting the growing pool of Indians seeking education abroad.”

The first-year PPE student added: “I think it allows for Oxford to compete in popularity and brand recognition with top tier American universities, which have had a surge in popularity as favoured destinations for Indians over the past few years.”

The Oxford brand is licenced for merchandising across 80 nations.

Oxford study fears for “fake news” during French election

Marianna Spring
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Oxford study fears for “fake news” during French election

A study conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has revealed that junk or ‘fake news’ is playing a significant role in the run-up to French and German elections.

The Oxford Internet Institute is a multidisciplinary research and teaching department of the University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet.

On its website, it states that they hope to tackle the “big questions” of society, as well as to “shape the development of our digital world for the public good”.

Their investigation of URLs shared on Twitter in the weeks leading up to the French election in particular also raised concerns about Russian involvement.

Although in France almost half of the links pointed to professional news content, 15 per cent of content circulated came from professional political content produced by the government and political parties and 20 per cent to other sources of political news and information.

Of this 20 percent, twelve percent of the links have been identified as known Russian sources, including Russia Today (RT). Around a quarter have been labeled as junk news, which does not come from Russian sources but from “other extremist, sensationalist sources including French extreme right wing websites”.

The OII found that the bulk of France’s junk traffic targeted Emmanuel Macron, but that “highly automated accounts” also circulated large amounts of traffic about Francois Fillon, a pro-Russian candidate, and occasionally about Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon.

It said that the run-up to German presidential elections in February “found Germans sharing four professionally produced news stories for every one piece of junk”. However, in both cases the OII concluded that French and German voters were sharing better quality news than US voters in the build-up to their election in November last year.

Clementine Desigaud, an MSc student at the OII who was involved in the study, told Cherwell: “I worked more particularly on the French memo. We found a modest amount of junk news shared on Twitter this week, and the amount coming from known Russian sources was even more modest.”

“However, the key takeaway is that French voters were sharing better quality news on Twitter than the US voters. For instance, in Michigan, in the days leading up to the US election, we found as much fake news as professional news shared on Twitter.

“German voters were also sharing better quality news on Twitter than the US voters. In Germany, the amount of URL pointing to known Russian sources is similar to France.

“So overall, it suggests that the German and French elections were less poisoned by fake news than the US election, and with a small amount of Russian content.”

Jake Smales, a third year French and Spanish student currently working in Rouen, said: “The amount of junk news that circulates and the impact that can have on the outcome of an election really does worry me.

“I’d like to think that most people can tell if an article or a Twitter account looks less credible, but I guess it is not so easy nowadays.

“What is reassuring, however, is that this French election hasn’t been tarnished by junk news and meddling from outside parties to the same extent as the US election, or so it seems.

“The French people I know have not been so concerned about this, although I cannot speak on behalf of everyone.”

In order to conduct the study, the OII collected one week of data from Twitter, in February for Germany and in March for France, using a list of hash tags referring to each presidential election.

University under fire for “Orwellian” guidance report

Maxim Parr-Reid
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University under fire for “Orwellian” guidance report

Oxford University has faced criticism for a Trinity term newsletter published by the Equality and Diversity Unit, which warned against racist micro-aggressions.

According to the report, this “subtle, everyday racism can appear trivial. But repeated micro-aggressions can be tiring and alienating”.

The piece, entitled ‘Everyday Racism’, went on to say that racial micro-aggressions may include not making eye contact or speaking directly to people, as well as “not believing someone is British” by making jokes or drawing attention to their accent.

Dr. Joanna Williams, a lecturer in higher education at the University of Kent, said the guidance was “completely ridiculous”.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Dr. Williams said: “Essentially people are being accused of a thought crime. They are being accused of thinking incorrect thoughts based on an assumption of where they may or may not be looking.”

The Daily Mail gave the story a provocative headline: “Avoiding making eye contact or asking where someone is from are signs of RACISM says Oxford University in new snowflake row”.

The article included comments from Professor Frank Furedi, who said the advice was “Orwellian” and urged Oxford to “wake up to reality”.

He added: “To go from simply stating someone is racist based on what they say to assume they are unconsciously racist is a very Orwellian turn. Micro-aggressions empower the accuser to say that it doesn’t matter what you intend by that look, I just know by the look of your eyes you are racist.”

Femi Nylander, a campaigner with Rhodes Must Fall, reacted to the coverage from the newspapers: “We have become used to seeing reactionary articles from these publications, which decry the genuine grievances of minority students as simply the cries of a snowflake generation.”

Nylander’s criticism comes after Balliol College’s University Challenge team decided to “ethically boycott” the Daily Mail.

An Oxford University spokesman told Cherwell: “The Equality and Diversity Unit works with University bodies to ensure that the University’s pursuit of excellence goes hand in hand with freedom from discrimination and equality of opportunity and the newsletter is one way of advising and supporting staff towards achieving these aims.

However, the University have recently apologised for the newsletter.

In a series of tweets, the University replied to criticism: “We made a mistake. Our newsletter was too brief to deal adequately and sensibly with the issue.

“We are sorry that we took no account of other reasons for difference in eye contact and social interaction, including disability.

“Oxford deeply values and works hard to support students and staff with disabilities, including those with autism or social anxiety disorder.”

OUSU launch campaign to break class barriers

Jordan Bernstein
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OUSU launch campaign to break barriers

OUSU is to create a campaign committed to tackling prejudice against working class students. A motion passed at the weekly meeting of OUSU Council on Wednesday mandated the creation a Student Union ‘Class Act’ Campaign.

The motion, submitted by Jaycie Carter and Eden Bailey, passed by an overwhelming majority, promising to set up a committee “open to all OUSU’s student members who self-identify as working class, low income, state comprehensive school educated, or a first-generation student.”

Jaycie Carter told Cherwell: “Currently, the needs of students represented by the Class Act campaign—working class, low income, state comprehensive school educated and first generation students—are neither adequately discussed nor addressed by the University or by our colleges.

“Once the access work finishes and we arrive at Oxford, the support too often ends. Our campaign aims to bring about much-needed change by representing these students, campaigning on their issues and providing them with support networks and community.”

The campaign’s directives include campaigning exclusively for the issues of those who “not only face barriers to reaching Oxford, but also face specific issues once they are here, which are… largely unaddressed.”

The motion mentioned the recent Educating All report, a survey of students from top Russell Group universities, in which “over 70 per cent of students who identified as working class agreed with the statement ‘your class was a barrier when integrating at university’.”

Eden Bailey, the OUSU VP for Academic Affairs who seconded the motion, said she was “thrilled” at the move.

She told Cherwell: “There is important work to be done across UK universities, particularly those in the Russell Group, in ensuring that all students feel truly welcome and are fully supported at university, regardless of their background.

“We will be providing representation that Class Act students currently don’t have to campaign on issues affecting them, creating networks that previously haven’t existed for students and alumni to meet and support each other, and provide relevant resources to support some of the specific welfare and academic needs of these students.”

The establishment of the campaign comes in light of St. Hilda’s appointing its first Class Liberation officer last November

Council votes to open up council and University buildings to the homeless

Lucy Enderby
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Council votes to open up council and University buildings to the homeless

Following the eviction of the Iffley Open House (IOH) group from their third squat, the city council passed a motion on Monday to make vacant buildings in Oxford available for use as temporary homeless shelters.

Liberal Democrat, Green and Labour councillors all showed support for the motion, which was passed by 30 votes to eleven.

Proposed by Green councillor David Thomas, the motion recognises the growing number of individuals sleeping rough in Oxford, as well as an increased awareness of homelessness in the city.

Councillors are also seeking to encourage landowners of vacant properties, including the University, in Oxford to make their buildings available for the homeless. There will also be a report commissioned in September, looking at how empty buildings could be used as temporary homeless shelters.

At the meeting, Councillor Rowley said: “The holy grail would be premises there for a reasonably long period of time, [for homeless people] to sleep, store possessions, and gain access to help.”

Former Lord Mayor and IOH volunteer Elise Benjamin told Cherwell:

“The motion is an encouraging step in the right direction.

“The success of Iffley Open House has shown that it is possible to provide temporary accommodation in empty buildings and that this will give the short-term support many homeless people need to get their lives back on track.”

However, she continued: “It’s sad that the petition to re-open Lucy Faithfull House (a homeless shelter) was met with a ‘do-nothing’ response from Council leaders and shocking to the homeless people who were at the Council.”

Turl Street Homeless Action volunteer and student Sam Fletcher also expressed disappointment at this decision of councillors to vote against reopening the shelter.

“No-one who simply walked around central Oxford could fail to see the absolute necessity for better provision and support for our city’s homeless,” he said.

Lucy Faithfull House was a homeless hostel with 61 beds, and provided homeless support for 30 years. It closed in January 2016, after the council withdrew its £500,000 funding.

More than 2,398 people have signed the petition calling for its re-opening.

Speaking at the meeting, Neo, a homeless man and member of Iffley Open House group said: “Reopening it would solve a massive issue and get a lot of people off the streets.

“There are a lot of people out there who want help, the people who you see on Cornmarket are just a tiny proportion of the homeless people out there.”

A housing solicitor at the meeting said that there had been a 300 per cent increase in the number of rough sleepers in Oxford, and described the motion to re-open Lucy Faithfull House as “one of construction and compassion”.

In response, councillors said that all of the beds that were available at Lucy Faithfull House have been replaced, with new, more suitable accommodation being provided.

O’Neill returns to Oxford

Cherwell News Team
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O’Neill returns to Oxford

Sean O’Neill returned to Oxford from NUS conference on Wednesday this week, missing the last day of the event amid controversy about historic comments on Twitter.

O’Neill was running for the Block of 15, a group of individually-elected members of the NUS’ National Executive Committee.

But on Wednesday, Oxford University Students Union (OUSU) released a statement on their website, stating that O’Neill would “no longer be participating in NUS National Conference.”

The statement read: “An investigation is currently being held by the NUS which will have the full cooperation of OUSU.

“As an institution, we remain committed to upholding the rights and wellbeing of all our students and will continually offer support to our members.”

It remains unclear whether the suspension of O’Neill’s participation was his decision or that of OUSU or the NUS. It follows a series of historic tweets containing anti-Semitic insults used by O’Neill were published in an article on Monday by the Independent.

O’Neill has apologised for the tweets, and said that they were intended as a “distateful joke”. Writing on Facebook, O’Neill said the comments “have been quoted out of their wider context.”

He said: “I was absolutely horrified to see this tweet. It flies in the face of my commitment to anti-fascism and anti-sexism.”

“It was five years ago, and I have no recollection of writing it. I can only assume it was an incredibly distasteful inside joke, or a reference to something someone else said the night before.

“I wholly, unreservedly apologise for having ever associated myself with these truly vile hashtags. I am ashamed, and reach out to all groups affected to say sorry.”

The emergence of the tweets provoked criticism from the Oxford University Jewish Society (JSoc), who described them as “shocking and grotesque” in a statement, and called for O’Neill’s resignation.

The JSoc statement said: “It is unacceptable that after a year of revelations of anti-semitism in student politics, some students still think this sort of behaviour is consistent with acting as an elected student representative.”

The controversy follows a string of anti-Semitism accusations which have surrounded the outgoing NUS president, Malia Bouattia.

She was previously accused of “outright racism” by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, after having described Birmingham University as a “zionist outpost” before the beginning of her presidency.

O’Neill had been running for election to the Block of 15, along with Aliya Yule, another Oxford NUS Delegate. Both supported Bouattia’s re-election as president.

Yule and O’Neill stood on a platform promising “to keep pushing NUS in the direction of free education, welfare, and liberation.”

They had both been elected as NUS delegates in the OUSU elections in Feb-
ruary, on the slate Count on Us.

Sean O’Neill did not respond to Cherwell’s request for comment on his suspension.

Merton Street shut after Corpus boppers take to the roof

Akshay Bilolikar
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Merton Street shut after Corpus boppers take to the roof

Three fire engines were called on Saturday after several students at Corpus Christi climbed onto the college’s roof after a bop.

All but one all of the students escaped from the porters, while one had to be rescued by the fire service.

After the bop had been shut down by the college, an unknown number of students decided to climb the roof.

Eyewitness reports indicate the students crawled along a first-floor gutter in order to reach the slate roof of the main quad. It is unclear how the students reached the gutter, but they were quickly spotted by porters and a junior dean.

Some of the students were seen to escape by crawling back in the direction they came, and remain unidentified. One student was unable to climb down and decided to wait for rescue.

The Fire and Rescue Service, which arrived at approximately 1.00am, stopped all passage through Merton Street from King Edward Street in order to create a secure cordon and prevent any bystander injuries. At approximately 1.45am, the student was brought down from the roof by a specialised crane truck and access to Merton Street was restored by 2.00am.

One eyewitness from Corpus Christi, who who wished to remain anonymous, told Cherwell: “The bop had just been shut down to the traditional chants of ‘We are the famous CCC’ and I was entering the quad when I heard men from above my head.

“I looked up to see several shadows crawling along the gutter towards the roof. It looked really dangerous, especially in the dark of the night.”

David Bray, Fire Protection and Business Safety Manager for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, released a statement to Cherwell:

“I am able to confirm that at 00.48 on Sunday 23 April 2017 Oxfordshire County Council Fire & Rescue Service were called to a report of a person on the roof of Corpus Christi College, Merton Street, Oxford.

“One fire appliance was mobilised from Rewley Road Fire Station in the centre of Oxford and arrived at the scene of the incident at 00.54.” Mr Bray added: “Due to the location of the person, and the access difficulties involved in bringing them safely down from the roof, the Incident Commander called for an additional resource in the form of an Aerial Ladder Platform which is a specialist high reach appliance also stationed at Rewley Road.

“The person was safely brought down via the cage of this high reach appliance.

A fire engine
The fire and rescue service outside Corpus Christi. Source: Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue

“They had placed themselves at great danger, considering that they were over four storeys above street level, and the slightest slip may have had disastrous consequences, which could have, at best, involved life changing injuries.”

In an email to JCR members, seen by Cherwell, the Dean of Corpus Christi, Dr David Russell, described climbing on college buildings as “extraordinarily dangerous”, noting the “seriousness” of the ban on climbing and concluding that “the ground is unforgiving.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Corpus JCR President, Alice Rubbra, said: “This was a reckless incident which wasted precious fire service time and resources. Roofs are not to be climbed on. On behalf of the JCR, I condemn such dangerous behaviour and hope it will not happen again.”

Another student, second year lawyer Jeremy Huitson, had more positive thoughts about the events.

“Whilst I wasn’t involved in climbing myself and think it’s a huge hazard, colleges will never be able to stop young people taking risks in search of thrills. Instead, colleges should try to make night climbing a safer activity, perhaps by investing in harness equipment.”

It is believed the students were following in the footsteps of Oxford and Cambridge ‘night climbing’, a student sport of climbing up the walls of colleges and exploring the rooftops.

First described in 1895, the activity has a long history but has faded in the popularity in recent decades as health and safety laws have tightened, though students have been depicted on Oxford roofs as recently as in the 2014 film The Riot Club.

According to data released by the Office for National Statistics, 5,438 people in England and Wales died from falls in 2015.

Corpus Christi College has been contacted for comment.

Oxford students to run for Council positions

Mia Millman
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Oxford students to run for Council positions

Several Oxford students will be taking their passion for politics and student activism to a whole new level as election season approaches, with a handful standing to be Oxfordshire County councillors and one student hoping to be Labour’s new parliamentary candidate for Oxford East in the upcoming general election.

County Council elections are held in May every four years with all 63 seats up for election on 4 May 2017.

Students will be running for seats in divisions including Abingdon East and Cowley. The key issues for the students running are local housing, social care, homelessness, employment, and the maintenance of the environment and infrastructure.

The County Council is responsible for 80% of local government services. Candidates include Lucas Bertholdi-Saad (Labour for Summertown and Wolvercote division), Lucinda Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat for University Parks division), Alex Curtis (Conservative for Isis division), Louis McEvoy (Labour for Abingdon East division), and Harry Samuels (Liberal Democrat for Cowley division).

McEvoy, a second-year Historian at Christ Church and OULC member, is focusing his campaigning on the “protection and funding for services”, “the status of care work”, homelessness, and housing. He has previously campaigned during the 2016 local elections and EU referendum.

Bertholdi-Saad is a second-year History and Economics student at Wadham, and is the current Wadham Student Union President and a former OULC co-chair.

Writing about his campaign on the OULC website, Bertholdi-Saad said: “Locally, there are real issues that come out talking to local people as well as following local and national politics. This ranges from dangerous local trees in Jordan Hill … to larger county issues—cuts to social care, cuts to our NHS, and other unaccountable changes.”

Speaking to Cherwell on his decision to run, Bertholdi-Saad said: “I liked canvassing in first year and the local Labour Party wanted young people, BME people and women to run—I thought that two out of three wasn’t bad!”

Bertholdi-Saad also has previous campaign experience, having helped Daniel Iley-Williamson—another member of OULC—get elected as city councillor for Holywell last year.

Daniel Iley-Williamson, a Politics tutor and PhD student at Queen’s, and was hoping to be the Labour candidate for Oxford East in the upcoming general election before the selection of Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s MEP in the South East England region.

This comes after the announcement that Andrew Smith, the Oxford East Labour MP for 30 years, will not be standing as a candidate in June’s snap election. This constituency contains the majority of Oxford colleges.

Speaking about his reasons for running, Iley-Williamson told Cherwell: “in a parliament in which the current average age of MPs is 51, I want to bring the voice of the austerity generation to Westminster”.

Iley-Williamson’s campaign is focused on the need for rent control, a higher minimum wage, free education, and defending public services. Iley-Williamson’s hopes of becoming Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Oxford East were dashed when Anneliese Dodds, a Labour MEP first elected in 2014, was selected by members of the National Executive Committee.

Harry Samuels, a classicist at New College and former President of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats (OULD), is running as a Lib Dem candidate. Samuels also stood for Carfax at the city council election in 2016.

Speaking to Cherwell about student representation in local politics, Samuels commented: “It’s vitally important that students are part of the wider community and engage with it. We’re not some separate bubble with no right to representation, and it’s important that we stand up for what we believe in too.”

Discussing his decision to run for the county council, Samuels emphasises the need to counter the hard Brexit being put forward by other parties. Like many students running in these elections, Samuels is also focusing on social care. Lucinda Chamberlain, a third-year PPE student at Brasenose, is also running as a Lib Dem candidate.

Chamberlain previously ran for council in 2015 when she was 18 and is also a former President of OULD and former President of Oxford Students For Liberty. Chamberlain’s policies focus on homelessness, housing prices, and greater student representation and consideration.

When asked about what she was looking forward to on the campaign trail, Chamberlain said: “I always have fun with campaigning, although it’s taken a while to get used to seeing my own names on the leaflets, and in everyone’s pidges!”

“Oxford University is such an integral part of this city and its community, and yet the views and interests of most students are side-lined and ignored”.

Alex Curtis, running as a Conservative candidate, is already a seasoned political activist. He is currently Deputy Chair of the Oxford East Conservative Association and has run to be a councillor before.

Speaking to Cherwell, Curtis said: “I decided to run because I am passionate about many of the issues covered by Oxfordshire County Council. Good governance is a challenge, and it is very difficult to balance limited public spending with good quality public services.”

County Council elections will take place on 4 May and the General Election will take place on 8 June

Shock election of Shakira Martin

Jordan Bernstein
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Shock election of Shakira Martin

Shakira Martin was on Wednesday elected to serve as the next President of the National Union of Students, winning with first preference votes alone.

In the first round, Martin won 402 votes—56 per cent of the vote share. Malia Bouattia, who was running for re-election, won 235 votes and Tom Harwood, an NUS delegate from Durham University, received 35 votes.

Martin identifies herself as a black single mother from a working-class family, and positioned herself as a centrist candidate. She is currently the NUS Vice President for Further Education.

Following her election victory, she said: “I am honoured and humbled to have been elected as NUS’ National President. I take this as a vote of trust that our members believe I can lead our national movement to be the fighting and campaigning organisation we need it to be, representing the breadth of our diverse membership.”

Consonant with her campaign pledge to ‘make education an option for everyone’, Martin continued: “Further Education made me who I am today and [I] look forward to sharing stories of just how powerful all forms of education can be when we’re all given access to it.

During my term in office I want to spend my time listening, learning and leading.”

Tom Harwood positioned himself as a moderate campaigner, and the only candidate for restoring faith in a NUS which he alleges is “in crisis”.

Speaking to Cherwell, Harwood said: “I am so proud of the role I have played in this election. Our campaign shifted the debate and helped set the course for what can be a more moderate union.”

Each candidate began the day with an impassioned speech to the conference as a final plea for votes.

Bouattia began by defending her record, focussing particularly on her fight against prejudice following a year which has been plagued by allegations of anti-Semitism and alienation of students. Close to tears as she recounted fleeing war-torn Algeria to live below the poverty line in Britain, she told the conference that only she knew “what it means to make sacrifices for education.”

By contrast, Harwood pitched his vision for a depoliticised union, critiquing the “hard-left” message which he argued has permeated student politics, describing it is as creating a “toxic culture”. He drew particular attention to the “arbitrary censure” of Richard Brooks earlier this year and what he saw as the clear message that four successful disaffiliation referenda from university unions gave to the NUS.

But the victor in the conference vote was Shakira. She told the conference that she had listened and that she could restore trust in a broken NUS. Her pledges to fight for students often marginalised by the mainstream student movement—those like herself who find themselves in further education from challenging backgrounds—resonated with many who sought a real alternative to the sort of politics that marked the presidency of Bouattia.

Adam Hilsenrath, an Oxford NUS delegate who ran last term on the Wake Up NUS slate, told Cherwell: “I am delighted with Shakira Martin’s election to the NUS presidency. Her victory is a vote against the divisive rhetoric experienced over the past year under Malia Bouattia, which led to 26 disaffi liation referenda.

It is also a vote against Bouattia’s past anti-Semitic comments, and against the anti-Semitism in the student movement in general that is still yet to be eliminated. Martin’s victory signals a willingness for the movement to show positive change towards inclusivity going forward and I look forward to seeing those changes under her presidency.”

The day was, however, not just about elections. Oxford had several successes, which included Student Union President Jack Hampton proposing an overwhelmingly-backed motion to increase funding and resources in an effort to help those students who have experienced mental health problems. He drew on his experience coordinating similar efforts during his tenure in Oxford, but told the conference he knew that not every Student Union had the research power or capital to invest in such products.

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