One of the events which dominated St. Chad’s during Epiphany Term was the Junior Common Room (JCR) Elections.

The election season began on 15th February with the hustings for Senior Man and Bar President, and concluded on 13th March, with the hustings for the Officer’s Committee, which includes the Careers and Alumni Officer, the Sponsorship Office, the Outreach Officer, and Governing Body Representative.

With compulsory jokes, and impersonations of the outgoing office-holder in each of the hustings, the month of democracy was accompanied by the occasional opportunity for much-welcomed light-hearted humour.

The month of elections also saw the opportunity for members of the Junior Common Room to engage with the democratic process, whether standing for positions themselves, proposing others for positions, or seconding nominations.

PressComm has exclusively spoken with new Senior Man, Jack Angers, to gauge his views on the process, which he described as both “incredibly rewarding and quite exhausting”. Speaking about his election, he told us that he thought that it was “an honour” and that he “cannot wait to start the job”. In elaboration, Jack told us that: “standing in front of your peers to demonstrate why you are the best candidate for the role is a great experience but certainly a long one.” He also claimed how it is a “pleasure to see so many first year’s going for positions.” He concluded, saying that; “Chad’s is lucky to have a group wanting to get so involved in college life.”

The elections also gave Chadsians the opportunity to propose, and second, fellow Chadsians.

First year psychologist, Charlotte Hall, who also took part in the elections by seconding one of the candidates, has also spoken with PressComm. Charlotte told us; “as a fresher I think it’s easy to forget that the JCR is made up of elected representatives, so I think it was really important that so many of us got involved with the elections, whether that was by standing, seconding someone, or just turning up to husts”.

Cormac Frazer, who is a languages student and stood for Careers and Alumni Officer in the elections, told us that the role is “an important but potentially overlooked one”. Cormac said that he looks forward to continuing the work that has been done over the last year.

As of Monday, the newly-elected Executive Committee, and JCR Officers, have taken office.