Batteling for fairness
'Battels': a simple enough word when you hear it spoken but one hell of a mystery when you first see it, usually during Freshers' week and generally written above what seems to be a ridiculously large number and printed on a piece of paper in your pigeon-hole. Just like 'Sub Fusc', 'Battels' is a word that causes considerable consternation among the Fresher population. Not only does it seems rather mercenary to bill you for a term's rent when you've barely set foot in Oxford, it also comes as quite a shock to discover that this mystery number (usually prefixed by a pound sign and invariably known as 'x' in the equation 'Student Loan minus x equals £0.00') is substantially greater at your college than at any other....
Features: Brains And Brawn?
We hear of Oxford graduates soaring to great heights in the worlds of politics, business, and the media, but how often do we consider their success in the sphere of sport? After all, the University so often encourages academic success at the expense of everything else, especially if students are infected with the dreaded rowing bug. If the admissions process wasn't enough to hammer home this point, then three years of weekly tirades from your tutor surely will....
Features: Gore Vs Bush
As I trudge though the rain to my tutorials, I realize that as a visiting student from America, there are many things I miss about the States: People magazine, Ruffles potato chips, non-smokers. But maybe what I'm missing out on the most is being a part of our presidential election, significant for me because it is the first I've ever voted in and pivotal for our country because of the issues at stake. The closest I'll come to joining in the election fervor is mailing in my absentee ballot and watching the results on newsweek.com at 5 am election night....