Reunion events
Association with Zvi, the person who’d given me a lift there. Justice Bach is our Honorary Chair and we have set up the Chaim Herzog UCL Israel Alumni Award as part of the UK’s Chevening Awards programme.” So what does Jennifer think it is about UCL that brings people back? “I think people feel a sense of pride because of UCL’s history and the traditions of liberalism on which it was founded. I always talk about these very proudly, and of course we’ve also recently seen UCL zoom up the ratings and reach number four worldwide, which is very exciting.” And what about Jennifer’s recent fame on UCL’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/ucltv) where she’s featured in a film about UCL Freshers’ Week in 1960?
Absolutely fabulous: celebrating 50 years
“It looks as though my main interest when I went up to UCL was dancing in the cloisters, but I must have done some work too! Now that I’ve retired from a very time-consuming job as company secretary of Israel’s largest bank, I have more time for dancing and my other love – blues music.”
“We’d held reunions for years, but to mark the 50th anniversary of coming to UCL, we decided to make a real effort to find more alumni. Twenty alumni came to the reunion – from as far as Trinidad, the USA, Italy, Israel and Norway, which is twice as many as in the past, and we are now in touch with a dozen more from our year who were unable to come. I also asked everyone to write about what they’d done since leaving UCL, and the resulting booklet is absolutely fabulous. People are usually too modest to talk about their achievements, but we now know that what they have done is really impressive, and in many fields as well as the law. I’m sure UCL must have had quite an effect on us all.” To start the reunion, the current Dean of the Laws Faculty, Professor Dame Hazel Genn, hosted a tea for the former students, followed by a guided tour of the campus and drinks and dinner at UCL’s Terrace 12
Restaurant. Jennifer tells me with a smile: “It was even arranged for Jeremy Bentham to be open late.” Today Jennifer runs both the Laws ’63 alumni group and, together with Zvi Geffen (UCL Economics 1981), the UCL alumni group in Israel – her home for the last 37 years. The duo organise lectures by visiting UCL academics, write a newsletter and run a scholarship fund which, every year, enables a graduate of an Israeli university to study for a UCL masters degree: “The selection process is fascinating – seeing the people who wish to go to UCL and hearing about their aims and motivations.”
There are several reunions coming up next year, some of which are listed below. Please go to www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni to find out more. 1961 Middlesex Hospital graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Malcolm Jayson 1961 UCL Medical School graduates 14 July 2011 Alumni organiser: Edward Galizia 1964 Town Planning (PG) graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Michael Ray
When Jeremy Bentham stays out late you know it must have been a good party. Here Jennifer Janes (UCL Laws 1963) recalls coming back to mark a UCL Laws 50th anniversary for the class of ’63, and her five minutes of fame on UCL’s YouTube channel…
When someone pointed out that it was going to be 50 years since Jennifer Janes and her fellow Laws ’63 graduates had first crossed the cloisters, she wanted to hold a special celebration:
GET TOGETHER
1973 Laws graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Graham Wedlake 1986 Royal Free graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Sandra Quenault 1986 UCH & Middlesex Medical School graduates June 2011 Alumni organisers: Ian Keith and Astrid James
“I think people feel a sense of pride because of UCL’s history and the traditions of liberalism on which it was founded.”
1991 Speech Sciences graduates October 2011 Lunch gathering Alumni organisers: Eileen Grist and Charlotte Painter If you’re interested in attending any of the above reunions or would like to organise your own, please email Felicity Bond at: f.bond@ucl.ac.uk The Alumni Relations team can offer advice and help you to contact your former classmates. UCL venue hire is also available at a discounted alumni rate.
But Jennifer tells me she wasn’t even on the alumni records until she happened by chance to see a UCL reunion advertised in her local paper 16 years ago: “The speakers – all alumni – included Lord Woolf (then Master of the Rolls); the former President of the State of Israel, Chaim Herzog; and retired Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Gabriel Bach. At the end they asked for volunteers to form a local group, and, to cut a long story short, I ended up establishing the UCL Israel Alumni
Are you a 1970s Economics graduate? We’re currently looking for a former student who would like to organise a reunion for their year group. Please get in touch with Felicity Bond: f.bond@ucl.ac.uk or call 020 7679 9783 to find out more. 13