People

Week in the life of Ria West and Julie Goreham
 

Ria West, VP Student Development, and Volunteer Co-ordinator Julie Goreham, both from the Students' Union, recently took on Rag Week - an intensive week of fundraising for Colchester Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, Canine Partners and Hope for Children.

Monday
First task of the day is to run through the checklist: do we have silly costumes, collecting tins, a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers, lots of energy? We find we do and brace ourselves for the week ahead.

At lunch time organise the Essex Flames cheerleaders to start the week with style. They do a special Rag cheer and perform their latest dance in square three. In the afternoon check on the DJ soc who hold a sponsored 10 hour marathon in Mondo treating the customers to their favourite tunes from lunchtime into the evening.

Tuesday
Spend a happy morning sorting through cakes and cookies that five volunteers have cooked for the bake sale. Set up in the square at lunch time and spend the next three hours selling delicious baked goods! It's cold but it's worth it - we make £80 profit and only eat six cookies and a piece of courgette bread between us!

Wednesday
It's snowing, so no outdoor activities today and the men's rugby team v men's football team match has to be cancelled. Concentrate on collecting money at the Essex Flames Bunny Auction at Sports Fed night - this is a huge success and makes £318, thanks to the participation of the cheerleaders and the generosity of the students! Thank the women's football team who collect money that evening too.

Thursday
Julie: Arrive at work and put on my cat costume ready for a day of mild humiliation but hopefully good fundraising. At lunchtime we hope for a Labour Soc/Lib-dem soc charity football match but bad weather prevents it from happening! Give tins to the fencing club who wear their kit and, without the use of their swords, persuade students and staff to part with their cash. Find solidarity during a coffee in Mondo where a fireman, Scooby-Doo, Chewbacca, a dinosaur and a bunny are all gathered, each with a collecting tin! Watch the money in my tin grow as the day goes on, finding more than £20 in it by the end of the day.

Ria: Have to take a break from Rag Week for more serious union business!

Friday
Give collecting tins to the Pool Club who do a 24 hour pool marathon raising more than £100! Go and check on them nine hours through and find them tired but still enthusiastic. Organise the DJ at Fuse to run the cross-dressing Miss Essex competition. The men compete to raise the most money and the beautiful winner receives a meal at Edwards for two.

Saturday
Unfortunately our permit for collecting in the town centre fails to arrive and so the first task of the day is to inform the volunteers that we've had to put this off till we have the necessary paperwork.

In the evening organise an auction of a generously donated Arts Centre Voucher at Discord to raise more cash.

And then the week is over, but we know that Rag activities will continue for a while yet - there's still the whitewater rafting to come, and of course the postponed Lib-dem/Labour and Rugby/football matches to take place. We've no clear indication of the total raised yet but can tell that we've raised a good amount of cash and had a great time doing it too thanks to the volunteers and, of course, all those who've donated money during the course of the week!

There will be an update on funds raised by Rag in the March edition of Wyvern.

(left to right) Julie and Ria with their Rag collection pots

Obituary
Emeritus Professor Arthur Terry

Arthur Terry, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, died suddenly in January at the age of 76. Even after his formal retirement in 1993, Arthur had been a familiar presence in the Departmental corridors, so his death came as a great shock to former colleagues and friends.

Born in York, Arthur Terry read modern languages at Cambridge, and taught Spanish at Queen's University, Belfast, before coming to Essex in 1973 as Professor of Literature. Arthur's range of interests was so broad that he welcomed the possibilities opened up by a department where he could teach the theory and practice of literary translation and contemporary English poetry, as well as the Latin American novel and Golden Age Spanish poetry. He combined an unfailingly gentle demeanour with some decidedly liberal views, and so slotted comfortably into the Essex of the 1970s.

Arthur Terry published thirteen books, mostly on Spanish and Catalan literature. He was one of the world's most distinguished and knowledgeable critics of Catalan literature and the recipient of many awards including the Creu de Sant Jordi (Cross of Saint George) given by the Catalan government. He was also a devoted champion of comparative literature, and served for several years as President of the British Comparative Literature Association.

To his colleagues and students, Arthur Terry was a person of unquenchable kindness and extraordinary knowledge: he was the man who had read everything and who was never happier than when talking about books. He was the most helpful of colleagues, always willing to read and comment on draft essays and always loyally reading everything that his colleagues published - in both cases offering careful comments, never flattering, always courteous, invariably helpful.

His retirement was marked by a two-day conference in his honour held at Wivenhoe House, the proceedings of which were published as Word in Time in 1997. Despite his retirement, Arthur remained active, holding several visiting professorships, lecturing and teaching in Spain, his appetite for reading and writing undiminished, his love of music - he was himself a talented pianist - often drawing him to the university's weekly lunchtime concert. He returned only recently from teaching a two-week course on twentieth-century English poetry at the University of Barcelona, about which he spoke with excitement and obvious pride to several of us just a few days before his death.

Professor Peter Hulme, Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies.

There is an alternative obituary, written by Roger Moss from the Centre for Theatre Studies on Wyvern extra.

 Professor Arthur Terry

Bra(ve) walk for law student

A third year postgraduate Law student will also be raising money for charity by competing in a marathon - but a marathon with a difference.

Human Rights Law student Ami Angell will be raising money in aid of breast cancer by power walking 26 miles across London in her bra. All the participants in the marathon wear their own uniquely decorated bras not only to raise money for breast cancer but also to raise awareness of the disease.

If you would like to support Ami, please contact her by e-mailing aangel@essex.ac.uk or by sending donations to 1 High Street, Wivenhoe, C07 9BJ. As an added incentive, all sponsors will receive a photograph of Ami - in her decorated bra.

Also in the printed February edition of Wyvern:

• Sporting farewell to Mary