From Cole to Callaghan

Comrades,

What lazy days, quite literally, were had by us all in Cole Library.

I remember wandering around the room selecting wisely one of those large, bound volumes of Hansard as part of a strict, strategic essay-avoidance regime.

Ah yes, resting my eyes in Cole Library in the wee hours knowing that in a few hours a finished essay was due to in to Dr. Bob, Roy Moore etc. etc. and hoping furiously that words would descend and sentences would form before my eyes - no such luck.

I do remember however, that one of my best essays, for Mike Daly, was written in a drunken stupor and I couldn't even remember writing the conclusion. Good old Mike Daly, a tutor who had pointed out an early, schoolboy-like attempt at plagiarism. Oh the shame of it and all because I had used the word 'thus'. And, as Mike gently pointed out to this thick Mancunian, 'you aren't a thus kind of person'. To say that these few words stung is an exercise in under statement - never again did I plagiarise - well, at least for Mike Daley.

One of the more bizarre incidents, of many, in Cole Library involved the Gog, my good self and a cow. Now it's not what your'e thinking and the Gog prefers sheep, always has - its a Welsh thing.

Anwyay, twas a few weary hours from daybreak and Paul and I, quite merry from a few wasted (again, quite literal) hours in the Oxford Union sat staring at blank paper and text books yearning like Buddhists for an act of reincarnation which would see the words from the books metamorph into cogent, lucid statements in an essay.

For some reason Paul lifted his head and caught my sleepy gaze, as he did this something caught the corner of our respective eyes and as we turned to look out of the window in Cole Library a baleful cow stared back. Like an act in a Chaplin classic we looked at one another, then back to the window, and the bogus bovine was gone!

Unsure what to make of this unsettling incident Paul and I managed to weave our unsteady way of of the library to find that indeed the walking beefburger had indeed gone. What had occured, what had gone on? Was this divine intervention destined to give us a wake up call so as to avoid our lacklustre approach to academic endeavour?

No, in the morning it was revealed that, unknown to most of us, that a farmer was leased the land behind Bowen (the site at the moment of a bust up between Ruskin's Principal) and local residents: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8975306.Homes_plan_is_revealed/) and that one of his cattle had escaped - a bold attempt to seek freedom!

Before the mundane reason for our bizaare experience was known however, Paul and I did debate whether to relay the detail of our experience and tried a pilot exercise with The Badger. He took one look at us and shook his head - that's the drink talking he said.

You'll all be said to here that Cole Libray is no more. In fact, it stopped being used as a library years ago and became an IT room where, sadly, it was too hot, and the chairs too upright, for any acts of lethargy and indolence. And, as I type ,the whole of Headington is undergoing a massive re-building exercise as we gear up to be on one site from the 2012-13 academic year.

The new library on the Headington site is to be named after James Callaghan - given his famous Ruskin Speech in 1976 - and, as with these modern times - will provide little comfort to students seeking a place to sleep (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-13989891).

Let me end this piece with an extract from the famous Callaghan speech and hope that one day you'll get the chance to visit the new Ruskin College site in Headington.

I was very glad to accept your invitation to lay the foundation stone for a further extension of Ruskin College. Ruskin fills a gap as a 'second chance' adult residential college. It has a special place in the affections of the Labour movement as an institution of learning because its students are mature men and woman who, for a variety of reasons, missed the opportunity to develop their full potential at an earlier age. That aspect of the matter is a particular interest of my own.

Ruskin has justified its existence over and over again. Your students form a proud gallery and I am glad to see here this afternoon some of your former students who now occupy important positions. They include leading academics, heads of state of commonwealth countries, leaders of the trade union movement and industrial life and members of Parliament. Indeed, 11 of the present Labour members of Parliament graduated from Ruskin and five of them are either in the government, or have served there, including one present member of the Cabinet, Eric Varley, the secretary for the industry.

Among the adult colleges, Ruskin has a long and honourable history of close association with the trade union movement. I am very glad to see that trade unions are so strongly represented here today because you are involved in providing special courses for trade union officials and I hope that this partnership will continue to flourish and prosper.

In Solidarity

Ian