LMH Prison Threat
The crisis at Lady Margaret Hall deepened this week with the MCR joining the JCR in a rent-strike amidst allegations that the College Principal, Sir Brian Fall, withheld information on the college's true financial state. LMH has traditionally been seen as one of Oxford's poorest Colleges, however JCR Vice-President, David Toole, has publicly claimed that this may be based on false information.
Speaking to the Oxford Student, Toole expressed his belief that that certain documents he had been shown before the rent-rise negotiations may have presented to show LMH in a worse financial situation than is actually the case.
More recent documents have however cast doubt on the gloomy picture which was presented. According to Toole, " We were told that we were to keep the exact figures secret from everybody and that if we couldn't do this we should return the papers to them so that they could destroy them, in an appropriate manner. Originally these figures just slipped out, showing them to be quite well off and they actually then tried to backtrack on this. It certainly is not one of the poorest colleges, it's a mid-table College. There is uncertainty about how much LMH will benefit from the redistribution scheme because it isn't poor as is sometimes made out. It seems to provide a very handy excuse to put up rent, but perhaps it's not as justified as it is somewhere like Pembroke."
Toole made astonishing claims about the behaviour of the SCR and particularly the Principal. It is understood that JCR President, Dirk-Jan Omtzigt, approached the Treasurer and Principal after the JCR meeting last week to report on the meeting's decision. According to Toole, "He went to see the Treasurer first who said, 'you'll suffer for this.' He then went up to the Principal and had a totally horrendous meeting. The Principal got extremely irate with him, he got very wound up, accused him of having no leadership skills, saying that the JCR exec had no control over their JCR, and that he would get the solicitors on us and throw us into prison! He has not retracted that, we've not had any further meetings with him, he's shown himself to be extremely stubborn in all of this. The Treasurer seems to be at least listening to us, but his hands are tied by the Principal. The Principal is so stubborn it's impossible to have a meeting with him, he talks over you endlessly. He was very abusive to Dirk-Jan, to the extent that the MCR President, Nick Smith, has expressed his view that no student in college would accept this treatment of their elected representatives. He said this was the last straw for the MCR as well."
Following the decision by the JCR to withhold battels, a petition was organised against the College's proposed rent-rises. Toole hailed the move as further evidence of the massive support the JCR committee now have in their collision course with the SCR. "It's been up and about for twenty four or forty-eight hours," he said, "and during that time it has been signed by two hundred and sixty members of the JCR, which amounts to over three quarters of those living in college. It seems ridiculous that College can't see the level of support this thing is having, they seem to be blindly leading the College down this path to chaos."
Speaking to the Oxford Student LMH Principal, Sir Brian Fall, strenuously denied any threats against Dirk-Jan. "That's absolute nonsense, I didn't say anything of the sort." Sir Brian went on to say, "There has been no mis-representation of LMH's financial situation. I think Dirk-Jan has been badly misrepresenting what has gone on. He is making mountains out of molehills." Sir Brian would not be drawn on whether he had accused Dirk-Jan of poor leadership, but did say that, " I think that Dirk-Jan should start talking to people within college rather than those outside."
The situation at LMH has recieved considerable student press attention, and it has been noticed that copies of both the OxStu and the Cherwell have disappeared from the JCR. However Sir Brian denied SCR invlovment stating, "I havn't been pulling papers out of JCRs."
Dirk-Jan was however in conciliatory mood stating, " I am interested in resolving the deadlock as soon as possible, and it is to this end that my efforts are directed at the moment.