The College is organised in three Common Rooms, known as the Junior, Middle, and Senior Common Rooms – abbreviated respectively to JCR, MCR and SCR.
Undergraduates are members of the JCR, graduate students of the MCR and Fellows and Senior Members of the SCR. The two student Common Rooms elect committees to conduct their business and represent their members. The terms JCR, MCR and SCR are used both for the collective groups of their respective members and for the actual rooms in which they meet.
The Governing Body
This consists of the Master and the Fellows, except Pensioner, Overseas and Honorary Fellows. In addition there are four student members, two representing the postgraduate students and two representing the undergraduates; student members have voting rights on all matters except those discussed under Reserved Business. (Business is normally “unreserved” unless it relates to a named individual.) The Governing Body is the supreme authority in the College and has power to amend the Statutes, subject to the approval of the University and the Privy Council, and to make Ordinances. It must meet at least once a year in the Michaelmas term to elect members of the Council and the Fellowship Electors, and to approve the College Accounts, but it usually meets twice a term. The Master or any six Fellows can call a meeting at any time.
The College Council
This is the main operating committee of the College and is the Trustee Body for the charitable corporation of the College. Ex officio Senior Members are the Master, the Vice-Master, the Senior Tutor, the Senior Postgraduate Tutor, the Bursar; eight other Fellows are elected to serve for two years each. There are two JCR, two MCR and two staff members with voting rights: they attend most of each meeting, leaving for certain “reserved” subjects. The members are the JCR and MCR Presidents and one other elected representative from each Common Room. Meeting usually fortnightly during Full Term, the Council takes decisions on a wide range of matters. It elects teaching Fellows and appoints all College Officers except the Vice-Master, and it exercises general supervision over admissions of undergraduates and graduate students, educational, tutorial and disciplinary matters, and over College finances and administration.
There are many sub-committees of the Council dealing with the detail of specific areas of the College’s operation from Welfare and Education to Estates (buildings and maintenance), Finance and the Remuneration Committee. Most committees include student representatives from the JCR and the MCR.
