Editorials – Week 5

Anna Davidson

Like many Scottish students right now, I’m finding myself a bit disorientated and uncertain, having a few hours ago watched with shock as Nicola Sturgeon resigned after 8 years leading the Scottish parliament. Thankfully, in moments of upheaval and frenzy such as these, there are some things on which you can always depend: Milo Dennison is asking where I am with my editorial. 

I’m currently back home in Edinburgh, not to put my name down on the list of potential candidates for the vacated post, but to go through some archives for my thesis. I couldn’t have done this in summer of course, as I was much too busy staring at the ceiling and actively avoiding all Oxford student theatre at the Fringe Festival. Reporting on the situation from Scotland’s capital, I would say all university students here seem to be from the home counties, so I don’t actually know how much it’s registered. 

Thanks to the team, as always, for this week’s issue – which I think is a pretty brilliant one. Apologies to Milo, who has a Very Important Rowing Meeting I’m making him late for, and thanks too for being a joy to work with. Thanks to Yii-Jen Deng: she could’ve sculpted David, but Michaelangelo couldn’t have perfected the InDesign graphic. Thanks to Rose (also Scottish), who is helping me through the stages of grief. Thank you to Ayomi and Susie, the senior editorial team, and the whole team in general, for their endless work and enthusiasm. Thank you reader, and for those worried about political uncertainty, Matt Holland’s solution will be in week 7.

Milo Dennison

Last week I walked into Tesco’s and passed the stand with the newspapers. Pausing for a second, I saw the familiar cover of Private Eye and went over to have a look, avoiding the bent over woman flicking through another copy. Reader, the bent over woman was Anna, and this is Week 5 of The Oxford Student. 

Not only has Anna proved that Oxford student journalists are essentially all the same person, but she’s also hopped on a train to Edinburgh today, so I’m having to chase her editorial over Messenger rather than in person this week. I shouldn’t complain though: once again she’s laid in far more than me and made it look far better than I ever could. Without her, OxStu couldn’t function. 

It’s been a busy week on the news front and the Magdalen JCR story has once again shown that Oxford student politics can be just as sharp and brutal as national politics. Only last summer it was Boris Johnson who faced numerous resignations before his resignation. 

The whole team has been incredibly hard working once again: Ayomi, Susie, Rose, Matt, Blane, Martin, Emily, Yii- Jen and so many more have once again been essential to the paper’s success. Thank you all – I promise I’ll only chase you on Messenger 

Ayomilekan Adegunwa

This week, I marked the halfway point of my time at Oxford. At the risk of sounding cliché, I do often find myself wondering where the time has gone. It was not that long ago that I was just a silly fresher, doing silly fresher things in a silly fresher way. Yet, over the last year and a half I have done so many new things, met so many new people and generally, had a pretty good time (economics still haunts me). 

Time passes, and many things change, but there are still some things never change – like my love for the OxStu and my deep, deep appreciation for my colleagues. I hope that your enjoyment of this week’s edition of the paper also does not change. 

Susie Barrows

It’s fifth week of Hilary Term and there’s no Timothee Chalamet appearing in our libraries this year to alleviate any fifth-week blues or provide any useful editorial material. I’m tired. Please use your imagination. 

Interesting thing happened to me this week! Incredibly insightful observation about that. I love OxStu!!!! People here are kind of cool, especially [BLANK], [BLANK] and [BLANK]. Editors-in-Chief are doing a semi-decent job. Funny anecdote! Thank you to [BLANK] for doing X, thank you [BLANK] for doing Y (X but very slightly different), and thank you [BLANK] for doing Z (X and Y but put into Thesaurus.com). You should join the paper if you are interested in being as cool and fun as us! Pithy statement to take away.