Hall Shook Up

Exeter College students strike over hall prices.


It’s 1985 all over again at Exeter where industrial action has taken hold.  The JCR has decided to boycott hall for a day in protest at ‘incredibly expensive’ prices.

Students already pay £840 a year to eat in college, including a pocket draining £8.24 for dinner.

exe-terribly expensive

Cashing in at £126 higher than any other college, Exonians have decided enough is enough and rejected the bursar’s offer of a price freeze for next year.

The bursar’s deal came with a sweetener of 4 free halls, amounting to a meagre £22.

Even the sweetener has left a sour taste in the mouth of JCR President Edward Nickell, who commented, ‘This is simply not good enough…Exeter is an incredibly expensive place to live.’

He added, in a tone not unlike that of the great industrial leaders of a previous time, ‘now is our only chance to make a point before Wednesday’s Finance and Estates Meeting.’

Not the truffle carpaccio again

So far 160 people have signed up to a Facebook event calling for the boycott and offering ‘hall-ternatives’ in the JCR.  Arrangements have also been made to compensate any staff who may miss out on wages because of the lack of demand for hall.

The bursar was overheard this morning telling a colleague that, ‘everyone in the quadrangle is watching me.’

What to make of that, nobody really knows.