Hilary Term 2017

THE TERMLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR EXONIANS HILARY TERM 2017 Welcome... to the latest edition of Exeter Matters, the electronic newsletter for Exonians. RECTOR’S NEWS By far the most important event of Hilary Term 2017 has been the coming into active use of Cohen Quad. The College having taken possession of the site just before Christmas, entry took place during 0th week as students returned for the new term. On 14 January the presidents of the JCR (old and new) and the MCR – watched by a large audience of Exeter students, fellows and staff – cut a ceremonial ribbon to inaugurate the Quad’s student common room. Then, on 27 January, a similarly large and varied crowd took part in PROFESSOR SIR RICK TRAINOR an informal lunch, in the Quad’s Dakota Café, as the building’s chief philanthropist, Sir Ronald Cohen, and the Quad’s architect, Alison Brooks, joined me in giving brief speeches to celebrate the activation of the building. Then, on 6 March, the alumni of the UK/US Fulbright scholarship programme gave the Quad’s FitzHugh Auditorium its first public booking (which also served as one of seven rector’s seminars this term) as award-winning film director Susanna White analysed why so few directors and producers are women. All these events are building up to the ceremonial opening of the Quad on Sunday 19 March. So Cohen Quad is in intensive daily use. More than 80 undergraduates, a junior dean and a visiting fellow live there. Teaching takes place each weekday in the fellows’ FORMALLY OPENING THE STUDENT teaching rooms on the third floor. The café is well patronised by fellows, staff and COMMON ROOM AT COHEN QUAD students – including many who neither study nor work nor live on site. And the Learning Commons – the wonderfully spacious core of the building – is used non- stop by Exeter students, including those in the Williams programme. This rapid take-up in part reflects how crowded we have been on the Turl Street site, as alumni of many different generations can testify! But the immediate enthusiasm for the Quad also reflects the genius of its design and the high quality of the finished product. (I can praise the former without suspicion of immodesty as the project, and the architect, were launched well before I came on the scene!) Everyone I’ve met who has seen the building enthuses about its beauty – the dramatic central arches, the plentiful views to its internal quads, the sense of spaciousness, the quality of the materials. The early success of the building also indicates the importance of providing THE ENTRANCE OF COHEN QUAD PLUS THE STUNNING COLONNADE Exeter, for the first time, with spaces where fellows, students and staff can mix freely. | 2 HILARYMICHAELMAS TERM TERM2017 2010 Another ‘first’ was the visit of six Exeter undergraduates to Williams College for two weeks in January where they took part in ‘winter study’. The students returned enthusiastic about the hospitality (in which last year’s Williams students at Exeter played a large role) and the course they pursued (a study of early American history using rare manuscripts held by Williams). Exeter English fellow Sophie Butler – who teaches many of the Williams students at Exeter – provided on-site coordination and encouragement. It is hoped that there will be many sequels to this initial excursion. EXETER STUDENTS AT WILLIAMS Another major feature of the term has been sporting success. The men’s football team COLLEGE, MASSACHUSETTS has been well up the premier league, for example. And Exeter had its most successful Torpids in years, with both the men’s first boat (which had four bumps in all) and the women’s first boat scoring bumps on three of the four days. The skill and esprit de corps of the rowers were key; the visit to Exeter during Torpids week of quintuple Olympic medallist Dame Katherine Grainger provided inspiration. Exeter played host this year to the annual Turl Street Arts Festival. Capped as usual by a magnificent Evensong sung by the combined choirs, the now traditional late February array of exhibitions and performances was supplemented by a street fair in Brasenose Lane. No one can be certain that these student-led festivals have diminished the appeal of the once notorious Hilary Term ‘Turl Street Run’, but surely they have been major steps in the right direction! Other celebrations have included Burns Night (addressed by distinguished journalist EXETER’S ROWERS Hamish McRae, husband of Rector Cairncross) and Chinese New Year (Exeter’s second annual such event). We have also had subject family dinners for mathematical and physical sciences and for medical and life sciences (addressed by fellows Dr Martin Davy and Dr Gail Hayward respectively) and alumni/student dinners for PPE (addressed by Sir Mark Allen [1968, Oriental Studies]) and Law (addressed by Simon Johnston [1988, Jurisprudence]). A far less expert address was a sermon I gave on 11 February as part of a series on objects and the Christian tradition. My ‘object’ was the beautiful Chapel itself and its 17th century predecessor which our Victorian forbearers demolished in the 1850s. Academic developments have included appointment processes which will result in several new Exeter fellows starting next autumn. Also, at the end of Eighth Week many of our prospective new undergraduates appeared, with parents and other family members, at Exeter’s third annual briefing day for offer holders. Likewise on 25 January the Hall was bursting at the annual Parents’ Dinner, mainly for the families TRACY COGHILL of second year students. Four Exonian entrepreneurs spoke eloquently about their businesses at an alumni event hosted by Tracy Coghill (1990, Jurisprudence) at City Asset Management plc on 23 February. Two other alumni – Carolyn Evans (1995, Law), dean of the Melbourne Law School, and Minquan Liu (1985, Economics), professor at Peking University and visiting fellow at Exeter – have given rector’s seminars. Bruce Carnegie Brown (1978, English) has become Chairman of Lloyds of London and Sir Roger Bannister (1946, Physiological Sciences) was named a Companion of Honour in the Queen’s New Year honours list. As I write Oxford’s Easter Vacation has just begun. In late March I’ll be visiting alumni in Hong Kong and in Singapore. In the meantime the grand opening of Cohen Quad will include prominent roles for Dame Frances Cairncross, Sir Ronald Cohen (1964, PPE) and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson. The opening will SIR ROGER BANNISTER highlight the great success of the Exeter Excelling Campaign in having raised more | 3 HILARYMICHAELMAS TERM TERM2017 2010 than £46 million, with recent pledges set to take the total over £50 million. Cohen Quad is far from the end of the College’s aspirations; indeed it is a major springboard for such plans. But the Quad is a major achievement, and it could not have been accomplished without the generosity of Exeter’s alumni and friends. In turn those sums could not have been raised without key figures such as Rector Cairncross (whose leadership has been so important to Exeter’s upward trajectory), alumni leaders such as Mark Houghton Berry (1979, Literae Humaniores – chair of the campaign) and, of course, Exeter’s fabulously successful Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Katrina Hancock. The first of Exeter’s female students to become a fellow, Katrina has played a key part in the campaign and in the execution of the Quad project. When she leaves the College on 31 March to take a very well deserved career break she will have the cheers of Exonians around the world ringing in her ears. Professor Sir Rick Trainor Rector COLLEGE NEWS Exeter College set to hold formal opening of Cohen Quad On the weekend of Saturday 18th March and Sunday 19th March 2017, Exeter College, Oxford will formally open Cohen Quad, its new premises on Walton Street. Named for the parents of Exeter College alumnus Sir Ronald Cohen, this new quadrangle, less than 10 minutes’ walk from the College’s historic site on Turl Street, transforms the College and allows it to provide 90 additional study-bedrooms for students, teaching and performance space, a reading room and climate-controlled storage for the College’s special collections, and a hub for social learning. Cohen Quad welcomes film director for inaugural FitzHugh Auditorium lecture We were delighted to host our first lecture in Cohen Quad’s FitzHugh Auditorium earlier this month, as Exeter College welcomed the award-winning film director Susanna White. Known for acclaimed TV series such as Jane Eyre, Parade’s End, and Bleak House, as well as feature films such as Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and an adaptation of John Le Carré’s Our Kind of Traitor, Susanna White spoke about the paucity of female film directors under the title ‘A Screen of One’s Own’. William Morris carpet unveiled at Cohen Quad A carpet designed by Exonian William Morris (1852) has been installed at Cohen Quad, linking the College’s past with its present. Originally believed to be from the Kelmscott Manor estate – home to William Morris from 1871 until his death in 1896 – the carpet was, until recently, laid on the floor of the Rector’s Lodgings. When thinking about how we might tie the history and heritage of the College, which is so evident at Turl Street, into Cohen Quad, the Quad’s architects proposed that the carpet be hung on public display. Exeter students study at Williams College, MA In January six Exeter College students visited Williams College, Massachusetts to study part of the liberal arts college’s winter study programme. Sophia Miller (2012, Literae Humaniores) was one of the six students to visit.

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