Oxford student who rolled up as Hawking

AN OXFORD student has been disciplined after turning up to a college fancy-dress party as Professor Stephen Hawking.

The man, who has not been named, rolled in on an office chair dressed as the worldfamous physicist but was swiftly thrown out and reported to university authorities.

College activists accused him of using ‘disability as a punch line’ and said it was ‘disrespectful’ to parody mobility aids.

Professor Hawking, 76, who also attended Oxford, was struck down by motor neurone disease in his early 20s, which gradually paralysed him. He uses a wheelchair and speaks with a computer voicebox.

The student, who is studying a science subject, created his costume for the ‘Dress As Your Degree’ party at Lady Margaret Hall on Saturday. Lana Purcell, president of the college’s Junior Common Room, a panel of students looking after the affairs of college members, said: ‘We are angry and disappointed that this has happened and have referred the person to the dean.’ However, a fellow student said yesterday that most people at the party had not thought it was offensive.

He added: ‘The costume has been taken very much in the spirit with which it was intended. While maybe not the best choice, it seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.’

Another added: ‘Why are people assuming the student was mocking the disability? if it was a genuine tribute to a person who is so iconic in physics then i don’t see why it is so condemned.’