St Benet's Hall, Oxford
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Oxford College Infobox Template:Cell3Template:CellTemplate:CellTemplate:CellTemplate:Cell3Template:CellTemplate:CellTemplate:CellTemplate:Cell3 |} |
college_name = St. Benet's Hall (Aula Sancti Benedicti) | named_for = St. Benedict | established = 1897 | sister_college = None| head_name = Master| head = Fr. Leo Chamberlain | JCR President = Andrew Grant| undergraduates = c. 50 | graduates = c. 10| homepage=St. Benet's Website| boat_club = |
}} St Benet's Hall is a Permanent Private Hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford.
Contents |
Composition and status
St. Benet's Hall is a Benedictine establishment, whose principal function is to allow Catholic monks (primarily Benedictines and related orders) to study as undergraduates within the University. In addition, it admits men (principally but not exclusively Catholics) both as undergraduates and post-graduates.
As a PPH, St. Benet's does not have the status of a College, but those of its members who have matriculated are full members of the University.
Members of the Hall are individually members of the Oxford University Student Union, but, following a dispute over OUSU's policy on reproductive health, the Hall dissaffiliated in 1997, and is not represented in the OUSU Council. Students at St. Benet's are eligible for life membership of the Oxford Union Society.
The Hall is known as "Benet's" within the University, and has the distinction of being one of only two constituent bodies of the University open to the laity of only one gender (the other, St. Hilda's College, is open only to women).
Members recently bought a magnificent 19th century clock which currently stands in the Calefactory, which is the Hall's main common room.
History
The Hall was originally established in 1897. It took on its offical name "Aula Sancti Benedicti" ("St. Benet's Hall") in 1918. Prior to this date, Permenent Private Halls of the University of Oxford took their name from their Master, and the Hall was known successively as Hunter-Blair, Parker, and McCann Hall.
The Hall always been primarily a venue for monsatic study, but the falling number of vocations led to the admission of lay men to fill vacant places, which have over time come to be the majority of the Hall's undergraduate members.
Masters
St. Benet's has had nine Masters since it was established in 1897:
- Father Oswald Hunter Blair (1898-1909)
- Father Anselm Parker(1909-1920)
- Father Justin McCann(1920-1947)
- Father Gerard Sitwell (1947-1964)
- Father James Forbes (1964-1979)
- Father Philip Holdsworth (1979-1989)
- Father Fabian Cowper (1989-1990)
- Father Henry Wansbrough (1990-2004) (Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible)
- Father Leo Chamberlain (2004- )
JCR
Like other Colleges and PPH's, St. Benet's has a united common room of which all students at the Hall are members. The JCR, MRC and GCR are united. Thus the three are one.
The present J.C.R. Committee is :
- President: Andrew Grant
- Treasurer: Nicholas Hanson
- Secretary: Nicholas Kazaz
Rowing
St. Benet's is noted for its excellent rowing team, the self-proclaimed 'Benet's bisons'; despite the small size of the college, it fields a consistently strong team, and wins blades twice a year.