Happy holidays!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to 9^th week – good luck to those of you with exams this week and congratulations to all who finished last week. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to publish a weekly blog this term, so to make up for it I’ve written a summary of some of the key things that have been going on in college the past term.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first term as JCR President and it’s certainly been a busy one, and the committee have put in a lot of hard work to ensure events such as Corpus Challenge and Charities Week were a big success. OxSU was remarkably busy and a lot of discussion went into the question of boycotting the NSS, which we are currently doing, and supporting our striking lecturers. The strikes are still continuing as I write this, but it seems as if progress is being made in the right direction. On an academic side of things, we have been working closely with the Academic Registrar and Senior Tutor to improve the sessions put on by college about revising for exams, from both an academic and welfare perspective. The one in 6^th week seemed successful and we are looking forward to another one early next term. Welfare lunch this term was particularly productive as the acting Dean of Welfare came in to talk to the JCR about exactly what college can offer to students, and over the vac we will be looking into the possibility of having a college counsellor. Excitingly we also have a new set of trained peer supporters and our new male welfare rep will be elected soon. There are a few loose ends that need chasing up – I will be putting together a formal suggestion for replacing fines with community service and will also try to tackle issues that have been raised with Vac Res. Related to that is the matter of international storage, and we should hopefully be able to share an update on that soon. Lastly, I just wanted to provide an update on the Fraenkel room – the topic was raised at Governing Body in 8^th week in the reserved agenda, and I can assure that you that discussions are well underway.

Trinity term should be fantastic, as we prepare to host Unity Week, the Tortoise Fair and Arts Week. We will be finalising JCR renovation plans as well, and I look forward to sending out the completed designs soon. We will also be having another set of elections, and there are some really great positions being vacated so do get in touch if you have any queries about that.

Vac well Corpo,

Shiv