Welcome... to the Latest Edition of Exeter Matters, the Termly Electronic Newsletter for Exonians
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THE TERMLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR EXONIANS HILARY TERM 2014 Welcome... to the latest edition of Exeter Matters, the termly electronic newsletter for Exonians. RECTOR’S NEWS Just as Hilary Term drew to a close came the news of the death of Professor Marilyn Butler, my predecessor as Rector. It filled me with sorrow. She was a transformative Rector, and not just because she was the first female head of any of the ancient colleges in Oxford or Cambridge. Her warmth and her scholarship left their stamp on the College which I inherited and has made my job easier and more pleasant. I owe her a great deal. There will be a memorial service in the College FRANCES CAIRNCROSS Chapel on Thursday 24 April at 3.30pm. All are most welcome. It has not been an easy term. Our students boycotted the Dining Hall for two weeks, distressed by the charge we make to defray a third of the costs of running the Hall. We have begun negotiating an alternative way to finance those costs, through a meal plan which we hope will seem a fairer solution to this vexed problem. We carry most of the costs through our vacation conference and summer-school business and through commercial dinners – but we would rather use our scarce cash to offer financial aid to our poorer students than to relieve the whole student body of the entire bill for overheads. It’s a tough balance. The most cheerful event of the term was undoubtedly the Men’s Football Cuppers PROF MARILYN BUTLER Final, played against St Catz, which I watched at the Iffley grounds on a sunny Sunday evening. We have some remarkably good footballers in College just now, including three members of the Blues team, one of them the Captain. In a nail-biting game, they reached half-time without scoring, one goal down. And it was a heart-stopping 20 minutes into the second half before they equalised – and only in the final three minutes that they scored the winning goal. It is the first time we have brought home the vast trophy since 1974. We’ll give them a High Table dinner on April 27th, and will welcome any Old Members who want to use their dining rights to join us that evening. We are almost ready to start knocking down the nastier parts of our Walton Street buildings. The building industry’s inflation forecasts shot up last autumn while we were working our way through the delays to our planning application, and we have CUPPERS GLORY had to work hard to hold costs in check and decide where to alter the design to reduce | 2 HILARYMICHAELMAS TERM TERM2014 2010 expense without sacrificing quality and style. With luck, we will be able to swing the sledgehammers just about the time we celebrate Founder’s Day at the start of April. Before that, I am heading for Asia: first, to a conference we have organised in Wuxi, birthplace of our most famous Chinese alumnus, the author Qian Zhongshu, and then to our party in Hong Kong. After Founder’s Day, and the weekend celebrations, we have our special Law Day, and then a visit from our Honorary Fellow the Queen of Spain at the start of term. We have another party planned in New York, and then at the QIAN ZHONGSHU end of June a fabulous Ball. Finally, through my last summer, I want to remember the members of College who lost their lives in the First World War. I plan to visit their graves and memorials, mainly in Flanders and northern France, in the first fortnight of September, to leave an assurance that the College has not forgotten them. There will be details on the College web site in the next few weeks. We will need volunteers to visit some of the more far-flung graves (see the College’s Roll of Honour on the web site), and we hope to raise the money for a plaque in the Chapel to commemorate College staff who died in the war, and the three Exonians whose names are not recorded in our beautiful First World War memorial. Floreat Exon! FIRST WORLD WAR MEMORIAL Frances Cairncross DEVELOPMENT OFFICE NEWS Walton Street plans formally approved Excellent news! The plans for Exeter’s redevelopment of the former Ruskin College site on Walton Street have now been formally approved. The College’s “third quad” has been designed by Alison Brooks, who was named one of Britain’s 500 most influential people by Debrett’s in January. Exeter marks campaign successes to date Exeter has published a guide to the College’s Exeter Excelling campaign. The guide celebrates the achievements and generosity of alumni and friends of the College and sets out the College’s ambitions moving forward. You can view the guide by clicking here. Telethon campaign commences A team of 14 students is calling alumni worldwide between 15 March and 2 April as part of Exeter’s spring telethon campaign. The students will be updating alumni on College news and forthcoming events and asking for a 700th anniversary gift to Exeter. If you speak to a student, we hope you enjoy your conversation! Inaugural careers event to celebrate 35 years of women at Exeter On 5 March Exeter College held its inaugural careers event to celebrate 35 years of women at Exeter and highlight some of the professions they have gone on to enjoy. Chaired by Rector Frances Cairncross, four leading alumnae in the fields of writing, publishing and journalism spoke about their career paths and offered informal advice over dinner to a group of Exeter graduates and undergraduates. | 3 HILARYMICHAELMAS TERM TERM2014 2010 700th anniversary events in full swing Alumni and students have continued to enjoy events marking the College’s 700th anniversary. Recent events include the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Symposium, the Humanities Symposium, JK Rowling in conversation with Jeri Johnson, Lessons in Leadership, and the City Lecture. We hope to see as many alumni as possible at upcoming events this year. 700th anniversary memorabilia available now! To mark the 700th anniversary celebrations, Exeter has a range of commemorative merchandise available to buy now including: • Piper Heidsieck Rare 2002 award winning vintage champagne, just £70 a bottle • Commemorative ale brewed using hops from the Rector’s garden • Watercolour cards with four evocative depictions of Exeter College • The commemorative book, Exeter College: The First 700 Years • Exeter College alumni publications, including signed copies of Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales and Roger Bannister’s The First Four Minutes To order merchandise email [email protected] or call 01865 279619. COLLEGE NEWS Exeter mourns death of Professor Marilyn Butler Exeter College is very sad to announce the death on 11 March of Professor Marilyn Butler, Rector of Exeter College from 1993 to 2004. There will be a memorial service held in the College Chapel on Thursday 24 April at 3.30pm. You can read the Guardian newspaper’s obituary here. Queen Sofía of Spain to visit Exeter College Queen Sofía of Spain will visit Exeter College on 29 April 2014. Queen Sofía is an honorary fellow of Exeter College and gives her name to the Queen Sofía Research Fellow in Modern Peninsular Spanish Literature, held by Dr Daniela Omlor. Queen Sofía will meet and hear from members of the University who teach and research the Spanish culture and language including Exeter fellows and students. Exeter College AFC wins Cuppers final Congratulations to Exeter College AFC for winning the football Cuppers final against St Catherine’s College. St Catherine’s led 1–0 at half time but Exeter played with more positive intent in the second half and triumphed 1–2. It is 40 years since Exeter last won the Cuppers trophy. Here Graham Howell (1972, Jurisprudence) recalls that momentous day. Lauren Kedar (2013, Earth Sciences) named in Boat Race crew Congratulations to Lauren Kedar (2013, Earth Sciences) who will row at six for Oxford in the women’s Boat Race on 30 March. Lauren has previously raced in the rowing Junior World Championships. We wish her and the Oxford crew the very best of luck. | 4 HILARY TERM 2014 Dr Joanna Dunkley wins Fowler Prize Dr Joanna Dunkley, Exeter Fellow in Physics, has won the 2014 Royal Astronomical Society Fowler Prize. The Royal Astronomical Society announced the winners of its 2014 awards and medals on Friday 10 January. Dr Dunkley received the Fowler Prize in astronomy for her work with the NASA WMAP satellite, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and, most recently, the ESA Planck satellite. Alan Cherry wins the Geographical Association’s Curry MSc Prize Congratulations to recent graduate Alan Cherry (2009, Earth Sciences) who has been awarded the Geological Association’s Curry MSc prize for his MSc thesis entitled “Structural and Metamorphic Evolution of the Lower Crust Granulites in the Northern Oman/UAE mountains”. Mr Cherry’s work was praised for its succinctness overall, and the quality of the tectonic evolution chapter in particular. We also congratulate current Earth Sciences student Dean Khan (2013) who has won a prestigious BP STEM Scholarship. The scholarship is competitively awarded on the basis of a formal application, numerical and verbal reasoning tests, and a face-to-face interview with BP. UNIVERSITY NEWS Oxford announces honorary degrees for 2014 Six leading figures from the worlds of science, the arts and religion are set to receive honorary degrees from the University of Oxford this year. They are the Most Reverend Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, Sir Anish Kapoor, Mr Robert Silvers, Professor Wallace Broecker, Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, and Sir Harrison Birtwistle.