Wanted: One Rector

[Eliot Wilson]

I'm sceptical of the notion of a Rector who must be able to work "with the Court, not against them", but who is also not a yes-man. I also think that this is a deeply unimpressive field for a university of the standing of St Andrews. A minor bureaucrat, a fringe-party MSP and an ageing yachtsman. Go St Andrews.

[Freaker]

I would think that the term 'working rector' is now in large parts a reference to adherence to the Rector's charter, which in this form simply wasn't around a while ago. I believe amongst the things it mentions is that the Rector should spend four days a month, or one day a week, working for the job. When I talk of 'working rector' now I talk of someone who is able to dedicate that one day a week, and arguably the best way to do so would be to be present in St Andrews for that time, meeting students and working with the University.

Put that way, Kevin Dunion would have the obvious advantage of working in St Andrews and living a stone's throw away, so that while he may have particular dedicated time per week if elected, would also be easily reachable and accessible any other time. It's simply a whole lot easier for the Rector to engage with the St Andrewsians face-to-face if the Rector is usually at most 10 minutes by car away.

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

I think the idea of a working rector simply means one who is accessible to the students and well-informed enough to be conscious of their thinking and in some cases able to push issues forward - and it was certainly my impression that Simon Pepper did this moreso than Sir Clement.

I admit the field looks awful on the face of it, but last time's was:
- A relatively unknown director of a charity (who happened to be Robin Harper's mate)
- A TV celeb who never even bothered to visit the town or pick up the phone to journalists
- A shopkeeper who had something to do with Scouting
- Some Japanese bloke (admittedly both my housemates voted for him)

Unless the yaucht guy has incredible charisma, this is surely already a done deal. I've not met any of them, although my endearing memory of the Scottish Socialist party is their 'science and medicine spokesman' telling us about their policy to retrain "the scientists making rockets that we can fire down someone's chimney" to "cure cancer."

Kevin Dunion looks sound to me. Well done whoever thought of him as a candidate.

[Georgina]

I'm intrigued now, which of the recent St Andrews rectors were yes men? Which weren't working rectors? When did this change, in your mind, begin? With Simon Pepper? Promote your candidate by all means, but get your facts straight if you're going to slag off his predecessors.

I'm intrigued also by this purported accessibility, is he inviting students to come to his office whenever they like? Will he be out in pubs drinking with them? Or is he no more accessible than any other Rector with a day job would be?

Thanks, exnihilo, for your comment. I think Clement Freud's record speaks for itself in terms of ceremonial Rectors rather than Working Rectors. It wasn't my intention to slag off previous Rectors, not at all, I was merely defending the Rectorship in general.
Kevin's accessibility is about him being in St Andrews every day for work, making it extremely easy for him to come along to meetings, student events, forums any day of the week. In the Rectors' Charter he also committed to 1 day each week for the Rectorship, more than any recent Rector has promised. Again, this is enhanced by him being based in St Andrews. Crucially for the Rector of course, he can also commit to attending each of the University Court meetings. His connection to St Andrews is greatly enhanced by his time here as a student - he graduated in Modern History in 1978 - meaning that he understands what it's like to be a St Andrews student, and cares greatly about the St Andrews community. This makes him a unique candidate.

[James Shield]

If you're trying to make your mind up who to vote for, you might want to have a listen to STAR's interview with Kevin:

http://kevindunion.org.uk/about/radio-interviews.html

[Anon.]

I also think that this is a deeply unimpressive field for a university of the standing of St Andrews. A minor bureaucrat, a fringe-party MSP and an ageing yachtsman. Go St Andrews.

Er, Eliot - weren't you deriding the suggestion of "random slebs" as candidates a couple of pages ago? Does it matter if candidates aren't giants of public life? And if it does, why were we campaigning for Barry (as he then was) Joss back in whenever it was?

[Eliot Wilson]

Yes, random slebs are bad. Someone with a serious, heavyweight public profile (Donald Findlay and Andrew Neil fell into this category) would be a different kettle of fish. As for campaigning for Dr Joss, I would have campaigned for him anyway, since he was my flatmate, but I also honestly think he was the best candidate in that election; an Australian feminist who taught in England and seemed half-hearted at best and an ageing radio wit were not, in my view, likely to do much for St Andrews. If I had a vote in this election, I'd be disappointed that Martin Passmore wasn't standing.

[Josherick3]

When are the hecklings?

[Freaker]

I'm not sure if there are hecklings as such, and I believe not all of the candidates will be here all of the week, but I think there is meant to be a "meet the candidates" event on Thursday night, probably in the Union.

[David Bean]

Thanks, exnihilo, for your comment. I think Clement Freud's record speaks for itself in terms of ceremonial Rectors rather than Working Rectors. It wasn't my intention to slag off previous Rectors, not at all, I was merely defending the Rectorship in general.

That's true, and you make a good point, but please could I caution you not to view Clement Freud as some sort of archetype of pre-Pepper rectors, or Pepper as representing a paradigm shift. There were, in reality, many fine rectors before him - Andrew Neil certainly was one, and Donald Findlay was probably the greatest in several decades. Pepper wasn't part of a real 'sea-change' in the quality of Scottish rectors, he was just a good one who happened to coincide with a few other good ones at other universities who thought it might be nice to work together a little more.

This doesn't diminish his achievement in any way, but it does answer what appears to be the application of a more general tendency among some students to view the latest innovations as somehow representing an historic and wonderful break from a dim and benighted past, when in fact the change isn't nearly so great, and the past not nearly, so bad, if it was really bad at all.

As to the quality of the present set of candidates, I don't see anything wrong with it, myself. As I mentioned before I like Colin Fox well enough on a personal level, but I hope he doesn't win because I don't think he has what we need. Sir Chay sounds like an intriguing addition to the field, and Kevin Dunion appears to be fairly similar to Simon Pepper in his level of experience and likely involvement. So effectively what we have is a solid, dependable choice, an outlier who'll appeal to people who want to make a political statement but isn't the best choice and is destined not to win, and a wild card who's certainly achieved plenty but whose credentials for this job remain to be examined. Nothing there to set the newspaper headlines alight, but nothing especially dangerous either - or, indeed, much different to what we've had before.

My money's on Kevin, if anyone cares to open a book.

[James Shield]

Here are a few of the things Kevin Dunion OBE will be up to this week:

[Josherick3]

Colin Fox has now entered the fray: http://www.foxforrector.org/

[Freaker]

... and Donald Findlay was probably the greatest in several decades.

I've heard this a few times before now, but it was all before my time here - could anyone enlighten me on what it was that he did during his time (he served for the majority of two terms, didn't he?), or what made him such a good rector?

[Frank]

Colin Fox has now entered the fray: http://www.foxforrector.org/

Anyone?

[Power Metal Dom]

Why is Colin Fox worth a facepalm? I was doing the same for Kevin Dunion but that might have been me covering my eyes from the garish flyer.

[Frank]

Personally/for myself, I don't mind him terribly (the super-green emphasis and anti-nuclear stances I'm happy to disagree with, similarly the 'university is for the students!' side of things too), but in general...could be worse.

Strictly, I imagine there's folks out there who genuinely are facepalming at the suggestion, understanding how polarised people are on the old socialist/communist/independence/SSP-are-a-joke issues that folks get so caught up in. Hence "Anyone?"

[Bizarre Atheist]

Colin Fox has now entered the fray: http://www.foxforrector.org/

[Facepalm]

Anyone?

Yes, very much so. I hope the electorate take the time to become informed before voting for the candidate with the name most like a friendly woodland creature.

Also, take a look at http://www.kevindunion.org.uk for more info on the charming Mr Dunion. And please take one of the above opportunities to meet Kevin - he's always keen to meet more students and chat about what you expect from him. He's also a thoroughly nice guy.

[Lid]

I love the fact that the Fox for Rector campaign has gone to the effort of providing a photo gallery, comprising photos entirely outwith St Andrews. Surely someone should have had the foresight to find some of him in the town he'll be working in and representing the students of.

[exnihilo]

There ought to be some, he's spoken in at least one debate here, though he couldn't get away from that fast enough...

Still, it'll be interesting to see if he can succeed where Tommy Sheridan failed. Brothers and sisters!

[Eliot Wilson]

He seems to wear less Armani than his comrade.