Open Day 2010
Open Day represents an opportunity to take a good look at the College's raison d'etre.
Raison d'etre is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the 'rational ground of existence'.
So what is the rational ground for the foundation and continuing existence of St Mark's College? It would be possible to define the reason for the College in terms of what was the intention of our founding fathers, and which has been, no less the intention of successive Masters of the College, that the College should be the place for fostering good learning.
The Rev'd Canon Julian Bickersteth, in 1959 said that "St Mark's was never to be merely a hostel but a college, whose dignity and standing would be demonstrated in many ways, but especially in the dining hall".
He went on to say that University students are aware of the claims of the two great branches of all worthwhile education known as the Humanities (Arts) or the Sciences (Science). In doing so he defined the two, one dealing with the meaning of the 'art of life' and the second with the 'art of living'.
A third branch of equal importance would surely be 'the art of living together'.
Of course all three are inextricably linked and cannot really be examined in isolation. However, it is worth remembering that we cannot do without the library or lecture room. We cannot do without the laboratory. However we cannot also do without the College and common room, where young men and women learn from sharing a common life - how to get on with each other in spite of differences in temperament, outlook and background, as articulated in our Values.
St Mark's, like other university residential Colleges, does more in helping students at an impressionable age to learn how to live together.
Back to the dining hall. The (common) dining table brings students together, where they may discuss, debate, laugh, share stories and make their contribution to solve problems in the global world. The association in the lecture theatre and in the laboratory have their value, but the common room or dining hall are surely of equal importance.
To those students in year 12 or on a gap year, you should come to St Mark's not with the sole objective of passing exams, but to gain life experience. This will ensure success for your future walks of life - to enjoy community life and to be an asset to the College in the various facets of activity. It is unlikely that you will obtain this elsewhere.
At St Mark's you mature and have the opportunity to make for yourself an atmosphere in which you would wish to mature, to grow, obtaining sanity and wisdom but keeping always the frivolity and happy spirit of youth, the combination of which is St Mark's.
St Mark's is a College to be proud of and a college worth working for.
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