| NEWS The Oxford University Society To all Branch Secretaries and Presidents July, 2004 Dear Secretary, It is important that I write to you with news of the resolution which was passed nem con at the AGM of the Society on 10 July, as many of you were not able to get to Oxford for the meeting. The text of the resolution, together with the explanation for it from Council and the Trustees, is as below. The Board of Trustees, together with the Council of the Oxford University Society, propose the changing of the constitutional basis of the Society in order to enable its activities to continue within the aegis of the University of Oxford itself. The organisation will continue to operate under the name of The Oxford University Society, and the assets of the Society will continue to be used for the promotion of the purposes of the former charitable company. Their expenditure will be supervised by a Board constituted in accordance with the Regulations and Standing Orders attached. This AGM therefore resolves that the Society as at present constituted under the Memorandum and Articles of Association adopted at the AGM of 2000, should be wound up and merged into the exempt charity of the University of Oxford as of 31 December, 2004. As from 1 January, 2005 the Society will be a Department of the University. Regulations and Standing Orders as attached will come into effect on that date, subject to the agreement of the Council of the University. Lady Goodhart urged the AGM to accept this resolution. The Chairman said that it was time to begin a further stage in the development of the mutual support between University and Society. Although the Society was to become a department of the University, the Trustees had been at pains to ensure the retention of the Society’s independent identity. She was confident that the negotiated arrangements would maintain this independence. But she believed that funding needed to be increased in order for the delivery of the sort of alumni activity the University should have. This increase she felt was far more likely under the aegis of the University. The discussion from the floor was constructive and favourable to the resolution. As some of you have been targeted by the anti-vivisectionists, protesting at the building of the new University facility in South Parks Road, it is also important that I give you a digest of what the Vice Chancellor said in his remarks to the AGM. As members knew, the University’s new biomedical research support building had attracted the attention of the anti-vivisectionists. The building is part of an ongoing programme of replacing and updating existing University laboratory space and will result in the closure of a number of existing animal facilities. The building was neither a successor to Huntingdon Life Sciences nor a replacement for the proposed primate facilities in Cambridge. This new £18m facility would be one of the best in the country, and 98% of the animals housed there would be rodents. The Vice Chancellor went on to confirm that the University’s research with animals was governed by four key principles: First, all projects are subject to strict ethical approval, which involves lay and external scrutiny. Secondly, all projects are subject to the Home Office animal research licensing regime. Thirdly, all projects are carried out in the best available conditions of animal welfare and housing. Fourthly, Oxford intends to remain a leader in the field of research to find substitutes for the use of animals in research when at all possible. While he affirmed his belief in the sanctity of freedom of expression, he could not agree with terrorism and personal attacks.
The office has acquired two new members of staff. Cathy Tennent has arrived to be Alumni Liaison Officer from her former position as a travel rep, with the major tasks of running our travel programme and being the point person for the Email Forwarding Service. She has made a breathtakingly rapid start at putting together the new set of tours and this year’s brochure. I think you will be very impressed when you see them. The brochure will come out in October. Claire Larkin is our new Administration and Finance Officer. She is the person whose voice you will hear on the phone when you ring the office, and it is notable that, when we were first contacting her former University department, Economics, we were impressed by the voice on that phone, which turned out to be Claire’s. She also carries responsibility for two baffling elements of the work here, our relation with the University’s OSIRIS accounting system, and being my PA, which includes setting up and maintaining a database of speakers for branches. Could I remind you all that I asked for suggestions for the way forward for the Society, once it joins the University? Some of you have sent helpful messages, but planning hasn’t really begun, so there is plenty of time for others to let me have their thoughts. We are grateful for the more formal help being given by the Secretary of the Southern California Branch, Dan Guhr, and by John Mihaly, who is responsible for organizing off-campus events for Vassar alumni, on sabbatical at St Peter’s College. The international spread of the Society continues to delight me. We had an email message earlier this week from a student leaving Mansfield to return to Baku. So the Society now has a “man in Baku”. This brings greetings from us all. Please do let us have your suggestions for how we can improve what we do for you at this end. We are certainly very grateful for all you do for the Society and for Oxford. Yours sincerely, Nancy Kenny
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