Positions Open for Election:

The JCR committee have put together a summary of how they each see their role within college. Use this information to help to decide if there is a position you wish to stand for, and do get in touch with any committee member if you have any questions.

President (Senior Officer)

The role of JCR President is varied and interesting, but also demanding in terms of levels of work and time commitment. The President oversees the work of the JCR committee, chairing Senior Officers meetings every fortnight and full committee meetings three times a term. Elsewhere, he is a member of the college General Purposes Committee, Governing Body, Health and Safety on the Domus Committee, Buildings and Environment Committee, Downing Association committee, Development Committee and, where needed, a listening ear for the Ball President! Of course, some of these committees can be delegated to other JCR officers.

A lot of the President's time is spent liaising with college authorities and representing students' views in meetings, in which he or she may be called upon to submit proposals for JCR events, defend JCR actions and, where applicable, students. In terms of external relations, the President sits on CUSU Council and CUSU Presidents Meetings, where they discuss supra-collegiate issues and matters that require CUSU's support to deal with.

The President needs to have an appreciation of how the college functions, and to understand the needs to students. Everyday I get tonnes of e-mails and make many minor decisions as to what I think is in your best interests. Organisation is vital, as the post requires a high volume of work and dedication. Issues may crop up unexpectedly, so flexibility is also paramount. In dealing with the Fellowship, many of whom are of an older generation with extensive experience of college management, tact is essential. Above all, the President must present a positive image to the student body, representing their views as effectively as possible in all dealings within college and university life. It's been a fantastic experience, I've learnt a great deal, and I encourage you to get involved. Please speak to me if you have any questions.
Email Katie on

Vice President and External (Senior Officer)

The Vice-President is the Minister without Portfolio: there are a few specific duties and the rest is up to your imagination and enthusiasm. The official responsibilities are to sit on Governing Body and the General Purposes Committee (with the President, so you don't have to say much), organise JCR Open Meetings, JCR Committee and Senior Officers Meetings, attend CUSU Council and oversee JCR ballots. The roles provide a really valuable insight into college life, and you get to know people from the college staff, students and CUSU. However, the real benefit of the position is that you can make it what you want. Recently Vice-Presidents have brought in agendas to ensure continuity between meetings (so we didn't forget about policies or ideas), and taken on the role as a “Guardian of the Constitution” and committee members were able to come to the VP for clarification on the details. The Vice-President position seems to require an enthusiastic, organised individual with an eye for detail, but you can take the role in any way you want, even organise your own Ents or formal halls. I've loved the job and found the experience hugely rewarding. Get involved. If you have any questions, do please e-mail or approach me to chat.
Email Katie on

Treasurer (Senior Officer)

The Treasurer of the JCR oversees the allocation of all funds to college sports, societies and the JCR itself. As Treasurer of the DCAC, you'll be in charge of preparing the mid-term financial report and annual budget for the next financial year (with support from the MCR, and the Senior Treasurer who is a Fellow). You also get to sit on the college finance committee, and be the student voice on all matters of finance in college.
This position on the JCR is important and hugely rewarding, as you can learn a huge amount from 12 months in the role.
Email Matt on

Communications Officer (Senior Officer)

The Communications Officer is responsible maintaining DowningJCR.co.uk's position as the number one Cambridge student website with half a million hits a month (working alongside the Internet Officer), as well as taking and publishing minutes for all JCR Senior Officers' Committee, JCR Committee and JCR Open meetings. The role also involves publicising JCR activities, events and achievements. It's a great position to be involved in, and you can learn a huge amount. Tempted? Get involved!
Email James on

Services Officer (Senior Officer)

Far less boring and has far less to do with washing machines than you expect! There are obviously services that need attention from now and again, and, of course, a part of the job is dealing with student complaints, now submitted online, about washing machines, photocopiers and the like. However there is lots more to this position.  Services covers Sports (the Services is responsible on the exec. for the Sports officer), rooms, bedders and aspects of catering.  So, liasing with college on these actually very important issues is an equally, if not larger, part of the job. Finally you are a JCR Senior Officer, and so have a vote on the Senior Officers Committee of the JCR, so you are involved in all the decisions the JCR makes, from disaffilating from CUSU (or not!) to deciding general JCR policy.  So, GET INVOLVED!
Email Kat

Academic Affairs Officer (Senior Officer)

The Academic Affairs Officer is responsible for any student concern, facility or service related to their studies in Cambridge. From libraries to supervisions, study-space to exam skills, this job is varied and rewarding. With a seat on the college's Education Committee, you also get a unique insight into the workings of Downing, as well as the student voice on issues like Access, interviews and any other study-related concerns.
CUSU provides additional materials (e.g. last exam terms' support website) as well as advice and support. Tempted to run? Get involved! Just Email if you have any questions
Email Matthew on

Entertainments Officer (Senior Officer)

Arguably the most important and certainly the most fun position on the JCR Committee, the position of Ents Officer is a great one to run for. It involves a lot of hard work, forward planning and a little bit of imagination. But the rewards are fantastic. Effectively the work is having a great time, and it is definatley for someone that likes to party. Other than that and a sense of commitment there are no specific skills required.

This year we have seen Downing Ents grow into being something which happens regularly and is extremely well attended. The new Ents Officer should have the drive and vision to move this forward and continue to develop Downing Ents, perhaps expanding the type of ents put on or the regualrity of the Events. If anyone would like more information on what its like to be Ents Officer do not hesitate to get in contact, and definately get down to the Party Room.
Email Dan and Rhemayo on

Mens' Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer

As Mens' Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer you can be involved in all aspects of JCR activity, not just as a Senior Officer, but more importantly because the role is so wide-ranging, as welfare issues touch on so many aspects of student life.
There is scope to be a major player in promoting national health campaigns in Downing, or to be the front-man for CUSU initiatives to promote student safety, mental health awareness or exam de-stress techniques. At the same time you can be deeply involved in college life by forging a close relationship between yourself as a voice for undergrads and the various college care providers. It will be your job to be the listening ear for the JCR body of Downing, addressing their concerns and needs to the college authorities who can change things for the better. You will therefore be totally involved in all the JCR committee activity, and will have a say in all the JCR debates from a welfare perspective. Seeing the changes you have instigated is really rewarding, as is individual casework when you will work with students with various concerns to make sure they have all the advice and support they need to be able to get the best out of their time in Cambridge. As such you will get to be the person in the know, and meet a whole network of people that you will be part of to get your own welfare activities off the ground. This job has huge potential to be as creative as you choose, and I have really enjoyed spontaneous welfare projects in response to the immediate needs of students. This occurs at specific times like exam term or fresher's week, but also more generally; for example, at the moment there is a pressing need to improve student safety.
You will work closely with Womens Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer.
It is a communicative and compassionate role, yet you also get to take a hard line and push for the changes and action you want to see take place. It is a versatile exciting role, which you can take as far as your imagination allows!
Email Laurence on

Womens Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer (Senior Officer)

As Womens’ Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer you can be involved in all aspects of JCR activity, not just as a Senior Officer, but more importantly because the role is so wide-ranging, as welfare issues touch on so many aspects of student life.
There is scope to be a major player in promoting national health campaigns in Downing, or to be the front-man for CUSU initiatives to promote student safety, mental health awareness or exam de-stress techniques. At the same time you can be deeply involved in college life by forging a close relationship between yourself as a voice for undergrads and the various college care providers. It will be your job to be the listening ear for the JCR body of Downing, addressing their concerns and needs to the college authorities who can change things for the better. You will therefore be totally involved in all the JCR committee activity, and will have a say in all the JCR debates from a welfare perspective. Seeing the changes you have instigated is really rewarding, as is individual casework when you will work with students with various concerns to make sure they have all the advice and support they need to be able to get the best out of their time in Cambridge. As such you will get to be the person in the know, and meet a whole network of people that you will be part of to get your own welfare activities off the ground. This job has huge potential to be as creative as you choose, and I have really enjoyed spontaneous welfare projects in response to the immediate needs of students. This occurs at specific times like exam term or fresher's week, but also more generally; for example, at the moment there is a pressing need to improve student safety.
You will work closely with Mens’ Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer.
It is a communicative and compassionate role, yet you also get to take a hard line and push for the changes and action you want to see take place. It is a versatile exciting role, which you can take as far as your imagination allows!
Email Lauren on

Internet Officer

Running the website has become an extremely important role within the JCR, as it is now one of the main methods of communicating information to the college community. The day-to-day tasks involve keeping up with news items and 'what's on' events, making sure that the most important things are most obvious on the site and ensuring that the content is appropriate to the college and JCR image. All these tasks can be managed without any knowledge of programming- so don't let that put you off! On the whole your job is an editorial one- much of the website content is provided by the college community and other JCR officers, so you are not expected to write everything yourself. Occassionally you may be called upon to write special sections of the website (such as this election section!) for certain events. You should be supported by the Communications Officer.

The website also has a role in the development of the Downing community, through the forums and interactive sections. The running of the forums will be your responsibility, ensuring that Downing remains a safe place for people to exchange ideas and ask questions.

Taking the role of Internet Officer gives you lots of scope to be creative, to take editorial decisions, and to manage what has become a key resource for Downing College. It requires commitment and responsibility, but no technical knowledge is required other than a general understanding of computers. Of course if you have any technical skills, that can only be a bonus!
Email Jason on

Griffin Editor

If you enjoy writing outside the strictures of academic essays and consider yourself relatively organized then you should consider editing the Griffin - the JCR aims to print four editions of the college's long running official student newspaper four times per year. Content is not prescribed so it offers plenty of scope for creativity, humour and originality. The good sides include seeing your articles in print and receiving plenty of feedback on your efforts; the Griffin is a highly visible way for you to contribute in college life. You will be assisted by up to three subeditors to assist in cajoling articles from slatternly students, pagesetting and of course coming up with new and innovative ideas. It is relatively time-consuming and involves the odd evening in front of a computer screen but then hey that's nothing new to you. In short, give it a go and make yours and others' ideas manifest.
Email Aditi and Orlando on

Green Officer

The role of Green Officer is structured around bringing the issues discussed at CUSU's Ethical and Environmental Committee (EEC) to Downing. The four main areas are recycling, fair trade, ethical investment and increasing environmental awareness. The EEC meet every fourtnight and provides an arena where you can discuss these issues and contribute towards wider university, and even national schemes, whilst at the same time concentrating the issues at college level. You can do as much or as little as you want with the role and there is huge scope for you to set up your own schemes and activities surrounding these issues. You can even explore other ethical and environmental interests that you or JCR members feel passionate about. You are required to have an active role in college recycling schemes, working with college, the MCR and the council to achieve a holistic, workable and sustainable recycling programme (which is more challanging than first meets the eye!). The handover will be at an exiting time in the recycling world of Downing rubbish, with a new scheme nearly underway. Once the logistics are in place, you will be required to promote the use of these facilities and make sure that they are being used correctly. You can also become active in promoting the Downing Fair Trade society, and to help organise events surrounding Fair Trade fourtnight and schemes making fairtrade products available in Downing. You will have the opportunity to work with Cambridge University Environmental Consulting Society (CUECS) in the inter-collegiate Environmental League Table(Downing have scored highly in the previous year), which gives you an insight into the running of the college and its facilities regarding issues such as waste and energy. CUECS also produces ethical and environmental guidelines for College Balls. You can use this and work to promote 'Green' Balls in Downing.
A 'green' background isn't a necessity, as structures are in place to facilitate and guide you through your role, but enthusiasm and energy are a must in order to be heard and change perceptions. You can expand your fellow students' horrizons whilst learning on the job yourself. So if you want a more independant role on the JCR, then Green Officer is for you.

Email Helen on

Sports Officer

The Sports Officer’s job is to look after sports-related issues in college. This involves keeping the equipment store in the Porter's Lodge in good shape, liaising with College to promote the improvement of sporting facilities in response to JCR/DCAC needs, acting as a point of reference for any sporting queries, and representing the JCR on the Gym Management Committee. Examples of achievements made by this year’s Sports Officer include persuading College to allow and enable music to be played in the gym again, campaigning to get the squash courts sanded, organizing a Taekwondo workshop, buying equipment for the Porter’s Lodge store and the gym and encouraging pitch-side support for our teams reaching Cuppers’ finals.
Email Andy on on

Access Officer

The Access Officer mainly liaises with CUSU in running university-wide Access schemes. These include the hugely successful shadowing scheme, where a sixth-former "shadows" you for a weekend, and helping to organise Target Visits, where university students go to "target schools" to talk to them about applying to Cambridge and universities in general. The lovely full-time Downing College Access Officer organises Downing-run Access schemes, and there is plenty of scope to get involved there.
Email Anthony on

Freshers' Officers

International Officer

JP Muriuki writes " I like to refer to the international officer as Kofi Anan, Secretary General of our Downing Globe, god father and protector to all nations. One who is always there in times of need, giving you a home away from home." More traditionally the International Officer works to assist in the integration of international students in College. He or she can help disseminate information on facilities available and issues concerning international students, as well as campaign to make the College as comfortable and accommodating as possible for them.
Email Timur on on

LBGT Officer

The most important role of the LBGT Officer is to provide a contact point, or sympathetic ear for lesbian, gay or bisexual members of college, confidentially and continually. There is also a welfare aspect, and anyone can contact the LBGT Officer to discuss any aspect of welfare, in addition to the other Welfare Officers. The LBGT Officer must also represent and promote LBGT viewpoints to the University and College, where necessary, and help maintain Downing's open attitude towards homosexuality and bisexuality. The LBGT Officer also circulates and promotes LBGT events within college and university-wide events. The role is straightforward, and not time-consuming, and the only requirement is to be an open-minded and caring character. There is now a college LBGT email list that anyone can sign up to, with only the LBGT Officer having access to the users on the list, and any emails distributed anonymously.
Email Tom on on

Being on the finance committee is a great position for gaining an insight into the financial workings of the JCR and also the college, even if you have little or no previous experience of being a committee member.

Ents Committee

Want to play a part in the fun side of the JCR? Like the sound of leading the party scene in Downing? Being on the Ents sub-committee is a fun, but also hard work: non-stop parties (as many as you can handle) all designed, booked, set-up, advertised, attended, staffed, cleaned-up, counted, wiped-up and re-launched by you and your committee. Can you hack the pace?
DowningEnts is on the way up, and enthusiastic individuals are needed to carry on this progress. What's in it for you? Well, it's a great experience to be involved in, and there's loads of room for your own ideas. What party do you want to put on? Which one of Downing's locations do you want to use?
How many people? How much to spend? Want to design a poster? What drinks shall we get? Who'll do security? Anyone know a DJ? Cheese or D&B? Ents Sub-committee is a fun role, but requires dedication. There are three places up for grabs on this committee: if you've got what it takes, get involved and you won't regret it.

Griffin Committee

Calling all budding journalists! Three positions are available on the sub-committee responsible for assisting the Editor in the designing, writing and publishing of the college newspaper. Got some ideas you want to see in print? Would like some experience in journalism? Design? Publishing?
This sub-committee is a great opportunity for anyone with little or no experience in this area. Get involved!

Equal Opportunities Committee

The committee will meet with the Equal Opportunities Officers and discuss any incidents of discrimination they believe have occurred. It is also recommended that the sub-committee attend JCR committee meetings, so their groups can be represented as much as possible, though the sub-committee will not be able to vote. The roles are fairly low intensive (hopefully, if Downing remains as lacking in discrimination as it is now), and will mainly only be called upon when specific incidents of discrimination occur. There are 3 members of the equal opportunities sub-committee, one representing LBGT, one representing ethnic minorities and one for international.