The College is saddened to announce that our Domestic Bursar of the last 12 years, Shelley Surtees, will be leaving the College at the end of this academic year.
Shelley has been instrumental in leading sustainability issues across the College, and more recently has guided the College through an incredibly challenging 14 months, helping the community to adjust to new ways of working and existing alongside the Coronavirus pandemic. And of course, she was known for her commitment to the mental health wellbeing of the entire College community, and alongside her dog Max, ensured that dog therapy was a regular occurrence in College.
Churchill student and former MCR President Jannat Ijaz said “Churchill College is an incredibly welcoming place and the staff that work at Churchill are a large part of the reason why. Shelley Surtees is the best example of this. She is always on hand to help the students with whatever they want or need. While working with Shelley as part of my role as MCR president, it became very clear how much she cares about students and how much extra time she spent making sure that our events and day to day life went as smoothly as possible, even in the extraordinary times of the pandemic. Shelley Surtees is the best example of the community spirit that makes so many students proud to be part of Churchill. She will be hugely missed by so many.”
Churchill Fellow Alison Ming, who worked with Shelley on sustainability initiatives said “It has been a great pleasure working with Shelley on Green Impact for the past 5 years. She has been absolutely amazing at driving forward the different projects, evaluating feasibility and coming up with clever ways to cut the College’s carbon footprint. I am particularly impressed by her efforts in getting a bike repair shop back on site and her work on reducing single use plastic around the College.” This was echoed by JCR Green Officer, George Crimes, who said “I have only known Shelley for a few months since coming here in October but her work handling the pandemic and on Green Impact has had a big effect on my time here. She has always been extremely welcoming and supportive of lots of green initiatives and for that, I will always be grateful. I am sure her and Max’s (her dog) presence around college will be sorely missed by the students and we wish both of them the very best of luck!”
Speaking of her departure Shelley said “It has been an absolute honour and privilege to serve the College and its extraordinary community for the last 12 years, I take with me many happy memories.” We wish Shelley the best of luck in whatever she does next, and will continue to build on her incredible work of the last 12 years.
