May 2010 Recap and Poll Results [GlasgowUniPhoto.com]
That’s another term and another academic year behind us. Exams are over, and we eagerly await our results (in other words, constantly and impatiently refreshing WebSurf.) So, where did you all study for your exams? Let’s see the results of the month’s poll:
The two Other answers were “department study room” and “at home with the cats”. I’m kinda surprised that no one studies in a museum, considering the abundance of free museums dotted within and around the University campus. Then again, with a spacious library (although you can never really find a free computer in May), the Kelvingrove Park and the Botanics, and an abundance of cafes around the University, I guess they are more inviting places to study than a museum.
Now, the next months of the summer will be a bit different here at Photos from Glasgow University. Firstly, there will only be one poll for the summer, which I’ll introduce in a bit. Secondly, although I will still post a single photo per day, the updates will come every couple days (hopefully), possibly longer, as I’ll be travelling and otherwise away from a computer and away from Glasgow for the next few months. Thirdly, July will see something completely different, so stay tuned for that.
The poll for the Summer of 2010, which will go on until the end of August, seeks to find out where all the readers of this photoblog come from. In other words, where are you from? I’ve only listed the British Isles and Ireland in the poll, so if you’re from some other country, as many of you probably are, just select Other and type your country of origin in the box.
Below you’ll find thumbnails of all the photos featured this past month. Which was your favourite this month?
![May 2nd: R is for... Restructuring [ABC Sundae]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3317/4586530664_59fe063253_s.jpg)
![May 16th: S is for... Scarves [ABC Sundae]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4492498872_ab72d6c437_s.jpg)
![May 30th: T is for... Tower [ABC Sundae]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4669829776_37ea7c5562_s.jpg)
Old University Library
At the north-east corner of the West Quadrangle, right by the stairs, is a door above which faint lettering gives one a clue to what used to lie behind that door. From 1870 onwards, the Glasgow University Library was situated in the North Front of the Main Building. It was said to be sufficient space for the needs of a library for some 50 years, but it wasn’t until 1946 that discussion began about the need for a new Library. The current University Library opened in July 1968, just short of the old library’s centennial anniversary.
I’ve never actually been through this door, so I can’t say what the space is used for nowadays. (Added to to-do list)
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
T is for… Tower [ABC Sundae]
![T is for... Tower [ABC Sundae]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4669829776_37ea7c5562.jpg)
When thinking about something around and about the University beginning with the letter ‘T’, the first thing that comes to mind is naturally the one thing on campus which you cannot miss, one that’s very likely the most photographed part of the University and one of its most recognizable features: The University Tower, frequently referred to as merely The Tower.
The Gilmorehill campus was built resemble the original campus on High Street, as the Old College contained a clock tower built in 1686. (Tidbit: A gold-tipped lightning conductor was attached to the tower in 1772, and it was the only one in Glasgow for nearly forty years.) Think of the Main Building as an upgrade to the Old College. When building the centrepiece of the new campus, Sir George Gilbert Scott, the architect who the building is named after, included a tall belltower twice the height of the one at the Old College, incorporating the old bells but leaving out the old clockface.
What is now one of Glasgow’s most recognizable landmarks, the Glasgow University Tower stands at some 85m tall and offers fantastic panoramic views in all directions. Financial difficulties and the death of the original architect in 1877 left the top of the tower without its signature spire and turrets, and other parts of the building were left unfinished until the original architect’s son, John Oldrid Scott, finished the job in 1887-1891. It’s a good thing the tower was finished, as without the spire it looked rather odd. TheGlasgowStory website has an old photograph of what the tower looked like pre-spire, which you can find here.
In order to get up to the tower, one must enter a narrow door on the upper levels of the Main Building and proceed up a very narrow and winding staircase some 200 steps in the north-west corner of the tower. If you’re claustrophobic, it’s not the most comfortable of hikes.
Unfortunately students and visitors are no longer allowed to the top of the tower because of safety concerns. Being built to the safety standards of the 1870s, it is no longer considered safe. The only thing stopping you from falling off it is a very low railing. I’ve also heard rumours that the tower itself is structurally unsound and in need of repair, or alternatively in need of a very high railing. I keep checking every now and then if the tower is open to visitors again, and if that day comes during my time at the University of Glasgow, you’ll hear about it here.
More photos of the University Tower, from pretty much every conceivable angle, can be found here.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Time’s Up
At the very top of the Blackstone Chair, featured yesterday, is an hour-glass. Today when we write our exams we usually have several hours of sitting in Bute Hall or elsewhere writing and staring at the clock. Before 1858, when the examinations were oral, students would sit on this chair and be asked questions on their subject for as long as the sand in the hourglass at the top of the chair flowed.
So how long did the oral examination take and how did it go about? According to the plaque on the chair:
As the examination began, the Bedellus bearing the mace set the time-glass and after about 20 minutes, when all the sand had flowed through, grounded the mace with word Fluxit (“It has flowed through“). He then turned to the senior examiner with the words Ad alium, Domine (“On to the next one, Sir“).
Aren’t you glad the University switched to written examinations? They might be much longer today, but next time you’re stressing about your exams, think about how things used to be for students back in the day.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Blackstone Chair
The April/May 2010/2011 examinations are pretty much over and as we eagerly await our precious results (by checking WebSurf numerous times a day), allow me to briefly take you back to a time before written examinations.
Currently sitting in the Hunterian Museum, the oak and black stone chair seen above used to be used in the ritual of oral examinations. This chair was made in 1775-1776, and incorporates a slab of dolerite, called the Black Stone. The ritual of students being seated on the stone while being examined, and the stone slab itself, dates back to the founding of the University in 1451.
Use of the Blackstone Chair ended in 1858 with the introduction of written examinations. Well, kinda. The chair is still used in the Cowan Medal examination in the Classics Department and at honorary graduations.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Very Reverend Duncan MacFarlan
Walking around Glasgow’s Necropolis, by the Glasgow Cathedral, I kept looking around the graves and tombs and mausoleums to find one associated with the University of Glasgow. There are some 50,000 individuals buried there in around 3,500 tombs (according to Wikipedia), so I knew sooner or later we would stumble on what we were looking for. At the top of the hill, right next to the monument to John Knox, was a relatively large monument, one of the largest at the Necropolis, which was dedicated in the memory of a former Principal of Glasgow University.
The Very Reverend Duncan MacFarlan (1771-1857) was Principal of the University between 1823 and his death in 1857. There is more information on Duncan MacFarlan on the side of the tomb if you’re ever around the Necropolis, or you can read a little more about him on The University of Glasgow Story website.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Revolution 2000-2010
It’s the end of an era. Tuesday nights at the Queen Margaret Union were reserved for the rock/metal/emo club night in Qudos for the last 10 years, and that all came to an end last night with the last Revolution.
The future of Revolution was discussed by many candidates at the QMU’s pre-election Heckling meeting back in March. I won’t dwell on the reasons why Rev came to an untimely end, as I don’t know all the details. Nor do I know exactly what will happen to Tuesday nights at the QMU next year, as I’m not privy to that information. We’ll see next year, won’t we?
Why are the last nights of club nights or clubs themselves always the best parties? If Rev had always been like it was on its last night, we probably wouldn’t be mourning its passing right now.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Oldest Public Museum in Scotland
The Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow, which opened in 1807, is the oldest public museum in Scotland. 24 years earlier William Hunter had bequeathed his substantial collections to the University, leading to the establishment of the museum which bares his name. Originally the museum was located on High Street in the city’s East End, adjoining the Old College.
The Hunterian Museum has a section dedicated to the original Hunterian, even with the majority of the museum closed for roofworks. The model above is the centrepiece of that installation, and allows a glimpse of the original purpose-built Hunterian Museum. The closed area of the museum can be seen in the top right corner of the photo.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Text in the Garden
You may or may not have noticed this, but the anatomy table seats on Library Hill (which I posted a photo of yesterday) have a series of texts by them, telling the background of the installation. The texts are lit up and are especially visible at night. I created the above composite of all of them, as it’s a little difficult and tedious to run around and read all the lit up texts.
- To Be Set and Sown in the Garden Christine Borland, 2001
- Commissioned to mark the 550th Anniversary of The University of Glasgow
- The porcelain pillows are replicas of the wooden headrests used in anatomical dissection
- Each pillow is inscribed with a plant illustrated in Fuchs’ herbal ‘The History of Plants’ 1542
- The first suggestion of a physic garden in Scotland is a planting list by Mark Jameson
- Jameson was Rector’s Deputy in 1555, when Glasgow University was sited near the cathedral
- Jameson’s annotated copy, 1549, of Fuchs’ pocket herbal, is kept in the University Library
- Many of the plants selected were considered extremely dangerous if taken during pregnancy
- The reason for Mark Jameson’s selection of plants with gynaecological properties, is unclear
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that even though there are ten benches and thus ten pieces of text, there are only nine lines of text in the composite above. The tenth piece of text is missing, replaced by a block of wood and gravel. Anyone have any idea what the final mystery piece of text is supposed t say, or is it supposed to be blank?
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Anatomy Dissection in the Garden
I just realized that I’ve never specifically featured the art installation on Library Hill. Yes, there’s an art installation between the Fraser Building and University Avenue, one which you’re encouraged to sit on. The ten benches on the grassy knoll, coupled with hedges and small trees, are part of an art installation called To Be Set and Sown in the Garden, by Christine Borland, erected on the University’s 55oth anniversary in 2001.
The unorthodox looking benches are modeled after anatomy dissection tables, evident in the porcelain headrest and the groove for the blood to flow off from. Think about that the next time you sit or lie down on the benches!
If you want to read more about the installation, I wrote a lengthier article about it a year ago on a different blog.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Old and New
Everywhere around campus you’ll find examples of the above, of old Victorian buildings right next to 1960s concrete buildings, contrasts of history and what at some time or another was the future. The newer building in the background is the Glasgow University Library, the little one in the middle is the Mackintosh House, and the older specimen in the front is 1 University Gardens, currently housing the Department of History. Previously the building was home to the Queen Margaret Union between 1922 and 1932, one of the six homes the Union has had in its 120 years of existence.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Science Petition March
The protest garnered hundreds of people, even in the rain and during exam season. The press was out as well, and Herald Scotland featured the protest in an article, which you can find here. From Library Hill the protest moved to the South Front where the four delegates met with the Principal Anton Muscatelli and presented the petition and the over 2,000 signatures. The rest of the crowd sat around in the Cloisters, waiting for the result of the meeting.
The proposed cuts concern the Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences (FBLS), which is one of the largest departments of biological sciences in the UK. With the restructuring of the University coming this summer, and Universities in general around the UK facing tough times and cuts, we might see a lot more of these kinds of protests next year as other Faculties in addition to the FBLS look to the future.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Keep Life Sciences Alive
A protest march wouldn’t be complete without placards and banners, and true to form this protest had its share. The larger banners, such as the Keep Life Sciences Alive seen in the photo, had messages to the Principal like Get Real Anton, and Muscatelli Must Go.
The protest itself was concerned with the following, which I borrowed from the online petition for the protest:
The online petition can be found at www.bit.ly/dontkillscience.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Don’t Kill Science!
The academic year might be in the process of wrapping up, but there are still a few exams going on, as well as a protest, which took place on Library Hill today, and proceeded from there to the South Front of the University, where four delegates of the procession handed a petition of some 2,000 names to the Principal, Anton Muscatelli.
The petition is being held up by Laura Laws, the outgoing president of the SRC, as she speaks to the collected crowd holding various placards. The petition and the protest itself was about cuts to the Faculty. Because I had a hard time picking just one photo of the protest, I’m posting a few more in the next few days, and covering the background of the protest in those posts (and in doing avoiding making this one post really long).
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Creative CCTV
It might look like a normal lighting fixture and it most likely once contained a light. Today though, it works as a CCTV camera. It’s located on the north-eastern corner of the middle wing of the Joseph Black Building. I took this photo last year, and I’m posting it now because it appears to be gone as of recent, which is a bit of a shame really as it was really a creative way of hiding the camera from view without hiding it from view. Oh, the camera is still there, by the way, but the lighting fixture around it is gone. Do we have too many CCTV cameras on campus, or too little?
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Progress of Science
On the southern wall of the James Watt South Building is the above relief, called The Progress of Science, by Eric Kennington, from 1957-8. The relief apparently represents the development of science and technology.
There are Latin inscriptions on various part of the relief, taken from the mottoes of various engineering societies which read as follows: PER MARE / PER TERRAS (Through sea and land), SCIENTIA / ET / INGENIO (By science and genius), and DISCE DOCE (Learn, Teach). There’s also an inscription in English which reads PROGRESS.
Can you find the University spire in the engraving?
Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
S is for… Scarves [ABC Sundae]
![S is for... Scarves [ABC Sundae]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4492498872_ab72d6c437.jpg)
As part of the upcoming restructuring of the University, one aspect of the University will possibly have to undergo a change: Faculty scarves. Each Faculty right now has its own colours and scarf, some of which are seen above. The middle one is for Social Sciences, the one on the left for Arts, and the one on the right for Veterinary.
Some of the scarves will remain the same after the restructuring, being used as such by the corresponding Colleges and perhaps some Schools. The “old” scarves will still be on sale for the next couple of months.
The scarves are not merely for the Faculties, but for some subjects as well. There are twelve in total, including one for General Graduate. The other eleven as follows: Arts, Dental, Divinity, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Science, Social Science, and Veterinary. The scarves are available in the Visitor Shop in the Main Building, as well as in the QMU and GUU shops, with prices varying slightly between them.
I’m wondering whether or not I should buy a Social Studies scarf before they get changed into the new ones? As a relic of the past, in a way. I’ve been pushing off buying one for a while now, for no particular reason. Perhaps the lack of an actual University coat of arms on the scarves is keeping me back. Have you bought one?
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The View from Special Collections
A characteristic of Glasgow as a city is its lack of tall buildings. Now, before you cry foul and say “what about the high rises?!?”, allow me to explain what I mean. Yes, there are high rises, and lot’s of them. The largest concentration of high rises in the UK actually, or so I’ve heard, but even the tallest of them only reach a height of 90.8m, and the Red Road blocks of flats, often mistakenly thought to be the tallest buildings in Glasgow, stand at 89m.
Compare this to the Glasgow University Tower, which stands at about 85m, and the Boyd Orr Building and the University Library a bit shorter than that. Due to this absence of a high concentration of really tall buildings, any tall building in Glasgow offer a nice view of the city. This particular view, taken from the Special Collections on the 12th floor of the University Library, shows parts of the West End and North of Glasgow, some University buildings in the foreground (Adam Smith Building, Bute Gardens, and the Hetherington Building), the Botanic Gardens, a even Murano Street in the background (can you find it?). Anything else you can find in the panorama? (Click in the photo for larger versions)
See more panoramas from Glasgow University here.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Exams in Bute Hall
Had my last exam today, in the Main Building‘s Bute Hall. The exam was quite late, starting at 6.30pm, and the sunshine was shining through the stained glass windows for quite a bit of the duration of the exam. Not that it was much of a distraction, but I just couldn’t really see the clock from where I was sitting because of it.
Bute Hall was just one of the many venues around campus where students took their examinations, but it is by far the most grand of all the locations. Just don’t look up from your papers, as you might get distracted by the stained glass windows and the grandeur of the hall.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
A Stone Back in Place
Well would you look at that. The curb stone slab (or is it ‘kerb’?) on University Avenue, which I featured last Saturday, the one which had been lodged out of place for who knows how long, is now back where it belongs. After posting the photo on the blog I reported the problem on FixMyStreet.com and through it to the Glasgow City Council. Now, this might be a coincidence, but the problem was fixed some time this week. Go figure.
You’ll notice that the John McIntyre Building is now almost completely covered in the blue tarp on both sides. (The other side can be seen here.)
Thanks Raj for suggesting FixMyStreet.com, guess that site works miracles!
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Chapel Gates on the Right
Good things come in twos, I guess. The other side of the Chapel contains the twin of the gates featured yesterday, also leading into the University Chapel. I figured I would post this today, as although it’s identical to the one on the left side of the Chapel, this one on the right happened to be open at the time I was taking the photos.
Note to self: explore the area in and around the Chapel more. Apparently there’s a lecture theatre around there somewhere. Any other interesting bit and pieces around the Chapel that you know of?
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
Chapel Gates on the Left
Some of the most picturesque decorated gates on campus lie on both sides of the University Chapel. The grand archway and the ornate lights at the top of the steps offer an impressive path to walk up to the Chapel.
As impressive as the Chapel is on the inside, the outside around the chapel is littered with ornaments and decorations, much like the rest of the Sir Gilbert Scott Building. You can kinda see the same architectural styles used in the construction of the Chapel and the rest of this side of the Main Building (parts of which were built decades later than the rest of the building), such as the vaulted ceiling in the archway above, reminiscent of the Cloisters.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
“Everything Will Be Alright”
This is the mantra I’m employing around exam season, “Everything will be alright”. The chalk graffiti in the staircase from the Visitor Shop to the West Quadrangle, seen above, just adds to the mantra and the relieving of stress in the moments before an exam. (One more to go this year!)
I also featured the “Hope” graffiti last December after the last exam season, and I think I’ll do something similar next time as well. The chalk graffiti is still there, still giving students a little bit of hope as they head to their examinations.
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
The Renovations from the East Quadrangle
[Poll #12: What is your favourite place to study for exams?] Click on the photo above for a larger version. Please rate the photo below! © 2010 GlasgowUniPhoto.com
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