Jesus JCR Cringe As Nominations Reopen…Again

Jesus’ JCR Committee has been forced to reopen nominations for their new team TWICE following an embarrassingly low number of applications.

After the initial period, out of 14 available positions, six received no applications at all including the three most important ones – President, Vice President and Treasurer.

After nominations were reopened for two days there was still no-one who wanted to run for President, so the college was informed by current JCR President Katrina Hewitt that “a constitutional discussion as to what is going to happen is taking place. Stay posted”.

Three days later, on Monday, came the news that “Following some constitutional reading” nominations for President, Communications Officer and LGBT were being reopened again, with Hewitt adding in her email “I’m really not extending the deadline again, so if you would like to run (and you know you want to…don’t you…) then put your manifesto…into my pigeon hole by 9am on Wednesday”.

Jesus’ remarkable apathy towards the election comes despite a comic poster pinned up around college featuring off-the-hook pictures of the current JCR committee, with the strapline “So you want to be as cool as these kids”.

The less than successful recruitment poster pinned around Jesus.

And few seem to have heeded Hewitt’s original plea that “the JCSU is really rewarding, and you don’t need any experience (plus, Grahame the head porter often makes you cups of tea).”

Megan Penny, a second year Jesus student who is running for Access Officer against one other person told The Tab: “I think people tend not to get involved because they worry what they do won’t make a difference, but what people don’t realise is the amount of power committee members hold and the huge potential they have for change if they put the effort in.

“I think it’s a bit ridiculous people that will avoid getting involved with JCSU just because they don’t want to pick up litter on Suicide Sunday or tidy up after bops.”

A third year historian who wished to remain anonymous told us: “Katrina has been brilliant as President, but generally the JCR has a pretty poor rep. The meetings I’ve been to have been poorly attended and I just don’t think most people see the benefits outweighing the time that these positions take.”

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Earlier this year, a Tab investigation found that in the colleges it surveyed 32% of JCR posts went uncontested, with an average of just 1.8 people standing to be president of their JCR.

That apathy towards JCR positions is apparently not reflected at Corpus, who disaffiliated from CUSU this week. Rhys Grant, Corpus’ JCR president explained: “At Corpus, the opposite is happening.

“In our last elections, we had 46 people run for positions out of about 250 people who were eligible to run. In that election 203 people voted out of around 250 people who were eligible to vote.”

He added: “It is worth noting that this increase in the numbers running for positions isn’t due to the JCR receiving benefits such as free dinners and invitations to events, as the JCR Committee no longer receive there.”

In Corpus’ last election, three people ran for president. The most popular positions were treasurer, secretary, amenities officer and green officer. These positions received five applications each.

Clearly the ‘kids’ at Corpus were just a bit cooler than their Jesus counterparts.