Riches in the rags
'We were delighted that she applied to Oxford and delighted that she was accepted"- that's how an OUSU spokesperson welcomed the news that I would be studying at Oxford. Hang on; scratch that - they said this about Chelsea Clinton before she arrived here, not me. I wasn't on the front cover of Cherwell in my first week either.
Oh well, it's probably a good thing; freshers' week was stressful enough without the student and national press following my every move. Other people aren't so lucky; it seems that at Oxford, and at universities all over the country, there are students whose drunken indiscretions, political activism, and academic prowess are put under the microscope.
The question is, what is it like to be a high-profile student in today's media age? Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, should the media exercise self-restraint in reporting on such students and their lives?
Probably the most famous British student of recent years has been Prince William, studying History of Art at St Andrews. Even before he had arrived the press was overflowing with news that applications to St Andrews from randy young American girls, seeking the chance to marry into royalty had skyrocketed. A student who was in halls with William in his first year told me: "When I spoke to friends from home they were always more interested in what William was doing than what I was doing." In fact, William has actually been spared the worst of media intrusion because, following his mother's death, the press have held back, allowing him some privacy in the time before he officially enters public life. He has managed to sate their appetites with pre-arranged film footage of him popping out to buy a bottle of milk from a local newsagent.
See? He's just like us. Except for the film crew. And the bodyguards. After all, this is the guy who, on enrolling at university, wanted to be known "simply" as "William Wales", as if using his future princedom as a surname made him at one with the common man. It may be an improvement on his full name: Prince William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten Windsor, but not much of one.
I have sympathy with the view that if Wills is going to accept the perks of the monarchy, travelling around the world, meeting powerful world leaders, having ships named after him and so-on, he has to put up with the downsides too, whether that be sitting through the annual tedium of the Royal Variety Performance, or having the media pry into his affairs. Besides that, if he's smart he can use the media just as effectively as they use him.
Similarly, if people engage in criminal (and hence newsworthy) behaviour, then the press interest must be expected: William's cousin, Alexander Fellowes, was of little interest to anyone until he attended a secret society drinking session that ended in violence and the destruction of property at the White Hart pub earlier this term.
The children of elected politicians, unfortunately for them, don't inherit their parents' jobs (in some cases, not for the want of trying, as Will Straw's rise to the post of OUSU President might be percieved), but they have to deal with just as much media attention as their royal counterparts.
Chelsea Clinton's stay at Oxford is a prime example of this. She made the news in 2001 for attending an anti-war rally in order to heckle what she saw as Oxford protesters' anti-Americanism. While her dad may have no longer been residing in the White House, it's easy to see how she could have found it hard to cope with criticisms of US foreign policy and taken the matter personally.
Around the same time she was widely quoted as having said: "Over the summer I thought that I would seek out non-Americans as friends, just for diversity's sake. Now I find that I want to be around Americans - people who I know are thinking about our country as much as I am."
It is hard to imagine that she would have found her situation as an American in Oxford quite as difficult had she not been forced to deal with the extra pressure of being seen, or even seeing herself, as some kind of representative of the US government. No wonder the other reason she hit the headlines was her new sleek blonde hairstyle- if I had the eyes of the world on me, I'd probably bother to get a cut and blow-dry myself!
Tony Blair's sons have had similar problems to Ms Clinton at university in recent months and years. Though Nicky has managed to keep his head down thus far, Euan had problems even before he took his A-levels, when news of his application to Trinity was made public.
Eventually a complaint by the Blairs against the Telegraph and the Mail was upheld by the Press Complaints Commission. The commission added to its ruling that the "acid test that any newspaper should apply in writing about the children of public figures who - like the Prime Minister and Mrs Blair's children, and unlike the Royal Princes - are not famous in their own right, is whether a newspaper would write such a story if it was about an ordinary person." Unfortunately this test seems too often to be ignored.
Recent rumours surrounding Madonna's 'correspondence course' in English Literature at Oxford were clearly not ignored despite being totally unfounded. Like Keira Knightley, the studious queen of pop has found that the possibility of famous students at this University will inevitably reach the headlines.
What is more worrying is the treatment of students, often living away from home for the first time, who are the victims of events. They usually have no experience in dealing with media attention, and none of the professional support that the Blairs and Windsors can rely on.
After his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers in the Columbian jungle in 2003, Matthew Scott had to face a barrage of press attention on his return to the UK, and in his first term at Oxford not long after. Less serious examples are those cases in which students embark on love affairs with celebrities - a surprisingly frequent phenomenon. On the one hand it can be argued that if you get involved with Charlotte Church or Terry Jones, you know that it will be of interest to the rest of the world, but, on the other hand, who can control the invisible hand of love?
Perhaps we could do with a few words of wisdom from legendary 2nd year PPEist Oliver Popplewell (a 77 year old retired high court judge), whose studies at Oxford have been widely publicised in the more highbrow media outlets of the nation.
When I asked him how he deals with being an undergraduate in the public eye, he simply replied "the only extra pressure is my failing memory". Unfortunately most students are still at an age where what people say and think about them can be utterly devastating; this is what the press should remember. A nineteen-year-old with an essay deadline looming, a bad hair day, and an ever increasing pile of laundry to cope with really doesn't need the extra hassle of being front page news.
27th Jan 2005