A Wadham student’s controversial ideas seem to have lost him the recent election for Wadham SU Treasurer. Last week, certain Wadhamites reacted to the “ridiculously offensive” nature of his campaign by ripping down posters from the Library door and the campaign strategy which the student had hoped “would make people talk” seemed to backfire at the elections last Friday. He lost out to the two other candidates, with even RON receiving 23 more votes overall than him.

The winning candidate, Olivia Allen, holds clearly opposing views; her manifesto read: “As someone who would love to indulge in more slutwalks and likes nothing more than a bit of Oxford Left-wing nonsense I would like you to consider me as your next SU Treasurer.”

The student’s campaign sparked debate when he condemned the use of college money to fund transport to Slutwalk, and to support Oxford Left Review and Oxford Radical Forum. His poster slogan read: “Fight Wadham’s Far Left, vote [for him] as YOUR Treasurer’ and his manifesto called for fairer distribution of college funds to the whole student body, especially those ‘who are too busy to waste their time at SU meetings debating bureaucratic and ideological motions’.”

Wadham JCR President Jahni Emmanuel commented on his defeat in the election: “I don’t think it was inevitable – I think the reason he lost was not necessarily because the posters were offensive, but because they illustrated some of his ideas which were quite controversial and not particularly popular.”

Asked whether she believed that the ripping down of posters had affected the election results, she responded “I think it was bad that the posters were removed but I don’t think it impacted on the result of the election – many of them were left up, and even the ones which were removed were in place for a significant amount of time beforehand. Furthermore, more posters were out and up after the initial ones were torn down.”

When we contacted the student, he said that “he was disappointed by the turnout.” Out of 600 students, there was only a voter turnout of 147 students. He proceeded to say that “only 11% [of Wadham student population] voted for Olivia. I will be sad to see the £30k+ intended for the other 89% students blown on more ‘slut-walks and left-wing nonsense’.”

It does seem dissapointing that only a quarter of students, approximately, voted in the elections but in a college where Feminism and Left wing views are clearly held – they recently passed a ‘zero tolerance’ sexual assault motion – it seems unlikely that his views would have ever gained mass support.

Oxord residents have protested about a talk given by two speakers from Google at the Sheldonian Theatre.

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas discussed “their vision for the future” at the talk on Tuesday.

The talk was an event organised by the University’s Blavatnik School of Government.

A protest held outside the Sheldonian included a man alleging that Google avoids tax. A banner read, “Google pay your taxes.”

The protestor addressed the public walking past with a loudspeaker.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, told Cherwell, “Oxford University shouldn’t be accommodating such a villain.”

He added, “Google should pay tax. People paying welfare are blamed for the economic downturn, but it is corporate tax avoiders who are to blame.”

Eric Schmidt stated “First, corporation tax should be paid on a company’s profits, not its revenues… Second, politicians – not companies – set the rules… Third, given the intensity of the debate, not just in the UK but also in America and elsewhere, international tax law could almost certainly benefit from reform.”

At the time of going to press, the University had not responded to Cherwell’s request for a comment.

Exeter College has failed to sell off nine student houses on the Iffley road after they have been on the market for nearly a year.

The houses, valued at around £6.5million, have been up for sale since August 2012 yet have failed to attract a buyer. The plots comprise 76 student bedrooms but are being marketed as suitable for Ê»total redevelopmentʼ.

It is unclear why the college intends to sell the properties in the middle of its much-publicised lack of student housing and ensuing controversy over new accommodation overlooking Worcester college.

“The sale has been known around College for ages,” commented Exeter JCR President, Edward Nickell. He went on to say that students will be living in six of the nine houses next year, with the other three, comprising 24 rooms in total, being sold.

“Exeter are selling rooms to buy rooms – the 24 rooms being sold on the Iffley road will help to finance the 90 rooms planned in Central Oxford. This has meant that the net gain of rooms isnʼt as high as students would want, but the rooms will be much closer to the city centre,” he continued.

“The housing shortage is my priority, but College is also pleased weʼll have fewer dank and subterranean teaching rooms than Exonians currently put up with,” he added.

Christopher Aquilina, spokesman for surveyor AOS Studley Spring4, which is marketing the site, said when the houses went on sale that “Oxfordʼs residential market has bucked the trend for the rest of the country by promoting the fundamentals of the city, such as having the best university in the world, so the college see it as a good time to explore their options.”

“We havenʼt had any firm offers yet but we have had loads of interest, from a lot of private investors and developers.”, he added.

The houses fall within the St Clementʼs and Iffley Road conservation area which limits the development potential of the properties.

Researcher’s from Oxford University’s Experimental Psychology department have discovered that small electric pulses to the brain can improve memory, learning and mathematic ability.

The researchers, led by Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, applied small electric currents to volunteers for just 20 minutes for 5 days. They found that after receiving the treatment, volunteer’s  vision, memory, decision-making, problem-solving, language and focusing skills were all improved, with the effects lasting for up to six months.

Dr Cohen Kadosh, who has been working on brain stimulation for the last 7 years, explained how the experiment works: ‘We place two electrodes on regions that we know are involved in maths processing. It is not a shock, it is a very subtle electrical current, which many do not even feel.

 ‘The brain is working on electricity, and I wanted to examine if changing the responsiveness of the brain by applying electricity to it in brain regions that are critical for maths could improve its function.

‘It seems that the brain works more efficiently when it is stimulated than when it is not, as evaluated by tools that assess blood oxygenation. But we still need to know the exact mechanisms’

He pointed out that the current research is not a treatment but an experiment. However he hoped the work could apply in real life situations. ‘If it will appear to be safe and successful, it could be used in different settings (e.g., tutorials for those with learning difficulties), until then I would not advice using this at home.’

The recent election of a new Keble JCR president has caused controversy as the Sean Ford, the winning candidate, received fewer first preference votes than his only competitor for the presidency.

Keble uses the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system to elect its president with JCR members ranking the candidates numerically, including the option to Re-Open Nominations (RON), according to their preferences.

Although Alex Connolly, a first-year historian at Keble, received one more first preference vote than Ford, his total of seventy eight votes left him just under the fifty per cent support required in order to become elected.

This meant that the three voters who chose RON as their first preference had their next preference votes counted in a second round. One of them chose no second preference and the other two selected Ford as their second choice, taking Ford’s total of votes up to seventy nine and winning him the presidency.

Sean Ford, winner of the election and a first-year PPEist at Keble, told Cherwell, “I was elected by the rules of the constitution. I do not see how the process can be more legitimate. The point of STV is that someone will be elected who has a majority of the JCR’s support.”

He added, “No matter what the system, if Alex and I had been as close as we were, then the result may seem controversial but at the end of it, we can only work with the method the constitution lays out.”

Ford also defended the importance of being able to vote for RON in JCR elections. He said, “Sometimes those nominated are not up to the standards of the JCR. It is important that we have the option to reject candidates.”

Alex Connolly, the losing candidate, told Cherwell, “The constitution is clear as to how the voting system works so I have no grounds for formal complaint, but having said this, it was a very, very unsatisfactory way to lose.”

James Newton, the outgoing JCR President, commented, “Keble JCR conducts its elections through Single Transferable Vote. This system has been in use for well over five years in Keble and its procedure is laid out clearly in Appendix A. Last week’s elections were carried out in full accordance with these procedures and each successful candidate was duly elected.”

A fresher studying PPE at Keble, said, “I think it must have been just about the closest run thing ever, as close as a Grand National photo finish. Which makes sense as both Sean and Alex would have done a fantastic job as President and they both had pretty strong fan bases.

She added, “People have said that it was unfair; maybe so, maybe not, but it is really great to have had an election where literally every vote and second vote counted. And if I’m honest, I am glad to see a PPEist back in a position of power.”