Imogen is a third-year Economics student, who has also taken modules in German. Previous JCR positions include Clubs and Societies Treasurer (2023-2024) and Buttery Treasurer (2024-2025), as well as a frep. Imogen is also a member of Trevelyan College Boat Club, and works shifts at the Buttery. 

What motivated you to run for JCR President?

Throughout my time at Trevs, I’ve always been really involved in college. I ran for my first Tier Two role back in first year, and didn’t get the first one I ran for, but I was determined enough to keep running for roles. So I’ve held Tier Two positions for the last two years And I’ve always been involved with a lot of different societies across both sport and general interest, as well as the JCR.

I would love the opportunity to give back to the community in Trevs as I think genuinely that’s what shaped me as the person that I am today and given me all the confidence that I have.

I’m the kind of person who gets stuck in with pretty much anything and I’m good at thinking on my feet to solve problems. I feel like this would be an ideal role for me. And I’ve also had experience working full time from my job before University. So I’ve got the experience of holding down a job whilst also sort of having life at the same time.

Why should people vote for you? How do you stand out from other candidates?

I believe I stand out from the other candidates. I’ve got diverse experience and I’ve been involved with everything throughout my degree. I’m a known face throughout college. I’ve worked at the Buttery. I’ve been on the exec there.

I’ve also held executive roles in societies. So I think I’ve proven that I have good time management and I’m sort of committed and dependable. I pretty much live and breathe Trevs every hour of the day, from rowing at half six in the morning through to the end of summer ball.

I go to all the events and again, I’m a known face. I think I’ve got the personal qualities to make a success of the role. I think that my manifesto has a good understanding of what you could achieve in the role, but also the limitations.

I would love the opportunity to give back to the community in Trevs as I think genuinely that’s what shaped me as the person that I am today and given me all the confidence that I have.

With a lack of engagement from Freshers this year and some meetings failing to meet quorum, how are you planning on increasing engagement in the JCR?

So this is actually one of the points on my manifesto, to increase JCR meeting attendance.

While the pizza that is offered is still nice, I feel like having a wider variety of incentives such as we could do a raffle for some prizes or offer, say, like a raffle for a bar tab or buttery or something like that. I think that that would potentially drive people to want to come. 

Obviously, having engaging motions is important. You can’t to an extent control what people are going to propose. Potentially you could look at changing when they’re held as they’re over dinner time, quite a lot of the time, I think. I can’t quite remember exactly what the dinner times are from college, sorry it’s been a couple of years. But I remember that being a problem in first year, I would have to eat my dinner super quick and then go to the meetings. So you could potentially look at changing the day or the time to a point where people might be more sort of free to attend.

I think the frequency is good. I think if they were more frequent you’d probably lose the attendance more. If they’re less frequent arguably they’d be seen as a bigger event, but you’d struggle to pass the necessary number of motions and then they just end up being longer and like I mean, I sometimes have to leave early to set up the buttery in the evening like that’s not really my fault, but I do sometimes find that they drag on.

Even without that, having like the engagement not just within certain groups, because I remember in first year there was, I couldn’t tell you the motion frankly, but there was just something that actually was just two individuals having an argument in front of the JCR at each other. And I was like, why am I here, so making sure that the chair knows to step in where they can to prevent that sort of situation happening.

What would you like to do with your first 100 days in office?

So Freshers’ Week is a key point where you can get the freshers to engage in college and would also be one of the busiest periods in the role. I spoke to James and he said that a lot of the initial stuff is training and obviously it’s over the holidays so very few people are in Durham.

Promote things online. This is past the point where people are choosing their colleges from what I can remember. I don’t know what the system is now. But promote it as soon as Results’ Day happens and promote all of the events for Freshers’ Week. Make sure we’ve got a frep team because that can be an issue. I don’t think it’s been an issue in Trevs, but I know some colleges really had struggled and had to recruit more freps over summers so if it’s looking like we will need to do that and have a way of more people applying. 

Within Freshers’ Week, host events similar to what is currently done, work with the Head Frep, work and make sure that the attendance at the first JCR meeting is good, but also encourage it to continue. I think we’ve all seen that you can struggle to get a seat in the first one and then the next one we don’t even hit quorum. So make sure that the first meeting has engaging motions that sort of introduces the freshers to what the JCR is.

We should also make sure it’s a sort of thing to get returners back into college as I know it’s harder when people are living out. I lived in Gilesgate in second year so if I hadn’t been as engaged in college as I was, I don’t think I would have ever come back. I have a friend who’s in second year and he said, oh, I don’t think I’ve been in Trevs this year. For me, that’s crazy because I’m here every day.

In first year, the bar was packed, and now we’re not even hitting quorum and we’ve had to reduce quorum. I don’t think reducing quorum again is a good idea because then it’s just going to be the exec and Tier Two essentially making the decisions which isn’t reflective of the JCR as a student body.

What has the JCR done poorly this year that you’d like to improve on?

The main thing is attendance at the meetings. It’s just a little bit depressing, I’m going to be honest. In first year, the bar was packed, and now we’re not even hitting quorum and we’ve had to reduce quorum. I don’t think reducing quorum again is a good idea because then it’s just going to be the exec and Tier Two essentially making the decisions which isn’t reflective of the JCR as a student body.

Meetings are the main thing, and also organization of events, working with the social chair. I’ve heard that there were a lot of organisational issues with Winter Ball, so working with the social chair to make sure that those sorts of issues are eliminated because if people have a bad experience at their first non-Freshers’ Week event, then they’re probably not going to come back. I know I wouldn’t if it had been like that. Whereas in my first year Winter Ball was brilliant, so I came to all the events after that.

What else could be improved? The college family scheme to an extent, I know that James did try a reallocation system but it just never got off the ground. But definitely I’d try to do that because I had the issue in second year. My college kids never came to the meetup or responded to emails and it was just a bit sad. I really wanted to meet them and share my experiences and offer advice. Also I’d make the college parent scheme not just academic, but also have a bit more general interest things on the pairing form. I’m not someone that is the stereotype for my degree and if I’d have ended up with just people interested in my degree, we probably wouldn’t have had a lot to talk about other than our subject. 

Lastly, if you win, what toastie will you order from the Buttery to celebrate?

Currently, my go-to on shift is chicken, mozzarella or cheddar, depending on the mood, and garlic sauce or garlic butter. 

But if I’m in a sweet mood, which I probably would be, I’d get a marshmallow, biscoff and chocolate toastie. 

Voting for JCR President opens on Monday 10th February at 12pm.

Image: Imogen McEwing