Oxford student disciplined over Stephen Hawking ‘fancy dress’

AN OXFORD University student has been disciplined after he attended a “dress as your degree” party in the guise of Prof Stephen Hawking.

The student dressed up as the renowned scientist – who has been confined to a wheelchair by a form of motor-neuron disease – for the themed party at Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) on Saturday evening, and arrived sitting on an office chair with wheels.

His stunt provoked a furious backlash from fellow students, who reported him to the college dean. Lana Purcell, the president of LMH’S Junior Common Room, said: “We are angry and disappointed... and have referred the person to the dean.” A spokesman for LMH said: “Our dean will be speaking to the student to express the college’s disappointment and to ask him to reflect on why his behaviour would be seen by many as offensive.”

Miranda Reilly, chairman of the Oxford University Students’ Union’s disability campaign, also criticised the student. “While it is not impossible to dress respectfully as Stephen Hawking, as a world-renowned physicist, this seems to have not been the case or intention,” she said.

“Mobility aids are an important tool in many disabled people’s daily lives, and so it is disrespectful for them to be parodied in this way. Using disability as a punchline is unacceptable and this proves we need wider awareness of disability issues at this university.”

A first-year student from Balliol College said: “From talking to people, it 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.”

Last term, another student was criticised for trivialising the “lived experience of survivors” of sexual assault after attending a college bop dressed as Harvey Weinstein, the film producer who has been the subject of multiple allegations of sexual assault and rape.