St Cross College, Oxford Information

St Cross College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1965, St Cross is the fifth youngest of Oxfords 39 colleges. It is an all-graduate college with traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles, just south of Pusey Street. It aims to match the structure, life and support of undergraduate colleges, with the relaxed atmosphere of an all-graduate college.

In May 2016, it was announced that the Fellows of St Cross College had elected Carole Souter CBE, Chief executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund, as the next Master of the College. In September 2016, she succeeded Sir Mark Jones, who had been Master of St Cross since 2011.

St Cross College was formally set up as a society by the University on 5 October 1965; it was to admit its first graduate students (five in number) in the following year. Like the majority of Oxfords newer colleges, St Cross has been coeducational since its foundation.

The early location of St Cross was on a site in St Cross Road, immediately south of St Cross Church. The college was named for its proximity to these places. In 1976 negotiations began between the college and the members of Pusey House over the possibility of moving the college to the St Giles site. The negotiations were successful, and in 1981 the college moved from St Cross Road into a site owned by Pusey House for a leased period of 999-years. The old site on St Cross Road continued to be used, initially by the Centre for Islamic Studies (at that time an Associated Centre of the college), and then subsequently in the early 1990s the site was developed by the college in collaboration with Brasenose College. The site now houses two residential buildings, which were opened in 1996.

On 18 November 2010, it was announced that Sir Mark Jones, previously Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, had been elected as the next Master of the college; he took up the post in September 2011. Unlike every other college head (except the presidents of Kellogg and Parks), the Master of St Cross is appointed not by the colleges governing body but by the University Council. Therefore, the election has only the character of a recommendation to Council, albeit one which is constantly followed.

The college is located on St Giles near to the Ashmolean Museum, south of Regents Park College and immediately north of Blackfriars. It is also within metres of the Classics Faculty and the Oriental Institute.

The college buildings are structured around two quads, the Richard Blackwell Quadrangle and the new West Quad. St Cross shares the site with Pusey House, which comprises the first floor and parts of the ground floor to the eastern side of the Blackwell quad, a library on the first floor on its western side, as well as the chapel. The original Pusey House buildings around the Blackwell quad, including the chapel, date from the period of 1884 to 1926 and are mainly the work of the architects Temple and Leslie Moore and Ninian Comper. Discreet internal alterations were made when St Cross moved in by Geoffrey Beard and the Oxford Architects Partnership. Among these was the conversion of a cloister and store rooms into the Saugman Hall (now the Saugman Common Room) named after Per Saugman, a former Director of Blackwell Scientific Publications and a former fellow of the college. The first quadrangle was named the Richard Blackwell Quadrangle in honour of Richard Blackwell (another former fellow); both Saugman and Blackwell played a crucial part in securing the large Blackwell benefaction for St Cross. Most students, however, used to refer to the Richard Blackwell Quadrangle by its nickname: the Quad. After completion of the second quad, it is now commonly known as the front Quad.

At the west side of the Blackwell Quad lies the Four Colleges Arch, named after the four colleges which had contributed especially generous capital and recurrent funding to St Cross: Merton, All Souls, Christ Church, and St Johns.

Behind the Four Colleges Arch originally lay a large open garden bordered by medieval boundary wall. This offered the college the possibility of expanding its buildings and erecting a second quadrangle, the West Quad.

Work was first completed on the South Wing on the southern side of the West Quad, containing a hall and kitchen, with bar, the Ian Skipper conference room, and the Caroline Miles games room below, a guest room and study bedrooms above. This development has in part been financed by Ian Skipper, Domus fellow of the college, after whom the conference room on the lower ground floor was named.

A second building to the western and northern sides of the West Quad was set to be completed in time for the colleges semicentennial in 2015. However, planning permission for the new building was rejected, as it required the demolition of a medieval boundary wall, an action which the council qualified as unjustifiable. Planning permission was subsequently granted following an appeal, and the new West Wing building was completed in 2017. The new West Quad includes 50 student bedrooms, a lecture theatre, a library with a garden room (the Douglas and Catherine Wigdor Library), several seminar rooms, and the Audrey Blackman Guest Room.

In addition to the current main site, the college still owns its original site on St Cross Road, located near the Law Faculty. After the college moved to its present location, this site was developed into student accommodation, the St Cross Annexe.

Additional buildings which are run by St Cross College as student accommodation include Bradmore Road House, Stonemason House, and the Wellington Square houses.

The masters lodgings are also located in Wellington Square.

In 2016, St Cross had over 550 graduate students, studying for degrees in all subjects. There is a strong emphasis on international diversity, with regularly over 75% of the students coming from outside the UK (2016: 83%). This is reflected in the college motto Ad quattuor cardines mundi, meaning to the four corners of the earth. The fellowship is similarly diverse and represents a broad range of academic disciplines in the sciences and the arts.

The college awards a number of scholarships in different subjects, predominantly in the humanities and social sciences.

Unusually for an Oxford college, there is a founding tradition of sharing social facilities between fellows, members of Pusey House, the Common Room and students, with no separate high table or Senior Common Room. This gives the college a much more informal atmosphere and makes it an important community of scholars who forge links across a range of subjects.

The college has an active social calendar for both current students and alumni. There are a range of college societies and sports teams (often in collaboration with other colleges), as well as weekly academic seminars and annual conferences.

The colleges Boat Club, shared with Wolfson College is particularly successful, and like many other college boat clubs competes both within the university itself and in external competitions. The St Cross womens football team also enjoys success, becoming Cuppers Champions in 2015.

Complete article available at this page.