Master's Message - Winter 2020

After what has been an incredibly trying 2020 for everyone, I’d like to start this message by wishing you and your family my very best wishes for the festive season ahead. With a vaccine on the horizon (perhaps some of our older Members have already received it) there is reason to hope that 2021 will be a better year. Let’s hope so!

2020 has had some memorable moments and I hope that you have enjoyed opening the doors of the College’s online Advent Calendar, which highlight some of these. If you haven’t seen it yet, there is still plenty of time to enjoy it!

A term like no other

Michaelmas Term ended with the unexpected: flurries of snow on the final Friday. It was soon chased away by rain, which was no bad thing as weary students prepared to make their way home for the Christmas break.

The night before, we had marked what had been the most unusual of terms with a display of fireworks over the Bowling Green, the Dean and the Choir leading a singalong of carols and Christmas hits on Old Court, all accompanied by free hot chocolate and mince pies. While everyone wore masks and were socially distanced, it was wonderful to see so many students come together as a community to share a special moment.

In spite of all the restrictions people had to follow, we were still able to have a successful term. The overwhelming majority of students were able to study in person, although a few had stayed at home, or returned home early, with the support of the College.

For most students teaching was a mixture of online and in-person-with-precautions. Our aim was to make our students and teaching staff feel safe at all times. This was helped with early access to teaching rooms in Stuart House and 4 Mill Lane; being able to use the Mill Lane site, prior to building work starting, has been a real godsend.

The Library was open, with plastic shields fixed to desks and a click-and-collect service available as well. Across the University more online publications and resources were provided. Academics recorded their lectures for students to watch in their own time.

However, it had become apparent early on that not everyone had access to suitable IT equipment to study with. Money from the Harding Fund – a huge grant made to the University – was used to award Digital Gateway Grants to enable students to purchase laptops. I’m very pleased that a number of Pembroke students were able to benefit from this opportunity.

Even before the second national lockdown was introduced in November, some students were having to spend more of their time in their rooms than was ideal. They were divided into household bubbles, normally their staircase or house. Students were tested for asymptomatic COVID every week; if there were any positive tests in a household, it was placed into self-isolation for fourteen days. This was hard on everyone. And while the term started with low numbers, there was a spike in cases throughout Cambridge, including in Pembroke, as a result of a couple of rather unwise Halloween parties.

For those who found themselves in self-isolation, the College’s concern was of course for their mental and physical well-being. The Catering team provided meal options which students could order 24 hours in advance. Hot meals and other supplies were delivered by Catering, the Porters and student volunteers. Each student in isolation also received a daily call from the Porters to check on them and hear a friendly voice. We were also able to put in place arrangements for households to stretch their legs and play boules and get some fresh air in the Master’s Lodge garden, one bubble at a time. The JPC and GPC also provided invaluable support for their peers.  And when we got to the end of term, the final two weeks of testing produced no positive cases at all across the whole College.

Keeping up community spirit

The need for social distancing played havoc with many traditional student activities. Freshers’ Week was quieter than usual, with the bar, JP and GP closed, and most events moved online. The second lockdown thwarted plans to restart small Formal Halls as had been our intention. Instead, our Catering department switched to providing takeaway ‘Formal Halls in a Box’, as well as Hot Chocolate Thursdays and Gin & Tonic Fridays in Ivy Court.

To allow students to meet friends in a socially distanced manner, the College built five wooden ‘gazebos’ in the College grounds (Red Buildings Lawn, Library Lawn, New Court Lawn, the Orchard and Ivy Court Lawn). Fellows also found it convenient to hold supervisions and meetings with students in them.

As the end of term approached, a design competition was launched to give the place a bit of festive cheer. Households were invited to decorate four of the gazebos, with the winner voted for by the students. In the end, the third-year undergrads of 3/4 Fitz Street triumphed, with what I can only describe as a ‘Santa, sprout and space’ design. They were worthy winners!

A number of our societies, including Pembroke Papers, Pembroke Politics and the Stokes Society had already moved their talks online in Easter Term. These continued, with a number of high-profile speakers, such as Paul Mason, Baroness Floella Benjamin, Professor James Owen Weatherll, Malik Al-Nasir and Tulip Siddiq MP, particularly during Black History Month. The Pembroke Players also managed to run an online Smoker, while the Development team organised a series of ‘Life Beyond Pembroke’ career talks for students, given by alumni.

For the sports teams, it was a more trying period. Rugby switched to touch rugby, and then when lockdown came in, no rugby. Likewise, soon after a bumper number of Freshers had tried out rowing, the Boat House was forced to close. To keep the rowers in some sort of shape, two rowing machines were moved to the Red Buildings gazebo, and were soon joined by a mini-outside gym.

Likewise, just as Advent approached, our choirs weren’t able to practice for a month. The lifting of lockdown was greeted with delight by both, especially so by the young members of the Girls’ Choir.

The unfamiliarly familiar

However, some aspects of a traditional Michaelmas continued, albeit in new forms. The Corporate Partnership Programme ran a fantastic William Pitt Seminar that considered the challenges of equality of opportunity. For our annual BT Lecture we welcomed Dr Richard Caddis, the Chief Medical Officer of BT. Andy Haldane, Chief Economist of the Bank of England, delivered this year’s Adam Smith Lecture.

In October, we unveiled a wonderful portrait of Barbadian poet and Honorary Fellow Kamau Brathwaite (1950) in Hall. In November, the College announced that, thanks to extraordinarily hard work by Mark Wormald and some wonderful philanthropic gifts, we had acquired the archive and collection of British-born Irish artist, Barrie Cooke. Barrie Cooke was a great friend of both Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney and the collection includes a treasure trove of correspondence between the three of them, showing how they sparked each other’s creativity. Our archivist is currently cataloguing the papers, and it is our intention to make the collection available to researchers and put some on show in our new gallery on Trumpington Street.

The Development Office was able to host a number of online alumni events, including a Matthew Wren Society gathering, regional events “in” Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia, and most recently a Festive Event. Although they lack the intimacy of in-person events, I have been delighted to see (across a screen) friends and alumni who cannot normally attend events, because they live too far away or find it difficult to travel.

Over the past fortnight Admissions interviews have been taking place on Zoom and after a few technical hiccups at the start, they seem to have gone fairly smoothly.

Financial position

Financially, the extent to which Pembroke’s finances will be affected by the COVID pandemic has now become clearer. As well as losing most of Easter Term’s rental income, we had to cancel our International Programmes courses, including the 2020 and 2021 Pembroke-King’s summer Programmes. This is a significant loss of College income. The Bursar and his team have been working hard to plan a way through this situation over the next few years. We have to husband our resources carefully.

I would like therefore to take this opportunity to say a warm “thank you” to everyone who has donated to the College this year, whether through the telephone campaign, by responding to The Time and The Place Campaign mailing or by continuing an ongoing pledge.

Your support is invaluable to us and never more so than now.

The College took vacant possession of the United Reform Church building across Trumpington Street in September, which meant we were able to hold special (socially distanced) matriculation events for our Freshers at the start of term. The choirs have also made good use of the space and badminton courts were marked out to make as much use of this fantastic space as possible.

All the preparatory work for the Mill Lane development, including the renovation of the Church and its transformation into an auditorium, has been able to proceed at pace. And we are now on track to start building work on site in the middle of February.  It will be incredibly exciting to see the project actually starting.

And finally…

I would like to express my thanks to everyone who has kept the College running this term – to the Senior Tutor and Tutor for Graduate Affairs and their welfare teams, the Bursar, the Fellows and other members of the teaching staff; to the staff who have all played their role; to the JPC, the GPC and the student volunteers; to the students themselves and to the wider non-resident community of alumni and other friends whose support, financial or moral, has been a source of genuine solace and impact. Without the collective effort and dedication of the entire Pembroke community, this term could have proved to be too great a challenge. It wasn’t. We came through with flying colours; and that’s a big tribute to all of you. Thank you.

Lord Chris Smith

21 December 2020