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Blog Page 245
Expansionist Balliol College Invades Trinity College
A large force of Balliol College JCR members surrounded the walls of neighboring Trinity College late Tuesday and advaced into Trinity territory in the night. According to the elected general of the Balliol forces, the Balliol JCR “needs more territory to ensure superior social lives for all our members,” and has determined that Trinity College is occupying land that, according to a sharp revanchist outlook not backed by most academics, historically belonged to Balliol college members. “We are trying to set things straight and ensure the glory of Balliol forever,” said the general, who is a second-year reading Classics.
Trinity College, according to sources, was not prepared for the attack and its defenses crumbled rapidly. “We will have our revenge and restore our sovereignty,” said one Trinity student who had fled the oncoming Balliol forces and was taking shelter at Knoops across the street. “Trinity has a right to persist and requires its territorial integrity in order to continue hosting killer commemoration balls,” continued the student as she sipped her hot chocolate and looked longingly toward her occupied homeland.
The Oxford Student Union condemned the invasion as representing a flagrant disregard for inter-college norms, and pointed to an 1891 statute that bars colleges from forcibly taking social event territory. “We urge the Balliol College JCR to see reason and pull its forces out of Trinity territory without incident.” Nearby New College, concerned about Balliol’s long term ambitions, has threatened to form a coalition of colleges to respond to the invasion. “We believe that force only responds to force, and the inter-college community must not stand for this,” said a representative from New.
Balliol forces, however, have remained firmly entrenched in Trinity’s Kettell Hall, which sources say they intend to turn into a new, expansive college bar for exclusive Balliol use. The President of the Balliol JCR has attempted to justify this action by insisting that, “Balliol will share this new, epic bar space with guests from other colleges and will use the space more effectively and equitably than our neighbors could have” – a narrative the Trinity JCR-in-exile vehemently rejects.
Trinity forces have regrouped in University Parks and appear to be preparing for a counteroffensive with equipment provided by New College, though New has publicly denied its involvement. It seems unlikely, for now, that peace efforts in the form of a proposed MCR formal swap between the belligerents will be successful.
The quiet language revolution in Russia’s former empire
I first noticed it when news outlets began to replace ‘Kiev’ with ‘Kyiv’. The former is an English transliteration of the name of Ukraine’s capital from Russian, Киев, while the latter is a transliteration from the Ukrainian Київ. This soon spread. Where Western broadcasters once used Russian versions of Ukrainian names for people, cities, and so on, they are now switching to English spellings that are more in line with the Ukrainian language. Since the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, language has become another frontier by which Ukrainians push back against years of Russian domination. The Ukrainian identity being proudly professed is necessarily in stark contrast to Russian. But how has language evolved in Ukraine and the wider post-Soviet world, and what does this mean for these countries’ relationships with Russia and beyond?
Ukrainian is a Slavic language, alongside Russian, Polish and many others. All these languages originally stem from a little-known common ancestor, proto-Slavic. The settlement of Slavic tribes across Europe led to the formation of the eastern state of Kyivan Rus’, whose people spoke Old East Slavic. This state eventually fell after being weakened by the Mongol invasion, internal division, and pressure from neighbouring countries. The western areas of the Rus’ state came under the control of Poland and Lithuania, while the eastern parts were ruled by the Golden Horde and later the Tsardom of Muscovy, leading to Ukrainian and Russian evolving as distinct languages. Ukraine was gradually annexed by Russia as Poland was carved up, piece by piece. Tsarist authorities ruthlessly suppressed the language, burning Ukrainian literature, banning teaching in Ukrainian and insisting that it was no more than a dialect or an offshoot of Russian.
The same Tsarist propaganda recurs in today’s Russia, with Putin’s claims of historical unity being the basis for his war of conquest. However, even as Russians settled their lands and imperial authorities denied their language and nationhood, Ukrainians kept their tongue alive.
When Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power following 1917, they radically changed the country and its attitude towards Ukrainian and other languages spoken in the country. Minority languages were now encouraged, not persecuted, and Ukraine became its own republic within the wider Soviet Union. However, later Soviet premiers (most notably Stalin) were far more intolerant and often brutal in their treatment of Ukrainians and the Ukrainian tongue. Russia was the country’s lingua franca, the primary language of government and the elite. Even following independence, many Ukrainians preferred to speak Russian, though this has steadily shifted as the government promoted the use of Ukrainian in areas such as education.
Then came invasion. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, and especially since the invasion in 2022, Ukrainian citizens and the government have increasingly championed using Ukrainian over Russian. The use of Ukrainian in the historically Russian-dominated areas in the east and south has soared, with the proportion there preferring Ukrainian over Russian leaping from 10% in 2012 to 70% last year. This has come as one’s choice of language has changed from a matter of preference to a political stand. The senseless violence inflicted upon the country by Russia has led many Ukrainians to view Russian as the language of imperialism, the language of the state butchering their compatriots. Many Ukrainian institutions are moving away from Russian, such as the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In Russian-occupied areas, while lots of anti-Kremlin Ukrainians still speak Russian, the tide is shifting.
Ukraine is far from the only post-Soviet country that is experiencing a politicised linguistic revival. In 1936, Stalin’s USSR began a campaign of ‘Cyrillisation’; replacing Latin and other writing systems used for minority languages in the Soviet Union with the Cyrillic script developed for Slavic languages. However, since independence, several countries have transitioned away from Cyrillic: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and most recently Kazakhstan. The former two have replaced Cyrillic with Latin entirely, while the latter are still doing so. For these countries, shifting to Latin is a way of emphasising their nationhood and independence. Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the process “spiritual modernisation” and for Kazakhstan, Latinisation has come during divergence from its traditional partner of Russia.
In Belarus, Russian has become the dominant language, after a brief Belarusian revival following independence was slowly sidelined in favour of Russian by the country’s very pro-Moscow dictator, Alexander Lukashenko (Belarusian: Alyaksandr Lukashenka). In response, the Belarusian tongue has become a symbol of political opposition to the regime. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition candidate in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election who has received support from many Western nations, has championed the use of Belarusian. Indeed, she notably uses the Belarusian transliteration of her name rather than the Russian one.
Both Kazakhstan and Belarus have been longtime Russian allies, with Russian spoken as a language of convenience. The widespread use of Russian has been a source of soft power for Moscow, with the ease of cross-border tourism, business and diplomacy maintaining some sense of shared identity between the states of the former Soviet Union, far more successfully than across the former territories of several Western European empires. Russia has come across as a friend to many countries formerly in its empire. First gradually, and now very quickly, this sense has been eroded. In trade, many Central Asian states are looking away from Russia and towards China and the West. Moscow’s status as regional peacekeeper is collapsing; due partly to its war of aggression in Ukraine, but also the CSTO’s failure to act following Azerbaijani incursions into member state Armenia, exposing the Russian-led security organisation as a paper tiger and opening the door for the EU to lead peace negotiations.
While embracing their native tongue has been a part of nationhood for post-Soviet states, an explicit rejection of Russian is new. In a bitter irony for Putin, the waning use of Russian and embrace of native tongues across the former empire is symptomatic of declining Russian influence. In invading Ukraine, Putin hoped to use Russian speakers as a political tool but has instead created an impetus to drop the language entirely for Ukrainians and other peoples wary of Russian conquest. Language is not merely a vessel to convey ideas, but the way that we express who we are. As Russia’s actions have made it an international pariah, people across the world are increasingly expressing an identity in contrast.
Image Credit: Vladimir Yaitskiy/ CC BY-SA 2.0 Via Wikimedia Commons
Project launched to power Oxfordshire’s emergency vehicles with hydrogen
A £7.8m project being developed by Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue, in partnership with engineering firm ULEMCo, has been awarded £3.9m by the government. In a move away from fossil fuels, the project is working to create a way for emergency vehicles to be powered by hydrogen.
The scheme is part of a wider effort from the county council to reduce its operational emissions to net zero carbon by 2030.
Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, Pete Sudbury reiterated the 2030 target: “hydrogen could play an important role in our efforts to decarbonise. I’m delighted that we are partnering with ULEMCo on this important step in exploring and advancing zero carbon solutions.”
ULEMCo and the council are developing a hydrogen fuel cell that could be used by a range of specialist vehicles; fire engines, ambulances and street sweepers are among those part of the initiative.
Chief Officer for Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service, Rob MacDougall commented that “heavy fire engines pose a particular challenge and we feel that hydrogen powered fuel cells can play a promising role in delivering on the county’s climate action ambitions.”
Up until now, the project, announced in 2021, has only been in the research phase. Now, with the funding awarded, the project will be able to continue to move forward and potentially develop a prototype vehicle.
Medics and Pantos: In conversation with the Producer of the Medics charity – Tingewick
Tingewick is a charity led by a group of 29 medical students at Oxford. They work together to raise money as well as completing all their clinical placements together. Throughout the year, they put on a variety of events for the other medical students and the general public in order to raise money for two charities that are chosen at the beginning of the year. This year, the profits are being spilt between The Oxford Hospitals Charity and Yellow Submarine. The most famous event is the Tingewick pantomime, written, directed, and staged by Tingewick Firm with the cast being fully made up of 1st-year clinical medical students. It is attended by over 1400 doctors, nurses, and members of the general public at the John Radcliffe Hospital site.
I sit down with producer Tolu Duckworth, a 4th-year medical student, to talk about the charity and its importance in the Oxford community.
Though a Google search can tell you a lot about Tingewick and its history since its creation in 1938, I ask Tolu “What is Tingewick?” I want to know what this charity means to the people who volunteer their time out of their degree. Tolu tells me “Tingewick is a charity that is run by medical students from Oxford to raise money for local Oxford charities. This year, we’re raising money for The Oxford Hospitals Charity, which provides resources and equipment to help give patients, doctors, and people all the stuff that they need to look after their health across the Oxford Hospitals Trust. And also, Yellow Submarine Charity, which is a charity which works with local children who have autism and developmental needs to help them sort of progress and gain the skills that they need to help them in the real world by offering them jobs, training ships and residentials as well, they could go on across the year.”
It’s a hefty commitment, but why is it important? Tolu tells me “It’s always just sort of good to give back. So given the fact that this is a society charity run by Oxford medical students, all of our placements are involved within the JR, Churchill, Hornton etc. So, understanding where the money comes from, to provide the resources to help the patients that we will in the future be helping out as well is so needed, because a lot of the stuff that doctors do, that nurses do, other health care professionals, etc, they can’t do it alone. And donations are so important so that they are able to provide patients with all the things that they need in order to promote good health and just help them recover from things that they may be dealing with and experiencing. And it’s just always great to give back to charity as well. And Yellow Submarine is also close to one of our members. So, wanting to raise money for that is something that’s quite close to our hearts and that’s what we wanted to go for this year.”
Tolu tells me how much they raise on average, “So I think last year’s committee raised, across their fundraising year, I think over £30,000, which we’re definitely trying to hit, or even beat. And previous years have also raised about £20,000 a year. So definitely, definitely, big money involved. And it all goes towards Oxford charities and is split between the two. Every year money is raised for Oxford hospitals, but the second charity is always different. It’s always just nice to be able to help smaller charities that may not necessarily get as much funding, just to make sure that they are given support in any way. So just out of the need.”
But how do this small group of medical students manage to raise £20,000 – £30,000 every year? Tolu explains that “There are so many things that we put on as a group. Like I said before, there are 29 of us, all medical students with a range of skills and traits. One thing that we’re currently doing is we’ve held a raffle with some amazing prizes that have been donated by some local businesses, including an annual pass to Blenheim Palace, free cinema tickets, £50 voucher for Coconut Tree, and so many other things. We are doing the National Three Peaks challenge very soon, actually. We’re raising money just in terms of sponsorships and doing other types of challenges across the year. Even cycling the equivalent of the height of Everest is coming up at some point in the year, some charity bake sales, and just other awesome things as well. And the big thing that happens every year is a pantomime show that we put on. The fourth-year medical students all audition, sing, act, and dance to a show that we as the fifth-year students write, produce, and choreograph everything to put on and play around and have fun, and the tickets to the show contribute towards, again, fundraising as well as the drinks and the things that we sell them on the day. And the pantomime is the big thing. And it’s a lot of great fun to end the year with our pantomime, which would be happening at the end of November. It’s something to look forward to and look out for.”
With the pantomime being such a hit what exactly does this night of laughs actually entail? Laughing Tolu tells me “So Tingewick actually started as just the show. And it’s been going on for sort of over 80 years now. It started off as a way for medical students to unwind and have fun amidst their degree. And I think within recent years, it then turned into like a fundraising scheme, which makes a lot of sense. Though everyone knows Tingewick as the pantomime, there’s actually just so much more involved behind the scenes, including our separate fundraising events. So if there’s anything to sort of get involved with it’s the pantomime shows, you can see a lot of medical students make fun of themselves, their tutors, Oxford, and everything, it’s just really great fun. And it’s usually like a spin on really classic shows. I think last year was based on Legally Blonde before that, it was a Doctor Who theme, and there have been Shrek themes as well. It’s a really great show just to see your friends and classmates in. The pantomime is the biggest thing we have, and it’s great every single year. I’m not biased at all but definitely go watch it.”
Tingewick is more than the pantomime, which will be put on this November, so in the meantime what is next for the student-run charity? Well, according to Tolu, “So in terms of upcoming things, we’ve got our charity raffle, which is ending on the 24th of May, our Three Peaks challenge, which we are doing over the weekend of the 20th and 21st of May. So keep an eye on our Instagram account to see our journey climbing up Snowdon, Ben Nevis, and Scafell Pike in 24 hours. Why are we doing this? It’s for charity! So, please help. We have just loads of different challenges and events, loads of fundraising events, lots of baking, lots of eating, lots of inviting the old committee to come back and join and just preparing for our big shows like the pantomime. So that’s what we are sort of working on and we’re excited!”
So much is going on for Tingewick, and though it’s run by the medics, I ask Tolu how the rest of us, as fellow students can support the charity. Tolu tells me, “Just get involved in any of the events that we put on, buy a raffle ticket, sponsor us, even if it’s a pound or a penny, and come to watch the shows. I think the big thing is the pantomime show because it is just a lot of fun to sort of support your friends if you have any medical student friends in 4th-year or 3rd-year as well. It’s just great to show support in that way. So definitely do try and come to the show because it’s like a nice sort of combination of all of our efforts of the year.”
Many of us go through our Oxford degrees, go to doctor appointments in Beaumont Street or may have ended up at the John Radcliffe after a particularly heinous night out, without ever thinking of what it takes to keep these services open. They not only help the thousands of students who move in and out of Oxford but also the wider Oxford community who live here year-round. Tingewick’s work to support The Oxford Hospitals Charity represents the best of us as students and as people.
New Oxford Monopoly board available in November
The games company Winning UK has recently announced that they are developing a new and updated Oxford Monopoly board. Unlike the old board, the new Monopoly board offers the opportunity for the public to suggest and vote on the sites that will be featured. A representative of Winning UK has described it as a “new board for a new generation”.
The first Oxford Monopoly board was released in 2001, described in a Winning UK Facebook post as being “hugely popular in its day”. However, the original Oxford board has since been discontinued.
Major Oxford landmarks are expected to be on the board: such as the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian Library, and the Ashmolean. With the new edition, we can also expect the inclusion of new retail spaces, potentially including the Westgate Shopping Centre.
Additionally, on the 12th of May, a person dressed as Mr Monopoly (who may have been a representative of Winning UK) was seen around Oxford at many of the popular tourist destinations, advertising the new Oxford Monopoly board.
When asked to comment on the new Monopoly board, a student told Cherwell: “Really cool to hear that Oxford is getting a board that focuses on the city and not just the university. They’re open to suggestions about what places to include and I hope they add some of Oxford’s many green spaces and parks. Not only will this make an easy gift idea for friends and family, but hopefully the game means tourists will be able to enjoy Oxford from the comfort of their homes”.
Suggestions for the board can be sent to [email protected] before midnight on Thursday 25th May. The new Oxford board is set to be available from November 2023.
Oxford admissions interviews to stay online
The Admissions Committee (Part of the Conference of Colleges) has decided after a vote that future Oxford undergraduate interviews will remain online for the next five years. Interviews will follow the online model developed during the COVID pandemic, despite the University’s long-standing tradition of in-person interviewing.
After a lengthy consultation process, 24 colleges voted in favour of keeping interviews online for the next five years versus seven against. This decision comes as the University may also be moving admissions tests online following their new partnership Tata Consulting Services (TCS).
The decision to move interviews online was shared with some JCR and MCR presidents and students. Oriel students were informed in an email “future admissions rounds will be on-line”, despite attempts made by both the students and members of the college’s administration to keep interviews in-person.
While responses to this are set to vary across colleges, Oriel has confirmed that it will attempt to offset any potentially negative impact on prospective and incoming students during the admissions process by maximising the opportunities available to visit the college “at other times during the year”.
Such concerns over the welfare and support available to offer-holders and prospective students have been echoed elsewhere, with students at St Hilda’s College voicing fears over the disparities that may emerge between students with different access requirements, stating that it was the equivalent of “kicking people out”. Without school access to computers or the resources necessary for online interviews, considerable concerns have been expressed over the move, although the University does offer equipment and technology to schools lacking.
In a statement to Cherwell, the University confirmed “The colleges of Oxford University have decided that forthcoming undergraduate admissions interviews will take place online. This follows extensive consultation carried out with stakeholders across the University and elsewhere, concerning the merits of both in person and online formats in admissions interviews, and the success of this format over the past three years. Oxford will continue to aim to deliver a consistent and high-quality experience for this part of the collegiate University’s application process. We are grateful to the many schools, colleges, parents and guardians who support their students for an Oxford interview”.
This article was updated at 10:45 on 21/05/2023 to include University comment.
Gregory Doran named Oxford’s 30th Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre
World renowned director Gregory Doran has been named Oxford University’s latest Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre for the academic year 2023-2024.
The Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre is a professorship connected to St Catherine’s College. Established in 1990 in honour of the theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the position is held for a year by a prominent figure in the world of theatre.
Gregory Doran grew up in Lancashire and studied English and Drama at Bristol University before beginning his career at the RSC in the 1980s, with a stint as Artistic Director until April 2022. An important figure in stage, television, and film productions, he is particularly well known for his Shakespearean work, such as his 2008 Hamlet production, released as a television film starring David Tenant and Patrick Stewart in 2009. Doran’s non-Shakesperean productions include Death of a Salesman, The Orphan of Zhao, The Odyssey, as well as David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress.
Doran will succeed Adjoa Andoh – best known for her role as Lady Danbury in Bridgerton – as Cam Mac Visiting Professor.
He has accumulated numerous awards such as the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement of the Year and the Sam Wanamaker Award from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Doran also has numerous doctorates from eminent universities across the UK. His memoir, My Shakespeare: A Director’s Journey through the First Folio, was also published earlier this year.
The Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professorship is designed to give students at Oxford the chance to work directly with some of the most important figures in contemporary theatre. Cam Mac Professors hold lectures in order to encourage and promote the practice of contemporary theatre at the university. The inaugural lecture is also open to the public.
When asked about the professorship, Doran said: “I am chuffed and honoured to take up the Cam Mac Visiting Professorship and to work with students. It is a privilege to be able to share your passion.”
University prevents Union freshers’ fair ban by treating them as a student society
The Oxford Union will not be banned from the freshers’ fair after the University has decided to treat them as a student society, despite the Union’s independence from the University’s or Proctors’ authority. Whilst the SU motion prevents the Union from purchasing a commercial stall at freshers fair, the University will allow them to apply for a student stall and bypass the ban, as they should be “treated on the same basis for bookings at the Fresher’s Fair, as it is run by students and has a high proportion of student members. Many other unregistered societies are permitted to attend the fair on this basis.”
This will also likely enable the Union to avoid the cost of a commercial stall. A senior Union source told Cherwell that “the Union should be able to attend the fair as normal but without having to pay the [SU] the almost £4000 cost of buying a corporate slot.”
The University told Cherwell: “The Freshers’ Fair is intended for the benefit of all students and should therefore be open to all student-facing societies. We do not support attempts to select those who are eligible without adherence with the universities policies and appropriate engagement.”
One of the University’s pro-vice chancellors, Professor Martin Williams told The Telegraph: “The Oxford Union, a debating society independent of the University but whose leaders and members are mostly drawn from our student body, has not been banned from attending the Freshers’ Fair. Students should be free to decide whether to join a society or club. Whilst we understand there are concerns held by the Student Union about the Oxford Union, the University is actively encouraging the two organisations to talk through the issues.”
The SU has claimed that “this is a concerning precedent in its attempt to undermine concerns that students have raised and democratically affirmed regarding issues such as forms of harassment and bullying”.
In response, the University told Cherwell: “We do understand that the Student Union has concerns about the management of the Oxford Union. We encourage the SU to constructively engage with the OU on this, and would advise this approach for any student-facing society the Student Union may have concerns about.”
As part of a preliminary review the SU also addressed a letter to the Union president, Matthew Dick, which specified a few “simple initial recommendations” to improve the experience of Oxford Students. This review by the VP for Access and Academic Affairs and VP for Welfare and Equal Opportunities was mandated alongside the commercial freshers’ fair ban in the last student council meeting.
The SU recommended the Union to register with the Proctors office, which would provide “an external mechanism for dealing with internal problems”. Yet, this would violate the Union’s Independence Clause (Rule 69), which stipulates: “The Society shall not be registered with the Proctors as a University Club.”
Alongside this, the SU expected the Union to commit to:
- Ensuring that all committee members and event officials are specifically anti-sexual violence trained, along with the cretion of the position of anti-sexual violence officer
- Creating explicit policies on anti-harassment, anti-bullying and anti-victimisation, anti-indirect discrimination and direct-discrimination, and whistleblowing
- Removing punishments for members who cannot attend Union meetings for academic-related reasons
The SU also proposed that the OU extend the free open period in Michaelmas to a month, rather than the current two weeks, which would “allow students to make a more informed decision” in regards to membership purchases. Additionally, the SU invited the Union to an open student-led discussion on how to improve its culture before the last student council meeting in June.
Updated at 7:55 on 20/05/2023 to reflect University comment.
Worcester x St Catz take home the Women’s Rugby Cuppers trophy
In the Women’s Cuppers final, Worcester/St Catz emerged victorious over last year’s champions Corpus/LMH/Trinity/St Hilda’s.
Right from the start, Worcester demonstrated excellent structure in their play and displayed pace and ambition in their backline. The Worcester backs wasted no time in making an impact as Rachel Hewitt crossed the try line early in the game, putting the team ahead with a score of 5-0. A try by Maria Watt’s further solidified Worcester’s advantage, leaving the game at 10-5 at halftime.
The second half presented a challenge for both teams, with the heat taking its toll on the players. The defensive efforts from both sides intensified, slowing down the pace of the game. A well-placed kick from scrum-half Florence Baker Masters and the skilful play of Tabs Preston and Maria Watt resulted in another try for Worcester, with Watt successfully grounding the ball directly under the posts. Maddy Kawalenko’s conversion extended their lead to 17-10, but two yellow cards shown to Worcester players in succession put them on the back foot, leaving them to fight until the final whistle.
Corpus captain Lauren Webb proved to be a formidable force on the field. Her sheer pace and fierce handoff led to her scoring two tries for her team in the 2nd half, keeping Corpus in contention until the very end. However, a missed conversion in the 80th minute left Corpus behind, and Worcester/Catz lifted the Emma Bidiscombe trophy. Both teams deserve credit for the exceptional display of rugby– a testament to the growth of Women’s rugby in Oxford, with the majority of players involved having never played before university.
Player of the Match award: Fly-half Maria Watt (Catz) for her two tries and fine defensive efforts.
Image Credit: Tabs Preston
