Professor Michael Freeden of Mansfield College has been selected for the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the Political Studies Association (PSA).

Freeden joined Mansfield in 1978, and despite retiring from the University in 2011, he continues to work conscientiously in his field. In particular, his eagerly awaited large-scale study of the nature of political thinking is due to be completed this year.

Freeden’s scholarship include many articles and essays collected in Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and Twentieth Century Political Thought, that provides detailed accounts of particular liberal thinkers such as T.H. Green and D.G. Ritchie and groups such as the Rainbow Circle.

In addition to his own wide-ranging and distinguished scholarship, Freeden has exercised great leadership and energy in opening up new institutional spaces for scholarly interest in the study of ideology to develop and flourish. He was the guiding force behind the innovative Centre for Political Ideologies, established in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.

Professor Freeden was particularly pleased to receive the Sir Isaiah Berlin prize of the PSA, commenting, “Isaiah Berlin had shown kindness to me, as he did to so many others, when I was a young scholar at Oxford. I think that the award, for which I am very grateful, recognizes two things: the coming of age of ideology studies within the ambit of political theory, and the need for political theorists to look at the actual practicing of political thinking in societies as distinct from the construction of normative ideal types that are often removed from real-world possibilities.”

Mansfield College Alumni Officer Bob Trafford expressed sincere congratulations to Professor Freeden on the College’s behalf to Cherwell, “From 1978 until his retirement in 2011, Professor Freeden had long been one of the pillars of Mansfield life, popular and respected amongst generations of our students, as well as amongst the College staff and the SCR, and we are delighted and proud to see his many enduring and immensely valuable contributions to Political Studies commemorated in this way.”

For many students, having the opportunity to engage in hour-long tutorials and classes with such leaders-in-their-fields is a unique privilege. A second year PPEist commented, “I think the best thing about Oxford is the tutorial system. To have discussions with leading academics such as Professor Freeden is really an honour!”

A spokesperson for the University concurred, “It is a fantastic achievement for Professor Freeden to have his contribution to the field of political studies recognised with such a prestigious honour. Prizes such as this and others awarded to Oxford University academics across the subject spectrum is a real testament to the strength of Oxford’s academic community and the intellectual leadership Oxford academics consistently demonstrate.”

Plans have been submitted to Oxford City Council to build the recently established Blavatnik School of Government on Walton Street, opposite the Oxford University Press.

The designs for the 72-foot-tall glass building were created by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, who also designed Tate Modern and the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for 2008 Beijing Olympics. The project is set to be completed by the summer of 2015.

Helen Bunting, Communications Officer of BSG, said, “This exciting new building will provide a permanent home for the Blavatnik School of Government, and be a place for teaching, research and convening on public policy.

“The School hopes to hold lectures by world figures, which are accessible to the public. The new building will also provide a gateway to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter from Walton Street and restore access to Woodstock Road.”

The height of the building will be scaled back in order to preserve “key views across Oxford”, following two public consultations with local residents. A central forum in the heart of the building will connect all floors of the building. The lower floors will host public events and lectures, while the upper floors will be used for research and other academic programs. A research library will be situated at the top of the building.

Ayo Chen, a student at BSG, was enthusiastic about the plans, saying, “Even though I am a big fan of history and historical architecture, I think that the modern glass architecture of the new building suits the mission of the Blavatnik School very well – to train future, global leaders in the 21st century in order to better serve the world.”

The Blavatnik School of Government was founded in 2010 and was made possible by a £75 million donation from American businessman, Leonard Blavatnik. The school’s first class of 38 students started their studies in September 2012.

The school plans to gradually increase annual admissions to 120 in several years. As the first major school of government in Europe, BSG hopes to become “a global centre of excellence for the study of government and public policy.”

Leonard Blavatnik expressed his confidence in the school’s future, saying, “Exceptionally solid groundwork has been laid to ensure the successful opening of the Blavatnik School of Government. The quality of leaders and teachers that the School has attracted is a testament to Oxford University’s unparalleled reputation and to the need for a European-based institution devoted to the enhancement of democratic government throughout the world.”

Oxford students are speaking out about eating disorders in support of Eating Disorder Awareness Week, established by the charity Beat.

Also in support of the charity, a team from Corpus Christi plans to row from Oxford to London between 23rd – 26th June, with a fundraising target of £10,000.

The team of eight rowers, three substitutes and a cox will be the first all-female crew to attempt the row, which will begin at the Head of the River pub and end 180km downriver at Putney Bridge. The challenge was proposed by team member Esther Rich, who also serves as a Young Ambassador for the charity after being hospitalised for anorexia during her teens.

Rich explained, “Rowing, and the essential need for fitness and physical strength, has helped me to maintain my recovery since coming to uni, so I thought it would be fitting to combine the two in a fundraising activity for Beat.”

She added, “I think there is still a stigma around talking about mental health. The provisions and places to get support within Oxford University are well established and extremely good at what they do, but the problem is that not enough people know they exist.”

St Peter’s student Georgina Routen acts as a Young Ambassador for Beat, and told Cherwell, “I think eating disorders are quite prevalent in the Oxford student community. It’s the type of high pressure environment in which a vulnerable individual could easily succumb to the pressure.”

Common room presidents have discussed Oxford University’s strategic plan for 2013-18, questioning the university’s two new priorities of “global reach” and “interdisciplinarity.”

At a meeting of JCR and MCR Presidents on Tuesday, students debated whether the 2012 Draft Strategic Plan represented students’ interests.
OUSU President David J Townsend chaired the meeting, which presented the university’s goals for the next five years to common rooms.

Dr Sally Mapstone, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, claimed, “Academic freedom, independent research and the tutorial system still form the absolute bedrock of the university. The five year plan aims to deal with some of the particular problems facing this university.”

The Draft Strategic Plan was released in November 2012, and announced the university’s two focuses. The new first priority is “global reach,” aiming “to develop the university’s position as a global forum for intellectual engagement through the proactive communication of ideas generated at Oxford and through openness to new ideas generated elsewhere.”

The second is “networking, communication and interdisciplinarity,” The university hopes “To build on Oxford’s multiple disciplinary strengths and enable collaborations in new and developing areas. Many of today’s research questions cut across traditional departmental and divisional boundaries.”
The document is the result of a year’s collaboration between colleges, OUSU and the university.

The plan states, “The University of Oxford aims to lead the world in research and education, and to share its work on a national and global scale. We shall realise this vision by taking forward new and transformative approaches to research, teaching and engagement with society.”

But some common room presidents expressed scepticism over the plan’s priorities. Abdossalam Madkhali, Linacre College MCR President, argued, “Oxford needs to put more emphasis on retaining its academic excellence. Global reach is a top priority, but I’m not sure it should be number one. If we don’t have enough funding for students, the crème de la crème will go to other universities, and we will not be able to attain the global reach we aspire to.”

Christian Beck, MCR President at St Edmund Hall, stated, “Global reach comes as a natural repercussion of maintaining adequate funding and academic excellence: they are the less abstract components that can be affected to produce global reach.”

Mapstone defended the emphasis on global reach, saying, “We can’t get complacent. We’re not going to stay number one by focusing on internal affairs. Global reach is something we have to pay attention to.”
Most presidents supported the global focus, requesting more international exchange opportunities for students.

Nicole Sparkes, Merton JCR President, said, “If the university did something so that students didn’t have to organise it themselves, that would be very positive.”

The importance of ‘interdisciplinarity’ was also discussed. One JCR President studying PPE argued, “My course is already very broad. I’m worried I could leave with broad but very shallow knowledge.”

However, presidents agreed that faculties need to collaborate more. Margery Infield, JCR President at St Edmund Hall, stated, “In some cases when you’re doing joint schools, it can feel like no one tutor is taking care of you. It’s easy to feel like you’re falling through the gaps.”

Undergraduates’ responses to the university’s plans have been mixed. Caroline Rogers, an English student at St Hilda’s, commented, “I’m not sure I like the university’s new proposals. Draft Strategic Plan? More like Daft Strategic Plan!”

A spokesperson for the University commented, “The University’s draft plan has been put out for consultation among the Oxford community precisely to give University members the opportunity to feed in their views, and the new Strategic Plan will aim to reflect the priorities and goals of the collegiate University as a whole.”

Brasenose JCR has passed a motion to designate the bust of Paul Gladwell as an official mascot for its University Challenge team.

Ben Ralph, the team’s captain, proposed the motion, which claimed that “there is nothing more in the world that more embodies the spirit of our JCR more than the most revered Bust-of-Paul-Gladwell  (hereinafter ‘The Bust’).”

It went on to request that the team should “transport The Bust to Manchester,” where the first round was held on Friday, “where it shall proudly be placed in front of our team as our mascot.”

University Challenge encourages teams to bring college insignia, though typically this involves scarfs or jumpers.

The bust was made two years ago in honour of former JCR President Paul Gladwell. It cost £500, prompting Gladwell to later apologise for the bust as a “poor use of JCR money and not the best of ideas.”

Brasenose has not reached the televised rounds of the popular BBC show since 2003. Their first round will be televised early next month. Other team members include Josh Phillips, Turner Edwards, James Burt and Oliver Bubb-Humfryes.

One Brasenose PPEist said, “The bust represents everything that is strong and noble about our small but successful college. I have no doubt that the ‘fifth man’ effect will inspire the University Challenge team to great success.”

Balliol JCR have decided to follow through with a motion which is set to transform the way finalists’ rooms are priced. The ‘Dynamic Rent Banding’, which was proposed at the last JCR General Meeting, aims to ensure that the price of every room matches its value.

Currently, rooms are divided into seven ‘bands’ of prices which students can then choose through a balloting system. The new arrangement aims to price rooms according to their popularity among students. Therefore, rooms which are picked by students higher up on the ballot will have a greater premium that those rooms which are chosen last on the ballot.

The system was proposed after concerns that many students were paying too much for the quality of their room under the current system, particularly those at the bottom of the accommodation ballot. The new system hopes to match price and quality more effectively.

Thomas Wainford, Welfare Officer at Balliol, told Cherwell, “The current system places rooms in seven price bands according to their quality, but there is quite a large variation in quality within bands, the bands are not of equal spacing, and some rooms are clearly misbanded as the old banding was done on a fairly arbitrary basis by the accommodation manager and the Welfare and Housing Officers. The new system aims, over a number of years, to gradually change the price of rooms, so each room will have an individual price, moving up or down depending on the position is it chosen in the ballot, in order to accurately reflect its value.”

However, following its initial proposal, Balliol Philosophy Fellow Dr David Wallace expressed concerns that in the long run the system would mean that those rooms at the top and bottom of the ballot would increase in price while those in the middle bands would in fact decrease, to the detriment of students from lower income levels. Balliol JCR was provided with a series of graphs which illustrated Dr Wallace’s concerns.

However, a unanimous JCR vote this weekend ensured that the system will still be proposed by the student body to the College. 

Alex Bartram, Balliol JCR President, told Cherwell, “Balliol JCR on Sunday voted unanimously to implement a change to the way room prices are calculated for finalists in an effort to make the prices of rooms better match their value. It seriously considered a concern raised by a fellow, but the final decision reflected the belief of Balliol JCR that any undesirable outcome is firstly unlikely and secondly swiftly reversible.”

Bartram was keen to stress that the new system will be an “experiment”, and that the implementation of ‘Dynamic Rent Banding will therefore be monitored yearly in order to ensure that rooms are priced fairly according to their respective quality.

A student who wished to remain anonymous told Cherwell, “Most students were happy to vote to try out the new system, especially because the banding system we have now just doesn’t work, and our welfare officers explained that it would be difficult and time consuming to re-band every room in the college. I think as long as it’s monitored it could be a really good way to make sure the cost of the rooms reflect their value.”

This new proposal comes in the midst of negotiations with college regarding proposed rents increases of five per cent.

Following months of campaigning, Oxford City Council has resolved to negotiate with the University regarding the Castle Mill developments near Port Meadow. Despite previously giving the scheme planning permission, councillors have allegedly admitted that they do not like the appearance of the building.

Demonstrators from the Campaign to Protect Port Meadow from Oxford University (CPPMOU) have protested for months about the newly built flats, especially designed for University graduate accommodation. It is claimed that the building, particularly the top two storeys, has a ‘damaging’ impact on views of Port Meadows, and has angered many local residents and students.

This recent development follows an online petition, which has over 2,200 signatures, and a letter calling on Prince Charles to raise concerns during his visit last week.

Demonstrators are said to be pleased, and see this as a positive first step. Toby Porter, on behalf of the CPPMOU, said, “We welcome news that City Planners and the University have met, following Thursday’s instruction by Councillors to begin negotiations to ‘ameliorate the size and impact of the development’ on Roger Dudman Way. We feel that the reason these negotiations are now taking place is because of the huge public protest at the development.” 

He added, “I am not surprised by the decision. While the University is right to say that their planning permission is legal, it is in our eyes not legitimate – had the University’s planning consultant produced drawings showing the impact on the Meadow seen today, and their public been properly consulted, we do not believe planning permission would have been granted. One request we have made is that, before any final decision is reached, the community and campaign representatives will see precise computer-generated images of how proposed changes affect the view from Port Meadow.”

However, the proposed changes could potentially cost up to £1million, and it is as yet unclear who would be responsible for this bill. While both the University and the Council declined to comment on the matter, CPPMOU has stated, “An important factor is that since early September, when the scale of the building was revealed, there have been significant protests, including voices from senior figures within the University. Had they listened, this would have cost a fraction of the current estimate to put right. This sums up what we see as the University’s culpability – we don’t think anyone anticipated the impact the buildings would have on Port Meadow.”

A University spokesperson said, “We welcome the planning report’s finding that the University acted properly when securing planning permission for the Castle Mill student accommodation development. We are always happy to meet with planning officers and to hear what they have to say. A meeting on Friday was the first of what will probably be several conversations.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council said, “Our Head of City Development, Michael Crofton Briggs, has met the Director of Estates from Oxford University and started a constructive dialogue about the size and impact of the building following the West Area Planning Committee.

“Local and city wide groups were notified of the planning application and site notices were put up. However, it seems that a lot of people did not realise just how close to Port Meadow the development site was.

“A report fully explaining the process was discussed at the West Area Planning Committee.”

OUSU has delayed voting on a motion which calls for the NUS to boycott Israel as 18 common rooms are yet to decide their stance on the motion.

Voting was due to occur at the 5th week OUSU meeting. However, an amendment was suggested and passed, claiming that the motion’s “controversial” nature meant that Common Rooms needed more time to debate the issue. The original motion will now be debated and voted on in the 7th week OUSU meeting.

The motion states that “We [OUSU and the NUS] have a moral responsibility to fight injustice” and demands that Israel end its occupation of “all Arab lands.” It goes on to say “Palestinian civil society, including organisations in Gaza, has called for a campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.” These measures are described as “non-violent punitive”.

The motion was proposed by Emily Cousens of Wadham and originally seconded by Yulin Zhang of Wolfson College. However, in emails to OUSU reps, OUSU president David Townsend stated that the seconder dropped out after “reflecting on the issue and not being comfortable with it.” He also acknowledged the “potentially controversial” nature of the motion. 

The three resolutions of the proposed motion are to “Condemn violence and successive breaches of international law by both Israel and Palestine”; to join the BDS movement against Israel; and thirdly, to “Conduct research into Higher Education institutions’ contacts, relations, investment and commercial relationships that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement.”

This motion, if passed, will be presented as OUSU’s position at the next NUS conference and hence as being representative of the views of Oxford students. A motion has already been passed by Wadham SU for Wadham to officially join the BDS movement and to “Pressure the university to divest itself from and terminate any contracts with companies that are complicit with Israeli violations of international law.”

The BDS movement was set up in 2007, and is described on its website as a “global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.”

Eylon Aslan-Levy, a third-year PPEist at Brasenose, spoke against the motion in the OUSU meeting. He told Cherwell, “It is disturbing that OUSU is debating whether to join an academic and cultural boycott on Israel: that a university, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and truth, should blacklist the universities, cultural groups or civil society of any country, is an outrage.”

Ben Goldstein, a PPEist from Lincoln, stated, “Motions like this are highly divisive to JCRs, and alienate people (such as the hundreds of Israeli students and many Jews) from OUSU. BDS is a radical movement which will harm process towards a two-state solution; it implies the rejection of important Israeli academics and its intentions are radical in a way that the majority of Oxford students are not.”

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, endorsed by BDS, urges “colleagues in the international community” to “refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.”

In 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe) voted a motion in favour of a boycott of Israeli lecturers and academic institutions who do not publicly dissociate themselves from Israel’s “apartheid policies, including the construction of the exclusion wall, and discriminatory educational practices.” Some academics described the academic boycott as being anti-semitic in effect.

Cousens defended her motion, claiming, “There is a history and a current appetite within NUS for constructive engagement to support human rights. Last year a Freedom for Palestine motion was passed and the boycott of Eden Springs and Veolia, two companies that are involved in the violation of the rights of Palestinians, means that this motion is the logical progression and so should command high levels of support. The investment in arms companies that supply Israel, such as BAE systems to name just one, is an example of Oxford University being implicated in the violation of human rights in Palestine and Israel.”

Debate at the meeting centred on how political OUSU should be. One side argued that delaying the vote would cause an “atmosphere of contention” in the university and that Oxford University should be a “depoliticised campus” with “freedom of thought.” The other side called this a “tyranny of silence” and compared backing the BDS movement to the boycott of the South African football team in the 1980s. James Norrie, a DPhil student at Wolfson, argued, “The apolitical argument is actually just a political – but right wing – position which seeks to validate and support the status quo.”

It was also mentioned that in May 2011, the then-president of the NUS, Aaron Porter personally denounced a previous motion to “strongly condemn Israel’s siege on Gaza and actively campaign for it to be lifted in accordance with international law.”

James Newton, who proposed the amendment to delay the vote said, “I’m really glad that the amendment went through this evening. Hopefully this will also be setting a precedent at OUSU that JCRs will be fully consulted on big issues like this.”