The Pythic Club is a private students' dining club at Oxford University, formerly based in Christ Church. While the club has historic ties with Christ Church and continues to select its members from the college pool, it is not an official society of the college and meetings are held offsite. Membership is open by invitation to both 'Students' and undergraduates. It is principally a cultural discussion based dining club. The college archivist holds materials relating to the club dating back to 1845.
History of the Club
The club was initially set up in 1845 as an essay society by Lord Dufferin, a British colonialist and administrator. Yet by the 1930s, it had become an invite-only dining society, with notable members such as the historian and Conservative peer Hugh Trevor-Roper. It is Christ Church's oldest running and most prominent private members' club. More recently, the club has been characterised as an exclusive club for "posh students" with dinners believed to start at £90. The dinners also involve select fellows and tutors of the college, who despite not selecting student members themselves, are believed by some to enforce the secrecy and exclusivity of the club. The club came into the spotlight after the Oxford Student revealed it was being run by the Christ Church's then Senior Censor, Brian Young. The Club received intense criticism from Christ Church JCR members, and was eventually banned from meeting on college grounds.
Criticisms
As the existence of the club became more widely known, students began to criticise the nature of the club. The criticisms were as follows:
Membership of the club was restricted to wealthier students and was predominantly made up of the privately educated, contravening equality and diversity rules
The club undermined the college's access efforts by "sustaining discrimination on the basis of social class neurotypicality"
The club perpetuated the "classist" and "elitist" fallacy of intelligence being linked to ability to conduct oneself in dinner conversation, something "inextricably linked to cultural capital"
The club undermined the relationships between students with tutor-members, who could be unsure of fair treatment in tutorials and teaching, leading to feelings of inferiority and self-consciousness
Relationship with the College
Following rumours the Club was attempting to register, and therefore formalise its activities under official college auspices, the JCR Committee of the college voted to condemn the club. An Open Letter was then circulated to students, calling for the club to be refused registration if it failed to abandon "all aspects of secrecy, selectivity, and exclusivity". The letter attracted around 100 signatures before being taken down for unknown reasons. The club subsequently failed to register and was thus banned from meeting in Christ Church. In response to the outcome, Christ Church stated that “Registration requires clubs and societies to abide by all college regulations and policies, including those related to equality and diversity.”
