https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/2020-09-03/breeders-season-2-release-date/
spring 2021
Jesuan news
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Jesuan News goes online for 2021
Contents FroM tHe Master
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inteLLeCtuaL ForuM
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by Julian Huppert CoLLege KitCHens
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Jesus CoLLege in suspension ConFerenCe anD Catering
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by alexis Moreau porters’ LoDge
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by simon Durrant tutoriaL DepartMent
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We appreciate that this meant that many Jesuans who have not provided us with, or do not have, an e-mail address were unable to view the Annual Report.
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While we are still living under tight government restrictions, we have also decided to go online only for this year’s Jesuan News. We would very much appreciate your feedback on this new format and hope you enjoy the edition.
by tori McKee QuinCentenarY LiBrarY by adam Williams garDens anD grounDs by paul stearn Caring in tiMes oF neeD
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ramsay Bowden aBout tHe BoYs
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Harry McCarthy tHe Jesus stuDent
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by Jacob powell neWs FroM tHe MCr by Luis alberto ramírez garcía Jesus CoLLege’s WeLFare Dog
JCCS Annual Dinner 2021
by sarah richey “FroM MY WinDoW”
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BuiLDing—anD CYCLing into—
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tHe Future sandy rattray 14
by James Crockford and richard pinel
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speaKing oF CHina
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We plan to return to printed copies of our publications in the next academic year and will be e-mailing, or writing to, all our alumni in the coming weeks to offer you the opportunity to opt out of future printed publications should you wish to do so.
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Mentoring upDate
CHapeL, CHoir anD MusiC
Last year we were regrettably obliged by circumstances not to print and distribute the Annual Report. instead, we sent everyone with a contact e-mail address a link to a new digital-book format, allowing ease of viewing on a computer screen or tablet while offering the option to download the publication as a pDF. By not printing and mailing to the Jesuan community— which is spread far and wide over the globe— we were also able to make a significant impact in reducing our carbon footprint during the pandemic.
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edited by James Woodall e Development and alumni relations office Jesus College, Cambridge CB5 8BL tel: +44 (0) 1223 339301 e-mail: development@jesus.cam.ac.uk Designed by nikki Williams, Development and alumni relations office
as refurbishment of the Hall continues, College events will take place in the Forum Hall. a decision about the annual Dinner, currently scheduled for saturday 25 september 2021, will be taken in May by the JCCs Committee. at this stage it is still unknown as to what shape the event will take. More information will be shared in May as to what might be possible. notice of the annual general Meeting will also be sent at this time.
From the Master Dear Jesuan i hope that by the time you all read this, wherever you are in the world, the combined efforts of our global scientific communities are pointing you in the direction of more freedoms, and more time with friends and family, as we navigate our way out of the pandemic. e College’s response to it has been very organised, and i would like to take this opportunity to thank and highlight all the Fellows, staff and students who have contributed so much over the past year. our medical Fellows have guided our response. ey have taken time out of busy schedules in the frontline of hospitals and research labs, where they are joining in the scientific fight against CoViD-19, to assist in the development of our practices and measures to safeguard us all. i am so grateful for their ceaseless efforts.
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Your generosity is helping us realise mentoring, internship and agency programmes across College
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i contrast the last few terms with my first as Master. What is missing is the opportunity to meet so many Jesuans from across the years in person. i am convinced we will get back to that as nations open up and we can once more take physical journeys. While we have had to take the difficult decision once again to cancel so many alumni and donor events through until september, we remain hopeful that next academic year we will be able to welcome you back with open arms. i am also pleased to share with you the news that we have successfully started to explore what it means to be a College that embraces creativity. ere have been competitions in film-making, poetry, creative writing and photography. e standard of submissions to this year’s online John Hughes art Festival was phenomenal. our art Club has had to pause for the moment but i am looking forward to its return, as well as to that of the College’s myriad musicians; all this on top of an excellent term of academic work and engagement. anks go to our Fellows who have continued to provide support and inspiration to our students; and to the student body, which has patiently dealt with all that has been asked of it.
i would like to thank our alumni community for their engagement with the College’s consideration of the rustat Memorial that currently sits high on the wall of our beloved Chapel. it has been moved twice in its time within Chapel: this latest proposed move has garnered much attention and debate. as Jesus College is a place of education, religion, learning and research i am pleased that our process has not been rushed. it started before my time, in May 2019, with the formation of the Legacy of slavery Working party, and has been carried out in a methodical and measured manner according to our governance structure. e decision taken by the College Council to suggest that the memorial be moved from Chapel to a more fitting educational space is very much aligned with the sentiment of the Fellowship and student body. e final decision now, quite rightly, lies with the Church of england. i cannot think of a body better placed to assess how the fabric of the Chapel can foster and fully reflect the worshipping life and welfare of the College community. e College has also been in the press with regards to China. on page 15 of this issue of Jesuan News we have taken the opportunity to provide more information about the College’s current and historical academic engagement with China. Finally, i am happy to report that plans are underway for us to increase our careers support for our current students. ey will be entering a job market much affected by the pandemic. Yet again, your generosity is prompting us to conceive of and realise mentoring, internship and agency programmes across College. at is so satisfying and we will ensure we sustain our efforts. e prospect of helping to build lives and get our young Jesuans launched into the world is one of the major rewards of my role as Master. Sonita Alleyne
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
While certainly nowhere near capacity, we have had resident members in Jesus throughout the entire period. i think i can speak for the whole College community of Fellows, students and staff when i say that we look forward to an easter term when we hope to see West Court and the roost Café, built on the generosity of your financial support, once again filled with students and Fellows engaged in conversation, ideas and laughter.
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Intellectual Forum
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he intellectual Forum thrives on people coming together. ideas and collaborations are born and nurtured through our conferences and talks in the Frankopan Hall, as well as in conversations during coffee breaks or over a drink in the College bar.
CoViD-19 means we have to do things differently. During Michaelmas and Lent terms, the intellectual Forum hosted Zoom webinars—open to the general public as well as the College community—on a huge variety of topics, with some excellent speakers. Keen to find some answers in these challenging times, we welcomed Mo gawdat, former Chief Business officer for google X and author of Solve for Happy, to talk about finding silver linings in the face of crisis. some of us might have been more sedentary than usual in recent months. We spoke to Dr giles Yeo, an expert on how the brain controls body-weight, and were inspired to get onto the saddle by cycling guru and gold-medal-winning olympian Chris Boardman MBe. in February we were joined by futurist and author of Stuffocation and Time and How to Spend It, James Wallman, who spoke about the importance of experiences—especially in current circumstances. in an attempt to satisfy the College’s healthy appetite for sustainability, we asked professor sarah Bridle, author of Food and Climate Change without the Hot Air, to talk about changes individuals can make to their diets to reduce their carbon footprint.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
e intellectual Forum aims to be a melting-pot of ideas and diverse ways of thinking. Dr temple grandin, world-renowned expert in autism, discussed the importance of having different kinds of mind making up society.
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College Fellow and university reader in Many-body physics, Dr ulrich schneider, asked: is “seeing” the same as “believing”?—delivering a lecture about the ways scientists and computers analyse data, and explaining how the development of ever more complex experiments is changing the way we do physics. in January we were joined by screenwriter and producer al Jean, who gave us an insight into his time as writer and showrunner of e Simpsons, and on how the long-running animation has “predicted” major events in world politics (an episode that aired in 2000 included a joke about “president” trump). Back in the real world of unprecedented american politics we hosted patrick Davies oBe, former British Deputy-ambassador to the us, on the day of president Biden’s inauguration. He addressed political transition in the usa and some possible directions world politics could take post-trump. He also kindly took some time to talk to students about how to pursue a career in the Foreign office—inspiration for diplomats of the future… if you missed any of our Zoom events, they are available to watch online. We also have an exciting slate of events coming up soon: follow us on Facebook and twitter, or join our mailing list to find out more. Dr Julian Huppert, Director
Clockwise from top left: James Wallman, Mo Gawdat, Professor Sarah Bridle, Chris Boardman MBE, Dr Giles Yeo, Patrick Davies OBE, Dr Temple Grandin, Dr Matthew Young, Dr Ulrich Schneider
College Kitchens e Forum Building’s conversion was timed with the move of catering from the College’s centre as the Kitchen Development Project took off. With help from our Domestic Bursar STUART WEBSDALE, Jesuan News reports on this work here are two generous dining spaces in the Forum, consisting of a Hall and upper Hall. e Forum Hall is 40% bigger than Hall. it has a vaulted ceiling, displays a selection of our larger works of art and has floor-to-ceiling windows offering wonderful views of College. e Forum upper Hall is similar in size and space to upper Hall, and has a full-length panelled wall creating warmth, a wall surface contrast and acoustic dampening.
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stuart Websdale explains: “Food will come in through the Kitchens, up the extension to the Caff, and at the other end of Caff cleared plates will come down. We’re creating a really clever way of moving our people and our food. if you look at a cross-section end-elevation, there will now be six different levels across the whole building serviced by lifts and stairs. e interface between new and old, and addressing those challenges, make it a complex project.”
e exterior of the Forum building looks very different from what it was but the reclamation of original materials, and the careful design of the internal spaces, give echoes of the former building’s frame, while the flow between the spaces makes for a comfortable and coherent dining experience, assisted wonderfully by the placing in the foyer of a baby grand piano, donated by Mrs ann roseblade.
accessibility has been fundamental to the design process: Hall and upper Hall have not previously been suitable for, or respectful of, College members’ needs; and the redesign has fully considered mobility and gender-neutrality. From bathrooms to lifts, solutions have been made to overcome the previously restrictive use of all shared areas, with a design in place to ensure every member of the community is equally welcomed and provided for.
e 2020-21 enforced lockdowns have, of course, altered every convention of shared College dining. Food offerings have been takeaway only since January 2021; but the Manciple, his team of chefs and front-of-house staff look forward to welcoming all back into these two new spaces, where the College community comes together in celebration and to enjoy the dining experience. College members might recently have seen, meanwhile— via Jesus’s Communications and the news media—a brief film made by the archaeologists working on site, illustrating the findings, expected and unexpected, as pump Court has been excavated. e foundations of alfred Waterhouse’s 1875 Hall (demolished in the mid-20th century) were found, and the remains of what appears to be a building shown on a late 17th-century plan and drawing of the College have come to light, as well as other 17th- and 18th-century items. e archaeology continues and a final report is eagerly awaited.
environmental sustainability has been considered as well, applied from the design process through the build and the whole life-cycle of the development. e Kitchens will be free of fossil fuel, serviced instead—for both heat and cooling— by a ground-source heat-pump installation under the cricket field. is is causing some disruption to hosting matches at College in the 2021 cricket season. However, Jesus cricketers have been welcomed as “tourists” at other colleges, so College games can still take place. as of writing no promises can be made (the archaeology has taken longer than planned) but stuart’s greatest wish is that, in easter term 2022, final-year students will be among the first beneficiaries of the renovation, with an experience of dining in the Hall before the end of their time at Jesus.
e Kitchens and Caff have been stripped back to their brick- and stone-work. e archaeologists are currently recording the fabric of the walls before they are covered once more by surfaces suitable for sanitary food preparation. e site manager is also supporting the investigations of the College archivist in finding previously covered-over graffiti, which will be briefly exposed and available for recording. along with the below-ground extension to the Kitchens, a three-storey extension is planned for beyond the north end of the kitchen/Caff/upper Hall range of the building.
Since the piling was completed, we have been in the archaeological phase of the project (photo by Paul Vonberg Architects)
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
in Michaelmas term, the College was determined to provide the closest thing to a normal student experience for those resident in College. Formal and grad Halls took place but with a hybrid service created to minimise the risks posed by the pandemic and to remain compliant within government guidelines.
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Jesus College in suspension After a long period of forced closure, the likes of which the College has never quite known, members from various departments tell Jesuan News what life in 2020-21 has been like
Conference and Catering it goes without saying that, in the past 12 months, our lives have been turned upside-down, wiping out all our points of reference. as a team, we have worked very hard at keeping some catering services open. We know how important to Jesuans seeing a friendly face in the Caff or the roost is. an absence of conference and events was strange at first but the team is now keen to start hosting internal and external events when possible. We have received industry-led CoViD-safe accreditations, about which we are delighted.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
We have not been able to allow anyone to sit in the Forum Hall for a while. We are still, however, offering a choice of high-quality, home-made dishes to suit everyone’s requirements, and are following our tuesday and Friday meat-free days. unfortunately the new way of serving has had a significant impact on the amount of single-use waste we are producing. e number of
COVID-secure measures in the Forum Hall have been put in place
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compostable takeaway boxes has escalated but our green champions are looking at container-service re-use, similar to the keep-cup principle. We are confident this will be trialled during easter term. e College has been wonderful at making environmental suggestions and getting on board with our many initiatives. Most recently, we established new satellite recycling-stations, there for members to segregate their waste so we can recycle more. e College’s green impact team is heading towards completing work for another award this year. a new compost facility has been built and the planting of new trees on the estate continues. Lastly, we are undertaking a review of all our facilities’ energy consumption. e data collected will be part of the College sustainability strategy document and of the vision of a “positive, sustainable change for generations” currently being prepared. Alexis Moreau, Manciple
Porters’ Lodge
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ix months ago, when i had the privilege of taking over the role of Head porter, it was not known how we would best respond to ever-changing conditions brought about by CoViD-19. it was a case of dealing with the needs of our student body and community, facilitating as many services as safely as we could while following the changes laid out by the government. it’s a challenge when required to police social-distancing rules across a community, to which many here—beginning what should be a great adventure and time of growth in their lives—are new. i know i speak for all in the porters’ Lodge when i say we were aware of the frustrations that must have been felt, not least by Freshers starting out under such strange circumstances.
as new Year approached, the Lodge, having experienced two terms during the pandemic, felt more confident about managing all that Lent term 2021 might bring. With just under half of our student population on site, we were keen nonetheless to offer as much support as possible to those present during this new lockdown. i would say to those unable to come back for Lent term: you were greatly missed and we look forward to welcoming you warmly when you can be back with us. at’s not to say
that those in College have not made their presence felt: i am hugely grateful for the opportunity to get to know and speak to more students this past term. in the porters’ Lodge we have a healthy daily delivery of mail, registered post and parcels. We test fire-alarms weekly, while supporting our new Kitchens development-contractor in its fire-detection compliance. We stay ever-vigilant in our provision of safety and security on one of the largest college sites in Cambridge. Despite Jesus being unable to provide its usual wide-ranging level of services, i’m hopeful that improvements in public health and routes out of where we have been for so long will give us good cause to welcome a return to life as it used to be. For now, i’ve noticed around College that the birds are singing and springtime flowers are beginning to bloom. Life will eventually return to normal, i have no doubt. Simon Durrant, Head Porter
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
all departments have, i believe, performed superbly in difficult working conditions. e university then embarked on its weekly pool-testing programme, a mammoth task that has been, in my opinion, a resounding success. e porters and i have been supporting those participating in the programme to collect and drop off their completed tests. Co-ordinated by the university, our tutorial Department and CoViD Management team have provided and continue to provide an excellent service. We were also pleased to be of use to the wider university community by being one of the few colleges used as a drop-off point for the individual testing programme.
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Tutorial Department in tutorial, we have been working almost entirely from home, yet are busier than ever. We have managed to stay connected by using Whatsapp and meeting on Ms teams weekly for a Friday-morning tea break. student inquiries have more than tripled with all the last-minute CoViD-19-related changes and we’re constantly dealing with new situations that need careful consideration. We’ve increased the size of our team with secondments from Conference and it, and are grateful for the support.
We’ve added an assistant College nurse and two locum College Counsellors to respond to increased demands in health and welfare. We are also responsible for student FaQs on Jnet, which are always growing and developing.
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We are providing one of the best, if not the best, CoViD-19 response services in the collegiate university
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e tutorial Department Manager is leading the team of CoViD-19 managers, three in daytime and six out of hours. We provide a 24/7 service to respond to any isolations in the College community (students, staff, Fellows), ensuring appropriate help is in place, including during self-isolation for resident students. We have the target of a 30-minute response time for any new referral, having completed contact-tracing over 24 to 48 hours. We are providing one of the best, if not the best, CoViD-19 response services in the collegiate university. it was praised in Michaelmas as “phenomenal” by the CoViD-19 incident Management team, which includes representatives of public Health england. We manage, too, the weekly asymptomatic testing-programme for students and in Lent were very focused on encouraging, among our resident students, high levels of participation. Tori McKee, Tutorial Manager
Quincentenary Library
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
“silence in the library” took on a new and ominous meaning last year: the Quincentenary Library locked its doors in late March 2020 and a deep silence fell. en, after two months of online support for students and much discussion, the Library began the long process of reopening. in June, we started our click-and-collect service, taken up with great enthusiasm by students and Fellows alike. i was personally overjoyed to be back, albeit in a limited form to start off with.
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We then looked at the gradual opening-up of the building as a place both to borrow books and study. after much measuring of tables and their proximity to windows and walkways, we had a socially distanced layout in place to welcome back the first of our students. Lowering capacity from 125 seats to 45 took time but this meant we could let people book a space and return to the building. towards the end of July, we opened our doors for the first time in several months: postgraduates, mainly, reappeared but we knew that Michaelmas would soon be upon us and things would step up a gear. our next task was to move all Library inductions to online videos, a job brilliantly performed by rhona Watson, the Quincentenary Librarian, in time for the beginning of
october. it was really quite wonderful to see new faces (albeit masked) starting Michaelmas term and the building reclaim some of its atmosphere. as regards the national situation in spring 2021, changing rules will offer us—all being well—a brighter summer ahead. and with that, “silence in the library” should once again simply become a phrase to let students know their headphones are too loud! Adam Williams, Library Assistant
Gardens and Grounds as the first lockdown began, we decided to split the gardening team into two separate shifts. our aim was to maintain our high standard of work by putting in extra effort with less time available. is has resulted not only in our usual upkeep of the grounds but also in a planting project throughout the woodland walk. in phase one we planted around 300 trees and shrubs there. We plan, in phase two, to plant more trees in the winter of 2021. is came about after a request from students keen to raise funds and help with planting. e additional trees and plants will improve the walk in general and also be beneficial in terms of biodiversity.
e lawns have fared less well, with extensive damage from cockchafer grubs, but we’re working hard to remedy this in the coming months. poor weather early in the year has made them easier to maintain and the longer we can keep activity off the grass the better. We are very pleased with our new wildflower area outside north Court (seeded from King’s College wildflower meadow), sown back in october 2020. it has germinated quickly and will provide a fantastic display this summer. plans are now in place this autumn to sow a good proportion of Library Court with the same seeds, which become a vital food source for bees and pollinators, and provide a year-round habitat for local wildlife. Paul Stearn, Head Gardener
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
another improvement, this time in environmental sustainability, was the introduction of five new bespoke compost bays. We will produce a large amount of our own compost from College and garden waste, as well as from spent hops from the brewery and coffee grounds from the roost Café. Coffee grounds in particular are an excellent contributor to top-quality compost and will greatly benefit the various gardens in Jesus.
With spring arriving, the wisteria in First Court (arguably the most photographed part of the College) is starting to bud and by early May it will be in its full glory. e Chapel Court wisteria is also coming along nicely and continues the theme throughout the grounds towards Library Court.
Preparing the wildflower meadow
e five new compost bays
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she lived in Chapel and north Courts, and on o staircase. she also met James, a year above, and played the cello: she was in the College orchestra. “i was the Medical society Vice-president. i helped invite loads of speakers but a good deal of it was about organising social events. Medics always know how to have a good time.” ramsay was brought up in London, daughter of an english father and an american mother, and went to st paul’s girls’ school. Her a-levels were Biology, Chemistry, physics and History. e last is mildly surprising.
Caring in times of need RAMSAY BOWDEN “Once a Jesuan, always a Jesuan” applies to more than a handful of our Fellows, as it does of course to so many of you reading. Clinical Geneticist Dr Ramsay Bowden (2004) now arrives in this distinguished company. Or almost: lockdowns, and her first child, have kept her away from Jesus during her first academic year as Director of Studies for Medical Sciences for longer than might be ideal. But she’s closely involved, in all the health issues, with College colleagues
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
ramsay is speaking to Jesuan News from her loft, in a house off Mill road where she lives with her husband, vet James Warland (also a Jesuan), and their baby son alexander, born just as 2020’s crisis struck. in front of Zoom, speaking in Latin, is exactly where she was a few months ago for her admission of new Fellows to Jesus College: ramsay was kept at home by CoViD restrictions, just one of the challenges of a child starting nursery during a pandemic. “i spent much of october self-isolating at home,” ramsay sighs, “having multiple CoViD tests because of alexander.”
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she’s fine (so is he), upbeat and very much on the case for Jesus: three other clinical Fellows, Dr siân stinchcombe (respiratory), professor John Danesh (epidemiology) and Dr sybil stacpoole (neurology), are on the CoViD frontline. e four medical Fellows have been communicating regularly about controlling the virus; they’re assisting with a working group, launched last summer to concentrate on reopening the College, now called the pandemic strategy group. some 18 years ago ramsay came to explore the university. she walked around Cambridge: Jesus seemed close to the centre but, for her, was in its own way more private, with, she adds, “those amazing grounds”. reading Medicine,
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often, her patients have a disorder that affects one-in-a-million people
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“i was determined to do an arts subject. History was more work than all the sciences put together!—and extremely good preparation for Cambridge, as i had at school to write a lot of essays, which was precisely what happened when i came up. today, i really value arts a-levels in people applying for Medicine.” ramsay is interested in Dna, how it is damaged and repaired, and how those processes can influence the development of cancer. Her patients are those with any kind of genetic condition, which can be chromosomal, such as Down’s syndrome, or due to single-gene defects. she sees lots of children with rare genetic disorders but also many adult patients with an inherited predisposition to conditions such as cancer or heart disease. often, she cares for patients with a disorder affecting one-in-a-million people. she emphasises how important it is to help them find a sense of community among the other one-in-a-million. she has been in Cambridge or nearby—her first job, post-qualification, was in Bedford—for most of her student and working life, medical elective excepted: Medics, who do six years, choose at the end of their fifth to do something abroad. ramsay’s father worked for save the Children Fund and the united nations in east africa for quite a while, so she’d visited him there frequently. she had not, however, been to uganda. ramsay explains: “i lit upon a missionary hospital in south-west uganda, near rwanda and the DrC. When i got there, the hospital was rather different from what i’d read about in Cambridge. Just one ugandan doctor was in charge. He was overwhelmed with a 100-bed hospital. ‘right,’ he said, ‘this bit is yours. go and treat people.’ it was baptism by fire. i saw some terrible things… but i came out of it incredibly proud of what i’d done.” and the future: here and elsewhere? “it’s hard to see how much of my current work can translate, for now, to the developing world. Certain areas sadly do not intersect at the moment… Clinical work, too, will undoubtedly change once we have the pandemic under control.”
About the boys HARRY McCARTHY Dr Harry McCarthy joins the cohort of English Literature Fellows at Jesus College. e newest of our seven, he has a specialist and unusual interest in the first stage performances of Shakespeare’s plays and those of his contemporaries. We also detect a faintly epicurean streak… Jesuan News: How did you arrive here?
JN: Where were you, and what were you doing, before? HM: My phD in english Literature and Drama is from the university of exeter, where i was also an undergraduate. Between the two i did an Mst at oxford. My phD explored the roles of boy actors in plays by shakespeare and his contemporaries on the 16th- and 17th-century professional stage. part of my remit as a Junior research Fellow is to rewrite this into a scholarly monograph. since arriving i’ve supervised a couple of dissertations, which have taken me into the weird and wonderful worlds of mud in shakespeare, and early-modern pornography. JN: Can you expand on your research? HM: i became particularly interested in the physical demands of performing at that time as a boy. ere’s been a fair amount of literary criticism on the (homo)erotic and gender dynamics of having boys play women on stage. rather less attention has been paid to the physical skills that are essential to boy performance. i became very intrigued in how early-modern attitudes to sport and exercise might have shaped the conception and acting of roles as impressive as, say, shakespeare’s Cleopatra. is then led me to explore relatively obscure plays that make extraordinary physical demands on their young performers. a real highlight, for me, was staging in 2018 early 17th-century plays by John Marston and John Day in the sam Wanamaker playhouse at shakespeare’s globe. ese feature full-length game scenes, including badminton matches and bowls tournaments, which really challenge our preconceptions about what boys are capable of performing and what counts as “theatre” on the early-modern stage. JN: tell us where you started your life; something about your background… HM: i was born in abingdon, into a family of caterers. My father is a professional chef. My mother has moved
through hotel- and event-management into conferencing at st edmund Hall College, oxford. i was the first in our family—i have a sister—to go to university. JN: and participation in drama? HM: My earliest exposure was playing Fleance in an amateur Macbeth, when i was about 13. What really sealed the deal was working as a front-of-house assistant with Creation eatre Company in oxford, whose site-specific productions exposed me to just how inventively and accessibly shakespeare’s works can be brought to life for today’s audiences. i’ve always tried to carry my enthusiasm for the theatrical vividness of shakespeare. JN: and outside shakespeare? HM: i’m just as much of a fan (if not more!) of shakespeare’s contemporaries: Marston, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe… e works of these writers are not particularly well-known beyond academic circles. it’s a shame, since they often offer a fresh and theatrically vivid alternative perspective on the same issues that preoccupied shakespeare. JN: any recent—as it were—shows that have left their mark on you? HM: it’s almost hard to remember the heady days of theatregoing! e last great shakespeare production i saw in the flesh two and a half years ago was simon godwin’s Antony and Cleopatra, starring ralph Fiennes and sophie okonedo, at the national eatre. okonedo did a fantastic job of capturing Cleopatra’s “infinite variety”. Hers was a muscular, commanding, yet intensely vulnerable Cleopatra—dazzling to watch. JN: in these challenging times, how do you relax at home? HM: My partner, peter, holds a phD in medieval literature and history. it’s wonderful to have someone to bounce ideas off and who sympathises with the demands of an academic role. We’re united by an almost obsessive passion for food and drink, and when i’m not working you’ll find me poring over recipes or ransacking markets and delicatessens. on days when research and writing haven’t gone so well, it’s wonderful to lose yourself in meditative acts like chopping and stirring—to have something tangible and delicious to show for it at the end.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
Harry McCarthy: My partner and i moved from Devon to Cambridge in september 2020. ings then were, slowly but surely, beginning to “unlock”, though looking back from when we now speak [January 2021] i don’t think that was for the best. i’ve yet to discover Jesus in all its unmasked, undistanced glory. at said, i have been made to feel wonderfully welcome by everyone, from our subject colleagues to the porters to the housing office to the Master.
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e Jesus student Current President of the Jesus College Student Union, Jacob Powell (2019, Natural Sciences), reviews this most difficult of academic years for undergraduates it was an absolute privilege to be elected JCsu president for 2021. Without a doubt, this JCsu Committee is the most driven group of students i have had the pleasure of working alongside during my time so far in Cambridge. each Committee member is intensely focused on representing student views to the College and bringing about meaningful change on a wide range of issues. i spent the start of my presidency building strong relationships with senior figures in College. is has enabled us to work constructively on matters from the Kitchen Fixed Charge in Lent term (the JCsu ensured this was not billed to students, given a reduced catering service) to the College’s China initiatives (the JCsu agreed with the College Council that no subject is out of bounds for discussion). e calendar year began with a great deal of uncertainty over the return of students to Cambridge for Lent. i would like to use this report to thank the tutorial Department for everything it did at the end of the festive period, with some staff having to work during annual leave to interpret ever-changing government guidance. indeed, i would like to thank all College staff for their professionalism and hard work during these strange times.
With conditions being what they are, the student body was nonetheless determined to ensure events continued to run, even if they had to be “remote”! e John Hughes art Festival swapped the Marshall room for a virtual exhibition space where there were rave reviews of the artwork produced under the theme of “Constellations”. e Feminist society and newly created LgBtQ+ society produced full term-cards; the ents officers also held social events throughout the term, including a quiz, “speed-meeting” with members of Murray edwards College and a comedy night with Cambridge Footlights. a virtual ordinary general Meeting was very well-attended and showed once again how passionate we are when it comes to student politics. among many others, motions were passed in favour of raising the JCsu budget and greater support for the LgBtQ+ students. e Welfare officers also organised a fantastic welfare week during week six. From a mindfulness session to baking rice Krispie cakes on Zoom: there was no limit to eva and angus’s online inventiveness… i am incredibly proud of how resilient our community has been during the pandemic. i look forward to the months ahead when i am sure we all hope to see restrictions eased. i eagerly await the moment when i can raise a glass with fellow Jesuans, past and present.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
neWs FroM tHe MCr
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e MCr Committee has worked hard this year to keep the postgraduate community in College united and this is a testimony of how resourceful the students in Jesus are. i am very grateful for being able to lead the MCr through this peculiar period.
20 students presenting their research. it was a resounding success and clearly a new way to engage in academic collaboration.
e academic year began with the traditional Freshers Fortnight, in which we welcomed over 170 new graduate students into College. ough social-distancing restrictions made it difficult to run some of the regular events, such as the Welcome Hall or the punting trip to grantchester, we hosted some other activities to allow new students to meet the rest of the cohort.
on the welfare front, the MCr officers have continued to provide an environment in which students feel comfortable addressing any issue they might be experiencing during their time in College. is year has created a larger than usual demand for welfare activities, so the College Welfare tutors have launched a “Welfare Bulletin” and the MCr officers are actively participating in it.
picnic-style welcome dinners, takeaway dinner-nights, tours of the College, a welfare picnic and the very popular wine-tasting were some items that Freshers were able to enjoy. as part of the social calendar, we were able, too, to host the traditional Halloween super Formal and even three Christmas grad Halls! people were happy to enjoy at least a part of what a Cambridge year normally comprises. in March, the MCr’s academic officer, Hannah Charlotte Copley, ran the annual graduate Conference. is year the format was online but we still had the participation of
Being the MCr president this year has been a distinct experience from that of my predecessors but i am truly appreciative of the support from my Committee, without whom i could not do this. i also want to thank all the graduate students, the tutorial Department and the Domestic Bursar, and the staff in College. eir engagement in overcoming this crisis has been a key factor in the MCr running successfully through the year’s challenges. Luis Alberto Ramírez García, MCR President
Jesus College’s Welfare Dog
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n January 2020, pippy the Beagle arrived in Cambridge as the new dog of the Dean of Chapel, the revd James Crockford. as the College welcomed her, little did we know that soon enough she would be thrust into the limelight of welfare and pastoral support. When restrictions have allowed, the Chapel has organised highly popular “Walk and Wag” strolls on saturday afternoons, with pippy taking a group of students down the river over the meadows, to escape worries and workloads. she has often been joined by Fellows and staff and their dogs (including the Director of Development and alumni relations’ lively Labrador, reggie), all of whom have provided a dose of comfort, normality and perspective amid the pressures of term.
clocking her (walking) miles in a bid to out-exercise Wadham College, oxford! pippy has also adapted to the virtual world and is a regular feature on the Chapel instagram (@jesus.chapel), with adorable photos to keep us smiling and with simple pieces of self-care advice to help us all maintain mental well-being in tough times.
once or twice a week, pippy has taken the Dean for a walk around her set route through the College courts, greeting Fellows, students and staff alike. she’s all excitement each time she bumps into the gardeners— the feeling is definitely mutual—and she has insisted on stopping outside the roost Café until baristas andrea and Jo (along with most of the students present) have come to give her some fuss. some staff have timed their tea breaks so they could come and walk with her, and her visits have been a brilliant way to care for our staff as they have adapted to the pressures and opportunities of 2020-21. pippy enjoys supporting College sports teams from the sidelines and is an honorary member of the Boat Club, turning out to cheer on our rowers at the Christmas Head, and teaming up for their Varsity training Challenge,
as you might be aware, Jesus College is in the process of setting up an exciting new mentorship and careers programme. a number of our alumni had already expressed an interest in contributing to the programme, and in March of this year we circulated a mentoring-and-careers questionnaire to our alumni community to seek its advice and input. We would like to say a huge thank-you to all the respondents. We have received over 700 responses and are delighted by the level of interest in the scheme. some 93% of respondents were interested in either receiving or offering mentoring and we have received numerous other offers of help from our alumni too. it was very helpful to see that there was a fairly broad consensus around what alumni perceived to be the optimal frequency, duration and mode of communication in a mentoring relationship, as well as clear agreement around what the objective of a mentorship programme should be. ese insights will all be immensely helpful to us in drawing up our guidelines.
We want to ensure we design a programme that works for everyone, so we have carried out a similar survey with our student body. our students have also been participating in targeted focus groups. ese have looked to explore further how our students’ requirements for careers advice and guidance will vary, depending on where they are in the student life-cycle. our plan is not merely to replicate what is offered by the careers service but rather to offer something that will complement it, and will, we hope, be more bespoke and tailored for the Jesuan community. We now have a wealth of information that we are attempting to digest fully before we pilot the scheme in the summer and, subject to what we learn from the pilot, we intend to launch the scheme in the 2021-22 academic year. We will of course be back in touch, closer to the time, with those of you who expressed an interest in being involved in the pilot and once our new platform is launched we will very much welcome your feedback once again. Sarah Richey, Careers Mentor
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
Mentoring Update
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“From my window” On 10 January a contest to grade the best photograph taken in the preceding months by any College member closed. A Jesus goodie bag was the coveted prize
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t was thought that the best images might be snapped in a moment of inspiration on a camera-phone while at work at a desk: that’s where the competition started. if someone ventured out, new angles of classic views from around Jesus were also encouraged. perhaps the most peculiar sights would make for the most captivating photos…
Many students, staff and Fellows submitted photographs of the view from their bedroom or office windows. all entries were anonymised and, after much careful deliberation by the astute panel of judge—the Master—seven shots were shortlisted. From left to right, with the photos above, the winners were: In first place Jamie andersen (porters’ Lodge) In second place aurelio petrucci (2018) In third place Lewis Westwood Flood (2020) Runners-up were: andrew te Water naude (2019), ella Curry (2019) and gabrielle gilbertson (2020) Congratulations go to the finalists and a thank-you to all who contributed.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
another photography competition is slated in for easter term to allow the College community to capture the ever-changing landscape of Jesus’s beautiful grounds. so keep an eye out for the new competition theme!
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Runners-up photos (clockwise): Gabrielle Gilbertson (both top images); Andrew te Water Naude; Ella Curry
Building—and cycling into—the future Happiest when cycling the five miles from home to his office near London Bridge, Sandy Rattray (1988), Chief Investment Officer of the Man Group since 2016 (and a founding patron of the London Cycling Campaign), has kept his ties with College warm. With an enthusiasm sparked at Cambridge, he remains equally close to the arts Sandy Rattray: My aim was to be an academic physicist. i worked out that wasn’t to be. physics and Maths were my first loves but i switched to economics—more utilitarian for me, in truth. i also ran an art-appreciation society and rowed: i was in the 1st eight for a while. JN: Does your first connection with the College go beyond being an undergraduate? How was your life before you came up? SR: i almost don’t exist because of Jesus College! My father was a Jesuan. My mother is swedish. My father, who was in oil, met her and invited her over from stockholm to Cambridge to show her around, including the Jesus Library— what is now the old Library. ey were promptly told by a porter that, unfortunately, women were not allowed in. My mother was from liberal 1960s sweden and thought her society was a little more advanced than ours… is came close to stopping her being in the uK, so i very nearly didn’t happen. But they married of course. i was born in Vietnam, then lived in sudan, south Korea and Hong Kong, as well as sweden—because of my mother— and also, for a long time, in saudi arabia. growing up, i moved every 18 months, which came more or less to a halt when i joined Jesus. JN: Can you explain what you do at the Man group? SR: Man is a uK-based hedge-fund firm and one of the largest such in the world. Founded in the 18th century, it originally made barrels for sugar- and rum-storage. today, i focus on the pretty sophisticated modelling of financial markets, using a wide range of statistical techniques. Many of these i picked up at Cambridge, some later. My skill overall wasn’t and isn’t about being better than others at maths. it’s about bringing people together and coming up with good ideas. We need to ensure that our clients, who are buying funds, are comfortable that they’re getting something that is understandable and safe. JN: Have you always been in finance?
SR: i did a Masters in european economics in Belgium, mostly to learn French properly: i joined goldman sachs in 1992 and spent 15 years there. i moved to the trading floors and that’s where my whole career has been but very much at the mathematical, quantitative end of things. JN: and the arts? SR: i’m a governor of the southbank Centre, the biggest cultural complex in europe, encompassing the royal Festival and Queen elizabeth Halls, the purcell room and the Hayward gallery. i was a lapsed musician as an undergraduate but now have a piano in my office. out there, it’s clearly not been a happy time. i managed to get to one rFH concert last november but just 30 people were allowed in. it was a little strange. it’s hard for everyone, including naturally the musicians. in any event, it was the visual arts at Cambridge and, now, music has become a major part of my life. JN: as has cycling, it seems… SR: e London Cycling Campaign has enormously benefitted from the pandemic. Many of our aims to make cycling and walking safer for everyone have been achieved due to it. ninety per cent of my journey into work is on segregated bike lanes, up from almost none five years ago. ere are too many people living in London all to be in cars. ere’s not enough road. More walking and more cycling are the only solution, and of course there are enormous public-health benefits. and greater safety is coming. JN: What do you most enjoy about still being close to Jesus College? SR: i got an enormous amount out of my three years at Cambridge, with all sorts of influences that have stayed. i have felt a debt to Jesus for that and was a keen supporter of the West Court campaign. i’ve been on the investment Committee, too, for about five years and am up at least once or twice a year for a meeting. i also come every year for the society of st radegund Dinner. Looking at the future and getting financial decisions right is incredibly important for the College’s long-term health. given my day-job, i hope i am of use.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
Jesuan News: What was your time at university like?
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Chapel, Choir and Music
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espite warning signs around the world, it is fair to say that the full impact of Coronavirus took most of us unawares. e end of Lent term 2020 looked to be extremely exciting. e Choirs were lined up for a concert and CD recording with Britten sinfonia, followed by a large-scale concert in Windsor Castle for the Windsor Festival. in Chapel we were full steam ahead for our annual service commemorating the College Benefactors. We were looking forward to a packed easter term with a diverse bill of visiting speakers exploring scandalous and saucy Bible stories, and those moments of celebration in Chapel as the year closes with the annual turn of graduations, balls and alumni events. optimism filled the air with both Choirs enjoying a bumper year that was to finish with a big tour of Canada. ese exciting milestones, along with the daily pattern of Chapel services and secular musical events, are what define the spiritual and musical heart of the College. ey thrive on in-person social interactions and the friendships that spring up as a result. ey build a supportive and uplifting community, where all may connect, reflect and grow. as a result of shifting guidance on large gatherings, our Commemoration of Benefactors was postponed and the Windsor Festival cancelled. e Choirs’ concert with Britten sinfonia took place with a tiny, socially distanced audience that enabled us to continue with the planned recording sessions. en it all stopped. places of worship were legally required to close. Holy Week and easter were observed in our homes, and online. e College was shut down, and we all learned to navigate new uncertainties and anxieties— and technologies!—connecting in new ways while worrying about (and praying for) those we love. Choirs found themselves dispersed, while an extraordinary amount of inaccurate hearsay circulated the internet accusing singers of being “super-spreaders”. ings looked bad.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
However, our dedicated Choristers, Choral and organ scholars, the Jesus College Music society and the Chapel community at large pulled together to prove that we could weather the storm. First off, we went virtual, enabling us to stay connected as Chapel and Choir, reaching out to support
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the College and those across the world who fondly count themselves as part of Jesus Chapel. at easter term, short reflections were broadcast from Chapel each week (on easter morning, the Dean did so with the help of a fire pit in the garden!), prompting us to ponder the challenges and gifts of those very hard months. Musically, we enjoyed some tremendous pre-recorded or live-streamed concerts from people’s rooms organised by JCMs. e Choirs also put together some online performances that have been enjoyed by thousands of viewers. in Michaelmas term, College life resumed and the College Choir was able to sing in the Chapel in a limited way, which caused our Choral scholars to hone a different set of skills in order to operate well in a socially distanced formation. We welcomed new students, multiplying to six Matriculation services to get everyone in safely. Chapel Clerks grew rather accustomed to donning rubber gloves and cleaning the stalls—but everyone rallied round to keep Chapel open and safe. We even welcomed visiting speakers to continue the varied diet of addresses on pertinent issues—in Michaelmas, exploring how different schools of thought and activism have understood the character and teachings of Jesus Christ. term ended on a high with the broadcast of the advent service to College members and supporters everywhere, the Choir in fine voice tackling some stunning seasonal repertoire. e stricter lockdown after Christmas temporarily halted in-person services and choral singing once again. aided by our exceptional team of organists in Chapel, however, we kept up a regime of services and recitals that were live-streamed on the internet. Meanwhile, our dedicated and loyal team of Choristers is continuing to learn music theory online in readiness for a return to school and choir. While this was not a year we could have expected or wished for, deep roots of friendship and fellowship cultivated within the walls of Chapel (for both the religious and non-religious among us) have held fast in readiness for the post-pandemic era, which looks to be in sight. James Crockford, Dean of Chapel Richard Pinel, Director of Music
Speaking of China
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ith the spotlight very much on the uK’s relationship with China, Jesus College is proud of its global academic links, many of which are connected to China and asia and go back as far as the 1940s. We have always believed that links with scholars in other countries provide the cognitive diversity essential for a first-class, international institution of higher education to remain at the forefront of academic excellence.
From the moving poetry of Xu Zhimo to the impact of new technologies, Cambridge’s historic links with China inform our modern-day relationships. With some one-fifth of humanity being of Chinese nationality, the need for both dialogue with, and critical study of, China is vital for understanding the modern world. several of the College’s global centres and research initiatives are well placed to engage critically in this regard. acknowledging academic links that stretch back decades, the College wanted to formalise its connections with China and as such, in 2017, with the support of the university, established the Jesus College China Centre, the core purpose of which was communication within the academic community of the university. recognising that global challenges such as species extinction, climate change, pandemics and inequality require global cooperation, building trust between the West and China is essential and universities have a key role to play in this process. e China Centre organises seminars, workshops and book launches involving scholars, policy makers and business people. e events represent a wide array of views in order to contribute to mutual understanding between China and the West. e China Centre has established a set of seminars on a wide range of historical and current issues. e range of speakers is exemplary, and their expertise is of the highest level. some examples of seminars organised by the China Centre to date include: “painting in China today: e art of Liu Dahong” with professors Liu Dahong and shane McCausland, “Liangzhu and the origins of Complex society in China” with professor Lord renfrew, “earth and environment in east asia: risks and opportunities” with professor simon redfern and “Can We avoid War with China?” with the rt Hon sir oliver Letwin. in 2018, the uK-China global issues Dialogue Centre arose in connection with the uK-China research and innovation
Translation of Departing from Baidi in the Morning, a poem by Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai
partnership (newton Fund) run by the uK government’s Department for Business, innovation and skills (now Beis) and was established following the award of a research grant by China’s national Development and reform Commission. in recognition of the Centre broadening its brief to encompass global issues more widely than just China, the Centre’s name was shortened to the global issues Dialogue Centre in March 2021. as part of its research programme, the Centre also conducts several dialogues each year, bringing together leading figures from across the world involved in civil society, politics, business, academia and global institutions, to discuss and develop potential ways of tackling issues of worldwide significance that can inform its research. one of the topics to be explored in 2021-22 is “implementing agreements on Climate Change: technological, policy and Financing solutions”. e Cambridge Central asia Forum (CCaF) is an interdisciplinary forum, which collates Cambridge’s scholarly activities in Central asia and the Caucasus, as well as russia, the uyghur autonomous region of Xinjiang in China, iran and afghanistan. CCaF-affiliated researchers and students collaborate with Chinese scholars of Central asia working in their universities and academies of sciences, engaging with turkic, Muslim and uyghur groups, and have been involved in field-based research in this part of the world since 1996. since 2001, when it became based at Jesus College, the CCaF and the College have hosted uyghur academics, sponsored talks, seminars and events and, as recently as 2019, academics involved with the CCaF were in Xinjiang province for fieldwork. Dialogue with and critical study of China will take on many forms; it is a multi-faceted endeavour that the College cannot possibly expect to accomplish on its own. e role of the College is to encourage open and honest scholarly inquiry into important issues of the day, with our academic independence at its core. it is only through an appreciation of the history of China’s philosophy, politics, economy, society and culture that a greater understanding of China today will emerge. e academic links the College has fostered over the decades are committed to this aim. e College is proud of its engagement with China and the role it plays in contributing to a better understanding between China and the West.
Jesuan neWs • spring 2021
a key element of productive intellectual discourse is trust and understanding. across all types of relationships trust is a precious bond, it enables cooperation, growth, peace and connection. When trust breaks down it can lead to conflict. With respect to the growing mistrust and lack of understanding from all sides between China and the West, the College has a role to play to encourage open and honest scholarly inquiry into important issues of the day. We are proud of our track record in bringing many issues to the table. across the College, we ensure that academic freedoms are protected by robust governance structures and it is the College Council’s stated position that no subject is out of bounds.
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Alumni Events in normal times we would share our calendar of events for the forthcoming academic year in Jesuan News. as times are far from normal and with still so much uncertainty about social gatherings, we hope that you will appreciate that we cannot host social events in College as we have known them. our in-person events have been cancelled up to september but we are expecting to celebrate in a virtual way on or near the dates on which they would normally take place. We will of course keep you up to date for the 2021-22 academic year as we continue to monitor government guidance on social distancing and large gatherings, in addition to the safety and well-being of our resident community. We thank you for your understanding. if you have any questions about our events programme, please contact nikki Williams in the Development and alumni relations office (development@jesus.cam.ac.uk).
https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/events
A message from the Hawks’ Club over the past few lockdowns, with the help of the Committee and trustees, the Club has been trying to find the e-mail addresses of “out-of-contact” Hawks members. it has had some luck finding these lost Hawks through Linkedin and google searches, as well as by asking older Hawks to tackle the names from their era. ere are still, however, around 1,000 names that are struggling to be found. if you were elected to the Hawks’ Club during your time at Cambridge, and have not heard from us in a while and would like to receive the quarterly newsletter, please get in touch—president@hawksclub.co.uk— so that you can be updated with Hawks’ Club news. Matyas D. Molnar, Hawks’ Club President 2020-21
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