[kent-grads] Deference

[Lawrence Buckley <lawrence.buckley1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The latest issue of the snail mail mag. contains an inaccurate historical assertion.A correspondent alleges that standing when the high table occupants processed to their places was required by "the authorities".

 

Not so.  On the very first such occasion in Eliot we all stood up spontaneously and a tradition was thereby instantly established.

On the first such occasion in Rutherford the overwhelming majority remained seated, and,of those who had transferred from Eliot, the odd few who started to rise soon sat down again.

 

The "authorities" subsequently organised a referendum to clarify the matter.  Rutherford's distinctive practice was ratified.

 

And now, a tangent. Kent's contribution to the events of '68 was organised in large part by the '67 intake.  At a meeting in the Rutherford JCR Anthony Sampson's "Anatomy of Britain" was cited i n support of the claim that Kent had had no Students' Union when it opened. I pointed out that even before Sampson's book had reached the shelves "the authorities" had conceived the notion of, and organised elections for, a Student Representative Committee, later renamed "Students' Union".

 

Lawrence

Eliot '65/Rutherford '66