Magdalen has cancelled its historic Commemoration Ball, planned for June 2015, after the Governing Body received too few student applications for the Ball Committee.
This afternoon, Magdalen JCR and MCR presidents sent out mass-emails announcing the ball’s cancellation.
According to reports, the Magdalen Governing Body cancelled the ball due to insufficient student applications for the Ball Committee by the time of the deadline.
Both the JCR and MCR presidents today proposed a two-week extension of the Ball Committee application deadline after encouraging more students to participate and negotiating with college administrators. However, the Magdalen college Governing Body did not accept these proposals and went ahead with cancelling the event.
In an email to the JCR mailing list, Magdalen JCR President Fabian Apel told students that “the selection panel received an insufficient number of applications at the closing of the original deadline. After encouraging some more people to apply, the senior members of the panel were still unsatisfied with the low number of applications.
“The MCR President and myself asked the Governing Body to extend the deadline until the beginning of next term, a proposal which did not find the support of either the Deans of Arts or the Home Bursar. Unfortunately, we did not manage to convince Governing Body of the merits of our case.”
The Magdalen Home Bursar could not be reached for comment when contacted this afternoon.
Magdalen holds a white tie commemoration ball once every three years according to a traditional cycle shared with Christ Church and New. Even amongst Oxford events, the Magdalen Ball is considered particularly prestigious and was recently voted a Times Social Event of the Year. Previous acts at Magdalen’s Commemoration Ball include the Rolling Stones, Pharrell, and Feeder.
An anonymous Magdalen student told Cherwell, “I’m really disappointed by this decision, especially when it seems as though it could just be rectified by getting more people involved. I personally didn’t hear anything about a committee being organised and would’ve joined if it meant guaranteeing a Ball for everyone. As a fresher, I’ll now be missing out on experiencing my own college ball even after hearing a lot about it before coming to Oxford.”
2015 will be the first time in over two decades that Magdalen has not held a triennial ball. The possibility of a smaller 2015 event or a 2016 Commemoration Ball will be discussed at upcoming Magdalen JCR and MCR meetings.
