June 24th would have been the start of graduation ceremonies across Cambridge; and that night at Selwyn we’d have been holding our graduands’ dinner. How we wish that were possible – and we look forward to the day when it will happen. We are hoping this will be in the next academic year.

The colleges and university of Cambridge have issued a statement about plans for the academic year 2020-21. The key points:

We congratulate alumnus Tim Davie on being selected as the next director-general of the BBC. Mr Davie studied English here in the 1980s, and was president of the JCR. He went on to become a marketing executive at Procter & Gamble and Pepsi, before moving to the BBC. His roles there include being director of radio and chief executive of BBC Studios. Here’s how the BBC reported his appointment:

The college wishes a long and happy retirement to its alumnus John Sentamu, who has stood down as Archbishop of York.

Dr Sentamu studied theology at Selwyn in the 1970s, and was awarded his PhD here in 1984. He is an honorary fellow of the college, and he keeps in close touch with news from Grange Road.

Every year the college awards the Williamson prize for musical performance. This year's winner is Alex Jones, a third-year undergraduate; and normally he would be invited to give a recital to celebrate. He has therefore performed this special piece: online, of course, but able to be shared and enjoyed even more than in the past. It is the first movement of Lauber’s Double Bass Quartet.

Selwyn’s graduate students have made a short video to thank the college for the support they’ve received during the health emergency. Julie Ruth Malone, the MCR’s publicity officer, said: “We wanted to create a lasting show of gratitude that could be shared. This interesting time will be with us all for years to come, and we thought that perhaps such a video could digitally memorialize the care and effort of the college.”

A joint statement from the heads of all 31 colleges at the University of Cambridge, including the Master of Selwyn Roger Mosey, has appeared in The Times.
 

The statement says in full:

The college’s prestigious annual event – the Ramsay Murray lecture – was given on May 15th by Trevor Phillips OBE. Mr Phillips is a former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and an award-winning television producer and presenter as well as writing for a range of publications including The Times.

Sir David Harrison was 90 years old on May 3rd.

Selwyn welcomed two new Fellows on Tuesday April 28th. They are Lynn Dicks and Anna Lippert, and their installation was a moment of college history: the first time the ceremony has been performed via video conference.