‘Entitled’ students abuse catering staff at dinner

AN Oxford University dean has branded his own students “entitled” after they smashed glasses and abused catering staff at a traditional dinner.

Second-year students at Trinity College were warned they face a “collective fine” for their drunken antics at the Halfway Hall dinner on Tuesday.

More than 200 students attended the ceremony which marks the halfway point for students in their university career.

Dr James Mcdougall has ordered the students to attend a disciplinary meeting to discuss their behaviour after several members of catering staff complained.

In an email sent to undergraduates who attended the ceremony, the dean wrote: “However entitled you may feel about yourselves, there is absolutely no excuse for this behaviour.”

He ordered everyone who was at the dinner to attend a meeting with himself and Dame Hilary Boulding, the college president.

He warned students he would “impose a fine collectively on everyone who was there, in addition to costs for breakages and a reparatory bonus to the staff who were on duty.”

Dr Mcdougall issued the email after reports that a number of students smashed glasses and caused catering staff to experience “discomfort” at the event.

Writing on social media, one student who attended the dinner said: “A minority of the so-called intellectual elite try to turn a traditional dinner into their version of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sadly, they even lack the wit for this.”

It follows a similar drunken event at the university’s Keble College which also saw students destroy property and strip off.