Attracting Alumni

Various leaflets, emails and posters inform me that this coming weekend is the University of Oxford's Alumni weekend. Immediately, to me at least, this conjures up images of 15th century scribes, 19th century princes and even 20th century prime ministers all gathering for a big booze-up in their graduation gowns. Sadly, even the great boffins of Oxford have not yet managed to bring people back from the past. I guess the University, with all its quirky traditions, is sufficiently rooted in the past and does not need many more reminders of its history.

With T. E. Lawrence, A. J. Ayer and others out of the question, I need a new image of this spectacular gathering. The slogan is 'Meeting Minds - Global Oxford'. Hmm...lots of wrinkled, ball-of-worms brains wiggling at each other as they form the circumference of a spherical Oxford? Or maybe just lots of great thinkers from around the world meeting in Oxford. After all, even that is pretty exciting.



Oxford students are always seen as quite a novelty, but once people leave the confines of the university, they become known for who they are, not where they studied. This seems especially true for the scholars of the past.



Anyway, there are some great events on, some of which are open to the general public and many of which are fun for all the family, so check them out.