Oriel’s Cofnas invitation draws criticism over Black students’ wellbeing

Writing in the Guardian on 15 November 2026, Ebony Riddell Bamber challenged Oxford’s Oriel College over its decision to allow Nathan Cofnas to speak at an event organised by the Reform-supporting Oxon Universities’ Reform Society. Oriel said its legal obligation to uphold free expression extended to views that people might find deeply offensive.

Bamber, director of the Scott Trust’s Legacies of Enslavement programme, linked her concerns to studying under Leeds lecturer Frank Ellis between 1996 and 2000. She said his racist remarks damaged her wellbeing and that departmental complaints went unanswered. She urged Oriel to disclose any equality assessment undertaken when considering the event.

The article frames the dispute around the relationship between speech protections and students’ learning environments. According to Bamber’s account, a tribunal upheld Cofnas’s right to his views but found that his blogpost created a hostile and degrading environment at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, particularly for Black students. The supplied source does not include the full ruling.