A Message from the Master
Dr Mike Rands
Exciting Causewayside Purchase to Provide Housing for Students and Post-Docs
As this edition of the Darwinian goes to press, I
have both exciting and sad news to share. I’ll
begin by expressing our deep sorrow at the
death of Sir Arnold Burgen, our third Master and
a distinguished physician and pharmacologist,
who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Sir Arnold championed the Darwin College Lecture Series as Master and raised the profile of the College through his role as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. He remained actively engaged with the College until the pandemic prevented him – along with many others – from joining us in person, but until recently, he was still happy to offer wisdom and guidance to me as one of his successors. I will always cherish his enthusiasm for Darwin and his sage advice.
I am delighted to report that Darwin College has just completed a major acquisition of accommodation – the largest since we purchased Gwen Raverat House in 1996 – comprising 44 flats known as Causewayside. A primary function of our College is to house, feed and fund our students. Since our foundation, when the College community comprised 12 Fellows and 12 Students, our student population has steadily grown. Today we aim to admit around 100 PhDs and 200 masters students each year. We offer accommodation to all students for their first year and have been gradually increasing and consolidating our housing stock closer to Silver Street. Soon we hope to be able to
offer all our students a place to live for the duration of their time at Cambridge.
Causewayside, which is located on Fen Causeway adjacent to the River Cam and about 300 metres on foot from the main College buildings, provides us with a tremendous opportunity to increase both the amount and variety of accommodation we can provide to students and post-docs, and is especially suitable for college members with families.
We are working to improve the environmental performance of Causewayside, along with other parts of our estate. It is a challenge, but one we relish as part of our wider plans to address sustainability.
On the subject of sustainability, I am really pleased to report that Darwin has been awarded a Platinum Green Impact Award 2022 by the University of Cambridge. My thanks go to our students, staff and Fellows who have developed, championed and implemented various novel ‘green’ initiatives resulting in this recognition.
And last, but by no means least, I would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who contributed to our first Darwin College Giving Day in March. This resulted in raising nearly £50,000 for the College, including significant funds for student support and for ‘Green Darwin’. We are deeply grateful to all those who contributed gifts and ideas for this event and to those who organised it so well.
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