JCRC Elections 09/10

Derwent College by Harriet Evans and Isobel Cowper-Coles

On Tuesday night (Week 8) Derwenters from all years gathered in their bar for the hustings of the JCRC elections. Everyone was in for a long night as candidates sought to prove to their electorate that they should get their vote. Nonetheless, current Chair Joe Rankin described the night as “excellent”.

As nominations closed on Sunday, campaigns began all over Derwent and posters sprung up in kitchens across the college, with teams as large as four people, all canvassing for votes and attendance at hustings.

Perhaps the most amusing posters around featured merely the words: “Aren’t you looking lovely today” for Press and Publicity reps and the most memorable campaign slogan has to be “Ella and Matt for a Welfare Chat”. Their manipulation of the durex logo was also particularly impressive.

Ella and Matt are running on the principles of “Accessibility & Approachability” with increasing contact times; improving the “Welfare Network”, re-defining – to an extent – and improving the role of the Welfare Reps and the reintroducing the Derwent Defence Force (neighbourhood watch scheme) among others. The pair believe themselves to have relevent experience for the job, and feel “already incorporated into the Derwent welfare system” by their roles of A Block and D Block Co-ordinators. Ella and Matt emphasise that their most important tasks are to “help students understand the main welfare issues and how they can be resolved” and increase awareness of the college welfare system.

Their competitors, Carolyn and Kevin, have concerns for the welfare of Eden’s Court, saying they do not have the same level of welfare provision as Blocks A-D, and so will promote integration among all Derwenters. They want to improve the Fresher experience by encouraging wider participation in non-alcoholic and icebreaking events. The pair will also lobby for twenty-four hour portering during the next Freshers’ week if the issue has not been resolved by then. Forming study groups for those who feel they are falling behind in their work, as well as promoting twice weekly welfare drop-in sessions also features on their list of policies.

There are two main camps for Vice-Chair this year- “Flick and Emma” and Barnaby Francis. Francis’ biggest selling point could be his emphasis on “Fresher involvement” that could draw him the vote of many freshers who have been confused by what exactly has been going on over the last couple of weeks, or alienated by what one student termed the “popularity contest” of college politics.

Flick and Emma have an emphasis on maintaining and raising the profile of Club D events and encouraging new ones, which will in turn help save and support the Derwent bar that is currently under threat. They also want to continue fighting the portering cuts and ensure sufficient student welfare provision.

Running for Chair we have Holly Burton, a second year History of Art student and self-confessed Derwent addict who believes herself to have “the relevant experience, commitment and enthusiasm” to succeed as Derwent Chair. She has pledged to ensure that Derwent College becomes the forerunner in combating the cuts in portering and establish a more approachable JCRC. Under Burton’s Chairmanship we should see more regular editions of the Flying DCUK and more open meetings. The threat to Derwent Bar obviously plays a part in Burton’s campaign, as does the threat to Club Ds. When asked why she is so determined to save our college events, Burton replied “A Freshers' Week without Slag and Drag? Not an option.” A sentiment many students share. The increasingly topical issue of college security also plays a large role in Burton’s campaign: she has stated she wishes to “fight to keep Derwent blocks open and sociable while ensuring sufficient security measures”.

Results for Derwent JCRC elections will be out on Friday Week 8 (4th December) at the Derwent Bar. So get yourself down to Derwent Bar on Friday night to find out exactly how this election has gone – and who will be representing us Derwenters for the next year.

Langwith College

The Langwith JCRC elections are soon drawing to a close. Many positions this year are uncontested, suggesting more student apathy than the previous years. Nonetheless, candidates who are running have been campaigning on some interesting and solid policies.

Conor Wilcock, who is running uncontested for the position of JCRC Chair in the current elections, thinks that the "Langwith Corner Room" needs more promotion and wants more communication with those living on-campus. Of the two people running for Vice-Chair, Danielle Spears believes in "the importance of delegation," whereas Louise Cotrel-Gibbons wants to "promote open meetings."

With many positions uncontested, the exciting battles will be for Treasurer and Secretary.

Stephanie Jones says that she "would love to be part of the committee which helps to keep college spirit alive" and is running for Treasurer against Tom Evans, who has already "spoken to current committee members and with Sophie, the Treasurer" and feels this gives him an advantage.

Both Secretary candidates are current members of the JCRC. Charlotte Phillips was one of the "active" Ent Reps whereas Katherine Elgenia was one of the "successful" Charities and Communities Officers. Katherine claims her best attributes including being "a fast writer and typist" and being "very organised". Charlotte believes "the JCRC is essential to maintaining college spirit" and suggests "the role of secretary should play a crucial part in supporting that unity."

Katherine was nominated by the current Secretary and Tom was nominated by the current Treasurer. Whether that gives them an advantage is hard to tell but they'll definitely both be battles worth keeping an eye on.

On a wider perspective, the focus has been across the board on college spirit and events management. Hopefully Langwith can see a return to form over the next year.

Results for Langwith JCRC elections will be announced on Sunday Week 8 (6th December) at the Langwith Christmas Ball.

Halifax College by Georgina Brown

A majority of students are notorious for their apathy when it comes to politics, and college elections seem no different. To combat this, Halifaxers running for positions on the HSCA have been busy campaigning around Halifax College in the last few weeks of term.

With most positions contested and voting now open, they are frantically doing what they can; this fact in itself is different from last year and so it seems that interest in college politics could be on the rise. Some healthy competition is good motivation for any campaigner and Laura Whittaker, who is running for treasurer admits that, “If I do win I will certainly feel that I deserved it, and similarly if I don't, I put up a damn good fight”.

With approximately a thousand students living in Halifax College accommodation, being their President is a huge role to take on. The responsibility to help the college run smoothly is undertaken by the President and it could be argued that with Halifax, because of its sheer size, it’s a bigger responsibility than other colleges.

Lydia Blundell, (contested by Chris Edwards) is a second-year student who is running for President. Lydia believes that “a president cannot lead a team if they aren't sure of themselves”. As a member of last year’s HCSA, Lydia is confident that she has a strong knowledge of how the committee is run, maintaining that she holds the advantage since ‘someone without this experience would have to learn on the job and so might have trouble guiding new members through their roles in an efficient way’.

Situated on the outskirts of campus and without its own college bar, Halifax events are infamously difficult to organise and difficult to convince students to attend. Not only have they been poorly attended in the past, it seems they have also been fairly inefficiently publicised. Many of those running for positions this year believe that altering this is one of the priorities.

Beth Fieldhouse, who is running for Ents/Vice President, against Stephen O’Ryan, believes that this is partially because the students are unaware that these are college and student organised events, and would otherwise support their peers. Yet last year’s low turnout could also be directly because the students are oblivious to the amount of effort the HCSA put into ensuring student life is as good as possible for everyone.

One of Beth’s policies would be to change this; when asked to expound a little on the subject, she stated, “This is something I would like to change by increasing advertisement of the council and what is happening in the meetings. A website has been created but has failed to be updated regularly, something I would like to change.”

It appears that there could be a formidable team in the pipeline for 2009/10’s HCSA. Nearly every position has a contender with the majority of those being contested by ambitious first years and second years alike. Halifax college spirit deserves recognition campus-wide so hopefully the elections are a success and college spirit will continue to prosper over the following year.

Voting for the Halifax elections closes at midnight on Saturday Week 8.

James College by Niall Parr

James College hustings were held for the first time in McQs, and the college took full advantage. Hosted by the bar reps, not only were candidates grilled about their policies, but were also given challenges that ranged from candidate for Secretary, Elle George being made to drink a VK from between prospective chair Tim Green’s legs to Student Development candidates Sam Baines and Kate Copson swapping clothes. On top of all this, they even threw in a pub quiz.

The evening kicked off with extraordinary rep, with fresher Yasmin Russell running against Charlotte Coyle and Simon Burrell, better known to some as Dj Simonsays. This was followed by Sports Officers, with Aaron Rolph, Jess Roberts, Simon Mole and Alex Sharp running together unopposed.

Hopeful treasurers Luke Heron, and fresher Daniel Goddard were next up; with Heron drawing on fundraising experience as to why he was the best man for the job whilst Goddard professed the belief that he thought he’d be good at it. Both promised more events for the college to improve college spirit, with Heron also promising to put more money into college sport. With the success of Mr. Hudson in Freshers’ week in mind, Heron suggested that he’d put more money into big events whilst Goddard argued for more events.

After a quick round of the pub quiz, first year James Woollard put forward his case to be Welfare Officer, followed by his opponents Catherine Latham, Sara Rider, Stefan Tauro and Jeongho Park. Next came Grace Teh, running unopposed for Student Action, giving a quick speech as to why she was best for the job.

Also unopposed are Sam Clitheroe and Kate Davey for RAG, whose services were then auctioned off by one another for RAG, with Sam’s karaoke skills going for above estimates at £2 whilst a lucky fresher got a dinner with Kate for only £7.

Next up was an enthusiastic horde of prospective bar officers, with 3 groups of 4 freshers competing to become McQs’ rep. With so many candidates confusion reigned, with one group jokingly suggesting that the current officers were sub standard as the other two promised to follow in the incumbents’ footsteps.

In the race for Ents Officers, the tone turned sour as both groups poured scorn on the other’s claims of experience. Katie Hemus, Saleha Patel and Claire-Hermine Ozber are running against a group containing bar reps Mike Moloney (not in attendance) and Matt Hewett and freshers Caroline Hunter and Emily Foster. Both groups talked about bringing more big acts to York in the wake of Mr. Hudson.

With both Elle George and Robert Hughes running unopposed for Secretary and Welfare Vice Chair respectively there was little to be debated, with both outlining their experience and Hughes promising to work closely with not just welfare but Access and LGBT in order to cover all welfare areas.

In a tight race for Student Development Vice Chair, Campaigns & Eco officer, Samuel Baines, is running against Sports Rep Kate Copson. Both candidates drew heavily upon their backgrounds, with Baines outlining his work with CU and Copson with sport. They came across as evenly matched in experience, with both having taken part in RAG and Student Action activities.

For Services Vice Chair, the gloves were off as Vanessa Vazquez Felpeto suggested that ‘enthusiastic’ favourite Tom Hobohm’s policies were unfeasible. Hobohm responded by questioning Felpeto’s record as Ents Officer, pointing out that despite being a Welfare Officer, he organised the Christmas Ball and raised £700 in sponsorship as well as the fact that a planned event for week 6 had fallen through due to lack of organisation amongst the Ents Reps. Felpeto responded by arguing she had been the only Ents Rep who had tried to make it work.

Hobohm’s main proposals are creating a James privilege card, similar to the current YUSnow as well as installing arcade machines in the JCR, which would be free for use once they are fully paid for. Felpelo proposed the creation of a Sponsorship and Merchandise Officer as well as creating a regular James market.

Last but not least came Tim Green, unopposed for Chair. With a lack of competitor, the only test he faced was a jug of snake bite, topped up with various other drinks, given to him by the bar reps, which after three attempts he succeeded in finishing.

Results for James JCRC elections will be announced on Thursday Week 9 (10th December) at the James Christmas Ball.

Vanbrugh College by Ben McCluskey

This year, Vanbrugh College sees four candidates running for college Chair, up from two last year. Second-year Philosophy student Jordan Abbott is running with the main policy of encouraging college unity; he hopes that by bringing blocks together on a more regular basis through socials and sports challenges, he can stabilise the position of V-Bar. Up against Abbott is Environment and Ethics student Faye Dobson, who wants to improve Vanbrugh’s Volume events and save V-Bar, which she feels is under threat due to competition from other bars such as The Courtyard. Dobson says she’s “really involved in everything Vanbrugh”, noting that she is a regular at Volume events and Student Action challenges and a college sport captain.

The third candidate for Chair, Nick Hall, has set up a website and a Twitter page as part of his campaign. One of his main policies is to start up a series of “Vanbrugh Goes...” events, which would get students off campus and into a new area. Hall believes this would give students a casual environment to meet new people – a change from loud music and alcohol at Volume events. He is also keen to get the Vanbrugh JCRC more involved in YUSU’s “Save Our Porters” campaign. Last but not least, Tahir Shetty is running for Chair with five key policies – improving the quality and attendance of Vanbrugh events, saving the college’s porters, getting societies more involved with the JCR and V-Bar, creating larger cohesion within the college and keeping college sport free. Shetty notes that as President of the York Politics Society, he is the only candidate with experience of running a committee.

Beneath Abbott, Dobson, Hall and Shetty, there are three candidates running for Vice-Chair – current Anne Ly and Steph Northcott, who worked together as the college’s Ents Reps this year, will take each other on for the position, and will also be up against Guy Wallace from the School of PEP. The role of college Treasurer is also hotly contested, with four candidates running – second-year Economics student Kate Gibson, second-year Politics student Peter Iveson, Vanbrugh Netball captain Joanna Rice and Mathematics and Economics student Shiraz Suntook.

Second-year History student Daniel Hales is running for college Secretary, and is up against second-year Biology student Steve Ramsey. In addition, there are two candidates running for Male Welfare Officer and three candidates running for Female Welfare Officer – Simon Pierce and Henri Ward will compete for the men’s role, whilst Mel Irwin, Beth Miller and Pancée Shoukry are standing for the women’s position.

The positions of LGBT Representative, RAG Representative, Sports Representative and Ordinary Member are all being contested, with candidates running unopposed for Entertainment Representatives, Environment and Campaigns Representative, Volunteering Representatives, Press and Publicity Representative, Bar Representatives, Overseas Welfare Representative, Music Representative, Sponsorship Representatives and Webmaster.

Results for Vanbrugh JCRC elections will be announced on Saturday Week 8 (5th December) at Volume presents “White Christmas”.

Alcuin College by Jane Catterall.

Elections for this year’s Alcuin JCRC are currently drawing to a close; the posters have been pinned up, the promotional videos uploaded and hustings night thoroughly enjoyed by candidates and voters alike. The theme spearheading most campaigns is the prevention of college apathy that appears to be coursing through Alcuin’s veins at the moment. B Henry’s, the college’s much loved bar, has been left a little lonely of late with events receiving poor turn outs and students favouring cheap pre-drinking in kitchens to the tasty, albeit slightly more expensive, cocktails and drinks offered there.

This college apathy has played quite a role in the recent elections, with over 50% of the candidates standing being previous JCRC members and half the positions either uncontested or empty. The role of chair, the highest available, has only one candidate running, along with Vice Chair Business and Services and Entertainments Officers.

Luckily for Alcuin, these candidates have all already proven themselves committed to the roles, campaigning and “postering” avidly to bring awareness of their policies to the other students. Ollie Todd, running for Chair, has visited many block kitchens in the past week to spread his policies; the main ones being the continued survival of B Henry’s, a feat already achieved by the currently chair Oli Hutchings who managed to win a years stay of execution, and keeping Alcuin’s current facilities and services that, due to budget restrictions, are being cut for many other colleges across campus.

Though there is a slight air of futility towards the uncontested positions, competition is still hot for other popular positions such as Vice Chair for Welfare and Support, Bar Officers and Welfare teams. Ben Ward, a candidate for Vice Chair, has proposed ‘TV series nights’ to be held in the JCR alongside movie nights, which was singled out by students at hustings to be one of the most popular ideas of the night.

There was definitely a positive vibe running through the crowd at hustings, with candidates delivering serious and well thought out proposals. These were, however, punctuated with more light-hearted moments, such as the impromptu bouts of nakedness and ‘pants parties’ from some candidates. For example, the Environment and Ethics nominees’ speech cited a need for the introduction of goats to control the grass and then the need for bears to control the goats.

Overall, it would seem that this year’s JCRC elections have been a success, perhaps not in terms of the number of applicants but in the actual applicants themselves, all of who seem willing and able to bring the college spirit back to Alcuin and to come together to help it and improve. After all, in the words of Ollie Todd, almost certainly Alcuin’s next chair, the JCRC is there “to unite the college” and in the coming months Alcuinites need to step up their game, get behind all of the new officers and show the rest of the university that we are ‘elite’, not just because we have ensuite, but also because we are the best college to be in.

Results for Alcuin Goodricke JCRC elections will be announced on Thursday Week 9 (10th December) at 7pm.

Goodricke College Voting will be open for all Goodricke students at 12 noon on Wednesday Week 9 and will close at 12 noon on Sunday Week 9.

Results for Goodricke JCRC elections will be announced on Monday Week 10 (14th December).

Watch this space for more JCRC elections updates.

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