The Edition A Review of 2018 THE EDITION 1 From the Master It’s hard to believe that this is my final message in the Edition as Master of St Edmund’s. It has From the Master been a wonderful few years at the From the Vice Master helm and much has changed in From the Senior Tutor From the Dean that time. From the Bursar From the Development Director A dominant theme of the last year From the Von Hügel Institute and of coming months is the physical transformation of the College. We Introducing the Year of Sport are on the brink of completing the First Blue - Mike Smith Boat Club 50th Anniversary next phase of physical expansion Student Sports in 2018 on our site - the Mount Pleasant Halls accommodation is due to From the Tutorial Office - open at the end of September Prizes and Scholarships 2019, just as I come to the end of my time as Master. This will From the Alumni Society provide our students with an Alumni News additional 200 en-suite rooms and 75 studios and increase our on-site Staff in Spotlight: Nather Al-Khatib accommodation from just under half of the student body to around 80% - something that we think will make a huge improvement to 50 Years of Women at St Edmund’s students’ experience at St Edmund’s. Help us find our lost Alumni This was the best ever The human face of the College is In Memoriam performance of any of also changing. Last year we saw the the graduate and mature retirement of Mike Herrtage from Fellowship News the Vice Mastership, Phil Gardiner colleges - a very gratifying as Secretary of the Governing A heartfelt thank you to our Donors result! Body,, and Father Alban McCoy as Principe Scholars - A Reunion to Dean, although he will continue as Remember! Acting Dean for a while longer. All have been warmly thanked for the contributions they have made in giving the College such a warm, friendly and caring character. On the other hand, we welcome Philip McCosker as the new Vice Master. Another rather more earthy addition to the Tutorial Office’s offer has been an allotment, where students can grow their own herbs and vegetables! In this current academic Together with the CR team, year we are celebrating the led by Benjamin Schönfuß College’s rich tradition of and Aastha Dahal, this all Sport which dates back to contributed to a happy student body that performed better the 1960s. than ever academically. We achieved our highest ever position in the Tompkins Table in 2017/18 – 21st. Following a 4 place rise last year, this was the best ever performance of any of the graduate and mature 2 THE EDITION colleges and placed us above some we have been very touched by attention to the next phase of our of the more established standard- your enormous generosity this estates masterplan, the first of the age ones! A very gratifying result. year, not just in terms of hospitality ‘East Court’ buildings – watch this when we travel the world on space! In this current academic year we College business, but also in are celebrating the College’s rich support of our fundraising efforts. In Spring last year the tradition of Sport. This dates back Development Director, Kate to the 1960s when we had our It has been a privilege Glennie, and I travelled to Asia, first blues, through the 1990s and to be the Master of visiting alumni in Singapore and 2000s when we racked up an St Edmund’s since I took up Hong Kong. I then went on to impressive 12 Olympians, up to the post in 2014. Shanghai and Beijing to meet our the present day, when we routinely former students there for the first have Eddies students in both the time, together with alumni groups Boat Race and the Varsity Rugby Two crowdfunding appeals have from the Judge Business School, teams. We held our first dinner surpassed our expectations in with which I am also associated. I for Sports alumni in November – raising additional funds to purchase think they were surprised to hear welcoming back members of the a new punt for the College and of the scale of growth and change 1976 College Men’s Boat - and we to hasten the much-needed affecting both Eddies and the hope to make this an annual event renovation of the Combination wider Cambridge economy. This in the calendar. Room, in particular the wooden May we are visiting both coasts floor which had seen rather too of the USA, to coincide with the Talking of the alumni community, many years of parties and bops! Vice-Chancellor’s trip there and We will continue to the University’s Campaign dinners seek support, at all levels, in New York and San Francisco. from our worldwide alumni network for It has been a privilege to be the both our student Master of St Edmund’s since I took experience focused up the post in 2014 and I hope ‘Eddies Fund’ and for to continue my association with our ongoing building the College after I step down in projects, as we turn our October. I have enjoyed meeting Eddies from across the world and I encourage those of you who The Master and Margie have not visited in a while to come Wilkinson, first female back and see how the College has student to matriculate changed, grown, and prospered. at St Edmund’s, earlier this year. - Mr Matthew Bullock Master THE EDITION 3 From the Vice Master Following a nominations process and a Fellowship election on 22 February 2018, Dr Philip McCosker was appointed to succeed Prof Michael Herrtage as Vice-Master of St Edmund’s College from October 2018. Prof Herrtage became a Fellow of the College in 1990 and has served the College superbly in many ways over several decades. Having been Senior Tutor, he was elected Vice- Master in 2007 to succeed Rev Dr Current and Former Vice-Masters Geoffrey Cook who in turn had been Dr Philip McCosker, Prof Mike Herrtage, and Rev Dr Geoffrey Cook elected in 1983. Prof Herrtage’s (2018 - ) (2007 - 2018) (1983-2007) manifold contibutions to College Dr McCosker is the Director of This is key when fellows are under life were all on top of a more- the Von Hügel Institute for Critical increasing pressures. There are also than-fulltime highly distinguished Catholic Inquiry (VHI) based at more humdrum administrative and academic career at the University’s the College, an affiliated lecturer management tasks and many Veterinary School where he in the Divinity Faculty, and committees, as well as occasionally focused his research on small animal Director of Studies in Theology deputising for the Master. In the endocrinology and was Professor of at St Edmund’s, Magdalene, and current year one of the most Small Animal Medicine and Dean of Murray Edwards Colleges. He has taught theology in Oxford and exciting tasks for the Vice-Master the School. He has been President Cambridge over the last ten years, has come round: to organise and of several academic and veterinary and is a visiting Research Fellow lead the search for our new Master societies and associations and at the Institute for Religion and to succeed Matthew Bullock on his received numerous awards, most Critical Inquiry at the Australian retirement in September 2019. That recently the World Small Animal Catholic University. search lasted for six months and Veterinary Association International attracted 42 applications from 10 Award for Scientific Achievement The Vice-Master’s role can seem countries (and involved over 1000 for Outstanding Contributions by a slightly mysterious one and one emails, several hundred letters, and a Veterinarian in 2014. Although he which often operates behind the many hours of online meetings formally retired from these positions scenes. The main function of the and phone calls!). Over several in September 2018, anyone who role is to represent, foster and recruitment stages that field was knows Mike knows that his work encourage the College’s Fellowship. reduced to a shortlist of continues apace, both in eight candidates and at the veterinary and College an election on 30 January communities. 2019 the Fellowship selected Catherine We wish him all the Arnold OBE to be our very best for his active next Master! retirement. - Dr Philip McCosker Vice-Master Former and Current Masters and Former Vice-Master at Prof Herrtage’s retirement party 4 THE EDITION Dr Helen Mason OBE, Dr Judith Bunbury, and Dr Susan Haines From the Senior Tutor As the dead leaves flutter from the in September. Continuing this theme, to complete the College hattrick and bough and another year draws to Michael Bascom (2016) had his read for a PhD in the Department of its inexorable conclusion, it is an musical retelling of Emily Brontë’s Sociology. apposite juncture to look back over classic, Wuthering Heights, performed Speaking of hiatuses, it has been the events of the last twelve months and look forward to what may be for the first time at the Corpus impossible to ignore the increasingly incubating beneath the steadily Playhouse and found it met with resplendent edifice that is Mount accumulating leaf litter, waiting to enthusiastic reviews – congratulations Pleasant Halls as it has arisen from emerge over the ensuing annual to Michael and everyone else what was a rubble strewn crater over reckoning. involved. Our first ever Luzio Scholar, the last 18 months. Excitingly, work is Toby Salisbury (2013), having more ahead of schedule and it looks certain Improving on 2017’s impressive set of or less completed his PhD, has left that the building will be ready for next exam results may have seemed like to pursue a career in the Foreign October.