Corpus JCR bemoans lack of women
Corpus Christi College: the number of female students and staff is inexplicably low
Corpus Christi College has come under fire for the disproprtionately low numbers of women in both staff and student bodies. The college had equal numbers of applications from men and women last year, but of the current freshers, only 22 out of 69 are girls. The JCR has mandated its President, Dave Holtam, to write to the college President, expressing concern over the statistics and calling for the issue to be discussed at a meeting of Academic Committee.
However, the Academic Committee itself does not currently include a single female fellow. Bettina Reitz, Corpus Academic Affairs Officer, has already complained about the fact that Corpus only has three female fellows, two of whom are currently on sabbatical leave. One fellow on the Academic Committee recalled that of the last 16 academic appointments, only four were women. Holtam said: “Either we’re not attracting enough bright females, or there is a bias in the system.
The college insisted that they, “only ever make appointments to teaching posts, and any other college post, on merit”. Student Union VP (Women) Ellie Cumbo said Corpus’ admission figures were, “an extremely unsatisfactory ratio, that has obviously upset the JCR”. Reitz added: “The college have been very co-operative and have taken this very seriously, and are really trying to think of ways to work on this. “We’re discussing different schemes at the moment.
There is no short-term solution. We’re looking at targeting girls’ schools, focusing on them and attracting more applications from girls.” College President Sir Tim Lankester said in a statement: “The college is concerned about the low proportion of women admitted this year. “The college believes that admissions decisions taken last year were objective and fair. However, we will be monitoring the situation closely in the upcoming admissions round.
Tutor for Admissions, Mark Wormald, said: “There will be no positive descrimination,” but said that it had been decided at Academic Committee that if the pattern was repeated in this year’s admissions cycle, the college would undertake, “an in-depth analysis across all subjects,” in order to try and identify the root of the problem and, “ensure there is no unintentional bias”.
10th Nov 2005