A special letter from the Mistress

April 2020

Dear Friends

As I write, Britain is in the third week of extreme social distancing to combat the spread of coronavirus. Like half the rest of the world, we have been asked, indeed ordered, to stay at home to protect each other, our key workers and our network of health and social care providers. I hope very much that you too are keeping well, and that the outlook improves before long. In the meantime, the word ‘unprecedented’ may be over-used but it is absolutely accurate as a description of the situation we face today.

It will be some time before the full cost of COVID-19—its direct and indirect effects on health and wellbeing, its toll on human life, its social and financial consequences—will be apparent. I feel proud to be part of a world-class institution that is grappling with these issues, co-ordinating and delivering the medical response, developing diagnostic tests and vaccines, and assembling a remarkable online database of COVID-19 reading matter and resources.

Nevertheless, at every scale, it is hard to overstate the range and impact of the current crisis. I am not aware of any other event since this College first opened in 1869 that has disrupted our operation in this way. No previous pandemic, no war, no other human tragedy, has forced us to send so many students home for so long, or to broach the unthinkable—how to deliver the distinctive qualities of a collegiate Cambridge education without having everyone here on site. We have broached it, of course, and we aim for an excellent, engaging term, notwithstanding new-style on-line exams, and the inventiveness required to furnish both an educational and a social calendar.

At the same time, here in College, as the spring sunshine plays across the apple blossom, the roads are quiet and the air is filled with birdsong. Girton looks glorious! From my lonely vantage point in the Mistress’s flat, I am suddenly conscious that every nook and cranny, every flower bed, every pathway, every brick and stone on this site bears traces of the aspirations and personalities of those who have crafted it over the years.

You are part of that, of course, and like me, you will be well aware that the life, soul and future of a special place like this is vested in the people who inhabit it: our students, Fellows and staff who, with their diverse backgrounds, brilliance and curiosity, fill the College with energy and warmth. Our challenge now is to ensure that they can still enjoy the unique qualities of our community at a time when, sadly, we cannot all be together.

And that, perhaps, is where you can help. As alumni you are used to being linked in to College life from locations throughout the UK and across the globe. So if you are on social media, why not send a message of support to current students. Let them know that they are part of a social and professional network connecting generations of Girtonians through time and space. We are using #WeAreGirton in the coming weeks to remind ourselves of all that flows from the happy fact that, today and together ‘we’ are Girton. Do join in if you can.

I will write again soon to update you on the next steps for Girton and our students, suggesting some other ways in which you might, if you wish, be able to help. In the meantime, I hope you are safe and well, and that your life is not touched by this tragedy. I send, from all of us at Girton, heartfelt camaraderie and warm wishes to you all.

Yours sincerely

Professor Susan J Smith, FBA, FAcSS, FRSE Mistress