…And just like that, everything has rather suddenly gone back to (almost) normal here at Somerville.
With the kitchen refurbishments complete, the quad and dining hall have been returned to us and are looking more brilliant than ever. The new lawn even went viral last week on Twitter after Somerville’s sagacious Estates Manager Steve Johnson ascended to the Holtby Building roof to get a birds-eye view of gardener Emile’s handiwork. Best and most importantly of all, said quad and dining hall are once again filled with recently-matriculated Somervillians, able to read on the grass and enjoy sharing meals in the hall with their friends, free of Covid restrictions. We continue to be ready to mount a swift response to any change in the covid situation here in Oxford, but cases in Somerville thankfully remain very low. It’s good to have our home back at its best!
Students file in for the annual matriculation photo – now back in person after a Covid-19 enforced break to the tradition in 2020.
Students aren’t the only ones to have made their return recently: after a very long 18 months, we were absolutely delighted to welcome alumni back to Somerville last month for the 1970-1 50th reunion. This college holds its community dearer than we can ever truly say, and we look forward to seeing more Somervillians soon. If you would like to find out about opportunities to join us for in-person events, you can have a look below. We will also be continuing to hold our Somerville At Home online events throughout this term so that you can be part of this community, wherever in the world you are.
You may particularly wish to join us to commemorate one of Somerville’s greatest alumnae and supporters, Shirley Williams, who sadly died last April. We will be holding a memorial service in Chapel on the 26th November at 13:30 which will also be broadcast live online, and you may register your interest to attend in either form here on our website. More happily, you could also come and celebrate Christmas with us here with a Carol Concert in the Chapel on December 1st, or an online broadcast edition on December 18th.
Whether it’s face to face or online, we hope to see you soon. In the meantime, there’s a few things you can look out for: your copies of the Somerville Magazine and College Report will be landing on your doorstep soon, for starters. Next week, we will also be launching a new campaign, and you can find out a bit more about that in the video below.
For now though, have a lovely Michaelmas – and see you soon!
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