6 | pembroke college
FROM THE MASTER Last summer we were all keenly looking forward to a better 2021. We had just gone through an Easter Term with all teaching being done online, with most students back at home and studying and doing their exams from there, with an almost deserted College, and with none of the glorious celebration that normally comes with June in Cambridge. Surely 2021 couldn’t be as bad as this? Well, we’ve tried very hard to make it better; but it’s been a struggle. It was especially a struggle in Lent Term, when once again a national lockdown meant that most students had to study and work from home, and even for those who were still in Cambridge there was no music or sport or socialising at all. But Easter Term this year was far better, even though we still had to ask everyone to wear masks in indoor communal spaces, and to observe social distancing, and to collect food in boxes from the Servery. Just seeing our students back in College was a delight, and the place was buzzing with life and activity again, and on the sunny days of early June everyone was sitting out on the Bowling Green Lawn reading or revising or chatting. As we came towards the end of term we brought Formal Hall back for six nights over the final three weeks: everyone had to sit in groups of six, with space between each group, including of course the Fellows on High Table. We put the six Formal Halls up online for students to book their places; and within ten minutes every single place had been booked. It was a very good indication of how sorely missed many of the community aspects of College life have been, through these pandemic times. And then at the end of term we erected a huge marquee and were able to put on a Matriculation Dinner for our first-year students (who had never been able to matriculate properly at the start of the year); we did a barbeque for our second-year students; we gave a Barham Dinner to celebrate graduation for our third-year students; we did a lunch and graduation ceremony for the graduands; and we put on a combined Matriculation and Graduation Dinner for our postgraduates. None of these, sadly, were in Hall; they were all in the marquee with tables of six clearly separated; but it felt really special, particularly after the fifteen months we had all been living through. I’m firmly hoping that by the time we get to Michaelmas virtually all of our students will have been doubly vaccinated and we’ll be able to provide much more of a sense of life lived as a College community. Through all of these difficult months we have been guided and led by our Senior Tutor, Dan Tucker. Dan has handled everything with astonishing patience and humanity. Whether it’s carrying out complex risk assessments for meeting rooms or events; or trying to understand the often contradictory advice and guidance from the Department for Education; or coordinating plans with the University or the City Council or Public Health England; or working with the Junior Parlour and Graduate Parlour, whose contributions to College life through the whole period have been terrific; or setting out a weekly letter to all students explaining what is happening and why; or dealing with a host of individual enquiries and special circumstances: Dan has remained calm and unflustered throughout. And he has struck exactly the right balance between keeping
