HUS President’s Report

Phoebe Hardingham, President of the Homerton Union of Students

We like to say we are the friendliest College, and the pandemic saw our community pull together from wherever in the world we were based. I salute the previous year’s committee for their tireless work to support the community, holding outdoor events such as petting zoos and food trucks, and online ones such as welfare drop in sessions and quizzes. While this was a difficult period for us all, perhaps particularly for our Freshers (the West House lockdown springs to mind) and my fellow finalists, I’m continually impressed at the resilience and community spirit that saw us through those times.

While the pandemic remains at the forefront of our minds (our weekly COVID committee meetings attest to that) we have been able to have a return to more than a semblance of a normal Cambridge term: we’ve run an actionpacked Freshers’ Week, successfully held our first Bops since even before the pandemic, and have a vibrant term card of events planned for Lent. We want to do more than simply return to normal, instead looking at how the pandemic has really placed community and connection at the centre of what we do, and how we can promote and nurture this.

This is a really exciting time in Homerton’s history. There’s a sense of entering a period of renewal as we begin to emerge from the long winter of the pandemic, with our new and wellloved Principal Lord Woolley (or Simon, as he is already known among students), our newly unveiled sports pitches, our new Dining Hall is soon to be in operation, and we are also holding consultation on a new Porters’ Lodge. It’s not just our site that is growing and expanding, but also our community, as the admissions and outreach team welcome the best and brightest from all backgrounds to College. I’m so excited to see where Homerton goes in the coming year. The break in tradition caused by the pandemic has perhaps enabled us to imagine new ways of doing things, as we begin to build back even better and adapt longstanding and well-loved Cambridge traditions to a new era of revival n

Matriculation Dinner 2021