Seven day freshers’ week proposed for every college
JCR Presidents will meet this Friday to discuss a proposal to coordinate a university-wide campaign in favour of lengthening freshers’ week. Friday’s agenda item comes after Merton JCR became the first college this term to pass a motion supporting moving the start of freshers’ week from Tuesday of 0th week to Sunday of 0th week, in the interests of the first years’ academic and social welfare.
The motion was proposed after the publication of Merton’s ‘Freshers’ Week Evaluation Report’ which proved that there was general support for the ‘week’ being extended to a full seven days. Merton’s JCR President, James Lamming, will now approach college authorities to seek their approval for the proposal. JCR presidents across the university will be seeking to follow Merton’s lead.
They stress that the idea of an extended freshers’ week is not simply a ploy to increase the amount of time students have to hit the pubs and clubs before term starts. Merton’s report said, ‘Future JCR members are likely to receive greater welfare, academic and social benefits if freshers’ week begins earlier.
Lamming said, “There are significant welfare benefits to reducing stress levels during an already difficult period and for allowing extra time to make friends, who are a vital source of support, before term begins.” He also suggested the extra few days would also be highly beneficial for the students’ academic performance, giving them a greater amount of time to finish their first assignments.
David Holtam, former JCR President at Corpus Christi, pointed out the practical arguments in favour of the proposals, saying arriving at a weekend would be particularly beneficial to poorer families. “The loss of earnings involved with having to take time off work midweek needs to be taken into account, by colleges when planning their freshers’ weeks.
This position was reflected in the Merton survey, which proved that 70 per cent of freshers would have preferred to move into college on a Saturday or Sunday, The longer freshers’ week initiative was originally put forward by Joshua Sasto, JCR President at University College, who compiled the results of an online survey of freshers’ week similar to the one produced at Merton.
Sasto told The Oxford Student, “I don’t think that freshers’ week will become entirely university organised, as each college quite clearly has very different ideas of what the week should be. However, I think there needs to be greater communication between those who sort out the timetables.” However Sasto also said the process of ratification by college authorities could be a long one.
“In Univ the issue will be raised at a meeting on Monday where the Master, Domestic Bursar and Dean will all be present. It will then go to Tutorial Committee and then on to Governing Bodies.” Last year Oriel College increased the length of their freshers’ week from five days to seven. This proved so successful that the format is likely to stay the same for future years.
“All in all we deemed the week a success, although whether the week long freshers’ week will remain so depends on the behaviour of the students,” said Oriel’s Dean, James Methven. Corpus Christi JCR is due reconsider the length of their freshers’ week later this year after the college’s Governing Body restricted it to five days last Trinity. Holtam told The Oxford Student that Corpus Christi’s college authorities feared weeklong celebrations gave students the wrong message.
“They felt that moving freshers’ week to Tuesday, ready to start work on the Wednesday, would prepare freshers for the real Oxford experience.” As well being an academic distraction, there are logistical drawbacks to the freshers’ week plans, with the obvious impracticality of all university freshers descending upon Oxford over the same weekend. A further roadblock to the freshers’ week proposals could be the university itself, as proposals have not been discussed centrally.
A university spokesperson said there is no central policy on the length of freshers’ week. “The university sets the official term dates, but within these confines it is up to individual colleges. We have no plans to centrally organise and standardise freshers’ week.
26th Jan 2006