the Mitre – June 24, 2005

PLANNING permission has been granted by Fife Council to transform the former Grand Hotel on the Scores, currently the University’s Hamilton Hall residence, into twenty-five holiday timeshares. The decision was made by the East Area Development Committee of the Council despite the strong concerns over traffic and parking considerations as well as complaints raised by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club across the street. [continue]

N E W S

Esler to Lead Arts, Humanities Research Board

Leave of Absence for Eminent Divine

ESTEEMED Professor Philip Esler, of St. Mary’s College here at the University of St Andrews, has been appointed Chief Executive of the recently reorganised Arts and Hu-manities Research Council. [continue]

E D I T O R I A L / O P I N I O N

L E A D E R
Reform Graduation!
This past week many of our friends and peers enjoyed the pomp and ceremony of the Graduation Ceremony, and so this seems an appropriate moment to make a series of recommendations for its embellishment and elaboration. [continue]

L E T T E R T O T H E E D I T O R
Christ and Multiculturalism
From Mr. Timothy Allen, a tertian of St Mary's College. [read]

Letters to the Editor should be sent to: themitre@gmail.com.

A P E R S O N A L A P P E A L
Blessed Kaiser Karl and Peace
Sofie von Hauch presents a personal message urging you to help Benedict XVI in his efforts for peace and unity in Europe and the world. [only in print edition]

OUR OWN popular columnist, Mr. Stuart Paterson, will return to St Andrews in the autumn to resume his presidency of the University of St Andrews Conservative Association. Mr. Paterson has sucessfully completed a year of studies at the University of Bonn in Germany, from whence he penned his Bonn Voyage column, the last of which is printed on pages IV-V.

This Year's Honorary Graduates

Include Nobel Laureate, Travel Writer, BBC Journo, and Kirk Conveners

MOST NOTABLE among this year’s recipients of honorary degrees from our university was the esteemed Nobel Laureate and Saoi of Ireland, the poet Mr. Seamus Heaney. Heaney accepted his Doctorate of Letters on June 21, the first graduation of the week.

Also honoured were the popular travel writer Mr. Bill Bryson, known for his ‘Notes from a Small Island’, and Mr. John Simpson, a BBC television journalist credited by some with the liberation of Iraq. The Very Rev. Dr. Iain Torrance and Dr. Allison Eliot, former moderators of the Church of Scotland who both failed to halt that institution’s decline, were awarded honorary DDivs.

Lang Breaks Ground on New Arts Building
Modern Structure Next Door to Library

PRINCIPAL Brian Lang has broken ground for the construction of a new Arts Faculty building in the centre of town. The £8,000,000 structure is to be located between the main University Library and St. Katharine’s Lodge West. The 33,000 sq ft building will house on four storeys lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, and offices, and is scheduled to be completed during the summer of 2007. It will be constructed primarily out of glass, stone, and zinc.

The University claims that the new building, designed by Reiach & Hall Architects of Edinburgh, has been “designed with the historic setting in mind” but some critics have complained that it more complements the bland brutalist library than the series of Scots Flemish Revival buildings which will be its neighbours on the Scores. The building, however, is set back from the street, and is unlikely to mar the views of one of St Andrews’ more quiet and leafy thoroughfares.

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