Student Protests

I just passed a student demo along Baker Street. Also today, I discovered at least two Oxford University libraries are now closed at the weekend because it’s no longer term time. What’s the bet that when students are paying £9,000 a year to go there, those libraries will still be closed at the weekend outside of term time? Term time at Oxford is just eight weeks. And the last time I was in the Bodleian, one light fixture was buzzing so loudly it was like trying to read with an alarm bell activating overhead, another light fixture was flashing on and off continuously and one reading room was freezing cold. I hope someone else complained too.

Women in Power

So, now it is official: Johanna Sigurdardottir is in power as the leader of the Social Democrats in Iceland.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff5e64ee-32c3-11de-8116-00144feabdc0.html

I was at Balliol College yesterday evening having dinner. The wall is covered with male luminaries from years gone by, past masters and fellows. Balliol was the first traditional all-male college to elect a woman as fellow and tutor in 1973. But there is very little space for her portrait (if one exists), should the college decide to hang it up. Maybe the men decorating the wall at present could be moved a little closer together to make way for a woman among them.

The Cherwell Exposed

The Times and The Daily Mail have run stories today about the editors of Oxford University’s Cherwell newspaper resigning after producing a racist and sexist parody of the paper.

The "Lecher", the nationals report, mocked the Holocaust, referred to black people in racist terms, superimposed the faces of students and staff onto pornographic images, sexually slurred the Vice Chancellor and made light of date rape. The front page story describes two students abusing and killing babies.

Lewis Iwu, the first black president of the union, has demanded an investigation into the publication and has returned a recent reward he received from The Cherwell. The Oxford Student Publications Limited (OSPL), which publishes The Cherwell, demanded and received the resignation of the individuals responsible.

I have memories of The Cherwell from my time as a student at Oxford. An article I was asked to write about Jonathan Aitken (former Conservative MP), who came to talk to a small group of interested folk about his time in prison, was never run and the panel of public school boys who interviewed me for an editorial position sent me promptly packing. It was quite possible to feel the knife enter your back as soon as you had climbed up the stairs to the Cherwell office and heard the door shut behind you. One of the lines quoted in today’s Times, in which the Lecher refers to The Cherwell as a white, upper-class male commune, is pretty much how it was. I got bored of sticking my neck out for them as a reporter (such as being threatened with arrest after persevering with a story involving security measures at Lady Margeret Hall) and went elsewhere.

The Oxford Student alternative to The Cherwell was thankfully not like that. The Oxford Student boasted a friendly, down-to-earth and supportive editorial team. I hope they still are.