Harris Manchester College has warned fellow JCRs about a potential danger from a razor-wielding bike vandal.

Christopher Rawlinson, JCR Secretary at Harris Manchester, emailed other college JCRs late yesterday evening. 

“Just a quick message to let you know that a student at Harris Manchester found a razor blade embedded in his bike seat this evening when he went to collect his bike from a rack on Mansfield Road.

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“Hopefully, this was an isolated incident, but given how seriously the student could have been injured if he had used the bike, it might be worth forwarding an email on to your JCRs.”

Several JCRs have yet to forward on the email to their members. “If it is an isolated incident as it appears so far then there seems little reason to scare people, including new freshers”, said a JCR executive officer at one college which had not forwarded the email. 

Other colleges, included St Peters, did forward the message.

Oxford University’s student accommodation at Port Meadow was named amongst the candidates for the 2013 Carbuncle Cup, the Building Design Online prize for the UK’s worst building. However, the award went instead to the New Hall project at University College London.

The series of five-storey complexes, which comprises of 439 units, has received much criticism for obstructing the view of the Dreaming Spires from Port Meadow, a valued green space in North Oxford. Since December 2012, the Save Port Meadow Campaign has been working with members of the community to, at the very least, lower the buildings and repair the landscape.

Matthew Sherrington for the Save Port Meadow Campaign commented that, “The Carbuncle Cup was just a bit of frivolous fun, even if it did heap national media embarrassment on the University. The serious issues are the failings between the City Council and the University in ever building it in the first place.”

A second year classicist responded to the news, saying, “Obviously it’s terrible that Oxford is losing these historic views, but some foresight would have been helpful in not approving the building plans in the first place.”

The Save Port Meadow Campaign is not unsympathetic to the need for student housing in Oxford but notes, “The main concern has been the size of the buildings, exceeding the tree line by two storeys and so ruining both the views and the experience of Port Meadow.”

The Save Port Meadow Campaign is concerned with just that. Sherrington said, “There is now an independent inquiry underway into the whole planning fiasco.” He has partnered with the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) to assess the legality of the development.

Indeed the £21.5m construction has received an outcry of negative feedback from thousands of community members and the CPRE is scheduled to take the case to High Court on 23 October.

The proposed lowering of the buildings would require an expense in the millions of pounds, at which a recent graduate in English sided with the campaigners, stating “If the council permitted the building to be built in the first place, they should bear the costs of having them reduced to restore the valuable scenery of Oxford.”

Hundreds of Corpus Christi students, including many finalists, have been told that they face significant disruptions to their living situation over the coming year as the result of delays on a major college property development.

In a circular e-mail sent to the Corpus JCR on Monday, the Domestic Bursar Colin Holmes informed undergraduates that building work on the New Building on Magpie Lane had been delayed until perhaps as late as January 2015. The interruption has been attributed to efforts by the 20th Century Society, who have successfully applied to have the building listed with English Heritage.

The plans for refurbishment had originally included a completely redesigned floor plan and a modernisation programme for some of the older rooms within New Building itself. In order to accommodate the building work, most 2nd years and a large number of finalists were due to be moved to offsite accommodation during Hilary and Trinity of 2014.

Whilst it has been confirmed that accommodation for fresher undergraduates is ring-fenced by the college for the entirety of 2013/14, the majority of 2nd and 3rd year Corpus students have now been told that they must re-enter a fresh room ballot on Monday of 2nd Week in order to select alternative accommodation for the coming Hilary and Trinity terms. The extra rooms have mostly been collected from those on the main college site, whilst some students will be offered college-owned properties in Summertown and Jericho.

In the e-mail sent to the Corpus JCR early on Monday evening, the Domestic Bursar Colin Holmes expressed his considerable displeasure at the delay, saying, “This is extremely annoying and frustrating for those of us who have been working hard on the project and will mean that the College incurs considerable extra expense and that the modernised rooms will not be available as soon as we hoped.”

Many Corpus students, however, have responded more positively to the news. One Corpus finalist said, “The delay in the building project has actually come as very welcome news to me and to most other Corpus students – under the plans, finalists, who normally live in the nicest rooms in college, were going to be forced to move out to offsite housing. The delay means we get to stay in college all year.”

Corpus JCR Accommodation Officer Vicki Halsall said, “The response to the news of a delay to the developments of Magpie Lane have generally been met with positive responses from many students, particularly to those finalists who will now be able to live in college the duration of their final academic year.  College have been very accommodating in trying to ensure this delay has as little impact on the students as possible, and the fact the ballot will be happening so early this term reflects their desire to ensure certainty and clarity for all students affected.”

She added, “The delay makes the job of organising housing for the subsequent terms of this academic year less stressful than it was anticipated to be, as the finishing of the Lampl Building on Park End Street means that Corpus is able to offer a higher quality of accommodation to a greater number of students.”

Magpie Lane runs south from High Street to Merton Street, between Merton and Corpus Christi. Whilst the street itself dates from at least the 13th century, almost all the buildings in the alleyway date from after 1900. Corpus Christi owns the majority of the property on the west side of the street, most of which was demolished in the 1960s to make room for more modern student accommodation.

The application to acquire listed status for the New Building was submitted by the 20th Century Society, an organisation who describe themselves as existing to “…safeguard the heritage of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards,” and “…protect the buildings and design that characterise the Twentieth Century in Britain.” Other recent successful listing projects by the 20^th Century Society include the recently vacated BBC Television Centre and the iconic red telephone box.

Whilst nobody was available to comment on the individual case involving the New Building, a spokesperson for English Heritage said, “Fewer than five percent of properties listed with English Heritage date from the post-1914 period. Listed buildings from the 20th century are relatively rare, and are usually of exceptional value or historical significance. Listed status is not the same as a preservation order, it does not prevent any change indefinitely. Where listed status is conferred during the planning stages of construction this usually means that consent must be sought from local authorities and plans have to be redrawn in accordance with a building’s special interest.”

He made the remarks in his annual Oration speech, saying that current funding “doesn’t add up for Oxford.” Hamilton stopped short of calling for immediate rises in fees, but said that Oxford faced a funding “chasm” because recent increases in fees had not met the funding gap for undergraduate tuition.

Hamilton also mentioned having read that other universities were “doing very nicely thank you” from annual tuition fees of £9,000.

An Oxford spokesman emphasised to Cherwell, “There is no suggestion that the entire shortfall Oxford faces should be made up through fee increases. What the Vice-Chancellor did was to raise the idea as an option the University might come to consider.” The Telegraph newspaper and The Tab both ran headlines on Tuesday suggesting Hamilton had asked students to meet the entire cost.

Vice-Chancellor Hamilton has faced criticism recently for accepting a pay package of £424,000 last year, an amount that could cover 60 funding shortfalls for undergraduates.

Tom Rutland, OUSU president, attended the speech and made his position on any tuition fee increase clear: “Students’ pockets have already been raided by this government when it betrayed them and trebled undergraduate tuition fees in 2010. The idea of students paying even more is unthinkable and will be wholeheartedly opposed by students in Oxford and across the country.

“It is extremely concerning to hear talk of fees increasing, especially from the Vice-Chancellor of our university… With such strides forward in our access schemes and bursary packages in recent years, the discussion about increasing fees further risks alienating and pricing out those people we are reaching out to.”

However Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU lecturers’ union told BBC News: “Prof Hamilton should perhaps be applauded for going after one of the rawest nerves in politics to try and get higher education funding back in the spotlight – something we fear no party will be keen to do this side of the general election.”

Currently the gap in funding is met by philanthropy and other incomes like the OUP, meaning that Oxford runs a 5% operating surplus. A spokesman said, “This is sufficient to sustain the current infrastructure of the University … we don’t need to borrow money.”

However, Hamilton also raised the possibility of Oxford issuing a bond to borrow in the future, in line with other top universities, to improve its facilities. He stressed that this would be only after “careful reflection.” The spokesman added, “And whatever happens, access must be regardless of finances.”