Brasenose students were surprised by reports in the national media of a year-old notice from their Senior Dean.

The notice warned students not to wear pyjamas to breakfast in hall. The BBC Oxford website, the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and Radio 4’s Today programme have all reported on the issue.

The story first appeared on BBC Oxford and contained details of a notice entitled ‘Hall Manners’, warning students, “There is a clear distinction between night wear (private) and day wear (public)”. It also mentioned that students had been reminded that “formal gowns” should be worn to dinner. It accompanied the article with an image of three people in floor length graduation gowns.

Although the BBC Oxford article said that the dean had “raised concerns about pyjamas last year”, the Today programme, which aired yesterday, did not make this distinction, and said that formal gowns were expected at every evening meal at the college. However, Brasenose offers informal hall every night in addition to formal hall three times a week.

The Daily Mail wrote, “Apparently, the signs have been put up by fellow undergraduates offended by declining standards.” Both the student body and the college have been baffled by the sudden emergence of the story. Mel Parrott, Brasenose’s Domestic Bursar told Cherwell, “There is no official college policy, we don’t know where the story has come from.”

James Norman, a student at Brasenose, said, “The entire pyjama issue has been ridiculously misreported.” Jack Moore, another student at Brasenose, told Cherwell that a lot of people did not realise the sign even existed.

A spokesperson for BBC Oxford, when asked why the story had suddenly been lifted even though it was a year old, conceded that Cherwell had a “fair point”, but explained that one of the reporters had seen a Tweet about the story “a couple of days ago and had decided to follow it up”.

Corpus Christi College’s decision to allow filming to take place on Tuesday angered some students who are immersed in Finals revision.

All College members received emails on the 16th and 21st of May from College Librarian, Joanna Snelling, warning them of the distractions. The email read, “There will be some filming in College next Monday and Tuesday, and the Library will feature heavily on Tuesday morning.

“Between 8 and 9 am we will be setting up equipment and so it might not be possible to enter or leave the Library during this time (those of you already in the Library are welcome to stay, but please note that there is likely to be some noise).”

The film is thought to be part of a fundraising campaign being run by the college, who hope to extend the college library in the near future.

One anonymous student was enraged by the filming, and told Cherwell, “This is yet another example of the college prostituting itself to the highest bidder.”

However, the College’s decision to allow the filming did not bother some students. One student told Cherwell, “As far as I am concerned, Corpus did nothing wrong here – they gave warning weeks ahead that it would be going on, it lasted for a single morning, and over half of the library was free from disturbance.”

Jack Evans, a finalist, was similarly unconcerned. He said, “I picked up my books, walked ten metres to my room, and continued my work.”

Gareth Langley, a Chemistry finalist, said, “The filming was a minor inconvenience, but the real story this week was Corpus Cricket Club’s first win in three years.”

Corpus Christi College were unavailable for comment when contacted by Cherwell.

The ‘Women’s Empowerment’ motion which sparked controversy in Jesus last week was defeated in an online referendum last Friday.

The motion would have mandated Jesus’ Female Welfare Officer to hold an annual event “related to the topic of empowering women”.

188 Jesus undergraduates cast their votes in the referendum, with 43.2% voting in favour and 56.8% voting against.

The motion was initially proposed in a JCR meeting on 14th May but was defeated after falling short of the two-thirds majority required for constitutional change with 61% of JCR members for and 39% against.

After JCR President Thomas Rutland was given a petition with 50 signatures, he called an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the issue.

Natasha Frost, a second year languages student, spoke in favour of the motion, followed by finalist Alexandra Bassett who spoke against on behalf of Danielle Zigner, the former JCR president.

Bassett suggested in her speech that the organisation of a Women’s Empowerment Event should be mandated to the recently created Equal Opportunities Committee rather than the Women’s Welfare Officer.

After the result, Bassett praised the running of the EGM. She said, “It was chaired spectacularly and with complete fairness by Rosie Colthorpe.

“Voting against this motion is in no way sexist but simply a matter of whether the role of our Welfare Officer should have a campaigning or a welfare emphasis.”

JCR President Thomas Rutland, who had initially proposed the motion, said there was “widespread support for running the event but not for codifying it into the constitution under the Women’s Welfare Rep role”. He added, “[Jesus JCR] will be running an event related to Women’s Empowerment either this term or next.”

Rutland claimed that the motion’s failure to pass “does not represent a sexist decision. The main source of disagreement was regarding where to place it within the constitution.”

Some students were disappointed at the defeat of the referendum. One wrote on Facebook, “We should all be very, very ashamed of this.”

In a separate post they said, “The suggestion that we should not make this constitutional because the female welfare rep might not be interested in gender equality is a staggering one.”

A six-foot statue of Venus di Milo mysteriously disappeared from the St Hugh’s Ball on 12th May.

JCR President, Sara Polakova told Cherwell, “While the Ball was a roaring success, the morning after was tragic: both hired statues, one of Venus di Milo and the other of a generic Greek hero (which we fittingly nicknamed Dave) were reported missing. Dave was luckily retrieved later that day in one of the Hugh’s rooms, dressed in a gown, mortarboard and sunglasses, and clutching a Carlsberg. However, cheeky Venus was still missing. There was no success for days. No letter from Venus, no trace of her armless torso anywhere.”

After frantic email correspondence with the other JCR Presidents, Venus di Milo was found a few days later at St Anne’s College. Polakova said, “a misunderstanding I’m sure. We were assured she got plenty of sleep and was fed regularly, which was a relief to us all.”

The statue has now has been returned to the Committee, who are said to be greatly relieved as they were facing a £400 fine if the statue was not retrieved.

This money was supposed to be invested into either the JCR or the Oxford Burma Alliance, an organisation with which St Hugh’s is closely affiliated.

Lucy Garrett, Vice-President of the Ball Committee, commented, “We are of course glad to have the statue back as we are now able to put more money towards our charity, the Oxford Burma Foundation, rather than wasting it as the result of some guests’ stupidity.”

The true identity of Venus’ kidnappers remains unknown. Maryellen Larkin, a visiting student at St Anne’s, was completely unaware of the fact that the statue had been found at her college commenting, “I have no idea how someone could have smuggled it out but it was fairly crowded.”

Lucy Fielding, a guest at the ball, said, “I was very impressed with the organisation of the event and security was extremely tight, so I can’t imagine how someone managed to steal the statue.”

Toby Huelin, a music student, said, “It’s really rather impressive that something so large could have found its way down to St Anne’s; I feel proud to be a Stanner.”

Polakova also expressed her amazement at the feat adding, “Next time, I would advise against bringing a statue home from a night out; they might not talk much and are easy to keep, but they’re simply not something an average Oxford student can afford. With Venus di Milo in particular, you’re definitely punching above your weight.”

A letter to Cherwell from the parents of Emilie Harris, a former Catz undergraduate who was killed in a cycle accident eight years ago, has detailed the charity work that continues to be carried out in her name.

Following her death in May 2004, a registered charity called ‘Emilie’s Charities’ was established, which now “supports projects involving underprivileged children and young adults in developing countries”.

In addition, her father, Martin Harris, has continued to complete a sponsored ‘Emilie’s trousers’ bike ride, a reference to a pair of trousers his daughter brought back from Bolivia in her gap year. Charity events in Harris’s home village and college have helped ensure that “that her light shines on”, the letter, signed by her parents, explained.

Cycle safety remains a source of concern in Oxford. Earlier this year, Botley Road was identified by safety group Sustrans as one of Britain’s accident hotspots.

Members of the public can read the personal journals of Queen Victoria online following work by experts at the Bodleian.

Researchers have put 43,000 pages from her 141 journals on a website for members of the public to examine.

The journals had only previously been accessible by formal request at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. The online collection was created to mark this year’s Diamond Jubilee. It has taken staff from the library eight months to produce.

Queen Victoria’s journals cover her 63 years on the throne, from her coronation and her marriage to Prince Albert to her Diamond Jubilee of 1897. She was noted for being a prolific writer who would record her thoughts daily.

Digital images have been taken of every page of the surviving volumes, along with photographs of the many illustrations within the pages.

Chinese parents are reportedly paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to education consultants in attempts to win their children places at top UK schools and universities.

The companies offer academic tuition and a “tailor-made service” designed to up the applicants’ chances.This also includes lessons in “Britishness”. Prospective students are taught about British culture, including rugby, how to talk about the weather and even how to understand a British sense of humour. There are reports that the students get taken to British-style pubs in China to watch rugby fixtures. Classes designed to boost pupils’ confidence for university interviews, such as drama classes, are also held.

A spokesperson from Oxford University stated, “Recruitment and selection of students (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) is based purely on merit. Academic aptitude, not ‘Britishness,’ is the most important quality admissions tutors look for in any applicant”.

Oxford University is at the forefront of a new project to test the existence of the ‘Yeti’ and other cryptid hominid species.

Working in collaboration with Switzerland’s Lausanne Museum of Zoology, the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project intends to gather together organic remains as potential evidence, through anonymous donations from individuals and organisations, which will then be submitted to rigorous genetic analysis.

The existence or otherwise of the ‘yeti’, also known by the names ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘Sasquatch’ has been a subject of debate since Eric Shipton’s 1951 expedition to Everest, from which he returned with photographs of giant unidentifiable footprints in the snow. Despite numerous eye-witness accounts since then, the scientific community around the world has always been dubious as to the existence of such a creature.

Professor Bryan Sykes, of Wolfson College, is spearheading this most recent investigation in conjunction with Michel Sartori, Director of the Lausanne Museum of Zoology.

Sykes commented, “It’s an area that any serious academic ventures into with a great deal of trepidation. It’s full of eccentric and downright misleading reports.

‘Mainstream science remains unconvinced by these reports both through lack of testable evidence and the scope for fraudulent claims. However, recent advances in the techniques of genetic analysis of organic remains provide a mechanism for genus and species identification that is unbiased, unambiguous and impervious to falsification.”

Sykes added, “It is possible that a scientific examination of these neglected specimens could tell us more about how Neanderthals and other early hominids interacted and spread around the world.”

The reaction amongst Oxford students to the reseaerch has been mixed. Poppy Rimington-Pounder, a student at New, commented, “They’re hairy, white and big: a cross between men and polar bears. And they are real.”

Tom Hoskins, a first year at LMH, said, “To quote ‘The Logic Manual’: “A yeti features in Monsters, Inc. Monsters, Inc. is real. Therefore, Yetis are real.”

Not everyone, however, was so positive about the legendary monster. Physicist Aneesh Naik said, “I hate yetis, they’re abominable”, and refused to comment further.