William Hague has announced that the old History Faculty Library will host the govern-ment’s Ê»Global Centre for Cyber Security Capacity.

The “cyber centre” will receive a £1 million grant from the Government. The announcement comes after the 2011 National Security Strategy rated cyber-attacks as a threat as serious as international terrorism.

Hague, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, stated that the centre “will coordinate global work on cyber threats and cyber policies which will help protect the UK’s security” and “be a beacon of expertise and put the UK at the forefront of cyber policy development.”

The “cyber-centre” will be based in the building of the Indian Institute on Broad Street, which to housed the History Faculty Library until it was moved to the Radcliffe Camera in September 2012. The move was controversial
for the lack of consultation with students.

Hague was a student at Magdalen in the 1980s, President of the Oxford Union in Michelmas 1981, and President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) in Hilary of the same year.

The centre will be part of the Martin School, which works to “address the most pressing global challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.” It was founded in 2005 with a $100 million donation from philanthropist James 
Martin.

According to Sadie Creese, Head of the new cyber centre, the research they will conduct will define global priorities for cyber security. The research conducted will be shared with governments, communities, and organisations,, to inform their own cybersecurity strategies.

Yet a third-year Keble historian commented, “This all sounds like a bit of a gimmick by the government, especially as the G8 conference is being hosted in London right now. Hague didn’t even come to Oxford to open the centre.”

Nicholas Crossland, a first-year Philosophy and Theology student, commented, “It is looking increasingly as though tomorrow’s warfare will be predominantly fought on computer screens…it makes perfect sense to make
investments in technology, brains and innovation in this field a priority.”

Walid Haddad, a third year history and politics student at St. Hugh’s, stated that “The move of the HFL to the Radcliffe Camera hasn’t been as apocalyptic as was originally predicted.”

Haddad went on to remark that, “If the University has a few square feet of extra space on Broad Street left over from the move, why shouldnÊ»t they seek to fill the vacancy with money from Whitehall?”

The University of Oxford this week agreed to pay all direct employees a living wage with immediate effect. This move means an increase in the salaries of all the Universities’ lowest paid direct employees, both casual and full-time, to £7.45 an hour.

This decision represents a substantial victory for the Living Wage Campaign which has been in operation since 2006. The campaign has gained support from University staff and students as well as other universities up and down the country. The campaign has fought to increase the wages of those on the bottom rung of the University’s payroll.

The figure of £7.45, which comprises the ‘living wage’, is calculated by taking into account the basic rate of living, which is higher than the current government-implemented minimum wage of £6.31. This figure rises to £8.55 for those employed in London.

Daniel Turner, press officer for the Oxford University Labour Club, told Cherwell “We’re naturally very pleased that the University has agreed to pay all direct employees a living wage. OULC members have worked hard alongside the Living Wage Campaign, and we will continue to agitate for fairer pay for college staff and for those employed indirectly by the university.

“The Labour-controlled City Council is a living wage employer, and Labour’s 2013 manifesto for Oxfordshire calls for the County Council to do the same. Our work is part of a broader movement in Labour Students to spread the living wage in Britain’s universities, with several major successes so far.”

Sarah Santhosham, OUSU charities chair told Cherwell, “For many years the OUSU Living Wage Campaign has been pressing for staff employed by the University and its Colleges to be paid an amount that they can afford to live on, in collaboration with many student groups, community groups, the Council and most importantly the workers themselves.

“It is a very welcome development that all directly employed staff are now being paid a Living but the problem of poverty pay still persists for the hundreds of contracted workers at the University and much remains to be done. The OUSU campaign will keep on fighting for these changes, while actively continuing to support campaigns run by students
across the Colleges.”

The university’s recent decision does not affect those indirectly working for them, such as the employees of contractors. In a document published on the 15th March by the university’s personnel services it was stated that “The Personnel Committee has made no commitments relating to future increases in the Living Wage or to employees of contractors who are working on university premises. A working party will be set up to consider how to assist departments who wish to pay the Living Wage to the employees of university contractors.”

The document went on to state that “A working group is being set up to consider how best to assist departments who wish to ensure that staff of contractors working on university premises are paid at the Living Wage. More information on this will be available in due course.”

Oxford delegates were split at the NUS National Conference last week over a motion to introduce a quota for 50 per cent of all NUS committee members to be female. Motion 701 was defeated by nine votes, with a turnout of 527 delegates.

Helena Dollimore, one of Oxford’s five NUS delegates, supported the motion, telling Cherwell, “Women are under-represented due to a deeprooted structural sexism which exists… It is patronising when opponents of this motion deny this by claiming that the current system must be okay because the best candidate wins. That argument only works if society is a level-playing field for women, and it clearly isn’t. Gender-balancing is about compensating for that structural inequality while the root causes are tackled.”

Departing NUS president, Liam Burns, also supported the motion in his speech.

Yet OUSU Vice-President for Women, Suzanne Holsomback, said “I believe this motion came from a genuine desire for gender equality, but it addresses the symptoms of a problem – few female NUS delegates – and not the root… We need programmes and initiatives that work with students to encourage women and minority groups to run for leadership positions.”

Unusually, the motion was voted for by secret ballot. Cherwell understands that at least one of Oxford’s delegates voted against the motion. One Oxford delegate, Emily Cousens, arrived too late to be able to vote. 

The motion sought to address the gender imbalance among NUS delegates. Despite 56 per cent of students being women, only 36 per cent of delegates are women. The National Executive Committee, the decision making body of the NUS, were elected at the conference. Only four of fifteen are female.

One first year classicist criticised the gender-balancing motion, telling Cherwell, “Quotas are demeaning for women and detrimental to a status of equality with men…Thatcher did more for the perception of male-female equality than any of those squawking lefty nutcases at the Guardian ever will … I think the NUS are utterly irrelevant and I reject them utterly.”

Verity Bell, a first-year lawyer at New College, opined, “although I support the spirit of the motion, I think a quota would be an artificial and short-term solution. We should address the wider problem causing the gender imbalance, which is that on average fewer female students run for election to be delegates.”

The National Conference, held in Sheffield between 8th and 11th April, was attended by delegates from every UK university. Oxford sent seven students, including OUSU President David J Townsend, although one NUS delegate was too ill to attend. Students caused controversy when “about forty” delegates applauded Margaret Thatcher’s death on the first day of conference. The conference also debated ‘lad culture’, which an NUS report last month deemed “sexist, misogynistic and homophobic”.

Some students expressed apathy towards the NUS by voting for “an inanimate carbon rod as President.” Its manifesto included training 8 million “death cyborgs”. Andrew Tindall, the campaign’s organiser, said candidates “launch bland campaigns that offer nothing but another rehash of the same empty slogans and promises we see every year .”

The rod was defeated by Toni Pearce, elected the first NUS president never to have attended university. Pearce’s aims include “properly articulating the public value of education” and “bridging the divide between university and further education students.”

Humour was added by the leaving speech of Vice-President Dannie Grufferty, taking the form of an adapted Les Misérables medley. Grufferty spoke of life as an NUS staff member, singing, “It’s a struggle, it’s a faff/And there’s nothing that anyone’s giving/One more day counting ballots/You’re having a laugh/If you think this is living.”

A new Bodleian archive of 5 million UK websites has been criticised by privacy campaigners and civil rights groups. The Bod, in association with the British Library and five other libraries from across the country, announced its participation in the Internet Archive scheme earlier in April. Over 1 billion webpages are in the process of being permanently archived by the Library to snapshot the nation’s ‘digital memory’.

Some privacy campaigners have now voiced concerns about the project’s implications. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, warned that social media users were at risk of inadvertent exposure, opining, “While the archive cannot access private or password-protected websites, many people might not realise that what they upload to the public web would be enshrined forever.”

He told Cherwell, “The danger of unintended consequences is magnified by how wide they’ve cast the net.”

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, pointed out that the main issue was with websites who failed to make their privacy policies clear to users. He told the BBC, “My concern is that a lot of Facebook comments are public and people don’t realise they’re publishing to the world. That’s Facebook’s fault, not the British Library’s – their user settings need to be changed in line with people’s expectations.”

The archive cuold eventually contain every public tweet or Facebook post in the British web domain, as it moves to comply with an Act of Parliament passed over 10 years ago. The regulations, known as legal deposit, ensure that ephemeral materials like websites can be collected and preserved forever.

Information hidden behind privacy walls on sites such as Facebook, eBay and Amazon will not be recorded. The archive will be limited to pages in the UK web domain and will offer a takedown procedure to remove content that has been mistakenly trawled.

For centuries the Bodleian has kept a copy of every book, pamphlet, magazine and newspaper published in the UK as part of a process known
as legal deposit. New regulations from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport mean that the Bodleian’s participation in the archive scheme is compulsory.

Sarah Thomas, Bodley’s Librarian, said that the project “will provide future researchers with access to information which otherwise would have been lost and which can contribute to understanding such diverse experiences as the Olympics and nutrition and taste in school dinners.”

Some say that the project was long overdue. Without the archive many researchers fear a massive ‘digital black-hole’ in UK history may hinder
the investigations of scholars. Ben Sanderson from the British Library
said we had already lost a lot, such as “the material that was posted by the
public during the 7/7 bombings.”

One second-year Hertford historian praised the scheme saying, “You can’t really understand the early 21st century without the Internet… We need to realise as a society that things put up on the Internet are there for everyone to see, perhaps now forever.”

The archive process will take three months, with another two months to process the data. The data will be available in Bodleian reading rooms.

Wycliffe Hall announced on Monday that they have appointed a new Principal. Revd Dr Michael Lloyd is expected to take up the role this summer. He will be replacing Revd Dr Simon Vibert, who is currently the acting Principal.

Established in 1877, Wycliffe Hall is one of the only remaining colleges to teach only theology-related subjects and is considered one of the leading theological training colleges for the Church of England. It is one of the five Permanent Private Halls affiliated with Oxford University.

Dr Lloyd himself commented “At a time when Christianity is under more intellectual attack than it has been since the eighteenth century, we need Christian leaders of impressive intellectual ability, rigour and creativity.

“I am determined that Wycliffe should build a reputation for being a warm, respectful, encouraging and secure place for women to train alongside men, for all forms of ordained ministry.”

Among the challenges facing the new Principal is how to ensure the theological training at the Hall is sufficiently broad. In 2007 following complaints by staff that the Principal was too evangelical, Wycliffe received a warning from the University that it should avoid “narrow conservative evangelicalism if it is to remain part of Oxford University.”

Lloyd is currently Chaplain at Queen’s College, Oxford. He is the author of the popular book Cafe Theology: Exploring Love, the Universe and Everything and is also a frequent contributor to GodPod, a podcast about theology.

Dr Simon Vibert is Acting Principal of Wycliffe Hall, and not Acting Vice Chancellor, as previously stated. (amended 19th April)

Oxford and Cambridge received forty five per cent of all philanthropic donations to British universities, which reached record-breaking levels in the academic year 2011 to 2012, according to a study by the National Centre for Social Research.

Funds of £774 million were secured by British institutions, showing an increase of 14.4% from the academic year 2010-2011, and a 33% increase from 2009-2010. Despite this development, the overall funding of some universities declined, with the average level of donations to individual institutions also decreasing. This suggests that while some universities continue to receive increasing financial support, others find their funds dwindling. Six institutions raised over £20 million, while nearly thirty secured funds of less than £100,000.

Oxford’s fundraising campaign Oxford Thinking was launched in August 2004, one year before Cambridge’s 800th Campaign, marking the 800th anniversary of the University. Oxford Thinking announced a new goal of £3 billion in October after hitting the original target of £1.25 billion, while Cambridge continues to raise funds after announcing their initial campaign, which aimed to raise £1 billion, as completed. Both reached their original fundraising targets in 2012 and 2010 respectively.

A substantial amount of funds has been raised by telethon campaigns that employ students, who contact alumni and request their financial support by way of a monthly or annual gift. “These campaigns are a good way not only to raise money for the university, but also to maintain contact between current students and the alumni,” said Eunice Kim, a student participant in Lady Margaret Hall’s telethon in March.

OUSU President David J. Townsend commented, “I think it’s natural that students and alumni feel a sense of gratitude for the philanthropy of previous generations, and when confronted by the withdrawal of much of the public funding of universities, alumni are increasingly stepping up to make sure that Oxford can be genuinely open to talent regardless of wealth.”

Michael Moritz, who made a record-breaking gift of £75 million to the university with his wife in July 2012, also cited the withdrawal of funding as being a motivation to donate, saying, “The increase in tuition fees certainly accentuated the need for scholarship programmes.”

Moritz, alumnus of Christ Church, made the largest gift for undergraduate student support in European history with his wife Harriet Heyman, foundingthe Moritz-Heyman scholarship programme.

Moritz told Cherwell, “Both my parents were the beneficiaries of educational scholarships at a time when their families could not afford to pay. When I came to the US I too also benefited from a scholarship which was the only way I could afford to study for a graduate degree. Both Harriet and I believe that family income should not be a barrier to study at Oxford. That’s why we came up with our scholarship programme.”

Moritz’s donation encourages the University to be proactive in its fundraising and aims to encourage further philanthropic giving to the institution. The donation’s three tranches of £25 million must be matched by a further £25 million from the university’s endowment, and then challenges the collegiate university to raise a further £50 million in gifts.

Oxford receives donations from all over the world, from alumni and non-alumni donors alike. According to Oxford University Press Office, 74% of those donations go directly to the colleges themselves. Oxford has a long-standing culture of philanthropy, with all colleges either being founded, or at least aided, by gifts to the University. Mr. Moritz believes that “donors to Oxford and its students are part of a long tradition,” and suggests that like previous generations, current donors are “just reacting to the circumstances of our times.”

Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor today honours state school teachers for supporting pupils through the application process for Oxford at the third annual Inspirational Teachers Awards in an event at St Hilda’s College.

Twelve teachers from state schools and colleges with a limited history of sending pupils to Oxford have been selected for their role in fostering academic passion, encouraging applications to Oxford or supporting their students through the admissions process. The award is open to both teachers and careers advisors who have been nominated by current first year students for their encouragement and enthusiasm.

Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Oxford, said,
“Most of the students who submitted nominations this year were the only ones at their school with the academic ability to apply to Oxford, and might not even have considered applying. We think it’s important to recognise the teachers whose dedication really made a difference.”

Selected students from across the university were asked to write no more than 750 words about a teacher whom they felt had been instrumental in the success of their application. One such pupil was Abigail Motley, now studying Biological Sciences at St Hilda’s College, who nominated her Head of Sixth Form, Jo Rodell-Jones.

Motley said, “It was because of this woman that I had the confidence to engage in an Oxford interview, because she taught me never to be afraid of showing your passion for what you most strongly believe in. Mrs Rodell-Jones has that rare ability to see the absolute best in every person, even when they do not see it in themselves.”

Ms Rodell-Jones, from St Simon Stock Catholic School, Maidstone, said that the award was “completely unexpected… I was reminded as to why I first came into the teaching profession.”

Rodell-Jones stresses that her pupil Abigail’s legacy is that “other talented students in this school will see Oxford as an attainable aspiration built on hard work and endeavour. She was truly deserving of her place.”

This award aims to recognise the efforts of individual teachers in securing that legacy. As important as the achievements of individual students are, Vice-Chancellor Professor Hamilton stressed, “It’s hard to over-estimate the impact a good teacher can have in encouraging and raising the aspirations of students over the course of their careers… I hope this award will send the message that students and universities recognise how valuable the role of a supportive teacher can be.”

The award scheme, now in its third year, is part of Oxford’s outreach programme that now reaches 78% of schools across the country with post-16 provision, spending up to £4.5m a year.

However the award scheme has not met with universal approval. One student said, “I think it’s great that these teachers have helped to enable equal opportunities, but the idea of giving an award seems to perpetuate the very elitism that this university is often criticised for.”

Oxford University Rugby Club has launched GoodLad, a campaign aiming for the “remodelling of masculintiy”, following NUS’ strongly critical report into ‘Lad Culture’, which identified extra-curricular activities, sports and nights-out as particularly problematic.

OURFC’s campaign is part of a wider OUSU-led programme to improvement awareness of sexual consent issues, called ‘It Happens Here.’ The programme will focus on drinking societies and University sports teams in particular.

Daniel Guinness, one of the founders, told Cherwell, “Remodeling of masculinity is what these workshops are about.

“As well as encouraging men to seriously reflect upon on their relationship with women in these sessions, discussions about male bonding will also be an important part of GoodLad.”

A representative of FemSoc, Alice Nutting said, “‘Lad culture’ may seem
like a harmless joke but it revolves around dangerous expectations of
‘masculine’ behavior… Hopefully GoodLad will be an accessible platform for men to discuss and question ideas about gender, sexual consent and communication.”

GoodLad will also target crewdating. Guinness continued, “We are trying to get this initiative driven by women and female societies by having them commit to preferentially [sic] crew date groups who have done
the workshops.”

This would involve allowing GoodLad to approve teams on crewdater.com, the online crew dating website. Guinness added, “We’re conscious that there are other equally important issues (homophobia being prominent amongst these) to be tackled. I think that it’s very important that men have a positive masculinity to aspire to, and the confidence to act upon this.”

Oxford Covered Market shop owners have started an online petition to challenge an increase in rent. The Oxford City Council is proposing increasing what it charges tenants in the Covered Market by up to 70%.

Shop-owners intend to collect 20,000 signatures in order to pressure the Council to reappraise its rent prices.

However, Bob Price, leader of the Council, has defended the rent increase, saying, “The process for setting rents in the Covered Market is no different than for any commercial landlord.”

The ‘Save the Oxford Covered Market’ campaign website states, “In these very difficult trading times, when all other Councils and the Government are trying to help town centres and small businesses, Oxford City Council are seeking to increase our rents by an average of 50%, and some, by as much as 70%.”

The “Save the Oxford Covered Market” campaign website continued, “This level of increase in our overheads is unsustainable for the majority of tenants and will mean a large number of them being put at risk of losing their business. The very existence of the market itself is in jeopardy.”

At the time of going to press, the petition had gathered over 4300 signatures.

Chris Farren, who is leading the petition, said that the Covered Market Traders’ Association (CMTA) and the City Council are mired in “an impasse.”

Farren, manager of the Cake Shop, further commented that the mood in the market is “Angry, very angry. We’ve been trying to negotiate with
the council for just over a year.”

Other shop-owners expressed their displeasure to Cherwell. Paul Lee, who manages Covered Arts and Framing Services, has said that the situation is “a great shame.”

Lee continued “It’s putting everybody under extreme pressure. We can’t afford these rents. Oxford has this wonderful, unique Covered Market, and we can’t understand what the council are proposing to do by putting the increase on the rents in such a way that it will completely wipe out independent traders from the city.

“I’ve worked very hard at creating this business from absolutely nothing. As hard as I’ve worked, I feel I’m just having it ripped away from under my feet – everything I’ve ever done. I’m incredibly frustrated and quite flabbergasted as to why this is happening.”

Joy Hetherington who owns Oxford Aromatics told Cherwell, “We are not asking for a reduced rent, we are asking for a fair rent”.

Oxford students are also involved in the campaign. Hadrian Wise, who studies PPE at Merton, has written a letter to two local councillors, Susanna Pressel and Colin Cook.

In the letters, Wise claims that the proposed rent increase is “driving out the independent traders, replacing them with boring, low-quality chain stores devoid of customer service who can afford exorbitant rents”.

He continues “The Covered Market is the single greatest non-academic resource in the city of Oxford. Any Council that cared about the city would be doing everything it could to promote such a resource and enable it to prosper.”

Amidst mounting pressure from the public and the CMTA, the council released a statement. “Clearly it is our aspiration to retain the Covered
Market as a place where there are independent shops and a variety of different trades.” The council states that it “has a duty to taxpayers to set
rents at the market value.”