Take Your College to the Cleaners
OXFORD AND ITS colleges may be about to meet their nemesis.
For October doesn't just mean a new term - it means a new legal minefield, a chance for disgruntled students to exact revenge on their University. It may not be long before we see Oxford in court.
The cause of this chaos? The long-awaited incorporation into British law, on October 1st, of the European Convention on Human Rights.
What's going to happen is not yet clear - but the University's Press Office concedes that "there will be implications".
One possible source of conflict might be under Article 10 - the right to freedom of expression. For example, some colleges restrict the right of students to display posters in their windows, so that you might not be able to show support for your favoured political party, say, come election time.
Dr K D Grevling - a lecturer on the European Convention at Magdalen College - was unsure whether this sort of complaint would succeed or not, adding: "it's not an open and shut case". She conceded that the University "might have some problems" depending on precisely what was banned, but pointed out that rights under European law are "heavily qualified". For example, a student's free speech might be restricted "for the protection of the reputation" of the university.
And Grevling dismissed out of hand some of the far-fetched suggestions put forward by optimistic students.
"If sub-fusc isn't degrading treatment, I don't know what is," one said. Another reckoned that collections amounted to 'torture' under Article 3. "I wouldn't have thought even the worst Oxford college goes in for torture," said Grevling, dashing their hopes.
But only time will tell, and in the meantime the Oxford Student advises colleges: beware!
5th Oct 2000