About Mildert

Mildert is an incredibly friendly college with an unbelievable variety of activities you can get involved in, set up, or just enjoy! There is something for everyone.

–Sam Roseveare, JCR President

Amenities

We’re pretty fortunate to have a lot of great facilities around college for student use, you can find out more about these over on the main JCR website…

• The Bar, the social hub of college. Not just because it is the main supply of cheap alcomohol but because you will always know someone in the bar. Fact.
• The Shop, in need of ProPlus, washing powder, pick’n'mix, cut price condoms or all of the above? The Shop is there when you need it.
• The Library, apparently this is where they keep all the books?
• The Gym, to make you grow big and strong.
• The JCR, as well as being a democratic student run charity organisation the JCR is also an actual room. Equipped with a fit Plasma screen and comfy sofas this space is your place to chillax whenever you want.

There’s loads more too, including the PS3 Room, Tennis Courts, Fiction Library, Computer Room, Music Suite and Recording Studio. With everything you need right on site, why would you ever even need to leave college?

Social Events

Mildert has a truly awesome social life. From bops, band nights and socials to formals and balls, there’s nearly always something fun going on! Some notable events to look out for include:

• Bops: Durham lingo for a bit of a party basically. Held a couple of times a term a bop is a massive themed night in college; fancy dress is the word and no outfit is too daring. Bops often feature DJ’s and bands, special cocktails, freebies and other entertainment…
• Formals: Formals are (or at least start off as) a bit more of a civilised affair, they’re an opportunity to get smarted up, enjoy a nice three course meal and a bit of banter with your friends over a bottle of wine. They’re held every other week or so and even though they seat 400 people they’re often heavily oversubscribed so its fasted fingers first on the website.
• Michaelmas Ball: this ball held towards the end of the first term is sort of a hybrid of a formal and a bop and is a big date in the calendar! There’s a posh meal for those that get on the meal bit, then there’s entertainment all night, often through until some silly time in the morning.
• Productions: Whether its as a dancer, actor, singer, musician, rigger, stage-hand, choreographer, director, producer, promoter, technician there’s loads of opportunities to get involved in Mildert’s plentiful productions. There’s a range of musical and theatrical productions through the year, culminating in a big summer musical production in the third term which sees the dining hall transformed into a professional theatre.
• Jam By The Lake: In the blissful days after the end of Exams we have a whole host of different events to reward you for your effort all year. Jam By The Lake is our very own free mini-musical festival held outside on our lawns, everyone’s invited for an afternoon of sunshine, Pimms, and great music from the likes of The Holloways, Frank Turner, Hella Cholla and To My Boy who have all played at this event before!
• Summer Ball: The big daddy of balls, this event is the social climax of the year and is not to be missed! The whole of college is transformed for this huge 12-hour long event. This year’s ball was attended by more than 600 people and featured B*Witched, a Ferris Wheel, Ministry of Sound DJs and loads more, in the past we’ve had visits from a circus (big top and everything), Chesney Hawkes, 911, Captain and Scott Mills to name but a few.
• Mildert Day: The last big event of the year Mildert Day is about sitting around in the sunshine celebrating all that is good about Mildert, enjoying some live music and bouncing on the inevitable inflatables. The “Mildert Day Challenge” runs all day (ask for details!) and the day is topped off by one of the most popular formals of the year.

Student Support

There are nearly 1,000 students knocking about in Van Mildert College, so it is not surprising that sometimes some of us need a bit of help or someone to have a bit of a chat with. At some point or another everyone feels the pressure or needs a bit of help and at Durham and especially at Mildert we have a great range of sources of support!

• Welfare Officer, a fellow student responsible for your welfare. They, or one of their assistants are on call 24/7 via a dedicated mobile number to respond to any problems you have.
• Welfare Committee, a whole committee of nice people dedicated to looking out for you!
• Each student is assigned a College Tutor, tutors are usually SCR members (random people somehow affiliated with the college) and are there to offer their wisdom and experience on surviving Durham.
• Boss of all the tutors is the Senior Tutor, the lovely Petra Points. Petra is there to help with any problems, be they medical, personal, financial or academic.
• If for whatever reason you’d rather talk to someone outside of the college bubble then there’s also the University-wide Nightline Service, a confidential and anonymous advice line.

JCR Democracy

The JCR presents loads of opportunities to get involved and try new things. As well as having a large number of committees which are responsible for running different aspects of college life (everything from working the shop to organising our outreach projects with local schools) we also have societies for those with mutual interested, and sports clubs for the more active amongst us.

The JCR is governed by its members, and JCR meetings are held a few times a term to sort out important matters and host elections for some of the JCR’s officers such as the Executive Committee who are elected to oversee the day-to-day running of the JCR.

You can find complete lists of JCR Clubs, Societies and Committees, plus information about how the JCR is governed on the main JCR website!