A formal hall boycott is planned to take place at Gonville and Caius today in protest of the unexpected 9.5 per cent rent rise. Instead of attending hall, students will be feasting at a giant picnic in Gonville Court.

Speaking to Varsity, organiser Tom Scrase said: "Obviously all of the students are unimpressed by our poorly justified and communicated 9.5 per cent rent increase. Bruno and I have acted as student representatives for a number of years previously and have found that fellows even willing to listen to the opinion of students at Caius are far and few between."

"On top of that, as a student representative you always feel held to ransom by the fellows who will disregard your opinion for the rest of your term if you tried to rock the boat too much. Now that we are free of those responsibilities we wanted to make sure that the fellows are aware of the strength of opinion on this matter and that the student body could act in unison."

After launching the campaign on Friday morning, bookings for hall fell from 40 to 16 people in the first day and by Sunday morning only 14 Caius students were booked in to attend. The total capacity of the hall is 150 people.

At Caius it is compulsory for students to pay for 114 evening halls a year, unlike most other colleges were hall is optional. 

Gardies have offered boycotting students a 20% discount between 11am and 11pm on Sunday as a sign of their solidarity. 

This boycott comes after 250 alumni of Caius wrote a letter protesting the fee rises to the Master and senior fellows of the college, as Varsity earlier reported.