In a move viewed as an escalation of college rivalries on Merton Street, Merton College has declared war on Corpus Christi. A Merton JCR motion, which passed on Sunday night, sees the historic antagonism between the colleges reach an even higher degree of animosity.
The declaration comes after Oriel College’s resolution to refer to Corpus as ‘0th quad’ in all correspondence, passed days earlier at a JCR meeting and perceived to be a joke about Corpus’ famously small college.
The coincidental timing has left many confused as to the alliances and divisions on Merton Street, with one Corpus second-year telling Cherwell that despite its motion, Oriel had “informally expressed solidarity” with Corpus’ JCR.
Redha Rubaie, who was invited by Oriel to attend a JCR meeting as a representative of the newly-renamed ‘0th quad’, said, “they [Merton] want to steal our tortoise and everything. Monsters.”
Corpus Arts Facebook page has responded to the escalation with a call for meme submissions to fight Merton. “Merton JCR may have declared war on us, but do they have our creative talent?” the post read.
“Obviously not, given that for Mertonians, ‘creative’ is choosing a new place to sit in the library.”
No official response from the Corpus JCR has been released as of yet, but the college is expected to elect a war rep within days.
