Pythic Club

The club was initially set up in 1845 as an essay society by Lord Dufferin, a British colonialist and administrator. Yet by the 1930s, it had become an invite-only dining society, with notable members such as the historian and Conservative peer Hugh Trevor-Roper.[4]

More recently, the club has been characterised as an exclusive club for "posh students"[5], with dinners at a £90 price tag.[6] These dinners also involved select fellows and tutors of the college, who though they did not select student members themselves, were known to have enforced the secrecy and exclusivity of the club.[5]

The club came into the spotlight after the Oxford Student revealed it was being run by the Christ Church's then Senior Censor, Brian Young.[5] The Club received intense criticism from within Christ Church and the wider university, and was eventually banned.[6]

As the existence of the club became more widely known, students began to criticise the nature of the club. The criticisms were as follows:

• Membership of the club was restricted to wealthier students and was predominantly made up of the privately educated, contravening equality and diversity rules[7]
• The club undermined the college's access efforts by "sustaining discrimination on the basis of social class [and] neurotypicality"[6]
• The club perpetuated the "classist" and "elitist" fallacy of intelligence being linked to ability to conduct oneself in dinner conversation, something "inextricably linked to cultural capital"[6]
• The club undermined the relationships between students with tutor-members, who could be unsure of fair treatment in tutorials and teaching, leading to feelings of inferiority and self-consciousness[6]

Following rumours the Club was attempting to register, and therefore formalise its activities under official college auspices, the JCR Committee of the college voted to condemn the club.[7] An Open Letter was then circulated to students, calling for the club to be refused registration if it failed to abandon "all aspects of secrecy, selectivity, and exclusivity". The letter attracted around 100 signatures before being taken down for unknown reasons.[6] The club subsequently failed to register and was thus banned from meeting in Christ Church.[8] Authors of the letter expressed their delight at the outcome, stating that they were pleased "to give voice to opinions about the club which are held by so many [college] members", and affirming to prospective applicants that "there is a place for them here".[6] In response to the outcome, Christ Church stated that “Registration requires clubs and societies to abide by all college regulations and policies, including those related to equality and diversity.”[4]