Van Mildert College

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Van Mildert College
Durham University

Motto

Sic vos non vobis
Thus do ye, Not for yourselves

Colours

Named after

Bishop William Van Mildert

Established

1965

Master

Prof. Patrick O'Meara

Senior Tutor

Petra Points

JCR President

Neil Crimes

Undergraduates

1042

Postgraduates

Website

Van Mildert College

JCR Website

Van Mildert JCR

Campus

Durham City

Van Mildert College, commonly known as Mildert, is a college of the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1965, 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. Women were first admitted to the college in 1972, making it the first Durham college to become co-educational. Women postgraduate students were first admitted in 1967, studying certificates in education. The first 1st Class Honours degree, because of the 'generosity of his examiners' and alphabetical order, was awarded to Trevor J Hall June 1968.

1 The Junior Common Room (JCR)
2 Facilities
3 College Arms
4 College Traditions and Legends
5 Notable alumni
6 Gallery
7 References
8 External links

[edit] The Junior Common Room (JCR)

The college has a reputation for student participation and liberalism. JCR members no longer wear gowns, unlike at most of Durham's colleges. Van Mildert JCR is made up of around 300 positions that do everything from running the bar and the shop to looking after the college's famous ducks.

[edit] Facilities

Centred around a large lake in eight acres (32,000 m²) of grounds, the college's accommodation and communal facilities are modern and capacious. College facilities and an adjacent conference centre are regularly used by external organisations, to raise funds for college life.

The accommodation blocks are named Tyne, Tees, Middleton, Derwent, Wear, Tunstall and Deerness, the latter two of which are fully en suite. They are all situated within the main college area around the lake and the college is in the process of refurbishing each of the buildings in turn with Wear and Derwent still awaiting refurbishment. In total the College can provide rooms for up to 550 of its members.

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^[1] available to members of the College. Opposite the library is the newly refurbished Kent Room, which is where the library's fiction collection is kept. The library is run by a part-time librarian and the library committee of the JCR, which also provides much of the funding to maintain the library. The library has recently undergone a process of automating its catalogue of books.

Similar to all of Durham's Colleges, Van Mildert has a bar and JCR lounge, both of which feature large plasma screen TVs. The JCR lounge is used as the arena for JCR meetings and many social events such as bops and for discos after formals.

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

The College Dining Hall is one of the largest in the UK and can seat over 440 members in one sitting. The dining hall is used for a variety of functions and plays a central role in the lives of livers in as it is where they have their College meals and formals as well as doubling up as a theatre for drama productions and use as a sports hall.

[edit] College Arms

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.

[edit] College Traditions and Legends

[edit] The Kazoo

The Kazoo

The Kazoo is a ceremony performed by the winning candidate after elections by ballot box in the JCR. A Kazu is a celebratory action which requires the winning candidate of every election to kick a full can of soft drink down the stairs in the foyer, throw it over their head three times and then opening the can over his/her head. " The JCR Constitution notes that it "may be done wearing clothes." The tradition was originally and somewhat inexplicably performed by Kazuhisa Fukatsu (AKA Kazu) - a jovial and somewhat eccentric Japanese exchange student back in 1997. He would remove his top and run up and down the stairs several times with a can in each hand, shaking them as he went. He would then empty both cans over his head, with a crowd of bewildered students watching, subsequently emulating him.

Kazu in fact performed this feat a number of times during the January to March period in 1997. The college was at first stunned but took the tradition to heart very quickly indeed.

[edit] Ents and Bops

Do Me Bad Things at the 2005 Summer Ball

Like many university colleges and societies, Mildert has many ents and bops throughout the year. Of note are 'Mildert Day', an annual celebration of college spirit, and the 'Summer Ball', which occurs in the final weeks of the academic year. In recent years Milburn, Do Me Bad Things, Chesney Hawkes and East 17 have been among the acts who have headlined this event, with 911 and Captain playing in 2007.

[edit] Duck Week

Mildertians have a long and proud history of being one of the most charitable colleges at Durham and always donate a considerable amount of money during DUCK (Durham University Charites Kommittee) week. 'DUCK reps' delight in squirting water, beans, flour and other nasty culinary delights over their victims in return for money. They get their comeupence at the end of the week when traditionally they get what is coming to them from those they have humiliated, although recently the 'hits' have been constrained to water and shaving foam to allow for a more inclusive event.

[edit] Sports Teams

Van Mildert also has numerous sporting teams and societies. These include the Van Mildert Bus Society, whose stated aim is to obtain a Routemaster bus for the college's use, six different football teams (A, B, C, D, E, and the women's team), two cricket teams - Mildert A and Mildert B, the latter of the two existing exclusively for college alumni - and a boat club.

[edit] Notable alumni

George Alagiah - Broadcaster
John Barrow - Cosmologist, winner of the 2006 Templeton Prize and Fellow of the Royal Society
Jonathan Edwards - Olympic gold medal-winning and current World Record-holding triple jumper
Will Rutter - Musician
David Walton - Economist and member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee
Roberta Bly - Oil Spill Response Specialist and human bear
John B - aka John Williams - music producer and DJ