The election for the post of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry has started today amid calls from students and academics for candidates to withdraw.
Eloise Stonborough, the secretary of the Oxford University Poetry Society, wrote a letter to The Times asking Ruth Padel and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra to withdraw. The letter was signed by twelve Oxford academics.
“We believe the election for the new professor of poetry should not continue,” it stated, “and that the current candidates should withdraw from the race and allow nominations to be re-opened.”
The letter went on to say that if other candidates continue to run for the post, the reputation of the position will be damaged.
Stonborough explained, “The candidates will be acting more honourably if they withdraw. Then the race will be on fair, honourable grounds.
“Derek Walcott dropped out too close to the date of the race to allow for the re-evaluation of the position.”
She decided to write the letter after Thursday’s poetry society event, where people evaluated the candidates. “It ended up being a question of why people are still running in the light of one candidate dropping out in light of the smear campaign”, she said.
A C Grayling, an Oxford academic who nominated Padel for the post, has also urged her to withdraw.
He wrote in The Guardian, “In my view, the fact that Walcott was forced to withdraw, and the manner in which his withdrawal was forced, makes the election void. It is no longer a real contest. As a result I wrote to the candidate I nominated, Ruth Padel, and suggested that she and Arvind Mehrotra also withdraw in protest against those who had disrupted the election by discrediting Walcott on grounds other than his stature as a poet.”
He added, “My concern is with what should be the central fact here: that the election for professor of poetry at Oxford is about poetry, not morals.”
Pedro Ferreira, the campaigner manager of Ruth Padel, said the poet will not withdraw from the race. “No I don’t think she will withdraw. She had received countless letters, e-mails and phone calls asking her to stay in the race.”
An Oxford University spokesman confirmed that the election will be going ahead as planned, with results expected after 5.30pm. “Last time, 500 people voted so we’re expecting more than that,” he said.
The voting will take place between 10am and 4pm in the Examination Schools. All who graduated from Oxford University are eligible to vote.
