Dr Kate Blackmon to be admitted as Senior Proctor
Merton Fellow Dr Kate Blackmon will be admitted as Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford today, Wednesday 19 March 2014. We interviewed her before the ceremony to find out more:
The University's Senior and Junior Proctors and the Assessor are appointed every year at the end of Hilary Term, with all the colleges taking it in turns to elect their candidate through a 14-year cycle. It is Merton College's turn again this year, and the admission of the college's first ever female Proctor – Dr Kate Blackmon – coincides with the college's 750th anniversary year.
We met up with Kate a couple of weeks ago to hear about her preparations for taking on this important university role and to find out what taking on the Proctorship is going to mean for her over the coming year…
To start us off, could you tell us a little more about how you came to be elected as Senior Proctor?
Every year, the Proctors and the Assessor are elected by their college to the position – the responsibility rotates around the colleges through a cycle of about 14 years, so this year was Merton's turn, alongside Linacre [Dr Hubert Ertl is taking on the Junior Proctor role] and Wadham [this year's Assessor is Dr Paul Martin] Colleges.
It's a little bit like electing a representative to government – the fellowship elects a representative, and we are then the voice of the members of college in university-wide proceedings. By limiting the term and rotating it around the colleges, it's a surprisingly democratic process, and it means that we all come to the position 'fresh'.
So what attracted you to the role of Senior Proctor?
It's not very often you get to take on such an ancient and unique position in a world-famous institution. Some of my American colleagues think I'm going to be an exam invigilator, because that's what a proctor is in most universities outside Oxford and Cambridge.
In fact, being Senior Proctor at Oxford is an opportunity to get properly involved in the governance of the university. We not only deal with student welfare and discipline, which I have experience of from being Principal of the Postmasters at Merton for four years, but we also have the right to attend any university committee and are very involved in the many ceremonies and traditions of such an ancient institution.
As one of my main interests is in postgraduate research studies [Kate teaches on research methods at the Saïd Business School and is currently Chair of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Committee], being Senior Proctor particularly suits me – the Senior Proctor takes care of all research students, whereas the Junior Proctor looks after all students in taught degrees, that is undergraduates and taught postgraduates. It's something of an arbitrary distinction though (in the past the two proctors were split up by geographical location – 'Northern' and 'Southern') and we're allocated 'Senior' or 'Junior' depending on who matriculated into Oxford first. I became a member of the university a mere two months before Dr Ertl, this year's Junior Proctor, so if I'd been admitted a few months later I'd be taking on the Junior Proctor role instead.
It's going to be hard work, but it's one of those things you only get the chance to do once and no one has ever said they wished they hadn't done it – I was told the other day that on the day you demit, it's very strange waking up and not being Proctor anymore.
What do you think the biggest challenge of being the Senior Proctor is going to be?
Definitely time management!
I've been advised by a past Proctor not to turn anything down. Being Senior Proctor is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so balancing my calendar may get tricky but I'd like to take advantage of as much as I can…
There's so much going on - there are over 200 committees in the university that we can attend, and we split some of them up between the three of us. That leaves me with 75 committees to attend over the next year (and more if there are others I'd like to go along to), combined with all the ceremonial duties (we attend all the university ceremonies, and there are 32 degree ceremonies alone in a year) and the day-to-day caseload that comes with the role. I'm very pleased to be able to be Proctor during the college's 750th year so I want to go along to as many of Merton's 750th celebrations as possible too!
On top of all that, every Proctor has something they want to achieve over their 12 months so for that reason my focus is going to be on streamlining our response to the less predictable aspects of the Proctors' Office such as dealing with examinations and student welfare.
It sounds as if you're going to be incredibly busy with a wide range of meetings and events to attend. Are there any you're particularly looking forward to?
Some of the things we get to do sound quite fun actually.
Of all the committees I'll be attending, I think I'm most looking forward to attending the Ashmolean Museum's Board of Visitors. As part of the 'Vice-Chancellor's Court', we also get to take part in some quite literally unique ceremonies, for example on May Day we climb Magdalen tower, which is a vertical ladder. I have been warned against wearing heels by a former Proctor, and apparently if it's raining you can't get an umbrella up there with you.
I'll be keeping a diary of all the interesting things that happen for the demitting speech this time next year, as it's apparently easy to forget as there is so much going on.
So how are you preparing for what is going to be a very busy year?
We've had a lot of contact with the Proctors' Office so far – we were elected this time last year, and since then we've been doing lots of 'getting to know each other' between the three of us. It's quite important as we'll be sharing an office, and it'll also help us 'hit the ground running'.
It's also been really useful getting to know the current and most recent Proctors – we've been shadowing this year's Proctors to see what the workload is like - as they've been able to give us all sorts of tips we wouldn't have thought of. We have to do so many ceremonies and visits, that I've had to go out and buy myself a new pair of wellies and a special mortar board, as well as all the white shirts I'm going to need to wear sub fusc for the next year, almost solidly. I've learned a lot more about different types of ceremonial dress than I ever thought I would.
We also have an annual bowls against the Cambridge Proctors in July, so we'll be training for that soon.
Last but not least, as such a long-standing part of the university, I'm sure there are many wonderful stories about the Proctors over the centuries. Do you have a favourite you'd like to share with us?
There are all the obligatory stories of Proctors in speedboats in full dress for various visits or ceremonies, but I think my favourite Proctor story is a more recent one about how quickly the Proctors' Office take advantage of new technologies. In particular, they took full advantage of Facebook when it was first launched. The students were surprised, as they didn't think the Proctors could use Facebook and it resulted in a lot of people being caught trashing who had then put pictures of themselves on Facebook 'in the act'. It was interesting to see how quickly the Proctors are able to pick up on new technology for such an old – practically medieval! – institution. They have to keep on the leading edge.
