Welcome to the MCR!

Dear all,

Hello and the warmest of welcomes to Jesus College MCR! I hope you’re all as excited to come and join our community as we are to have you.

My name’s Gaby, and I’m the current President of the MCR. I’m coming into my third year of a DPhil in Experimental Psychology, and was at Oxford for my undergraduate studies as well. The MCR stands for Middle Common Room and is a nice Oxford-y collective term for all of the post-graduate students at a college. The MCR is here to make your experience a little brighter in any way we can. Whether that’s putting on events, representing your views on committees or advocating for your opinions to college and the university as a whole. We also provide welfare support, help coordinate clubs and societies, and have meetings regularly over the course of a term where you can submit ideas you’d like to see actioned by the members of the committee. You’ll get a proper introduction to all of the wonderful committee members in Freshers week.

The MCR also consists of the actual common room itself (accessible via 2^nd Quad) and the MCR bunker, which provides a space for socialising, games, and work. The MCR hosts many of the events you will see put on during termtime, and the bunker can be reserved by students to host private events or society gatherings.

One tradition I particularly love is the ‘College Parenting’ scheme! We will do our best to match children with ‘parents’ (non-fresher PGs) in similar subjects. You will receive an email informing you of who your ‘parents’ are, and they should email you back regarding plans for dinner. Food costs will be subsidised by the MCR. This can either form a firm ‘family’ bond or just be a nice introduction to some other College members before your parents let you fly free.

You’ll be able to find everything you need to get settled in the Welcome Pack on the College intranet. If anything doesn’t make sense, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or any of the college staff. I’ll provide you with a quick checklist when you arrive in Michaelmas so that you can be extra certain you’ve completed all the onboarding you need to.  

I’m here for any questions, comments or concerns you may have in advance of coming and once you arrive. Please, please feel free to reach out.  (gabriella.fitzgerald@jesus.ox.ac.uk)

One more important thing. We’re switching over from previously using Facebook to communicate about MCR events and other bits & bobs, to a new app called Lounge. This was set up by former Oxford students, and serves the same purpose as a Facebook group, only more streamlined. You can download it on any device or just access it using a web browser so there shouldn’t be issues with accessibility. You’ll need to join two ‘lounges’, one for Fresher’s specifically, and one for the main MCR. Then you can check the app to see the events that are on, contact Committee members and much more. Plus, no annoying ads clogging up your feed. Use the two links below to join the Jesus MCR lounges!

Main MCR Lounge: https://lounge.live/lounges/Jesus_College_MCR:73wxq8df

Freshers ’24-’25 Lounge: TBC

Oxford is a beautiful, vibrant city, and during your Fresher’s week I’ll do my best to make sure you get a taste of all it has to offer! It may be overwhelming at first to take in a lot of new information and talk to a lot of new people, but take your time and know that there’s a huge amount of support here for you if you’d like it.

Can’t wait to welcome you all in the Autumn!

Best wishes,

Gaby FitzGerald 💚

MCR President