A Busy Day

Well, today, Wednesday, Sept 5, turned out to be a very busy day here at Harlaxton. British History lecture at 8:30 on the three Edwards, I-III, with all the gory details of the deaths of William Wallace, (hanged, drawn, and quartered), Edward II (you don't want to know), and a substantial minority (40%?) of the population of England as a result of the Black Death. Cheery stuff to start the day. Then at 1 p.m. this afternoon we had the campus-wide picture.

You can see the students beginning to mill about on the front lawn of the entrance to the Manor.

That's Ian Welsh, head of IT,  risking life and limb standing on a chair in the back of a pick-up truck in order to get a decent shot. Although that was at 1 p.m. the finished shots are already posted on the bulletin board by Reception. I'll try to get an electronic copy for the blog.

Then, this evening at 6 p.m. in the Great Hall, the first ever Harlaxton Hat Sorting ceremony where all of the students were assigned to a "house" ala Harry Potter. The Magic Hat was in attendance on the banister above the column in the center of the picture and directed each student to one of four houses as her or his name was called.

Yours truly, not a Harry Potter fan, had no idea of the symbolism until one of my students, a Physics major from Wabash College, explained it to me. The four houses are named for important links to Harlaxton including Pegasus, for the British 1st Airborne headquartered in the house during WWII; Gregory, for Gregory Gregory (yes you read that right) the builder of the manor; Mercia, after the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in these parts during the Heptarchy (look it up); and Newton, for Isaac Newton born not 10 miles from here on Chistmas Day 1642 (Old Style). The idea behind the "houses" is that they will become the friendly competitors during the course of the semester in somewhat the same way the Greek system works at Bethany.

Meanhwhile, earlier in the afternoon, your blogster, having now descended from the exalted ranks of adminsitration back to full-time faculty duties and realizing that he might need to supplement his meager faculty salary, has begun training to learn a new "trade." Maybe there will be a Starbucks opening soon!

No, seriously, one of key factors in making Harlaxton such a special place is that both students and faculty go the extra mile in volunteering to lend a hand in this or that activity. Several of us (two faculty and two faculty spouses) are running a free coffee shop in The Bistro, the Harlaxton version of Boomers, an afternoon or two a week, depending on our schedules. Rather like our Moonbeam Breakfasts during Finals Week, but a little more often.

 

 

 Without the volunteers, this would not be possible. That is the way with many things here at Harlaxton.

So, all in all, a very busy day.