Van Mildert College, Durham

Last updated

Van Mildert College
University of Durham
1995-neg-1-van-mildert.jpg
Van Mildert College
Coat of Arms of Van Mildert College, Durham University.svg
Arms of Van Mildert College
Arms: Gules, two scythe blades in saltire, in chief the cross of St. Cuthbert argent.
                          
LocationMill Hill Lane, Durham, DH1 3LH
Coordinates 54°45′47″N1°34′52″W / 54.7631°N 1.5810°W / 54.7631; -1.5810
Motto Latin: Sic vos non vobis
Motto in EnglishThus do ye, Not for yourselves
Established1965
Named forBishop William Van Mildert
Principal Tom Mole
Vice principal Katie Dowson
Undergraduates972 (2012/13) [1]
Postgraduates89 (2012/13) [2]
Website
Map
Durham map small.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in Durham, England

Van Mildert College (known colloquially as Mildert [3] [4] ) is a college of Durham University in England. Founded in 1965, [5] it takes its name from William Van Mildert, Prince-Bishop of Durham from 1826 to 1836 and a leading figure in the University's 1832 foundation. Originally an all-male college, it became co-educational in 1972 with the admission of female undergraduates.

Contents

The college occupies grounds of eight acres (32,000 m²) alongside South Road and is centred on a small lake. The college's accommodation and communal facilities are modern and spacious.

The principal of the college is Tom Mole, best-selling author and Professor of English Literature and Book History at Durham University.

History and buildings

A view of the main building and lake at Van Mildert College in 1971 Van Mildert College - geograph.org.uk - 991250.jpg
A view of the main building and lake at Van Mildert College in 1971

Van Mildert College was established in 1965 following recommendations of the Robbins Report looking into the future of higher education in the UK. In 1963, the University of Newcastle was officially established as a separate entity from the University of Durham, meaning new colleges were required to meet the new university places that the Government wished to create. As a result, the university planned to establish three new colleges on Elvet Hill and these went on to be named Collingwood College, Trevelyan College and Van Mildert College. [6]

Women postgraduate students were first admitted in 1967, studying Certificates in Education. Female undergraduates were first admitted to the college in 1972.

The accommodation blocks are named Tyne, Tees, Middleton, Derwent, Wear, Tunstall and Deerness, the latter two of which are fully en suite. These are named after local rivers (River Tyne, River Tees, River Derwent, River Wear, River Deerness), a town (Tunstall) and an architect (Middleton). [7] They are all situated within the college grounds, and the university is in the process of refurbishing each of the buildings in turn. In total the College can provide around 525 single rooms for its members.

Dining Hall

The college's Dining Hall, the Ann Dobson Dining Hall (colloquially the "Annie D"), is the largest student dining hall in the UK.[ citation needed ] It measures 30.8m by 13.2m and can seat approximately 350 members at Formal dinners. [8] The dining hall is used for a variety of functions over the academic year and plays a central role in the lives of livers in (students who live on the college site) as it is where college meals and formals are held. The hall also acts as a venue for drama productions, and as a sports hall. [9]

A copy of a portrait of William Van Mildert, whom the college is named after, hangs at one end of Van Mildert dining hall, along with portraits of the former Principals and Masters of the College.

Library

The College library is well equipped with over 12,000 books & journals and, along with St John's College Archives, is the only other College library in Durham to be listed in The National Archives. [10]

Bar and Junior Common Room

Van Mildert sports a recently refurbished bar which is extensively used by both members of the college and students from other colleges. It is also generally used for holding JCR meetings during term time. In recent years, the college bar has won the 'University Bar' category of the Best Bar None [11] awards for Durham City for the 2008–09 and 2010–11 academic years.[ citation needed ] Most recently, Van Mildert Bar won the 'Gold' category for the Best Bar None Awards for the year 2016–17.

Van Mildert bar Van Mildert Bar .jpg
Van Mildert bar

The Bar is currently[ when? ] run by Sabbatical Bar Steward (Prime Guinnesster) Jack Lewis.

The Junior Common Room is used for many of the social events that are organised by the JCR, such as bops, entertainment after Formal dinners, band nights and amateur theatre productions. Both rooms have large plasma screen TVs which are used to show major sporting fixtures during the academic term.

Other facilities

The College has a host of other social facilities, including a music/recording suite with drums, a grand piano and recording equipment. The College also has a gym, computer room, shop, tennis court and a full-size snooker table.

Arms

The shield of Van Mildert College Van Mildert Coll Durham shield.svg
The shield of Van Mildert College

The college arms are blazoned as "Gules two Scythe blades in saltire in chief the Cross of St Cuthbert Argent And for the Crest On a Wreath of the Colours in front of a Castle of three Towers Sable a silver penannular brooch proper the ends charged with Gilded Crosses of St Cuthbert". The scythes and the red field are taken from Bishop Van Mildert's episcopal arms; the cross of St Cuthbert is a common emblem of Durham City and University. The college generally uses only the shield of its arms for most purposes.

Student life

Common Rooms

All members of college are members of a common room – for example, Undergraduates are members of the Junior Common Room (JCR). The JCR elects an Executive Committee which ensures it is run successfully, in conjunction with the College Officers. The governance procedure of the JCR is stated in the constitution, which can only be amended by resolution of the JCR members during general meetings. Undergraduates constitute the majority of the student population of the college, with approximately 1200 JCR members as of the 2021-2022 academic year. [1] Up until 2018 the Junior Common Room of Van Mildert College had a 236-page constitution, making it significantly longer than the Constitutions of most sovereign states. [12]

Postgraduate students are members of the Middle Common Room (MCR), which hosts its own events and benefits from a refurbished Common Room and separate accommodation in Deerness block. All rooms in this block are en-suite and have access to kitchen facilities due to the fact that postgraduate students are often resident in college outside of normal term times. Postgraduate members of the college are entitled to make use of all the JCR facilities available. Academic and professional services staff of the University, alumni and friends of the college from the local community form the Senior Common Room (SCR).

Arts

The college has a number of groups involved in music, art, and the performing arts, collectively known as 'Van MildARTS'. The college hosts an annual arts week and annual musical, with recent productions being Cabaret , Our Country's Good , Guys and Dolls , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Rent and Mama Mia! [13] The college has a Big Band, Dance Society and Jam Society. This Society organises Jam by the Lake, the only open-air musical festival in County Durham and frequent winner of Purple Radio's 'Best Music Event' award. [14]

Sports

The college has a strong sporting profile with a number of successful teams across a range of both traditional and non-traditional sports, including eight male football teams; two male rugby teams; a Women's Rugby team, Van Maidan's (joint with St Aidan's College); Cheerleading (with the College team having won the Inter-Collegiate Competition for five consecutive years); Ultimate Frisbee; Darts (most notably the Women's Darts "D Team"); and many more. Awards for graduating sports players are given at the Annual Sports Formal. This event celebrates the work and success of the sports teams, but more so the JCR Members who captain the teams and make up their Executive Committees.

Boat Club

Van Mildert Boat Club is the college rowing club. It was founded in 1965 by Simon Scott, an Engineering undergraduate at Durham University and one of the founding members of Van Mildert College. [15] [16] The boathouse of the club is on the River Wear, opposite Dunelm House and below Kingsgate Bridge.

The club competes against other college clubs in intercollegiate competitions organised by Durham College Rowing. It also takes part in regional events and national events (such as Head of the River Race, Women's Eights Head of the River Race and BUCS Regatta).

The college boat house burnt down after an arsonist attacked it on 21 December 2021. [17]

Outreach

High Table at the Mildert Day Formal Meal in 2008 Mildert day formal 08.JPG
High Table at the Mildert Day Formal Meal in 2008

One of the most notable aspects of Van Mildert's College is its passion for Community Outreach. Over recent years, six projects have been set up to provide support to a range of groups in the community. This includes visiting local young offenders (Secure Centre Mentoring Scheme), engaging with young children and teenagers (Primary School Project and Young Peoples' Project), visiting and building relationships with the local elderly community (Community Visiting Scheme); or working as respite carers for the families of young disabled children (Carers Respite Committee). The latest outreach project, Environmental Conservation Committee helps to raise the profile of sustainability by visiting rehabilitation centres, schools and recreational areas. These projects cumulatively raise over £15,000 each year to function. This is through a range of methods, but mainly through hosting large-scale College events such as Mildert Would I Lie To You? and Van Mildert Take Me Out. [ citation needed ]

Academic dress

At Van Mildert the undergraduate academic gown is not required to be worn to formal events or Matriculation; instead, formal dress is used. In addition, students wear black tie attire at the end of term balls.

Formals

Formals take place regularly during the academic term, with the college holding between three and five per term. Students are not required to wear academic dress to formal dinners; instead, formal dress is worn except when it is a Ball and dinner jackets are worn. At the end of the dining hall a High Table composed of members of the SCR and their guests are present at every formal. The principal's entrance and exit, announced to attendees by the ringing of the election bell by the JCR President, signifies the official opening and closing of the formal meal. Food at a formal meal usually consists of three courses and is often followed by evening entertainment.

Van Mildert Dimensions

The college has a student enrichment programme, known as the Dimensions Programme, which includes provision of a broad-ranging series of lectures, seminars and debates, along with skills-based activities such as networking sessions, employability initiatives and well-established work with the local community.

The programme is based on three themes: engage and inspire wellbeing and community, and find your future. Events in the 2021-2022 academic year included "Doing justice" with Lord Anthony Hughes and Sarah Bousfield; "Boris Johnson: has the magic gone and can Labour win?" with George Parker; "A Choral Conversation" with David Wakeham; and "Are We All Doomed? The unravelling of the international order" with Rt Hon Lord Robertson.

The Kazu

A Kazu being performed by Kazu The original, and the best..jpg
A Kazu being performed by Kazu

The Kazu is a traditional ceremony performed by the winning candidate after elections to the JCR Executive Committee, following the announcement of results by the JCR Chair. In more recent years, it has only been the elected President that performs a Kazu. A Kazu is a celebratory action which requires the winning candidate of every election to kick a full can of Coca-Cola down the stairs in the foyer, throw it over their head three times and then opening the can over their head. The JCR Standing Orders and website note that it "may be done wearing clothes" and that "Wikipedia knows more about Kazus than anyone in College". [18]

The tradition was started by a Japanese exchange student called Kazuhisa who regularly performed the Kazu in the JCR foyer. The first official Kazu was performed by James Mackenzie in March 1997, upon being elected JCR President. [19]

Associated institutions

Following the tradition of Oxbridge Colleges being twinned with each other, as of 2012 Van Mildert College has been twinned with Halifax College, University of York. [20]

People associated with Van Mildert

Principal

Professor Tom Mole is the current Principal of the College. [21]

The following list is of the past Masters & Principals of the College:

Fellows

The college has two fellowships for visiting scholars; the Arthur Prowse Fellowship, named after the College's first Master, and the Arnold Bradshaw Fellowship. The fellowships are typically awarded for one academic term in conjunction with the Institute of Advanced Study with the fellow residing in the College and becoming a member of the SCR. Recent fellows have included Adi Ophir and Mikhail Epstein.

Notable alumni

Van Mildert alumni are active through organisations and events, such as the Van Mildert Association, which cater for the more than 7,500 living alumni. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College London</span> Public university in London, England

Imperial College London is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cultural area that included the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and several royal colleges. In 1907, Imperial College London was established by royal charter unifying the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines and the City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1988, the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed by merging with St Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansfield College, Oxford</span> College of the University of Oxford

Mansfield College, Oxford is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students. It moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield College after George Mansfield and his sister Elizabeth. In 1995 a royal charter was awarded giving the institution full college status. The college grounds are located on Mansfield Road, near the centre of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University College, Durham</span> Constituent college of the University of Durham

University College, informally known as Castle, is the oldest constituent college of the University of Durham in England. Centred on Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 by William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham. As a constituent college of Durham University, it is listed as a higher education institution under section 216 of the Education Reform Act 1988. Almost all academic activities, such as research and tutoring, occur at a university level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collingwood College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

Collingwood College is a college of Durham University in England. It is the largest of Durham's undergraduate colleges with around 1800 students. Founded in 1972 as the first purpose-built, mixed-sex college in Durham, it is named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood (1900–1970), who was a former Chair of the Council of Durham University.

Durham Students' Union, operating as Durham SU, is the students' union of Durham University in Durham, England. It is an organisation, originally set up as the Durham Colleges Students’ Representative Council in 1899 and renamed in 1969, with the intention of representing and providing welfare and services for the students of the University of Durham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey College, Durham</span>

Grey College is a college of Durham University in England, founded in 1959 as part of the university's expansion of its student population. The college was originally planned to be named Oliver Cromwell College, but this proved too controversial. Instead, the college is named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of the university's foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevelyan College, Durham</span> College of Durham University

Trevelyan College is a college of Durham University, England. Founded in 1966, the college takes its name from social historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, Chancellor of the university from 1950 to 1957. Originally an all-female college, the college became fully mixed in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Chad's College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

St Chad's College is a recognised (independent) college of the University of Durham. Founded in 1904 by Stephen Moulsdale as St Chad’s Hall, where it served until 1971 an Anglican hall for the training of Church of England clergy, and today as residence and guilds of students who reads for a degree at the University of Durham. Its library system is amongst Durham's largest collegiate libraries. St Chad’s performs exceptionally within Durham where 90% of its students attained a first or upper second class honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatfield College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

Hatfield College is one of the constituent colleges of Durham University in England. It occupies a city centre site above the River Wear on the World Heritage Site peninsula, lying adjacent to North Bailey and only a short distance from Durham Cathedral. Taking its name from a medieval Prince-Bishop of Durham, the college was founded in 1846 as Bishop Hatfield's Hall by David Melville, a former Oxford don.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Cuthbert's Society, Durham</span> Constituent college of the University of Durham, UK

St Cuthbert's Society, colloquially known as Cuth's, is a college of Durham University. It was founded in 1888 for students who were not attached to the existing colleges. St Cuthbert's Society is a Bailey college, based on Durham's peninsula next to the River Wear, although it also has other accommodation a few minutes' walk away in Old Elvet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Aidan's College, Durham</span> Constituent college of the University of Durham, UK

St Aidan's College is a college of the University of Durham in England. It had its origins in 1895 as the association of women home students, formalised in 1947 as St Aidan's Society. In 1961, it became a full college of the university, and in 1964 moved to new modernist buildings on Elvet Hill designed by Sir Basil Spence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

St Mary's College is a college of Durham University in England. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, St Mary's was founded as the Women's Hostel in 1899, adopting its present name in May 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Snow College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

John Snow College is a constituent college of Durham University. The college was founded in 2001 on the University's Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees, before moving to Durham in 2018. The College takes its name from the nineteenth-century Yorkshire physician John Snow, one of the founders of modern epidemiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine Butler College, Durham</span> Constituent college of Durham University

Josephine Butler College is a constituent college of Durham University. The college was opened in 2006. It is named after Josephine Elizabeth Butler, a 19th-century feminist and social reformer who had a significant role in improving women's public health and education in England. Butler's father was the cousin of the 2nd Earl Grey, after whom Grey College, Durham is named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common room (university)</span> Student organisational body in university colleges and halls

A common room is a group into which students are organised in some universities, particularly in the United Kingdom, normally in a subdivision of the university such as a college or hall of residence, in addition to an institution-wide students' union. They represent their members within the hall or college, operate certain services within these institutions such as laundry or recreation, and provide opportunities for socialising. There are variations based on institutional tradition and needs, but classically the following common rooms will exist:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Formal (university)</span>

Formal hall or formal meal is a meal held at some of the oldest universities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland at which students usually dress in formal attire and often gowns to dine. These are held commonly in the colleges of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, at Trinity College Dublin and Royal Holloway, University of London, and in some halls and colleges at St Andrews, and the Australian sandstone universities, and at Trinity College, Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durham Law School</span> Law school in Durham, England

Durham Law School is the law school of Durham University in Durham, England. In 2022, Durham Law was ranked 5th in the UK in a league table which averaged the rankings of the Complete University Guide, The Guardian and the Times University League Table. Durham Law School is ranked 42nd in the world for law in the 2023 Times Higher Education ranking and 46th in the world for law by the 2023 QS ranking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleges of Durham University</span>

The Colleges of Durham University are residential colleges that are the primary source of accommodation and support services for undergraduates and postgraduates at Durham University, as well as providing a focus for social, cultural and sporting life for their members, and offering bursaries and scholarships to students. They also provide funding and/or accommodation for some of the research posts in the University. All students at the University are required to be members of one of the colleges.

John Stuart Bain was the Archdeacon of Sunderland from 2002 until 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 "Table 4.1 Accommodation, Undergraduates by College" (PDF). Durham University. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  2. ↑ "Table 4.1 Accommodation, Postgraduates by College" (PDF). Durham University. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "Home Page". www.mildert.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  4. ↑ "What does Mildert mean?". Durham University - Student Blogs. 25 July 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  5. ↑ "Van Mildert College : Building the College - Durham University". www.dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  6. ↑ Martin, Susan (2006). Trevs: A Celebration of 40 years of Trevelyan College Durham. Roundtuit Publishing.
  7. ↑ "Van Mildert College : Building the College - Durham University". www.dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  8. ↑ "Van Mildert College : Meeting Rooms". Durham University. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  9. ↑ "Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival Durham 2010". Archived from the original on 27 August 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  10. ↑ "Durham University: Van Mildert College". The National Archives. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "Best Bar None". Durham University. 27 October 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "JCR Standing Orders" (PDF). Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  13. ↑ "Lascivious 'Lysistrata'". Durham21.co.uk. 23 June 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  14. ↑ Archived 12 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "CUWBC Blondie 2011 Squad List". Cuwbc.org. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  16. ↑ "VMA Obituaries". Durham University. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  17. ↑ Mohamed, Waseem (5 January 2022). "Van Mildert boathouse fire was deliberate". Palatinate. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  18. ↑ "FAQ". Mildert.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  19. ↑ Cowen, Rob (17 November 2019). "The Kazu: A Brief History". Van Mildert College Alumni Newsletter. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  20. ↑ Archived 16 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  21. 1 2 "New Master of Van Mildert College Announced". Van Mildert College, Durham University. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  22. ↑ "The Durham Difference" (PDF). Durham University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  23. ↑ ‘ALAGIAH, George Maxwell’, Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  24. ↑ 'BAIN, Ven. (John) Stuart', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  25. ↑ 'BARROW, Prof. John David', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  26. ↑ "Jonathan David Edwards : Doctor of Civil Law" (PDF). Durham University. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  27. ↑ 'HUGHES, Rt Hon. Sir Anthony (Philip Gilson)', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  28. ↑ 'KELLY, Prof. Francis Patrick, (Frank)', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  29. ↑ 'MAITLAND, Viscount', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 April 2013
  30. ↑ "The Mildertian - 2014". Van Mildert College. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  31. ↑ "Van Mildert College : Obituaries". Durham University. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  32. ↑ "Bishop of Newcastle". Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.