No laughing matter as Footlights president quits
THE president of the prestigious Cambridge University comedy society the Footlights has quit after claiming her committee refused to hold democratic elections to increase diversity.
Ruby Keane said she could not “criticise the Footlights while still its president”, so decided to leave the group to raise her concerns about the lack of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) representation on the club’s committee.
The move followed a long debate over elitism within the Footlights, which counts Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson among its alumni.
The row began when Ms Keane criticised the gender balance of a student comedy night. Her comments were met with remarks that the Footlights had no ethnic minority students on its
‘The comedy the Footlights committee is interested in tends to not be done by BME people’
10-strong committee. One student, Hasan Al-habib, said the society’s annual comedy event for ethnic minority performers was “the metaphorical equivalent of Footlights’ ‘black best friend’,” Varsity reported last month.
In minutes from a subsequent “open discussion group”, Cambridge students expressed concerns that “the comedy the Footlights committee is interested in tends to not be done by BME people”. Plans were drawn up to turn the committee – the only official members of the “Footlights” and the only people allowed to perform at events without auditioning – into an administrative body.
While Ms Keane recommended that democratic elections were introduced to appoint such a body, others argued there was not sufficient time to organise the elections and change the society’s constitution. The bitter row has prompted what is thought to be the first reorganisation of the society in many years.
In an internal email, seen by The Daily Telegraph, remaining committee members announced the introduction of “general accessibility discussion groups”, intended to address gender and class imbalances in the society. While new committee members will still be directly appointed, elections are expected to be held next year.