Oxford University criticised for claiming student generosity exacerbates homelessness

Oxford University is facing criticism after suggesting in an email that rising homelessness in the city is due to the generosity of university students.

The email was sent to students by the university’s senior proctor, Professor Mark Edwards, and the junior proctor, Cécile Fabre, in an attempt to curb the practice of “trashing”, an undergraduate tradition which involves covering each other in champagne and food after final exams. The university says that it costs £25,000 each year in security and clean-up costs.

The email said the waste of food involved exacerbated the stress of people sleeping rough in the city, stating that “needless waste of food is an aggravation of their distress”.

It also stated that trashing was harming the reputation of the university, as it portrayed “the whole of Oxford [as] one giant Bullingdon Club”, and argued that “this is unlikely to have a positive effect on applications from underprivileged minorities.”

They added: “Oxford’s students have a highly developed social conscience, as is evident from the number of homeless people who come to seek assistance in this city.”

Many took issue with the way in which the email implied that the goodwill of students was a contributory factor in the rise of homelessness in Oxford, which has doubled in the last year.

Students took to social media to express their incredulity at the suggestions made in the email, posting screenshots of the email online.

Oxford’s students have a highly developed social conscience, as is evident from the number of homeless people who come to seek assistance in this city

— Professor Mark Edwards

Professor Edwards defended the email in Cherwell, the Oxford student newspaper: “The fact that homeless people come to Oxford from elsewhere is clearly acknowledged. This is a credit to the city’s excellent facilities, but also, we believe, to the generosity of students, townsfolk and tourists.”

Regarding the email, Oxford said in a statement: “The overall intention of the proctors was to appeal to the social and environmental consciences of Oxford students, urging them to consider the impact of the waste and inconvenience caused by trashing.”

Jane Cranston, a former high sheriff of Oxfordshire, who now chairs an inquiry into rough sleeping in the city, said the proctors were right to draw attention to the conscience of students, but questioned the implications about Oxford in the email.

She said: “To suggest that homeless people are attracted to Oxford because of [the students’ generosity] is a more questionable statement. Oxford has a reputation as a ‘safe’ city for homeless people and many people, including the city council, the county council, many charities, the churches, students and members of the public contribute a great deal of time, care and professionalism to tackling this distressing social problem.”

When asked whether rough sleeping was linked to the generosity of students, Linda Smith, the deputy leader of Oxford city council, said: “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’m not going to suggest that people should not give to beggars.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’m not going to suggest that people should not give to beggars

— Linda Smith

She stated that the rise in rough sleeping in the city was driven by government cuts to mental health and substance addiction services. “It is a national problem. We didn’t have this problem on our streets of Oxford 10 years ago…belatedly the government has woken up to this and Oxford was awarded £500,000 last week”, she said.

“We already fund 167 beds and we will be expanding our provision to fund an extra 64 beds next winter. We want to get to a position where nobody has to sleep rough on the streets of Oxford.”

Alex Kumar, the chair of Oxford student union’s homelessness campaign, drew attention to the problem of housing as a factor in the increasing number of rough sleepers.

He argued: “One cannot view the escalating homelessness crisis in this country as detached from the housing crisis.”

He stated that the housing crisis was driven by “the ownership of property throughout this country increasingly in the hands of few”, and referred to The Guardian’s report in May 2018, which discovered that Oxford and Cambridge owned £3.5 billion in property.

He also accused the university of trying to “cynically weaponise Oxford’s homelessness crisis as an attack on students”.

A former student, who graduated last summer and did not want to be named, told the BBC: “It is highly disingenuous to suggest homelessness in Oxford is caused by the social conscience of students and not the extremely high cost of living, lack of housing, and cuts in support for homeless people in Oxford.”