University College Oxford Record 2020

WEIR
COMMON
ROOM
The academic year began in a
conventional, but notably successful,
fashion for the WCR. Following an
especially large fresher intake into the
graduate common room, in the wake of a highly
successful graduate funding round, the WCR
hit the ground running with an action-packed
Welcome Week that led into vibrant Michaelmas
and Hilary terms.
The start of the year was noteworthy for
an expansive graduate social calendar. The
WCR enjoyed an extensive range of wellattended
themed formals, joint SCR dinners,
bops, exchanges with various college MCRs and
other social events. Highlights that spring to mind
include a particularly lively Oxmas formal and
digestif drinks event. Seeing the Hall abuzz with
female graduates alongside undergraduates and
Fellows in a Formal commemorating 40 years of
women at Univ was a moving acknowledgement
of the progress that a few decades can make.
Michaelmas and Hilary also saw a blossoming
in the academic, cultural and artistic activities
of the graduate common room. The Martlet
Society Talks in the Master’s Lodgings, at which
graduates from diverse subjects present their
research to a general audience, have continued
to go from strength to strength. We hope to
build on this precedent to host a series of hybrid
live and webinar events, as we usher in the “new
normal” post-Covid era. Moreover, the WCR has
benefited from close interactions with the 2020
Visitor in the Creative Arts, Melissa Pierce Murray;
the architecture of the College took on several
new guises over the winter and spring months
as collaborative projects have produced outdoor
sculpture and indoor murals to complement and
contrast with Univ’s long-loved fabric.
Needless to say, the arrival of a
global-health pandemic has led to an
unprecedented shift in WCR activity
over the latter half of the academic year.
As governmental-imposed lockdown saw swift
lab closures and the shutting of the doors to
the Bodleian Libraries for the first extended
period in living history, the WCR has transitioned
and adapted to life as a virtual community. The
incoming committee has approached this with
aplomb, and the challenges have strengthened
the community in previously unforeseeable ways.
From pub quizzes stretching across continents, to
virtual study café sessions and yoga via Zoom,
technology has sat at the heart of WCR Trinity
life. WCR members have collectively played a
substantial role in the pandemic response. We
have followed their activities, many of which have
been featured in Profile Highlights on the Univ
website, with pride.
Finally, it falls to me to thank both the outgoing
and incoming WCR committees, without whom
such an unusual but thriving year could not
have come to pass. I must extend particular
thanks to the outgoing President Tom Fisher,
whose indefatigable efforts to re-invigorate
the WCR have been inspiring. This year is also
especially noteworthy as the final year under
Sir Ivor’s leadership. Sir Ivor has fostered close
and meaningful relationships with many of
the graduate community, and the WCR are
extremely appreciative of his efforts, under which
postgraduate activity in College has thrived. We
greatly look forward to welcoming in Baroness
Amos and a new cohort of socially-distanced, but
doubtless no less socially-engaged graduates in
Michaelmas 2020.
JUDITH SAYERS
President, Weir Common Room
University College Record | October 2020 55