Golden Graduates Reunion 2024

Golden Graduates were joined by the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Trevor McMillan OBE and his wife; the previous Vice-Chancellor Prof Nick Foskett and his wife; the current sabbatical officer team at the Students' Union; Neil "Nello" Baldwin; and the Alumni Relations (Advancement) team.

I started at Keele in October 1970 – the term after the nude sunbathing incident. I think my parents thought I was entering into a den of iniquity but nothing could have been further than the truth.

For me Keele was life changing. I started with every intention of training as a Social Worker and had applied to do Social Studies and Sociology. That is until Foundation Year and a terminal in Law where I met the inspirational cynical Scouser that was Michael Whincup who convinced me that I would make a better lawyer than Social Worker. So I dropped the Social Studies for Law and I became a Solicitor. Ironically, I became head of family law at a firm in Burton on Trent, specialising in care - so instead of becoming one I spent a large part of my working life fighting Social Workers.

My 4 years at Keele were some of the best years of my life.  I made good friends, some of whom are here this evening - and I would especially like to mention Clive Blackwell who has flown all the way from Washington DC to be with us tonight.

I also met my husband Peter, a golden graduate from 2 years ago, and next year we will celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary.

My most amusing memory of Keele? It has to be levitating the Clock Tower. Much has been written about this iconic piece of Keele folk-lore – some accounts by people who clearly weren’t there. 

As was our habit in those days my friends and I would have dinner in Lindsay refectory – hands up those who remember navarin of lamb, work (yes actually work) for a couple of hours and then meet in the Union  for half a lager and a shared plate of chips which was all we could afford in those days. Someone came in and announced that there was an attempt to levitate the Clock Tower but more people were needed to completely encircle the building so we all piled down there and stood in a circle holding hands and humming. Some people swear it moved but I think they must have been on something  because I don’t think it budged an inch. Dr Cohen the Senior Tutor turned up and read the riot act and we all dutifully dispersed and went back to the Union bar.

Many years later I was on the same school Board of Governors as Dr Cohen and we reminisced about the event. The thing that surprised me was that he wasn’t as old as I thought and was probably only in his late 30’s when I was 19  and also that he too had found the whole thing hilarious but didn’t dare show it.

Keele and its nurturing environment enabled me to mature as a person – to gain the confidence to face the wider world outside of the cocoon, to think independently  and to challenge injustice. It left an indelible mark on me and the happy times here that both myself and my husband enjoyed clearly influenced our daughter Caroline who came here in 2000 – even being allocated her father’s old room in Lindsay G block which hadn’t changed in 30 years including still just a single 3-pin 13-amp socket and 2 totally useless  2-pins. As she, doubtless like all students of her generation, had 9 separate pieces of electrical equipment all powered from the one socket via series of extension leads, no wonder it was later condemned!

Clearly the teaching of independent thinking and the ability to challenge injustice had not gone from Keele in the intervening years because she has become an academic librarian, Wikimedian of the Year 2022 and founder of the ebook SOS campaign drawing attention to publishers’ extortionate pricing of ebooks to Universities.

I would hope that in its 75th year Keele remains and will continue to remain a unique jewel amongst Universities – a caring community of scholars just as Lord Lindsay wanted.

Hello everyone, I’m Sam, the Education Officer of Keele Students’ Union. 

It is my pleasure on behalf of Keele students to welcome you today and I hope you all enjoy being back on campus! 

I hope I can introduce you to student life at Keele, acknowledging the tales of these past few years and the impact this has had on our students. 

I’ve read and heard stories about what Keele was like for many of you throughout the decades and I’m excited to learn more by exploring some of the archive material and memories that guests have shared with us. 

Like many of our students today, I’m sure what Keele means to each of you will be very different, but the one thing that I’m sure unites you all is the feeling of reminiscing, seeing familiar faces and remembering your time here. Despite a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and industrial action, I’m sure that the graduating class of 2024 know at their core what it means to be a Keele student. 

As would have been the case for many of our alumni guests today, for many students, Keele is their first time living away from home and the first-time meeting people from so many different parts of the country and all over the world. 

The foundation year, despite briefly becoming ‘unfashionable’ in higher education, is once again a major part of Keele for many students and many of us experience a broad-based, inter-disciplinary education giving us a wide view of the world and academia. The choice that our students get, from our electives to the new global challenge pathways is outstanding, something which we as an institution and we as graduates should always cherish, value and maintain. 

Most students study in the grounds of a beautiful campus where you can’t walk to lectures without bumping into three or four of your friends. We’re a community that we've lovingly come to refer to as ‘the Bubble’. And we’re maybe one of the few places left in Britain where everyone really does know all their neighbors and it’s lovely. 

While some of these attributes have waxed and waned over time, they remain present and remain part of what makes Keele great for many of us. 

So, what do the Keele students of 2024 do with their time here and how do we help them along the way. Well despite the cost-of-living crisis hitting students hard they still manage to do incredible things... 

Our 150+ sports and special interest societies give every student a place to feel welcome and accepted. They put on weekly social events from film screenings to dressing up in the widest costumes I have ever seen. They are a core part of everyone’s time at Keele and we are so grateful for all that they do.  

This year thanks to our Student Voice Team, our Development and Democracy Officer, and of course our wonderful candidates we saw our highest election turnout in four years, where we even saw a dinosaur stand! 

We won varsity to bring the trophy back to where it belongs after its short holiday to staffs. 

The mental health crisis keeps on growing, with many students still feeling the effects of the pandemic. From hosting wellbeing lounges and an array of activities during the day to prevent loneliness, to our Advice and Support Service signposting students and offering them advice; Keele SU continues to put students first and support them in every way possible. 

And of course, leading into the more positive parts of this year, it wouldn’t be Keele if I didn’t include a massive thank you to our keen beans! This year we have seen brilliant engagement from so many fantastic student leaders, the dedication they have shown is incredible. One of our network leads led on campaigns and events after being deported! 

Students jumped the opportunity to join our ‘SHAG (Sexual Health and Guidance) Week’ activities, from glass painting to lectures on the history of sex to our wellbeing officer dressing up in an inflatable penis; it really did catch the eye of students. 

And finally, we continue to represent students and their interests every day. Our Networks give students a bigger opportunity to get involved with campaigning and representation. This project, funded by the Strike Fund, currently has over 410 students involved. We also expanded student voices on our re-branded Union Assembly! To further academic representation, our Student Voice Representive review is an exciting opportunity for students which we hope will see increased engagement from our students, by designing a system that fits their needs. Our Wellbeing Officer launched his Winter Warmer Campaign where he successfully lobbied for £1500 to give students heated blankets, hot water bottles, draft excluders and so much more, while giving students educational materials to help them reduce their bills as much as possible. 

This is just a small little screenshot of some of the work students and the SU have been doing to make sure that students at Keele have their voices heard and their needs met. 

As for students now, for some of you - your memories of Keele are inseparable with the somewhat politically turbulent times. A time of demanding your voice be taken seriously by those in positions of authority. Listening to memories like these acts as a reminder that those who went before me would have bitten of my right arm to be sat where I am now. 

Student representatives now sit on virtually all decision-making bodies at the University and as a Students’ Union we make sure that at every available opportunity we use them to be a voice for students, as I hope my previous examples attest to. 

More broadly, Keele Students’ Union has undergone significant development since your time at Keele. We are now a registered charity with dedicated staff for our clubs and societies and a team of professional, confidential and impartial advisers who provide support and representation to students – who have dealt with just under 800 cases so far this year. 

Many of these fantastic, vital and student led projects are funded by alumni donations. So, on behalf of the students’ union, I’d like to thank you all for your generosity. Your contributions help drive forward Keele’s fantastic student projects help our students develop, lead and learn outside the classroom. 

Keele remains a fantastic and vibrant community of communities. And more than ever before, students find themselves empowered to influence their life at university. 

But none of this means that for students the fight is over.  

We see culture wars spilling over to our campuses, making the lives of people who look like me less safe. 

Events across the world mean students call on their universities to do better.  

Working class students are being priced out of higher education.  

As with every generation, we push further and demand more from those in authority and from our society. Issues of education, race, sexuality, gender, the environment, housing, jobs, mental health and finances are on the forefront of most young activists' minds. 

While our methods of protest may change, I’m sure many of these causes may sound very similar to those you yourselves championed at your time at Keele and still do. 

Once again, I’d like to thank you all for the ongoing support you give to the Keele community. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed a glimpse into student life today and have enjoyed your time back on campus. Thank you for listening.