University College’s halfway hall was shut down early last week after student behaviour became disorderly.
Second year students, who were celebrating the halfway point of their degrees last Thursday, saw their fun cut short after a porter at the college ended the meal before its natural close, despite the fact that students had already paid for the occasion.
Students had been warned against their rowdy behaviour, which included much ‘sconcing’ earlier in the night. After the faculty and guests on the high table had left, students’ propriety was deemed too bad to allow the celebratory dinner to continue.
Early on during the evening, the second years had been ‘sconcing’ one another, but were requested by members of the catering service to stop until the fellows and guests present had left dinner.
Although there were a few more sconces towards the end of the meal, no more cautions were issued. However, once the senior members present had left the hall, the behaviour of the students was judged to have become less decorous.
As the diners became more raucous, one of the porters entered the hall and requested that they quiet down. One Univ student suggested that when a diner muttered that he was sorry, the porter misconstrued the apology and told everyone to leave.
One second year remarked that many students were angry at having their night curtailed, just as the evening had begun to get going.
The student, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “I don’t believe we had overstepped the mark, and we were disappointed at having our evening terminated so early, at only 9 o’clock.”
She suggested that the college had been mean-spirited in their treatment of the second years, on an evening that was felt to be special by many of them. She added that the college had provided a reasonable amount of free wine for the students, which may have contributed to their concern over students’ behaviour.
Another student told Cherwell that the whole affair had been blown out of proportion, noting that the students’ antics were in good feeling, with the sconcing, as at any crewdate, involving mostly in-jokes and general good humour.
When asked whether the second years had offered any formal apology, he replied that they had not, and that “the whole incident had blown over.”
University College’s Principal was contacted but was unavailable to comment.
