MCR Committee Election Candidates

Dear MCR,

I am pleased to share with you the candidates for the upcoming MCR Committee General Election, including manifestos. Please find them listed below!

Voting will open tomorrow midday BST.

MCR Love,
Will.

—
William Wood
Clare College MCR President 2020-2021

Manifestos

President: Samantha Mason

Hey Everybody! Hopefully lots of you will already know me, but for those who don’t I’m Sammie. I completed a master’s in cardiovascular science at Clare last year and I’m now coming to the end of the first year of my PhD in which I’m researching platelets and heart regeneration at the Stem Cell Institute. When I’m not in the lab feeding my cells, I just can’t get enough of sending emails and attending meetings and so I thought that running to be your next MCR President would be the perfect way to satiate my admin needs!!

The past year has been a strange one and we’ve not been able to participate in college life and MCR events in the usual way. With what seems to be a light appearing at the end of the tunnel (touches wood), I’m really keen to focus this next year on reconnecting our wonderful graduate community and increasing participation within the MCR with a wide range of both drinking and non-drinking events. I intend to ensure that Clare remains an open, inclusive, warm, and welcoming environment for all our members, old and new!

Having served as your MCR exchanges officer this year I have gained both an insight into how the MCR committee is run, and experience liaising with college. I am an outspoken person and very willing to stand up to college when it comes to defending our best interests as MCR members. I promise to always do my best to advocate for us as loudly and as strongly as I can. High on my list of priorities will be continuing the work of the current committee in fighting the rent battle and addressing the lack of affordable accommodation options following the redevelopment of St Regis.

Finally, I also hope I can be a friendly face to everyone in and around college. Please never be afraid to approach me, whether it’s for a chat and a coffee; with an issue you need help sorting; or with MCR related ideas! I hope that from this manifesto, you all see how much I care for the Clare community and want to see it thrive. It would be a pleasure and a privilege to be elected as your President and I hope you will be happy to have me representing you for the coming year.

Sammie Mason

Vice President: Aliya Ali

Heya! My name is Aliya and I’m running as Vice President for the upcoming year. I enjoy being part of the wondeful MCR community and I hope that I am able to do so in the next committee. My goal is to continue to make the MCR a safe and engaging space. Last year, I was your Female and BME Welfare Officer and I had lots of fun organising the bi-weekly yoga classes. I hope that we will all be able to see each other next year and continue to thrive as a community.

Aliya Ali

Secretary: Jasmin Bath

Hi Clare MCR humans!

I am Jas (She/Her), and this is now my second year at Clare. I started my MPhil in American History in 2019, and I am now a first year PhD student in History. I am running for the position of MCR Secretary, and I hope I can count on your support!

It would be an absolute privilege to be a part of the MCR committee next year, and help all members through the weird, but wonderful, place that is Cambridge.

If elected as MCR Secretary I propose to do the following things:

• Transparent communication with all MCR members about all things Clare.
• Ensuring all MCR members are aware of their rights, particularly as it related to their role as ‘student-staff’ from the start of MT term.
• Being a source of information and support for all MCR members who have questions and concerns regarding College or MCR life.

The last eighteenth months have been incredibly challenging for everyone, and more challenges are likely to arise. It is therefore essential that the MCR remains a source of information and support to help all member navigate Clare under difficult global circumstances. I, for my part, would like to help achieve this by becoming the MCR’s next Secretary.

Thanks for your time (and hopefully support)

Jas Bath ☺

Treasurer: Patrick Taylor

Did you know the MCR has a treasure vault? Well we do, and someone has to be in charge of guarding it from greedy hobbits, rogue archaeologists, and raiders from neighbouring colleges. That’s what the treasurer does, and I believe I’m the man for the job. I have long arms (superior reach to the goblinoid denizens of Tit Hall), I do a PhD in metallurgy (will help me sort the precious minerals in our vault), and I have enough space on my phone for another banking app (will help me manage our liquid assets). I’m also prepared to tackle the most fearsome adversary in Cambridge: the college Bursar.

Pat Taylor

Social Secretary: Samantha Hodder

Hiyaa lovely members of Clare MCR,

In case you have never met me, I am Sam and I’ve been at Clare for three years now, first for my MPhil in Translational Biomedical Research and now for my PhD in Biochemistry. Before I had even arrived at Cambridge three years ago, I had heard that Clare College was a particularly ‘friendly’ college with one of the best MCRs and indeed it has exceeded all my expectations. Since the very first welcome pizza evening during my fresher’s week, I have really enjoyed going to all the events held by the MCR and have met so many wonderful people/made life-long friends. 

In my first two years at Clare I was your female welfare officer, and this year have been your MCR vice-president. Next year I would love to continue to have an active role in your committee as one of your social secs. I want to help continue to make sure that Clare MCR is as welcoming, inclusive and enjoyable as it has been for me for the last three years. In fact, between myself and Ross, I’m fairly sure that we can count the number of formals we have missed over the last three years on one hand – I have actually even jumped out the MCR window to bribe people to spoons.

Ultimately, it would be a privileged to be a part of the MCR committee next year, and I hope you will be happy to have me working on the committee for you to ensure that this cohort will have the most memorable year here at Clare. 

Sam Hodder

Social Secretary: Ross McGinn

Hello all! I’m Ross and I’ve been a member of Clare MCR for three years now, first as an MRes student, and now in the second year of my PhD in stem cell biophysics. For the past year I have also been your Male Welfare Officer.

Those of you who were members of the MCR BC (before covid) might remember seeing me at most formals and bar nights, especially if there was any kind of fancy dress theme. In fact, I still have nightmares of Oktoberfest two years ago, when my dirndl and I didn’t get the memo that no one else was dressing up. Despite this, since the very first fresher’s events I attended in 2018, I have been so grateful for the MCR at Clare for being such a welcoming, caring and fun community, without which PhD life simply wouldn’t be as good.

Clare has such a vibrant graduate community almost entirely thanks to the immense amount of work that MCR committees have put in year after year. I’ve loved being Male Welfare Officer for the last year and am incredibly excited by the prospect of leading the social charge as one of your social secs as restrictions are lifted and we settle into the new normal post-covid. Having experienced the wonders of formals, bar nights, and other in-person social events that were such a huge part of college life BC, I would want to do everything I can to make sure everyone gets to enjoy that aspect of the ‘Cambridge experience’, while also just running fun events and getting to know as many of you as possible.

I can’t wait to see you all, whether socially distanced, behind masks, or (fingers crossed) dancing to Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name in the bar after a formal.

Ross McGinn

Bar Manager: Thomas Else

Hi, I’m Tom, a second year PhD student at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. I’m really excited to be running for the position of Bar Manager with Jojo, and the opportunity to continue to be closely involved in the social side of the MCR. It has been a privilege to be able to meet so many of you this year in my role as Social Secretary, so I really hope to be able to continue to do that as Bar Manager over the next year.

In addition to the exciting prospect of being able to meet many of you through the role, I am also keen to make some changes in the bar to make it as fun a place to be as possible for as many people as possible. In particular, I’d like to ensure that we maintain a wide range of options to cater for different tastes by, for example, stocking more ciders and non-alcoholic drinks, and ensuring that there is a good selection of different spirits. Also, as formals and themed nights resume in the MCR, I can’t wait to come up with creative drinks to serve in the bar.

I am also really keen to ensure that we can run a sustainable bar, so I will ensure that we consider the environmental impact of any suppliers we use and I will endeavour to minimise the amount of waste. To do this, I will try and place orders with locally-based suppliers where possible, and also switch out some drinks for more sustainable suppliers (e.g. Brewdog). I will also make sure that we reduce waste by carefully keeping track of what stock should be used when, and not over ordering.

I’m very excited to be your bar manager, so please vote for me and Jojo, and if you have any questions or thoughts about the running of the bar, or would just like to express your interest in doing some shifts, feel free to get in touch by email at tre26@cam.ac.uk. Hopefully see you all there soon!

Tom Else

Bar Manager: Jonathan Benn

Hi Everyone, for those who don’t know me (in which case I have done a shocking job as social secretary) I’m JoJo (or Jonathan to be formal) and am a second year PhD student working in the Dementia Research Institute at Addenbrookes.

This year has been a huge challenge for us all, and massively disruptive to our MCR community as a whole. However, It has been great to see things edge back towards normality recently, with the continuation of formals and return of the bar, which is among my favourite locations on this earth (and certainly my favourite bar). Hence my reasoning for running for bar manager. As bar manager I’d be keen to keep up the great work done by Pat & Tom in keeping our bar COVID safe (and introducing card payment!), and to slowly hold more/bigger bar nights as the easing of restrictions allows. On a more personal note I’d be keen for the bar to stock a wider selection of ciders and possibly some bar snacks, but I’d be open to suggestions!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the bar soon and here’s hoping for a more normal 2021-22.

JoJo Benn

Library Officer: Leland Stange

Do you want to make the FML great again? Then vote for Parley Yang. He will fight for you, the graduate students of the MCR, as Nigel Farage did for the British people during Brexit. Unlike the current Library Officer, Parley would never have caved to bureaucratic sclerosis and failed to open the library during the cold, lonely months of January and February. No! He would have marched into the FML and drained the swamp with his own two (very large) hands. Sure, Parley lacks any library experience, but who needs it? Just look at America circa 2016-2020 and you’ll see what I mean.

Of course, you have another option in this race. You could vote for the ‘safe’ candidate with over a decade of experience working in libraries. You could vote for the candidate whose ‘browse-in’ to save his previous institution’s undergraduate library was covered in the ‘fake news’ Washington Post.

You could ‘follow the science’ and re-elect the candidate who created a book delivery system for isolating students, ensured free pots and pans for all international students upon arrival, pushed the library to open up earlier than scheduled, secured post-graduate only study spaces, advocated for longer opening times, and has recently argued, successfully, for a daily rather than week-in-advance library booking system. You could vote for a candidate who, behind the scenes, is working to increase physical book purchasing power for Clare, and, if still in office next year, would ask for higher limits on borrowing for MCR members, take students on tours of rare book libraries across Cambridge, create a guide to Clare’s ancient archives, and form a graduate literary society.

If any of that sounds appealing, you could be a total square and vote for Leland Stange. But why on Earth would you want to do that? MFGA!

Leland Stange

Library Officer: Parley Yang

Parley Yang

All Other Candidates

Female Welfare Officer

• Alyssa Crabb

Male Welfare Officer

• Sean Jordan

LGBT+ Welfare Officer

• Eleanor Dunstone

BME Welfare Officer

• Aliya Ali

Exchange Officer

• Ekim Luo

Admiral of the Punts

• Connor Cheverall

Clareity President

• Emma Gleave

Sports Officer

• Pieter-Jan Sterenborg

Green Officer

• David Ewing

Mature Students’ Officer

• Glynnis Maynard