Wadham to hold referendum over “Veggie Mondays”

Wadham College SU has decided to hold a referendum over a controversial Veggie Mondays motion passed in a SU meeting, where Monday meals would be forced not to contain meat in any meals served that day.

The referendum was passed after Wadham members delivered a petition to the President of Wadham SU with 70 signatures, more than the required 60 signatures required to trigger a referendum on the issue.

One Salmon-d we do expect to lose his referendum this year…

Wadham had Meat Free Mondays until 2 years ago when it was repealed by the Wadham SU due to the poor quality and lack of options for the vegetarian meal. However, some students felt the time was right to come back to the issue.

The situation at Wadham follows an almost identical vote held in Magdalen JCR last term about whether to ban meat in hall on Mondays. Whilst the Magdalenites narrowly voted in favour of the ban, it has yet to be approved by the college’s governing body before the meat free changes will be made in the college’s kitchens.

If angry children won’t eat these, why should we?

The proposer of the Wadham motion,  a fresher, debated against Alexander Walker, a second year Wadhamite, on Monday afternoon. The “Veggie Monday” campaign focuses on the environmental impact of eating meat, claiming that the consumption of meat causes environmental damage.

However, Alexander Walker, who is leading the NO campaign, has confronted the campaign saying that it is up to students to make up their own minds and not to be “forced into conforming to an agenda”.

Alexander Walker just wants people to be able to make up their own minds. What’s wrong with that?

Walker, when asked for comment, said to The Tab: “Opposition to this motion is not about whether the consumption or meat damages the environment or not. I personally oppose it because people should not be made to conform to an agenda that they do not support. There are better ways to promote vegetarianism, such as making the meat option opt-in. This motion wishes for people to have no choice at all, and I believe that this is not only breaking a valuable principle, but it is incompatible with Wadham’s ethos of tolerance and inclusiveness.”

The referendum opens at 8am on Wednesday, and all voters can use the OUSU Mi-Voice system to vote with a Unique Voter Code.