Nepotism at Linacre

Linacre is like a developing country in that, if you know/bribe the right people, rules and fairness go out the window and anything goes.

Let's take the college gym as an example. The gym was managed for 4 years by a very devoted guy, let's call him G. When he took on the job as gym manager, the gym was empty and lacked funding and equipment. During his time, he managed to build the gym into one of the best college gyms in Oxford, if not the best -- fully equipped with cardio machines, benches, racks, free weights, dumbbells, and most of the common resistance machines you'd find in a commercial gym.

This was achieved via careful management of funds and investments, and by charging external members for using the gym and carrying out personal training. What stands out is that he did not even accept the pay that they offered him for his work as gym manager -- and instead told the college to give it to someone who needed it.

Then one day Catherine Walter decided that she wanted to allow her personal friend to use the gym for free. Not only that, but she wanted to give him access to use the college gym as a staging area for his personal training business. (Bear in mind that any other gym in the world charges independent personal trainers for use of the gym.)

The gym manager, G, put his foot down and told them that it is not possible to make exceptions -- anyone who is not a member of the college must register and pay for use of the gym, and any profitable activity must be coordinated with the gym management.

As a consequence, Catherine with the assistance of staff member Simon Barker, had G fired as gym manager, and created problems for him that postponed his graduation by half a year. She then installed her own DPhil student, Jill Boggs, as the new gym manager, thereby allowing her to carry on her corrupt activities without any further obstacles. Simon was shortly thereafter promoted.