NEWS
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Transforming Silence: Changing Oxford’s sexual assault policy Pieter Garicano reports on the group leading this change. CW: Sexual assault. Led by (ex-)Oxford undergraduates and current graduate students across six faculties and sixteen colleges, the new campaign aims to be both a space to support survivors and a movement that prevents further sexual violence. They are perhaps best known to Oxford students through their instagram account @transformingsilence, which has accumulated 800 followers in a matter of weeks. In a wide-ranging conversation, Cherwell spoke to some of the key students involved with the movement. Madeleine Foote (1st year DPhil in History, St Antony’s), Mary Newman (1st year DPhil in Medieval & Modern Languages, Trinity), Mia Liyanage (Balliol student 2016-2019 and one of the original complainants that sparked the Al-Jazeera investigation) and Lara Scheibli (PPE graduate, Women’s Rep at the Philosophy department) all met through what they called Oxford’s “whisper network” in the wake of the fall-out from the Degrees of Abuse investigation. Kaelyn Apple, another of the key complainants in the al-Jazeera investigation, is also involved in the group, but could not attend the meeting. Mary told Cherwell that: “I simply tweeted, as Academic Twitter and Oxford Twitter blew up, how [I could] help, and I met Madeleine”. Madeleine, who had matriculated in 2011, had recently returned to pursue a
DPhil. To her horror, Peter Thompson, one of the key focuses of the al-Jazeera report, was the same Fellow she had heard rumors about a decade earlier. When the investigation broke, she too decided that it was time to act. Linking up with other survivors and activists via acquaintances, social media and other channels, they soon decided to form an egalitarian collective which would both provide an effective support group to help victims achieve justice and prevent further sexual violence from happening. Madeleine said: “In the decade I was gone, the world changed. MeToo happened. And when I came back, it was clear MeToo hadn’t happened here, at the University of Oxford”. Towards the end of Michaelmas, they started to get together, and decided to launch a staff-student symposium and produce a report on sexual violence before the end of Hilary Term. The name of the symposium – Silence will not protect us – is a deliberate homage to Audre Lorde’s Your Silence Will Not Protect You. In it, Lorde deals with the relationship between language, action and violence. But, the group says, they want to make clear that “this is not a staff-versusstudent issue. This is one of solidarity and support.” They went on to clarify that “our work is as much aimed at staff as at students. Over half of those who have expressed interest to attend our conference are staff”. The projected line-up for the event includes Professor Sundari Anitha, Dr Anna Bull, Professor Deborah Cameron, Professor Elizabeth Frazer, Dr Mara Keire and Professor Alison Phipps. Madeleine clarified that their criticisms of the process boiled down to three key
issues. These were transparency (“the University does not provide centralised statistics on sexual violence, and many colleges ignored our FOIs”), individualisation (“there seems to be no willingness to look at broader patterns rather than a simple case-by-case approach”) and a lack of clarity in terms of responsibility: “Every time it’s different processes, with different rules and demands. Sometimes it is the discretion of the department, sometimes the University and often it is just the college that is responsible. This can be incredibly hard for victims to navigate.” Their calls for change go beyond the process that kicks in motion after sexual assault is reported. They want to see changes in what is considered inappropriate behaviour. According to their own research, only one university (UCL) completely bans romantic staff-student relationships. Towards the end of the conversation, Cherwell asked how they personally experienced the response. “The most common response to our work has been surprise. Most students and staff don’t know that Oxford has the highest number of staff-on-student and staff-onstaff allegations of sexual misconduct.“ “Most do not know that only four colleges (Linacre, Oriel, Regent’s Park, St Hugh’s) ban professors from pursing romantic and sexual relationships with students.” “Most do not know that even if a student files a formal complaint of sexual misconduct against a member of staff, almost no college has a policy that obligates them to investigate before dismissing the complaint.” ”After surprise, the next response is anger. And usually, after people get angry,
they are ready to do something.” The symposium Silence Will Not Protect Us is expected to be held on the 25th of February. Oxford University and Peter Thompson have been approached for comment.
70% of 2022 offers made to state- Oxford Farming Conference educated students tackles sustainable farming in online session
Estelle Atkinson reports on latest admissions statistics for 2022.
The University has announced that for the 2022 incoming class of students more than 69% of offers to UK applicants were made to students educated in the state sector. In last year’s admissions cycle, state school students received 68.7% of all offers, with 69.1% receiving them the year before. The percentage has remained consistently higher since state school students constituted 59.1% of offer-holders in 2016. The University announced that it ‘remains committed to offering fair access to all candidates, and early indications are that admissions from under-represented social groups continues to grow in line with last year’s figures.’ Last year, the state school admission intake hit a record high of 68.6%. The University’s Opportunity Oxford scheme - which offers students from underrepresented backgrounds the means through which to transition to study at Oxford, including a residential stay in the lead up to their first term - is now entering its third year. Offers to the scheme have increased by 36.5% and have been made to 228 students. This news comes as more than 3600 students received offers of places for undergraduate study on Tuesday, the 11th of January. This is 2.6% more offers than were made
last year, and means that 38% of the more than 20,000 students interviewed received offers. The University said: “with strong competition for places at Oxford, the University would like to congratulate all successful candidates celebrating their offers today. With early figures showing that applications averaged almost seven per place - a figure that is far higher in some subjects - all candidates who proceeded to the interview stage in the admissions process should be proud of their hard work and achievement.” This was the second year that interviews took place online.
Humza Jilani reports on this year’s conference. The 2022 Oxford Farming Conference, titled Road to Resilience, was held online from 5 January to 7 January. Industry leaders, activists, and politicians convened to discuss new approaches to building sustainable and resilient farming practices amid deepening economic and environmental challenges in the United Kingdom and globally. UK Agricultural Ministers, including George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and his counterparts from Wales and Northern Ireland, laid out their plans for government support for new approaches to farming. The programme also included a session on the opportunities in farming and the food economy to contribute to the United Kingdom’s net-zero commitments. Farmers find themselves in the middle of emissions debates, with climate change poised to bite into crop yields and the agricultural sector contributing up 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions from the United Kingdom in 2019. The conference also tackled lessons that pandemic-related supply chain squeezes carried for the future of global farming practices. The global agriculture trade keeps
agriculture economically viable, according to participants, and new approaches to keep open supply lines and trade routes are vital in times of disruption. Specific features of the programme included a lecture entitled ‘Can I have some more: what’s on the menu for 2030?’ a talk from the OFC Honorary President, HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, and a conversation between Dame Ellen MacArthur and OFC Co-Chair Sarah Mukherjee MBE on navigating towards a nature positive food system. The session was conducted entirely online due to fears about the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom. The decision was not an easy one. Joint Co-Chairs Barbara Bray and Sarah Mukherjee said: “whilst we are confident that the measures we had put in place to safeguard delegates were robust, the groundswell of concern nationally and internationally, combined with the lack of clarity about regulations likely in the weeks ahead, made this decision inevitable.” “The OFC is in good financial health, but we must face the fact that this decision will create a very large deficit for us, as a small charity that dates back to the 1930s. However, the decision is the right one to make.” Tickets this year were priced at £45. More then 1,000 delegates virtually attended the three day event. The conference has been held annually in Oxford since 1936.
