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Trinity 2001
As per yesterday's entry - except this one's for Trinity 2001:-)
Trinity 2001 was possibly the other most 'normal' term I had in Oxford.
I don't have much recollection of the beginning of that term other than an absolutely terrible tort collection - which just goes to show how unimportant collections are overall. I couldn't find anyone else to take over doing the Tesco order, so I carried on doing it.
I started mentoring. I was matched with two pupils in a local school and I spent an hour with each one each week - this mean that I lost my Friday mornings once you added in the bus ride there and back.
Had an interview for Freshers' Fair - I'd been assured me everyone'd be very gentle with me - that's *always* a bad thing to say to me, 'cos it means I stop trying. I was surprised by some of the questions - particularly the one Kirsty asked me relating to David Irving. This is a very long story.
He'd been invited to the Union to speak in a 'freedom of speech' debate and after a lot of fillibustering later the invitation was rescinded and the entire debate cancelled. I didn't know a great deal about the issues at the time - though I did believe quite strongly that neither the Ox Stu or the Cherwell were giving the full story, so I think I fudged what I said in response to that question quite a bit.
After our next JCR meeting, I became quite convinced that OUSU should not have been passed a motion condemning the invitation. The JCR was furious - Kieron, Krishnan, Kate and many of the rest of us were outraged that OUSU should be trying to speak on our behalf on this issue. As a JCR we had passed a motion supporting the invitation to Irving and now our motion was being undermined by the lefties that made up Council. OUSU should not have been trying to make policy on something that wasn't related to us as OUSU members (the JCR only passed policy because it was necessary to do so to mandate our representatives to vote against the motion). We were also outraged that the MCR reps voted in favour of the motion to condemn the invitation. The MCR is a subset of the JCR and the MCR reps should have followed the mandate given to the JCR reps. That JCR meeting after the OUSU motion was electric; we went from angry to calling for a disiffilation referendum. This caused an awful lot of hard work for many people, and all because OUSU couldn't keep its mouth shut over something that had nothing to do with it.
I had a good time watching/participating in the JCR hustings. I remember asking some fairly pointed questions 'What makes you better than RON?' being one of them and a question only I could get away with asking, given the results the previous year.
I invited lots of people for pizza on my birthday - got in trouble siting on the lawn behind the Holywell Houses. I'd never felt so grateful for Graham (one of the JCR Welfare Officers) who placated the Porter in question. When faced with people shouting at me all I want to do is curl up/apologise to make them stop shouting. That said, we did have fun that afternoon.
Saturday of VIIIs week was memorable for me for all the wrong reasons - I sat at home waiting for Tesco to deliver the shopping *shrugs* - someone had to.
I was, however, very pleased to be appointed Assistant Freshers' Fair Organiser.
Juris was as lovely as ever. Land I really didn't enjoy, though I liked our tutor.
RAG week happened - I did my best to publicise stuff, but no one seemed that interested in going along to something outside College. Helped my successor with the room ballot.
And I went punting - punting is great fun - you're in little danger even if you do fall in (not that I've ever seen anyone do that) since the water's so shallow and slow moving. I remember being shouted at for letting go of the pole and I remember getting very wet when I was doing the punting, but looking back on it now, I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything. The same goes for the garden parties.
Trinity 2001 was possibly the other most 'normal' term I had in Oxford.
I don't have much recollection of the beginning of that term other than an absolutely terrible tort collection - which just goes to show how unimportant collections are overall. I couldn't find anyone else to take over doing the Tesco order, so I carried on doing it.
I started mentoring. I was matched with two pupils in a local school and I spent an hour with each one each week - this mean that I lost my Friday mornings once you added in the bus ride there and back.
Had an interview for Freshers' Fair - I'd been assured me everyone'd be very gentle with me - that's *always* a bad thing to say to me, 'cos it means I stop trying. I was surprised by some of the questions - particularly the one Kirsty asked me relating to David Irving. This is a very long story.
He'd been invited to the Union to speak in a 'freedom of speech' debate and after a lot of fillibustering later the invitation was rescinded and the entire debate cancelled. I didn't know a great deal about the issues at the time - though I did believe quite strongly that neither the Ox Stu or the Cherwell were giving the full story, so I think I fudged what I said in response to that question quite a bit.
After our next JCR meeting, I became quite convinced that OUSU should not have been passed a motion condemning the invitation. The JCR was furious - Kieron, Krishnan, Kate and many of the rest of us were outraged that OUSU should be trying to speak on our behalf on this issue. As a JCR we had passed a motion supporting the invitation to Irving and now our motion was being undermined by the lefties that made up Council. OUSU should not have been trying to make policy on something that wasn't related to us as OUSU members (the JCR only passed policy because it was necessary to do so to mandate our representatives to vote against the motion). We were also outraged that the MCR reps voted in favour of the motion to condemn the invitation. The MCR is a subset of the JCR and the MCR reps should have followed the mandate given to the JCR reps. That JCR meeting after the OUSU motion was electric; we went from angry to calling for a disiffilation referendum. This caused an awful lot of hard work for many people, and all because OUSU couldn't keep its mouth shut over something that had nothing to do with it.
I had a good time watching/participating in the JCR hustings. I remember asking some fairly pointed questions 'What makes you better than RON?' being one of them and a question only I could get away with asking, given the results the previous year.
I invited lots of people for pizza on my birthday - got in trouble siting on the lawn behind the Holywell Houses. I'd never felt so grateful for Graham (one of the JCR Welfare Officers) who placated the Porter in question. When faced with people shouting at me all I want to do is curl up/apologise to make them stop shouting. That said, we did have fun that afternoon.
Saturday of VIIIs week was memorable for me for all the wrong reasons - I sat at home waiting for Tesco to deliver the shopping *shrugs* - someone had to.
I was, however, very pleased to be appointed Assistant Freshers' Fair Organiser.
Juris was as lovely as ever. Land I really didn't enjoy, though I liked our tutor.
RAG week happened - I did my best to publicise stuff, but no one seemed that interested in going along to something outside College. Helped my successor with the room ballot.
And I went punting - punting is great fun - you're in little danger even if you do fall in (not that I've ever seen anyone do that) since the water's so shallow and slow moving. I remember being shouted at for letting go of the pole and I remember getting very wet when I was doing the punting, but looking back on it now, I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything. The same goes for the garden parties.