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Another Yank at Oxford — Part 5
Atmosphere, Accommodation and Social Life
I had the great good fortune to be able to attend Oxford University as an undergraduate from 1975 to 1978. I essentially talked my way into the university without taking the entrance exam, completing my ‘A’ levels or going through the central clearing system for university applications in the UK, then known as UCCA and, these days, UCAS. What I was able to do is not possible today.
Before discussing social life at the university, I’d like to recount a fairly amusing incident. At the beginning of my first term, the incoming class was welcomed to the College and given various bits of advice. One thing that should have been said on that occasion and something I know a master of one of the Cambridge colleges used to say was: “In your three years here, I hope you learn, even if you learn nothing else, that discrimination is not a dirty word.”
The only thing that sticks in my mind about that assembly was the College Chaplin giving a limp-wristed talk about the tramps in the town. Oxford attracted several tramps. They came because the students were a soft touch for money. The Chaplin advised us we should not give these tramps money, as they would only spend it on alcohol. He advised that if we felt we should do something for them, we should give them food.
