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THE TERMLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR EXONIANS MICHAELMAS TERM 2012 Welcome... to the latest edition of Exeter Matters, the termly electronic newsletter for Exonians. RECTOR’S NEWS At this time in the term, we race from one celebration to the next. In 7th Week, there was Thanksgiving. We ate quantities of turkey and strange concoctions such as sweet potatoes with marshmallows which the Williams students assured us were their favourite Thanksgiving food. Then we cleared the Hall to dance to the music of the Ozarks. Three days later, it was FRANCES CAIRNCROSS the College’s Advent Carol Service and Christmas Dinner: more turkey, this time embellished with carols from our wonderful choir. The following Friday was the Christmas service: more choir, more carols, more mince pies. All this festivity has had a bittersweet quality this year because one of our most popular students was killed in a traffic accident in mid-term: Dana Singh, a third-year lawyer, who had been one of the leading lights of the JCR ever since she arrived. We commemorated her with a moving gathering in the Chapel, which was packed with flowers, candles and sorrowing students and Fellows, as well as her courageous family. VANDANA SINGH We seem to have had more than our fair share of student tragedies in my time at Exeter, and I hope our run of sadness is now at an end. One of the joys of the term was a talk by Philip Pullman on his latest book, Grimm Tales. He packed the Sheldonian for one of our 700th Anniversary lectures, at which he was introduced by Jeri Johnson, our senior Fellow in English, and described the difference between a fairy tale and a novel. The fairy tale is stripped of character development and background, brisk and to the point – and in the case of the Brothers Grimm, has little to say about fairies. Another speaker, to a quite different audience, was Professor Graham Ward, a former Chaplain and now Regius Professor of Divinity. He talked at the Subject Family Dinner for those studying literature and the arts. These dinners are a way to bring together, for PHILIP PULLMAN an evening apiece each year, the four main subject groups in College – the “literati” and | 2 MICHAELMASMICHAELMAS TERMTERM 20122010 historians; the social scientists and lawyers; the medics and life scientists; and the non- life scientists and mathematicians. We always start with a seminar for everyone at which four or five of our graduate students give short papers on their research, and go on to dinner with a speaker and a debate. Professor Ward, who has been head of the School of Arts at Manchester University, talked about interdisciplinary method in the arts and stimulated lots of argument and conversation. We have been planning events for the next year and a half. The Easter and summer vacations of 2013 both seem to be given over to walking: climbing the Three Peaks at Easter and Kilimanjaro in September, both to help the Development Office raise money GRAHAM WARD towards the Annual Fund. I plan to set off on a walk of my own, from Exeter Cathedral to Exeter College at the end of July through the first two (or maybe three) weeks of August – a journey that our earliest students would once have made. Companions welcome. Beyond that, we will soon have dates for most of the events planned for 2013–14. There will be something for everyone, we hope, and plenty of College history. A 700th birthday calls for a full year of celebrations. Frances Cairncross DEVELOPMENT OFFICE NEWS Exeter Development Office wins award Exeter College’s Development Office won the Blackbaud Digital Fundraising Award for ‘Best use of email in fundraising’ in October. The prestigious prize was given to Exeter in recognition of the use of email during its 2011–12 Annual Fund campaign, which raised over £675,000 and drew support from 2,187 Old Members – 37 per cent of the alumni base, which is more than any other college or university outside of the USA. Register 2012 and Donors’ Report 2011–12 now online The 2012 edition of the Register and the 2011–12 edition of the Donors’ Report are now available on the College website. Hard copies are being posted this week, and include information on the programme of events for the College’s 700th anniversary year in 2014. If you did not receive hard copies of these publications and would like to in future years, please email your contact details to the Development Office. Philip Pullman gives lecture on “Grimm Tales” Philip Pullman entertained hundreds of Exeter Old Members last month at his 700th Anniversary Lecture, “Retelling Grimm”. Philip Pullman (1965, English) spoke to an audience of over 700 students, Alumni, Friends, Fellows, staff and guests. Jeri Johnson, Official Fellow in English, introduced and chaired the session. Mr Pullman recently published Grimm Tales: For Young and Old, a retelling of classic stories by the Brothers Grimm. | 3 MICHAELMASMICHAELMAS TERMTERM 20122010 Join in the Exeter sporting challenges! As part of Exeter’s 700th anniversary celebrations the College is running three sporting challenges: the Three Peaks, the Coast to Coast, and Kilimanjaro. Raise sponsorship towards Exeter’s Annual Fund while undertaking a thrilling – if gruelling – challenge. You can choose to walk to the peak of the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales in just 24 hours, to cycle 136 miles from Whitehaven to Tynemouth, across the Lake District and the beautiful open moors of the Northern Pennines, or to climb Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. Exeter Christmas cards on sale Exeter College Christmas cards are now available to buy online. There are two designs to choose from: a beautiful view of the Radcliffe Camera from the Fellows’ Garden and a watercolour painting of the Chapel by Fine Art alumnus Max Mulvany (2009). Profits from the sale of the cards are split evenly between the University of Oxford and Exeter College. Visit www.oushop.com to see the designs and purchase your Christmas cards. COLLEGE NEWS Exeter remembers Vandana Singh (2010, Jurisprudence) Students, Fellows, family and staff gathered in Michaelmas Term to commemorate the life of Vandana Singh, who tragically died in a traffic accident in 7th Week. Dana, as she was known, was a livewire: she was at the heart of many College social events, as instigator, organiser and participant. She will be greatly missed. An obituary to Dana is included in the 2012 edition of the Register. Exeter hosts 180 Investigating Options teachers Exeter hosted around 180 teachers from state schools across the country in Michaelmas Term, accompanied by some of their Year 11 students as part of the Investigating Options Days. Investigating Options focuses on encouraging students to think about the opportunities available to them at university, and how their choice of A-levels might affect those choices. Exeter takes possession of the new Walton Street site Exeter College has now officially taken ownership of its Walton Street premises – the former site of Ruskin College. Rector Frances Cairncross collected the keys on 28 September. The College, advised by Malcolm Reading Consultants and others, will now work with Alison Brooks Architects to develop the design of the site, emphasising the need to respect the qualities of the site and its surroundings. Exeter student on BBC Choir of the Year 2012 Gitanjali Joseph (2010, History) has appeared on the BBC Choir of the Year programme, singing for the Oxford Gargoyles. The Gargoyles were Choir of the Year ‘open category’ winners in October, qualifying them for the televised grand final at the Royal Festival Hall. Unfortunately the group weren’t able to claim the overall crown, but their performance was exemplary nonetheless. | 4 MICHAELMAS TERM 2012 UNIVERSITY NEWS Oxford ranked second in world league table Oxford University has come joint second in the world, and top in medicine, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The rankings, produced in association with Thomson Reuters, are based on 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas: teaching (worth 30% of the overall ranking score); research (worth 30%); citations (worth 30%); industry income (worth 2.5%); and international outlook (worth 7.5%). Ruskin lecturer wins Turner Prize An Oxford University lecturer has won this year’s Turner Prize. Elizabeth Price, who was appointed as University Lecturer in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art earlier this year, received the prestigious award for her solo exhibition at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. Rare Bodleian books made available online 335,000 rare books can now be read in full for free online, thanks to the Bodleian Libraries’ collaboration with Google. First editions of Jane Austen’s Emma, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and the first English translation of Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy are among the priceless books which can now be read here. Radcliffe Humanities opens on ROQ Radcliffe Humanities was officially opened on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site in October. The refurbishment of the building, which was formerly the Radcliffe Infirmary, was completed in August 2012. The Humanities Divisional Office, Faculty of Philosophy, and Philosophy and Theology Libraries are already occupying the building. Construction begins on China Centre building Construction on a building for a centre bringing together Oxford University’s research on China began in October. The building will be based at St Hugh’s College. The University of Oxford China Centre is made up of more than 40 academics drawn from a diverse range of disciplines, with common research and teaching interests related to China. Oxford welcomes 11,000 undergraduate degree applicants More than 11,000 prospective undergraduate students will be in Oxford in early December to take part in the University’s annual admissions interview period.