The JCR will also propose further changes in its meeting with the Master on Tuesday.

The College will now offer a wine-tasting sessions for students, promising to buy the most popular wines to serve in Hall. The move comes after a series of complaints about the quality of wine served.

The College has already let students choose between red and white wine, though it sometimes still runs out of red during a meal.

Some students don’t find this compromise satisfying. Stuart Moore, a postgraduate at the College, wrote an open letter to the Master, saying that he would not pay his Kitchen Fixed Charge while the restrictions continued. He asked the JCR to initiate another boycott, but was outvoted by students who are happy with St John’s purchasing and serving the wine and only demand the practical issues to be dealt with.

The JCR will suggest to the Master that two different menus are issued for each night, one with the wine option and without it, which the students will receive in exchange for their ticket upon entering Hall. This way, “stealing wine from peers,” as some students have called it, will be made more difficult.

The JCR President, Tom Chigbo, said that St John’s had studied similar changes made in other Colleges, particularly at Churchill, and were trying hard to avoid making the same mistakes. Chigbo suggested that the reforms at John’s could form a blueprint for changes to other Colleges’ Formals.

“If the changes in St John’s prove to be successful, other Colleges are very likely to follow,” he said.

By Nat Sokolova

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!