Celebrity Alumni
Pippa Bregazzi
Monday 28th September 2009
Monday 28th September 2009
Have you ever wondered where St. Andrews gets its place names from, or is that just me? Sure, there’s the odd prominent golfer hanging around, but what about John Knox (as in the street), or Andrew Melville? Still just me? Surely these people are famous, if they have streets and halls named after them?
And hands up who else, on results day, upon realising they had got into St.Andrews, had people coming up to them and going, in a vague and knowing way, “Ah, St. Andrews. Prince William.”? I mean, come on, that isn’t even a proper sentence!
Moving away from the HRH and his on-again-off-again girlfriend, (which is difficult to do in this era of celebrity culture and Heat magazine,) many household names have spent four years of their life in the same place as we are: Raisin-ing, May Dipping, and, presumably, studying for a degree. St.Andrews, being the esteemed institution that it is, has seen many familiar faces darken its doors over time: people like Hazel Irvine (“Her off the telly,” BBC Sport, to be precise); Chris Hoy; Alex Salmond; and Crispin Bonham-Carter (actor-turned-English-teacher-and-cousin-of-Helena, better known as Mr. Bingley from that version of Pride and Prejudice.)
Having a host of famous alumni is good publicity for the university. People tend to remember their university days fondly, as in “Ah, remember the good old days and that time I threw up in a bin and the taxi driver wouldn’t take me home.” But all joking aside, even famous people have to start somewhere, especially the politicians!
Not quite the same as alumni, but in keeping with the celebrity feel, the honorary degree is a way for the university to award honours to people it feels deserve them. Such people include Benjamin Franklin, Dame Judi Dench, J.K. Rowling, and, perhaps less favourably (in the eyes of some,) President Khatami of Iran. Fair enough, but what do these honorary degrees actually do for people? Do you reckon they collect them, like stamps or Oscars? Surely they’re just given in recognition of a person’s contribution to society, or a particular field, and I’m sure association with such a person can’t hurt the university much.
While all this may be true, it’s still nice to be given recognition. And while we undergraduates may grouch about having to actually work for our degrees, we should bear in mind that maybe one day we’ll be famous enough to be awarded our very own honorary degree, or at least to make it onto the Famous Alumni list on Wikipedia (oh, the possibilities!) Perhaps that will stop people asking you if you ever met Prince William…
And hands up who else, on results day, upon realising they had got into St.Andrews, had people coming up to them and going, in a vague and knowing way, “Ah, St. Andrews. Prince William.”? I mean, come on, that isn’t even a proper sentence!
Moving away from the HRH and his on-again-off-again girlfriend, (which is difficult to do in this era of celebrity culture and Heat magazine,) many household names have spent four years of their life in the same place as we are: Raisin-ing, May Dipping, and, presumably, studying for a degree. St.Andrews, being the esteemed institution that it is, has seen many familiar faces darken its doors over time: people like Hazel Irvine (“Her off the telly,” BBC Sport, to be precise); Chris Hoy; Alex Salmond; and Crispin Bonham-Carter (actor-turned-English-teacher-and-cousin-of-Helena, better known as Mr. Bingley from that version of Pride and Prejudice.)
Having a host of famous alumni is good publicity for the university. People tend to remember their university days fondly, as in “Ah, remember the good old days and that time I threw up in a bin and the taxi driver wouldn’t take me home.” But all joking aside, even famous people have to start somewhere, especially the politicians!
Not quite the same as alumni, but in keeping with the celebrity feel, the honorary degree is a way for the university to award honours to people it feels deserve them. Such people include Benjamin Franklin, Dame Judi Dench, J.K. Rowling, and, perhaps less favourably (in the eyes of some,) President Khatami of Iran. Fair enough, but what do these honorary degrees actually do for people? Do you reckon they collect them, like stamps or Oscars? Surely they’re just given in recognition of a person’s contribution to society, or a particular field, and I’m sure association with such a person can’t hurt the university much.
While all this may be true, it’s still nice to be given recognition. And while we undergraduates may grouch about having to actually work for our degrees, we should bear in mind that maybe one day we’ll be famous enough to be awarded our very own honorary degree, or at least to make it onto the Famous Alumni list on Wikipedia (oh, the possibilities!) Perhaps that will stop people asking you if you ever met Prince William…
