Reports
The Master
The Master
Tom Allen talks about community,
crowdfunding and changes
This year we welcomed over 300 freshers and 100
new postgraduate students to Grey. Special thanks
go to all the College staff for making the welcome
to Grey as wonderful as it is. Thanks are also due
to our students Courtney Caton, Bethany Allen and
Shaun Stillwell, who led the team of Freshers’ Reps.
Current postgraduates Craig Fisher, James Collinson, Matthew Kirk and Sarah Gray also deserve
mention, as they organised the welcome for our
new postgrads. Courtney has been our JCR President this year, Bethany our JCR FACSO (Finance and
Commercial Services Officer) and Stuart Flegg our
MCR President, so we also need to thank them for
their hard work in those roles. Courtney will soon be
handing over to David Jones and Bethany to Alex
Davies. Stuart is graduating, but the MCR does not
elect a new President until the beginning of the next
academic year.
We welcomed two visiting fellows to Grey during
Michaelmas. Professor Carlo Vecce was appointed
as a fellow with the Institute of Advanced Studies. In Grey, he gave a talk on Leonardo da Vinci’s
philosophical aversion to completing anything.
Dr Salvatore Stella was our Alan Richards Visiting
Fellow in Mathematics. He gave a talk in the SCR
on the geometry of simple games, which led into
something much deeper: how do mathematicians
decide that something is worth investigating? Roar
Kjaernstad stayed as a visiting artist in residence
and Laurens de Rooij was with us as visiting fellow,
doing research on issues relating to Muslims in
Europe. Laurens also organised Muslims and Islam
in European Modernity, a three-day conference held
in August 2015, as well as a one-day symposium on
Muslim Responses to Sectarian Conflict: Representations, Discourses, and Realities, held in May.
Grey College is obtaining its own branded crowdfunding site. York University has a very successful
site (yustart.hubbub.net) and one of our students,
Tom Fox, ran a successful campaign for the Boat
Club (hubbub.net/p/GCBC24hourrowingchallenge).
Nathan Young, a Grey College graduate, is working
on the development of the site. More detailed information on this project can be found on page 10, but
its primary aims are to facilitate student development, to raise funds for new projects and to provide
a better window on Grey College activities.
We are hoping that the site will go live by the be-
ginning of the summer, so please check our website
to see what is happening.
The College ran a series of workshops on reducing
sexual violence in Easter term 2014/15, and again in
Michaelmas and Easter 2015/16. Courtney and I are
also on the University’s Sexual Violence Task Force,
which will be making recommendations to the University Council and Senate later this academic year
on the University’s policies and procedures.
Henry Dyson has retired from his post as the University’s Keeper of Fine Art. Henry received the Dunelmensis Award from the University for meritorious
and exceptional service in support of the University.
Henry will be greatly missed. Anyone who has been
to Durham in recent years will see the tremendous
impact that he has had on the College and the
University. The Chair of our College Council, Paulina
Lubacz, retired at the end of Epiphany, after many
years as the University Treasurer and lately as the
Chief Operating Officer. I am personally very grateful to Paulina for her support and advice over the
years. Paulina’s successor has not yet been appointed, but we expect to have our new Chair in place in
time for the next academic year.
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