Traditions
Unlike most colleges of the university, the student body is not divided into Junior and Middle Common Rooms, instead both the undergraduate and postgraduate communities are represented by a single Student Representative Council (SRC). The SRC does however contain a special postgraduate committee and maintains the physical Junior and Middle Common Rooms, both in the Hild Building. The SRC is run by an elected exec that is headed by a sabbatical president. The college also has a Senior Common Room (SCR) consisting of the college tutors, past and current members of college staff and invited members of the wider community.
To maintain the history of the two original colleges, males in the College wear the Bede colours of light and dark blue, the colours that the College are more widely known for, whilst female colours are the green and lilac of the original Hild College. The College Arms also represents the history of the precursor colleges, with the chief taken directly from the Arms of the College of the Venerable Bede and the chevron being adapted from the bend of Arms of St. Hild College.
The gowns worn by members of the college, retained from before the college became a constituent college of the University, differs from other Durham gowns in being made of brocaded fabric and being shorter. These are worn at matriculation and graduation, but not at formal hall. Formals are instead black tie events and happen around ten times a year. Postgraduate Formals happen bi-annually and include entrance and exit of the Venerable Bede's stone.
Like most Durham colleges, Hild Bede celebrates an annual college day, usually in early May. This day usually includes a Champagne Breakfast on the College Lawns; an optional service in the Cathedral; a buffet lunch in the Dining Hall and a marquee; picnics and barbecues on the lawns; and entertainment throughout the day including bands, fairground-style events, Disco, Ceilidh and College Olympics. The college also hosts two annual balls, the Christmas Ball at the end of Michaelmas Term and the Summer Ball after exams have finished. The Summer Ball has an annual budget of £40,000 and has recently attracted acts such as Tinie Tempah, Wheatus and British Sea Power.
In late April the college is host to the Sounding Retreat ceremony in conjunction with the Durham Light Infantry Association. Initially instituted to remember students and staff of the Bede College Company who lost their lives at the Second Battle of Ypres, it now commemorates all former members of College who have died in conflicts around the world.
Read more about this topic: College Of St Hild And St Bede
Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“Napoleon never wished to be justified. He killed his enemy according to Corsican traditions [le droit corse] and if he sometimes regretted his mistake, he never understood that it had been a crime.”
—Guillaume-Prosper, Baron De Barante (1782–1866)
“... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things of the spirit. No one whose consuming desire is either for food or for motor-cars is going to care about culture, or even know what it is.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“I think a Person who is thus terrifyed [sic] with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)