Eight colleges were left red-faced last week after Constantine College logged the highest turnout in proportion to its members – despite only being in existence for TWO months.
Despite its relatively short lifespan so far, College Nine had almost half its members vote at 44 per cent.
This compares with an average 34 per cent for Goodricke College and 32 per cent for Langwith College.
But heads were being scratched at both Alcuin College and Halifax College after just over 1 in 10 of their members bothered to cast a vote.
Colleges were voting in the latest round of JCRC elections to decide their team for the coming academic year.
Constantine voted in their first ever JCRC after it was launched just two months ago.
A welcome committee had been in office since doors opened to freshers in September.
The college’s first ever directly-elected president, Usman Khan, was voted in at the weekend.
He praised members for coming out to cast their vote.
He said: “Hopefully the seeds have been laid for highly motivated participation in the future, not just in voting but in leading the College and University.”
Langwith College students actually cast the most votes at nearly 6,700 with each member voting an average of 13 times, whereas Derwent College had the highest number of voters at 600.
Whilst 44% is very impressive, important context is that Constantine has almost no non-resident students this year. Engaging non-resident members is a challege for all colleges.
Goodricke’s and Langwith’s turn-out is much more significant achievement in this context.