Several Fellows protested this week after plans to install a new lift in “one of the most beautiful” rooms in the University were revealed.

A pit has already been dug for the lift, which will help handicapped people to access the Combination Room on the Old Schools site. The building came into use in 1400 and was licensed by Pope Boniface IX.

However, work began without consultation of Regent House – the governing body of the University on which College Fellows sit.

University officials claimed that the “unobtrusive and sympathetic” alterations were “relatively minor” and as such it was “considered unnecessary” to consult the Regent House.

Speaking to Varsity, Professor Gillian Evans, who has championed the protest, asked, “How can it be ‘sympathetic’ to ruin a room dating from 1400 quite unnecessarily?”

Responding to criticisms of the proposals, a University spokesperson said that the plans had been formulated using architects with “experience and skill in conservation and listed buildings” and that the floor affected by the lift only dated back to the 1930s. He added, “Under the Disability Discrimination Act the University is legally bound to provide access for the disabled to its buildings.”

Yet this hasn’t convinced the University’s academics who, at a discussion at the Senate House on Tuesday, voiced their opposition to the lift. At the meeting, Professor Anthony Edwards of Gonville and Caius College claimed, “I have seen the plans, and nothing will persuade me that this lift would not in its effect be a substantial alteration to the most precious room in the University.

“There is already a lift in the Old Schools. Is that not sufficient disabled access to the first floor? The fact that it starts a few steps above ground level would need to be rectified, but there is plenty of room for a ramp in the car park.”

Much of the offence over the issue has been taken due to the fact that the “don’s parliament” was not consulted on the matter. Earlier in the week, Professor Evans said, “They started drilling a large pit in a 14th-century room without consulting Regent House, because they kind of forgot to do that.

“Regent House could call for the work to stop. Cambridge has a governing body of 4,000 academics and they can stop anything like this. Regent House has slumbered for years, but every so often it opens an eye and wakes up.”