No Laurels For Hardy
SCANDAL SURROUNDS LADY Margaret Hall this week after a failed attempt to terminate the college's subscription to the Oxford Student. When proposed at last Sunday's JCR meeting it quickly emerged that the proposer of the motion, Max Hardy, had lied about having the support of a fellow student to second the proposal, in serious breach of the JCR constitution. Hardy - LMH's Internal Affairs Rep, who is also on the Union's Standing Committee and writes for Cherwell - was almost thrown off the executive committee for his dishonesty, and was only allowed to remain in office after apologising and being forced to run around the front quad with his trousers down as a punishment. The person named without permission as being the seconder, Alexander Gilmore, condemned Hardy's actions as "dishonest and immoral", saying that he did not oppose the subscription to the Oxford Student. Students at the JCR meeting unanimously decided that it would be unnecessary to vote on the issue in light of the preceding events.
Hardy, one of this paper's most vocal critics, recently claimed that the OxStu has this term increasingly adopted a "tawdry tabloid" style. He later defended his actions to the Oxford Student, saying that although he accepted he had knowingly put forward the motion with a lie on it, the proposal was "not intended in much seriousness" and he had not imagined that his proposal would succeed "as the OxStu is free for students". He went on to say that in his opinion, events had been "blown out of proportion" and that it "wasn't a burning issue". He said that he had no plans to resign from the JCR committee.
He did, however, say he was considering bringing the motion before the JCR again, in the interests of arousing debate about the quality of the paper. Several LMH students said that they believed that Hardy was fulfilling a "personal vendetta" and that they believed he would be unable to find someone to second his proposal if he was to try to put it before the JCR again. Hardy refuted this, saying that he was sure that if he wanted to he could "out of the 380 undergraduates in his college find one person who would agree with him".
Hardy's move follows the week-long desubscription by Balliol, and the more recent move by Christ Church. Balliol's decision to resubscribe was on Sunday endorsed by St Hilda's JCR, which voted by a overwhelming majority in favour of keeping the Oxford Student.
LMH JCR president Tejpal Dhami was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
16th Nov 2000