A Year in the MCR

CALEB BROWN

Would you like to go on an Ambulatory Outing? Fancy a pub night on the MCR? How about a sausage roll? Have you ever toured Dubai?

This summer, I did tour Dubai. I also spent the whole summer in the US due to Covid. No, bilocation was not involved—Nicky Crompton (JCR President) seems to have mastered that skill, but he hasn’t filled me in on the secret. Rather, I toured Dubai precisely because I was stuck in the US. After all, other Regent’s MCR members also got sent home due to the pandemic and, for at least one of them, home means Dubai. So, during one of our weekly summer dinners on the MCR’s dandy Zoom account, we visited Google Maps and shared our screens. I gave a tour of Honolulu, she gave a tour of Dubai, and another student introduced us to Harrogate!

We continued to hold online events during Michaelmas Term 2020 so that MCR members who are unable to come to the UK or are in quarantine can participate. Until week four of Michaelmas, we also spent time together in person. Throughout Freshers’ week, we organised into ‘pods’ of six, exploring the Botanic Gardens, visiting the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (home of the largest Dodo specimen), romping through Port Meadow (look out for the UK’s deadliest animal, the cow!), and buying gowns (immediately before the romping— could have planned that one better).

At the end of first week, Regent’s hosted a beautiful, sociallydistanced matriculation ceremony to complement the digital event hosted by the University; this was a true pleasure, and one that many colleges did not offer their students. To cap off Matriculation, we divided once again into pods for an MCR celebration, which is where I met my first sausage roll.

After elections in second week, our new Executive Committee developed a calendar of weekly MCR-sponsored pub nights, online hangouts and in-person activities. No sooner had we got through our first week of this schedule, culminating in pumpkin carving on Halloween, when the Prime Minister announced a new national lockdown. For the rest of term, we held weekly online events and have implemented an ‘Ambulatory Outing’ scheme wherein each week MCR members can opt-in to be matched with a walking partner, and the MCR will provide each participant £10 per week to spend on food and drink.

So, that’s what we’ve been doing. But who are we? This year featured both a higher number of returners than past years (around 20), as well as a bumper-crop of new graduate students. Altogether, we have about 100 regular MCR members, which I believe makes us the largest MCR in Regent’s Park history. We study subjects from economics and development to education and creative writing. When we leave the library, we compete in sports from underwater hockey to football, from rowing to powerlifting. Ministerial student Simon Lace is now tied for the best ‘strict curl’ in the Oxford Powerlifting Club!

When you receive this, we will be navigating a new term and a new phase of the ongoing pandemic. But the Regent’s MCR will continue to be a joyful place of academic enrichment, fun and community.

Caleb Brown is President of the Middle Common Room (20202021) and a graduate student reading for the MPhil in Applied Theology (2019).