Trevelyan College Alumni Magazine - Hippocampus

Alumni have been prominent as individuals this past year. Two were honoured in the New Year List – Sara Thornton (graduated 1984) was made a CBE and Yasmin Waljee (1991) an OBE; Ben Howard (2010) won Gold in the under-23 World Triathlon Championships just a month or so after graduating; and five Foundation Alumni have just opened an exhibition of their artwork in the College Bar (see page 13)! Special mention must also be made of Caron Pearson (1984), a longstanding Alumna representative on College Council who has this year generously taken up the challenging role of Honorary Director of the Trevelyan Trust, bringing much-needed focus and continuity to the College’s Alumni relations and development.

We are delighted to be joined by Martin Clemmett (formerly of Hatfield College) as Bursar to ourselves and St Mary’s College, and after exactly a year in post he has established himself as an indispensable and highly popular colleague. The Senior Common Room also has a new President, Dr Hendrik Nahler of the Department of Chemistry, one of the youngest Presidents in any SCR, whose energetic approach has succeeded in recruiting no fewer than 35 new members over the past year.

All three Common Rooms have agreed a new set of Formal Dining Rules binding upon us all, a remarkable undertaking and one that augurs well for the future of the College as a community. The Middle (Postgraduate) Common Room has also made forward strides this year, with its own defined constitution, an increased range of activities, its own Presidents’ name-board and Honours Board in the Dining Hall, and a shared home in the new Mowlam Room, which is in effect last year’s Intermediate Common Room lounge transferred from the Dowrick Suite to a more comfortable and intimate location. This move was made possible by an extensive ground floor refurbishment, which is detailed on pages 14-15.

I must now summarise the miscellaneous traditional highlights in the College calendar over the past year. The Musical was once again an outstanding success, Sweet Charity showcasing the extraordinary musical, theatrical and entrepreneurial talent that Trevelyan seems to be able to take almost for granted; ditto The Merry Wives of Windsor with a superb, rollicking, pacey performance in the Quad. The College choir and orchestra are also in the ascendant, with a first-rate Christmas concert that deserved a bigger audience. The Schools Mentoring scheme has flourished, extended over the past year into specific mentoring in practical musicianship for students at a Pupil Referral Unit. The Grounds Committee have been busy and, with help from funds assisted by Alumni, have overseen the reclamation of the pond as a picnic area, and the preparation of the old allotment as a new College orchard; a small arboretum will follow.

The Luce Memorial Fellow was Dr Asma Abdel-Halim, a gracious scholar whose lecture on the rights of women in the Sudan was memorable indeed; the College has also hosted its first two ‘IAS’ Visiting Fellows within the auspices of Durham’s Institute of Advanced Study, while the Trevelyan College Fellow last year was an old friend, Professor David Baguley who had been a longstanding senior resident within College during his career at Durham.

There is much more that could be said but considerations of space forbid it. I will mention only that the Trevs team won the Durham in-house University Challenge tournament this year, and will be strongly represented on the University’s team for the national competition. And this is, it strikes me, exactly how things should be. I look forward to reporting their fortunes in the next issue! Meantime it remains for me to wish Trevelyanites everywhere a year of health, happiness and flourishing.

HME, February 2011 3