Oxford Union Society

The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest university unions and one of the world's most prestigious private students' societies. The Oxford Union exists independently from the universityOxford Union Society Rules: Rule 69 "Independence" and is distinct from the Oxford University Student Union.

The Oxford Union has a tradition of hosting some of the world's most prominent individuals across politics, academia, and popular culture.

History and status

Genesis

Historically, the university restricted junior members from discussing certain issues such as theology. Although such restrictions have since been lifted, the Oxford Union has remained entirely separate from and independent of the university and is constitutionally bound to remain so.

Status

The Oxford Union is an unincorporated association; its property is held in trust in favour of its objectives and members, and governed by its rules (which form a multi-partite contract between the members).

Women members

Until 1963, women were excluded from membership of the Oxford Union. The admission of women to the Union required a 2/3 vote of its past and current members. The first vote to admit women failed, with 903 men voting to admit women and 459 voting against. The second vote, on 9 February 1963, succeeded, 1,039 to 427. Oxford student Judith Okely, who had led the campaign to admit women, then became the first woman member. Geraldine Jones of St Hugh's College was in 1967 the first woman to be elected President of the Oxford Union.

Membership

Membership of the Oxford Union falls into four classes: life membership, long-term membership, temporary membership, and residential membership. Temporary membership can take four forms: course-length membership, termly membership, visiting membership, and (confusingly) permanent membership.

Life and long-term membership

All matriculated members of Oxford University are eligible to become life members of the Union, as are spouses of life members.Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society" (a) "Life Members" (i) "Members of the University and Affiliates" (1) Certain other specific members of the University are also eligible for life membership, as are their spouses.Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society" (a) "Life Members" (i) "Members of the University and Affiliates" (2)

Members of the following kindred societies are also eligible to apply for life membership of the Union:Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society" (a) "Life Members" (ii) "Members of Kindred Societies"

*Cambridge Union
*Durham Union
* Conference Olivant
* Trinity College, Dublin's University Philosophical Society
*Yale Political Union
*Harvard Political Union

All those eligible for life membership can instead apply for long-term membership for a period of at least the duration of their course,Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society" (a) "Life Members" (i) "Members of the University and Affiliates" (5) and all such long-term members can, while eligible, apply to transfer to life membership.Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society" (a) "Life Members" (i)"Members of the University and Affiliates" (6)

Temporary membership

Students at certain other educational institutions in Oxford are entitled to join for the duration of their course. These institutions are:Oxford Union Society Rules: Standing Order F7 "Institutions Admitted to the Benefits of Rule 3(c)" (a) "Course-length Membership" (i)

* Magna Carta College
*Oxford Brookes University
*Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
*Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
*Ripon College, Cuddesdon
*Ruskin College
*Sarah Lawrence College

Such shorter membership is also extended to staff members of the University of Oxford or any of its colleges or permanent private halls.Oxford Union Society Rules: Standing Order F7 "Institutions Admitted to the Benefits of Rule 3(c)" (a) "Course-length Membership" (ii) "University Staff Members" Members of a number of other institutions, together with those participating in some visiting study programmes in Oxford, are also eligible to apply for temporary membership,Oxford Union Society Rules: Standing Order F7 "Institutions Admitted to the Benefits of Rule 3(c)" (b) "Termly Membership" while members of Oxford Brookes University alone are entitled to apply for permanent membership.Oxford Union Society Rules: Standing Order F7 "Institutions Admitted to the Benefits of Rule 3(c)" (c) "Permanent Membership"

Guests staying at the Oxford Union Society/Landmark Trust flat in the Old Steward’s House are deemed to be visiting members of the Society for the duration of their stay in the flat.Oxford Union Society Rules: Standing Order F7 "Institutions Admitted to the Benefits of Rule 3(c)" (d) "Visiting Mambers"

Residential membership

Residential memberships are available to Oxford residents who are not from the university, but only if they are deemed worthy by a full meeting of the Union's Standing Committee after submitting a written application to the Secretary and subsequent interview by a member of the Standing Committee.Oxford Union Society Rules: Rule 3 "Membership of the Society", (b) "Residential Members"

The Union buildings

The Oxford Union buildings are located in Frewin Court (off Cornmarket Street) and on St Michael's Street, and are owned by a separate charitable trust, the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust ("OLDUT").Oxford Literary Debating Union Trust: Paragraph 3

OLDUT

The Oxford Union was never financially secure and had a significant level of historic debt associated with the erection of its buildings. Following a particularly bad period in the 1970s, the Union buildings were sold to OLDUT (the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust), and the Oxford Union Society was granted a licence to occupy the building.

Several parts of what were historically the Union buildings and grounds were subsequently either sold or made the subject of long leases, including an area of land around the rear of the debating chamber, part of the Union cellars (adjoining that now occupied by the LGBTQ+ venue Plush), and part of what was formerly the Steward's house (now occupied by the Landmark Trust).

The creation of OLDUT secured the future of the Union's buildings such that even if the Oxford Union Society were to cease to be or fail financially the buildings would not be lost. OLDUT's principal sources of funds are private donations and grant funding (including from the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Oxford Foundation), rent on investment property and hiring fees. OLDUT uses these funds to provide financial support for the refurbishment and maintenance of the Union buildings and the operation of the Union's library and reading-rooms.

The buildings

The original Union buildings were designed by Benjamin Woodward and opened in 1857. The society soon outgrew these premises and commissioned Alfred Waterhouse to design a free-standing debating chamber in the gardens, which opened in 1879. This was about a decade after the completion of the Cambridge Union's premises (also designed by Waterhouse), and the exteriors of the two buildings are very similar.

The original Woodward debating chamber is now known as "The Old Library". The Old Library is best known for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, referred to collectively as the Oxford Union murals. The current debating chamber and several further extensions to the main buildings were added over the next forty years. The final extension was designed in a conventional Gothic Revival style by Walter Mills and Thorpe, and built in 1910–11. It provides the MacMillan Room (the Union dining room) and Snooker Room on the first floor above the Goodman Library, underneath which there are basement library stacks. The Union also consists of a Bar on the ground floor, the Gladstone Room (a reception room) and the Morris Room (a meeting room) on the first floor, and a Members' TV Room on the second (uppermost) floor, along with separate offices for the President, Librarian, Treasurer and Secretary.

Many of the rooms in the Union are named after figures from the Union's past, such as the Goodman Library with its oriel windows and the wood-panelled Macmillan Room with barrel ceiling. The buildings have gradually been added to with paintings and statues of past presidents and prominent members.

The Old Library contains a fireplace situated in the middle of the floor with a concealed flue, a rare design of which only a handful of examples survive in the UK.

The debating chamber features busts of such notables as Roy Jenkins, Edward Heath, Michael Heseltine, George Curzon and William Gladstone. It is also home to a grand piano, known as the "Bartlet-Jones Piano" after the Oxford University Music Society president who found it dusty and forgotten in a cupboard in the Holywell Music Room and placed it on permanent loan to the Union. The piano was unveiled by Vladimir Ashkenazy who famously refused to play it in front of the packed chamber because he "had not warmed up". The despatch boxes which continue to be used in Union debates are modelled on those in the House of Commons and were offered to the House during World War II.

As recently as the 1970s the Oxford Union still provided a full silver service dining room for its members which, like its famous bar, was the afternoon and evening venue of choice for many of the university's leading undergraduate journalists and politicos. To be invited to dine at the large table in the bay window - the usual domain of the Union's president - was considered the acme of attainment in that particular sphere of the university. It was often said more plots were hatched around that particular table on a regular evening than in the Houses of Parliament on Bonfire Night. Similarly, the Union's two libraries were extensively used by that same cadre of undergraduates (principally humanities students) who were rushing at the last minute to complete the obligatory weekly essay for their formal university education.

The Union's buildings were used as a location for each of the films ''Oxford Blues'' (1984) and ''The Madness of King George'' (1994).

Debating

Debating at the Oxford Union takes two forms — competitive debating and chamber debating.

Competitive debating offers members of the Union debate workshops and a platform upon which to practise and improve their debating skills. The Union's best debaters compete internationally against other top debating societies, and the Oxford Union regularly fields successful teams at the World Universities Debating Championship (which the Union hosted in 1993) and the European Universities Debating Championship.

The Union also runs the Oxford Schools' Debating Competition and Oxford Intervarsity Debating Competition, which both respectively attract schools and universities from around the world, as well as running a number of internal debating competitions.

Chamber debates occur every Thursday evening during University terms. Experts for the proposition and opposition present paper speeches to the house. Members have an opportunity to deliver brief speeches from the floor. Following the style of the British Parliament, a motion is moved to "divide the House" in order to vote. Members in the chamber vote on the proposition with their feet by exiting the hall through a door, the right-hand side of which is marked 'ayes' and the left-hand side 'noes'.

Oxford Union Society debates are filmed and licensed by Oxford Union Limited, a registered company controlled by the Oxford Union Society.

Retractions of speaker invitations

In a few notable cases the Union has withdrawn invitations to controversial speakers, as the result of public pressure, specific pressure by lobbyists, and concerns about safety.

1998: John Tyndall

A debate that was to have involved the far-right fascist leader John Tyndall was met with a campaign of resistance in 1998. This opposition, coupled with police advice following a series of racially motivated nail-bombings in London, resulted in the cancellation of the debate.

2001: David Irving

An invitation to the writer and Holocaust denier David Irving to speak in a debate on censorship in 2001 was met by a coordinated campaign by left-wing, Jewish, and anti-fascist groups, together with the elected leadership of the Oxford University Student Union, to have the invitation withdrawn. Following a meeting of Union members, and a subsequent meeting of the Union's governing body, the Standing Committee, the President decided the debate would have to be cancelled. However, Irving was allowed to speak at a Union debate in 2007.

2009: Philip Nitschke

In March 2009, the Union withdrew an invitation to euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke after Nitschke had already accepted the invitation. Nitschke received a second e-mail cancelling the invitation "in the interests of there being a 'fair debate'", and was told other speakers were unwilling to speak alongside him.

The debate topic was the legalisation of assisted suicide, a field in which Nitschke is prominent. The reason given by Oxford Union President Corey Dixon was that two other speakers "disagree with his particular take on ssisted suicide.

According to Dixon, the speakers who successfully pressured the Union to withdraw Nitschke's invitation were a member of the public, whose brother had undergone assisted death, and British euthanasia campaigner Michael Irwin. However, Irwin denied that he had applied pressure to exclude Nitschke.

The Oxford Union released a statement explaining the decision: "An administrative decision was made to ensure we had three speakers on each side of the debate, which was proving difficult due to Nitschke's attendance. It is always in the interests of the Oxford Union to ensure a balanced debate with as wide-ranging views as possible represented. There may have been miscommunication between the Oxford Union and Nitschke. We certainly hope that no offence has been caused. The Oxford Union is a neutral institution and holds no opinion on Nitschke's views."

Nitschke commented, "This famous society has a long tradition of championing free speech. To suggest that my views on end-of-life issues are inappropriate simply because I believe that all rational elderly adults should have access to the best end-of-life information beggars belief." He also called the act "an almost unprecedented act of censorship". Nitschke gave a series of lectures across the UK at the time the debate was held.

Controversies

1933: King and Country Debate

The Oxford Union has long associated itself with freedom of speech, most famously by debating and passing the motion " This House would under no circumstances fight for its King and country" in 1933. The debate polarized opinion across the country, with the ''Daily Telegraph'' running an article headlined "DISLOYALTY AT OXFORD: GESTURE TOWARDS THE REDS".

Several prominent Union members (including Randolph Churchill) tried to expunge this motion and the result of the debate from the Union's minute book. This attempt was defeated in a meeting more attended than the original debate. Sir Edward Heath records in his memoirs that Randolph Churchill was then chased around Oxford by undergraduates who intended to debag him (i.e., humiliate him by removing his trousers), and was then fined by the police for being illegally parked.

1996: OJ Simpson

In May 1996 President Paul Kenward invited O. J. Simpson to address the union, his first public address since his October acquittal by a Los Angeles jury of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Speaking for 90 minutes in front of 1,300 students, Simpson spoke of racism in the Los Angeles Police Department, and said he was sorry for hitting his wife, Nicole.

Paul Kenward had given O. J. Simpson assurances there would be no broadcast media at the union debate. However, Chris Philp, (now Conservative MP and then a second-year student at University College and features editor of the student magazine '' Cherwell''), was fined £50 for selling a written transcript of the debate and helping to sell an audio cassette to TV stations.

2007: David Irving / Nick Griffin debate

In November 2007, President Luke Tryl sparked controversy by inviting Holocaust denier David Irving and British National Party leader Nick Griffin to speak at a Union forum on the topic of free speech. The Student Population at a Council meeting voted to oppose the invitations. Following this and protests by other student groups, a poll of the Union's members was taken and resulted in a two-to-one majority in favour of the invitations.

On the evening of the planned debate several hundred protesters gathered outside the Union buildings, chanting anti-fascist slogans and later preventing guests and Union members from entering the premises. Around 20 protesters succeeded in breaching the poorly maintained security cordon and attempted to force their way through to the main chamber. Members of the waiting audience blocked access by pushing back against the chamber doors. After students were convinced to yield to the protesters by Union staff, a sit-in protest was staged in the debating chamber, preventing a full debate from occurring due to security concerns. Because of a lack of security personnel, a number of students from the audience eventually came to take on the responsibilities of controlling events, in one instance preventing a scuffle from breaking out between a protester and members of the audience, and eventually assisting police in herding protesters from the main hall. One student protester interviewed by BBC
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