Trinity College Oxford Report 2007 Trinity College Oxford | Report 2007 | 1 CONTENTS THE TRINITY COMMUNITY .................. 2 JUNIOR MEMBERS............................... 62 President’s Report................................................... 2 JCR Report ........................................................... 62 The Governing Body ............................................... 4 MCR Report.......................................................... 63 News of the Governing Body ..................................... 6 Clubs and Societies ................................................ 64 Members of Staff.................................................... 9 Blues................................................................... 69 Staff News............................................................. 11 New Undergraduates................................................. 13 ARTICLES AND REVIEWS ..................... 70 New Postgraduate Students ........................................ 16 ‘ABrief History of the Gryphon’ ................................ 70 by Sinead Doyle Degrees, Schools Results and Awards 2007 .................... 18 ‘Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley................................... 73 – Trinity’s Greatest Scientist?’ THE COLLEGE YEAR ............................ 22 by Russell Egdell Development Report................................................ 22 Book Reviews........................................................ 81 Benefactors in 2007 ................................................ 25 Garden Report........................................................ 34 Degree Days.......................................................... 84 Buildings Report .................................................... 35 Editor’s Note ......................................................... 84 Library Report ....................................................... 35 Archive Report....................................................... 40 OBITUARIES ........................................ 44 Lord Hussey........................................................... 44 Mrs Cecily Holladay ............................................... 45 Allan Dinsdale ....................................................... 46 Cover illustration: Sir Thomas Pope by William Stretes. Members of College................................................ 47 Inside cover: Trinity College, by George Pyne. Gift of Michael Staines (1949). 2 | Trinity College Oxford | Report 2007 THE TRINITY COMMUNITY s y l l PRESIDENT’S REPORT o n K m o T : fter last year’s high dramas in the Sheldonian with the Vice- o t o h AChancellor’s proposal being voted down, the University P year has been quieter, less newsworthy, but still divisive. In retrospect it can be seen that the Government’s move to channel its funding in block to the University, rather than to the University and to the Colleges, has proved to be an apple of discord. Where last year the discussion was all about governance, this year it has been over money, more specifically how to divide up the money from the Government between the University Divisions and Colleges and more recently the College contribution scheme, which is effectively a form of tax on the richer Colleges to help the poorer ones strengthen their endowments. The latest proposals on dividing up the Government’s money failed to be endorsed by the Colleges, at The Chaplain, the President and Father Timothy Radcliffe the end leaving a confused situation for the next financial year. at the Founder’s 500th Birthday Celebration Certainly the Vice-Chancellor who is standing down in 2009 is facing an uncomfortable eighteen months, dealing with the One of the other main issues which we and the University will continuing fall-out from his governance proposals, which will have to grapple with is the level of tuition fees. There is a general have to be revisited in one shape or another in 2008, and the expectation that in the next Parliament the current cap on tuition financial problems mentioned above. fees will be removed or at least raised, which would go some way to redress the current situation where we lose £6,000 per annum Undergraduate admissions can still prove capable of grabbing on each undergraduate we educate from the UK or the rest of the the headlines. After the Laura Spence debacle in 2000, the Sutton EU. But if the tuition fees are raised, we will need to have a Trust published figures showing that over the past five years, a system of bursaries in place which allows us to make good our hundred elite schools accounted for a third of admissions to claim that admissions are on a needs-blind-basis. So raising Oxbridge. The University spent some time presenting its own tuition fees solves one financial problem while creating another. side of the story to help put the figures in context, but the damage Averitable Morton’s fork. was already done. The University needs to be far more pro-active in putting across its message that entrance to Oxford is by merit To come back to our own grassroots, indeed to our founding alone, not by social background or by type of school. We do our father, and you can’t get more grassroots than that, we celebrated best to encourage applications from a wide geographical and in 2007 the 500th anniversary of the birth of Sir Thomas Pope. social spread and hold three Open Days a year to allow potential We celebrated it twice in fact, once on the very day, 7 August, applicants to get a feel for Trinity. which fell deep in the long vacation and once again when the whole College was reassembled on 18 October. It seemed fitting Trinity College Oxford | Report 2007 | 3 that we should doubly celebrate the man without whom Trinity impact felt even more. The Chapel Choir has, in a miracle of would not exist. In January 2009, we will be marking the 450th almost biblical proportions, doubled. Those who find anniversary of his death. themselves in Oxford on a Sunday evening during term time can hear them to beautiful effect. The Trinity Players defied the The Fellowship has been invigorated by several additions: a new elements to put on a really outstanding production of Wilde’s An Domestic Bursar, John Keeling, who bravely stepped into the Ideal Husband in Trinity Term. shoes that David Mills had so surely made his own; and two new professorial fellows in the shape of Professor Craig Clunas and Nor does our small size prevent us from competing vigorously on Professor Marta Kwiatkowska, respectively Professor of the the sporting front. The Second Eight completed a remarkable five History of Art and Professor of Computing Systems. The current bumps in Summer Eights, thus earning their oars richly. Most of Professor of the History of Art, Martin Kemp, has stayed on to them are still with us, so we now look forward with great see the Department through the Research Assessment Exercise confidence to next Trinity Term. Rugby is undergoing a particular and has meanwhile found time to curate the exhibition ‘Seduced: renaissance. Having for many years shared a rugby team with art and sex from antiquity to now’, which has attracted rave LMH, we now have in addition an all-Trinity rugby team, which reviews at the Barbican. I effortlessly cleared the age barrier for will be competing in cuppers next term in its own right and under admission. You have to be 18 to go and see it. We also welcomed its own exclusive label. In addition, Blues or Half-Blues have a new Junior Research Fellow, Dr Ioannis Vakonakis. been obtained by our students in sports as diverse as cricket to kayaking. The complete list can be found on page 69. Academically the College scaled new heights gaining twenty- seven Firsts in Finals in 2007 and an all-time high seventh No account of the last year would be complete without mention of position in the Norrington Table, created by my eponymous the filming for ‘Lewis’, the spin-off from the Inspector Morse predecessor 45 years ago. All credit to the students, but also to television series, which took place in Trinity over three days in their gifted tutors for choosing them in the first place and then October. Many parts of the College were used and ten Fellows, bringing out their full potential. This year’s impressive array of four members of staff and sixty-four students took part as extras. University Prizes is listed on page 21. You can see it on your television screens in February 2008. Despite being a former active thespian, I passed up the chance to Trinity continues to be favoured by the University at large when appear as an extra in order to host a dinner for the students who it comes to entertaining distinguished foreign visitors. In the had helped us so magnificently in our third Telethon. To those of last few months we have entertained the Emperor and Empress of you who were contacted and responded our deepest thanks, as Japan, perhaps an imperial first for Trinity, the Italian Foreign indeed to our other benefactors over the last year. I have Minister, and the President of the European Commission. The continued to visit Old Members nationally and internationally in combination of our beautiful buildings and gardens and the places as diverse as New York, Canada, Germany, Brussels and outstanding cuisine prepared by Chris Simms and his talented points north, south and east in the UK. In 2008 I shall be in team is proving irresistible. Not surprisingly this has now been South Africa and North America again, as well as some westerly recognized in Chris’ success as the Chef of the Year in the points