The Jenga Interviews: Tom Connor
Prodding the first Jenga piece through the wooden monolith, with bright eyes piercing through dark-rimmed spectacles, it occurred to me that Tom Connor is not accustomed to playing games. In stark contrast to his animated and somewhat controversial predecessor, Tom appears to squint when confronted with lime light.
He bore the evidence of a night out at Toffs: three day old stubble clung to his wide-set face, his dark dishevelled hair should have been strewn on a barbers floor (he would later cite poor financial management as cause for his scruffy appearance). Nothing about Tom distinguished him from the average York student.
Though relaxed, his demeanour was nevertheless engaging. His eager eyes, peering over the ellipse of his polystyrene Nescafe cup, were providing me with a heightened state of alacrity. I had sped through an initial line of questioning. He chose his words with frugality and yet spoke them with patience. This interrogation relinquished a few points worthy of note.
Tom Connor prefers Britney to Kylie. He reads the Guardian, he has never been in a fight (though he is not entirely opposed to the idea), he drinks ‘girly’ drinks on a night out, his favourite film is Quadrophenia, and book The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. Tom has given blood once; is single; once had aspirations to be an actor; was first drunk at age 15; studied Psychology; attended the same sixth form college as Ben Elton; supports Everton F.C., and was born and raised in Gilford, Surrey.
Extracting the first piece from the tower, he reads aloud the inscription "What was the worst day you have ever had?".
"I guess it must have been when my cat died…", in a frank tone, without hesitation "…just before I left for university." It seems that the passing of his family pet cast a shadow over his early university experience. Situated in an off-campus flat, sharing with post-graduates, Tom found the fresher thing a little uncomfortable.
"I remember in week 7 of the first term, I had gone home for the weekend, and I didn’t want to come back" This feeling of ill ease, he explained, was to continue for the majority of his first year. "I spent time in Wentworth, then in Goodricke, and although I wasn’t necessarily enjoying my time…" he would sporadically break gaze, but only to consider his words, "…I met more people than I would have in one college, which probably stood me in good stead."
Perhaps his ambitious edge was a product of this early unrest. Tom became Goodricke chair in his second year and took up the non-sabbatical role of societies officer in his third, before winning the Presidential election in 2002. He presently speaks of his inspiration to run for president, "…I saw what Ben Youdan was doing, and thought ‘yeah, I want to get involved in that, it looks really good.’"
"What was your silliest moment?" inquires the leaning tower. "Election night last year when I thought I had lost. I was rude and insulting to everyone I knew…." He had been on an all day drinking binge in an attempt to subdue his tingling nerves, and when the exit-poll predicted that he had lost, his inebriated brain convinced him that all his hard-work had been to no avail, "…it wasn’t very nice."
The tower was beginning to wobble as he tentatively slid out a block that read "Why did you come to York in the first place?". He placed in neatly alongside the other pieces he had accumulated, and began: "Cardiff was the university I desperately wanted to go to. I ended up here, and I remember it being bizarre because I came on my open day and thought, ‘there is absolutely no chance I want to go here’; I hated it!".
So the future Student Union president came to York on default, it being the only institution on his UCAS form that would let him in. Courtesy of the admissions loophole that distinguishes the mix of students at York from that of other celebrated universities (they consider General Studies to be a valid A-Level result), Tom consummated his arranged marriage with destiny. Asked if he still harbours regrets he replied with a hint of sadness, "Obviously now it couldn’t have worked out any better. I loved being a student and wish I could do it again… I look at it and think, two and a half years have gone so quickly. I’d love to do it again and take stalk a bit more, and not rush things."
A crude act of dexterity removes another block, and the tower collapses. He poses the final question to himself, "What is your greatest fear?" Then, after due deliberation, "I think that most graduates, or post graduates have this intense fear of going back to live with their parents." So what are the alternatives then? "What about a political career?" I pose this question in spite of my intuitive assertion that he lacks the dispositional qualities required to succeed in politics (I am not sure he is a very good liar). His reply, "I don’t regard myself as a very political person…I am not looking to launch a political career or anything like that off a job like this. It has simply been a good job for myself."
It is a sad truth of life that those who concentrate their energies on doing an honest days work are rarely celebrated. Concentrating his quotidian energies on the people that his work concerns will not earn Tom the recognition of his politically motivated contemporaries.
Will Straw, the president of Oxford student union, and son of the British Foreign Secretary, is noted for his aggressive politicalism and unshakeable charisma (he is an arrogant bugger). He fights for the power of the student body, he was recently the subject of a cover-story in The Independent, and may well go on to become president of the National Union of Students. There is something quintessentially Oxford about Will. Conversely, I get the feeling that there is something quintessentially York about Tom.
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