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Oriel Provost faces further calls to resign

Oriel College’s Provost Moira Wallace is facing calls to resign from individuals believing she has mishandled recent events regarding the Rhodes statue.

In a letter to The Times yesterday, Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites, ex-principal of Westfield College, University of London, suggested that recent events would leave a hole in Oriel’s finances, and that Ms Wallace should step down. He wrote, “It is going to take many years of resolute leadership to fill [the financial hole] in again and thus put the College’s reputation and standing once more on secure foundations. Moira Wallace is clearly not the person to provide that leadership. She should resign forthwith.”

The Telegraph reports that the chairman of the Commons select committee on education, Neil Carmichael, has also called for Ms Wallace’s resignation. Carmiahael is quoted as saying, “I’m sympathetic to the view that Moira Wallace should consider her position. The College allowed this to spiral out of control and there should be some sense of responsibility for what has happened. They should have foreseen that this was going to become an issue, so she should certainly consider her response to this crisis.” 

Although both articles insist that the College will face financial difficulties following the withdrawal of donations, Oriel has rejected these claims. The College said in a statement, “As the College has already said, reports that it faces an operating loss are categorically untrue. It does not depend on donations to fund its operations.” In a full statement released last week, the College also denied that it was preparing to make redundancies, but The Telegraph alleges that cuts may be planned to the development team. 

Last night, Oriel JCR adjourned a motion condemning the College’s Governing Body for “failing to listen to the voices of students in relation to the issues surrounding the fate of the statue and plaque commemorating Cecil Rhodes and, in doing this, revoking the opportunity that was promised to students in the six-month listening exercise.” The JCR did pass a motion condemning Oriel Governing Body’s failure to invite the JCR President, Kate Welsh, to the secret meeting last Wednesday. The JCR also rejected a motion urging an inquiry into the leak to The Telegraph of a secret document shown to Governing. The final motion, urging the creation of a Tutor for Equalities role, was abandoned.

The Oriel Governing Body will convene again this Wednesday when they will be addressed by the JCR and MCR presidents. 

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