A group of student activists interrupted a Selwyn College formal dinner on Tuesday night (04/03), urging the college to make a transition towards “sustainable plant-based catering”.

Students, in association with Plant-Based Cambridge, dropped a banner in the centre of the traditional formal hall with the words “meat + dairy = climate crisis,” all written in capital letters.

Addressing the dinner guests, one activist said: “Selwyn College is ranked the lowest [Cambridge] college in sustainability by the Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge and have not engaged in university sustainable catering guidelines.”

“We’re here demanding that Selwyn and other colleges increase their proportion of plant-based catering in order to address the climate and nature crises,” they continued.

Another campaigner said: “The University and its colleges are failing the planet, failing their students and failing the community. In this year’s ranking by the Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge, not a single college scored more than 50%, with Selwyn coming last at 6.9%.”

“Students, particularly in Selwyn, are calling on the colleges to practice what they teach. They need to step up, they need to own up to their failings, step up to take effective environmental action, and build a just future for all,” they added. These speeches were greeted with applause from attendees.

According to Plant-Based Cambridge, Selwyn is one of only a handful of colleges not to have signed up to CamEATS ZERO, the University’s sustainable food initiative launched in 2024 to “increase the proportion of plant-based meals” served in colleges.

This college-focused initiative came after the Cambridge Students’ Union (SU) voted to support 100% plant-based catering in the University Catering Services cafes in 2023.

After ranking bottom of the Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge in October, the College bashed the table as “complete nonsense,” claiming that it was “one of the pioneers of divestment from fossil fuels,” and has “taken no donations from fossil fuel companies.”

A spokesperson from the Selwyn College Environmental Society told Varsity: We stand in support with Plant Based Cambridge and hope this will push the college and wider university community to adapt at such a critical time. We hope the college continues to engage in a productive dialogue with us students and remain strongly committed to creating avenues of all kind for their voices to be heard.”

Not all cases of student activism at formal halls have been in favour of plant-based food. In November, one student at a strictly all-vegan formal at Trinity College arrived prepared with an entire pack of cocktail sausages. He proceeded to pour sausages into his vegan main and made a speech about “wokeness,” telling the other guests he was taking a stand for the right to eat what he pleases.

This protest is the latest in a series of climate-related demonstrations in Cambridge. In November, protesters from Extinction Rebellion and the Organisation for Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA) gathered outside Senate House to protest against oil company SLB’s connections to the University.

A month earlier, climate activists staged a protest at the University Engineering and Tech Careers fair for hosting companies that participate in the arms and fossil fuel industries.

Last month, Cambridge was criticised for ranking 110th in the People and Planet UK University League ranking on climate and sustainability.

Selwyn College was contacted for comment.