Goodricke College

After ex-Democracy and Services Officer Dan Walker coordinated the move from Heslington West to Heslington East, and current YUSU President Tim Ellis oversaw Goodricke’s “pioneering” first year on the new campus, it was going to be a brave student who took on the job of protecting the college’s identity as it was slowly and literally overshadowed by the departments of Law, Television and Computer Science. By the 2010 intake Goodricke students were no longer amused by the novelty of living miles from the nearest supermarket and relying on a vending machine for their only refreshment. As the promised ‘second campus’ sprang up around them at an alarming rate, they wanted to finally have those promises of supermarket bus routes, catering provisions and a cash machine upheld. The Chair who took on, arguably, the most demanding college on campus, was Politics, Philosophy and Economics student Nacho Hernando.

Hernando’s success rate over the past twelve months has been impressive – there are proverbial ticks in boxes next to many of the promises he made during his campaign. Certainly one of the most vocal Chairs on campus, Hernando wasn’t afraid to fight University and, on occasion, Union administration in order to see change happen. Goodricke students are now served, finally, by the supermarket bus that no less than two YUSU Sabbatical Officers had failed to deliver. An extension to the catering options and hours in the Ron Cooke Hub has replaced the laundry room vending machine as fodder of choice, and a cash point will finally be installed on site for the college’s 2012 freshers. But many of Hernando’s achievements, while impressive, have been marked by the ‘C’ word – compromise. The much-celebrated bar which will arrive next year will be shared with (and located within) Langwith College, the promised sponsorship of sports teams was only realised for the football team, and the well debated Goodricke porters were never returned to the College nucleus as hoped. Nevertheless, Hernando’s record of achievements speaks for itself, and when Vision caught up with him to chat about the year, he was keen to stress that this list would have looked very different without the help and support of his committee…

What have been your greatest achievements from your term as Chair?

I strongly believe that any achievement is a group effort, and no single achievement should be attributed to one person. We, the Goodricke JCRC 2011 achieved this, not me personally.

My campaign slogan was “Outstanding Welfare and Jaw-Breaking Entertainment” – during my chairship, Goodricke achieved, in the YUSU Student Experience Survey, the best mark in terms of welfare provision and the second best [after Derwent] in terms of events. These results were due to the fact that we have, in my opinion, been the college JCRC that has invested the most time and money into quality alternative events aside from the boring (but far too common) movie nights.

As well as this, the improvement of campus facilities, such as the now extended hours and menu for the cafeteria in the Hub, and the development of Hes East in general, was one of my key policies.

I promised during my campaign that I would work towards acquiring a bar and a cash point, which I am delighted to have been able to deliver (for October 2012) in Hes East.

The Shopper Bus was not my idea, it was one of our Vice-Chair’s. However, when he left office around March I took on the task of making it a reality, and we now have this service on an hourly basis, six days a week – which, again, I’m extremely proud of. In fact this was something that two previous YUSU Sabbs had promised and didn’t manage to deliver.

I also promised sponsorship for teams – we managed to secure a deal for the football club for over £400, but I must admit that we failed to obtain college-wide sponsorship for other less mainstream teams such as badminton.

Finally, we put a very detailed but concise Freshers’ Guide together which was another one of my promises and can be found on our website.

I am reaching the end of my term in office knowing that I put in all the effort I could and it has luckily paid off in results for Goodrickers to enjoy.

What are you greatest regrets from your term as Chair?

Obviously there have been things that I promised on which I didn’t fully deliver – for example the return of the porters to the Nucleus. However, we have been able to find a third way in which the University will provide night-time staffing in all eight colleges as one of the measures implemented in the additional £2m to be spent on improving the student experience.

I also promised to have a ‘Goodricke does Alicante’ event in the summer term. However, we felt that concentrating on making GoodFest bigger and better was probably a better idea…which I would argue we did! The use of student bands was another policy in my manifesto and this was evident in GoodFest as well as my undying support for RAG.

Who has been your “Committee Superstar”?

It would be unfair for me to pick one person, and some of our members would justifiably find themselves hard done by. However, if I had to pick one key contribution to our success this year, that would be the excellent relationship that the Goodricke JCRC has had with the College Welfare Team and staff as well as our Facilities Manager.

What advice would you give your successor?

I will try to give a very good handover full of advice and tips. However, what is different from any other handover in the past is the fact that the new Chairs will be able to count on the recently hired member of YUSU staff, the JCRC and Community Development Coordinator. His support and the training he will organise for the new Chairs will be priceless and will mean that Chairs are no longer thrown in at the deep end.

I could not be more in favour of the role that the JCRC and Community Development Coordinator will be fulfilling; this is a great achievement for colleges. Let’s be honest, all the outgoing chairs are a bit jealous of this.

Here’s what the Goodricke students had to say about the JCRC this year:

First Year Tom Smith: “I think the JCRC has a big impact on your university life in first year, especially in Freshers Fortnight. All the big events were great, and two of my housemates who don’t drink were really impressed that there was a good variety of events for them to take part in too.”

A Second Year [who asked not to be named]: “When you don’t live [on campus] anymore, the college doesn’t really matter that much, unless you play for a sports team or something. But I was a STYC in Freshers and, talking to my mates in other colleges, it seemed like Goodricke’s was pretty well organised compared to elsewhere!”

Third Year Ami Jackson: “I think Nacho had an advantage in the sense that Goodricke was further developed this year, as opposed to the state it was in my first year, so he’s had a greater opportunity to improve the college. Personally, the only involvement I have with Goodricke is netball and I think the sports teams are neglected by the committee as there is no encouragement, involvement from the committee –  i.e. funding – and this is reflected in college spirit.”

Finally, we asked Hernando to sum up his experience as Chair. He told us:

PROMISES > DEDICATION > ACHIEVEMENTS