FROM THE MCR PRESIDENT

MCR COMMITTEE 2019-20

President

Maurits Houck

Vice-President Conor Heffernan

Secretary

Phoebe Heathcote

Treasurer

Harkeerit Kalsi

Academic Officer

Neha Moharir

Environmental Officer

Yair Perry

Access Officer

Eduardo Camarillo Abad

Welfare Officers

Valeria Zambianchi and Kethan Suvarna

Technical Officer

Erik Daxberger

Social Secretaries

Yaiza Andrés, Sana Kidwai, Jason Van Schijndel and Georgie Ward

FROM THE MCR PRESIDENT

A seemingly innocent MCR Karaoke Night on Thursday. Very close MCR elections on Friday. Two metre distance and the Handover Formal cancelled on Saturday. Within just two days everything turned upside down and a gloomy thought settled on us that 2020 may become a very difficult year. From the first day for me as MCR President everything was the unprecedented.

Earlier, the year had started full of optimism about the new 20-ies decade. Dressed like the “Great Fitzby”, we celebrated the new decade with a roaring twenties “A night we won’t remember with people we can’t forget” formal and party. Midway through term, we hosted an intercollegiate Auditorium BOP with Trinity, Newnham and Corpus. The musical and creative talents within the MCR were shown off in the traditional Graduate Salon. We had a hugely successful Heritage Night, a potluck with food from all over the world.

Little did we know that all this would be a complete taboo a few months later. It was the last weekend of Lent Term that everything changed. The coronavirus pandemic had reached the UK. All students, postgrads usually staying over the Easter break in Fitz, were urged 57

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to go home. There was no time for proper goodbyes; the mid-year point later turned out to be the end of their time physically in Cambridge for most one-year Masters students. Some PhD students, some of them veterans who had been at Fitz for 7 years or more including undergrad, had to finish their almost decade in Fitz in silence. It was heartbreaking for many.

Plans and policies changed by the day, sudden press conferences with ambiguous government guidance followed by emergency student rep meetings and lengthy emails. The value of the MCR became apparent yet again. As link between COVID guidance and the student body, we all stood in solidarity with each other following the same tough restrictions to “flatten the curve”. The MCR provided mental welfare support and, for those quarantined in the “sick bay” block, quarantine support. We also “adopted” the few JCR students that were left behind. The mission was “Fitz Isolate Together”. Fitzwilliam quickly found the right balance between battling COVID spread and maintaining mental health.

For those not in Cambridge anymore, with everyone now spread out over the world, it was challenging to stay in touch with the community. Those for whom Cambridge is their home all year around, life literally took place within the four walls of their bedrooms. The MCR was closed for 104 days. With the committee we did the best we could by creating an “Easter Term Not Cancelled” term card. Canada, Australia, and the UK on the same call became a regular thing, as were the weird situations of events online. All brushing your teeth together on a Zoom call, an online Grove platform, cooking competitions not based on tastiness, imposter games, and pub quizzes. Our Fitz Diary - every week a couple of contributions by MCR students, updating the others on their lockdown lives - will be an amazing memory for later. Online-everything was not easy. Bear in mind that everyone still wrote their thesis, research or alternative (48 hour, which is two all-nighters) exams.

As the weather improved over Easter Term, every small relaxation in restrictions (meeting outside in groups of 6!?) was followed by an eruption of creative ideas. Initiatives were set up that were never thought of before. We probably had the first Formal Dinner on the lawn in Cambridge and we organised open air cinemas with a movie projected on the Grove building. Friday Happy Hours on the lawn became a well known concept. The allotments revived, making Fitz almost self-sustainable during the lockdown.

At the end of summer we could even organise a distanced “Survivors Formal” in the dining hall again. It was good to see the coffeeshop and buttery staff back after so long and to have this opportunity to say goodbye to the few students that had remained until the end. These were emotional goodbyes: the lockdown really created tight friendships.

Time for the new cohort. Their welcome into the MCR went a bit different than normal: a pre-arrival Q&A session over Zoom; upon arrival two weeks of quarantine - the welfare officers had their hands full with a massive logistical operation of support volunteers and welfare packages; a two metre distance half-face to half-face meeting (masks); Wednesday swabbing day; and ultimately the awkwardness of not recognising someone’s face without a mask. All in all, a challenge to form a tight cohort in welcome week.

COVID restrictions over welcome week resulted in activities being duplicated and spread out over multiple weeks instead of one week. A large welcome week committee helped to deliver the most intense welcome

week term card: a daily quarantine programme, a photoshopped matriculation photo, three matriculation formals with not entirely exactly the same speeches, nightly walks with drinks stations, PhD new meets old, subject based online meet and greets, almost every household went punting, and mainly countless hot chocolate drinks in groups of 6 underneath the big chapel tree, which also brought us shelter in case of rain.

Many cold nights on the lawn followed. Every action needed to be risk assessed, coordinated by the vicepresident. One week we found an optimal COVID restrictions window, which is to date the only time the committee has been physically together: we had our first in person committee meeting and an “Election Formal” with the old and new committees. One of my best memories. A week later we stayed up the whole night in the MCR to watch Trump’s loss (or “victory”!?) in the US elections, in groups of 6.

The Fitz Christmas Carols congregation, with every year recurring music and traditions, was a moving moment of togetherness, a real anchor point connecting past and present making us realise how absurd the situation is and how lucky we are with the warm cloak that the Fitz family offers us.

A unique Christmas followed, for those stuck “Home Alone” in Cambridge. On Christmas Day we had boardgames, a Christmas Dinner that was cooked on the MCR BBQ and 2 hotplates by our very own “parttime chef” PhD student, and a movie projected, all in the Dining Hall. New Years Eve was celebrated outside with the London surprise fireworks show projected on the Grove building.

Besides the day to day running of the MCR, we also continued work of previous committees on more long term improvement and development of the MCR. The tech officer and treasurer worked on making the MCR rooms even more homely, also with the help of Fitzwilliam Society funding. The academic officer and graduate office organised a multitude of grad conferences which could be attended online from your bed from anywhere in the world. The crises of 2020 yet again show how valuable an interdisciplinary collegiate community is. With the help of the academic, access and environmental officers we educated each other about Black Lives Matter, journalism, and urgent climate issues. With the secretary’s newly formatted bulletins on our MCR website we hope to ever connect more and more students within the MCR, including students here with their family and part time MSt students in Criminology and Sustainability Leadership.

At the moment of writing we have had almost “one year of COVID”. In fact we are now at the most precarious moment of it all. Many things, some even as simple as meeting people in person, have not happened this year. But good things are also born, such as virtually accessible open days, a Zoom live podcast interview series with alumni young and old, more use of the beautiful gardens, closer household friend groups and Microsoft Teams.

The good sides of Fitz as a college were unveiled. Our traditionally strong community, as one of the oldest and most social MCRs, the down to earth and people focused character, the family feeling of staff and students, and the flexibility we have as a relatively young college help us to get through this in a way that has not been left unnoticed by the wider Cambridge community. To me and many others, Fitzwilliam became a safe, familiar, and warm home above all.

Looking ahead, we should never forget to foster this 59

From the early Formals of Michaelmas 2019, to the careful adherence to 2-metre socialising...

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and remain cautious for the effects of Brexit on the international character of the MCR and the effects of the dire financial climate on being able to keep graduate housing, so at the core of our community, at a respectable 2020+ quality level. On the other hand, the strong and social MCR community will grow in being a place of widening participation, much needed interdisciplinary academic exchange, and sustainability leadership.

For me, my year as MCR President is almost over. Its end exactly coincides with one year of COVID restrictions, and with a bit of optimism we will then have had the worst parts behind us. It is sad to have missed so many traditions and to have not been able to meet people in person. But it is an even bigger honour to have served this community through such historic times with such people. I am moved by all the strength, loyalty, and motivation of everyone around to contribute to a better Fitz. The large support volunteer network from every corner of the MCR community. The MCR members who look after COVID patients in the hospital or help in processing tests overnight. The college staff that always puts students first. All the online college meetings. Bursar Andrew Powell who retired after 11 years, in the midst of it all. The close collaboration with Sue, Suzy, and Alan - they worked so hard for every student. And most dearest to me the committee and its perseverance. Both MCR elections were well contested and with record voter turn-outs. We have become such a nice group, and also great friends. If we can achieve this all in such times of pressure, what all can’t we achieve in normal times?

This year has been sad for all of us, but we can only be very proud of each and everyone. 2020 has formed us. We still have Lent Term to go, but I know I am going to miss my time as president and miss everything we have not been able to do. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I hope that someday we will make up for this and meet each other all (finally) in person at a reunion formal sitting shoulder to shoulder, with plenty to talk about.

We will never forget.

Maurits Houck

MCR President 2020-2021