The Aularian, Issue 20, 2013

ALUMNI NEWSLETTER OF ST EDMUND HALL, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

ISSUE 20. 2013

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WRITING AT THE HALL

FASTEST UNIVERSITY CREW IN THE COUNTRY

FROM THE SCR

Lucy Newlyn, English Fellow, celebrates a long tradition of Aularian writers, including Honorary Fellow Stewart Lee.

Amy Varney (2011, DPhil in Medicinal Chemistry) on her experience in the 2013 Newton Women’s Boat Race.

Roger Benson, Earth Sciences Fellow, talks dinosaurs, evolution and sour milk in Mongolia.

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WELCOME

WELCOME: LAURA PALMER

Laura joined the Hall in August 2012 as our Director of Development. If you’d like to know more about the upcoming Campaign, or simply want to get in touch to introduce yourself, please do contact her.

CONTENTS Message from the Principal Music: an interview with Chris Watson, Director of Music Writing at the Hall: an interview with Lucy Newlyn, Fellow and Tutor in English Archives: an interview with Rebecca Shorter, Archivist Art: an interview with Jonathan Yates, Picture Fellow Drama: the John Oldham Society

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JCR News: an interview with Margery Infield, JCR President

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MCR News: an interview with Christian Beck, MCR President

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SCR News: an interview with Roger Benson, Fellow in Earth Sciences

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SCR News: ‘Dream on…’

by Wes Williams, Fellow in French

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St Edmund Hall Association: an interview with Darrell Barnes, SEHA President

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Aularians across the Globe

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The Campaign for St Edmund Hall

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Development & Alumni Relations Office News

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Aularian Events

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Conference and Event Facilities

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Special thanks to: Darrell Barnes (1963, Modern Languages) and Michael Cansdale (1956, Law).

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Development & Alumni Relations Office project team: Emma Bowler, Anna Fowler, Claire Hooper, Laura Palmer, Sally Smith

EMAIL LAURA.PALMER@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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Sport

Chief Editor Dr Wes Williams

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Dear Aularians, Welcome to the first of our new-look Aularian newsletters – we hope you find the new format entertaining and informative!

Aularians are the heart of the Hall and the following pages will help you keep in touch with what’s happening. Here in Oxford, the last year has seen gaudies, lectures and special events such as the ‘Celebration of Writing at the Hall’, organised by Professor Lucy Newlyn. Further afield, alumni gathered in New York and Hong Kong to renew old friendships.

Aularians continue to volunteer in a wide range of capacities, from serving on student and volunteer committees to assisting with sports clubs and artistic endeavours. We depend on you! We also rely on your generous financial support, which provides vital funding to preserve the tutorial system, enables us to offer bursaries and scholarships for students, and funds that help us maintain our buildings, especially our historic Queen’s Lane site.

‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’ aptly describes life at the Hall. It continues much as many of you will remember, with the rhythm of tutorials and exams, dinners and parties, sporting and musical events, all of which combine to create the spirit of the Hall.

There are, however, also some big changes afoot as we plan an ambitious, five-year, £25m fundraising campaign for the Hall. The campaign will help us achieve our vision of making a step-change across everything we do – so that we attract and retain the best tutors; provide vital bursary and scholarship support for students; maintain our very special historic site; and upgrade student accommodation.

For the next 18 months, we will be in the quiet phase of the campaign. We will keep you – our close family of students, staff, Aularians and friends – up to date as we progress towards a public launch in October 2014. I hope that you’ll begin to consider how you can be a part of this exciting time in our history.

Finally, a personal thank you to all of you who have extended such a warm welcome to me in my first year in post. I’ll be travelling extensively on the campaign trail in the coming months and I hope to get a chance to meet many more of you soon.

Floreat Aula!

Director of Development

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PRINCIPAL: KEITH GULL

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In addition, our students continue to impress with non-academic activities. Currently, the Hall is seeing an amazing series of performances in music, drama, art, writing and sport. Individual successes are too numerous to list here but as examples – the John Oldham Society recently went on tour to Cameroon where they joined forces with local volunteer organisation La Liberté, who use interactive theatre to encourage discussion amongst school and community groups on a wide range of topics, from voter apathy to ante-natal care.

On the sports field 26 Hall students won Blues and represented the University at 17 sports ranging from rugby to trampolining, from rowing to modern pentathlon and karate. Teddy Hall teams winning Cuppers this academic year include canoe polo, rugby (now 2 years in a row) and badminton (3 years in a row!). Finally, this year has seen the introduction of a series of lunchtime concerts, organised by Chris Watson, our new Director of Music. Superb student performances were enabled by the purchase of a world class Bechstein piano for the Old Dining Hall made possible by a donation from an Aularian.

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The UK higher education changes impacted this year and we welcomed the first student cohort facing the £9,000 tuition fee. A radical reduction in government funding for Oxford will ‘cancel out’ any concept of increased income to the Hall. We work hard to ensure that these national movements will not discourage students from applying. We have no quotas and we look for talented and gifted students from wherever; but we have redoubled our widening participation efforts in schools and the Hall currently spends approximately £250,000 pa in bursary support for some 108 undergraduates.

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This Aularian is a celebration of the Hall’s success. If I focus on our students then I recognise some superb academic performances over this year and, as I write, they are just finishing their end of year examinations.

For some, these represent transitions from one year to another at the Hall; but for finalists they represent an exit point from Oxford into their future. They join the Aularian network that has supported them during their time at the Hall and will continue to do so by maintaining connections over the years.

VISIT WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK/NEWS

I worry that the increased fees will deter talented students from continuing to Masters and DPhil studies. We have over 200 graduate students in the Hall and 2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of St Edmund Hall’s MCR – which is a milestone we will celebrate in some style. Support for both undergraduates and graduate students through bursaries and scholarships will be one of the themes of our forthcoming development campaign.

We have over 200 graduate students in the Hall and 2015 marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of St Edmund Hall’s MCR – which is a milestone we will celebrate in some style.

The above successes and the ambitions of students and the Hall in the future owe much to your support, interest and advocacy. Very many thanks. There is a ‘buzz’ of success around this place and I invite you to keep up to speed with it – after reading the Aularian – by visiting our website for the bigger picture.

Professor Keith Gull CBE DSc(Hon) FRS FMedSci

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INTERVIEW: CHRIS WATSON

Far left: Chris Watson, Director of Music Left: Visiting student, Jinglin Huang, playing the new piano in the Old Dining Hall

How was your post created?

A generous donation from Sir Martin (1961, Physics) and Lady Elise Smith made it possible to fund my part-time post to galvanise the music-making within the Hall, to help with the chapel choir and to organise concerts and get non-academic musicians more involved in music.

What attracted you to the Hall?

There are no public expectations regarding music at Teddy Hall, and yet it’s full of talented musicians so you can constantly surprise people. I love the day-in, day-out singing that happens in college choirs, so I jumped at the chance to help run the choir here and also the opportunity to launch initiatives like the lunchtime concerts.

Tell me more about your singing career.

I sing with a number of ensembles.

My principal one is the Tallis Scholars, an English ten-part vocal ensemble.

I work with a Danish ensemble called Theatre of Voices, plus other little groups. I also do solo work.

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I love the day-in, day-out singing that happens in college choirs, so I jumped at the chance to help run the choir here and also the opportunity to launch initiatives like the lunchtime concerts.

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Chris Watson joined the Hall in September 2012 as our first ever Director of Music.

He is a professional freelance singer, who performs internationally, with a passion for choral music.

Where are the best places you’ve performed?

Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall, most big cathedrals in Europe, lots of nice churches and concert halls all over the place!

Has anything surprised you at Teddy Hall?

I’ve been disappointed that the chapel isn’t used much, and I wish it was a more open space. There are plans for its restoration though, and for a glass porch, so that the public can see in.

We don’t accept students to read Music any more – what are your thoughts on that?

It’s a pity, but because there isn’t an academic musician in the SCR, undergraduates would go to other colleges for tutorials anyway. Also, academic music is only one way into music, my personal interest is much more in the doing than in the reading.

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Keyron Hickman-Lewis (2011, Earth Sciences) performs on the Steinway in the Wolfson at the Masterclass Showcase

The Teddy Hall choir at Carols in the Quad 2012

A lunchtime concert in the Old Dining Hall

I’d like to showcase all the different talents in the College on a CD. For example, one of the choral scholars writes rock ballads; some of Lucy Newlyn’s poetry has been set by a pop singer; the chapel choir; music from the lunchtime concerts – as eclectic as possible.

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The music room has been refurbished and equipped with a new Yamaha piano.

Ever since it was renovated, the room has been in use almost constantly. Plus, there’s a new Bechstein piano in the Old Dining Hall. So, it’s not been a bad year!

What are your plans for a recording?

I’d like to showcase all the different talents in the College on a CD; for example, one of the choral scholars writes rock ballads; some of Lucy Newlyn’s poetry has been set by a pop singer; the chapel choir; music from the lunchtime concerts – as eclectic as possible.

What are your plans for next year?

I’d like to organise some professional concerts in the Wolfson Hall, and maybe a folk jam session. Our organ scholar is setting up an orchestra and I know some professional string players interested in doing some coaching. I also want to expand the lunchtime concert series and I’d like to do a recital.

CHOIR TOUR TO PONTIGNY How big is the choir?

The Teddy Hall choir consists of eight choral scholars and about twenty

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The music room has been refurbished and equipped with a new Yamaha piano. Ever since it was renovated, the room has been in use almost constantly.

Plus, there’s a new Bechstein piano in the ODH. So, it’s not been a bad year!

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How has music developed at the Hall in the last year?

Our choral scholars have doubled in number from four to eight, and both the choral and organ scholarships increased in value. I’ve also started a lunchtime concert series.

volunteers. Only the choral scholars are auditioned – they get a scholarship and some money towards singing lessons.

How did the tour come about and what’s the itinerary?

Aularian Justin Stead (1971, Botany) generously underwrote the cost of the whole choir going away on a tour. We’ll stay for a week in a house owned by a former member of the Tallis Scholars, Francis Steele, who is one of the finest vocal coaches in the world, and work with him.

Then we’ll do two or three services and a recording. We’re finishing the tour by singing to St Edmund in Pontigny Abbey, his burial place – probably a 16th century mass.

HALL PIANOS There’s a world-class 2008 Steinway B in the Wolfson, made possible by a generous donation from the Yves Guihannec Foundation. It’s the next size down from a full-size concert grand.

In the Old Dining Hall we now have a Bechstein Concert 8, which is commonly held to be the best upright piano in the world. It has a remarkably good bass sound and an amazing action – I’m really excited to have it. We were amazingly lucky to be allowed to buy it. I’d be surprised if there’s another one in Oxford. We’re very grateful to the anonymous Aularian donor who made buying it possible.

8 Teddy Hall choral scholars doubled in number from 4 to 8 this year.

Bechstein Concert 8 bought for the Old Dining Hall – an instrument that is held to be the best upright piano in the world.

3 lunchtime concerts in Trinity Term, featuring 12 student performers.

Next Lunchtime Concerts (1.15pm) 22 OCT Organ Recital in the Chapel 5 NOV Roger Allen (piano) & Chris Watson (tenor) in the ODH 19 NOV TBC 3 DEC TBC

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HALL NEWS: WRITING

INTERVIEW: LUCY NEWLYN

A creative writing workshop in full flow, with Lucy Newlyn

HALL WRITERS’ DIRECTORY This online resource celebrates the achievements of 100 writers (ranging from poets and novelists to comedy writers) who studied English at the Hall.

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Why set up the Directory?

I think it’s going to prove very useful as a resource, and it’s about bringing a community together. I think it’ll also make clear that there’s been a long tradition of writing at the Hall going right back to the twenties with Geoffrey Grigson.

How would you like to see it develop?

The objective now is to spread beyond English; I originally envisaged it being inter-disciplinary. Everybody who completes

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It would be great to bring all constituencies of the Hall together – tutors, students, graduate students, experienced writers, into a big democratic community.

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Writing at the Hall has been going from strength to strength recently thanks to the dynamic influence of Lucy Newlyn, Fellow and Tutor in English.

We asked Lucy for her thoughts on some of the recent activity, from weekly creative writing workshops, to events and online resources.

a degree here is a writer in a sense. It isn’t just about traditional creative writing; it includes journalism and academic books.

HIGHLIGHTS

HALL WRITERS’ FORUM The Forum is a space where people can share any kind of writing and engage in discussions. Aularians can register for access to the reserved section, which currently has over 200 members.

writers in the online resource, the Hall Writers’ Directory.

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What were you expecting when you set up the Forum?

I thought that it would involve undergraduates much more actively than old members, but there are a lot of alumni posting. It would be great to bring all constituencies of the Hall together – tutors, students, graduate students, experienced writers, into a big democratic community.

What kinds of discussion are going on?

What really surprised me was the way some things have taken off! There’s an inter-disciplinary discussion of what parody is – starting from a brilliantly-written parody of Hopkins by Justin Gosling [Hall Principal, 1982-96].

100 236 Aularian members of the Hall Writers’ Forum reserved section.

2012 The year Stewart Lee (1986, English) – stand-up comedian, writer and director – accepted an Honorary Fellowship from the Hall.

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I was absolutely delighted, and very surprised, to be asked to be an Honorary Fellow. As the years go by, my debt to my education at St Edmund Hall becomes ever more obvious.

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Stewart Lee giving a talk “On Not Writing” to students

Then there’s a dialogue about cursing and a communal curse – which developed into a kind of literary exercise with everyone wondering about the politics of posting.

We’re also discussing how to mark the World War I centenary next year. The Forum is being redrawn all the time; what’s exciting is that we don’t quite know what kind of thing it is yet.

A CELEBRATION OF WRITING AT THE HALL A full Saturday event with talks, readings and discussions took place in February, celebrating the diversity of writing talent amongst current and former students.

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LISTEN TO PODCASTS FROM THE EVENT WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/STEDMUNDHALL

What were your personal highlights from the day?

Firstly hearing Oenone Crossley-Holland (2002, English) read her father’s poem.

That moment was very moving – it was about cross-generational creativity: a very distinguished poet [Kevin Crossley-Holland] who’d been here in the 60s and his daughter, together in a beautiful space.

Also, because it was so extraordinary and unexpected, Gabriel Josipovici (1958, English) making an eloquent and impassioned argument against creative writing MAs on a discussion panel!

It was a bold thing for him to do, as everyone else was saying creativity can be taught and he shook everything up.

I loved Stewart Lee’s talk as well, but I knew he’d be wonderful. His comedy is all about contesting mediocrity in culture.

There’s no other comedian you can think of who talks about Blake in stand-up!

STEWART LEE: HONORARY FELLOW Stewart Lee (1986, English) – stand-up comedian, writer and director – accepted an Honorary Fellowship from the Hall in 2012. He has since returned several times to speak at student events as well as at the Celebration of Writing event.

Dan Abnett (1984, English) at the Celebration of Writing at the Hall event

Why Stewart?

I thought it would be really fantastic for the Hall, in terms of access and acknowledging the importance of writing, to recognise someone who’s done something really outstanding – not necessarily in just a narrow academic sense, but culturally.

Stewart’s response: “I was absolutely delighted, and very surprised, to be asked to be an Honorary Fellow. As the years go by, my debt to my education at St Edmund Hall becomes ever more obvious. It’s also been a fascinating experience taking part in Lucy’s drive to ask old hands to explore the practical applications of writing in conversation with current students, in an age where the value of culture is in question; this has given me a new relationship with the Hall of today that I hope will endure until I am no longer tolerated.”

WORKSHOPS Lucy has been running regular creative writing workshops, which recently increased to weekly sessions during Trinity term.

Tom Moyser (2008, English): “The best thing about Lucy’s workshops is that they are a completely open forum.

Lucy doesn’t teach us what writing should be like; instead we take each new piece on its own terms.”

Lucy: “The new Creative Writing A-level is coming soon, and whether creativity can be taught is a big issue. I think the reason it works here is because we’re not doing it as part of the syllabus. There’s a frame and space where people can exchange work but no assessment objectives are allowed to kill real intellectual endeavour.”

Roxana Willis (2012, DPhil in Law): “Taking part in workshops and special events organised by Lucy has made my time at Teddy Hall unforgettable.

Lucy’s inclusive approach strengthens the Hall community and creates a unique Oxford experience for undergraduate, graduate, and visiting students alike.”

THE NEXT CHAPTER: A WRITER IN RESIDENCE The upcoming Campaign includes plans to raise funds for a Writer in Residence who will produce their own work and support creative writing activities here.

Lucy: “I think that will do the Hall an enormous amount of good – we’ll bring together a group of people who offer something completely new each time.”

If you’re interested in helping to fund a Writer in Residence, please contact Laura Palmer.

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HALL NEWS: FROM THE ARCHIVES

INTERVIEW:

REBECCA SHORTER

Rebecca Shorter joined the Hall in July 2012, as our first professional archivist, working two days a week.

The Benefactors’ Book... records everyone who gave significant donations to the Hall from the 1680s to 1855 and it’s a beautiful book.

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How would you describe your role?

My role here really is to make the archives that we’ve got accessible, to help people understand and use them, and to encourage the collection of more archives for the future.

I’m aiming to complete a full catalogue, that can eventually be shared online, and also identify items suitable for digitisation, like the SEH Magazines and the Benefactors’ Book. My other main priority is to improve the condition and storage of the archives themselves.

What did we do before you arrived?

There have been Fellow archivists for at least 30 years. They may well go back further but you don’t see them recorded very much as they were quiet individuals!

The most recent is Nick Davidson (Tutor in Modern History), who oversees my work.

What sort of thing is actually in Teddy Hall’s archives?

Everything from the very factual minutes of Governing Body and its predecessors (back to at least 1919), to minute books of clubs and societies, to personal diaries of students. We’ve got rather nice official records, such as the Charter itself with the royal seal appended.

There are also personal papers from a number of individuals, particularly A.B. Emden, including his research notes for his history of the Hall.

which was an unexpected delight.

I particularly like the fact that almost everything that’s come from an individual has some of their own life attached to it as well.

What are your favourite items?

My favourites are the photograph albums, both official ones (humungous in size, larger than A2, bound volumes), and lovely small ones. There’s one made by a student in the 1920s with pictures of what looks like an early John Oldham Society performance in the quad – of course, at that stage the College was all male so all the female characters had to be played by men. It also has a very early set of aerial photos of the south-east of England taken in 1918,

What’s the oldest item?

The Benefactors’ Book, which dates from 1682. It records everyone who gave significant donations to the Hall from the 1680s to 1855 and it’s a beautiful book.

One of the most quirky things is a hand-drawn card from ‘Fred’ to his Daddy, probably dating to around 1900. Fred is Alfred Brotherston Emden – and many of the people reading this will have known him at the end of his life as a formal figure around the Hall.

Is there any help you’d like from Aularians?

Yes! Unfortunately, I don’t know Greek and we no longer have any Fellows who teach Classics. Up to the 1970s, because the Classics were such a tradition at Oxford, all sorts of archives are in English,

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Fred’s hand-drawn card to his Daddy

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TWITTER @SEHARCHIVES

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FLICKR WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/ SEHARCHIVIST

ARCHIVES ANONYMOUS There are a lot of unidentified photos, mostly of individuals, so I’ve started a Flickr feed. If anyone recognises themselves, a friend or a relative – or even if they can just help me narrow down date ranges – then I’d be really grateful for any hints and clues.

Rogues’ gallery: please contact Rebecca if you recognise anyone in these photos!

Student’s photograph album from the 1920s

but then the punchline to a joke or the crucial piece of evidence is written in Greek.

So, I’m missing the point in a number of documents! If anyone is willing for me to send scanned copies of documents for them to translate, I’d be really grateful.

The other appeal is for records themselves.

Clubs and societies, particularly since the 1950s, aren’t recorded very well at all, probably because members took memorabilia with them. There are no minute books and very few photographs for any societies apart from the Boat Club, who have really worked hard to put an archive back together.

If any of the other clubs have an archivist, I’d love to be in touch! Just to see what they’ve got and offer them a home for the material in the future if needed. People don’t have to part with anything immediately, but I would like to look at things and perhaps make digital copies. Otherwise, it’ll only be the Governing Body records that tell people what life was like in the Hall at that time!

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HALL NEWS: DRAMA

ACT FOR CHANGE

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The production received several fivestar reviews from the student press, with the Oxford Theatre Review calling it a ‘breathtaking piece of theatre’.

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Top right: Hall and La Liberté actors during a forum theatre performance. Bottom right: John Oldham Society members in Cameroon.

The John Oldham Society began the year with a successful trip to the Edinburgh Fringe over the 2012 summer. A group of ten St Edmund Hall students took ‘The Tragedie of MacClegg’, a longer version of the College’s entry into the 2011 Drama Cuppers competition, to the festival, where they performed to sold-out audiences. One of the five-star glowing reviews described it as ‘ Fringe creativity at its very best’.

The Society then went even further afield with an ‘Act for Change’ project in Cameroon. This innovative project involved actors from the Hall working in partnership with a Cameroonian acting group, La Liberté, by using interactive forum theatre to encourage local engagement in issues such as HIV, maternal health, and the sexual harassment of schoolgirls.

After months of planning and working with organisations such as VSO, the actors carried out ten village performances, two staged performances, a radio broadcast and a press conference; they also appeared on Cameroonian national television, and produced a documentary, all within a three week trip.

In May, Thomas Bailey, with involvement from fellow Hall students Rosamund Lakin, Frankie Meadows, Abi Thomas, Ed Wingfield, Mark Mindel, and Tilly Munro, staged an ambitious performance of David Greig’s “The Cosmonaut’s Last Message” in the Keble O’Reilly theatre.

Following this success, the group plans a second ‘Act for Change’ project for future members of the Hall. The students involved in the project were Thomas Bailey, Lara Tandy, Emma D’Arcy, Frankie Meadows, Rosamund Lakin (film maker) and Roxana Willis (project coordinator). A thirty-minute documentary by Rosamund Lakin can be accessed from the Hall’s YouTube Channel.

The production received several five-star reviews from the student press, with the Oxford Theatre Review calling it a ‘breathtaking piece of theatre’. After a successful year for the John Oldham Society, in the coming terms members will be keen to further increase the profile of drama at the Hall, and establish both ambitious Oxford productions and trips abroad as a legacy for future students to maintain.

Thomas Bailey (2011, English & French) & Roxana Willis (2012, DPhil in Law)

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HALL NEWS: SPORT

HAAAAAAAAAALL!!

AULARIAN SPORT We played the final in traditional Hall style and suffocated them upfront through a siege of rolling mauls. Doglike defence from our backs was also key in shutting out their strike runners, one of whom was Man of the Match in this year’s Varsity Game. We went on to win 27-17 and claimed our first back to back Cuppers victories since the 1980s.

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Hector Bagley, Men’s Rugby Captain, on this year’s Cuppers final victory

It’s been another fantastic year for sport at the Hall. The rugby team continue to triumph, with another brilliant Cuppers victory, beating Keble 27–17 in the final at Iffley Road. The badminton team made it three Cuppers’ wins in a row, with a close victory over St Hugh’s.

The women’s football team were beaten in their final but only conceded one goal all season, while the sailing team were named Novice Competition champions.

We also became canoe polo champions!

Who knew there was such a thing?

Friends of the Rugby Club Friends of the Rugby Club is the perfect way to stay in touch with the current SEHRFC squad, and get invited to the Old Members games. To join Friends of the Rugby Club, please email feargus. murphy@seh.oxon.org with your name, matriculation year, postal address (for newsletters) and your rugby career whilst at Oxford. Stories of your time as a member of SEHRFC would also be well received.

Canoe polo: Steffan Danino (2011, Earth Sciences) scores for the Hall’s Cuppers-winning team

Aularian Golfing Society (AGS) Despite the inclement conditions, Aularian spirits were never dampened and 45 AGS members enjoyed an active 2012 season. As ever, the Society is most grateful to Brian Amor, Gerald Barber, Michael Archer, David Ashworth and Mike Simmie who host fixtures at their respective clubs.

Finally, the AGS would be delighted to welcome new members. So, if you would like to join one of the Hall’s more active societies, please contact the President Chris Atkinson.

RESULTS TABLE Month

Fixture

Venue

Result

March

Match v St John’s (Cantab)

Royal Mid-Surrey

Came second! Opposition’s eligibility questionable!

March

OU Alumni Tournament

Frilford Heath

4th out of 18 colleges

April

Spring Meeting

The Berkshire

Winner of the Atkinson Trophy: Ken Hinkley-Smith

May

Match v Fitzwilliam

Berkhamsted

Not the AGS’s finest hour!

June

Summer Meeting

Richmond

Winner Richmond Trophy: David Hopkins

August

A.G.M

Studley Wood

Winner Aularian Jigger: George Marsh

September

Match v Corpus

Huntercombe

Back to winning ways!

October

Match v Catz & Pembroke

Southfields

Finished on a high!

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HALL NEWS: ON THE WATER

FASTEST UNIVERSITY CREW IN THE COUNTRY

Amy Varney

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In a photo-finish we crossed the line victorious with a 0.5 seconds

victory over Cambridge

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who gave us a phenomenal race.

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My memory of the race itself is something of a blur of adrenaline, pain and emotion.

Teddy Hall rowing Blue Amy Varney (2011, DPhil in Medicinal Chemistry) tells us about a very successful season for the Oxford women’s crew.

On Sunday 24 March, at a bitterly cold Dorney Lake, the Newton Women’s Boat Race played out in an exciting battle of the Blues in an intense OxfordCambridge rivalry. ‘The Henley Boat Races’ were moved to the Olympic course, after weather conditions made the Henley reach unsuitable for a fair race. I was sitting in the 5 seat of the Blue Boat and my memory of the race itself is something of a blur of adrenaline, pain and emotion.

The Cambridge crew, who were on average 4.5kg heavier per woman, absolutely flew out of the blocks, gaining an impressive half a length lead very quickly which they maintained for the first 500m. However, we had absolute confidence in our fitness and technique and settled into a powerful rhythm gradually reeling in our light blue rivals over the next 500m. At the 1k mark the crews were almost level and we went from strength to strength, walking through Cambridge with every stroke. The roar from the crowds as we surged into the final third of the race was almost inaudible to my lactatedrugged body, and as we started to build our speed and sprint to the finish, it was becoming increasingly painful to breathe in the ice-cold air.

We crossed the line 1 ¾ lengths ahead of Cambridge.

My first thought was ‘I can’t feel my hands’, followed by what felt like the longest silence before we managed to celebrate as a crew. It was a wonderful moment that I am sure none of us will forget!

However, not wanting to stop there, this May we fielded a similar Blue Boat line-up at the BUCS Championships. We lined up against top crews racing in the Championship Eights for the title of fastest university crew in the country. We met Cambridge in the semi final and achieved a similar margin over them to Boat Race day.

The final was a nail-biting battle with the three-front runners Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle exchanging leads throughout the race. In a photo-finish we crossed the line victorious with a 0.5 second victory over Cambridge who gave us a phenomenal race.

Exhausted, we collected our medals and shook hands with the light blues.

Fastest university crew in the country?

I’ll take that.

Amy Varney (2011, DPhil in Medicinal Chemistry)

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Friends of the Boat Club

Contact the Friends of the Boat Club:

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EMAIL DARRELLMPBARNES@GMAIL.COM

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)20 8785 6724

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WEBSITE WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK/ALUMNIDEVELOPMENT/FRIENDS-BOAT-CLUB

Dr Dianne Gull officially names the new women’s Eight

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The men’s first Eight rowing back to the boathouse after bumping in Torpids

Gemma Prata (2011, DPhil in Earth Sciences), first Eight rower, with the Summer Eights board and Teddy Hall themed nails!

At the time of writing, Summer Eights are only a few weeks behind us and they marked the end to an exciting year for SEHBC. The women’s first Eight achieved three magnificent bumps on Hertford, Balliol and Pembroke, while the men’s third Eight achieved four bumps and won blades – all this exactly 25 years after our Senior Member for the Boat Club, Simon Costa, now our Senior & Finance Bursar (1986, MPhil Management Studies), won his blade.

I would like to congratulate all our rowers this year.

You have put up with appalling river conditions, with little time on the water, increasing academic pressure, 6 am outings, and you still managed to perform. The Friends of the Boat Club are in full support, and we promise that the support for you will continue.

I would also like to thank all those who have served on the Management Committee, and all those hundreds of former rowers who have provided financial support, you are all greatly appreciated, and I hope you feel good about what you have done.

What we have managed together is truly amazing.

‘‘

We are currently seeing many improvements at SEHBC. The Friends of the Boat Club have provided a new “Eight” for the women’s squad, christened The Stewards of SEHBC in a ceremony performed by Dr Dianne Gull, the wife of the Principal. Work to refurbish the Boat House is due to start in Autumn 2013, thanks to the College’s generous £50,000 gift, and the Boat Club has a new sponsor – Danebury Wines. Next year will see a new Eight for the men, and hopefully even more success on the river.

‘‘

Quo vadis? The answer is onwards and upwards!

Richard Fishlock (1957, PPE) Chairman of the Management Committee The Friends of SEHBC

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HALL COMMUNITY: FROM THE JCR

INTERVIEW:

MARGERY INFIELD CHARITABLE EVENTS

10k

sponsored Oxford Town & Gown run.

26

Hall students took part in the race.

£3,899 overall raised for various charities this academic year.

Margery Infield (2011, Physics & Philosophy), JCR President

It’s multi-faceted though as always – we’ve also done lots of charitable things.

The Queen’s JCR President challenged us to see who could get the most people running and also the most sponsorship in the Oxford Town & Gown 10k. I gallantly said we’d only go head to head on fundraising, thinking this would give Queen’s an advantage, but they still lost!

They had about 15 runners; we had 26, mostly JCR but with a few MCR members too, raising £2,623 for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

The graveyard’s been used a lot in the good weather for picnics and the Parents’ Garden Party. I suspect that lots of Aularians have fond memories of being in the graveyard, and it’s nice that that’s carrying on. There’s also a new bar manager, Hayley, who’s getting on well with everyone.

‘‘

The graveyard’s been used a lot in the good weather for picnics and so on.

I suspect that lots of Aularians have fond memories of being in the graveyard, and it’s nice that that’s carrying on.

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How’s the last year been for the JCR? The main thing has been lots and lots of sporting success: rugby Cuppers was obviously a big thing; we’re badminton champions for the third year in a row; we took second place in lacrosse; and the women’s football team were beaten in their final but only conceded one goal all season!

What sort of events has the JCR run this year?

We’ve carried on doing ‘Anti-5th-Week Blues’ events. We have themed dinners and breakfasts, musicians from the Hall playing during breakfast, free massages, lots of free food and trips to go ice-skating.

At rugby Cuppers’ final we supported the team by having a celebration in true Teddy Hall fashion.

We also had a quiz night last term, organised by the Men’s and Women’s Officers, which raised over £500 for the Great Milton Neighbours Club [supporting the elderly community in the Milton area].

What other charitable activity has been going on?

The Syndicate did a charity auction, which is a new thing. One guy had to wear his Syndicate hat at all times, including to tutorials!

The Venus girls [set up a few years ago as a kind of alternative to the Syndicate] always raise money for charity – £776 for Macmillan Cancer Research this year.

They put on an event in Freshers’ Week and normally a black tie drinks event in the Old Dining Hall (ODH). A couple of people ran the marathon too.

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The graveyard, still a popular alternative to the library

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TWITTER @THALLJCR

Students in the JCR

HIGHLIGHTS

£130 saving for every student living in Hall accommodation next year, thanks to the rent freeze.

£10 to be donated per student to the Challenge Fund.

£2,500 What would you say are the strengths of our current undergraduates as a collective?

There’s so much breadth. The undergraduates tend to be very strong in sport but also, with the new Director of Music, the choir has been really strong recently. And, I’ve heard the new piano in the ODH being used a lot – that’s been popular with the musicians. Also the John Oldham Society going to Cameroon.

There’s so much apart from the academic side here: there’s always something going on, which I get the impression isn’t necessarily always the case in other colleges.

What do you think you’ve achieved so far in the president’s role?

The biggest thing is a rent freeze, meaning real-term savings of £130 for each student living in College accommodation next year.

We’ve got JCR representation on Academic Committee – that was something we fought for last term. I think it’s going to make a big difference with the feedback of academic progress from students to tutors – what tutors can improve, problems students have had with lectures, and so on. We have very low feedback rates at the moment – only

The Parents’ Garden Party was a hit, as ever!

‘‘

There’s so much apart from the academic side here: there’s always something going on, which I get the impression isn’t necessarily always the case in other colleges.

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Alfred Burton, Queen’s JCR President, presents Margery with a ‘Superiority Shield’ after the Town & Gown challenge.

about 25% of people respond. It’s a small step on the way to something bigger, I hope, and could in the long-term really help improve the quality of teaching.

I’m also working to renew the Crisis Scholarship, which was set up four years ago, so that we can have another scholar from a political conflict zone, and that will make a huge difference to one person’s life and it would be good for the Hall, too.

We recently voted as well to approve a £10 charge on students’ final battels statement for the Challenge Fund, which will be matched by the University up to £2,500. We’d like to use that to bridge the gap between the JCR and MCR, so perhaps supporting a one-year Master’s student would be good.

How would you describe Teddy Hall in 3 words?

Friendly, dynamic… and there’s something bright about it, or energetic and alive.

There’s never a dull moment, I suppose.

‘Never a dull moment’ [short pause for counting] four words!

The University will match this £10 with up to £2,500.

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HALL COMMUNITY: FROM THE MCR

INTERVIEW:

CHRISTIAN BECK

Christian Beck (2010, DPhil in Materials), MCR President Christian Beck (2010, DPhil in Materials), MCR President

We’re definitely one of the most vibrant MCRs in the University. We run the most events, particularly in Freshers’ Week, when we run an event every day.

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How do you think Teddy Hall’s MCR compares with other colleges?

We’re definitely one of the most vibrant MCRs in the University. We run the most events, particularly in Freshers’ Week, when we run an event every day. There are a set of 4 or 5 MCRs that are quite big and quite active and we’re definitely in that group, if not at the top!

What are the most popular MCR events?

Dinners are always great; you can’t go wrong with a good dinner! The big MCR dinners at Christmas and in Trinity term always sell out and wine tastings are also super popular.

Exchange dinners (where students eat at each other’s colleges) are hugely popular because Chef has improved the reputation of the food at the Hall so significantly. Normally they’re just in a college’s main dining hall but we do it a bit better here, using the Old Dining Hall. There’s also the Hearne dinner: ‘bring your supervisor to dinner’. Now, that wasn’t

as successful as it normally is, but it fell on Valentine’s Day. In hindsight, asking people to invite their supervisors to dinner on Valentine’s Day was probably not the smartest idea!

What do you feel you’ve achieved in your term as MCR President?

College have just agreed to a rent freeze next year.

It was probably my main target as it’s the biggest impact you can have as JCR or MCR President: it makes the biggest difference to everyone.

From a university-wide point of view, the financial guarantee work – I was on a sub-committee of Presidents’ Committee and as a group of MCR presidents we largely got what we pushed for.

We also got representation on the Hall’s Academic Committee for the first time. It seems like that’s important primarily for undergraduates, but actually there are discussions that are important for postgraduates too, like the potential make-up of the MCR in future years.

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Myron came from the USA to study at Teddy Hall in 2009-10 as a Rhodes Scholar. During his visit in April 2013 he spoke warmly about his experiences here, and how he has never regretted choosing Oxford ahead of his NFL career.

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Myron Rolle (2009, MSc in Medical Anthropology)

CHRISTIAN’S HIGHLIGHTS

MCR STUDENT AWARDS Emma Lochery (2010, DPhil in Politics) In Trinity Term 2013, Teddy Hall awarded me a travel grant to help with the costs of my third DPhil research trip to Somaliland.

My research examines the involvement of the private sector in state formation and infrastructure provision, taking the case of Somaliland, which declared itself independent in 1991 following the collapse of the Somali state.

Alexis Gutierrez (2011, DPhil in Geography and the Environment) The Hall travel grant enabled me to attend the Boston Seafood Show in March 2013.

I interviewed seafood buyers, government representatives, fishing industry and environmental non-governmental organisations about their environmental labeling schemes. My research focuses on what consumers understand about this labeling and whether that meets the expectations of those promoting sustainable seafood.

1 College have just agreed to a rent freeze next year. It’s the biggest impact you can have as a JCR or MCR President.

2 Hargeisa, the rapidly-growing capital of Somaliland

There are also lots of projects running on the back burner, like the renovation of the MCR (we plan to re-do the bar next) and getting a pool table at Norham Gardens. The Hall is also planning a major fundraising campaign and the MCR will get behind that: we plan to raise funds for graduate scholarships and refurbishment work at Norham Gardens.

What else has changed this year?

We completely re-did the MCR website at the beginning of the year, because it was so old and tired-looking. Now it’s a really good resource with the events calendar on it.

We updated the constitution this year too, so all 4th year undergraduates are members. And changed the committee structure a bit; there are now two stewards because event organisation has grown so much in the last few years. We also genderneutralised the wording.

Events like the Geddes lecture and the Hall Writers’ Day, which I went to not as a writer and not as an English student either, but I thought it was really, really good.

3 Alexis at Barcelona’s seafood market

How much interaction is there between the MCR and JCR? Sport is one of the areas where the JCR and MCR do bridge very well. We had a member on the Cuppers-winning rugby team, and loads of rowers. We have our own MCR football team (which the 4th year undergraduates are often a big part of) and they got promoted this year.

We’re also setting up the Challenge Fund which will be for student support. Up to £2,500 matched funding is available from the University for money raised by both common rooms from their leavers.

I heard about it through Presidents’ Committee, which was infinitely more useful than I expected it was going to be!

How would you describe Teddy Hall in three words?

Cosy… friendly (particularly the common rooms)… sporting… and fun. I’ll have a fourth one!

The return of Myron Rolle (former Teddy Hall Rhodes scholar, NFL football player and philanthropist) – it was really great to have him come back and talk, someone who’d obviously had an interesting time since he left! It would be nice to get more MCR students to come back and do the same.

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HALL COMMUNITY: FROM THE SCR

INTERVIEW: ROGER BENSON

Roger out in the field in Mongolia

Roger Benson, Fellow in Earth Sciences

Roger Benson joined the Hall in October as the new Tutorial Fellow in Earth Sciences, specialising in palaeontology. Before coming to the Hall, Roger was a Research Fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge and undertook postdoctoral research at UCL, investigating how biodiversity is distributed according to latitude in Earth’s past. Roger chatted to us about his research, field trips and what life is like at the biggest (and best) Earth Science college in Oxford.

Could you give us an overview of what your research covers?

My research is on extinct reptiles, including things that are the ancestors of mammals and birds.

This also includes the reptiles that secondarily invaded the oceans, such as plesiosaurs, which look a bit like someone’s impression of the Loch Ness Monster. Most of the creatures I’ve worked on lived between 65 and 300 million years ago and I’m interested in their evolution and relationships.

Your fieldwork must take you to some amazing locations.

What’s been your favourite trip?

I think Mongolia was the best place.

It’s the second largest landlocked country and there are three million people, and one and a half million live in the capital city. In some places you drive about half a day out of the city and the road stops and then you just have to drive through the wilderness.

There are lots of nomads and places you can go where you can’t see any man-made structures or fences or anything. They eat a lot of sour milk, which is actually a negative point, but it’s a very beautiful country, and it’s one of the most interesting places I’ve been.

Tell me more about your current research?

I’ve collected a lot of measurements of different extinct reptiles, using them to examine rates of evolutionary change. If you have an evolutionary tree that contains fossil species, you can quantify aspects of those animals. You might be interested in the shape of their skulls, for example, or the proportion of their limbs.

If you were alive 70 million years ago there were more close relatives to birds and bird-like things on a scale that includes dinosaurs, so you can study the origins of birds and the reptile/bird transition. Birds are very distinctive, they have high body temperatures and they can fly, and they can do very different things to anything else we can see today.

We might expect that the way that they evolve is different. There might be more constraint on their fore limb evolution, for example, but a lot less on their hind limb evolution because they can fly.

How have you found being at Teddy Hall so far?

People are very friendly. It’s quite a small college so it has a good community feeling to it. There’re lots of geologists here as well, so there’s a good geological community. The food is very good too! It’s some of the nicest food I’ve eaten in an Oxbridge college. Definitely one of the top ones!

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Most of the creatures I’ve worked on lived between 65 and 300 million years ago and I’m interested in their evolution and relationships.

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You can ask how the things you’ve measured change over the tree.

By using a simple statistical model you can investigate the average rate of change, or whether there’s any directionality across lineages, or if things are very constrained and tend to be more or less the same as each other, or if they can expand out into new unexplored regions of shape and ecology.

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Dream on...

Wes Williams Wes Williams, Fellow in French

The play sold out, and was, judging by responses offered by both audience members and performers, a complex, powerfully emotional and intellectuallydemanding show.

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‘Dream on...’, a play written and directed by myself and Angharad Phillips (Youth Arts Leader at Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), was an experiment which formed part of the Oxford-Sorbonne partnership that is the ANR-AGON project. This project, of which I was an organising member, explores the history of quarrels, disputes, and controversies, specifically in the early modern period; its dual focus is on the creative energy these quarrels generated at the time, and their continuing impact today.

For the show, devised with and for a diverse group of performers aged between 11 and 25 (and including a Fine Art student from the Hall, Alkistis Mavrokefalou), we made a story bridging playground, battleground, and courtroom; thematically, the story turned on justice, reconciliation, and revenge.

We used puppetry, drama and film to tell our tale, and at the show’s centre was a short film, set to PJ Harvey’s ‘England’, filmed both in contemporary Afghanistan and in (a recreated) early modern idyll: our own Hall graveyard garden.

The story brought together three principal strands: • the experience of two of our group, who themselves recently made the difficult journey to England from Afghanistan as young teenagers: walking, crammed on to a boat, hiding inside or under a lorry.

• reworkings of other experiences and stories generated by other members of the group, all of which turned on a set of connected fantasies and fears: revenge for harm done in the past, and the effort and time taken to find the right way to exact retribution and/or justice.

• a version of the Annunciation story (told in both the Koran and the Gospels), and its echoes in the early seventeenth-century trial of Magdeleine d’Auvermont, a woman from Grenoble made pregnant through the force of a peculiarly powerful erotic dream, while her husband was away fighting in the wars…

‘Dream On...’, with the theatre reimagined in a stunning design by Nomi Everall from the Pegasus, embedded the 1637 d’Auvermont court case – already a war story set in a border zone – inside a contemporary story about the sometimes destabilising force of the imagination. An extraordinary success, the play sold out, and was, judging by responses offered by both audience members and performers, a complex, powerfully emotional and intellectually-demanding show.

The play is now being reworked for future performances, and for other venues, and we are hoping that it will be the first of several collaborations between Pegasus (and other local youth theatre groups) and the Hall.

Wes Williams (Fellow in French)

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HALL COMMUNITY: FROM THE ST EDMUND HALL ASSOCIATION

INTERVIEW:

DARRELL BARNES Darrell Barnes (1963, Modern Languages), St Edmund Hall Association President

Has it been a good year? What’s been happening?

It has been a great year for the SEHA with a record number of Aularians coming to events and engaging with the Hall.

It’s really our job to make sure Aularians feel and stay connected to the Hall, not an easy task when we’re trying to be representative of a body of people ranging from 19 to over 100. We have a range of events designed to do just that from the London Dinner, which is really nice for the older contingent, to the new Teddy Talks which are early morning networking breakfast meetings in major world cities.

We also try and support important Hall initiatives and we’ve just awarded the Aularian Prize for the first time this year.

That prize has been set up to reward a project or initiative that shows leadership in a project for the benefit of others that falls outside normal College or University activities. The winner was Jian Min Sim who has developed a project called Gloobe which enables volunteers in the field to know where to turn to in the case of accidents and emergencies.

Also, the Hall is getting ready to launch a major fundraising campaign so we’re looking at ways in which we can support that effort in the coming year.

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Apart from being surprised at the amount of mental energy I have spent, what has bowled me over is just how much I care for Teddy Hall. I didn’t realise just how much it meant to me until I got involved as President.

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What have been the highlights of the past year?

One of the highlights at the very beginning of the year was the piping in of the port at the London Dinner! David Springer, last year’s MCR President, played The Teddy Bears’ Picnic on his bagpipes whilst Bruce Mitchell’s port (English Fellow from 1957-1988 who left the St Edmund Hall Association a bequest for the purchase of port for the dinner) was carried in by Christian Beck, MCR President, with a toast proposed

by Margery Infield, JCR President.

You’re about to come to the end of your term as President: has anything about the role surprised you?

Apart from being surprised at the amount of mental energy I have spent, what has bowled me over is just how much I care for Teddy Hall. I didn’t realise just how much it meant to me until I got involved as President. It has really changed my understanding of what the College does and the challenges it faces, seeing it from the point of view of the powers that be, as distinct from that of a student or an alumnus. It gives you another perspective on how everything hangs together.

In what ways do you think the Hall has changed since you were a student?

In some respects the Hall hasn’t changed at all, in that the buildings are still the same as they were, in the Front Quad at any rate: it’s the historic site that is the unchanging essence of the Hall and of what we call Hall Spirit. One thing that has certainly changed, and for the better, is that young people today are much more mature than they were when I was at the Hall.

Opportunities for travel have greatly increased since my day and, if anyone doubts the truism that travel broadens the mind, they have only to look at the John Oldham Society’s video of their Cameroon trip – what a fantastic, heart-warming and inspiring achievement! The relationship between the JCR, MCR and SCR is also much more informal and friendly, whereas we tended to defer to authority much more than I believe is the case today.

How would you describe Teddy Hall in three words?

Academic, artistic and athletic achievement: triple A status!

HIGHLIGHTS

120

Aularians attended the 2013 London Dinner.

60 Aularians attended the first Teddy Talks networking breakfast.

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Freshers’ Parents Dinner

UPDATES Over the past year Aularians have attended over 25 events in Oxford, London and across the world. From the 2013 Emden Lecture ‘The Death and Reinvention of Scotland’ by Professor Tom Devine, to the 28th New York Dinner and the Celebration of Writing at the Hall, organised

by Professor Lucy Newlyn, to the Olympians’ Reunion and the 40th and 50th Anniversary Dinners.

There was something for everyone!

In 2013/14 we plan to offer Aularians many more opportunities to get together, starting with our new series of breakfast networking events featuring speakers from the ranks of successful Hall graduates. Come and listen to your peers speak on a wide variety of topics in cities across the world from London to Singapore – watch out for Teddy Talks coming to a city near you.

Teddy Talk with guest speaker Lionel Barber (1974, History and German), Editor of the Financial Times (centre)

Cakes

50th Anniversary Dinner

Carols in the Quad

Simon Costa (Senior & Finance Bursar) and Keith Gull (Principal) in America for the New York Dinner

2001-2006 Gaudy

Champagne

Chris Patten (Chancellor of the University of Oxford), who gave this year’s Geddes Lecture

Want to stay closer to home?

We have lots of events planned so, if you’re missing the Hall, check out the list of events at the back of this newsletter or for up-to-date information visit www.aularians.com. Of course, you can always join us virtually by following us on Twitter or Facebook.

To book an event, or share photos of an event you’ve hosted yourself, contact Anna Fowler, Alumni Relations Officer.

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AULARIANS

FLOREAT MUNDUS! AULARIANS ACROSS THE GLOBE HIGHLIGHTS

7,664 total number of contactable alumni

Return to Sender?

We need your help finding Aularians who have become lost to us. Alumni often move and forget to let us know their new address. If you move, please login to: www.aularians.com and update your contact details.

Watch our website next year for the launch of our ‘Gone Away’ pages and help us track down your friends.

Aularian Ambassadors We’re looking for Aularian Ambassadors around the world to help us run a truly global events programme. Do you live overseas?

Find it difficult to make it back to the Hall for events? Wish you could catch up with fellow Aularians in your city or country? We need you!

Could you speak at an Aularian event in your city, help us find a suitable venue for a drinks reception or host a networking session? If the answer is yes, or if you feel you could help in any other way, please get in touch with Anna Fowler, Alumni Relations Officer (anna.fowler@ seh.ox.ac.uk) to find out more about becoming an Aularian Ambassador.

KEY Number of Aularians in each area

1-25

26-50

51-100

101-150

151-200

201+

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DID YOU KNOW? Countries with the highest number of Aularians 1. UK 2. USA 3. Australia 4. China 5. Canada 6. Germany 7. Singapore 8. France

5,489 884 136 127 110 99 79 78

Cities that will be hosting an Aularian event in the coming year* 71% 12% 1.8% 1.7% 1.4% 1.3% 1% 1%

1. Oxford 2. London 3. New York 4. Singapore 5. Hong Kong * For more details please see our events calendar on p.30

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DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE

THE CAMPAIGN FOR ST EDMUND HALL CH...CH...CH...CHANGES

Keith Gull, Principal; Laura Palmer, Director of Development; and Simon Costa, Senior & Finance Bursar

Recognising these challenges, the SEH Governing Body has taken a considered look at how this changing landscape will affect the entire educational experience offered at the Hall. A great deal of thought has been put into our future and how we preserve our highly-coveted tutorial system, enhance student support, uphold our commitment to our historic site and improve our student accommodation provision. After much deliberation it was agreed that a step-change across our entire provision is needed. Together with the Fellows, students, staff and Aularians, we embark now upon a major five-year fundraising campaign, currently in its silent phase, which will launch publicly in October 2014.

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Together with the Fellows, students, staff and Aularians, we embark now upon a major five-year fundraising campaign, currently in its silent phase, which will launch publicly in October 2014.

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Higher education is in a transformational stage in the United Kingdom. Decreases in government funding, increases in fees and greater quality demands from students are just some of the issues we face.

At the heart of the Campaign is the need to increase the Hall’s endowment.

Our endowment, currently £33M compared to the £60M recommended for an Oxford University college, affects all of our activity. We have a strategic plan to reduce that gap, and our fundraising efforts will focus on four areas: teaching and the fellowship; student support; student experience; and our historic site and student accommodation. The projects that fall under these broad themes have been carefully thought through to balance our need for support for our academic endeavours, improvements across our property and to increase our endowment.

We are committed to excellence and this Campaign is designed to make a positive, immediate impact. It will also build an endowment capable of protecting and enabling the Hall’s core educational functions in perpetuity.

Our goal is to raise

£25m over 5 years

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A Step-Change Proposition

Student Support At SEH we believe that financial constraints should never be a barrier to an Oxford education. Together with the University we provide approximately £250,000 non-repayable Oxford Opportunity Bursaries for some 108 undergraduate students in need at the Hall each year. The average cost of an undergraduate bursary at the Hall is £2,300 per annum and we will place at least 25% of funds donated in the early years of the Campaign towards immediate bursary funding, but the majority of gifts will go into a Bursary Endowment Fund. Over the Campaign we will seek to raise £3,500,000 in funds to support the increasing demand for undergraduate bursaries now and to create an endowment to contribute to these in perpetuity.

Graduate student scholarships are essential for attracting and retaining the most talented students to the Hall. A key benchmark during the five-year Campaign will be 2015 which marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of SEH’s Middle Common Room (MCR). To celebrate this milestone and raise awareness for the need to support and offer competitive incentives to our 200+ graduate student population, we will aim to build a Graduate Scholarship Fund of £1,305,000. The funds we raise will secure the funding for 9 graduate MCR Anniversary Scholarships in perpetuity. Some of the funds raised will be used to provide £5,000 scholarships now, but in keeping with our core strategic aim to increase the endowment, we will place 75% of the funds we raise in an endowment fund for the future.

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A key benchmark during the five-year campaign will be 2015 which marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of SEH’s Middle Common Room (MCR). To celebrate this milestone and raise awareness for the need to support and offer competitive incentives to our 200+ graduate student population, we will aim to build a Graduate Scholarship Fund of £1,305,000.

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Teaching and the Fellowship Supporting teaching and the tutorial system is key to the Hall’s strategic priorities. Those who have been fortunate enough to study in Oxford often credit the student-tutor relationship as being the single most formative influence on their academic development and future careers. Our strategic ambitions for the Hall depend on dramatically increasing our endowment for Fellowships in order to sustain this form of teaching. We will establish the John Kelly Fellowship Fund which will provide support for Fellowships and the tutorial system across all subjects in the Hall. The total average cost of endowing a tutorial fellowship at the Hall is £860,000 and we aim to raise £9,600,000 in support of Fellowships.

Student Accommodation and our Historic Site Recognising that a student’s time at the Hall is not restricted to the educational experience, we are conducting a feasibility study on our student accommodation at Isis and have plans to refurbish the Norham St Edmund site at a cost of £1,100,000.

The Governing Body also take seriously their duty of care to preserve and protect our historic site and so vital maintenance work on the Quad, Chapel, Old Dining Hall and Old Library will also figure prominently in the Campaign with a target to raise £828,000 for the collective projects.

Student Experience Another key step is to raise funds to enhance the student experience and to endow cultural, social, artistic and sporting activities at the Hall in recognition of the breadth of talent that exists.

These additional activities make each student’s time at the Hall unique and we will aim for a sustainable fund of £2,500,000 for these activities.

Specific projects and initiatives will be identified in the coming months.

Our aspirations are high and we can’t do this without you. In the coming months we will be seeking your help, advice and support. I hope that you will all begin to think about how you can get involved and include the Hall in your philanthropic plans.

Laura Palmer, Director of Development

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EMAIL LAURA.PALMER@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 279096

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DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE

NEWS FROM THE DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE

Sally Smith, Deputy Director of Development

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EMAIL SALLY.SMITH@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 279041

World War II tour with Felicity Folsthrop

FLOREAT AULA SOCIETY (FAS) Have you made a provision for Teddy Hall in your will? Donors who remember the Hall in their will are offered membership of the FAS. We have over 200 members currently who are invited to a biennial dinner alongside a programme of special events.

In March, over 100 Aularians attended the FAS weekend which included evensong and a formal dinner; a talk by Rebecca Shorter, Hall Archivist; World War II Oxford tours with Felicity Folsthrop; and a talk

by Jonathan Yates, our Picture Fellow.

If you have remembered the Hall in your will, thank you. If you would like to speak to someone about leaving a legacy please contact Sally Smith.

NEW DATABASE (DARS) As you may know, the St Edmund Hall Development & Alumni Relations Office (DARO) will be using a new database system, the Development and Alumni Relations System (“DARS”) from September 2013. DARS is a centralised database which holds the details of alumni, students, staff and friends previously held in separate alumni and development databases across the University and its colleges.

It is an exciting development for us on many levels: we hope that DARS will make it much easier for you to update your details and preferences for all parts of the University with which you wish to have contact simultaneously.

It will also improve how we store and handle your data and should save on administration costs.

DARS is already in use by the University Development and Alumni Offices which send out Oxford Today and regular email bulletins. Your contact information, course details and other information, if held by the University’s central offices, are already on DARS. We hope that you will be happy for us to merge your data held elsewhere into

the new system, but you may opt out at any time. You may also specify mailing preferences for the College and the University, and after the database comes into live use at the Hall, you will be able to log into a web portal to update your own details, mailing preferences, etc, online.

Your data will continue to be held securely.

For full details on the way in which your data will be held and used, please see the DARS Data Protection Statement at: www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/data_protection or contact DARO for a hard copy.

You don’t need to do anything: we will assume unless we hear back from you by 30 August 2013, that you are happy for us to stay in touch and the data we already hold will simply be transferred. However, if at any time you have any queries about the use of your personal data, or no longer wish to receive a specific communication, please contact Sally Smith, Deputy Director of Development.

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Aularians Pledge over £500,000 in the 2012 Telethons

The September 2012 Telethon calling team

If you’d like to know more, please contact:

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EMAIL LAURA.PALMER@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 279096

In March and September 2012, two groups of Teddy Hall students worked hard calling around 2,000 Aularians to hear and share stories about life at the Hall and to raise money for the Annual Fund.

The teams enjoyed many fascinating conversations with you and the two campaigns together raised over £500,000 for the Hall through one-off donations and pledges spread over four years.

The Annual Fund helps us to meet urgent needs in an effective and flexible way, supporting a variety of projects including bursaries, teaching, Masterclass awards and urgent building and infrastructure maintenance.

The Annual Fund provides vital funding that we depend upon. Your generous donations have made a difference to hundreds of students and the Hall.

We extend our sincere thanks for your support and look forward to speaking to many of you again this September 2013.

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The two campaigns together raised over £500,000 for the Hall through one-off donations and pledges.

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BOARD OF HALL BENEFACTORS Alumni and Friends of St Edmund Hall who make a donation of £25,000 and above are invited to join the Board of Hall Benefactors. Donors receive invitations to the Charter Dinner (plus partner), lectures, exhibitions, and other events held at the Hall with access to associated receptions.

Benefactors’ names will be recorded on a commemorative board and they will receive a certificate signed by the Principal.

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EVENTS

EVENTS

We are constantly planning new events.

For up to date information contact Anna Fowler, Alumni Relations Officer.

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EMAIL ANNA.FOWLER@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 289180

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FACEBOOK WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/STEDMUNDHALL

2014

2013 SEPT

OCT

JAN

APR

SATURDAY 14

TUESDAY 3

TUESDAY 21

TUESDAY 1

10th, 20th and 30th Anniversary Dinner

Teddy Talks, Richard Glynn, CEO Ladbrokes, hosted by KPMG, London

SEHA London Dinner

Teddy Talks, hosted by Jones Day, London (TBC)

FRIDAY 25

FEB

FRIDAY 11 – MONDAY 14

FRIDAY 21

OU North American Reunion

FRIDAY 20 Rhodes Trust Drinks Reception

SATURDAY 21 1963 50th Anniversary Dinner

Parents’ Dinner

NOV FRIDAY 8 New York Dinner

THURSDAY 14 London Winter Drinks (TBC)

Freshers’ Parents’ Dinner

TUESDAY 25 Teddy Talks, Linda Yueh, Fellow by Special Election in Economics, Singapore (TBC)

THURSDAY 5

SATURDAY 24 Parents’ Garden Party

FRIDAY 28 Hong Kong Drinks (TBC)

DEC

MAY

MAR

Carols in the Quad

SATURDAY 1

THURSDAY 12

Masterclass Showcase (TBC)

Varsity Match

SATURDAY 29 1974 40th Anniversary Reunion

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Missing the Hall?

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EMAIL SUSAN.MCCARTHY@SEH.OX.AC.UK

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 279222

New-Look Traps Fans of unisex toilets and stainless steel will be saddened to hear that the Traps recently underwent a significant transformation.

Dining in the Old Dining Hall

Home Bursar Ernest Parkin enthusiastically presided at the official re-opening of the Traps

Dining in Aularians are entitled to dine in the College from five years after the date they went down. Join Fellows, alumni and other members of the Hall for a truly Oxford experience. You can book a place for yourself plus one guest, once a term, on either Tuesday or Friday evening Formal Hall or SCR guest night on alternate Wednesday evenings.

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FOR INFORMATION ON PRICING VISIT WWW.SEH.OX.AC.UK/ ALUMNI-DEVELOPMENT

Need a place to stay?

Visit the Hall and stay in a single or twin room at a preferential rate of £33 for a single room including bed and breakfast or £66 for a twin room including bed and breakfast for 2 people during term time. This rate increases during the vacation periods to £37 for a single room including bed and breakfast and £74 for a twin room including bed and breakfast for 2 people.

Please contact the College Bursary to make a booking. You are advised to make your booking as far in advance as possible to avoid disappointment.

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TELEPHONE +44 (0)1865 279007

We had an absolutely marvellous time and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. We have received so many compliments on our choice of venue, food and service since our big day. Thank you for helping to make it extra special.

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Allison & Denis, who were married at Teddy Hall in 2011

Originally the kitchen for the Old Dining Hall, the Traps became communal toilets and showers for the front quad around 1970 when the Wolfson Hall opened. The 1990s saw them sheeted in stainless steel which, despite the scouts’ best efforts to clean and polish, looked (to quote our current Home Bursar) “like a vision of hell”.

The recent refurbishment has seen the area stripped right down and fitted with new flooring, easy-to-clean partition walls in a calm cream tone, low-energy lighting and improved ventilation. There are no more showers, but the biggest innovation is the division into male and female sections.

Definitely worth a visit on your next return to the Hall…

PARTY TIME! The Hall has several function rooms that are available for private hire by Aularians, throughout the year, at preferential rates. The Old Dining Hall and Wolfson Hall are perfect for weddings and parties, while the Jarvis Doctorow Hall makes for an excellent conference facility. If you are interested in holding an event at the College please contact Susan McCarthy, Conference Manager.

Development and Alumni Relations Office St Edmund Hall Queen’s Lane Oxford OX1 4AR aularianconnect@seh.ox.ac.uk T: +44 (0)1865 279055 F: +44 (0)1865 279030