News Articles

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

• Colleges are looking forward to welcoming students into residence and are making preparations for teaching, welfare, social and extra-curricular activities during the year ahead. 
• The academic year will start as normal and term dates will not be changed.
• Where possible, teaching by seminars, practicals, and supervisions will be delivered in person, and it may be possible for lectures to smaller groups to be given on this basis.

You can read the details here:
https://www.cam.ac.uk/coronavirus/news/statement-made-by-the-university-and-colleges-of-cambridge-sent-to-all-students-at-the-university-by

Our homepage photo shows Selwyn freshers of 2019.
 

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:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52933648

The master of Selwyn, Roger Mosey, has written about the challenges ahead for the new DG:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bbc-director-general-tim-davie-licence-fee-a9551746.html

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.

This piece in The Observer gives an account of his remarkable life:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/07/beaten-in-uganda-abused-in-the-uk-john-sentamus-long-struggle-against-injustice

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.

The Williamson prize was endowed by Dr Matthew Seccombe, Keasbey research fellow of Selwyn from 1980 to 1983. It is named after a fellow graduate student of Dr Seccombe's at Yale - Carolyn Williamson - who first introduced him to a love of music, and to whom he felt a profound debt of gratitude. It was first awarded in 1981, while Dr Seccombe was still a fellow of the college.

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.”

The college was particularly pleased that the efforts of its staff were recognised by the students; and we, in turn, are grateful for the strong sense of community that everyone has maintained through the crisis.

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:

“As heads of Cambridge colleges, we have been concerned in recent days to see headlines around the world making the claim that Cambridge will be moving entirely online next year. These claims are wildly exaggerated and have caused unnecessary alarm to students and our wider community. We are a collegiate university, and our strength is that so much student activity takes place in colleges, from small group teaching and pastoral care to music and sport.

"We will always take the latest public health advice and clearly there will be challenges in delivering all this in the next academic year. Online lectures will make a key contribution. But we are determined to do our best to bring the colleges and the university back to life with intensive in-person learning in the traditional locations and the widest possible range of activities.”

Signed:
Jane Stapleton, Master, Christ’s College; Athene Donald, Master, Churchill College; Anthony Grabiner, Master, Clare College; David Ibbetson, President, Clare Hall; Christopher Kelly, Master, Corpus Christi College; Mary Fowler, Master, Darwin College; Alan Bookbinder, Master, Downing College; Fiona Reynolds, Master, Emmanuel College; Sally Morgan, Master, Fitzwilliam College; Susan Smith, Mistress, Girton College; Pippa Rogerson, Master, Gonville & Caius College; Geoff Ward, Principal, Homerton College; Anthony Freeling, President, Hughes Hall; Sonita Alleyne, Master, Jesus College; Michael Proctor, Provost, King’s College; Madeleine Atkins, President, Lucy Cavendish College; Rowan Williams, Master, Magdalene College; Barbara Stocking, President, Murray Edwards College; Alison Rose, Principal, Newnham College; Chris Smith, Master, Pembroke College; Bridget Kendall, Master, Peterhouse; John Eatwell, President, Queens’ College; David Yates, Warden, Robinson College; Mark Welland, Master, St Catharine’s College; Catherine Arnold, Master, St Edmund’s College; Tim Whitmarsh, vice-Master, St John’s College; Roger Mosey, Master, Selwyn College; Richard Penty, Master, Sidney Sussex College; Sally Davies, Master, Trinity College; Daniel Tyler, acting vice-Master, Trinity Hall; Jane Clarke, President, Wolfson College; Michael Volland, Principal, Ridley Hall.

There is further information about the position across Cambridge on the university website:
https://www.cam.ac.uk/coronavirus/news/update-from-the-senior-pro-vice-chancellor-education-regarding-the-academic-year-2020-21

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.

His lecture was entitled “The New Normal: Diversity, Difference and Discord”. It is available to watch in full, with a concluding question and answer session, here:

https://youtu.be/GwrYegopV8o

The event was introduced by the master of Selwyn, Roger Mosey. In response to many requests from alumni and friends, we are looking at offering more events online in the coming months.

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

David has had a remarkable career at Selwyn, going back 70 years (more than half the time of the college’s existence) to when he started as an undergraduate. He became a Fellow in 1957, and took on a range of college responsibilities – from admissions tutor to senior tutor – before becoming Master in the 1990s. He was also vice-chancellor of Keele and Exeter Universities; and he is a distinguished chemical engineer. He is pictured here with a cake and champagne, delivered to his home in lieu of the birthday lunch which had to be postponed because of the health emergency.

David is still at a multitude of college events, and over the years he has won the respect and affection of generations of Fellows, students and staff. The college council therefore decided to honour his birthday by renaming the New SCR as the Harrison Room, so that his contribution to the college will be marked enduringly.

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. Around 40 Fellows took part, and Dr Dicks and Ms Lippert made the traditional declarations before being presented by Professor Richard Bowring – with words of Latin - to the master Roger Mosey.

Dr Dicks is based in the Cambridge department of zoology, and is a conservation scientist focused on insect conservation and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

Ms Lippert is a Sir Henry Wellcome postdoctoral fellow, and she studied at Selwyn - investigating the molecular mechanisms of Superagonism - and is a former president of the MCR. 

We congratulate them both on joining the fellowship. A full list of fellows can be found here: https://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/list-of-fellows

The college is delighted to announce that its new auditorium will be called the Quarry Whitehouse Auditorium – named after alumna Jill Whitehouse (SE 1978) and alumnus Gareth Quarry (also SE 1978). This reflects their generosity towards the building project. They are seen in their gowns as Fellow Benefactors of Selwyn.

This follows the announcement that the library will be named the Bartlam Library. It’s recognition of the very significant benefaction by Tom Bartlam (SE 1966). The library will form the first and second floors of the new building, and will offer new workspaces to Selwyn students along with a mix of conventional books and digital resources.

The Bartlam Library and the Quarry Whitehouse Auditorium will see the completion of Ann’s Court.  The court is named after Ann Dobson, the late wife of Chris Dobson (SE 1957).  Their family trust - The Ann D Foundation - has provided the principal support for all three phases of the court’s development, including the current one.
 
We are immensely grateful to all the alumni and friends who have contributed to the project. The total cost is expected to be £12.6m, and this has now been raised in full with the help of more than 1,000 individual contributions.