The Master’s Letter

Christmas Formal 2020 Covid-style Household 8

When hard times hit, the communities we have built and belong to are thrown to the fore and tested for their fundamental strengths and values. Over the past year, Hatfield has proved itself to be an extremely strong, flexible and enduring community as so many Hatfielders, present and past, have demonstrated just what being the very best we can be means under the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid pandemic.

At the time of last year’s Record, covering the year from Easter to Easter 20192020, our College residents and many students living out in the city had returned home under the first lockdown, fully expecting to emerge again in time for post-exams events. However, it rapidly became clear that Covid was with us for longer, its impact quickly escalated, and Easter Term in person was shut down. Hatfield, however, did not go into sleepy hibernation. As the hard realities of fast increasing levels of hospitalisation became clear, we were selected to house critical care workers as a major part of the University’s contribution to local resilience planning. Over one short week, our remaining student residents moved out in Covid-secure transport to Josephine Butler College in the far reaches of Durham; the would-be student occupants of College rooms signed to release them back to us; and a miniature army of College staff – porters, housekeepers, and catering - set about packing up student belongings from 125 suitable rooms left in mid-year freeze. The Burt Room was rapidly filled to the brim with boxed up student possessions, the overspill housed in the Birley Room, and our first doctor arrived before all was stored away. The extraordinary effort and goodwill displayed by everyone involved was shining testimony to Hatfielders’ sense of our responsibility to the wider community.

JCR Wine Service at the Christmas Formal 2020 behind a Covid Santa screen

Easter Term 2020 became a virtual affair. Students were understandably anxious about 48-hour online exams, and diminishing internship and employment prospects, in addition to the fastenveloping Covid clouds. We set about creating an online College community as quickly as we could. It’s hard to remember now the novelty of Teams and Zoom, but thanks to their underpinning, our College support and student welfare teams went into virtual extra-drive ensuring Hatfielders far and wide, still resident in Durham or spread across the globe, could access advice, support and signposting to services. We endeavoured to parallel our usual College-based provision, familiar to our students who are known to College staff, clearly evidencing the value of a collegiate system.

Aiming to respond to the Covid-related employment anxieties of graduating and continuing students, we put out a call to alumni to assist with Virtual Careers Conversations, based on our very successful in-house Careers Conversation Dinners. And how our alumni responded. We had imagined running three or four sessions from a variety of sectors, but thanks to the fantastic alumni response, we were able to host 13 wonderful conversations, covering everything from the arts to teaching, from civil service and foreign office to consultancy, finance, industry, law, technology and working for charities. The new virtual world enabled alumni from the USA and various European bases to join in, as well as others who would normally be too time-pressed to make the trip to Durham. Present students were able to gain hugely from the experience and openness of alumni and friends, to learn how career paths often meander as they develop, of how the presently very successful had also hit hard times along the way, made mistakes and pulled through. Many personal examples made evident the importance of grabbing opportunities and of being confident in what your Hatfield and Durham experiences have given you. As the environment around was fast closing

The spirit of Hatfield was not to be dimmed as we celebrated roundly and recognisably, albeit Covid-style.

down, the warmth and concern of alumni for current Hatfielders was so uplifting and encouraging. Our students were very enthusiastic and grateful for their engagement. We will be back to ask for more!

The end of Easter Term in Hatfield is usually an exuberant combination of celebrations, performances and social events. However, for 2020 we had to rise to the challenge of online possibilities. The JCR ran a virtual Hatfield Day – we trust the Castle foundations still shook – and we started to plan for a virtual Floreat. Our major year-end awards event is usually celebrated in true Hatfield style, at a wonderful formal dinner in our beautiful College dining hall. How would we emulate this virtually? Once again, our alumni willingly helped out, combined with many of our talented student musicians, for a virtual show carefully woven together by the trusty in-house team of Gareth Lawson, Grace Norman and Janet Raine. Never let it be said that Hatfielders can’t raise a celebration. As Senior Man Kathryn Rogers and I gathered in an otherwise empty dining hall, students, staff, alumni and friends gathered on Zoom to witness events. The ceremonies opened with Kinky Jeff, whose ever cheery recordings from scattered bedrooms and attics kept us upbeat throughout. Hatfielder Sir Tim Smit KBE, founder of the Eden Project, was our headliner, speaking from his sunbathed gardens in Cornwall, encouraging our students to take up every third invitation and hence open themselves to serendipitous good chance. Yolande Wright, first female Senior Man, now Global Director Child Poverty, Climate and Urban at Save the Children International; Nicola Candlish, CEO British Youth Opera and former Keeper of the College Cane; Louisa Reeve, Olympic rower; Alok Kumar and Dom Berry, 2019 awardees of our top awards; and Mark Brian, SCR member and Head of Sport at Experience Durham, all sent video messages of congratulations. Others, including donors of College awards, Barrie Wetton and Cynthia Connolly, provided congratulatory quotes with which we peppered proceedings. And so we celebrated our first class graduates, and the winners of College Colours, Awards and Prizes for outstanding contributions to College life, including presenting the Michael Crossley Shield to Chloe Sweetland for four years of superb leadership and contributions to College life, and the Barrie Wetton prize to Thavish Annal, for his many wonderful, quiet contributions behind the scenes during his four years. The far-flung Chapel Choir led our rendering of the College song, and, for the last time, Senior Man Kathryn Rogers bowed out as I presented her with gifts from the College in thanks for a superb year in office. The spirit of Hatfield was not to be dimmed as we celebrated roundly and recognisably, albeit Covid-style.

We also said a formal goodbye at Floreat 2020 to two key members of the College staff, Vice-Master, Senior Tutor and Chaplain, Professor Anthony Bash, and Assistant Master, Dr Ellen Crabtree. Anthony served our community for 12

Freps hard at work preparing for Freshers’ Week in the Birley Room 2020

years, through many changes across the Colleges, and in Hatfield. Ellen, a Hatfield graduate who had returned to the College fold, served for nearly four years as our Assistant Master. Both were in post when I arrived, and I owe them particular thanks for their support in inducting me into things Hatfield. Amongst other contributions, many students sought their expert and empathetic help when the going got tough, and I know how much this was appreciated, and how many went on to flourish (see p.39 for further acknowledgments). Whilst Hatfield is a world unto itself, we are also very aware of the environment around us. News of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 in faraway Minneapolis resounded loudly within our walls as it did around the globe. As a College community, we work hard to be inclusive and to demonstrate how much we value our diversity, and we wanted to make a public statement of our commitment. During our celebration of 30 years of women at Hatfield in 2018, we coined our ethos, #AllOneHatfield. Building from this, during Easter Term 2020, we came together and created the #AllOneHatfield Declaration, a firm statement of our values, which was jointly signed on 1st July 2020 by representatives of all parts of College, our three Common Rooms, College Officers, Operations and Catering staff (please see inside back cover for the full statement). Summer 2020 proved a relentless several months of planning and re-planning for the ever-changing Covid situation. Covid financial concerns looming, our two vacant College Officer posts were frozen to recruitment. After a gap in provision for several months, we were extremely fortunate to be joined on internal secondments by Assistant Master Katie Stobbs, previously of Ustinov and Student Volunteering in Experience Durham, and

half-time by Vice-Master Gareth WeaverTyler, aka the Team Durham hockey coach, who both rapidly picked up the ethos of College and threw themselves wholeheartedly into Covid-era preparations for the new year. From the improvisation of Easter Term, we shifted to gleaning and interpreting government regulations and guidelines as they appeared and morphed. The University negotiated our permitted framework with the local public health and Council authorities, and we set about creating as good a collegiate setting as we could under the multiple restrictions imposed. My office become Hatfield mission control, as daily meetings first thing in the morning provided mutual communication of up to date intelligence on how we could operate, as well as much needed good humour as the realisation of what Michaelmas might bring became clearer.

We were extremely fortunate to have two excellent Senior Freps, Minnie Parker and James Reid, together with other student leaders, who worked to create a College welcome for our incoming Freshers as good as any year, under conditions we could never have imagined, and ever-changing constraints. And so international students began arriving in early September, for 14 days quarantine in their Jevons’ rooms, many never having stepped foot in the UK before. Our International reps, Sanya Sharma and Kim Ninh, made sure, albeit remotely, that all felt welcomed and supported with checkin Zoom calls and games. And then, over four sunny days in late September, all dutifully socially distanced, our Home undergraduates arrived, beaming with excitement at finally reaching this point, accompanied by relieved looking parents, keen for their offspring to move on from months of incarceration and boredom. The Freps swooped as always to help carry bags and boxes, to ensure new Hatfielders were welcomed as well as ever, even if masked up and keeping apart. We had health authority permission to form Households of 16-18 Freshers. The class of 2020 will be marked forever by a different ice-breaker question to graduates from other years – for this year only (we hope), ‘which staircase were you on’ will be replaced by ‘which Household did you belong to’, letters and names replaced by numbers 1-24. This would be the group you were allowed to socialise with for the rest of the year, pretty large, though not it seems large enough for some, as the sanctions for the new misconducttype of ‘household-mixing’ mounted up. However, in the meantime, household silent discos, household socials, and household dining times became the order of the day. Matriculation in the Cathedral was not possible, and so we ran 24 College matriculations in the Chapel, by Household, where our newest members signed the College matriculation book and pledged to uphold the #AllOneHatfield Declaration. There are very few silver linings from Covid times, but this short ceremony, our Freshers begowned and gathering in our central building followed by a fulsome greeting on pots and pans, was a great success, and a new tradition for the future.

A toast to the Founders of Hatfield during the Virtual Founders’ Day event 2021 via Zoom

Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Hatfield alumnus and Key Note Speaker at Virtual Floreat 2020

Following these sunny beginnings, a rapid Covid infection spike set in very quickly after the start of term, necessitating a fast change of gear. In quick succession, Livers In Households went into isolation, and many Livers Out, too. Rather than heading out for classes across the city, most students had to turn to sessions online. Our marvellous catering team, led by Will Green, created a food delivery service from scratch – freshly prepared food from our kitchens boxed up and delivered all around College. The Chapel became the initial food delivery depot, quickly moving to a marquee in Dunham Court. Students volunteered to carry out deliveries, initially Livers In but as the numbers allowed out dwindled, Livers Out came from far and wide to undertake the task. It was an extraordinary effort, slickly managed, all dietary requirements catered for, rapid changes in which students were able to attend the dining hall or had to stay in, all managed with aplomb. An avalanche of online orders by students and their families, required a second tent, and another major delivery operation. Katie Stobbs, our Assistant Master, led an extraordinary effort to co-ordinate and communicate, from infection updates to isolation rules, to student support and feeding. For resident students it was a very tough experience. Most had been put together in Households of strangers a couple of weeks earlier and now they were unable to interact in person with anyone else. Teams calls between student Household reps, JCR and MCR Exec members and College Officers demonstrated extraordinary resilience and determination in our students to do the best they possibly could to support each other, and warm appreciation of the efforts of College. For staff, extremely long, hard hours were seemingly relentless, but the Hatfield team stuck together through thick and thin, ever focused on doing the very best we could for our students in the circumstances. We didn’t always get everything right, and had to make many a rapid adjustment, but never a cross word was said amongst us as we worked to support each other. All our systems came under huge strains; the skills and stamina of our Student Welfare team, our Student Support Office and all our student leaders and staff were stretched beyond all imaginable limits. I am extremely proud of how Hatfield stood up to the battering, how our collegiate, community values saw us through. As the first Covid wave diminished, we started to plan for opening up, for Formals and festivities, for sport, theatre and music. However, it was to no avail as Covid clouds darkened the national picture and further restrictions came in. We had to focus on what was possible from a very narrow menu. Our volunteering teams led the way to punching through. Under Charity Committee Chair, Ruby Debell, our College food bank collections swelled, and with the steerage of Katie Stobbs, a number of our schools links enabled students to go into virtual mentoring action with local schoolchildren.

Members of our Chapel Choir, led by Music Director Jess Norton Raybould, with Organist Miles MacLachlan, together with a very generous team of locum priests from the University Chaplaincy and

Accountancy and Finance Virtual Careers Conversation event 2020

Cathedral, ensured that the weekly Hatfield Evensong services prevailed. Beamed through Facebook to Hatfielders past and present, from Stanford to Britten’s ceremony of Carols, we were restored and cheered by continuation of this tradition. The Remembrance Day Service was held outside, conducted by Canon Michael Everitt from the Cathedral, with a beautiful rendering of the last post by Benedict Lewis. Around 150 Hatfielders attended (stretching social gathering rules at the time), many making the effort to dress respectfully and begowned. Our beautiful World War II honour book was placed on a central bench. We honoured the service of the Hatfielders who fell, as has been done since the Great War, and paused in reflection on tougher times. Our bar and café opened and closed as restrictions varied. Our student bar and café teams provided superb Covid-secure service to Household groups, and our extra outside tables and parasols have made Dunham Court and Fellows Garden all the more amenable. Sports teams competed under Covid rules whenever possible. Student groups, bands and theatre companies took up the opportunity to rehearse socially distanced in all available teaching rooms as in person classes diminished. Our Visiting Drama Fellow, theatre director Jake Murray, founder of the North East Theatre Company Elysium, worked virtually with our enthusiastic Hatfielder thespians who recorded a stunning performance of Antigone from bedrooms and attics scattered through Durham and across the water in Germany, having never rehearsed in person.

Meanwhile, we proudly got involved in the very earliest trials of self-administered Lateral Flow Tests, as part of a collaboration between Durham University and the Oxford research team. Project central was set up in Hatfield SCR Dining Room where Oxford medics, Public Health England officials and our University Coordinators planned the campaign. The very first tests were carried out by students in

Household 15 (aka E and F stairs in Pace) trialling online training and door-step delivery and collection of test packs. Their feedback informed larger scale trials in two other Colleges, leading to the development of cross-university test sites in Durham, and widespread usage of LFT tests in schools, work places etc. Formals were not permitted under Health Authority rulings. So, the JCR organised delivery tokens for Household ‘eat out’ events, and the MCR held virtual Formals. Our Scholars’ Dinner went online, wouldbe attendees pre-collecting a small bottle of prosecco and a Hatfield embossed cupcake from the Chapel to fuel virtual proceedings. Christmas Formals couldn’t happen, but under standard Covid dinner arrangements, Livers In collected plates of turkey and full trimmings from the servery, to eat as for every meal in three Household-based sittings in the dining hall, at tables separated by screens. As a small seasonal offering, Christmas crackers were handed out, and the JCR served a glass of wine to all. After a grim, restriction-bound term, and despite the inability to perform the usual raucous community version of the Twelve Days of Christmas, spirits were lifted and a very good time was had by all. Masked and distanced, I walked between tables, and was so delighted to hear from many students how they had enjoyed their first term, how they were very proud to be Hatfielders, how they appreciated what had been done to make things the best they could be. How extraordinary, how heart-warming – and, speaking personally, just the tonic I needed, the reassurance that our College community was going to pull through in good shape. Then in February, many alumni joined us online for a virtual toast to our Founders, on David Melville’s birthday. Pre-proceeding chatter about the day’s test cricket accompanying greetings between long-lost alumni peers reflected the warmth and good humour of long-held Hatfielder links. The Hatfield community is built from Hatfielders across the generations. Among our many impressive student leaders, Sam Goring, Senior Man 202021, demonstrated enormous skills under extraordinary circumstances as JCR plans for the year had to be transformed, and collaborative engagement as part of the College Management Team became more demanding and crucial than ever. Many alumni have come forward to offer assistance, to join in virtual activities, and just to demonstrate their understanding of how hard day to day College life has become under ever-changing restrictions and infection bouts. A special donation from the Hatfield Association has supported a number of students who found themselves in particular difficulties under Covid. Hatfield Trust turned its funds to enabling Covid-secure extra activities by individuals and groups. On behalf of everyone in College over the past year, thank you all for your many and generous demonstrations of the true Hatfield spirit that emanates our wonderful community.

Professor Ann MacLarnon

Master

P.S. As this edition of the Record will be late in going to press, another casualty of the pandemic, it allows me to preview the next chapter of the Hatfield saga from Easter 2020. The remainder of the 2020-21 year has been a happier tale as Hatfielders, true to our spirit, bounced back to make the most of the opportunity to abandon Zoom and Teams, and despite remaining restrictions, to take up every permitted possibility to celebrate the end of a hard year together in person once again.