Hatfield vote to KEEP ‘antiquated’ Senior Man title

More people turn up for a rugby match


Hatfield College JCR have voted to reject a motion to change the controversial title of Senior Man.

The motion, which was defeated with a mere 12 votes for, to 19 against, with 6 abstentions, was to add the optional titles of ‘Senior Woman’ and ‘Senior Student’ to the role of Senior Man, Hatfield’s JCR President.

Seconder of the motion, and Hatfield LGBTQ+ Rep, Nicky Whyms, told The Tab:

“The motion was a step in the right direction, tackling the male-centric ‘Senior Man’ whilst keeping a nod to the history of the college.

“Although we are obviously disappointed in the outcome, the college will continue to forge new traditions and those antiquated ideas will make way for a system in which we may all be proud.”

With a typically poor turnout of just 37 Hatfielders including the exec, the result goes to show the majority of the JCR is apathetic to the subject.

JCR Chair, Felicity Juckes, told The Tab:

“Even though it wasn’t a huge number [present] it was an extremely thorough discussion, about 40 mins, and anyone that had strong opinions had the opportunity to come so I think that the result was probably representative of the JCR.”

77 more Hatfielders would have had to don their Barbour jackets and head down to Hatfield Bar to reach quorum of 108, which is the lowest number of members to turn out for a motion to be passed.

If the motion had passed it would have been debated on at the next meeting for ratification, probably by the same 37 people who turned out tonight.

Castle pushed through the change at the end of last year, and Chads made the switch way back in 2013, leaving Hatfield as the only college in Durham to retain the controversial title.