In the Area
The new Oxford University Sports Federation President Susan Lowrey took up her post in July with the aims of continuing the excellent work of her predecessors and pushing the University on with its long-term development plan for sport. At fi rst glance, Lowrey’s job seems both daunting and wide-ranging. Not only is she in charge of the administration and organisation of more than 80 university sports but she also has to liaise with college sports’ representatives and University authorities.
Yet despite all this, it seems clear that she has fi rm ideas on exactly how University sport should be developed. The pressing need to organise this year’s Varsity games has to be balanced alongside the alumni recruitment drive to fund sports development. Recruitment is clearly an issue for Lowrey.
Emphasising Oxford’s sporting facilities alongside its academic strengths is increasingly being used as a tactic to try to encourage applications from a wide range of schools and sixth form colleges. “Trying to reach schools where people might think that Oxford is not for them,” she says. The aim is to portray Oxford as offering the full package, sporting excellence as well its obvious academic pedigree.
Attracting more talented sportspeople is a key priority, as long as they have the academic merit as well • Lowrey is not keen on the idea of the American sports scholarship system coming to Oxford. The challenge then shifts to encouraging students to participate and try different or new sports. The diverse range of sports available are being stressed in the latest recruitment brochure whilst information leafl ets are being produced to increase awareness.
Her aim is to bring colleges together through sport, whilst she is also responsible for organising a timetable of inter-collegiate social events throughout the academic year. The President estimates that well over 50 per cent of undergraduates take part in sport, with the college system meaning that Oxford can boast participation rates far in excess of other Universities. “Everyone has little talents,” she asserts, “it’s just a case of getting them to use them.
?? “Some tutors are tolerant of sport, some not at all, it’s all about forging a good relationship with them,” says Lowrey, “students with unsympathetic tutors should not feel put off though, as long as they can manage their time effectively.” She is clearly keen to stress that taking part in Oxford sport can encourage many skills, all of which, of course, are highly valued skills by employers for those ‘tricky situations’ questions.
More widely, Lowrey seems to take inspiration from double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes in the pursuit of her personal and professional goals. National success does seem to be linked to growing levels of participation in Oxford sport; the number of female cricketers has doubled since England’s victories (both male and female) in the Ashes series.
Despite injury confi ning her to the sidelines, there is no doubt who is winning the ongoing battle with Cambridge in her mind, as she confi dently points out, “we win more than they do, they don’t even have a Sports Federation President.”
27th Oct 2005