St Catherine’s students have reportedly tried to gain another group’s rooms illicitly through the first-year room ballot.
Typical St Catz ballot procedure entails students entering into a ballot in groups of up to four; students then select a room according to their place in the ballot. Allegedly, a group of students falsely informed staff organising the room picking that another group wished to move rooms, enabling the former group to take their place.
A St Catz student told Cherwell, “My understanding of what happened is that someone pretended they were someone else when noting down their names for new rooms, thus moving someone somewhere where they hadn’t chosen to be.
“It’s all very confusing and nobody is really sure who was responsible; all that is known is that one girl got separated from all her friends and is now living alone next year because of the actions of some other people.”
The issue was exacerbated by a post on the St Catz JCR Facebook page, later deleted, that said, “If you want my honest opinion, what happened today is absolutely disgusting.”
An undergraduate told Cherwell, “He tried to lead a witch hunt to track down the perpetrators and ultimately had to delete his post when things turned nasty.”
One St Catz student commented, “The ballot was unfair, but the reaction of mock hysteria was a joke. It made the whole college look childish. It should have been dealt with by the people involved and the college office.”
Second-year student Tom Goulding told Cherwell, “The ballot was indeed a shame for those involved, whose living arrangements aren’t quite as they liked. What was a bigger embarrassment was those who were never involved in the slightest, assumed faux outrage on behalf of people they don’t know.”
Goulding added, “Invoking the hilarious ‘college spirit’ and labelling those involved as ‘anti-Catz’ is deeply enjoyable to watch, as people try to create a façade of one big happy college family, forcing people into a community they’ve artificially created. Any notion of ‘the concept of Catz’ is sweet but misguided.”
An email sent to St Catz students by JCR Vice President Ashleigh Ainsley said, “It has been reported to me that there wasn’t a correct following of the previous conventions and rules of the ballot process.”
Ainsley expressed disappointment in the actions of those involved, continuing, “Personally, this ballot process took a great deal of time for me to organise and to try and keep fair and open, and it is a shame that my efforts were undermined by people trying to twist a fair system.”
Those responsible for the incident are unknown. Ainsley’s email cautioned students, “I do not advocate a ‘witch hunt’ for those involved.”
Catz’ JCR President was unavailable for comment.
