Meet ‘Hit Refresh’: The only group running for freshers’ week organisers

Hit Refresh are the only group running for Freshers’ Week Organisers (FWO) 2016. 

So, we spoke to them about who they are and their plans in store for next year’s freshers’.

Hit Refersh team: Charlie, Lauren, Maeve, Tom

Why have you gone for it?

We’re ultimate crew lovers and love to party. We all know a lot about freshers’ week having all been supervisors on crew this year. Also, the four of us are big fans of organised fun, so being freshers’ week organisers is the dream.

How did you come together?

We (Lauren, Maeve, Charlie) met last year during Freshers’ crew, got on really well and have been really good friends since. We then met Tom this year during crew as he was a supervisor too, he was super great and exciting and hot, and generally the dogs bollocks so we thought we’d let him recapture his youth, and so the four of us came together and formed Hit Refresh.

How did you come up with the name ‘Hit Refresh’?

We spent surprisingly long trying to be punny, brainstorming a plethora of ‘fresh’ names. Minty fresh, fresh crepes, freshting bitch face, final freshtination were just some of the ideas. In the end, we decided that we wanted to refresh Freshers’ Week, and make it better than it’s ever been, so the name Hit Refresh was born.

How do you feel about being the only ones running?

Absolutely buzzing! This position has been so competitive in the past, so it was really shocking when we found out Hit Refresh was the only team running this year (…clearly we’re the only ones that wanted it enough). Not forgetting that we’re up against the infamous RON (re-open nominations) though, we’re not going to be cocky and we will still campaign just as hard.

What are your plans?

The theme is time travel. We’re starting the week with a massive pre-historic festival. The next night is Clash the Halls, think of togas, gladiators and Vikings etc. Then a massive 60s themed paint party, followed by a 90s/00s bar crawl. On the final night, we plan to have a massive futuristic warehouse party, which is open to all years.

We want to have great choice for students who don’t like drinking too, so we’re planning loads non-drinking night-time activities too such as gigs, comedy nights, grub crawls, theatre trips and a final formal dinner.

Also, we’re making sure this year we’re focusing more on what current students say we could improve and what they want for next year, rather than just forcing our ideas.

What’s going to make this year better?

Some of the feedback we got from this year was that pick-ups from Halls for the nights out we’re way too early, so we’re making sure these are later next year. We’re also going to have online activity sign up for daytime activities, such as Go Ape and Paintballing, so freshers don’t have to get out of bed hungover to get on the activities.

We plan to have two nights open to all years so everyone can get involved in freshers’ week, and we also want a lot more involvement from societies, running taster sessions so everyone can try something new.

We want to merge International Arrivals Week and freshers’ week so there will be as many people on campus as possible and International students can have as good a time during their first week in the city.

Charlie, third year, Biochem

From: Huddersfield

Experience: Freshers’ crew 2014, RAG crew 2015, Freshers’ Week Supervisor 2015

Lauren, third year, English Lit

From: Sheffield

Experience: Freshers crew 2014, RAG crew supervisor 2015 and Freshers’ Week Supervisor 2015

Maeve, third year, Law

From: Bangor, Northern Ireland

Experience: Freshers’ crew 2014, RAG crew 2014/15, Freshers’ Week Supervisor 2015.

Tom, second year, Marine Technology and Offshore Engineering

From: London

Experience: Freshers’ Week crew 2014 and Freshers’ Week Supervisor 2015

You can view the Hit Refresh manifesto and vote here.