Welcome to the Exeter College MCR! 2010-2011
- Welcome to Exeter College, and welcome to the William Petre Society - otherwise known as the Exeter College MCR!
- What is the MCR? The MCR is two things. Firstly, it is all of us. You, me, everyone else - we are all members of the MCR. Secondly, it is our common room and common social space, the set of rooms we have in college, just for us. In other words, the MCR is there - for the MCR!
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All post-graduate students and all students studying for a second BA
are members of the MCR. Associate Membership is also open to 4th year
undergraduates and members' partners and spouses. Associate Members
are pretty much like any other member of the MCR (but see the
constitution for all the details).
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You'll find the common room on Staircase 8 (first staircase on your
left after you enter the college). It's swipe-card access only, so
while it's not as secure as a locked room it is somewhere you can
always retreat to, to relax and get a bit of peace and quiet. It also
has a small kitchen with tea and coffee, several computers, wireless
internet access, a piano, a bathroom, a tutorial room, some lockers
and the newspapers and periodicals we subscribe to and which are
delivered there every morning every day of the week.
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OK, so that's what the MCR is, but it's not what it's all about. What
it's all about is having fun, meeting people from other subjects and
countries, getting away from work and really experiencing what life as
an Oxford student is like. This includes events with the MCR, like
bops, exchange dinners with other colleges and movie nights, and it
also includes music/arts/drama (MAD) and college and university sports
teams. Oxford plays nearly every sport under the sun and you can find
out all about these and other activities from us and at the Freshers'
Fair.
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There's also an Executive that's elected each January. We help
organise the fun stuff, but we're also there to help you make sure
your time in Oxford is a great time. Part of that is a parenting
scheme - every new student this year has an MCR parent, someone who
was here last year and who can answer your questions and tell you how
things work. Also, you can always talk with someone on the Exec. Any
one of us can help you, but to start with the best people to talk to
are the MCR President (Therese Feiler, therese.feiler@exeter.ox.ac.uk)
and the Welfare VP (Uday Anand, uday.anand@exeter.ox.ac.uk). If we
can't help you we'll put you in touch with people who can.
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The Exec do other things too - in particular, we represent you to the
college, to other colleges and to the university. We negotiate with
college each year what the rents will be, represent you at college
meetings, and we help make sure that the college is always improving
things for students. Exeter College is great, especially in comparison
to some of the stories you hear from other colleges, but they can't
read our minds and it's only because members of the MCR weren't afraid
to tell the exec (and through the exec, the college) when things
weren't working. This has resulted in some big changes in the plans
for Exeter House, and for the last year the college has also made sure
that there's enough study space for graduate students by allocating us
an extra room to study in when we need it. Exeter's a great place to
be, and it's getting better and better.
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At the end of the day, the MCR is not just a random collection of
students, and it's not just a room, or a bunch of social events. It's
all of those, and more, because it's all of those combined. It's a
community waiting there for you. There's always someone to talk to in
the MCR, and whether you drop in for a quick cup of tea, to eat lunch,
or a long afternoon talking about world politics (or grammar, or
history, or physics, or whatever you like) you'll quickly realise that
the Exeter MCR is special, a true home-away-from-home.
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Therese Feiler
MCR President
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