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‘Ridiculous’ room ballot angers New students

The New College room ballot system has been labelled “ridiculous” after many students were mistakenly told that they would have to find rooms outside of College.

An email sent out on 28 November last year demanded that students reply before 6 December if they wanted to be included on the room ballot. When a number of students, believed to be between ten and 15, missed the deadline they were omitted from the ballot, provoking fierce complaints.

Caroline Thomas, New College Home Bursar who composed the email, defended the College’s actions. She explained, “There is a convention at New College that students should reply to emails within 24 hours… The header makes it clear that it is very important that [students reply] if they want a room for next year (‘VERY important information about rooms for next year- please read carefully’).” She also noted that the opening lines of the email stated, “If you disregard any instruction you will prejudice your chances in the ballot.”

However one second-year, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “Some of us don’t check our emails every day. Since when do they make people homeless for not sending an email? That is a pretty harsh fine, especially with a ridiculous deadline. It was a ridiculous three thousand word email, especially as students don’t have the longest attention spans.”

Ben Karlin, JCR President, defended the College authorities. He said, “I certainly would not come down hard on the College…I think it was a series of slightly unfortunate events. People should have been more organised. The JCR and the College can learn from it and make changes for the future.”

William Cowell de Gruchy, Editor of the New College paper, The Newt, echoed Karlin’s sentiments. “As far as I’m concerned the situation arose more from undergrad laziness than a fault in the system, though given that many of our undergrads seem to be incapable of reading long emails, perhaps they should be spoon fed such stuff in future?”

Ginny Howells, the New College JCR Accommodation officer, explained that, “I pushed for the deadline to be extended for everyone…So the deadline was extended, and the people who were late for the first deadline are now back on the ballot.”by Rob Pomfret 

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