THREE SOCIETIES are planning to launch an alternative Freshers’ Week programme to rival college events next year.
The societies People & Planet, DougSoc and HP Muggle Soc, are attempting to organise their own Freshers’ Week, steering away from a college theme.
“During Freshers’ we only really got to know the people in our block and it seemed like all the colleges were at different places throughout the week,” says Harry Pick, a James first year. Rather than replacing events, societies would run alongside them, giving increased choice. The idea will go to UGM, which if passed would mean that YUSU would have to support the project. A vote will be taken later this term.
YUSU Democracy & Services Officer Dan Walker, in charge of organising Freshers’ events, said that he backed the idea, though would like to see branding steer away from marketing an ‘alternative’ Freshers’ Week.
“I balk at the idea [of ‘alternative’]… it sounds like you have to choose. It’s the same as how we don’t label events as ‘welfare’.” Nonetheless, Walker praised the idea of more societies being involved. Societies have currently been testing the waters with the idea by doing the college rounds to see if JCRC chairs will support the initiative. Vanbrugh chair Kallum Taylor supports the idea “but with caution,” hoping that the University’s “collegiate character” doesn’t disappear.
He also expressed concern over the lack of a “reassuring welfare structure” with which the project was presented, but “absolutely back[s] anything, to the hilt, that offers an alternative for students. “Nick Scarlett, YUSU Student Activities Officer, said that, “Societies being involved in Freshers’ Week can only be a positive thing.” Alongside colleges they play a huge role in the student experience, something that’s good to get in from the word go. “Like Walker, Scarlett had reservations over the ‘alternative’ aspect of the proposal, noting that societies shouldn’t be marketed as alternative to colleges when it came to student life.