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CHRIST'S
PIECES LENT 2000 |
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About the website |
Room
for improvement "On 15th February, I received a cry for help from a woman in distress. This particular woman was the JCR President at Corpus, and she had recently been chatting with their Senior Tutor about a new room ballot which he wanted to institute. His suggestion was that rooms in Corpus should be allocated by an entirely academic ballot - get a First and the keys to the palace are yours, get a Third and you'll spend your year in a shoebox." "I agreed that Christ's was an icon of success, and not just academic success. I genuinely believe (and not just for parochial reasons) that we are one of the happiest and most successful colleges in the University. I then attempted to demolish the argument that this was based on our Scholars' Ballot." "This (like many other things) I blame on the NatScis. In the first year, those studying sciences are far more likely to get Firsts than those studying arts or social science. For example, last year a staggering eight out of twelve Christ's mathematicians became Scholars. This balance is only redressed at Part II level, after we have left Cambridge and are no longer in need of College rooms. So not only has Staircase 4 become a Scholars' ghetto, but our ballot has also divided the second year along subject lines - something which has never been a part of the Cambridge ethos." |